Breaking 1-06-21: MAGA terrorist attack on Capitol

I'm not some high falutin lawer like Turley but even I've heard of "criminal neglect" and "dereliction of duty".

 

Whether DeSantis might become the GOP front runner should be of no concern for the DOJ or Special Counsel. The only question that should matter is where laws broken and can a conviction be contained. Playing more politics is what has gotten us to this point and will only mean in the future another President will do the same or worse.

 

I agree. If Trump broke laws, prosecute him. If DeSantis wants to pardon him, that's his business. But you still have to hold Trump accountable for the actions he took.

 

Sure. But in this case it'd be optimizing to get convictions, not optimizing for political advantage. Like prosecuting a mob boss, you try to create conditions where his lieutenants are willing to cooperate.

 

It seems like they've shown everything Turley says they'll need.

 

surprising that there hasn't been more discussion here about this

Republicans release their own US Capitol riot report focused on security failures

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/21/politics/republican-january-6-report-capitol-police/index.html

the report can be found at

https://banks.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_report_of_investigation_real.pdf

 

From the horse's mouth...





Trump loving MTG is so desperate to blame anyone but her hero, herself, and her coup inciting associates for what they did to incite and defend the insurrection. .

 

I never knew it was the "House Police". I have always read it is the "Captiol Police". Now I understand why the right doesn't want to hold Mitch accountable, just Nancy.

 

MAGA right started that whole damn thing by spreading lies and inciting it, and Trump sat by for hours and watched. They are all the ones to blame for what happened that day. Thank God security didn't allow them to come through with their weapons like Trump wanted.

 

And he's running for reelection...smh...

 

Aaron Burr Conspiracy

 

Come on now those Jan 6th people were just a bunch of election wokesters.

Right @tinman ?

 

Jan. 6 panel aimed to write history. Will it upend Trump’s political future?
Republicans’ midterm struggles, as well as some focus groups and polling, are signs the former president’s grip on the party is loosening, analysts say

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/23/jan-6-committee-goal-trump/

excerpt:

On Monday, the panel referred Trump for criminal prosecution on four counts, a recommendation that now rests with the Justice Department.

The final weeks of the panel’s work had their share of internal drama, as current and former advisers battled over which pieces of the investigation to highlight — relegating law enforcement and security failures, for example, to a 30-page appendix in the back.
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more at the link

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-t...on-capitol-riot-11671830773?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

What the Jan. 6 Committee Report Misses
The truth they don’t stress enough is that U.S. institutions held.
By The Editorial Board
Dec. 23, 2022 6:09 pm ET

The final House Jan. 6 committee report—at 845 pages—contains no surprises, and we’ve already assessed its lack of evidence to prove criminal behavior by former President Trump. The committee’s demonstration of his moral and political culpability—and shameful refusal to act immediately to stop the riot—is damning enough.

But the report shouldn’t pass into history without noting what the evidence reveals that the media largely ignores. To wit, the failure of Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election shows that U.S. democratic institutions, and their checks and balances, held up well. Despite today’s partisan polarization, Mr. Trump’s effort had no chance to succeed because it was opposed by nearly all Republicans in positions of authority.

Mr. Trump’s allies in his effort included relatively few White House staff, some second-raters at the Justice Department, crony-cranks like Roger Stone (who took the Fifth Amendment before the committee), a few Members of Congress without influence, some backbench state legislators, and dubious legal advisers like John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani. Talk about a crew of banana Republicans.

Now consider those who opposed the Trump effort, or examined his claims of election fraud and rejected them. They included: His own White House counsel and legal staff; Attorney General William Barr and other leaders at the Justice Department; his entire Cabinet; senior military officials; most GOP state legislators; GOP governors and secretaries of state; all but a handful of GOP Senators; federal judges appointed by Mr. Trump; and, most famously, his own Vice President Mike Pence.

The Jan. 6 committee acknowledges this GOP opposition in its effort to show that Mr. Trump knew his fraud claims about the election were false. But the committee suggests that the President’s attempt to overturn the election was a close-run thing. It wasn’t. The opposition by Members of Mr. Trump’s own Administration, and his own party, was too broad and deep to have had any chance.

Even if Mr. Pence had tried to delay or reject the electoral votes, he could not have succeeded. There wasn’t enough support in the contested state legislatures to overturn the popular vote count. And even if enough states had done so to deny Joe Biden 270 electoral votes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not have reconvened the Congress to count them. The Supreme Court would have eventually intervened, and our guess is that it would have ruled 9-0 against Mr. Trump.

None of this absolves Mr. Trump for his actions, but it does underscore the strength of U.S. democracy and the dedication to it by most elected and appointed officials. It also shows the value of having had men of principle like Messrs. Pence and Barr willing to take on the duty of working in the Trump Administration.

They were criticized as Trump-enablers when they made decisions the left didn’t like. But those decisions were made based on the policy merits and the law. And when it mattered most, when Mr. Trump sought to overturn an election, the country was lucky to have had these men and others like them in office. It’s a shame the Jan. 6 committee and the press won’t give them the credit they deserve.

Appeared in the December 24, 2022, print edition as 'What the Jan. 6 Committee Misses'.
​

 

The prerequisite is that US institutions were threatened in the first place. We are still struggling on Step 1 - getting everyone to understand that it was actually an attack on democracy. Once we can get a consensus there, then we can move on to Step 2.

 

as riots go, this still seems to me (a) to be on a par--and perhaps far less so--with the George Floyd riots; and (b) mainly a failure of police and intelligence agencies charged with protecting the Capitol. You have 1000 lunatics out of a population of 335 million who decide to go crazy, and the United States of America could not contain them.

On the other hand, Trump's inaction is still inexcusable. This is perhaps the clearest summary I've read:

Donald Trump’s Infamous 187 Minutes
A timeline drawn from the Jan. 6th Committee report makes clear that he wasn’t just dithering as the Capitol was attacked—he was rooting for the mob.

https://www.thebulwark.com/donald-trumps-infamous-187-minutes/

The original point, however, I believe is still sound. Our institutions held; the mob was repulsed; and here we all are in a still-vibrant democracy.

 

Yes. Trump wasn't doing nothing for most of the time. After being told about the riot, he was tweeting that Pence failed them and America demands answers. He was refusing entreaties to call off the rioters because Pence deserved it. He was refusing to answer the pleas to call them off from members of Congress. He wasn't just doing nothing. He was actively engaged in refusing to take action.

Some other highlights from the report include Trump had wanted to use the National Guard to protect his protesters not to use the the National Guard to protect the capitol and congress.

The plans for this coup began before the election. They were coordinated from Trump and his allies. They personally engaged in attempting to get illegal and fraudulent electors to challenge those selected democratically.

But for a few people willing to ignore orders, and stay loyal, it might well have worked. If we don't hold the folks accountable for their actions, the attempt will serve as a practice and inform the next crew what to do differently.

Unlike George Floyd riots, these were instigated and encouraged by the leader of the United States in an effort to overturn the election they knew was a free and fair one.

 

This is what election deniers and Trump supporters and defenders of the coup can't get through their brains. Our President instigated it all! Our President lit the fire! Our President sat back and watched the violence instigated by giving the order to storm the Capitol. Our President made the false claims that his own Vice President could stop the process and keep him in power. Our President wanted power by any means possible, and attempted the unthinkable, regardless of the vote, and regardless of who got hurt or killed in the process.