More Than Every Crime Imaginable

By Ken Zino

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack once again advanced its case that Donald Trump knowingly sent an armed and dangerous mob to the Capitol in furtherance of his Big Lie, abundantly refuted by his attorney general, and White House counsel, among many other senior aides.

Testimony today came after leaders and members of the Oath Keepers (ex-military veterans, many of them trained to kill), as well as the Proud Boys (an extremist hate group not known hitherto for a proclivity to cooperate with other groups) cooperated in the January 6 attack. How is it that they came to be working together?

Once again Rep. Elizabeth Cheney (R-WY) provided an enhanced timeline and more details culled from testimony that Trump was hell-bent on staying in power. Cheney ended with yet another challenge to the Department of Justice to indict Trump for seditious conspiracy.

For me it’s come to this: Our democracy has come off the rails. The wreckage is so devastating that the voice of reason is Cheney, a right-wing Republican with family genes that have shown a ruthless pursuit of power by questionable means. For this moment of constitutional crisis, though, she will do as a senior leader of whatever is left of the endangered GOP.

Video-recorded witnesses described how Trump tried to appoint Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate the election over the objections of White House counsel Pat Cipollone. Powell is an unqualified attorney and sycophant who would tell Trump whatever he wanted to hear, and apparently was ready to take whatever illegal steps were necessary to please him.

“We know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that then-President Donald Trump lost in a free and fair election,” committee member Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) said in her opening. “And yet, President Trump insisted that his loss was due to fraud in the election process, rather than to the democratic will of the voters. The president continued to make this claim despite being told, again and again, by the courts, by the Justice Department, by his campaign officials, and by some of his closest advisors, that the evidence did not support this assertion…”

President Trump relentlessly pursued multiple, interlocking lines of effort, all with a single goal: to remain in power despite having lost. The lines of effort were aimed at his loyal vice president, Mike Pence; at state election and elected officials; and at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The President pressured the vice president to obstruct the process to certify the election result.
He demanded that state officials “find” him enough votes to overturn the election outcome in that state.
And he pressed the Justice Department to find widespread evidence of fraud.
When DOJ officials told the president that such evidence did not exist, the president urged them to simply declare that the election was corrupt.
On December 14th, the Electoral College met to officially confirm that Joe Biden would be the next President.

“The evidence shows that, once this occurred, President Trump -- and those who were willing to aid and abet him -- turned their attention to the Joint Session of Congress scheduled for January 6th, at which the Vice President would preside. In their warped view, this ceremonial event was the next, and perhaps the last, inflection point that could be used to reverse the outcome of the election before Mr. Biden’s inauguration,” Murphy said.

Finally Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) likened the post-election events leading to the armed Jan 6th insurrection as “Three rings of interwoven attack…

“On the inside ring, Trump continued trying to work to overturn the election by getting Mike Pence to abandon his oath of office and assert the unilateral power to reject electoral votes. This would have been a fundamental and unprecedented breach of the Constitution that would promise Trump multiple ways of staying in office.

“Meanwhile, in the middle ring, members of domestic violent extremist groups created an alliance, both online and in person, to coordinate a massive effort to storm, invade and occupy the Capitol. By placing a target on the Joint Session of Congress, Trump had mobilized these groups around a common goal, emboldening them, strengthening their working relationships, and helping build their numbers.

“Finally, in the outer ring, on January 6th there assembled a large and angry crowd, the political force that Trump considered both the touchstone and the measure of his political power. For millions of Americans, that may be painful to accept. But it is true,” Raskin concluded.

Well, the rings that come to my mind are Dante’s rings of hell. Our democracy needs to be rid of Trump and his ilk so we all don’t end up in the nether inferno regions dictated by tyrants. DOJ what are you waiting for?

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

1/6 Hearing VII: From Seizing Voting Machines to Paramilitary Coup

By Todd Lassa

Tuesday’s 1/6 panel hearing took us from an “unhinged” late-night post-election White House shouting match over a wild plan to overturn Joe Biden’s win to how extremist, white supremacist groups like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and QAnon tried to use force to back then-President Donald Trump’s attempt to make his vice president reject Electoral College results.

“What it was going to be was an armed revolution,” Jason Van Tatenhove (above, right), a former spokesman for Oath Keepers, told the committee in live testimony Tuesday afternoon. “I mean, people died that day.” Law enforcement officers were attacked and injured, he said. “There was a gallows set up in front of the Capitol. This could have been the start of a new civil war, and no one would have won that day.”

Van Tatenhove was not at the Capitol January 6, 2021 — he left the extremist group’s employ years earlier after listening to members speak about the Holocaust not being real. But he described how a successful insurrection on January 6 would have given Oath Keepers founder and then-president Stewart Rhodes “a path forward” to become a paramilitary leader at Trump’s right hand.

The Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and other extremist groups who had coalesced at the Capitol on January 6 had attempted to overturn the election by force only after Trump and his allies in the plot had failed to advance a plan for the lame-duck president to declare martial law and seize voting machines.

This hearing laid out how the desperation of Trump and his closest allies to overturn the election turned into a collaboration with violent racist, extremist groups on January 6. The House Select committee began by describing a late-night meeting December 18, 2020, in which Michael Flynn, the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who served as national security adviser for the first 22 days of the Trump administration; Sidney Powell, the former federal prosecutor who has emerged as central to Trump’s efforts to retain power; former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani; Trump official Emily Newman; and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne held a loud meeting with Trump and his White House aides arguing that the presidential election was stolen and that Venezuela, China, and other countries manipulated voting machines to change ballots to benefit Biden.

The group presented a draft order written two days earlier that said “effective immediately, the secretary of Defense shall seize voting machines.” Plans also would have named Powell special prosecutor to investigate voter fraud.

Various witnesses in videotaped testimony, including Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and senior adviser Eric Herschmann, described the meeting as a shout-fest, with administration aides exchanging insults with Flynn, Powell, Giuliani, Newman and Byrne.

Cipollone, from eight hours of video testimony taken last Friday, said he and other White House aides in the meeting reacted to repeated suggestions of voter fraud from the group by seeking evidence.

“Put up or shut up,” Cipollone said. To “have the federal government seize voting machines? That was a terrible idea. I don’t understand why we have to tell you that’s a bad idea, a terrible idea.”

On a plan to name Powell special prosecutor, Cipollone told the 1/6 committee, “I don’t think she should be appointed to anything.”

By the time this shouting match moved from the West Wing to the Yellow Oval room in the presidential living quarters Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who became a heroine with her live testimony in the sixth 1/6 hearing, texted Secret Service official Tony Ornato that the meeting had become “unhinged.”

It broke up after midnight.

Although the White House aides and their rational approach prevailed, Trump December 19 tweeted out an invite to the “Big protest in D.C. on January 6^th … . Be there, will be wild!”

A former Twitter comments moderation employee, appearing anonymously by video, described how the social media company let through a flood of tweets describing a gathering of arms by Trump supporters ahead of the January 6 insurrection and how Twitter has culpability for a deadly riot.

Stop the Steal founder Ali Alexander, Infowars’ Alex Jones, and Oath Keepers’ president Stewart Rhodes led the way.

Rhodes considered himself the leader of a paramilitary group that would support Trump after overthrowing the government January 6, said Van Tatenhove, the former Oath Keepers spokesman, even though Rhodes described the group as “not a militia,” but a “community preparedness team” or “veterans’ support group.”

Stephen Ayres (above, left) of Warren, Ohio, who pled guilty to breaching the Capitol that day testified alongside Van Tatenhove, saying he did not plan to march to the Capitol until Trump told the crowd he would lead the way.

“I lost my job, pretty much sold my house,” Ayres told the committee. “It changed my life and not for the good… . I consider myself a family man and I love my country, and I don’t think any one man is bigger than (that).”

The committee’s vice chairman, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) used her closing remarks to warn again of potential witness tampering by former President Trump. She revealed that after last week’s hearing, Trump attempted to call a future witness who has not yet testified, but the witness passed the message on to their attorney.

“We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” Cheney said.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Enough

By Stephen Macaulay

It opened and should have closed at that point.

Liz Cheney pointed out that Donald Trump is 76 years old. And she added, “He is not an impressionable child.”

She further suggested that given the amount of information that Trump was given about his loss of the election, it is hard to imagine that a “rational or sane man” could conclude that it was otherwise.

Two points to keep in mind:

He was/is not an impressionable child. Chronologically…
He was, in the weeks leading up to January 6 and for a few weeks following, the president of the United States, the man with the authority to launch nuclear missiles and there was, Cheney suggested, a question of his sanity.

Let’s not overthink any of this: The man knew what he was doing and the man knew that he had lost. And the man showed a contemptuous disregard for the Constitution of the United States and what it stands for.

Make America Great Again?

He and his enablers should be ashamed of themselves.

“You guys are a bunch of pussies.”—America’s Former Mayor and now disgraced buffoon Rudy Giuliani talking to the White House legal team on December 18.

Giuliani said in testimony that he thought they weren’t being tough enough.

What does that mean?

Well, perhaps being tough enough referred to the draft memo that proposed the Department of Defense seize voting machines. That Sidney Powell become special counsel that would provide her with the means to prosecute. . .who?

December 18 gave way to December 19, the day that Trump put out the Tweet that concludes “Be there, will be wild!”

What is somewhat more troubling are the preceding words, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6^th.”

Consider that for a moment. The President of the United States was calling for a protest in Washington, D.C.

What is it that they were to be protesting against?

Law and order? Congress doing its job? The vice president doing his job?

What?

The man is not a child. The man, assuming that he was telling the truth when he boasted that he passed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (“I got a perfect mark. And the doctors were — they said: Very few people can do that. Very few people get that,” which is certainly a dubious claim given that the test is given for screening for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and more people don’t have those dread conditions than do, so obviously more than “Very few people get that”), knew what it was all about: Trying to keep his job, a job that the American people said that he no longer was meant to keep.

Alex Jones. Oath Keepers. A string of other extremist social media personalities. They were all-in for Trump. (And let’s not be naïve: These people will still be all-in regardless of whatever is exposed by the committee: Trump could probably confess to understanding what he did and they’d claim that it was either a Deep Fake or a clever coded message to stand back and stand by.)

There was the violence we all witnessed.

And there was his video: “We love you. You’re very special.”

Let’s say for the sake of argument that there is no legal liability that Trump faces.

(Although one thinks about sedition, which is defined in 18 U.S.C § 2384 as “If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.,” it is hard to think about what they were plotting in the White House on December 18 if not that.)

When will those who swear an oath to defend the Constitution, when will those who want a strong and safe America, when will those who uphold decorum and decency, when will those who believe in reality and truth simply say, “Enough”?

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Help Us Fill This Space

The 1/6 panel hearings, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and the White House’s reaction to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, whether late or on time or disrespect to the Supreme Court are just a couple of the issues in need of your attention and comment. Whether you’re progressive, moderate-left, never-Trump conservative or MAGA-Republican, your civil, fact-based opinions are welcome for posting in the left or right columns here.

Simply go to the Comments section at the bottom of any these three columns to enter your comments, or email us at editors@thehustings.news and let us know which side you lean to.

Watch this space this week for coverage, analysis and commentary on the 1/6 panel hearings.

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…meanwhile…

(TUE 7/12/22)

To indict, or to let him go … Should the Justice Department prepare charges against former President Donald J. Trump in connection to the January 6 Capitol insurrection? Seditious conspiracy? Obstruction of justice?

Or should he be let off the hook?

Hold on; It’s not that easy a question for progressives or for never-Trump conservatives, who lately have been expressing fear Trump will become (more of) a martyr among his minions if he is prosecuted. Never-Trump pundits worry such potential prosecution will help, not hurt, his almost inevitable 2024 run.

Your opinion?: Does the Justice Department have the evidence to go after Trump, or is the potential for (more) martyrdom not worth it?

Hit the Comments button on any of these columns or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

New time: The 1/6 committee reset its schedule for Tuesday’s hearing, moving it back three hours to 1 p.m. Eastern time.

Bannon not in the clear: Despite his about-face on agreeing to testifying before the 1/6 panel, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has not been let off the hook for his court appearance on contempt of Congress charges from his earlier refusal. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols has ordered Bannon to appear in court next week and has also banned him from asserting several defenses or from calling House members, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the stand, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Graham too: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been ordered to testify before a special grand jury investigating Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, Reuters reports. Graham is scheduled to testify August 2.

--Todd Lassa

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The Week that Will Be

(MON 7/11/22)

Next hearing … of the United States Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol is Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern. A second, and potentially final, public hearing may be scheduled for prime time this Thursday, according to NPR. Watch this space for more coverage during the week.

Last Friday, the committee heard behind closed doors from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who “corroborated key elements” of last Tuesday’s testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (per Newsweek). Committee member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told CNN’s State of the Union that clips of Cipollone’s testimony will be played during this week’s public hearings.

Cipollone invoked executive privilege to some of the panel’s questions, according to CNN, but 1/6 panel spokesman Tim Mulvey issued a statement saying there were no agreements during the interview to limit questioning because of executive privilege.

Speaking of which, Lofgren also told CNN that Steve Bannon, the former White House aide and consultant to Donald J. Trump, has executed an “about face,” reversing his claim of executive privilege (to which he was not entitled), and will now comply with a 1/6 committee subpoena.

Not coincidentally, this comes a couple of weeks after Trump reignited his attacks on Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for failing to get some of his House allies on the panel. Should be quite the interrogation.

This week in the Middle East: President Biden begins with a visit to Israel Wednesday, to advance the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. It is perhaps the only policy from the previous administration, negotiated just a couple of months before the November 2020 presidential election, that the Biden administration embraces.

Biden continues on from Israel to Saudi Arabia, where he had initially planned to confront Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the gruesome killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, but now will concentrate instead on increased oil production in order to help lower gas and diesel prices at the pump.

While we were on recess: As Congress enjoyed the week of Independence Day away from Capitol Hill, the latest economic indicators last Friday gave the embattled White House its own sort of break. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 372,000 jobs added to the economy in June, a huge number especially compared with economists’ expectations, as the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6%.

Vacationers on the road found gas prices easing up a bit. As of Sunday, the national average price for regular unleaded gasoline was $4.684 per gallon, a decline of 30.2-cents versus a month ago, AAA says.

EO reaction to Dobbs: Meanwhile, Biden took the first step toward countering the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe v. Wade, though progressive critics say it’s too little, too late, particularly considering that a draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s 13^th Century-inspired opinion was leaked to Politico last May.

The president’s executive order signed last Friday orders the Department of Health and Human Services to expand access to medication abortions and directs the attorney general’s office to help provide legal assistance to those who seek lawful reproductive health services (per The Hill). States cannot ban mifepristone, a drug used to aid abortion, as it its FDA-approved. Under the EO, women suffering medical emergencies such as miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies cannot be denied care. HHS also will expand access to emergency contraception and intrauterine devices (IUDs) and the AG’s office will organize pro bono attorneys to help provide legal representation for patients, providers and third parties.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

All Fact-Based Points Welcome

Most of our commentary in this column on the 1/6 Committee hearings has come from the never-Trump side of conservatism, so far. But your comments, whether never-Trump or pro-MAGA are welcome here, so long as you’re civil, respectful and rely on facts. (Unlike Facebook, Twitter and numerous other social media sites, we do moderate comments and edit for clarity and style, though without any alteration to the point you’re making.)

Join the conversation and become a citizen pundit by entering your comments on the appropriate section at the bottom of any of the three columns, or simply email us at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “left” or “right.”

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Breaking Left

We break from our summer recess break with news of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation as leader of his Conservative party. Our coverage and analysis of, and commentary on the House Select Committee’s investigation of the January 6 Capitol insurrection continues next week.

The 1/6 panel this Friday, July 8, questions former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and returns to television 10 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, July 12, with its next public hearing.

Express your opinions civilly in the Comments box in any of these columns, or email editors@thehustings.news. Please tell us whether your comments should be in the left or right column.

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Former Japanese PM Assasinated

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after he was shot twice from the back while giving a campaign speech for another candidate in the city of Nara in western Japan, NPR reports. A 41-year-old male suspect is in custody. Abe, 67, was shot about noon Friday local time at a campaign rally for another candidate in the city of Nara in western Japan. Eyewitnesses told Japanese television NHK network that Abe was shot twice from behind while giving a speech for the candidate and that the alleged gunman did not run or resist arrest.

Abe was Japan's longest-serving prime minister, in office from 2006-07 and again from 2012 to 2020.

Japan's elections are Sunday.

(FRI 7/8/22)

•••

(THU 7/7/22)

Boris Johnson Pulls a Trump...

Boris Johnson has resigned as leader of his Conservative party but will stay on as Britain’s prime minister until a successor can be chosen. The Guardian lists eight party members by name and “many others” likely to stand to become prime minister.

“It’s clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative party,” Johnson said in his announcement Thursday. "Them's the breaks."

More than 50 ministers and government aides have resigned in recent days in a rolling walkout, including the health secretary, Sajid Javid, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak.

Senior Conservative ministers of parliament pushed back on Johnson’s plan to remain until replaced, suggesting an interim leader such as Dominic Raab. Johnson replaced Theresa May as leader in 2019, and that December his party gained an 80-seat majority, giving him the mandate to manage “Brexit” from the European Union.

The UK parliament’s new chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, had urged Johnson to quit as anger grew over Johnson’s protection of Conservative whip Chris Pincher, accused of sexual assault, and other scandals, including numerous parties attended by leadership during pandemic lockdowns.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in front of 10 Downing Street, Johnson said he was “sad to be giving up the best job in the world,” and called the resulting change in Conservative leadership “eccentric” at this time, per The Guardian. “I regret not to have been successful in those arguments.”

Note: A “growing number” of Tory MPs are saying Johnson must leave immediately, the BBC reports. Now. And former prime minister and fellow Tory John Major has written to the chairman of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee to warn it is “unwise” for Johnson to remain in office while his successor is being chosen. Unlike Donald J. Trump and his many fellow Republicans who supported his Big Lie after losing re-election, Boris Johnson’s own party overwhelmingly will see to it that he cannot try to retain his leadership in Great Britain.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Right Away

Should former President Donald J. Trump be charged for complicity in the January 6 attack on the Capitol? Whether you’re pro-MAGA, never-Trumper right or a moderate or progressive left we want to hear from you.

Express your opinions civilly in the Comments box in any of these columns, or email editors@thehustings.news. Please tell us whether your comments should be in the left or right column.

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has scheduled 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 12, for its next televised hearing, and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone will testify to the committee Friday, July 8. Check back for our coverage, analysis and commentary next week.

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Recess

Along with Congress, The Hustings is taking Independence Day recess through July 10, though with occasional updates in our center column. We also welcome your comments on the latest political news. Please use the comments box (subject to moderation) on any of these columns or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

Up for discussion …

•Our extensive coverage and commentary on hearings by The U.S. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ aid Cassidy Hutchinson’s explosive testimony on June 28.

•SCOTUS’ ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade.

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…meanwhile…

(Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

UPDATES …

Next hearing announced … The U.S. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol has scheduled its next hearing for 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, July 12. …

Meanwhile, in Fulton County: Judge Robert McBurney has granted a petition by District Attorney Fanni Willis to subpoena Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), close political ally of Donald J. Trump, personal attorney to the ex-president Rudy Giuliani, Trump campaign staff John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, and attorney and podcast host Jacki Pick Deacon for advising “the Trump campaign on strategies” for overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia and other swing states, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The subpoenas direct the witnesses to appear before a special grand jury also on Tuesday, July 12.

Shooter charged … The young white male suspected of shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois with a high-powered rifle has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder with “much more to come” according to Lake County District Attorney Eric Rinehart.

Noted: A quick peak of as much as we could stomach of the Ingraham Angle Tuesday evening laid out the Fox News’ point of view on the Highland Park shooting. Democrats and the Biden White House are using the tragedy, Laura Ingraham said, to scare us from going to any more patriotic events, because liberals apparently do not like patriotic events and want them to cease. Really.

--Todd Lassa

(WED 7/6/22)

•••

Another turn of the coup? … The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in its next term by North Carolina Republicans over a state congressional map that could affect lawmakers’ ability to pick electors in the 2024 presidential election. The North Carolina Supreme Court’s seven justices were split on whether the gerrymandered map by the Republican-majority state legislature were “unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to The Chronicle of Duke University. If the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule in the Republican lawmakers’ favor in Harper v. Hall it could potentially remove state courts’ limits on gerrymandering and the allow state legislatures authority to choose its own slate of electors regardless of the popular vote, says reporter Hansi Lo Wang on NPR’s Morning Edition.

SCOTUS will hear the case in the next term, beginning in October. According to the NPR report, Justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch are interested in a legal theory that the Constitution gives legislatures such authority over the Electoral College.

Note: This could be “Originalism” taken to its extreme, and just in time for Donald J. Trump’s attempted return to the White House.

•••

SCOTUS’ term end in review … Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the 104^th associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday (pictured), just after the court handed down its ruling on Biden v. Texas (per SCOTUSblog). In that 5-4 ruling, SCOTUS affirmed the Biden White House’s authority to revoke a Trump-era policy that required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting a U.S. immigration court hearing.

Reeling in federal agencies: The Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions without authority from Congress, SCOTUS ruled. The court’s 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA applies to all federal agencies and will ease regulations for a wide variety of consumer and environmental protections.

•••

From the NATO Summit … Turkey has finally agreed to let Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, thus expading the western military alliance to Russia’s doorstep. President Biden returned from the summit in Madrid with a promise for another $800 million in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, plus plans for expansion of American forces in Europe, including two Navy destroyers in Rota, Spain and a new permanent headquarter for the U.S. Army in Poland.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Summer Break

Happy Fourth of July break. The Hustings joins Congress in celebrating Independence Day with some time off through July 10, though with occasional updates through the week. Meanwhile, please take some time to enter your comments on the latest news, including …

•SCOTUS’ ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade.

Whether you are right- or left-leaning, pro-MAGA or never-Trumper, we seek your civilly expressed comments. Go to one of the comments boxes in these columns (subject to moderation) or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

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The Beast Within the Beast

By Ken Zino

Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, was an entirely credible first-hand witness Tuesday about the chaos enveloping the White House staff during the final days leading up to the January 6 insurrection, at the twilight of the failed Trump dictatorship. She had firsthand details of what transpired in the office of the White House chief of staff just steps from the Oval Office, as the threats of violence became clear and violence ultimately descended on the Capitol in the attack on American democracy.

Moreover, Hutchinson was key to supporting the growing but clear body of evidence of Trump’s deranged state of mind that not only believed Mike Pence should be hanged, but also that the Capitol should be sacked. Furthermore, Trump knew without question that he was sending an armed and dangerous mob to the Capitol to interrupt an official proceeding. A seditionist mob that he wanted to lead there after his speech, security issues notwithstanding.

Even the circumstances surrounding the speech point to Trump’s enraged state of mind. He didn’t like the size of the crowd on the Ellipse, because many of the armed participants could not pass through the metal detectors, or “mags.” Duh. “I don’t care if they have effing weapons, they are not here to hurt me,” Trump said. And “take the effing mags away. … They can march to the Capitol after this is over.”

The beast inside “The Beast” (slang for the presidential limousine, though for this ride the Secret Service used an armored Chevrolet Suburban) was Trump, who after his January 6 speech at the Elipse, got into that Beast thinking he was going to the Capitol since his inner circle wasn’t brave enough to tell him otherwise. That responsibility instead fell to his Secret Service detail. “I’m the effing president,” Trump raged, “take me to the Capitol.” At that point and the evening before, it was clear to Republican insiders and security people that they were dealing with a dangerous mob.

An out of control, deranged Trump first reached over to grab the steering wheel from the Secret Service detail driving it, then got into a physical altercation with him. The charge here against Trump is indisputable: Assaulting a Secret Service officer. Will the Secret Service testify, or have they already done so?

The threat of violence was real, which was demonstrated during the hours that followed. Trump wasn’t going to the Capitol. Senior Republican staff, Republican Congress members, Fox News insiders as well as Trump family members urged an immediate reaction to call off the Capitol invaders. Trump tweeted that Mike Pence betrayed his supporters instead, then watched the mob from the secure Oval Office.

Hutchinson noted that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone called her that day. “Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” she has him saying. “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we let that happen.”

-30-

C-Col. HED: Hutchinson Testifies to Trump’s Intent

By Todd Lassa

Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows requested pardons from then-President Trump on January 7, 2021. Former White House Counsel Pat Cipolonne tried to warn Meadows to keep Trump from joining his followers to the Capitol January 6 or face legal charges, including obstruction of justice and defrauding the electoral count.

Cassidy Hutchinson’s knowledge of the January 6 “rally” began with a January 2 visit by Giuliani to the White House, the former aide to Chief of Staff Meadows (Trump’s fourth), told the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^thAttack on the United States Capitol Tuesday afternoon.

“Gosh, are you excited for the 6^th?” Hutchinson recalled Giuliani asking. “It’s going to be a great day.”

Great indeed, for fans of political intrigue involving banana republics. When Hutchinson asked Giuliani what he meant, the reply was that Donald J. Trump was going to the Capitol that day, and “he’s going to look very strong.”

When Meadows later told Hutchinson how serious the rally could be, it was the “first moment I remember feeling scared and concerned for what could happen on January 6.”

She advised Meadows to avoid a January 5 planning meeting at the Willard Hotel with Giuliani, John Eastman and others. Meadows later told her he would “dial in” instead.

Hutchinson joined the White House contingent to the Elipse the morning of January 6, standing in the back of President Trump’s tent set up for his speech. Trump supporters had to pass through Secret Service magnetometers (“mags”) to see the speech, and their weapons kept many of them out. There had been reports of members of the rally mob carrying guns, including, as panel Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) noted, a man with a gun in a tree on the east side of Constitution Avenue, and others with AR-15s at 14^th Street and Independence Avenue.

Trump was “very concerned” that photos of the Elipse crowd did not look full “and he thought the mags were at fault, not letting people in with weapons.” (Consistent, at least, considering Trump’s insistence that his 2017 inauguration crowd was “biggest in history.”)

The armed mob weren’t there to hurt Trump, the president said; “let the people in, take the effing mags away.”

After Trump’s speech, he still had planned to take the “Beast” – or rather an armored Chevrolet Suburban daily driver – to the Capitol to join his armed supporters. But his deputy chief of staff for security detail, Tony Ornato, and White House staff resisted because it would not be secure.

“It was becoming clear to us and [the Secret Service] that Capitol security were being overrun and were short of people to secure the Capitol,” Hutchinson said.

What happened next is well-detailed in both the left and right columns. Suffice to say the Secret Service prevailed, though not uninjured, on this one.

Back at the White House, Hutchinson told Meadows at 2:05 p.m. that rioters were getting close to the Capitol, she testified by video. “Do we want to talk to the president?

“He said ‘no, he wants to be alone.’”

The 1/6 panel outlined a series of text messages and calls from the likes of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Fox News commentators Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, who tried to get Trump to call off the riot mid-afternoon, before he wrote a tepid tweet at 4:17 p.m. telling the mob they’re “special” and “loved.”

Hutchinson heard Trump watching chants of “Hang Mike Pence” on television in the White House dining room, where she delivered a text message from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to Meadows. There, she heard Meadows say to Cipolonne; “You heard him, Pat, he thinks the vice president deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”

What, Cheney asked, was Hutchinson’s reaction to this day’s events?

“As a staffer that worked to always represent the president to the best of my ability and to always showcase the good things that he had done for the country, I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, and really, it felt personal. It was really sad.

In her closing remarks Tuesday, Cheney said the 1/6 panel has evidence of witness intimidation by a former colleague or colleagues attempting to influence testimony. She produced two emails, with the sender(s) and recipient(s) redacted. Expect to learn more in Hearing VII next month.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Proof of Trump’s Intent

By Todd Lassa

UPDATE: The 1/6 House Select panel has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone in the wake of Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, below...

“Gosh, are you excited for the 6^th?” Hutchinson recalled Giuliani asking. “It’s going to be a great day.”

When Meadows later told Hutchinson how serious the rally could be, it was the “first moment I remember feeling scared and concerned for what could happen on January 6.”

She advised Meadows to avoid a January 5 planning meeting at the Willard Hotel with Giuliani, John Eastman and others. Meadows later told her he would “dial in” instead.

The armed mob was not there to hurt Trump, the president said; “let the people in, take the effing mags away.”

“It was becoming clear to us and [the Secret Service] that Capitol security were being overrun and were short of people to secure the Capitol,” Hutchinson said.

What happened next is well-detailed in both the left and right columns. Suffice to say the Secret Service prevailed, though not uninjured, on this one.

Back at the White House, Hutchinson told Meadows at 2:05 p.m. that rioters were getting close to the Capitol, she testified by video. “Do we want to talk to the president?

“He said ‘no, he wants to be alone.’”

What, Cheney asked, was Hutchinson’s reaction to this day’s events?

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What Real Americans Think and Do

By Stephen Macaulay

“As an American, I was disgusted.”

Amen, Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifying to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Disgusted.

“She’s one of them. Or was.” — John Karl, ABC News chief Washington correspondent, talking about Ms. Hutchinson in relation to the Republicans who, by and large, have heretofore been resistant to what has been explained and exposed, chapter and verse, about what Donald Trump and his enablers did before, during, and after January 6, 2021.

Disgusted.

“I said, ‘The rioters are getting really close. Have you talked to the president?’” Hutchinson recalled asking her boss, then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

“Meadows said, ‘No. He wants to be alone right now.’”

Mark Meadows. Profile in sniveling servility.

Disgusted.

Hutchinson on hearing a noise in the White House dining room in December 2020 and finding ketchup on the wall, a broken plate on the floor and a valet cleaning up the mess: “The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general’s AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall.”

Then-Attorney General Bill Barr had told the Associated Press that an investigation by the Department of Justice had found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. If there was a “steal” it had been “stopped” before it happened in any measurable way, whether it was by Venezuelans, Italians or who knows who else.

Disgusted.

Trump was being taken back to the White House from the Ellipse in an armored SUV because his intended destination was deemed to be a dangerous place. Hutchinson says, she had been told by another White House aide, security official Tony Ornato, “The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now’ — to which Bobby [Engel, part of the president’s security detail] responded, ‘Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.’ The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, ‘Sir you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’”

And then, Hutchinson testified (remember: she is under oath) that she was told by Ornato that Trump grabbed Engel as though he was going to strangle him.

Disgusted.

“I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and ‘leaker’), and when she requested to go with certain others of the team to Florida after my having served a full term in office, I personally turned her request down. Why did she want to go with us if she felt we were so terrible? I understand that she was very upset and angry that I didn’t want her to go, or be a member of the team. She is bad news!” -- Donald Trump on Truth Social, after Hutchinson’s testimony.

Let’s see: He doesn’t know who she is (other than being “a total phony and ‘leaker’”) yet he “personally turned her request down.” Seems somewhat at odds, but how is that any different than anything else Trump has said?

Disgusted.

During Hutchinson’s testimony, video was shown of portions of the testimony of Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor of the United States, being questioned by Liz Cheney. He repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, as is his right.

Cheney: "General Flynn, do you believe the violence on January 6 was justified?"

Flynn: "I said, I said the Fifth."

Flynn, a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Army resistant to talking about the transfer of power that he had sworn an oath to uphold.

Hutchinson, 26, or seven years fewer than Flynn had served in the military, was out there, defending democracy against those who would have twisted it to their own ends.

Disgusting.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news