Donald Trump and the House Jan. 6 Committee

As Republican leaders in Congress try desperately to avoid Trump, his only support now is from fools. Fools like Senator Lindsey Graham who threatened there would be mayhem if Trump is indicted for stealing classified documents.

Graham is from South Carolina, and it is hard to believe a man that stupid could be a Senator, but it illustrates my point.

Then there is Doctor Oz, a Trump endorsed candidate for Senator in Pennsylvania who is running against a tattooed bald man who dresses in a hoodie, has severe health problems, has missed months of campaigning, and Oz is losing.

Grassroots Republicans are so uninformed they avoid this thread entirely. Too much reality for them. Reality is something they try to avoid while extremist far-right sources fulfill their fantasies.

These are Trump's people, and they chose him as our President in 2016 with Vladimir Putin's help and are expected to win control of Congress in November.

 

Steve Bannon joins a long list of Trump associates who have been guilty of a crime.

Weisselberg is the latest in a list of Trump allies who have faced criminal charges. Here's a guide to 10 Trump associates who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted of crimes. https://www.newsweek.com/guide-trump-allies-whove-pleaded-guilty-been-convicted-crimes-1735298

Politico reports, "Longtime Trump ally and right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon, who dodged federal charges in a charity fraud case thanks to a last-minute presidential pardon, must now face the music in New York state court.

"Bannon, 68, arrived in handcuffs to a crowded arraignment in Manhattan’s New York County Supreme Court Thursday afternoon, hours after surrendering to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Moments before the controversial former Trump White House adviser entered, Bannon remarked, “They will never shut me up, they’ll have to kill me first.” But inside, he said little, other than acknowledging a judge’s instructions — a heavy contrast to the bombastic and inflammatory persona that has become his trademark.

"A six-count indictment charges Bannon with money laundering, conspiracy and scheming to defraud for his alleged role in We Build the Wall, a group that raised at least $15 million to construct a barrier along the border with Mexico but skimmed the donations.

"They’ll have to kill me first.” Geez, what an idiot.

A six-count indictment! Trump and Bannon deserve each other.

Hard to believe Americans voted to have these two run our country.

 

Time reports, "When the Jan. 6 committee wrapped its eighth public hearing on July 21, the plan was for the committee to break through August while its investigators continued their inquiry. The members would return after the congressional recess for a final slate of hearings that were expected to conclude the investigation before the panel released its report.

"While it seemed over the summer that the final hearings would all take place in September, the uncertainty over the schedule and the deliberations over how to factor in new information (Trump's theft of classified documents) means the final hearings could bleed into October, while most of Congress will be focused on campaigning for the midterm elections.

"Most of the final hearings will follow the same style of the previous eight, in which the members reveal selected portions of the committee’s findings and take public testimony from key witnesses. According to the members, they will include significant revelations. “We will complete the investigative hearings to try to fill in some gaps that have been left even though the basic storylines are well understood,” Raskin says."

 

Things could get real interesting around here real quick.

First, as a consequence of Donald Trump's theft of classified documents, and the legal confrontation over the special master ordered by a late term judicial appointment by Trump.

Then we have the Jan. 6 committee starting up again soon. It is investigating Trump's coup attempt to overthrow the elected government.

All of this just in time for the November mid-terms.

More on that as CNN reports, "As the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack nears its final chapter, members plan to meet in person on Tuesday and one of the most pressing questions they’ll address is whether the committee should formally request that former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence appear before them."

However, it is extremely unlikely that Trump will show up to defend himself from the charges made against him. He will offer some B.S. excuse that the panel is partisan and his appearance would be a sham.

The panel is partisan because Trump and the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, wanted it that way.

CNN continued, "Such appearances are exceedingly rare in US history. According to multiple sources, the committee does not expect either man to testify, but some members and staff believe the invitations should be extended for the record."

“How do you create a historic record without including formal requests for the two top witnesses,” said one source familiar to the committee’s work.

"Members of the committee, including Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, have consistently said they’d like to hear from Pence and would welcome Trump’s testimony should he offer it on their terms but internal discussions about formally reaching out to both men has intensified in recent weeks now that the panel’s investigation will soon come to an end, the sources said.

"A source close to Pence’s team told CNN that there have been intermittent conversations between the committee and legal counsel for Pence, but nothing has changed, meaning it’s unlikely he would testify."

 

Matters are already heating up.

The Times reports, "Justice Department officials have seized the phones of two top advisers to former President Donald J. Trump and blanketed his aides with about 40 subpoenas in a substantial escalation of the investigation into his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, people familiar with the inquiry said on Monday.

"The seizure of the phones, coupled with a widening effort to obtain information from those around Mr. Trump after the 2020 election, represent some of the most aggressive steps the department has taken thus far in its criminal investigation into the actions that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

"The names of those receiving the latest round of subpoenas in the investigation related to Jan. 6 have dribbled out gradually, with investigators casting a wide net on a range of issues, including Mr. Trump’s post-election fund-raising and the so-called fake elector's scheme.

"For months, associates of Mr. Trump have received subpoenas related to other aspects of the investigations into his efforts to cling to power. But in a new line of inquiry, some of the latest subpoenas focus on the activities of the Save America political action committee, the main political fund-raising conduit for Mr. Trump since he left office.

"The fact that the Justice Department is now seeking information related to fund-raising comes as the House committee examining the Jan. 6 attack has raised questions about money Mr. Trump solicited under the premise of fighting election fraud."

How many Republicans just want Trump to go away? We will never know. As this thread shows, Republicans don't say a damn thing. It might be an intelligence issue.

 

CNN reports, "A strikingly broad subpoena sweep against more than 30 former officials and campaign aides of ex-President Donald Trump represents the clearest sign yet of the seriousness of the Department of Justice’s criminal probe into events surrounding the US Capitol insurrection.

"The gambit, revealed on Monday, also shows that while Trump may succeed in slowing a separate investigation into the retention of classified information at Mar-a-Lago, his potential exposure to legal consequences is deep and threatening. Trump has not been charged with a crime in either probe.

"But the subpoenas show that the DOJ’s investigation is far more expansive than was previously known. And it appears to be intensifying, with investigators apparently narrowing their focus based on other subpoenas, evidence and witness testimony."

“They are now encompassing individuals closer and closer to the President to learn more and more about what the President knew and when he knew it,” David Laufman, former chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

CNN continued, "The twice-impeached former President has typically been successful at wriggling free of legal scrutiny and scandals that would long have ended the careers of conventional politicians. But it is clear that he is facing legal concerns on multiple fronts, some related to his attempt to overthrow the result of the 2020 election, and all in some ways arising from his view that as president, and even back in civilian life, his position granted him almost unlimited power free of scrutiny."

Republican voters are mostly from the rural areas of our country. Mostly farmers, ranchers, and shopkeepers, they are educationally challenged and are largely uninformed. Consequently, their philosophy is to see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil. Jan. 6 is just another date to them, and they know little or nothing about the FBI search for stolen classified documents at Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago.

For reasons they cannot explain, they picked Trump as their hero.

For countless reasons, some of which are shown above, grassroots Republicans try to avoid Trump all the while staying loyal to him.

They don't have the intelligence to explain that conundrum to others ... as is the case within this forum.

 

This is a surprise. Trump and the DOJ agree on something.

No doubt the DOJ made this decision to save time, but, in the end, Trump may rue the agreement.

insider reports, "The Department of Justice has signed off on one of former President Donald Trump's candidates to serve as special master and sift through the thousands of White House documents Trump stored at Mar-a-Lago.

"The DOJ said in court filings that it would allow Raymond Dearie, 78, former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, to act as special master.

"Dearie, 78, was nominated by Ronald Reagan and served in the US District court from 1986 to 2011. In 2012, he was appointed by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to a 7-year term on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where he oversaw requests by federal investigators for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States."

From the DOJ viewpoint, Dearie appears to be well-qualified.

"In his role as a judge in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Dearie was one of five Republican-appointed judges who signed off on FISA warrants to surveil a former Trump advisor, Carter Page, to investigate his ties to the Russian government," Insider.

 

Things could get real interesting around here real quick.

The Hill reports, "The House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, aims to hold another hearing Sept. 28, the panel chairman told reporters Tuesday."

"The Select Committee has developed a massive body of evidence," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.,said in a statement Monday. "It hasn’t always been easy... because the same people who drove the former President’s pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about Jan. 6th."

Politico reports, "A week after federal prosecutors bombarded Trump world with Jan. 6-related subpoenas, the chair of Congress’ Capitol attack committee said members are actively discussing how quickly to deliver its evidence trove to the Justice Department."

“I think now that the Department of Justice is being proactive in issuing subpoenas and other things, I think it’s time for the committee to determine whether or not the information we’ve gathered can be beneficial to their investigation,” Rep. Thompson said.

"Though it’s unclear whether the committee will ultimately opt to send more of its 1,000-plus witness transcripts to the Justice Department, Thompson’s comments represent a significant recognition from the panel; namely, that the agency’s probe has now — at least publicly — begun making significant inroads into Trump’s inner circle. Last week, prosecutors rained more than 40 subpoenas onto key figures who aided Trump in his efforts to subvert President Joe Biden’s win," Politico.

 

The net is closing on Trump.

The Guardian reports, "The former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who served under Donald Trump, has complied with a subpoena from the justice department investigation into the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, CNN reported on Wednesday.

"That makes him the highest-ranking Trump official known to have responded to a subpoena in the federal investigation, CNN said.

"The attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters led to several deaths, injured police officers and delayed certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election.

"Meadows provided the same materials he gave to the House January 6 committee, satisfying the obligations of the subpoena.

"Meadows initially cooperated with the January 6 committee in 2021 but later sued over the subpoenas.

In recent polls, American voters ranked “threats to democracy” as the most important issue facing the country. At a time of climate collapse, inflation and a pandemic, this is a remarkable statement on the fragility of America’s fundamental rights and freedoms.

Thank you, Mr. Trump.

"The [Republican] Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office." https://www.politico.com/news/2020/...rms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171

 

For the Republican Party facing the November mid-terms, it was essential to remove their losing battle over abortion, Donald Trump's theft of hundreds of pages of classified documents, and President Trump's attempt to overthrow our elected government and the resulting Jan. 6 House committee off the front pages.

The Democrats were gaining ground fast and something had to be done. Sooner was better than later.

So two Republican governors shipped hundreds of migrants to northern cities to revive a decades-old problem for the U.S. They won't tell you that the Republican administrations of Reagan, Bush, the first, and Bush, the second couldn't solve the problem, either. They blame the entire problem on Democratic President Joe Biden.

CNN explains, "Republican governors are in a cynical competition to outdo each other and send migrants from the US border by bus to New York, Washington, DC, Chicago and, now, by plane to Martha’s Vineyard.

"Two unannounced planes carrying an estimated 50 migrants landed in the wealthy seaside enclave of Massachusetts on Wednesday night, surprising locals.

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed credit for the stunt, which took the migrants from Texas, not Florida, and left them without planning on the street.

"His stunt may have been outdone by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who started sending buses of migrants to Washington, DC, back in April and on Thursday morning, left asylum-seekers outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ house at the US Naval Observatory."

The media complied with the Republican Party. Since Wednesday there have been hours and hours of stories concerning their stunts and videos of their statements.

The media barely mentioned the court case involving Trump's theft of classified documents and there was no mention of Trump's coup attempt on Jan. 6 or the House committee investigating the ransacking of our capitol.

 

Why is a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump interfering with the DOJ's investigation of stolen classified documents?

The answer is quite simple. The federal judge is doing it to protect Donald Trump. This is the conservative judge's answer to justice -- involving herself in national security matters, an executive branch responsibility.

Will the conservative appeals court provide a different answer?

Politico reports, "The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to lift a judge’s order blocking criminal investigators from accessing about 100 documents with national security classification markings recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound last month.

"In a filing with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta Friday night, prosecutors said the government is facing irreparable harm as a result of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling putting the potentially classified records off-limits to the investigative team until an outside expert conducts a review of them and considers Trump’s objections to their seizure.

"The filing was an unsparing rejection of Cannon’s handling of the entire matter, saying it has jeopardized national security, is based on flimsy or baseless interpretations of executive privilege and could enable further obstruction of efforts to recover additional missing documents.

"The inability of federal prosecutors to advance their criminal probe has complicated separate efforts by the intelligence community to assess the harm that may have been caused by their improper storage in Trump’s unsecured storage room, prosecutors say, contending that the criminal investigation is inextricably tied to the national security review."

 

Trump's federal judge is in over her head. The special master she chose virtually said so.

NBC reports, "The special master appointed to review documents seized by federal agents who searched former President Donald Trump's Florida estate appeared doubtful Tuesday about Trump's contention that he had declassified the various top secret and other highly sensitive documents found there.

"The special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie, had previously asked Trump's attorneys for more information about which of the over 100 sensitive documents federal agents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate might have been declassified. Trump's attorneys had told the judge in a letter Monday night they didn't want to disclose that information yet because it could force them to prematurely "disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment."

"Let's not belittle the fact that we are dealing with at least potentially legitimately classified information. The government has a very strong obligation, as do all of us, to see to it that that information doesn't get in the wrong hands," Dearie said. While Trump's filing claimed neither side had provided a showing that the documents are classified, Dearie said the government had presented "prima facie evidence" that the documents are, because they bear classification markings.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it," Dearie said, unless Trump's team has some evidence to the contrary.

Where does that leave Trump's federal judge who interfered in a national security matter? Answer, it leaves her blowing in the wind, and she looks more irrelevant as each day goes by.

 

Many wonder if Trump's lawyers are regretting their choice of Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie. He is not doing much for them. The very opposite is true.

While Trump's filing claimed neither side had provided a showing that the documents are classified, Dearie said the government had presented "prima facie evidence" that the documents are, because they bear classification markings, this according to NBC.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it," Dearie said, unless Trump's team has some evidence to the contrary.

Now CNN reports, "Dearie made clear that the review was going to need to move quickly to hit the pre-December deadline mandated by Cannon.

“I’m not going to hurry, but we have a lot to do and a relatively short period of time,” he said.

"The comments came after the Trump team had, in their letter to the special master Monday, sought to push back some of the interim deadlines proposed in a draft plan circulated among the parties."

Of course, Trump's lawyers want to delay, delay, and delay. That was the purpose of bringing in Trump's federal judge in the first place.

CNN continued, "At the hearing, [Trump lawyer] Trusty denied that they were seeking to rework the schedule as a delay tactic.

“It’s not to be in favor of delay, we want resolution on these things, too,” Trusty said. Some wonder if Trusty said that with a straight face. That said, Trusty has a tough job. Because of his client, he is forced to lie.

At any rate, Dearie did not buy Trusty's arguments on the timeline.

 

Trump loses again, and his hand-picked federal judge got her hands slapped because she was foolish enough to get involved in a national security matter to help Trump.

CNN reports, "A federal appeals court is allowing the Justice Department to continue looking at documents marked as classified that were seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort.

"The emergency intervention upends a trial judge’s order over those documents that had blocked federal investigators’ work on the documents, and is a strong rebuke of the Trump team’s attempt to suggest without evidence that materials were somehow declassified.

"The ruling was issued by a three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals – two of whom were nominated by Trump.

"Those records – which prosecutors have said contain highly sensitive national security information – are at the heart of the criminal investigation into the mishandling of federal records after the Trump presidency. Concern over them was a major factor that prompted the Justice Department and a court to authorize the unprecedented search of the former President’s home.

"Altogether, the 29-page opinion was a major boost to the arguments the Justice Department has made throughout the dispute over the Mar-a-Lago documents, while undermining several claims that Trump had made (and supported by his judge) about the materials the FBI seized."

“It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,’” the three-judge panel stated. “Ascertaining that necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised.”

By undermining the DOJ and its national security responsibilities, Judge Cannon did not agree with that supposition.

Hence, the rebuke.

 

Trump, his attorneys, and several of his outside Republican allies have publicly claimed that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago during the August 8 search.

However, they have offered no evidence to support these accusations.

Making accusations without substance is common practice with Trump Republicans and Trump in particular. The Big Lie is the most prominent example.

The Special Master is not willing to waste time on this. It is possible Dearie is not happy to be a part of the charade forced on him by Trump's federal judge who just got her hand slapped by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

CNN reports, "The special master overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation has ordered former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to back up out-of-court assertions that the FBI may have planted evidence at the property during their search last month.

"Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said in a filing Thursday that Trump’s team needs to submit a sworn declaration saying if they believe the Justice Department included any items on their “inventory” of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not actually seized during the search.

"The declaration must include “a list of any specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Plaintiff asserts were not seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022,” Dearie wrote in the order.

 

Trump is in the midst of still another losing court battle. This time he wants to keep information away from the grand jury.

CNN reports, "Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys are fighting a secret court battle to block a federal grand jury from gathering information from an expanding circle of close Trump aides about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, people briefed on the matter told CNN.

"The high-stakes legal dispute – which included the appearance of three attorneys representing Trump at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse on Thursday afternoon – is the most aggressive step taken by the former President to assert executive and attorney-client privileges in order to prevent some witnesses from sharing information in the criminal investigation events surrounding JPresidentanuary 6, 2021."

So, why is Trump going to lose still another court fight?

In terms of executive privilege, it is strongly contended that we have only one President at a time, and only he can assert executive privilege. Our President is not doing that. Also, if the talks involved a scheme to overthrow the elected government, those talks are outside the scope of executive privilege.

In terms of attorney-client privilege, that is even simpler. If a discussion between an attorney and his client involves a crime such as a coup attempt to overthrow our elected government, then attorney-client privilege does not apply.

 

Trump is being given his day in court and every chance to prove his statements. He is being investigated by the Justice Department for possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice regarding the mishandling of classified documents. There is no indication so far that he will be charged," CNN

Good Lord, when?

Stephen Collinson writes, "No judge would put it this crudely, but the court system is effectively telling Donald Trump to put up or shut up about his wild claims and outlandish defenses over his hoarding of classified information at his Florida resort.

"The case has taken a turn against the former President and towards the Justice Department in recent days, suggesting that the classic Trumpian legal strategy of delay, denial and distraction is not working as well as usual.

"In a sign of the how quickly Trump’s position may be eroding in this particular drama, several Republican senators took the unusual step of criticizing his handling of the documents on Thursday, despite his firm hold over their party.

"In the latest developments, a third-party judge acting as a special master Thursday gave the Trump legal team until the end of next week to formally declare whether they believe his claim that the FBI planted incriminating evidence at Mar-a-Lago during a search last month. This came a day after an appeals court delivered a blow to Trump by ruling that his team had failed to show evidence to support his claims that he as President had declassified the roughly 100 secret documents the FBI took from his home."

The former President’s strategy is a familiar one, playing the delay, denial, and distraction card, and it is possible judges are weary of playing this game. Much to Trump's chagrin, it is why they are speeding things along.

Hard to believe, but Trump is still eyeing the Presidency in 2024, providing he isn't in prison.

“President Trump is committed to saving America, and Make America Great Again, Inc. will ensure that is achieved at the ballot box in November and beyond,” Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said.

Come on, now that is funny.

 

If:

A) the president is the superior of EVERY employee in an organization which has classified material

And B) any employee or supervisor of an employee who classified or declassified information is allowed to appeal that classification or declassification

and C) that appeal MUST go through the president for him to make a final and ultimate determination about

Then who does the president appeal to when he wants to declassify something that one of his subordinates has classified?

 

The next hearing for the House Jan. 6 Committee is scheduled for Wednesday.

Don't miss it!

ABC reports. "Ahead of what could be their final investigative hearing, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, members of the House Jan. 6 committee on Sunday offered a small preview of what is to come as they rapidly approach the end of their timeline.

“We're not disclosing yet what the focus will be. I can say that, as this may be the last hearing of this nature -- that is, one that is focused on sort of the factual record -- I think it'll be potentially more sweeping than some of the other hearings," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said.

"But it too will be in very thematic," he said of the hearing. "It will tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump's plot to overturn the election. And the public will certainly learn things it hasn't seen before, but it will also understand information it already has in a different context by seeing how it relates to other elements of this plot."

"After the committee's vice-chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, said Saturday that she believes the group will move forward unanimously, Schiff agreed and went a bit further when asked if there was going to be a unanimous criminal referral made about the former president's conduct.

“It will be ... my recommendation, my feeling, that we should make referrals," Schiff said. "But we will get to a decision as a committee, and we will all abide by that decision."

"Cheney has also said the committee received around 800,000 pages of communications from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena. Members of the committee said Sunday they are still going through that information."

 

Due to Hurricane Ian, this hearing has been canceled.

It’s unclear when the daytime hearing, which seeks to recapture the nation’s attention with respect to the former President inciting a takeover of our capitol in the panel’s final public hearing before the release of a final report, will be rescheduled.

 

I am sure they want it in prime time, the night before the mid-terms....

 

CNN reports, "The House Select Committee investigating January 6 has been able to uncover much of the multi-faceted plot to subvert the 2020 presidential election. But as it heads into what is likely to be one of its final hearings this week, there are a few investigative threads that remain unanswered.

"The committee has presented evidence that former President Donald Trump wanted to go to the Capitol on January 6, eliciting testimony from numerous witnesses describing the former President’s urgent desire to be driven to the Capitol complex by his Secret Service detail following his speech on the Ellipse.

"Yet the committee has not been able to uncover precisely what Trump planned to do upon arriving at the Capitol."

A logical explanation is, Trump had no idea what he was going to do at the capitol, keeping in mind it was being ransacked at the time. Planning ahead is not a strong quality in Trump.

Or he knew the Secret Service would not take him to the capitol battleground.

CNN continued, "Among the biggest questions hanging over the committee ahead of its hearing on Wednesday is whether it will make a criminal referral to the Justice Department. Multiple members on the committee tell CNN the panel has still not reached a decision.

"There is also a growing sense among committee members that the Justice Department will be able to fill in some of the unanswered questions left by the committee’s investigation because of the subpoena power that comes with its ongoing criminal investigation, particularly when it comes to senior officials from Trump’s orbit like his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and longtime confidante Roger Stone, who cited various claims of privilege to limit cooperation with the congressional panel."

No doubt Trump Republicans will continue their silence on these issues. They avoid this thread like the plaque. They don't know, and they don't want to know.

 

Ginni Thomas is a real character. In that respect, she is a lot like Donald Trump.

They are both nuts.

CNN Reports, "Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, met with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol on Thursday for about four and a half hours.

"Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the January 6 committee, told CNN that Thomas answered “some questions” in her interview with the panel and reiterated her belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

“Yes,” Thompson said when asked if Thomas said she still believes the election was stolen. “She said that.”

Despite all evidence to the contrary. To date, Ginni has not been able to provide any evidence to support her belief that the election was stolen from Trump. Much like nearly all Trump Republicans, she just says it without substance, a common practice with that crowd.

Thomas’ attorney, Mark Paoletta, avoided his client's belief altogether when he said, “As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas had significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election. And, as she told the Committee, her minimal and mainstream activity focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated.”

Paoletta knows his client has a few screws loose, but she pays well.

CNN continued, "Members of the panel have long said they are interested in speaking with Thomas, particularly after CNN first reported text messages she exchanged with Meadows prior to January 6 about overturning the election.

"But in the months after those messages emerged, there had been little indication that compelling her to testify was a top priority for the panel despite subsequent evidence that Thomas also encouraged state lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral win."

 

The judge is backing a loser and is making bad career moves. It appears she will be overruled again by the conservative 11th Circuit.

With the exception of Trump's judge, jurists would rather not play Trump's game of delaying proceedings until Trump dies of old age.

CNN reports, "Former President Donald Trump got another boost in his bid to challenge the FBI search of his Florida home, with US District Judge Aileen Cannon reshaping the plan put forward by the special master she appointed to review the materials seized at Mar-a-Lago last month.

"Cannon nixed several aspects of the plan proposed by senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who was put forward by Trump for the third-party review, that would have required the former President to make uncomfortable assertions in court, including whether he actually believes the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago, as he has suggested in public statements.

"Dearie has shown himself to be far less sympathetic to Trump’s claims than Cannon, who Trump had nominated in 2020 and was confirmed by the Senate after the November 2020 election.

"On Thursday, Cannon also pushed back the timeline for the review by at least a half-month, while making clear that additional litigation that Trump will have the chance to bring, after the special master process is finished."

In other words, in strict accordance with Trump's wishes, all this could go on and on. That is strictly out of the Trump playbook, and Trump's lawyers could easily have written this decision.

CNN added, "Cannon on Thursday rejected part of the special master’s plan that would have forced the former President’s legal team to back up his out-of-court claims that the FBI planted evidence."

In other words, Trump can accuse the FBI of wrongdoing in public, but, according to his judge, he doesn't have to prove it.

Beautiful!

 

She on a limb but solidly in the bag.