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January 6th House Committee Has ‘Firsthand’ Knowledge Of What Trump Was Doing During Capitol Riot 

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The House select committee investigating the January 6th Capitol Hill insurrection has information from multiple sources regarding what former president Donald Trump was doing at the time of the riot. 

A source close to the investigation recently spoke to the media and revealed that there are “a collection of people with relevant information” when it comes to what Trump was doing throughout the insurrection. 

Keith Kellogg, former vice president Mike Pence’s national security adviser, who was also with Trump throughout the riot, was one of the individuals who gave a deposition. Kellogg refused to comment to the media regarding what he testified, as he was sworn under oath. 

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The committee also has text messages and other documents that reveal what Trump was doing during the insurrection. Some of the messages discussed came from Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who the House voted to refer to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress after he failed to appear for a deposition. 

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney discussed how the information they gathered works to prove that Trump did nothing to stop the violence during the riot, which they view as a “dereliction of duty.” 

“We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been told to do something. We want to verify all of it so that when we produce our report and when we have the hearings, the public will have an opportunity to see for themselves. The only thing I can say, it’s highly unusual for anyone in charge of anything to watch what’s going on and do nothing.”

Cheney discussed how the panel has “firsthand knowledge” that Trump’s daughter, and then senior adviser, Ivanka Trump asked her father to intervene during the riot. 

“We know his daughter — we have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to ‘please stop this violence,” Cheney said. 

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“Any man who would not do so, any man who would provoke a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,” Cheney added.

The House select committee also revealed text messages from Donald Trump Jr. to Meadows that were sent during the riot, in which Trump Jr. stated that his father needed to “condemn” the insurrection as it was occurring. 

“‘He’s got to condemn this sh*t ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,'” Trump Jr. wrote in one message to Meadows.

“He could have simply walked a few feet to the White House briefing room. He could have gone immediately on live television and asked his supporters to stop what was happening, asked them to go home. He failed to do that, at the same time the violent assault was happening, he is watching television, and he is also calling one senator urging delay of the electoral vote,” Cheney exclaimed.

Committee members are ideally going to present more of their work and findings to the public as the year progresses and the investigation continues. Public hearings that will outline the story of what really happened on January 6th have yet to be scheduled, but will be occurring later this year.

January 6th Committee Reveals New Text Messages From Former Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows

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The House select committee investigating the January 6th attack against the US Capitol recently released new text messages that were obtained from former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The text messages were sent to him in the days leading up to the insurrection as well as while the Capitol was under attack. 

Committee members read the messages on the House floor this Tuesday during the debate over whether a criminal contempt of Congress against Meadows should be given to the Justice Department or not. 

One of the messages included in the readings was from a Georgia government official to Meadows while former president Donald Trump was on the phone with Georgia’s secretary of state, during which Trump was urging him to “find” votes for Trump. Other discussions relating to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were also included. 

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Representative Zoe Lofgren read a text message from an unnamed Georgia government official to Meadows that was sent during the same phone call. The message read: “Need to end this call, I don’t think this will be productive for much longer,” referring to the call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state.

Representative Adam Schiff read a text message from an unknown number that applauded the potential appointment of Jeffrey Clark to be acting attorney general while Trump was attempting to get the Justice Department to support his false claims of election fraud. 

“I heard Jeff Clark is getting put in on Monday. That’s amazing. It will make a lot of patriots happy, and I’m personally so proud that you are at the tip of the spear, and I could call you a friend,” the text to Meadows read.

“Mr. Meadows received numerous text messages, which he has produced without any privilege claim, imploring that Mr. Trump take specific action we all know his duty required. Indeed, some of those text messages, madam speaker, came from members in the chamber right now,” said Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of two Republicans on the select committee. 

The select committee approved its resolution holding Meadows in contempt on Monday. The panel also revealed that Meadows had voluntarily provided text messages that he received on January 6th, including those from Fox News personalities, lawmakers, and Donald Trump Jr. 

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While some republicans spoke out against the committee for pursuing contempt charges against Meadows, they responded by stating that Meadows was flouting the law by refusing to show up for testimony about material he has already turned over to them. 

The text messages used throughout the hearing emphasized the argument that there were plenty of topics that the committee could ask Meadows that would not be covered by executive privilege. 

One of these text messages from Meadows to an unspecified member of Congress inquired about whether or not former vice president Mike Pence could overturn Electoral College results; this text was sent three days before the insurrection. 

In another text message from November 4, 2020, the day after the election, a member suggested to Meadows an “aggressive strategy for Republican-led state legislatures to just send their own electors to Congress and let the Supreme Court decide who won the election.”

Another text message from a member to Meadows underscored how the “committee has not received everything from the former White House chief of staff. Please check your signal,” the January 5 message said.

The committee will be making a decision within a week when to release the names of all the individuals involved in the text messages with the former chief of staff.

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New Court Filings Regarding Capitol Riot Reveal What Trump Is Trying To Hide From Congress 

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The National Archives outlined, in a sworn declaration, more than 700 pages of handwritten notes, draft documents, and daily logs of former president Donald Trump’s top advisers in relation to the January 6th Capitol riot. The late-night court filings are reported to reveal all of the specifics of what Trump wanted to keep secret in terms of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

The US House told federal courts that Trump has no right to keep more than 700 pages of documents confidential. The court filings are in response to a lawsuit from Trump where he is attempting to block congressional investigators from accessing hundreds of pages of records they requested from the National Archives. The House also presented itself in agreement with the Biden administration. 

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The records Trump is attempting to conceal include handwritten memos from his chief of staff about January 6th, call logs between Trump and former vice president Mike Pence, and White House visitor records. The House Committee wrote a statement regarding the lawsuit and concealed documents. 

“In 2021, for the first time since the Civil War, the Nation did not experience a peaceful transfer of power. The Select Committee has reasonably concluded that it needs the documents of the then-President who helped foment the breakdown in the rule of law. … It is difficult to imagine a more critical subject for Congressional investigation.”

The records also include working papers from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, press secretary and White House lawyer who had notes and memos about how Trump was attempting to undermine the election. In Meadows document, there are two handwritten notes about the Capitol riot and two pages listing briefings and telephone calls about the Electoral College certification, according to the archivist with the National Archives. 

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Laster’s documents reveal what was occurring within the West Wing during the initial moments of the January 6th riot. Trump is also looking to conceal 30 pages of his daily schedule. “The call logs, schedules and switchboard checklists document calls to the President and Vice President, all specifically for or encompassing January 6, 2021,” Laster said.

So far, the Biden Administration has declined to keep information about “the Trump White House leading up to January 6th private. The extraordinary Trump-led attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the ongoing bipartisan House investigation, and the Archives have sided with President Joe Biden’s directions.”

The Archives announced they have plans to release Trump’s records to the House beginning November 12th. A bipartisan group of 66 former Congress members, including some republicans, told a federal court that they support the US in their pursuit of these documents and this case. 

The former members said they need Congress to understand “the January 6 attack shouldn’t be undermined by Trump. Chutkan should reject his request for a court order that would stop the Archives from turning over documents. An armed attack on the United States Capitol that disrupted the peaceful transfer of presidential power — and not the document requests necessary to investigate it — is the only grave threat to the Constitution before the Court,” the former members write.

Mother And Son Arrested For Theft of Laptop During Capitol Riots

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The FBI has arrested Watertown, New York residents Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 55, and her son, Rafael Rondon, 23, for their connections in the theft of a laptop during the Capital attack on Jan. 6.

A press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York stated that the pair appeared in federal court Friday in Syracuse, New York, and were released pending further proceedings.

In addition to theft of government property, the pair also face other charges in regards to the Capitol riot. These include entering and remaining in a restricted Capitol building or certain rooms, disorderly conduct, and obstruction of an official proceeding.

Only the obstruction of an official proceeding is classified as a felony, with the others being misdemeanors.

The younger Rondon also faces charges for an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, of which a maximum sentence carries up to 10 years of prison time and a fine of $250,000.

According to the Associated Press, while the pair weren’t the ones to have physically stolen the laptop, Mooney-Rondon had assisted in the theft by providing her gloves or a scarf to the perpetrator of the laptop, so as to not leave any fingerprints.

“He asked, he said, give me – I don’t know if it was gloves or a scarf I was wearing – and like I said he scared me,” the documents quotes her [Mooney-Rodon] as saying.

Rodon then claimed to FBI agents that he assisted the man in sliding the laptop into his backpack with the gloves or scarf, which the young man said was “probably stupid” of him. The two then went into the Senate gallery, and proceeded to leave after seeing it was flooded with protesters.

The man that Mooney-Rodon and Rodon assisted has not yet been identified.

Numerous media outlets had reported that the laptop belonged to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. While the laptop was taken from Pelosi’s conference room, these reports were false as it was later clarified that the laptop did not belong to Pelosi. The only purpose of the staff-owned laptop was for presentations.

Pelosi’s actual laptop was claimed to be stolen by 22-year-old Harrisburg, Pennsylvania resident Riley Williams. Williams was arrested two weeks following the riot after boasting of stealing the laptop on social media and reportedly planning on selling it to Russian security services.

However, Pelosi’s laptop was not found in Williams’ possession, and it is currently unknown if it was ever recovered by the FBI.

The FBI’s search for Mooney-Rodon and her son created quite a stir for a number of parties involved. As the Associated Press notes, the FBI had raided the business of Paul and Marilyn Hueper in Homer, Alaska back in April, believing they were the ones who had assisted in the laptop theft.

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The Huepers had been in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 for the Trump rally that preceded the attack, but did not partake in the breaching of the Capitol. The raid was a case of mistaken identity as the women involved had similar features in photos during that time, such as coats and hairstyles.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Hueper said that while it’s a relief this ordeal is over, she’s concerned about the power the FBI holds that lets them disturb innocent people due to their “poor investigative skills and aggressive tactics,” while also not showing concern for the messy trail they leave behind.

In the 10 months since the capitol riot that was labeled by FBI Director Christopher Wray as “domestic terrorism,” over 668 people have been arrested on countless charges similar to the ones the Mooney-Rodon family is facing.

However, despite the takeover being extremely documented, many violators still have yet to be identified by law enforcement.

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Stephen Colbert Calls Out Trump After His First Rally Since Capitol Riot 

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Former president Donald Trump recently held a rally over the weekend in Wellington, Ohio; this marks the first rally Trump has held since the January 6th Capitol riots. Late night host Stephen Colbert recently called out the former president for this, asking the audience who was allowing him to speak in front of people still. 

“Why is he allowed to have rallies after that? After the assassination, John Wilkes Booth wasn’t welcomed to Broadway for a sold-out performance of I Shot Lincoln: The Musical!”

Colbert discussed how the “ex-president appeared to have nothing new to say in his 90-minute speech, as he stumbled through familiar refrains and untruths like he was reading a speech from last summer.” 

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Trump also reemphasized his point that he believes “hydroxychloroquine really works,” in terms of curing Covid-19; a theory that was widely disproven last year. 

“No one cares about that now! We have a vaccine! I can’t imagine anything more tired than the Covid drug from 12 months ago.”

Trump was also called out on social media for badly mispronouncing words and phrases, and essentially speaking complete nonsense. At one point he was attempting to reference Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, by discussing how the “US sent a brave young man from Ohio to a plant.”

“Really? To a plant? Yes, he was a brave young man from Ohio named Jack, and the nation sent him to climb that beanstalk, where he skyrocketed to Feefifofum,” Colbert responded. 

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“He’s trying to talk about Neil Armstrong, but he said plant when he meant planet, which is not where Neil Armstrong went. That’s like trying to describe George Washington by saying, ‘You know who I mean! The guy on the money with the teeth made out of the cherry tree, with the painting of him crossing the Deli-meats, you know!”

Colbert also discussed all the individuals in Trump’s inner circle that are now distancing themselves from any association with the former president and his four year reign in the White House, including daughter Ivanka Trump and former attorney general William Barr. Barr recently discussed how all of Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud were “all bullsh*t.” 

Barr recently claimed that Mitch McConnell also urged him to speak out against Trump and the claims of voter fraud in the immediate aftermath of the election. Meanwhile the senate minority leader remained completely quiet on the issue himself. 

 “McConnell would’ve spoken the truth himself last December, but he needed the former president’s help to ensure that the GOP won the two runoff elections in Georgia, which they lost. In the end, Mitch McConnell sold his soul for nothing. So, a pretty fair price,”  Colbert explained.

White House Officially Labels January 6th Capitol Riot As ‘Domestic Terrorist Attack’

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The White House released an official report this week that labelled the January 6th Capitol riot as a “domestic terrorist attack” in a document that went on to endorse the removal of all “extremist content” from the internet. 

The Biden Administration released the report this Monday, which also called for improved cooperation between the federal government and private internet companies. The report also instructs the US Justice Department to review whether or not a new anti-domestic terrorism law needs to be requested or now. 

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“Domestic terrorist attacks in the United States also have been committed frequently by those opposing our government institutions. In 1995, in the largest single act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, an anti–government violent extremist detonated a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people – including 19 children – and injuring hundreds of others,” the report says.

“In 2016, an anti-authority violent extremist ambushed, shot, and killed five police officers in Dallas. In 2017, a lone gunman wounded four people at a congressional baseball practice. And just months ago, on January 6, 2021, Americans witnessed an unprecedented attack against a core institution of our democracy: the U.S. Congress.”

Biden initially requested this report be written up during his first week in office; which was just days after the riot that left around 440 individuals facing criminal charges. Four Trump supporters also died due to medical emergencies during the riot and one Capitol Police officer died due to a stroke while he was fighting off the violent crowd. 

The document states that the US supports the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, which works to block content available online, and was created after the 2019 massacre of 51 individuals at a mosque in New Zealand. 

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“[T]he United States endorses the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online. We applaud language in the Christchurch Call emphasizing the importance of tackling the very real threat posed by online terrorist content while respecting human rights and freedom of expression,” the new document says.

The report also places great emphasis on the fact that private-internet companies need to be held accountable and be more strict when it comes to monitoring content on their platforms. 

“Recruiting and mobilizing individuals to domestic terrorism occurs in many settings, both in-person and online. These activities are increasingly happening on Internet-based communications platforms, including social media, online gaming platforms, file-upload sites, and end-to-end encrypted chat platforms, even as those products and services frequently offer other important benefits,” the White House document says.

“The widespread availability of domestic terrorist recruitment material online is a national security threat whose front lines are overwhelmingly private-sector online platforms, and we are committed to informing more effectively the escalating efforts by those platforms to secure those front lines.”

“[W]e must ask the question of whether legislative reforms could meaningfully and materially increase our ability to protect Americans from acts of domestic terrorism while simultaneously guarding against potential abuse of overreach. New criminal laws, in particular, should be sought only after careful consideration of whether and how they are needed to assist the government in tackling complex, multifaceted challenges like the one posed by domestic terrorism and only while ensuring the protection of civil rights and civil liberties,” the document said.

Congress Questions Tech CEOs Over Role In Capitol Riot

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Sundar Pichai of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Jack Dorsey of Twitter all testified before two committees of the House of Representatives on “social media’s role in promoting extremism and the rampant spreading of misinformation” regarding the pandemic, Covid-19 vaccine, and election process.

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Late-Night Hosts Discuss House Impeachment Proceedings And Trump’s Final Week In Office

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This week late-night commentators and television hosts have spent their evenings discussing Donald Trump’s final week in office.

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Capitol Rioters Wanted To ‘Capture And Assassinate’ Lawmakers, Prosecutors Claim

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Federal law enforcement officers have been working non-stop since last Wednesday to get a greater understanding over what exactly transpired that allowed the riot at the Capitol to get so out of hand, and what was the actual plan for this mob should they have interacted with any US lawmakers or government officials. 

Officials are now claiming that they have found clues and evidence that points to one of the mob’s most distinctive figures, Jacob Anthony Chansley; the shirtless, tattooed man who many online have been referring to as “QAnon Shaman,” who stormed around the Capitol wearing a headdress made of coyote skin and buffalo horns. 

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Federal prosecutors in Phoenix, Arizona submitted a court filing this Thursday that wrote that “strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.” 

The entire filing was 18-pages long, and included a request to the judge to keep Chansley detained before his trial. One of the biggest pieces of evidence working against Chansley right now is the fact that he left a note for Vice President Pence at his desk in the Senate chamber which read: “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

Chansley himself has personally called on President Donald Trump to pardon him for his crimes after his lawyer, Albert Watkins, claimed that Chansley acted in a “peaceful and compliant fashion” towards the law enforcement officials who have been running the investigation, and besides, Chansley only stormed the Capitol after Trump invited him and the rest of the mob to; according to Watkins. 

“He took seriously the countless messages of President Trump. He believed in President Trump. Like tens of millions of other Americans, Chansley felt — for the first time in his life — as though his voice was being heard.”

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Law enforcement officials have warned that it’s likely there were multiple motives among the mob of those who stormed the Capitol, and an FBI investigation is currently in the works to determine whether some intended to do more than just disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. 

One man who was arrested was carrying a pistol and others were wearing tactical gear and were holding zip ties. Another individual was arrested after his truck was spotted near the Capitol building with 11 molotov cocktails inside. 

Trump has so far pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, and Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, before they were both sentenced. Within the past month the most action the president has done in terms of political policy has been a slew of pardons for his allies, friends, family, and fellow republicans. 

Prosecutors have pointed out that Chansley brought a weapon in the Capitol building, a spear, so the charges being presented aren’t to be taken lightly and his request to be pardoned should sound ridiculous to law enforcement. However, Chansley and every other Trump supporter present that day have forced America to have a much larger conversation over if Chansley was a person of color slinging a giant spear around the Capitol building, if the response would’ve been different.

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Twitter Chief Says Banning Trump Was The Right Choice But Sets A ‘Dangerous Precedent’

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Dorsey is speaking out for the first time since Twitter and a multitude of other social media platforms permanently suspended the president’s account following the violent riot that occurred at the Capitol last week.

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