US Capitol attack

Subterms

    More stories

    • 188 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Militia group leader tried to ask Trump to authorize them to stop transfer of power

      by

      Militia group leader tried to ask Trump to authorize them to stop transfer of powerJustice department alleges Oath Keepers’ Stewart Rhodes called unidentified presidential confidant on January 6 to make request Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers militia group leader charged with seditious conspiracy over the January 6 attack on the Capitol, asked an intermediary to get Donald Trump to allow his group to forcibly stop the transfer of power, the justice department has alleged in court papers.The previously unknown phone call with the unidentified individual appears to indicate the Oath Keepers had contacts with at least one person close enough to Trump that Rhodes believed the individual would be a good person to consult with his request.Capitol attack committee requests cooperation from key Republican trioRead moreOnce the Oath Keepers finished storming the Capitol, Rhodes gathered the Oath Keepers leadership at about 5pm and walked down a few blocks to the Phoenix Park hotel in Washington, the justice department said on Wednesday in a statement of offense against Oath Keepers member William Wilson.The group then huddled in a private suite, the justice department said, where Rhodes called an unidentified person on speakerphone and pressed the person to get Trump to authorize them to stop the transfer of power after the Capitol attack had failed to do so.“Wilson heard Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power,” the document said. “This individual denied Rhodes’ request to speak directly with President Trump.”The extraordinary phone call indicates that Rhodes believed two important points: first, that he was close enough to the Trump confidant that he could openly discuss such a request, and second, that the confidant was close enough to Trump to be able to pass on the message.James Lee Bright, a lawyer for Rhodes, told the Guardian that he was uncertain about who his client called or whether the call took place.The previously unknown phone call surfaced on Wednesday in charging documents against Wilson, the leader of the North Carolina chapter of the Oath Keepers, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding as part of a plea agreement.The statement of offense said that Wilson was involved in efforts to prepare for January 6 with the national leadership of the Oath Keepers, and how Rhodes added Wilson to the “DC OP: Jan 6 21” group chat on the encrypted Signal messaging app.“Rhodes, Wilson, and co-conspirators used this Signal group chat and others to plan for January 6, 2021,” the justice department said.On the morning of the Capitol attack, Rhodes confirmed on the group chat that they had several well equipped QRFs outside DC – a reference to quick reaction forces, that the government said it believes were on standby to deploy to the Capitol with guns and ammunition.At about 2.34pm, the justice department said, Wilson stormed into the Capitol through the upper West Terrace doors as one of the first co-conspirators to breach the building, and by 2.38pm, was helping to pry open the doors to the rotunda from the inside.The seditious conspiracy charge against Wilson – an offense that carries up to 20 years in federal prison – is the latest in a string of recent such indictments to members of the Oath Keepers. Wilson is cooperating with the the justice department in its criminal investigation into January 6.As part of the criminal investigation into January 6, the justice department is also examining connections between the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, another militia group, having obtained text messages showing the two groups were in touch before the Capitol attack.The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack also believes the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault perpetrated by the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, the Guardian first reported last month.TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS justice systemnewsReuse this content More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      Capitol attack committee requests cooperation from key Republican trio

      by

      Capitol attack committee requests cooperation from key Republican trioMo Brooks, Andy Biggs and Ronny Jackson receive letters as panel looks to establish extent of role in Trump’s bid to overturn election The House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack on Monday asked three Republican members of Congress to assist its inquiry, as it seeks to establish the extent of their roles in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.This Will Not Pass review: Trump-Biden blockbuster is dire reading for DemocratsRead moreThe panel sent letters requesting voluntary cooperation to Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs and Ronny Jackson, three congressmen who strategised ways to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win or appeared to have connections to elements involved in the Capitol attack.Bennie Thompson, the Democratic committee chair, told the Guardian last week the panel wanted to conduct interviews with Republicans so it could consider their testimony for its report, due to be published in September.The panel opted against issuing subpoenas compelling testimony in the first instance, since that could cause the Republicans to attack, whereas an informal interview might at least yield some information, two sources close to the matter said.In a statement, Jackson refused to cooperate.“I will not participate in the illegitimate committee’s ruthless crusade against President Trump and his allies,” he said, hours after a Trump-appointed judge ruled in separate January 6 litigation that the panel was, in fact, legitimate.House investigators are expected to issue further letters to Republican members of Congress, sources said. The Guardian first reported the committee was considering letters to Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Paul Gosar, in addition to Biggs and Brooks.The panel made a particularly expansive request to Biggs, the former head of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, outlining four lines of inquiry that investigators want to pursue with respect to his role in the weeks before 6 January.Thompson told Biggs the committee wanted to ask him about a crucial 21 December meeting at the White House between Trump and dozens of Republicans, which produced a plan to have the then vice-president, Mike Pence, refuse to certify Biden’s win.The letter also said the panel wanted to ask what Biggs knew of plans to stage a march from the Ellipse, near the White House, to the Capitol on 6 January, through his purported contacts with the pro-Trump activist Ali Alexander, who led the “Stop the Steal” movement after the 2020 election.Biggs’s potential contacts with Alexander are of special interest to the investigation, the sources said.The committee is trying to untangle claims by Alexander that he “schemed up putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting” with Brooks, Biggs and Gosar, and his testimony that he spoke to Biggs’s staff and the congressman himself.Alexander obtained a permit for a 6 January rally near the Capitol. But the rally never took place – although a separately organised event did – and Alexander was instead filmed going up the Capitol steps with members of the Oath Keepers militia group.Thompson said the panel also wanted to ask Biggs about his efforts to pressure legislators to create “alternate” slates of electors for Trump in states he lost, as well as an alleged request he made to Trump for a pardon in the days after the Capitol attack.In a letter to Brooks, the select committee said it wanted to ask him about his recent public comments, how Trump supposedly asked him on several occasions to “help rescind the election” and that “we’ve got to take Joe Biden down and put me in now”.In the letter to Jackson, the panel indicated they would ask Trump’s former White House physician about why his name came up in encrypted text messages among members of the Oath Keepers as the Capitol attack was under way.According to text messages in a recent court filing, an unidentified Oath Keeper messaged a group chat in the afternoon of 6 January that “Ronnie [sic] Jackson (TX) office inside Capitol – he needs OK help. Anyone inside?”‘JP, right?’ Donald Trump appears to forget name of candidate he endorsedRead moreThe same Oath Keeper provided an update less than 10 minutes later: “Dr Ronnie Jackson – on the move. Needs protection. If anyone inside cover him. He has critical data to protect.”The Oath Keepers leader, Stewart Rhodes, responded: “Give him my cell.”The extraordinary exchange raises the notion that members of the Oath Keepers – two of whom are among those who have been indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy for storming the Capitol – were close enough to Jackson to know his whereabouts and condition in real time.To that extent, the letter to Jackson said, the select committee wants to ask him about whether he had contacts with the Oath Keepers, how the militia group could have known that he needed protection or, in another text, knew he had “critical data to protect”.TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

    • 150 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump or no Trump: Asa Hutchinson mulls run for president in 2024

      by

      Trump or no Trump: Asa Hutchinson mulls run for president in 2024Republican Arkansas governor says he would not be deterred by former president in party in wrong over January 6 insurrection

      This Will Not Pass review: Dire reading for Democrats
      The Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and would not be deterred if Donald Trump made an expected bid to return to the White House.January 6 committee set to subpoena Trump allies, Republican Kinzinger saysRead more“No, it won’t [deter me],” Hutchinson told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.“I’ve made it clear. I think we ought to have a different direction in the future and so I’m not aligned with [Trump] on some of his endorsements, but also the direction he wants to take our country.“I think he did a lot of good things for our country, but we need to go a different direction and so that’s not a factor in my decision-making process.”Trump is free to run – and has amassed huge campaign funding – after being acquitted in his second Senate impeachment trial, in which he was charged with inciting the deadly January 6 Capitol attack, in his attempt to overturn defeat by Joe Biden.More than 20 years ago, Hutchinson was a House impeachment manager in the trial of Bill Clinton, over the 42nd president’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. As Arkansas governor, Hutchinson now operates in the more moderate lane of Republican politics.On CNN, he was asked about an appearance last week at a “Politics & Eggs” event in New Hampshire, a “traditional stop for any presidential hopeful” in an early voting state.“You’ve got to get through course this year,” he said, “but that’s an option that’s on the table. And that’s one of the reasons I was in New Hampshire.”Hutchinson used his CNN interview to take a shot at Ron DeSantis, another potential candidate in 2024, regarding the Florida governor’s battle with Disney over his anti-LGBTQ+ schools policy. The Arkansas governor was also asked if he would support Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader and an ardent Trump ally, to become speaker if Republicans take control in November.He said: “Well, of course, you know, Speaker McCarthy, or excuse me, Majority Leader McCarthy has his own set of challenges within the caucus. And he’s got to be able to somehow bring that together.”Ron DeSantis Disney attack violates Republican principles, GOP rival saysRead moreMcCarthy was recently shown to have said Trump should resign in the aftermath of the Capitol attack, to have changed his tune to support the former president, and to have lied about what he told his party.Hutchinson told CNN: “I would say that we had one message after January 6 among many of our leaders, recognising the problem with the insurrection. And that tone has changed and I believe that that’s an error.“I don’t think we can diminish what happened on January 6. We’re going to be having hearings there in Congress and much of this will come out in public in June, and that’s not going to be helpful for those that diminish the significance of that event.“And so that worries me in terms of not just the majority leader but also worries me in terms of other leaders that have diminished what happened on January 6.”TopicsUS elections 2024US politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackArkansasnewsReuse this content More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Capitol attack panel set to subpoena Trump allies, Republican Kinzinger says

      by

      Capitol attack panel set to subpoena Trump allies, Republican Kinzinger saysMembers of Congress involved in attempt to overturn election have refused to testify voluntarily before June public hearings

      This Will Not Pass review: Dire reading for Democrats
      The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will decide “in the next week or two” whether to issue subpoenas trying to force Republican lawmakers to testify about Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, one of two Republicans on the panel said on Sunday.‘A horrible plague, then Covid’: Biden and correspondents joke in post-Trump return to normalityRead more“If that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena,” Adam Kinzinger said.The Illinois congressman also told CBS’s Face the Nation public hearings planned for June will aim to “lay the whole story out in front of the American people … because ultimately, they have to be the judge” of Trump’s attempt to hold on to power.Kinzinger and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump over the Capitol attack, which a bipartisan Senate committee linked to seven deaths.But Senate Republicans stayed loyal, acquitting Trump, and Kinzinger is one of four anti-Trump House Republicans who have since announced their retirements.He and Liz Cheney of Wyoming are the only Republicans on the January 6 committee.The June hearings, Kinzinger said, will involve laying out “what led to January 6, the lies after the election, fundraising, the 187 minutes the president basically sat in the Oval Office [as the Capitol was attacked] … the response by [the Department of Defense].“It’s important for us to be able to put that in front of the American people because ultimately, they have to be the judge. The Department of Justice will make decisions based on information but the American people … have to take the work we’ve done and decide what they want to do with it or what they want to believe.”Majorities of Republicans in Congress and in public polls believe – or choose to support and repeat – Trump’s lie that Biden stole the presidency via electoral fraud.Prominent Trump supporters in Congress who have advanced that lie and were involved in attempts to overturn the election before 6 January have refused to speak to the House committee.“I won’t say who I think we need to talk to yet,” Kinzinger said. “I mean, I think everybody needs to come and talk to us. We’ve requested information from various members.“In terms of whether we move forward with a subpoena, it’s going to be both a strategic tactical decision and the question of whether or not we can do that and get the information in time. Decisions we make every day.”Kinzinger added, “I think ultimately, whatever we can do to get that information. I think if that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena.“But I think the key is, regardless of even what some members of Congress are going to tell us, we know a lot of information … we’re going deeper with richer and more detail to show the American people.”Kinzinger said he would “love to see” Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president who ultimately refused to reject electoral college results on 6 January, testify before the committee.“I hope he would do so voluntarily,” he said. “These are decisions I think that we’re going to end up making from a tactical perspective in the next week or two, because we basically pinned down what this hearing schedule is going to look like, the content.“And as we go into the full narrative of this thing. I would hope and think that the vice-president would want to come in and tell this story, because he did do the right thing on that day. If he doesn’t, we have to look at the options we have available to us if there’s information we don’t already have.”Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack caseRead moreA lawyer for Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a far-right Republican congresswoman shown in court filings by the committee to have been in contact with the White House around 6 January, has claimed she was in fact a victim of the riot.“I’d love to ask her a few questions,” Kinzinger said. “We know some things. I won’t confirm or deny the text messages of course, but let me just say this.“For Marjorie Taylor Greene to say she’s a victim, it’s amazing … I mean, she assaulted I think a survivor … from a school shooting at some point in DC. She stood outside a congresswoman’s office and yelled through a mail slot and said [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] was too scared to come out and confront her.“And then when Marjorie Taylor Greene is confronted she’s all of a sudden a victim and a poor helpless congresswoman that’s just trying to do a job? That’s insane.“We want the information.”TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpMike PenceRepublicansUS politicsTrump administrationDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Mark Meadows claims US Capitol attack panel leaked texts to ‘vilify’ him

      by

      Mark Meadows claims US Capitol attack panel leaked texts to ‘vilify’ himArgument made in federal court filing in Washington, where Trump’s chief of staff sued to invalidate subpoenas Donald Trump’s last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has accused the congressional committee investigating the US Capitol attack of leaking all the text messages he provided in what he says is an effort to vilify him publicly.The argument was made in a filing on Friday in federal court in Washington, where Meadows sued in December to invalidate subpoenas issued for his testimony and to Verizon for his cellphone records.Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack caseRead moreIn the latest filing, lawyers asked a judge to reject the committee’s request for a ruling that could force Meadows to comply with the subpoenas. The committee requested an expedited briefing schedule on Wednesday after filing its motion the previous week.The lawyers say Meadows deserves a chance through the fact-gathering process known as discovery to gather information about questions still in dispute, such as the committee’s claims that Trump did not properly invoke executive privilege over the items subpoenaed because he did not communicate that position directly.“Mr Meadows cannot possibly know whether that unsupported contention is true without discovery – or whether the select committee had awareness of former president Trump’s assertions,” the motion states.It adds that Meadows must have the ability to obtain any communications between the committee and Trump and possibly to take depositions of people familiar with those discussions.The House voted in December to hold Meadows in criminal contempt after he ceased cooperating, referring the matter to the justice department, which has not said if it will take action. Meadows’ legal team has said he provided extensive cooperation but that the committee refused to respect Trump’s assertion of executive privilege.The motion by Meadows also accuses the committee of waging a “sustained media campaign” against him. Though it does not provide evidence, it says the committee has leaked all of the text messages Meadows has produced.“The congressional defendants, under the auspices of a legitimate subpoena, induced Mr Meadows to produce thousands of his private communications only to use them in a concerted and ongoing effort to vilify him publicly through the media,” Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, wrote in the motion.Court filings by the committee have shown Meadows was in regular contact before 6 January 2021 with Republican allies who advanced false claims of election fraud and supported overturning the race won by Joe Biden.A filing a week ago cited testimony from a White House aide who said Meadows was advised there could be violence on 6 January.The committee declined through a spokesperson to comment about Meadows’ accusations against the panel.TopicsUS Capitol attackTrump administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

    • 150 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack case

      by

      Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack caseLawyers for groups challenging Republican say text Greene sent to Meadows, released by House panel, shows she lied in testimony Lawyers for voters seeking to bar the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress over her support for the January 6 insurrection have accused her of lying in a hearing in the case.JD Vance’s Senate run is a test of Trump’s influence on the Republican partyRead moreIn a filing Friday, lawyers for groups challenging Greene said a text from the Georgia congresswoman to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, released by the House committee investigating January 6, shows she lied in testimony.At the hearing in Atlanta earlier this month, a fractious affair in front of an administrative judge, Greene said she could not recall advocating for Donald Trump to impose martial law after the Capitol attack, as the then president sought to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.In the text message released this week, Greene told Meadows on 17 January 2021, 11 days after the riot and three days before Biden’s inauguration: “In our private chat with only Members several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call Marshall [sic] law.“I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next.”As reported by Bloomberg News, attorneys for Greene’s challengers said: “Greene’s testimony at the hearing that she could not remember discussing martial law with anyone was already dubious.“This text with President Trump’s chief of staff makes her testimony even more incredible because it seems like the kind of message with the kind of recipient that a reasonable person testifying truthfully would remember.”Greene’s lawyer, James Bopp Jr, told Bloomberg: “The text very clearly said she doesn’t know about those things. It couldn’t be clearer.“It’s just another outrageous fabrication that we have been seeing from the other side throughout this case, because they don’t have the law on their side.”The attempt to push Greene off the ballot in the Republican primary is based on section three of the 14th amendment to the US constitution. Ratified in 1868, shortly after the civil war, the amendment bars from office anyone who has taken an oath under the constitution but then engaged in insurrection.A bipartisan Senate committee linked seven deaths to the Capitol attack, which occurred after Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” in service of his lies about electoral fraud.Riot participants have tied Greene to their cause. She has repeated Trump’s lie that the election was stolen but also denied links to rioters and said she was not calling for political violence when she backed Trump’s claims.In the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riot, Greene was one of 147 Republicans in the House and Senate who objected to electoral college results.The groups challenging Greene have challenged other Trump supporters.An effort to exclude Madison Cawthorn, from North Carolina, failed when a judge said an 1872 civil war amnesty law was not merely retroactive. Attempts to eject two Arizonans, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, were also rejected.The judge in Greene’s case has said he will soon make a recommendation to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, who will then rule.Raffensperger is a conservative Republican but also the official who blocked Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat in Georgia. Raffensperger has said that caused him to fear for his safety.Greene appears in This Will Not Pass, a hotly anticipated new book by two New York Times reporters, both in her relation to the January 6 attack and as a thorn in the side of congressional Democrats.“If there was one Republican who had shown she had no business serving in Congress,” Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns write, “Democrats believed it was” Greene.The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, though, “thought it would be pointless to try expelling Greene from the House. Even if an expulsion vote succeeded, the speaker believed Greene would easily win a special election in her district and return.”TopicsGeorgiaUS Capitol attackUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

    • 200 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump claims he doesn’t have documents New York attorney general is seeking – as it happened

      by

      US politics liveUS politicsTrump claims he doesn’t have documents New York attorney general is seeking – as it happened
      Full report: judge denies Trump’s request to end contempt order
      Capitol attack panel set to issue letter to Kevin McCarthy
      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
      Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
       Updated 1h agoRichard LuscombeFri 29 Apr 2022 16.06 EDTFirst published on Fri 29 Apr 2022 09.15 EDT Show key events onlyLive feedShow key events onlyFrom More