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— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) April 21, 2022
Must Read Stories
Feckless Republicans Squandered Opportunity To Remove Trump From Office Following January 6
- New York Times: ‘I’ve Had It With This Guy’: G.O.P. Leaders Privately Blasted Trump After Jan. 6: In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, the two top Republicans in Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics. Mr. McCarthy went so far as to say he would push Mr. Trump to resign immediately: “I’ve had it with this guy,” he told a group of Republican leaders. But within weeks both men backed off an all-out fight with Mr. Trump because they feared retribution from him and his political movement. Their drive to act faded fast as it became clear it would mean difficult votes that would put them at odds with most of their colleagues. “I didn’t get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference,” Mr. McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, told a friend. The confidential expressions of outrage from Mr. McCarthy and Mr. McConnell, which have not been previously reported, illustrate the immense gulf between what Republican leaders say privately about Mr. Trump and their public deference to a man whose hold on the party has gone virtually unchallenged for half a decade.
The January 6 Committee Seeks To Put Together Details Of The Final Phone Call Between Trump And Pence, Builds “Mesmerizing” Case To Be Presented To The Public
- Politico: Jan. 6 Panel Piecing Together Details Of Final Trump-Pence Call: Congressional investigators entering the last stage of their probe are gathering new evidence about a crucial moment on the Jan. 6 timeline: the final, fateful phone call between Donald Trump and Mike Pence before a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol. They’ve had a lot of success on that front — court records and Jan. 6 select committee documents reveal that the panel has obtained significant details about that call. In recent weeks, they’ve learned even more from several high-profile witnesses who were in the Oval Office while Trump berated Pence for refusing to overturn the election. Yet one crucial gap remains. Top Pence aides say the former vice president was in his residence when the call came in. He then left the room and was out of earshot for 15 to 20 minutes. Those aides told the select committee that Pence never disclosed to them the contents of the conversation. More importantly, Pence’s aides say he never revealed how he replied to Trump’s intense last-minute pressure.
- Daily Kos: Prepare To Be ‘Mesmerized’: An Interview With Jan. 6 Probe Investigator Jamie Raskin: When the committee finally resumes its public hearings, which it says will be in May, Rep. Raskin told Daily Kos they will be hearings unlike anything Americans have seen come out of Congress. “We believe every American has the right to observe and participate in this. I believe based on what I have seen over the last several months, these hearings will be not just important but mesmerizing to the public,” Raskin said. “Everybody needs to be equipped with the means of intellectual self defense against the authoritarian and fascistic policies that have been unleashed in this country.”
New Details Emerge About The Role Of Ginni Thomas And Alex Jones In The January 6 Conspiracy
- CNN: Ginni Thomas Also Texted Meadows About Another Friend Who Shared Election Fraud Conspiracy Theories: A day before the 2020 presidential election, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas mugged for the camera wearing a Trump baseball cap with her friend Connie Hair, chief of staff to GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, at an event supporting the then-President in pictures posted on Facebook at the time. A month later, in her now-infamous texts to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, referred to Hair and claims about election fraud while urging Meadows to fight the election result. Around that same time, Hair’s boss, Gohmert, filed or supported two lawsuits challenging the election that eventually landed before the Supreme Court. Ginni Thomas’ years-long relationship with Hair, including social outings that Clarence Thomas attended, as well as her texting with Meadows add another dimension to an ongoing debate over whether her husband should recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, especially when his wife is closely aligned to people who advocated overturning the election.
- New York Times: Alex Jones Reaches Out to Justice Dept. About Jan. 6 Interview: The federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election appears to be gaining traction, with the Justice Department having brought in a well-regarded new prosecutor to help run the inquiry and a high-profile witness seeking a deal to provide information. Alex Jones, the host of the conspiracy-driven media outlet Infowars and a key player in the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement, is in discussions with the Justice Department about an agreement to detail his role in the rally near the White House last Jan. 6 that preceded the attack on the Capitol. Through his lawyer, Mr. Jones said he has given the government a formal letter conveying “his desire to speak to federal prosecutors about Jan. 6.” The lawyer, Norm Pattis, maintained that Mr. Jones had not engaged in any “criminal wrongdoing” that day when — chanting slogans about 1776 — he helped lead a crowd of Trump supporters in a march to the Capitol as violence was erupting.
In The States
Texas Republican Activist Charged In “Voter Fraud” Investigation That Held Innocent Citizen At Gunpoint
- Houston Chronicle: Steven Hotze Charged For Funding Voter Fraud Investigation Where Repairman Was Held At Gunpoint: Steven Hotze, the far-right activist who funded a private investigation into voter fraud that ended with the investigator pointing a gun at an innocent air conditioning repairman, has been indicted for his role in the episode. A Harris County grand jury indicted Hotze on charges of unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to his attorney, Gary Polland. […] Through a group called Liberty Center for God and Country, Hotze funded a private investigation into a conspiracy theory that Democrats had collected hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots, prosecutors have alleged. The group paid Aguirre, a disgraced former Houston police captain, $266,400 to investigate the claims. Before 6 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2020, Aguirre allegedly slammed his black SUV into the back of the repairman’s truck and drew a pistol. He ordered the repairman to the ground and put a knee on his back, prosecutors have said.
Headlines
The Ongoing Plot To Undermine Elections
Bolts: Trump-Aligned Sheriffs Target Election Officials
New York Post: Trump walks out of explosive Piers Morgan interview after being pressed on 2020 election
The January 6 Conspiracy
Deseret News: ‘I was not there to do his bidding’: Sen. Mike Lee breaks his silence about White House text messagesl
Legal Updates
CNN: Trump says he has no records subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general and shouldn’t be held in contempt’
Politico: Judge refuses to toss out Dominion defamation suits against Powell, Giuliani and Lindell
