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      Why the televised hearings on the January 6 insurrection will be historic | Robert Reich

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      Why the televised hearings on the January 6 insurrection will be historicRobert ReichThey will mark a milestone in the battle between democracy and autocracy. Everyone should tune in and watch them The televised hearings of the House select committee on the January 6 insurrection, which begin on Thursday, mark an historic milestone in the battle between democracy and autocracy. The events that culminated in the attack on the Capitol constitute the first attempted presidential coup in our nation’s 233-year history.To a large degree, the success of these hearings will depend on the Wyoming Republican congresswoman and vice-chair of the committee, Liz Cheney.The select committee’s inquiry is the most important congressional investigation of presidential wrongdoing since the Senate investigation of the Watergate scandals in the 1970s.I vividly recall the televised hearings of the Senate Watergate committee, which began nearly a half-century ago, on 17 May 1973. More than a year later, on 8 August 1974 – knowing that he would be impeached in the House and convicted in the Senate – Nixon resigned.I was just finishing law school when the Watergate hearings began. I was supposed to study for final exams but remained glued to my television. I remember the entire cast of characters as if the hearings occurred yesterday, and I’m sure many of you do, too – the North Carolina senator Sam Ervin, a Democrat, who served as the committee’s co-chair; John Dean, the White House counsel who told the committee about Nixon’s attempted cover-up; and Alexander Butterfield, Nixon’s deputy assistant, who revealed that Nixon had taped all conversations in the White House.But to my young eyes, the hero of the Watergate hearings was the committee’s Republican co-chair, the Tennessee senator Howard Baker Jr.Baker had deep ties to the Republican party. His father was a Republican congress­man and his father-in-law was Senate minor­ity leader for a decade.Notwithstanding those ties, Baker put his loyalty to the constitution and rule of law ahead of his loyalty to his party or the president. His steadiness and care, and the tenacity with which he questioned witnesses, helped America view the Watergate hearings as a search for truth rather than a partisan “witch-hunt”, as Nixon described them.It was Baker who famously asked Dean, “what did the president know and when did he know it?” And it was Baker who led all the other Republicans on the committee to join with Democrats in voting to subpoena the White House tapes – the first time a congres­sional commit­tee had ever issued a subpoena to a pres­ident, and only the second time since 1807 that anyone had subpoenaed the chief exec­ut­ive.Fast forward 49 years. This week, Baker’s role will be played by Cheney.Her Republican pedigree is no less impressive than Baker’s was: she is the elder daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney and second lady Lynne Cheney. She held several positions in the George W Bush administration.She is a staunch conservative. And, before House Republicans ousted her, she chaired the House Republican conference, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership.Cheney’s responsibility this week will be similar to Baker’s 49 years ago – to be the steady voice of non-partisan common sense, helping the nation view the hearings as a search for truth rather than a “witch-hunt”, as Trump has characterized them.In many ways, though, Cheney’s role will be far more challenging than Baker’s. Forty-nine years ago, American politics was a tame affair compared with the viciousness of today’s political culture.Republican senators didn’t threaten to take away Howard Baker’s seniority or his leadership position. The Tennessee Republican party didn’t oust him. Nixon didn’t make threatening speeches about him. Baker received no death threats, as far as anyone knows.It will be necessary for Cheney to show – as did Baker – more loyalty to the constitution and the rule of law than to her party or the former president. But she also will have to cope with a nation more bitterly divided over Trump’s big lie than it ever was over Nixon and his cover-up of the Watergate burglary.She will have to face a Republican party that has largely caved in to Trump’s lie – enabling and encouraging it. Baker’s Republican party never aligned itself with Nixon’s lies. Meanwhile, Cheney’s career has suffered and her life and the lives of her family have been threatened.The criminal acts for which Richard Nixon was responsible – while serious enough to undermine the integrity of the White House and compromise our system of government – pale relative to Trump’s. Nixon tried to cover up a third-rate burglary. Trump tried to overthrow our system of government.The January 6 insurrection was not an isolated event. It was part of a concerted effort by Trump to use his lie that the 2020 election was stolen as a means to engineer a coup, while whipping up anger and distrust among his supporters toward our system of government. Yet not a shred of evidence has ever been presented to support Trump’s claim that voter fraud affected the outcome of the 2020 election.Consider (to take but one example) Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which he pressured Raffensperger to change the presidential vote count in Georgia in order to give Trump more votes than Biden.“All I want to do is this,” Trump told Raffensperger in a recorded phone call. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.” Trump threatened Raffensperger with criminal liability if he did not do so. Trump’s actions appear to violate 18 USC § 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and 18 USC § 1512, obstruction of Congress.The justice department is conducting a criminal investigation into these activities. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has said that the justice department will “follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead”. As with Watergate, the facts will almost certainly lead to the person who then occupied the Oval Office.This week’s televised committee hearings are crucial to educating the public and setting the stage for the justice department’s prosecution.Federal district court judge David Carter in a civil case brought against the committee by John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer and adviser in the coup attempt, has set the framework for the hearings. Judge Carter found that it was.css-f9ay0g{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C74600;}more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” and concluded that Trump and Eastman “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history […] The illegality of the plan was obvious.”Those who claim that a president cannot be criminally liable for acts committed while in office apparently forget that Richard Nixon avoided prosecution only because he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.Those who argue that Trump should not be criminally liable because no president in American history has been criminally liable, overlook the fact that no president in history has staged an attempted coup to change the outcome of an election.Without accountability for these acts, Trump’s criminality opens wide the door to future presidents and candidates disputing election outcomes and seeking to change them – along with ensuing public distrust, paranoia and divisiveness.Liz Cheney bears a burden far heavier than Howard Baker bore almost a half-century ago. Please watch this Thursday’s January 6 committee televised hearings. And please join me in appreciating the public service of Liz Cheney.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
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      Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off’

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      Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off’House select committee members have drafted in a former top TV executive to choreograph the six public hearings The directors are hoping that the storyline will have all the elements of a TV smash hit: a King Lear figure ranting and raving as his power slips away from him, a glamorous couple struggling to rise above the fray, shady characters scheming sedition in hotel bedrooms, hordes of thugs in paramilitary gear chanting “hang him” as they march on the nation’s capitol.Inaugural January 6 hearing to track activities of Proud Boys during Capitol attackRead moreWhen the US House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection opens its hearings on Thursday evening, it will do so in prime time and with primetime production values. The seven Democrats and two Republicans – shunned by their own party – who sit on the panel are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to seize the public’s attention.They have brought onboard a former president of ABC News, James Goldston, a veteran of Good Morning America and other mass-market TV programmes, to tightly choreograph the six public hearings into movie-length episodes ranging from 90 minutes to two and a half hours. His task: to fulfill the prediction of one of the Democratic committee members, Jamie Raskin, that the hearings “will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House”.To amplify the event, activists are hosting dozens of public watch parties in living rooms and union halls across the country. A “flagship event” will take place at the Robert Taft Memorial and Carillon in Washington, where attendees can watch the hearing on a jumbotron while enjoying free Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream.Reports suggest that one ratings-boosting tactic under consideration would be to show clips from the committee’s interviews with Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. They were witness to many of Donald Trump’s rantings in the buildup to January 6, and highlights of their quizzing could command a large audience.As a counterpoint to the glamorous couple, the committee is also likely to focus during the opening session on the activities of far-right groups including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. This week, the justice department charged the national chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and four of the group’s other leaders with seditious conspiracy.The indictments will act as backdrop to two of the committee’s main ambitions for the hearings. First, to show in dramatic and previously unseen footage – edited for maximum effect on TV and social media alike – the harrowing violence and brutal destruction that was unleashed during the storming of the Capitol, in which the vice-president was forced to flee rioters shouting: “Hang Mike Pence.”The second ambition is to convey to the American people that the maelstrom of rage was not random and unprompted, but rather the opposite – instigated, organised, meticulously planned and conceived by an array of conscious actors.To tease out the violent drama and the calculated premeditation of the insurrection, the panel is expected to call Nick Quested to testify. The British film-maker attached himself to far-right groups in the days leading up to January 6, and on the day itself joined a group of Proud Boys as they entered the Capitol compound.The Republican leadership, which is planning a slew of counter-programming measures to undermine the hearings, is counting on the American people being so bored by January 6 and distracted by Ukraine, inflation and other worries that millions will avoid tuning in. But opinion poll research suggests they should not be too confident.Republican media blitz aims to discredit Capitol attack hearingsRead moreCelinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster, told a press event staged by the Defend Democracy Project that she had been “frankly quite surprised” to find a high level of public interest in the hearings. “I did not think with everything else on their plates and how fleeting the public’s attention is that this would be such a major issue, but it’s really penetrated their consciousness,” she said.The elephant in the room is Trump. How to play the former president and his role behind January 6 is one of the most sensitive issues facing the hearings’ orchestrators.Doug Jones, the former Democratic senator from Alabama and a former federal prosecutor, urged colleagues to avoid giving the impression they were out to get him.“They should not give the American public the perception that this is an attack on Donald Trump – this is truly an attack on democracy. Right now for primetime, they need to lay the facts and let the American public see this for what it is.”The committee is thought to be intending to tackle Trump head on in the final of the six public hearings which, like the first, will be held in primetime later this month. Unnamed sources have been predicting that presentation will contain several “bombshells” which, if true, are certain to be deployed to full dramatic effect.TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsUS televisionnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican media blitz aims to discredit Capitol attack hearings

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      Republican media blitz aims to discredit Capitol attack hearingsTrump loyalists to flood airwaves with claims inquiry lacks legitimacy, indicating their concern, pundits say Republican politicians are preparing a media onslaught to deflect, discredit and delegitimise Thursday’s opening hearing of the House of Representatives panel investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.While major TV networks broadcast the first session live in prime time, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News will stick with its usual show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which has long pushed Donald Trump’s talking points.Trump loyalists are expected to flood the airwaves with claims that the January 6 select committee lacks credibility and Democrats are out of touch with more pressing concerns such as inflation, crime, border security and baby formula shortages.Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday: “They are scrambling to change the headlines, praying that the nation will focus on their partisan witch-hunt instead of our pocketbooks. It will not work.”In what amounted to an attempt at a prebuttal, Stefanik described the January 6 committee as “unconstitutional” and “illegitimate” and designed to “punish” the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s opponents. She criticised its decision to hire James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, to help make its presentation compelling.“This further solidifies what we have known from day one: this committee is not about seeking the truth – it’s a smear campaign against President Donald Trump, against Republican members of Congress, and against Trump voters across this country.”The comments set the template for Republican counter-programming on conservative media such as Fox News, Newsmax, the One America News Network, Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and other outlets that will seek to portray the hearings as a sinister show trial in which Trump supporters are the victims.Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off’Read moreJim Jordan, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, wrote on the Federalist website: “The committee’s real goal, and what it hopes to achieve with its unprecedented subpoenas and its bright-light hearings, is a repudiation of conservatism and all those who hold conservative values.”For their part, Democrats hope that the hearings will cut through a crowded news agenda much more successfully than the former special counsel Robert Mueller’s turgid testimony about Trump’s ties to Russia. After an investigation entailing more than 100 subpoenas, 1,000 interviews and 100,000 documents, they are likely to characterise the riot as not a spontaneous gathering but part of a broader conspiracy.Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat on the committee, promised in April: “The hearings will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House. Because it is a story of the most heinous and dastardly political offence ever organised by a president and his followers and his entourage in the history of the United States.”Trump, whose “big lie” falsely claims that he won the 2020 election, was impeached by the House for his role in encouraging the assault on democracy. Dozens of the insurrectionists have been brought to justice, many having been convicted or pleading guilty to serious crimes.But Republicans, who previously rejected an independent September 11-style bipartisan commission, have sought to downplay the attack and deny the legitimacy of the committee, alleging that it is driven by political motivations to abolish the electoral college and prevent Trump’s re-election.They complain that Jordan of Ohio and his colleague Jim Banks of Indiana were barred from taking part by Pelosi. Democrats say the pair were disqualified because they backed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and sought to block any investigation.Banks said at a press conference on Wednesday: “Speaker Pelosi blocked us because she’s afraid of what a real investigation would uncover.” Along with seven Democrats, the committee does have two Republicans but both are staunch Trump critics: Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of the former vice-president Dick Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who is not seeking re-election. Both were censured by the Republican party in February.Kinzinger responded to Fox News’s lack of planned coverage by tweeting: “If you work for @FoxNews and want to maintain your credibility as a journalist, now is a good time to speak out, or quit. Enough is enough.”News coverage of the hearings will be relegated from Fox News to its sister channel, Fox Business Network, which has much lower ratings. Carlson, who will go head to head with the hearing at 8pm on Thursday, has claimed the insurrection “barely rates as a footnote” and described the committee as “wholly illegitimate”. US networks to air January 6 hearings – but Fox News sticks with Tucker CarlsonRead moreTara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill turned Trump critic, said: “The Republican party and rightwing media is no longer interested in telling the truth, which is why they’re avoiding showing the hearings.“Democrats need to consistently hammer home to the American people the importance of what they’re doing and let the facts speak for themselves and not be distracted by the kabuki theatre that Republicans will try to put on to distract from the truth.”Setmayer added: “The truth is s so damning for the Republican party and they know it. We’re hearing about everything else because they know they can’t stand on the merits of the other side. That’s why we’re hearing about caravans and crime and all of the hot-button cultural issues that fuel the Republican party and get their people riled up instead of the truth of January 6. They can’t handle it.”Having sought to downplay the deadly insurrection for 17 months, Republicans know the sheer magnitude of Thursday night’s media coverage – aspiring to that of the Watergate hearings that dominated the national conversation in the 1970s – will make it difficult to ignore. It is possible that Trump himself will be stung into speaking out and denouncing the proceedings.Charlie Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of the Bulwark website and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, said: “There’s going to be a full-court press to delegitimise the hearings, to throw up as much smoke and dust as possible, which is interesting to me. The conventional wisdom is that these hearings are not likely to move a lot of votes or change the midterm elections but Donald Trump and the Republicans are certainly acting as if they pose a threat. Otherwise, why would they be mobilising like this?“Obviously they see the hearings as somewhat dangerous. From Trump’s point of view, what he is most concerned about is the fact that it’s going to be on primetime television. He’s a television guy and he understands the power of this and I’m guessing the fact that they’ve hired a guy who’s a documentary maker really got his attention down at Mar-a-Lago.”TopicsUS Capitol attackUS CongressRepublicansDemocratsUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Washington coach defends comparing Floyd protests to January 6 riots

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      Washington coach defends comparing Floyd protests to January 6 riotsJack Del Rio referred to Capitol riots as ‘dust-up’ in tweetWashington defensive coordinator joined staff in 2020 Washington Commanders assistant coach Jack Del Rio defended a recent tweet comparing the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.Walmart heir Rob Walton pays record $4.65bn for NFL’s Denver BroncosRead moreWhen asked Wednesday about how players might react to it, the defensive coordinator said he was asking a “simple question” why the summer of 2020 protests were not receiving the same scrutiny.“People’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down, no problem,” Del Rio said. “And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we’re going to make that a major deal. I just think it’s kind of two standards.”Commanders DC Jack Del Rio on his recent tweet (https://t.co/odv7zr4BOn) at today’s media session “Businesses are being burned down, no problem… and then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down… and we’re gonna make that a major deal.”@nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/zH39iSqHM8— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) June 8, 2022
      His comments followed a post to Twitter Monday night in which he said, “Would love to understand ‘the whole story’ about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ???” He was responding to a tweet about the Congressional hearings into January 6.Del Rio and coach Ron Rivera say they aren’t concerned how that opinion will go over among players, many of whom are Black and spoke out about police brutality and racism in the wake of Floyd’s killing two years ago.“If they are and they want to talk about it, I’d talk about it with anybody,” Del Rio said. “No problem. At any time. But they’re not. I’m just expressing myself and I think we all as Americans have a right to express ourselves, especially if you’re being respectful. I’m being respectful.”Cornerback Kendall Fuller, who is Black, said he was not aware of Del Rio’s tweet. After a reporter read it to him, Fuller said: “I don’t have a reaction right now. If I have a reaction, a feeling, towards something, I’ll express that with him.”Del Rio, 59, has posted conservative opinions to his verified Twitter account numerous times since joining Rivera’s staff in Washington in 2020.“Anything that I ever say or write, I’d be comfortable saying or writing in front of everybody that I work with, players and coaches,” he said after an offseason workout. “I express myself as an American. We have that ability. I love this country and I believe what I believe and I’ve said what I want to say. Every now and then, there’s some people that get offended by it.”Rivera, who hired Rivera to run Washington’s defense, said he would not discuss anything he talks to his staff about.“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, though,” Rivera said. “If it ever becomes an issue or a situation, we’ll have that discussion. Right now, it’s something that I will deal with when it comes up.”Defensive captain Jonathan Allen told NBC Sports Washington: “I don’t care about his opinion. As long as he shows up every day and he works hard, that’s what I want from my defensive coordinator.”Del Rio played 11 NFL seasons as a linebacker from 1985 through 1995. He has coached in the league since 1997, including stints as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2003-11 and Oakland Raiders from 2015-17.TopicsWashington CommandersNFLUS Capitol attackUS politicsUS sportsReuse this content More

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      Inaugural January 6 hearing to track activities of Proud Boys during Capitol attack

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      Inaugural January 6 hearing to track activities of Proud Boys during Capitol attackThe House select committee investigating the insurrection will examine several crucial stages in the lead up to the first breach of the Capitol The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is scheduled to hold its inaugural hearing on Thursday and according to the running order obtained by the Guardian, the panel will track the activities of the far-right Proud Boys group before and during the insurrection.At the start of the hearing, the panel’s chairman Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney will make a series of opening arguments before outlining a general roadmap of how each of the six Watergate-style hearings are expected to unfold.For the second hour, Thompson and Cheney will hand control of the hearing to Tim Heaphy, the chief investigative counsel for the select committee, who will lead the questioning of two witnesses and walk through the key moments of the Capitol attack.The select committee is expected to start the questioning with testimony from Nick Quested, a British documentary film-maker who was embedded with the far-right Proud Boys group in the days and weeks leading up to January 6 and caught their activities on camera.Can televised hearings bring the truth about January 6 to the US public?Read moreQuested, appearing pursuant to a subpoena, is likely to deliver his own opening remarks and testify about how the Proud Boys planned their January 6 operation in detail in the weeks before the Capitol attack, narrating and analysing the footage that he recorded.By examining several crucial stages in the lead up to the first breach of the Capitol by the pro-Trump mob – such as the march to the Capitol from the Ellipse and a short stop at the Statue of Peace at the foot of Capitol Hill – the panel will show how the attack came to pass.The select committee is then expected to focus on the moment that Joseph Biggs, a member of the Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy on Monday, had a brief exchange with a man in the crowd near the statue just before the march morphed into the Capitol attack.Biggs’ exchange with that man, Ryan Samsel, is widely seen as the tipping point that precipitated the riot. Samsel, who has been charged with attacking police, then walks up alone to the barricade and confronts US Capitol Police officers before pushing it over.The select committee will illustrate Quested’s testimony about how that incident unfolded by playing footage leading up to that moment and a photo Quested took of the moment that Samsel is about to confront and then push past the officers.Heaphy is expected at that point to have the second witness, US Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, testify about her recollections of those key minutes during which she was assaulted by another man who had been speaking with the Proud Boy member.The testimony by Edwards, who was the first officer injured in the attack, is expected to be harrowing. Edwards, the New York Times reported, was knocked backwards into concrete steps by the surging pro-Trump mob that overturned the bike rack-like barricade on to her.Heaphy is expected to return to Quested to have him analyse other moments that he caught on camera as the Proud Boys led the charge up to the inaugural platform elected for Biden’s swearing-in weeks later, and then smashed a window in order to enter the Capitol.But in a notable omission, the select committee is not expected to use Quested’s footage of Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, meeting with Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, at a secret rendezvous the night before.The justice department has cited that meeting, which took place in an underground parking garage near the Capitol, in seditious conspiracy indictments against Tarrio, Rhodes, and other members of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups.Quested is considered the star witness in the select committee’s inaugural hearing, which will be covered live by most of the major US cable news networks, including MSNBC, CNN, CBS and ABC. Fox News will have its top-rated host Tucker Carlson deliver counter-programming.The Emmy award-winning documentary film-maker spent much of the post 2020 election period filming Tarrio and the Proud Boys – with their permission – and has testified multiple times to the panel in closed-door depositions.Quested had accompanied the Proud Boys to a number of pro-Trump rallies in Washington DC in November and December 2020, and was with the Proud Boys as some of its members stormed the Capitol. He also filmed Tarrio’s reaction to the riot later on January 6 in Baltimore, MD.TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Pelosi and other top Democrats subpoenaed over Bannon contempt case

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      Pelosi and other top Democrats subpoenaed over Bannon contempt caseLawyers for ex-Trump adviser request details of Capitol attack panel’s decision-making process that led to contempt ruling Top House Democrats, including speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, have been subpoenaed to testify in court in connection with the criminal contempt case against Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist Steve Bannon.The subpoenas – which were accepted by the House counsel, Doug Letter, last Friday, according to a source familiar with the matter – compel the handover of documents and testimony about internal decision-making that led to Bannon’s contempt case.John Kerry commits to look into case of missing British journalist in BrazilRead moreBut whether the subpoenas stand depends on how Judge Carl Nichols rules at a hearing next week, where he will asses pre-trial motions. Nichols could decide the testimony of members of Congress, for instance, is inadmissible because of protections like the so-called speech and debate clause.Bannon’s lawyers are seeking cooperation from top Democrats including Pelosi, the House majority leader Steny Hoyer, the House majority whip Jim Clyburn, all members of the select committee and three select committee counsels, as well as Letter.The subpoenas request materials that Bannon’s lawyers believe will provide evidence that the select committee did not follow House rules in issuing its subpoena to Bannon last year, and that federal prosecutors violated justice department rules in filing charges.It was not clear on Tuesday whether Letter, the House counsel, would move to quash the trial subpoenas. Letter, through a spokesman for the select committee, could not be reached for comment.Letter could also move to reach an arrangement with David Schoen, the lead lawyer defending Bannon in his contempt case. Schoen told the Guardian he would be prepared to discuss the matter in the hope that Letter would not move to dismiss the subpoenas.“The subpoenas are asking for materials that belong to the American people. It would be pretty ironic for the committee to quash the subpoenas when they issued a subpoena demanding materials from Bannon, where Trump asserted executive privilege,” Schoen said.Bannon’s lawyers are making a multi-pronged defense to try and save Bannon from being convicted of criminal contempt of Congress after he was referred to the justice department for prosecution for failing to comply with a subpoena in the congressional January 6 inquiry.The main thrust of Bannon’s argument is that he cannot be held in wilful contempt because he could reasonably believe the subpoena was invalid when the select committee failed to allow a Trump lawyer to attend his deposition, after Trump asserted executive privilege.The argument rests on a 2019 justice department office of legal counsel opinion that says congressional subpoenas that prevent executive branch counsel from accompanying executive branch employees to depositions are “legally invalid” and not enforceable.Bannon’s lawyers are also making the case that the select committee in violation of House rules made no effort to grant a one-week extension to reply to the subpoena after his attorney asked for time to review Trump’s related lawsuit against the panel.The defense that Bannon is advancing – using broad readings of parts of the justice department’s own positions and amalgamating them into a wider argument – is controversial, but it underscores the complexities facing federal prosecutors in pursuing the case.“Bannon’s trying to use the OLC opinions as a shield that doesn’t quite cover him, but gives him enough of a defense to fend off the DoJ’s necessity of proving criminal intent,” Jonathan Shaub, a University of Kentucky law professor and a former OLC attorney-adviser, previously told the Guardian.TopicsSteve BannonUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      US networks to air January 6 hearings – but Fox News sticks with Tucker Carlson

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      US networks to air January 6 hearings – but Fox News sticks with Tucker CarlsonPublic hearings by House committee investigating Capitol attack will be broadcast live on all main TV networks except Fox News The public hearings by the House committee investigation into the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, which start on Thursday, will be broadcast live by all main TV networks and cable channels in America bar one – Fox News.The historic proceedings kick off at 8pm New York time, and in Watergate style will attract near-blanket live coverage on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and more. By contrast, the most-watched TV news channel, Fox News, will stick with its primetime show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.The decision pits Carlson’s introductory monologue against the opening remarks of the January 6 committee’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, as the latter outlines how Donald Trump tried to undermine the 2020 election in order to hang on to power. Carlson has used his platform consistently to belittle the investigation and to downplay the significance of the Capitol attack that led to the deaths of seven people and forced the then vice-president, Mike Pence, to flee a violent mob.On the anniversary of the attacks, Carlson said on air that the insurrection “barely rates as a footnote”. He has championed false conspiracy theories about it, including the claim that the attack was a “false flag” operation spearheaded by federal officials to discredit conservatives.News coverage of the hearings will be relegated from Fox News to its sister channel, Fox Business Network. As CNN’s Brian Stelter pointed out, Fox News is the leading cable news network at prime time with more than 3 million viewers while Fox Business on average attracts fewer than 100,000.The scheduling plan drew fire from members of the January 6 committee. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republican members of the committee who are participating in the hearings in defiance of their party, accused Fox News of hiding the truth “if it disagrees with your narrative”.Kinzinger, a representative from Illinois, made a direct appeal to Fox News staff: “If you work for Fox News and want to maintain your credibility as a journalist, now is a good time to speak out, or quit. Enough is enough.”The relentless efforts of Fox News stars to diminish the significance of January 6 stands in contrast to what some of them said on the day itself. As hundreds of Trump supporters were storming the Capitol building, Laura Ingraham sent a text to the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, saying “the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”Later that night, Ingraham used her show, The Ingraham Angle, to blame the violence on antifa.Brian Kilmeade, co-host of the morning show Fox & Friends, and primetime star Sean Hannity, privately made similarly frantic appeals to Meadows as January 6 unfolded.Fox News’s response to the congressional hearings forms part of wider counter-programming against the proceedings being waged by the right. Top Republicans including the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, are planning aggressive pushback, including a rapid response unit and talking points that describe the proceedings as “rigged”.Republican leaders and others who remain loyal to Trump are also hoping that “January 6 fatigue” will have set in, and that large sections of the American public will fail to tune in.TopicsFox NewsUS Capitol attackTV newsUS television industryTelevision industryUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy in 6 January riot

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      Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy in 6 January riotEnrique Tarrio and four other members accused of plotting to attack the US Capitol Top leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group, including its national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, have been charged with seditious conspiracy for plotting to storm the US Capitol to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden’s election win over Donald Trump on 6 January 2021.Capitol attack panel to unveil new evidence against Trump at public hearingsRead moreThe move by federal prosecutors to charge Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders with seditious conspiracy – in addition to previous charges of obstructing a congressional proceeding – marks a major development in the criminal investigation into the Capitol attack.In the 33-page indictment unsealed in Washington DC on Monday, the justice department said Tarrio and his co-defendants Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola for months used encrypted messaging apps to stop Biden’s certification by force.The new charges against the proud Boys leadership come days before the parallel congressional inquiry into the Capitol attack is scheduled to start televised hearings that are expected to examine, in part, Trump’s personal culpability in the events of January 6.Seditious conspiracy, which is challenging to prove, requires federal prosecutors to show beyond a reasonable doubt that at least two people agreed to use force to overthrow the government or to interfere with the execution of a US law.The new indictment is the latest involving seditious conspiracy, after the justice department filed identical charges earlier this year against top members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, including its founder Stewart Rhodes, over the Capitol attack.A bipartisan US Senate report linked seven deaths to the attack on the Capitol, which failed to stop certification of Biden’s win. Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted when enough Senate Republicans stayed loyal.In adding on the seditious conspiracy charges, the justice department appeared to indicate that it has learned new information in recent weeks about the Proud Boys’ plans ahead of 6 January as a result of several significant developments.One of the Proud Boys, who was originally charged with Tarrio and the other co-defendants for obstructing a congressional proceeding, Charles Donoghue pleaded guilty in April and accepted a plea deal to cooperate with the criminal investigation into the group.Meanwhile, though the indictment also identified unindicted co-conspirators – “Person 1” is understood to be Jeremy Bertino and “Person 2” is likely Aaron Whallon Wolkind – neither of those men have been charged. A third top Proud Boy leader, John Stewart, also remains uncharged.The government said in the indictment that on 20 December 2020, Tarrio created a chat called “MOSD Leaders Group” – described by Tarrio as a “national rally planning committee” – that included Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and other individuals who were not identified.Through the rest of December, the government said, Proud Boys leaders used additional MOSD group chats to plan a “DC trip” and communicate to group members that they should go to the capital not wearing their familiar black and yellow colours but travel “incognito” instead.The government said in the indictment that on 30 and 31 December 2020, Tarrio communicated with an individual – whose identity is known only to a grand jury – who sent him a nine-page document, called “1776 returns” in reference to the year of American independence from Britain. It laid out a plan to occupy “crucial buildings” on 6 January.The document broadly outlined a plan to reconnoiter and storm crucial government buildings in Washington DC on 6 January, though not the Capitol itself, the New York Times earlier reported.Tarrio is said to have received the “1776 returns” document from one of his girlfriends, who compared the plan to storming the Winter palace in St Petersburg that sparked the Russian Revolution in 1917, the New York Times reported.The indictment cited a reference to that moment in the new indictment, drawing upon what appeared to be newly-uncovered text messages. After the Capitol attack ended, Bertino messaged Tarrio, “1776,” to which Tarrio responded: “The Winter Palace.”Three days before the Capitol attack, a Proud Boy referred to only as “Person-3” posted a voice message in the MOSD Leaders Group that stated the “main operating theater should be out in front of the House of Representatives”, according to the indictment.“That’s where the vote is taking place with all of the objections,” the person said, according to the indictment. “Plan the operations based around the front entrance to the Capitol building. I strongly recommend you use the National Mall and not Pennsylvania Avenue.”The new pieces of evidence in the latest indictment were messages Bertino sent to Tarrio after the attack. “You know we made this happen,” Bertino said. Referring to the implications of obstructing Biden’s win, Bertino added: “They HAVE to certify today. Or it’s invalid.”Tarrio was not in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, having been ordered to leave the capital by a judge after being arrested the day before for burning a Black Lives Matter banner at a church during a pro-Trump rally in December.But the justice department has said that even though Tarrio was not accused of “physically taking part in the breach of the Capitol”, he “led the advance planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during” the attack.Eleven members of the Oath Keepers militia are also charged with seditious conspiracy.Lawyers for Tarrio and the other four Proud Boys leaders have said there is no evidence they conspired to storm the Capitol, and that the MOSD group chats and the acquisition of tactical gear before 6 January were measures to protect themselves in case of potential altercations.TopicsUS Capitol attackThe far rightnewsReuse this content More