Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats issued a report on Thursday detailing former President Trump’s efforts to use the Justice Department as a weapon in his bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Continue reading “Senate Drops Report On Trump’s Use Of DOJ To Stay In Power”Charge’em
That’s what TPM Reader PJ says …
Continue reading “Charge’em”Maybe this is out there, but I think Trump should be charged for election fraud ASAP. Let’s start with the topline: by any reasonable standard you already have enough evidence to charge him, and probably convict him: one needs say little about the Senate report that was not already partially in plain sight with Trump’s own talk about the election, its corruption, etc. But the report’s release today underscores that you’ve got plenty of evidence against Trump and also evidence to indict many of his toadies that might rat on him.
Biggs Clings To Big Lie During Cyber Ninjas Hearing: ‘We Don’t Know’ Who Won Arizona
Trump diehard Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) clutched onto ex-President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election on Thursday during an Oversight Committee hearing on Cyber Ninjas’ shambolic “audit” of the election results in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Continue reading “Biggs Clings To Big Lie During Cyber Ninjas Hearing: ‘We Don’t Know’ Who Won Arizona”Reconciliation Is Risen
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate recap the abrupt resurrection of the reconciliation package last week, and look ahead to the debt ceiling standoff.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Whoa Nelly
The deepest corruption surrounding the Big Lie was Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department. Big new report from the Senate Judiciary Committee just out this morning on exactly that aspect of the conspiracy.
READ: Senate Report On Trump’s Attempts To Weaponize DOJ To Overturn 2020 Election
Some Key Takeaways:
- The report zeroes in on the Jan. 3 Oval Office meeting with DOJ bigwigs.
- Jeff Clark spearheaded the campaign to have the DOJ declare the election corrupt.
- DOJ leadership threatened to resign en masse if Trump installed Clark as acting attorney general.
- White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin threatened to resign as well.
- The panel confirmed that Trump wanted to fire U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia BJay Pak because he believed the prosecutor was a “never-Trumper,” sparking Pak’s forced resignation.
- Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) played a key role in pressing a DOJ official to participate in the Big Lie.
The Senate Judiciary Committee released a sweeping, 400-page report on Thursday delving into former President Trump’s attempts to wield the Justice Department to subvert the 2020 election.
Continue reading “READ: Senate Report On Trump’s Attempts To Weaponize DOJ To Overturn 2020 Election”Guy Running Wisconsin’s Fake Election ‘Audit’ Admits He Doesn’t Know How Elections Work
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Kudos For The Honesty?
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who baselessly claimed the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump and who’s been appointed to lead the Wisconsin GOP’s Arizona-inspired review of the election results, is remarkably candid about his credentials.
- Election laws are “not intuitive,” and “no one can call elections laws common sense,” Gableman claimed in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interview this week. “Once you understand them, it may be common sense but it’s not intuitive.”
- Here’s the kicker: “And so most people, myself included, do not have a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work.”
- Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) has given Gableman $676,000 in taxpayer funds to run the so-called audit.
- Oh and Gableman went to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s ridiculous “Cyber Symposium” last month.
Kicking The Debt Ceiling Can Down The Road
Senate leaders worked late into the night on the new tentative deal to extend the debt ceiling until December.
- The final details are still being hammered out amid vigorous debate over whether this was a McConnell cave or merely setting Democrats up for more headaches down the road.
- A vote on the tentative deal is expected this week, but the exact timing remains uncertain.
Texas Abortion Ban Is Temporarily Blocked By A Judge
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman on Wednesday put out an order that bars state court judges, court clerks and any other state officer from enforcing Texas’ six-week abortion ban that allows a private citizen to sue anyone they believe helped provide an abortion and collect $10,000 from the defendant if the citizen wins the suit.
- Under Pitman’s order, the officers are prohibited from “accepting or docketing, maintaining, hearing, resolving, awarding damages in, enforcing judgments in, enforcing any administrative penalties in, and administering any lawsuit” under the law.
- “From the moment” the ban went into effect, “women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” the judge wrote in his decision.
- Pitman’s order isn’t the final word in the fight over the law. Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life signaled that the case will be brought before “a higher court.”
UPDATED: Important New Details On Critical Jan. 3 White House Meeting
Last night, the New York Times obtained a copy of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s interim report on the final stages of Trump’s desperate attempt to weaponize the Justice Department to cling to the presidency several days before the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. This morning the report was released publicly.
- White House counsel Pat Cipollone joined top DOJ officials’ threat to resign en masse in Trump’s infamous meeting with them on Jan. 3, during which the then-President laid out a plan to install loyalist Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general, according to the Times’ report on the committee’s findings.
- The interim report contains other new details on Trump’s crusade to overturn the election, per the Times, including more information on Clark and Rep. Scott Perry’s (R-PA) roles in the scheme.
- The report also firms up the sequence of events leading to the abrupt resignation of then-U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak in Atlanta, as first reported by TPM.
Sanders Refused To Condemn Protests Against Sinema Unless …
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) office told Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) staff that the Vermont senator wouldn’t sign Democrats’ joint condemnation of the protests against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) unless it included the language, “While we hope Senator Sinema will change her position on prescription drug reform and support a major [budget] reconciliation bill …”
- Read copies of the exchange between the senators’ staff obtained by Axios reporter Alayna Treene:
Congress Scrutinizes Cyber Ninjas/Ninja Turtles
The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing this morning on Cyber Ninjas’ disastrous audit of Arizona’s 2020 votes that was commissioned by state Republicans (and which ultimately failed to prove Trump won Arizona).
- Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas who repeatedly peddled pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the election on Twitter, was invited to the hearing. It doesn’t seem like he’ll be coming, though.
- Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) gave a shout-out to the “ninja turtles” yesterday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing:
Lewandowski Demanded Money In Exchange For His Banishment
Before he was jettisoned by Trumpworld over allegations of sexually harassing a Trump donor, Corey Lewandowski, who led the pro-Trump Make America Great Again Action superPAC, demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars for his resignation, according to the Daily Beast.
- Trump’s response was essentially “LOL no,” the Daily Beast reports.
Texas GOPers Screech About The Border Amid A School Shooting
“This is one of, if not the most, urgent matter[s] that we’re facing in the United States at this time,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) declared yesterday after at least four people were injured in a high school shooting in Arlington.
- Oh, you didn’t think he was talking about the shooting, did you? Nah, Abbott was bloviating about Biden’s immigration policies during a PR stunt at the border.
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) managed to spare a few words about the shooting before promptly getting back to business:
- But maybe Cruz, who may or may not be the Zodiac Killer, could’ve been too distracted by a team of private investigators’ unconfirmed claim to have discovered the identity of the killer yesterday to do a better job of reacting to the school shooting, a development that didn’t go unnoticed by the internet:
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Dems Declare Victory On Debt Ceiling With Short-Term Extension
Senate Democrats will accept a short-term increase in the debt limit that would raise the ceiling high enough to stave off default until December, a kick-the-can quick fix floated by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday afternoon. Democrats will reportedly not accept an increase in the debt ceiling through budget reconciliation.
The situation sets up a new debt-ceiling showdown for later in 2021.
Follow our live coverage below:
Abject Fold
Where Things Stand: Grassley Congratulates Korean-American Nominee On ‘Work Ethic’ Of ‘Your People’
If confirmed, Lucy Koh, one of President Biden’s judicial nominees, would become the first Korean American to serve as a U.S. appeals court judge.
During the start of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, ranking Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — an 88-year-old who just announced he’s running for another six-year term — made a remark that could only be interpreted as wildly inappropriate, at best, and pretty racist, at worst.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Grassley Congratulates Korean-American Nominee On ‘Work Ethic’ Of ‘Your People’”