The House Select Committee … concentrates tonight on ex-President Trump’s 187 minutes of radio silence during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, with the panel’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) tuning in virtually because he has COVID-19.
Hearing VIII: Begins 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. Read our coverage/analysis and commentary Friday in this space. Add your comments in the boxes in any of these three columns, or email editors@thehustings.news.
Expected to testify live Thursday are Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security advisor, who resigned the White House on January 6, 2021, and Sarah Matthews, former press aide. The Select Committee has not confirmed these names.
Report due: The 1/6 panel has confirmed it will publish an interim report on the Capitol attack in September.
About those Secret Service texts: The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog Office of Inspector General learned last February that the Secret Service had killed most of the smartphone texts related to January 6, The Washington Post scoops, citing sources familiar with the situation. The Inspector General’s office also was ready to issue a public report in October 2021 that the Secret Service was stonewalling on requests for records and texts in connection to the Capitol insurrection, WaPoreports.
Can’t happen again?: Bipartisan groups of Senators proposed two bills designed to reform the 1887 Electoral College Act and end any doubt that an incumbent presidential candidate, like Donald J. Trump, could disrupt the Electoral College count (per Roll Call). The Electoral College Reform Act, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) would require at least one-fifth of both the House and Senate to object to a single state’s Electoral College votes, up from the current requirement of a single Congress member, as per the 1887 law. The Collins/Manchin bill also would remove an 1845 law that allows a state legislature to declare a “failed election” and specify that the date of a presidential election could be moved for “extraordinary and catastrophic events.”
Eight more Republicans and five Democrats have joined Collins and Manchin in supporting this potential closing of loopholes that some historians warned of prior to the November 2020 presidential election. A second and complementary bill, supported by five Republicans and seven Democrats, would double the maximum federal penalty to two years in prison for anyone convicted of intimidating or threatening election officials, poll watchers, voters or candidates, and boost penalties for stealing, destroying, concealing or altering election results, to a $10,000 fine and two years in prison, Roll Call reports.
The two bills will advance through two different Senate committees.
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Speaking of the above … Donald J. Trump’s attorney and former America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been subpoenaed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney for District Attorney Fani Willis’ grand jury investigation of the former president’s alleged Electoral College tampering in Georgia, according to Politico. Queue the recording of Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; “I just want 11,780 votes … .”
Speaking of the above, Part II: The government rested Wednesday in its Contempt of Congress case against former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, after calling a congressional staffer and an FBI agent to the stand, The Washington Post reports. Defense countered that Bannon had been speaking with the House Select 1/6 panel as recently as last week, and that the defendant was negotiating, and not refusing, to hand in documents or testify.
--Todd Lassa
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...meanwhile...
(WED 7/20/22)
Georgia AG targets false electors … As Democratic frustration continues to build over U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s lack of action while the House Select Committee investigates the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has deemed 16 Republicans who falsely signed Electoral College certificates in late 2020 to be criminal “targets,” (per Politico). Willis revealed the determination in a court filing to fend off a legal move to disqualify her from leading the grand jury investigating the effort to overturn Georgia’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden. The filing was by one of the alleged false electors, Burt Jones, who is a candidate for lieutenant governor for the state.
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MAGA Republican wins Maryland primary … Term-limited Gov. Mark Hogan is a popular moderate Republican in an otherwise deep-blue state, but his hand-picked successor, Kelly Shulz, is projected to lose the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary Tuesday to Trump-backed state legislator Dan Cox, the AP reports. Cox had criticized Hogan’s “restrictive and protracted” COVID-19 lockdown efforts, and unsuccessfully sought to impeach him over the issue.
With provisional and mail-in ballots yet to be counted, the Democratic race is too close to call, AP says, with Oprah Winfrey-backed celebrity author Wes Moore leading Tom Perez, Labor secretary for the Obama administration who served as Democratic National Committee chairman during the Trump administration.
Upshot: Hogan was an early moderate Republican critic of then-President Trump and is considered a likely candidate for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
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Latest on those Secret Service texts … The Secret Service claims deleted texts from January 6, 2021, are not recoverable, The Washington Post reports. The National Archives has called on the agency to report back within 30 days about their “potential unauthorized deletion.”
--Todd Lassa
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(TUE 7/19/22)
Georgia AG targets false electors … As Democratic frustration continues to build over U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s lack of action while the House Select Committee investigates the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has deemed 16 Republicans who falsely signed Electoral College certificates in late 2020 to be criminal “targets,” (per Politico). Willis revealed the determination in a court filing to fend off a legal move to disqualify her from leading the grand jury investigating the effort to overturn Georgia’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden. The filing was by one of the alleged false electors, Burt Jones, who is a candidate for lieutenant governor for the state.
•••
MAGA Republican wins Maryland primary … Term-limited Gov. Mark Hogan is a popular moderate Republican in an otherwise deep-blue state, but his hand-picked successor, Kelly Shulz, is projected to lose the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary Tuesday to Trump-backed state legislator Dan Cox, the AP reports. Cox had criticized Hogan’s “restrictive and protracted” COVID-19 lockdown efforts, and unsuccessfully sought to impeach him over the issue.
With provisional and mail-in ballots yet to be counted, the Democratic race is too close to call, AP says, with Oprah Winfrey-backed celebrity author Wes Moore leading Tom Perez, Labor secretary for the Obama administration who served as Democratic National Committee chairman during the Trump administration.
Upshot: Hogan was an early moderate Republican critic of then-President Trump and is considered a likely candidate for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
•••
Latest on those Secret Service texts … The Secret Service claims deleted texts from January 6, 2021, are not recoverable, The Washington Post reports. The National Archives has called on the agency to report back within 30 days about their “potential unauthorized deletion.”
--Todd Lassa