BIG hearing in DC in an hour. Be there, will be wild! #Jan6thHearings
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) July 12, 2022
The Select Committee investigating the January 6 Insurrection held its seventh public meeting on Tuesday, centered on the connections between several violent paramilitary groups and Trump and certain members of his administration.
The threat of violence ran through the entire hearing. Former Trump campaign adviser Brad Parscale, in a text to former campaign adviser Katrina Pierson, described Trump as "a sitting president asking for civl war". Trump actively enlisted the assistance of several paramilitary groups, including the Oath Keepers, whose leader hoped January 6 would spark a "new civil war" and an "armed revolution" across the US. Alex Jones told his followers that Trump's infamous "will be wild" tweet meant "we need volunteers for the firing squad".
Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers, told the Committee:
I think we've gotten exceedingly lucky that more bloodshed did not happen. I do fear for this next election cycle, because who knows what that might bring — if a president that's willing to . . . whip up a civil war among his followers, using lies and deceit and snake oil and regardless of the human impact, what else is he going to do if he gets elected again? . . . I have three daughters. I have a granddaughter, and I fear for the world that they will inherit if we do not start holding the these people to account.
Trump's defenders have offered the feeble defense that he was simply misled by others, like an ignorant leaf blown here and there about by strong winds. The Committee has demolished that claim into fine powder on several occasions. Committee co-Chair Liz Cheney:
The strategy is to blame people his advisers called "the crazies" for what Donald Trump did. This, of course, is nonsense. President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.
On the morning of January 6, Trump defied his own speechwriters, reinserting numerous deleted references to Mike Pence in a purposeful attempt to incite the crowd against his own vice president. In previous hearings, we heard various militia members admit that if they had found Pence, they would have killed him.
The seventh hearing ended with the news that Trump apparently attempted to commit witness tampering in the last two weeks (after the last hearing, on June 28). He personally called one of the Committee's upcoming witnesses, someone he must have believed would remain loyal to him. However, that person did not take Trump's call, but instead informed his or her lawyer, who alerted the Committee, which forwarded the information on to the Department of Justice. (Trump is fundamentally unable to not commit crimes.)
The January 6 Committee revealed a draft tweet from Trump where he was going to explicitly tell them to march to the Capitol to "stop the steal" https://t.co/fjFiKxvbhz
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) July 12, 2022
Once again, Seth Abramson, author of the Proof triology — Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America (2018), Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump's International Collusion Is Threatening American Democracy (2029), and Proof of Corruption: Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump (2020) — live-tweeted the hearing. Here are some highlights from his 183 tweets (bolding mine):“It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies. POTUS is going to just call for it unexpectedly” pic.twitter.com/8MGZDcjmhj
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 12, 2022
6/ This [the subject of today's hearing] is, in fact, the *biggest* piece of the January 6 narrative pie—it dwarfs everything else in size, scope and complexity. I realize that seems hard to believe—as the first 6 HJ6C hearings have been perhaps the most historic and startling congressional hearings in history.
7/ On a personal note, I'll say that the hearings have finally reached the topics PROOF has published 200+ articles on since January 14, 2021. I am extremely humbled by the fact that Congress has cited PROOF, reads PROOF, and has reached out to me about my 18 months of research. . . .
11/ We are now, increasingly, going to be talking about people who (a) had direct contact with Trump and/or his family, (b) who are not in government, and (c) who have already (at a minimum) acknowledged they *may* have committed crimes by pleading the Fifth Amendment repeatedly.
12/ Roger Stone says he did nothing wrong—but refuses to answer questions on the grounds that his answers *to almost any January 6 query* may tend to incriminate him. . . .
13/ Just so, Michael Flynn has repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment. . . .
14/ But the number of people pleading the Fifth Amendment before Congress or fighting their subpoenas is much longer than this. . . .
30/ But one event we *know* will be focused on today is the craziest White House meeting of the Trump administration—and possibly the craziest White House meeting that did not occur during a national civil war. It happened on December 18, 2020, and is almost impossible to fathom
31/ Briefly: within Trump's legal team there's a divide between Rudy Giuliani and his people and Powell and her people. The latter are more radical than Giuliani. They want martial law, seized voting machines, insist the 2020 election was stolen by a 9-nation transnational cabal. . . .
35/ Mark Meadows had banned Team Kraken from the White House; they weren't allowed to see Trump. But after Trump adviser Peter Navarro released a post-election "report" ("The Immaculate Deception") on December 17, his fellows on Team Kraken sprang into action in the weirdest way.
36/ Navarro aide Ziegler let Team Kraken (Powell, Flynn, Byrne) into the White House . . . Through what Byrne has since described—in a video confession PROOF exclusively reported on—as a covert op, they slowly made their way toward the Oval. . . .
38/ Once at the Oval, Team Kraken had Trump's ear for 30 minutes. Then Cipollone and the lawyers came in, and things got *heated*. Team Kraken was advocating for an end to American democracy, and Cipollone was trying to keep the nation together. It was that intense and historic. . . .
40/ . . . (Navarro *openly* said, on Fox News on January 2, that Trump could stay president past January 20 and choose to do so unilaterally.)
41/ The second the Krakeners left—in the wee hours of December 19—Trump sent his tweet signing onto Ali Alexander's planned January 6 event and saying it'd be "wild." . . .
48/ MID-THREAD BREAKING NEWS (CNN): The next House January 6 Committee hearing is expected to come next week—likely in primetime—and will focus on the 187 minutes that Trump was doing nothing on January 6 while the Capitol was under attack (featuring lots of Cipollone testimony). . . .
54/ Cheney says the Committee has seen a change in its prospective witnesses: they now understand that the Committee is making a serious case and that is changing how they deal with Committee. She says Trump supporters now concede basic facts but seek to blame Trump’s *advisers*.
55/ CHENEY: "Trump is a 76 year-old man—not an impressionable child....no rational or sane man in his position could" ignore the information he had that he’d lost the election. . . .
56/ Cheney closes by saying that Trump and his team knew he lost. Trump and his team knew they had no evidence of fraud. But they nevertheless acted like he won and said they had evidence of it because they *knew* Trump supporters did not have the info *they* did to know better. . . .
61/ Raskin says that Trump apparently rejected the options Team Kraken put before him on December 18. He turned instead to a) trying to bring extremists to DC on January 6, and b) building his pressure campaign on Mike Pence. Raskin says the extremists then formed an "alliance." . . .
63/ The implication Raskin is making is that Trump *knew*, from the start, that he and his agents were "deploying" a mob upon the Capitol on January 6. . . .
64/ Murphy is summarizing Trump's failed *legal*—in both senses of that word—efforts to stay in power and how December 14 ended Trump's campaign (Mitch McConnell admitted it at the time—on December 15). . . .
65/ Eugene Scalia (Antonin's son), Trump's Secretary of Labor, saying he *told* Trump he needed to concede the election after December 14 . . .
66/ Cipollone agreed that there was no evidence of systemic fraud in the 2020 election. . . . Cipollone testifies that he believed Trump should have conceded in mid-December 2020. . . .
67/ Bill Barr [said] that December 14 was "the end of the matter" and should have "led inexorably to a new [Biden] administration." Cipollone testifies that Mark Meadows *also* told Trump things were over beginning in late November of 2020. . . .
69/ Judd Deere, former White House press secretary, now says in recorded depo that he told Trump that after December 14 the Electoral College had spoken and "the. means for him to pursue litigation was probably closed." . . .
70/ Barr saying (depo) that Meadows and Kushner said to him they and others were working on getting Trump to accept his loss. . . .
71/ The point of *all* of this is that Trump was *not* just listening to his advisers, as his defenders now say. . . .
72/ Barr says he told Trump theories of the voting machines being hacked were crazy nonsense and that there was no systemic fraud. . . .
73/ Barr says Trump raised with him the idea of seizing voting machines and Barr directly said no . . .
74/ Team Kraken brought a draft executive order to the Oval on December 18 which would have the *Pentagon* seize voting machines—Team Kraken member Kash Patel had already been installed by Trump as a top Pentagon aide to the Secretary of Defense . . .
75/ [Cipollone] says that Team Kraken was never able to provide any evidence to him whatsoever of systemic fraud . . .
77/ RASKIN: "Even Rudy Giuliani's own legal team admitted that they didn't have any evidence of fraud" . . .
80/ Cassidy Hutchinson now saying . . . Meadows *switched* to looking for "constitutional loopholes" to try to keep Trump in power (the ideas pushed by John Eastman).
81/ Holy crap—bombshell. The Committee says the Kraken Conference lasted SIX HOURS, not just three. And there was screaming during it. . . .
83/ POWELL: "He [Trump] was very interested" in the ideas Team Kraken was giving him . . .
85/ Cipollone . . . said he kept asking for evidence of anything Team Kraken was saying and they would provide him with none.
86/ Team Kraken insisted that every judge they had gone before (and lost before) was "corrupt"—including the ones appointed by Trump. . . .
88/ HUTCHINSON (via text to unknown party, during meeting): "The west wing is UNHINGED." . . .
91/ Cipollone admits Powell *believed* she’d been appointed after the meeting [as Special Counsel and given security clearances]. So scary—remember, Powell wanted the power to seize machines, make arrests and effectively end American democracy. Powell is now being disbarred and has admitted many of her 2020 statements were lies.
92/ At the end of the meeting, Trump sent his infamous "be there, will be wild!" tweet. . . .
93/ Video of Alex Jones now, talking about the tweet and everyone coming to DC January 6. Wow! We're getting Ali Alexander mentioned for the first time, Alex Jones mentioned for the first time. . . .
94/ The Committee is proving that Trump lit up the internet with his wee-hour December 19 tweet, and *everyone* understood that Trump wanted them to go to the Capitol building itself on January 6 and some understood that he wanted his people to come to Washington *armed*. . . .
96/ TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER: "If [Trump] were any other Twitter user, he would have been permanently suspended a long time ago....it felt as though a mob was being organized. They were gathering together their weaponry and their logic...behind why they were willing to fight." . . .
98/ Twitter apparently began to feel certain there would be violence in D.C. on January 6 *as soon as* Trump fired off his December 19 tweet. . . .
99/ Now we have countless tweets and internet comments from the post-December 19 period that are so vile and hateful and *horrifically violent* I will not repeat them here. The founder of one website hosting such content, Jody Williams, admits that December 19 changed everything.
100/ These tweets discuss weapons, attack plans, routes of entrance/egress... very specific, *very* violent plans, all suddenly appearing post-December 19. Raskin notes that Trump tweeted about that date (January 6) at least a dozen more times . . .
101/ CNN calls today's testimony "terrifying." . . .
103/ What the CNN legal analyst is saying is just what I would say: we need to know what happened between December 19 and January 6 *in* the White House and *in* Trump’s war rooms. This is where we get to Trump asking Ali Alexander and Alex Jones to lead his march on the Capitol. . . .
105/ I want to be clear: there’s *no way* the Committee can cover more than a *fraction* of these topics today. The point is that there *is* an answer to the question "What did Trump and his team do between December 19 and January 6?" They did a *lot*. It'd take several hearings.
106/ The other problem, as I mentioned earlier, is that most of the key witnesses as to this *critical* sequence of facts have pleaded the Fifth Amendment, are still fighting their subpoenas, or have yet to be spoken to by the Committee (like Byrne, who will be interviewed [Friday]).
107/ I think it is best to take what we are about to hear—from the two witnesses about to testify—as simply an *introduction* to a subject and a period in history that the Committee will need to hold *multiple future hearings on*. . . .
115/ Former DC intel chief in depo now saying that after Trump's December 19 tweet "all red flags were up" because the intel signals showed conspiracy theory groups, militias and white supremacist groups creating a "blended" ideology surrounding January 6, Trump, and the Capitol.
116/ An Oath Keeper capo announced on December 19 that the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters would be forming an alliance to aid Trump. This was clearly a direct result of Trump's tweet. Secret paramilitary planning immediately began. Raskin says they communicated...
117/ ...with ROGER STONE and MICHAEL FLYNN. . . .
118/ Scary video of Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes calling for martial law in December 2020. . . .
119/ It is clear that the Committee is *very* focused on Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, *very* focused on the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. He now reveals that Stone has gone through the first-level initiation to *become* a Proud Boy.
120/ Oath Keeper lawyer Kelly SoRelle is now confirming what PROOF first reported in January *2021*: the top three Stop the Steal organizers were (1) Ali Alexander, (2) Roger Stone, and (3) Alex Jones. This is huge: it means the Committee *will* focus on Jones and the others.
121/ Awesome! Rep. Raskin just said something that speaks *directly* to what I said during the break: he emphasized to America that this is only the *tip of the iceberg* of the evidence the Committee has about this part of the story. He says there is much, *much* more to come.
122/ Key text message between Katrina Pierson—Trump presidential aide—and a Kremer (Women for America First) who'd expressed concern about January 6 violence prompted by Alexander, Stone, and Jones. Pierson admits they were involved between TRUMP WANTED THEM INVOLVED. Bombshell.
123/ This confirms PROOF reporting from 2021 that Trump *personally* insisted on the involvement of Ali Alexander and Alex Jones and that he did so over the concerns of his presidential aides. . . .
125/ Pre-insurrection Kremer-Lindell text *admits* Trump had told grassroots organizers he was going to march to the Capitol—but didn’t reveal it publicly—as PROOF reported. . . . Stunning stuff. Trump brought people into the loop.
126/ This is almost too much info to live-tweet. Rep. Murphy is talking about the December 21 meeting at the Oval to plan January 6. It involved Trump, Meadows, Giuliani, and the insurrectionist House Freedom Caucus (Gohmert, Jordan, Biggs, Hice, Gosar, Perry, MTG, Gaetz et al.). . . .
130/ Rep. Murphy notes that a federal judge has already held it is "more likely than not" Eastman and Trump participated in a criminal conspiracy—one of many reasons a recent NYT article saying that DOJ has not yet moved to openly discussing a criminal probe of Trump is amazing.
131/ Trump spoke to Bannon twice on January 5—Insurrection Eve. And it was after the first call that Bannon announced that "all hell would break loose" on January 6 . . .
132/ Several Trump aides are now testifying via depo about how visibly excited Trump was while hearing the Freedom Plaza/Ellipse crowd on Insurrection Eve. Sarah Matthews said Trump was in a "very good," even "fantastic" mood that night after *not* being in a good mood for weeks.
133/ Matthews said Trump asked staff on Insurrection Eve what he could do to "make the RINOs do the right thing" the next day. It was clear aides wanted him to just give a speech about his policy accomplishments on January 6... but Trump wanted more. More... involving the crowd.
134/ Trump was . . . clearly asking his aides how he could harness the crowd to coerce members of Congress. . . .
137/ The aforementioned TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER said he was certain "people would be shooting at each other" in D.C. the following day because of what Twitter was seeing on its platform. Again, all of this is just the tip of the iceberg . . .
139/ Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)—GOP!—was asking for more security for the Capitol *on Insurrection Eve* because she acknowledged that Trump supporters would be coming *to the Capitol* the next day and when they realized the election would not be overturned they would all go "nuts."
140/ Now we have a summary of how Trump kept editing his January 6 speech to make it more inciting. He did this with input—a 26-minute call—with... Stephen Miller. . . . Trump and Miller conspired to put Pence's name into the speech to inflame the mob.
141/ Now depo testimony from Miller—!—in which he admits that other Trump advisers wanted Trump to avoid mentioning Pence. . . .
142/ Trump single-handedly made his January 6 speech focus on Pence. He was angry—very, very angry— [after] Pence confirmed he was not going to help Trump steal the election. . . .
143/ Trump made one planned reference to Pence *8*. Trump made one planned reference to the march *4*. He reduced the mentions of being peaceful . . .
144/ Text message post-attack from Brad Parscale to Katrina Pierson saying Trump was pushing for civil war in his speech and his rhetoric got Ashli Babbitt killed. . . .
147/ Jason van Tatenhove is now describing how he got involved with the Oath Keepers . . . he admits the Oath Keepers are a "violent militia" . . .
148/ He says during his time with the Oath Keepers they "drifted into white nationalism and...straight racism." . . . Rhodes sees himself as a "paramilitary leader." . . .
149/ Jason van Tatenhove says the Oath Keepers' vision . . . includes "lies, deceit, intimidation, and the perpetration of violence." This man is pulling no punches whatsoever. I do fear for his safety after this testimony. . . .
151/ Now Stephen Ayres is testifying. He is laying out that he was not always a political radical. He was, as he outlines it, just a regular guy. . . . He used to be a Trump supporter, but is not anymore.
152/ Ayres says Trump's tweets/other far-right social media content convinced him to come to D.C. and made him believe the election was stolen. . . .
154/ Ayres says "everyone" who marched believed Trump was going to be marching with them. . . . He said he would have left the Capitol earlier if Trump had tweeted that people should leave earlier.
155/ Now van Tatanhove is testifying that Stewart Rhodes—head of the Oath Keepers—wanted . . . an "armed revolution" and a "new civil war." . . . Rhodes wanted January 6 to spark widespread national violence.
156/ Rhodes believed that the Insurrection Act would elevate him from a "paramilitary leader" to a man to whom Trump had specifically "given the nod" to forge a "path forward" to the Oath Keepers becoming a viable paramilitary force fighting—w/ violence—on Donald Trump's behalf.
157/ Jason van Tatenhove says that the Oath Keepers wanted him to create a "deck of cards"—. . . that would identify politicians and judges whom the Oath Keepers planned to kill.
158/ Van Tatenhove says that the Oath Keepers planned to use not just guns but military-grade explosives as part of their armed revolution and new civil war.
159/ Van Tatenhove says America is "lucky" that there hasn't been "more bloodshed" so far. . . . "I do fear for this next election cycle" if Trump ends up in the White House, as he wants to "encourage" a "civil war." . . .
167/ REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): "The Watergate break-in was like a Cub Scout meeting compared to this [the January 6 insurrection]." . . .
171/ Rep. Cheney (R-WY) . . . says that next week's hearing will focus on the 187 minutes on January 6 during which Trump *chose* to do nothing . . .
174/ Holy cow! Cheney says Trump personally tried to call a witness he knew was a January 6 witness—doing so *after* the Cassidy Hutchinson testimony . . . (Cheney says that it was someone who the Committee has not heard from yet). . . .
177/ It is amazing that we are alive to witness hearings like this. I never thought I would see or hear anything like this in my entire life. . . .
178/ In post-hearing coverage, we are already hearing about those stunning Parscale texts. And about Trump seeking to tamper with a federal witness—which we heard only in the final moments of the hearing. But frankly so much of what we heard today was newsworthy—and so startling. . . .
PS/ When Cheney said "no rational or sane man" could believe what Trump says he did—the law’s *objective* "reasonable person" standard—and that he doesn't have the right to be "willfully blind" (legal language) she’s *directly* saying he had the criminal intent to commit a crime. . . .
PS3/ For those looking to brush up on Ali Alexander in advance of us hearing, I think, much more about him, Stone, and Jones in the weeks ahead—as Raskin implied—this PROOF article.
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