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— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) May 12, 2022
Must Read Stories
January 6 Committee Subpoenas
- New York Times: Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas 5 Republican Representatives: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued subpoenas on Thursday to five Republican members of Congress, including Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, a significant escalation as it digs deeper into the role Republicans played in attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The panel’s move was an extraordinary step in the annals of congressional investigations — a committee targeting sitting lawmakers, including a top party leader, who have refused to cooperate in a major inquiry into the largest attack on the Capitol in centuries. It reflected the belief among investigators that a group of Republican members of Congress loyal to former President Donald J. Trump had played crucial roles in the events that led to the assault on their own institution, and may have hidden what they know about Mr. Trump’s intentions and actions before, during and after the attack.
- Politico: Why The Jan. 6 Panel Bet Its Legal Hand Against The House GOP: The Jan. 6 select panel’s subpoenas of five House Republicans are a huge risk by any measure — it could fail to yield new evidence while piling additional stress on an institution already buckling under partisan strain. But committee members say the peril is worth it to prevent a future insurrection, not to mention to fully investigate an election subversion attempt by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Federal Prosecutors Open grand jury investigation Into Trump’s Handling Of Classified Documents Found At Mar-A-Lago
- New York Times: Prosecutors Pursue Inquiry Into Trump’s Handling of Classified Material: Federal prosecutors have begun a grand jury investigation into whether classified White House documents that ended up at former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida home were mishandled, according to two people briefed on the matter. The intensifying inquiry suggests that the Justice Department is examining the role of Mr. Trump and other officials in his White House in their handling of sensitive materials during the final stages of his administration. In recent days, the Justice Department has taken a series of steps showing that its investigation has progressed beyond the preliminary stages. Prosecutors issued a subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration to obtain the boxes of classified documents, according to the two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The authorities have also made interview requests to people who worked in the White House in the final days of Mr. Trump’s presidency, according to one of the people.
Far Right Election Conspiracy Theorists Surge Into Lead In Pennsylvania Primaries
- Associated Press: Trump Scrambles To Fend Off Oz Challenger In PA Senate Race: Sensing a threat in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, Donald Trump issued a warning Thursday that surging Republican candidate Kathy Barnette would upend the GOP’s chances of holding the seat in November and urged voters to back his pick, celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz. The former president’s statement echoed growing panic among his allies and Barnette’s rivals over her sudden and unforeseen rise ahead of the state’s Tuesday primary. Barnette “will never be able to win” in a general election matchup against Democrats, Trump said in a statement, adding that Oz “is the only one” who can defeat the Democratic nominee. Later, on a telephone townhall with Oz, Trump criticized Barnette for losing a 2020 congressional race — by nearly 20 percentage points, albeit in a heavily Democratic district — and said he had never heard of her.
- Washington Post (Greg Sargent): An Openly Pro-Coup Trumpist Could Become Pennsylvania’s Next Governor: How should the media cover a candidate who is running for a position of control over our election machinery — and has also displayed an open eagerness to steal elections? This question arises now that Doug Mastriano is surging in the GOP primary for Pennsylvania governor. As a state senator, Mastriano played a lead role in Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 presidential loss, and the state’s next governor could be pivotal to a 2024 coup rerun. This basic situation is reflected in some media coverage of Mastriano’s surge. But there’s something more nefarious about Mastriano than those basic facts convey when it comes to the true threat to democracy he poses. Mastriano didn’t just try to help Trump overturn the election. At the time, he also essentially declared his support for the notion that the popular vote can be treated as non-binding when it comes to the certification of presidential electors.
What Experts Are Saying
Harry Litman, former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, re: January 6 House Select Committee Subpoenas of 5 House Republicans: “There are many equally rabid supporters of the Big Lie in Congress, so why subpoena these 5. Because they are fact witnesses. They spoke with Trump on the 6th, or heard his confess responsibility, or worked up the false allegations, etc. Remember the backdrop here: American people have every right to know what happened on 1/6 with the President, but he is a jackass who will never cooperate, and his CoS is ducking n/w/s having written a book about it. These 5 are essential sources of essential info.” Twitter
Elie Honig, former Assistant U.S. Attorney with the Southern District of New York re: Donald Trump’s Treatment of Classified Documents:Erin Burnett: “So, Elie, when you take the top line here that Ryan is reporting, subpoenaed issued to the National Archives about Trump taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, right, about these documents, what does it say to you?”
Elie Honig: “Well, Erin, this tells me that the Justice Department believes there could be, and I want to stress that, could be, some level of criminality here. As a federal prosecutor, if you’re going to issue a grand jury subpoena you can’t do that based on nothing. You have to have what prosecutors calls predication, which basically just means some reasonable good faith fact or belief that there may have been a crime. It’s a low bar but it’s not nothing. And I think what prosecutors are going to be focused on here is that it is a federal crime to remove or destroy classified documents, we know the documents were classified but have to show that a person, A, knew they were classified, and also have to show a person knew that was wrong. So, that’s where I think DOJ is really going to be focusing here on the criminal side of things.” CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront
Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of American History at Boston College: “It sure feels like we are beginning the reckoning of forty years of decisions, decisions that have concentrated power in a small minority and that have finally led us to the place where a congressional committee wants to talk with five members of Congress to hear what they know about the attempt to overturn an election so a Democratic president could not take office.” Letters from an American
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
CNN: Trump struggles to keep control of his own MAGA movement
The Guardian: ‘I’d like to file lawsuits in all 50 states’: Mike Lindell still pushing Trump’s lie
New York Times: Trump’s Former Aides and Advisers on the Peril He Poses:
Politico: Pence to headline Georgia rally for Kemp, defying Trump ahead of primary
Opinion
The Hill (Max Burns): Republicans are ready to pack the courts
In The States
Associated Press: Colorado elections race tests GOP embrace of conspiracies
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Judge: Perdue’s election fraud claims are ‘conjecture and paranoia’
Detroit News: GOP gov debate: 2 of 8 Michigan candidates confirm Trump’s loss in 2020 election
WKMG: Florida’s secretary of state to resign ahead of upcoming elections
