Lou

The January 6 hearing on Thursday told things not previously known concerning Trump’s attempts to weaponize the Justice Department as part of his plot to overturn the 2020 election and stay in power.

The hearing began mere hours after federal investigators raided the home of Jeffrey Clark, who Trump wanted to install as Attorney General replacing Jeffrey Rosen who had replaced William Barr just days before.

The witnesses were acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy, Richard Donoghue and Steven Engle who led the department’s Office of Legal Council. They join a growing list of Republicans who have gone under oath to provide damning information about Trump’s coup plot.

As he did with state officials testifying on Tuesday, Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power and hosting a dramatic Oval Office showdown in which he weighed replacing the agency’s leader with a more compliant lower-level official , Jeffrey Clark.

Three Trump-era Justice Department officials recounted a relentless pressure campaign from the president, including day after day of directives to chase unsupported allegations that the election won by Democrat Joe Biden had been stolen. It appeared that Trump spent his days scouring the internet for election fraud conspiracy theories. The officials described the constant contact as a stark breach of protocol for a department that cherishes its independence from the White House but said they swatted away each demand because there was zero evidence of widespread voter fraud.

“For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think would have had grave consequences for the country that very well may have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis,” said Richard Donoghue, the acting No. 2 official in the final days of the Trump administration. The president, he said, had this “arsenal of allegations. I went through them piece by piece to say, no, they were not true.”

Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general, said he was called by Trump or met with him basically every day from the time he ascended to the post in late December 2020 through early January 2021, with the common theme being “dissatisfaction about what the Justice Department had done to investigate election fraud.”

It all added up to a “brazen attempt” to use the Justice Department for his own political gain, said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and co-chairman of the Jan. 6 committee. “Donald Trump didn’t just want the Justice Department to investigate,” Thompson said. “He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimize his lies, to basically call the election corrupt” and to appoint a special counsel. The Justice Department resisted each demand.

Trump was introduced by a Republican congressman, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, to Clark, who’d joined the department in 2018 as its chief environmental lawyer and was later appointed to run its civil division. Clark, according to statements from other Justice Department officials, met with Trump despite being ordered not to by bosses at the department and presented himself as eager to aid the president’s efforts to challenge the election results.

A draft of the letter had been provided to Clark by a newly arrived Justice official, Ken Klukowski. Liz Cheney said Thursday that Klukowski had been assigned “to work under Jeffrey Clark” and that he helped draft the letter to key states. In addition, Cheney said that Klukowski “also worked with John Eastman,” the Trump legal adviser who was involved in other plans seeking to overturn the election. Cheney said the letter echoed some of Eastman’s theories. In my view, Trump/Eastman placed Klukowski under Clark to guide the incompetent Trump follower. Two sources said Klukowski has cooperated with the committee, but it did not release his testimony; his lawyer declined to comment on Thursday night. Eastman and his lawyer could not be reached.

Clark took ownership of the letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session to reconsider the election results. Clark wanted the letter sent, but superiors at the Justice Department refused.

In one phone conversation with Trump, according to handwritten notes taken by Donoghue and highlighted at Thursday’s hearing, Trump directed to Rosen to “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.”

(The panel played recorded interviews of Trump aides saying that multiple Republican members of Congress requested pardons in the days after the violent riot at the Capitol. Representatives Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert, Scott Perry, and Marjorie Taylor Greene asked for pardons, testimony showed.)

The situation came to a head on Jan. 3, 2021, a Sunday, when Clark informed Rosen in a private meeting at the Justice Department that Trump wanted to replace him with Clark as acting attorney general. Clark was willing to use the powers of federal law enforcement to encourage state lawmakers to overturn the election. Rosen resisted, contacted senior Justice Department officials to inform them of the situation and his intent to resign and also requested a White House meeting.

That night, Rosen, Donoghue and Engel, along with Clark, gathered with Trump and top White House lawyers for a contentious, hours-long Oval Office meeting .

According to testimony given by Rosen, Trump opened the meeting by saying, “One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren’t going to do anything to overturn the election.”

Donoghue eviscerated Clark’s credentials explaining that Clark was woefully under qualified and incompetent to serve as attorney general. Clark responded saying, ‘Well, I’ve done a lot of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that,’” Donoghue said. “And I said, ‘That’s right. You’re an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill.’”

Donoghue and Engel made clear to Trump that they and large numbers of other Justice Department officials would resign if Trump fired Rosen. White House lawyers said the same. Pat Cipollone, then the White House counsel, said the letter that Clark wanted to send was a “murder-suicide pact.”

“Steve Engel at one point said, ‘Jeff Clark will be leading a graveyard. And what are you going to get done with a graveyard,’ that there would be such an exodus of the leadership,” Donoghue told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “So it was very strongly worded to the president that that would happen.”

In a White House phone log 2 hours before the meeting, it recorded Jeffery Clark as acting Attorney General appearing that Trump had made the decision but backed off after the meeting. In my view, because the blowback from this would upset his plans for January 6.

Trump didn’t care if there was real fraud or not, he just wanted the Justice Department to issue a letter to lend some doubt about the election to b ouster his supporters and put things into chaos.

Thanks to Rosen, Donoghue, Herschman and Cipollone, Trump didn’t follow through on his plan, which would have put the country into uncharted waters, and would have increased the chances of Trump successfully pulling off the coup attempt.

Lawmakers on Thursday played a videotaped deposition showing Clark invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination 125 times.

The raid by federal investigators of Clark’s northern Virginia home preceded the revelations go Clarks actions at the hearing. Lawmakers were caught off-guard. It seemed like federal investigators may have finally heeded their public calls fro action. In order for the FBI to obtain a search warrant they must have evidence of a crime and convince a guard that evidence could be destroyed.

More than 100 people gathered in the Danvers High School Auditorium Tuesday morning to say goodbye to to Wayne Marquis. Wayne was a long time town manager who left an unforgettable mark on the community.

Wayne died on June 8 following a battle with cancer. The sudden loss, his friends and former colleagues said, is insurmountable.

“He has to be the most influential person in the history of the town,” said Town Moderator Patricia Fraizer.

Marquis started his career in town government in 1975, when he was a volunteer intern in the town manager’s office and reorganized community development, health recreations and the senior center into the town’s Planning and Human Services Department.

He was appointed interim assistant town manager from 1976 to 1977, then became assistant town manager in 1977. Two years later, he was hired as the town manager, a role he served in until his retirement in 2014.

“Wayne was a gentleman, a professional, and we were lucky to have such strong leadership,” state Rep. Sally Kerans said. “You cannot overstate the many ways in which he left his mark on Danvers.”

He brought the town’s municipal light division into the 21st century, stopping outages that had become all too familiar to Danvers residents. The town saw every one of its municipal buildings and athletic fields either constructed or renovated under his tenure, and his vast knowledge gave Danvers a sense of financial security that remains today, said Michael Landers, a member of the town’s Finance Committee and a former Danvers Select Board member.

His accomplishments are too long to list in full. But what his colleagues remember the most, they said, was the calm and honest way he served the residents of Danvers.

Select Board member Gardner Trask said he remembered seeing this in action after the Danversport chemical explosion in 2006, which destroyed more than 20 homes in the neighborhood just a day before Thanksgiving.

“I remember going down to the port immediately after it happened and he was already there in command, directing action to minimize the impact on the neighbors,” Trask said. “His first concern was the residents.”

Marquis treated everyone with kindness and respect no matter who they were, Kerans said. Landers added that it would be hard to find a former Select Board member who would have a negative thing to say about him.

“Even those people who disagreed with his policy decisions, they knew he was doing what he thought was best for the town,” Landers said.

Marquis’ presence was a calm one. He never raised his voice and always respected everyone’s opinions, Trask said.

“He did what he felt was the right thing to do and often the right thing is not popular, and the popular thing is not right, but he always guided Danvers through those waters,” Trask said.

Select Board member Daniel Bennett said he often saw this during meetings with different groups over the years.

“He was a calming presence to help build consensus,” Bennett said. “He was always very helpful in seeing both sides of an issue and finding a solution.”

Marquis was never one to make a political stance or take part in partisan squabbles. He led with a strong moral compass and was an honest man to his core, former Select Board member Bill Clark said.

“He wouldn’t even take a cup of coffee without paying for it. He led a very honest town government,” Clark said.

Landers was a selectman when his father, Richard Landers, was appointed as Danvers’ police chief in 1999 at Marquis’ recommendation.

“Nobody questioned my dad’s appointment as a political appointment because no one thought Wayne would be affected by political pressure,” he said.

This even trickled into his sense of humor, Landers added.

“The police chief at the time when I was on the board dealt with dog issues in town,” Landers said. “I went to Wayne and said that since my dad is technically the prosecutor of this, I’m going to have to recuse myself, and he said, ‘Of course you are.’

“He had an interesting sense of humor, a dry sense of humor, but it was warm nonetheless,” Landers said.

Marquis was more than a politician. He was a family man who loved his wife Nancy, his daughters Jennifer and Kathryn and his grandchildren, and lived in Danvers all of his life.

He even was the lead singer of a rock band called “Tyler Mudge” when he was at Danvers High School, which he graduated from in 1971.

“Sometimes I’d bring up that he had been in the band and I would get a chuckle out of him,” Kerans said.

Marquis loved Tom Brady and the Patriots, so much so that he would often text or call town Recreation Director David Mountain before, during and after games to talk about their thoughts on the team.

“He was just a really special person,” Mountain said. “He was my boss, my mentor and my friend.”

He added that Thursday was “a sad day at Town Hall.” Danvers Select Board member David Mills agreed.

“In my entire life, I’ve seen no one in government that has been more respected than Wayne Marquis,” Mills said.

Current Town Manager Steve Bartha said Marquis was always there to support him after taking over the role in 2014, and would gladly lend an ear when Bartha needed someone to talk through issues with.

“It’s an enormous loss,” Bartha said. “It’s really hard to think about Danvers without thinking about Wayne, his legacy and his accomplishments.”

Taken from Salem News of June 13 – reporting by Caroline Enos – staff writer

The House January 6 committee heard chilling, tearful testimony Tuesday that Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election provoked widespread threats to the “backbone of our democracy”— election workers and local officials who fended off the defeated president’s demands despite personal risks.

The panel focused on Trump’s personally leaning on local officials in key battleground states to reject ballots outright or to submit alternative electors for the final tally in Congress.

“A handful of election officials in several key states stood between Donald Trump and the upending of American democracy,” Chairman Bennie Thompson said, praising them as heroes and the “backbone of our democracy.”

The committee’s vice chair, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, implored Americans to pay attention to the evidence being presented, declaring, “Donald Trump didn’t care about the threats of violence. He did not condemn them, he made no effort to stop them.” “We cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence,” she said.

Trump was directly involved in the scheme to put forward slates of fake pro-Trump electors in states won by Joe Biden. The committee played a deposition video from Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, who testified that Trump had personally called her about helping further the scheme. Trump put his lawyer John Eastman on the phone with McDaniel “to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors” she testified.

Arizona Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a stanch Trump supporter rejected Trumps pressure to promote fake electors and said, as a result, he was subjected to a public smear campaign, including relentless bull-horn protests at his home and a pistol-wielding man taunting his family and neighbors.

Bowers walked through what started with a Trump phone call on a Sunday after he returned from church. The defeated president laid out his proposal to have the state replace its electors for Biden with others favoring Trump. “I said, ‘Look, you’re asking me to do something that is counter to my oath,’” Bowers testified. Bowers insisted on seeing Trump’s evidence of voter fraud, which he said Trump’s team never produced beyond vague allegations. He recalled Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani at one point told him, “‘We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.’”

Trump wanted Bowers to hold a hearing at the state Capitol, but the Republican leader said there was already a “circus” atmosphere over the election. The panel showed video footage of protesters at the Arizona statehouse including a key figure, the horned hat-wearing Jacob Chansley, who was later arrested at the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Trump nevertheless pressed the Arizona official, including in a follow-up call, suggesting he expected a better response from a fellow Republican.

But Bowers said that because of his faith, including a belief the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired, what the president was asking him to do was “foreign to my very being.”

Bowers testimony reminds me of the story of the snake. A woman takes in a sick snake and after nursing him back to health the snake bites her. She asks why he did that and the snake replies: Hey you knew I was a snake.

Officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states told similar stories of having their cellphone numbers and home addresses spread publicly after they refused Trump’s demands.

Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, testified about Trump’s phone call asking him to “find 11,780″ votes that could flip his state to prevent Biden’s election victory, and his deputy Gabe Sterling, who became a notable figure during Georgia’s long recount in 2020 when he urged Trump to tone down the rhetoric as someone was going to get killed. He and Sterling, his chief operations officer, detailed their painstaking efforts to count the Georgia vote, investigating one false claim after another of fraud. After a hand recount of 5 million ballots, Biden’s victory was unchanged. “The numbers don’t lie,” said Raffensperger, who said that some 28,000 Georgia voters simply bypassed the presidential race but voted down ballot for others. “At the end of the day, President Trump came up short.

At one gripping moment, two Georgia election workers, a mother and daughter, testified that they lived in fear of saying their names aloud after Trump wrongly accused them of voter fraud. “There were a lot of threats wishing death upon me,” said Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former state election worker.

Giuliana and Trump accused Moss and her mother by name of taking ballots out of suitcases hidden under a table and counting them multiple times based on a video. Moss testified about what happened after Giuliani falsely accused her and her mother of passing around USB drives like “vials of heroin or cocaine” and meddling with votes. In truth, Moss’ mother had passed her a ginger mint, she testified. Raffensperger explained, if you watched the entire video you would see the ballots were in approved ballot boxes and no mishandling of the ballots occurred. This did not deter Trump.

In in-person testimony, Moss, who had worked for Atlanta’s Fulton County elections department since 2012, and her mother, Ruby Freeman, a temporary election worker who spoke earlier to the panel, gripped the audience with their accounts of the fallout from the smear campaign by Trump and Giuliani.

It turned my life upside down, Moss said of the lies which led to threats against her, her mother, and her septuagenarian grandmother, who at one point called her in a panic saying people had come to her home to make a “citizens arrest.”

The FBI advised Ruby Freeman to leave her house before January 6 which she did for 2 months. “There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere,” Freeman testified. “Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one. But he targeted me.”

The select committee worked to untangle the elaborate “fake electors” scheme that sought to have representatives in as many as seven battlegrounds — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico — sign certificates stating that Trump, not Biden, had won their states.

Conservative law professor John Eastman, a lawyer for Trump, pushed the fake electors in the weeks after the election. Trump and Eastman convened hundreds of electors on a call on Jan. 2, 2021, encouraging them to send alternative slates from their states where Trump’s team was claiming fraud.

The fake electors idea was designed to set up a challenge on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met in joint session, with Vice President Pence presiding in what is typically a ceremonial role to accept the states’ vote tallies. But the effort collapsed, as Pence refused Trump’s repeated demands that he simply halt the certification of Biden’s win — a power he believed he did not possess in his role. That’s the certification the Capitol mob tried to stop.

The committee showed a text message sent from an aide to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to an aide for Vice President Mike Pence the morning of Jan. 6 saying Johnson wanted to give Pence an “alternate slate of electors for MI and WI.” “Do not give that to him,” Pence aide Chris Hodgson replied. And Johnson didn’t, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Reporters caught Sen. Johnson leaving the Capitol following the hearing. Walking quickly, he put his phone to his ear and told the reporters that he couldn’t talk, he was on the phone. The reporter replied, I can see your screen, you are not on a call. 🙂 Johnson went on to say he didn’t know about this. One is to believe that his staff was going to give him documents to give to the Vice President of the United States and Johnson didn’t know what they were!

Cheney calle out the more than 30 witnesses who have refused to cooperate with the committee. including several who invoked the Fifth Amendment. She challenged Pat Cipollone, Trumps White House counsel to testify.

Largely taken from The Boston Globe front page of June 22.

The January 6 Committee put Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat into ever-clearer focus Thursday. As in the previous hearings, the testimony was a combination of live and video from Trump’s and Pence’s advisors and staff. The testimony described the constant and increasing pressure by Trump and his lawyer John Eastman on his Vice President starting right after the election. He pressured Pence in vulgar private taunts and public entreaties, bordering on threats, in Trump’s effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6. The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified about the “heated” phone call he had with Pence that morning, as the family joined in the Oval Office. Another aide, Nicholas Luna, said he heard Trump call Pence a “wimp.” Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, Julie Radford, said she was told the president called Pence “the p-word.”

Having lost the election, failed in the 62 court lawsuits and in all attempts to get the Secretary of States to change the vote counts, Trump latched onto conservative law professor John Eastman’s obscure plan to defy historical precedent of the Electoral Count Act and reverse Joe Biden’s victory.

Thursday’s hearing unpacked the Eastman plan. They selected their own slate of “uncertified” electors for the states which Trump was disputing, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. With competing elector slates for Trump or Biden, they wanted Pence to reject them outright and throw them out. This would give Trump more electoral votes than Biden thus throwing the election to Trump immediately. Failing this they would return the electoral votes back to the states to be recounted., This would throw the election into chaos. In his mind, chaos would provide the current President an opportunity to establish martial law and nullify the election.

Trump’s closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to halt congressional certification of his loss as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely to incite riots if Pence followed through, witnesses revealed in stark testimony Thursday.

The panel heard from Greg Jacob, the vice president’s counsel who fended off Eastman’s ideas for Pence. Jacob said it became clear to Pence from the start that the founding fathers did not intend to empower any one person to affect the election result, and he “never budged.”

The panel also heard from retired federal judge Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig is a well respected conservative judge and legal advisor to Mike Pence. Judge Luttig stated that the Constitution was clear that the Vice President has no authority to impact the electoral count. He called the plan from Eastman, his former law clerk, “incorrect at every turn.” Luttig said in a halting voice but firm terms that had Pence obeyed Trump’s orders, declaring “Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis in America.”

“Are you out of your effing mind?” Eric Herschmann, a lawyer advising Trump, told Eastman in recorded testimony shown at the hearing. You’re going to turn around and tell 78-plus million people in this country that your theory is, this is how you’re going to invalidate their votes?” Herschmann said. He warned, “You’re going to cause riots in the streets.”

Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said those around Trump called the plan “crazy.”

The committee has said the plan was illegal, and a federal judge has said “more likely than not” Trump committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification.

The panel revealed how Trump put his vice president in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to “fight like hell” over his false claims of a fraudulent election. When it was clear to Trump that Pence was not going to go along with the scheme. Trump sent out a tweet informing the rioters that Pence would not change the election. The rioters surged following the tweet into the Capitol. In my view, Trump turned the rioters onto Pence to threaten his life.

Thursday’s session presented new dramatic evidence about the danger Pence faced as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” with a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol.

“He deserves to be burned with the rest of them,” one rioter is heard saying on video as the mob prepares to storm the iconic building.

“Pence betrayed us,” says another rioter, wearing a Make America Great Again hat in a selfie video inside the Capitol.

A DOJ informant embedded within the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, reported that these groups were ready to kill Mike pence and Nancy Pelosi if given the opportunity.

Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob testified that he could “hear the din” of the rioters nearby. Asked if Trump ever checked on Pence during the siege, Jacob said, “He did not.”

Rioters came within 40 feet of Pence as Pence was being led from his office to a safe place in the Capitol. 40 feet was how close we came to loosing our democracy and have the country plunged into chaos.

Jacob testified that Pence was determined to stay at the Capitol that night and finish the job, even as his security team prepared for him to leave. Jacob testified that the Secret Service instructed Pence to get into the car. Jacob and most of the staff obeyed but Pence did not. Pence told the Secret Service officer in charge that he was not leaving the building and he did not trust the person driving. In my view, Pence feared that someone in the Secret Service could have an order from a higher authority (i.e. Trump) to remove him from the Capitol so the electoral count could not be completed. Never-before-shown photos showed Pence and his team sheltering.

With live testimony and other evidence from its yearlong investigation, the panel held its third hearing this month aiming to demonstrate that Trump’s repeated false claims and desperate attempt to stay in power led directly to the Capitol insurrection.

All told, the committee is pulling together a dark portrait of the end of Trump’s presidency as the defeated Republican was left grasping for alternatives as courts turned back dozens of lawsuits challenging the vote.

Trump aides and allies warned bluntly in private about his efforts, even as some publicly continued to stand by the president’s false election claims. Nine people died in the insurrection and its aftermath.

The committee has said the plan was illegal, and a federal judge has said “more likely than not” Trump committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification.

Eastman later sought to be “on the pardon list,” according to an email he sent to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, shared by the committee.

The panel played video showing Eastman repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while being interviewed by the committee.

In a social media post Thursday, Trump decried the hearings anew as a “witch hunt,” lambasted coverage by “the Fake News Networks” and exclaimed, “I DEMAND EQUAL TIME!!!” In my view, the January 6 Committee would welcome Donald Trump to testify under oath and explain his actions on January 6.

On Capitol Hill, panel Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., cited Pence’s own words that there was “almost no idea more un-American” than the one he was being asked to follow — reject Americans’ votes.

By refusing Trump’s demands, Pence “did his duty,” said the panel’s vice-chair, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

The panel’s yearlong investigation is showcasing Trump’s final weeks in office as the defeated president clung to “the big lie” of a rigged election even as those around him — his family, his top aides, officials at the highest levels of government — were telling him he simply had lost.

IN his closing remarks, Judge Lettig stated “I have written that today, almost two years after that fateful day in January of 2021, that still, Donald Trump and his law allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy.”

With gripping testimony from Republicans and Trumps campaign staff, the panel is laying out in step by step fashion how Trump ignored his own campaign team’s data as one state after another flipped to Joe Biden, and instead latched on to conspiracy theories, court cases and his own declarations of victory rather than having to admit defeat.

The witnesses described in blunt terms and sometimes exasperated details how Trump refused to take the advice of those closest to him, including his family members. As the people around him splintered into a “team normal” headed by former campaign manager Bill Stepien and team crazy led by Rudy Giuliani, the president chose his sides.

On election night, Stepien said, Trump was “growing increasingly unhappy” and refusing to accept the “grim outlook.” Stepien and senior adviser Jason Miller described how the festive mood at the White House on election night turned grim as Fox News announced Trump had lost the state of Arizona to Joe Biden, and aides worked to counsel Trump on what to do next. But he ignored their advice, choosing to listen instead to Giuliani, who was described as inebriated by several witnesses. Guiliani told Trump to claim victory which he ultimately did knowing he was losing.

William Barr, who had also testified in last week’s blockbuster hearing, said that Trump was “as mad as I’d ever seen him” when the attorney general later explained that the Justice Department would not take sides in the election. “He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” testified former Attorney General William Barr in his interview with the committee. He called the voting fraud claims “bull——,” “bogus” and “idiotic,” and resigned in the aftermath. “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”

Monday’s hearing also featured live witnesses, including Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News Channel political editor who declared on Election Night that Arizona was being won by Biden. Stirewalt said that based on their data, it was clear that Trump was going to lose. Trump was enraged and he was fired. Also appearing was the former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, BJay Pak, who abruptly resigned after Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperge to find enough votes overturn his defeat.

The panel also heard from elections lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg who discussed the norms of election campaign challenges and the 62 failed court cases and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the only Republican on the city’s election board, who told the panel that regardless of how “fantastical” some of the claims that Trump and his team were making, the city officials investigated. He discussed facing threats after Trump criticized him in a tweet.

Trump’s “big lie” of election fraud escalated and transformed into marching orders that summoned supporters to Washington and then sent them to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to block Biden’s victory.

The panel also provided new information about how Trump’s fundraising machine collected some $250 million with his campaigns to “Stop the Steal” and others in the aftermath of the November election, mostly from small-dollar donations from Americans. One plea for cash went out 30 minutes before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The emails claimed the donations were to Stop the Steal going into a General Election Fund but there was no such fund and money went to friends and family.

“Not only was there the big lie, there was the big ripoff,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

From today’s testimony, it is clear that Trump was told by his attorney general, his campaign staff, multiple other republicans, the courts and his family that there was no fraud. He listened only to team crazy, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. He knew there was no fraud but constantly claimed there was to try and stay in power and to fund raise off it.

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol made its case to the American public during a prime-time hearing on Thursday night, placing the blame for the attack squarely on Donald Trump.

The hearing featured new video of the ambush and testimony from those closest to the former president, and over its course, the committee laid out its argument that the assault was an “attempted coup” directly resulting from Trump’s repeated efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The committee laid out in meticulous and shocking detail the extent that former president Trump went to overturn the election and keep himself in office. They presented evidence that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was not a rally that got out of hand but a planned effort disrupt the peaceful transition of power to overthrow our democracy. “Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy” said Chairman Representative Bennie Thompson.

As you may recall, the Republicans blocked the creation of a nonpartisan commission to investigate the attack and layout for Americans the full story of the assault on democracy. They then chose not to participate. The Democrats went ahead with two Republicans joining the committee (Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger). The result was a focused, effective committee operating without the constant disruptions from Republicans like Jim Jordan.

Liz Cheny related the findings of the committee in prosecutor-like precision. The most damning which may have been when Trump learned of the mob’s threat to hang Mike Pence, he said “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” adding that Pence “deserves it” but there were many damning findings. General Miley related that Trump did nothing to defend the Capitol. He didn’t contact the Attorney General, Homeland Security, the National Guard or anyone else knowing his Vice President was in the building and in jeopardy. I guess that was the plan.

A person filming a documentary (Nick Quester) testified at the hearing. He filmed the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders meeting in a parking garage on the night of January 5. He documented the Proud Boys not going to the rally at all but marching on the Capitol at 10:30 AM 90 minutes before Trump spoke. They were walking around the Capitol and challenging the Capitol Police but there were not enough of them to break the line. They needed many more people. So they waited until Trump incited and instructed the crowd to go to the Capitol.

President Trump was told by multiple people that he lost the election. You may recall that Trump’s lawyers lost all 60 cases in the court. Attorney General Barr knew Trumps claims of fraud were false and told him as much. “I told the president it was bullshit”.

The committee reported of a night meeting with Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Flynn. The White House lawyers upon learning of the meeting rushed to attend it. Ten minutes after the meeting Trump tweeted the tweet telling his supporters to come to the Washington on January 6. It was going to be wild. It was no coincidence that the rally was on the day of the previously ceremonial counting of the electoral college votes.

President Trump executed a 7 point plan.

1. President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to the American public claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.
2. President Trump corruptly planned to replace the Acting Attorney General, so that the Department of Justice would support his fake election claims.
3. President Trump corruptly pressured Vice President Pence to refuse to count certified electoral votes in violation of the US Constitution and the law.
4. President Trump corruptly pressured state election officials, and state legislators, to change election results. 
5. President Trump’s legal team and other Trump associates instructed Republicans in multiple states to create false electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress and the National Archives. 
6. President Trump summoned and assembled a violent mob in Washington and directed them to march on the US Capitol.
7. As the violence was underway, President Trump ignored multiple pleas for assistance and failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.

Next hearing will be Monday June 13.

It was interesting that all major networks televised the hearings except for Fox News. It was more interesting that Fox News did not have any commercial breaks while the hearing was in progress. I guess they didn’t want any of their viewers switching over to take a peak at what was going on in the hearing. I wonder who could have ordered them to do that? Hmmm.

On Friday, June 3rd and Saturday, June 4th, delegates gathered virtually and at the DCU Center in Worcester to endorse candidates for statewide office, including Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary, Attorney General, Treasurer, and Auditor, ahead of the Democratic Primary this September. 

About 40% of the delegates participated virtually. The convention was streamed online and all voting was done online. Those unable to vote online could do so by phone and by paper at the convention.

Candidates required 15% of the vote on the 1st ballot to be placed on the primary ballot on September 6. Candidates required greater than 50% of the vote to be endorsed by the MassDems Convention.

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Maura Healey was endorsed by the convention for Governor receiving the largest vote total at the convention. Maura received 71.2% of the vote. Sonia Chang-Diaz received 28.8% of the vote and will be on the primary ballot.

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Kim Driscoll led all candidates running for Lt. Governor receiving 41.4% of the vote. Adam Hines and Bret Bero did not receive 15% of the vote and thus will not be on the primary ballot. The three candidates receiving greater than 15% but less than 50% agreed to not have a 2nd ballot and thus Kim Driscoll was endorsed by the convention. Tami Gouveia and Eric Lesser received 23% and 21.2% respectively and thus will be on the primary ballot.

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Quentin Palfrey was endorsed by the convention for Attorney General receiving 38.8% of the vote on the first ballot and 54% on the second ballot. Andrea Campbell received 39.2% of the vote on the first ballot and 46% on the 2nd ballot and will be on the primary ballot. Shannon Liss-Riordan received 21.9% of the vote and will be in the primary ballot.

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Tanisha Sullivan was endorsed by the convention for Secretary of State receiving 62.4% of the vote. Bill Galvin will be on the primary ballot receiving 37.5% of the vote.

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Chris Dempsey was endorsed by the convention for Auditor receiving 52.6% of the vote. Diana DiZoglio will be on the ballot receiving 47.3 % of the vote.

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Deb Goldberg was endorsed for Treasurer by the convention by acclimation as she has no primary opponent.

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Governor

1. Maura Healey – 2,858 votes – 71.2% – endorsed
2. Sonia Chang-Diaz – 1,115 votes – 28.8% – on ballot

Lt. Governor

1. Kim Driscoll – 1,641 votes – 41.4% – endorsed
2. Tami Gouveia – 911 votes – 23% – on ballot
3. Eric Lesser – 839 votes – 21.2% – on ballot
4. Adams Hinds – 493 votes – 12.4% – not on ballot
5. Bret Bero – 81 votes – 2% – not on ballot

Attorney General

1. Quentin Palfrey – #1: 1,605 votes – 38.8%. #2: 1,920 votes – 54% – endorsed
2. Andrea Campbell – #1: 1,622 votes – 39.2%. #2: 1,631 votes – 46% – on ballot
3. Shannon Liss-Riordan #1: 906 votes – 21.9% – on ballot

Secretary of State

1. Tanisha Sullivan – 2,578 votes – 62.4% – endorsed
2. Bill Galvin – 1,553 votes – 37.5% – on ballot

Auditor

1. Chris Dempsey – 2,148 votes – 52.6% – endorsed
2. Diana DiZoglio – 1,931 votes – 47.3 – on ballot

The committee elected 10 delegates to represent Danvers at the State Convention. They are:

• Lou Bernazzani
• Joe Caiazzo
• Nicole Caiazzo
• Beatrice Clark
• Gerald Clark
• Kasey Desmond
• Beth Kontos
• Vince Malgeri
• Carla Meagher
• Tom Meagher

State Committee Members Marilyn Hazel, Julie Curtis and Rani Jacobsen will attend the convention plus Sally Kerans, State Rep for 13th Essex District and Joan Lovely, State Senator from 2nd Essex District

Massachusetts Republicans overwhelming endorsed a Trump-backed conservative for governor at the Massachusetts GOP convention in Springfield on Saturday. Speakers leaned heavily into national themes and culture war debates, railing against abortion, characterizing Democrats as “evil” and issuing vague yet vulgar warnings about the state of education.

Geoff Diehl, a former Whitman state lawmaker who’s trumpeted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, received 71% of the 1,194 votes cast by party delegates winning the party’s endorsement for governor. Diehl far outpaced Chris Doughty, a Wrentham business owner who cleared the 15% threshold to appear on the Sept. 6 ballot.

Diehl pitched himself as the progressive Democrats “worst nightmare” promising to hire back state workers fired by the Baker administration because they refused to be vaccinated and to dispatch the National Guard to the southern border “to stop the lawlessness”. Diehl and other statewide Republican candidates promised to be bulwarks against what he called the threat of critical race theory.

Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito did not attended the convention. The overwhelming support for Diehl marks a drastic departure for a party that since 2010 had turned to Baker as its standard bearer in a sign of intense friction between Bakers and the party’s conservative leadership.

• Speaker Thomas Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who Trump named his “border czar” in 2019, spoke for more than an hour, leading the crowd in a “Trump! Trump! Trump!” chant after he finished.

• Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a Diehl adviser, weaved throughout the crowd.

• David Beriet, the former leader of 40 Days of Life, an antiabortion group addressed the crowd. The party’s platform in the past frowned on abortion.

• Jim Lyons told the delegates “We don’t get our rights from Beacon Hill. We don’t get our rights from Washington. We get our rights from God. It’s time Democrats realize this.”

• Rayla Campbell, the party’s candidate for Secretary of State, charged that Republicans “watched our elections be stolen” and vowed that a “red tsunami … is brewing” in this year’s election, using biblical terms to describe Democrats. “We are going to crush and destroy these rotten devils that call themselves Democrats!” “This is a battle of good versus evil.”

• Chris Doughty, to light applause and some booing drew on his experience as a business owner and promises to create jobs and his role as a grandfather in promises to root out “indoctrination” in schools. He received 29% of the delegate votes.

• Leah Allen and Kate Campanale – Diehl’s and Doughty’s hand-picked running mates, respectively – vied for party endorsement for lieutenant governor. Allen received 70% of votes.

• Jay McMahon, a Buzzards Bay lawyer is running for attorney general for the second consecutive time.

• Anthony Amore, from Winchester, is running for state auditor for the second time.

• No Republican is running for state treasurer.

• Byron Donalds, a conservative Florida US Rep who was endorsed by Trump was the keynote speaker. He urged activists to be “more active” to help begin cutting into Democrat control. He trained his sights lowers than turning the “deep sea blue” state red. “Let’s just get to, like, purple”

Boston Globe – May 22