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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — August 12, 2022

By August 12, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

What To Watch For Today:

Hawaii holds its primary election. The January 6 committee will interview Trump National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien. 

Must Read Stories

Secret Nuclear Documents Were Among The Items Sought By The FBI At Mar-A-Lago

  • Washington Post: FBI Searched Trump’s Home To Look For Nuclear Documents And Other Items, Sources Say: Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation. Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands. The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. They did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation. Nor did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that he could not discuss the investigation. But in an unusual public statement at the Justice Department, he announced he had personally authorized the decision to seek court permission for a search warrant. Garland spoke moments after Justice Department lawyers filed a motion seeking to unseal the search warrant in the case, noting that Trump had publicly revealed the search shortly after it happened.

Gunman Who Tried To Enter FBI HQ In Cincinnati Was Also A January 6 Rioter 

  • NBC: Armed Man Who Was At Capitol On Jan. 6 Is Fatally Shot After Firing Into An FBI Field Office In Cincinnati: The man who fired a nail gun into an FBI field office in Cincinnati on Thursday before he was killed by officers was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, officials said. Two officials familiar with the matter identified the suspect as Ricky Walter Shiffer. Officers fatally shot the suspect after failing to negotiate with him, an Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman, Lt. Nathan Dennis, told reporters.
  • Vice: FBI Standoff Suspect Posted ‘Call to Arms’ on Trump’s Truth Social: The gunman who fired at police and engaged in an hours-long standoff in a corn field after trying to enter the FBI’s office in Cincinnati on Thursday has been identified in multiple media reports as someone who was present at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. The man also apparently left a trail of posts on Truth Social, the social media platform created by former president Donald Trump, announcing his plans to attack the FBI office and indicating that his actions were a direct response to the FBI’s search Monday of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. The suspect is Ricky Walter Shiffer, according to NBC News and the New York Times, which reported that Shiffer was under investigation for having “ties to extremist groups,” including the Proud Boys, which he apparently mentioned on social media.

Right Wing Threats Of Violence Spiral Out Of Control 

  • Axios: Political Threats Spiral:  Politicians, public officials and even obscure bureaucrats are becoming inured to the new normal of today’s polarized America: constant threats of violence inflamed by highly charged political rhetoric. Why it matters: The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol demonstrated how easily tensions can boil over into devastating political violence. And the problem is only getting worse. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that political violence is becoming “almost a 365-day phenomenon.” “I feel like every day I’m getting briefed on somebody throwing a Molotov cocktail at someone for some issue,” Wray testified. “It’s crazy.”
  • Washington Post (Analysis): From GOP Chair To Militias, The Right Issues Baseless Warnings About Armed IRS Thugs: This week, the rhetoric about the IRS increased several degrees. In part, that’s because of the Senate’s passage of the IRA and the House’s upcoming vote on Friday. But it’s also probably in part because of the FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida home. That search, approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland and a federal judge, triggered an immediate partisan backlash against the FBI and federal law enforcement more broadly. Journalists who track right-wing rhetoric noticed an uptick in calls for armed opposition — and highlighted examples of members of armed groups focusing on the IRS in particular. In one example, a man shows off a number of firearms — and mentions how much ammunition the IRS is buying. In October 2020, while Trump was still president, the Department of Homeland Security pointed to domestic violent extremists as one of the most potent threats facing the country.

January 6 Committee Continues To Interview Highly Ranked Trump Administration Officials 

  • CNN: Elaine Chao, Trump’s Former Transportation Secretary, Met With Jan. 6 Committee As Other Cabinet Members Engage With Panel:  The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, has recently interviewed former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and has been in talks with former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as well as former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, multiple sources tell CNN. Chao and DeVos, both members of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, resigned a day after the attack on the US Capitol and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from power. News of Chao’s cooperation, and the committee’s discussions with DeVos and O’Brien have not been previously reported. O’Brien is expected to appear virtually before the panel on Friday, according to a source familiar with the probe. CNN has reached out to O’Brien. The development comes after former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the panel on Tuesday. The 25th Amendment was a topic of focus during Pompeo’s meeting, CNN previously reported. Additionally, sources tell CNN the committee is still negotiating terms for a potential interview with former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. Given the classified nature of Ratcliffe’s former role, there are unique issues the two sides have to work out, the sources said.  At least nine Cabinet-level officials who were still in their roles on January 6 are known to have cooperated with or are engaging with the committee.

The Republican Party Has Nominated Election Deniers And Saboteurs For Secretary Of State In At Least 10 States 

  • CNN: At least 10 Republican Nominees For State Elections Chief Have Disputed The Legitimacy Of The 2020 Election: In at least 10 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy — especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters. The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem of Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

In The States 

WYOMING: Liz Cheney Slips Further Behind In The Final Days Before The Wyoming Primary 

  • Cowboy State Daily: University of Wyoming Poll: Hageman’s Lead Over Cheney Has Grown: U.S. House candidate Harriet Hageman’s lead has grown against U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, according to a University of Wyoming survey released Thursday morning.  According to a July 25-Aug. 6 survey that yielded 562 responses, Hageman is now leading Cheney by 28 points. This is up from the 22% lead Hageman held over Cheney in a Casper Star Tribune poll conducted in mid-July. The survey did not use registered voter lists and only surveyed people who said they were likely to vote in the Republican primary. “Given the unique attention this race is receiving, and the accompanying increases in voter registration and potential party switching, we decided to field this survey to a random sample of all Wyoming residents on cellphones and landlines and work to identify likely voters in the GOP primary,” said Brian Harnisch, director of the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center. “When looking only at residents who say they are Republican and likely voters in the primary, we actually see Hageman leading by roughly 50 points.” 

What Experts Are Saying

Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director: “I’ll say it again; he was a threat in office, and he’s a threat out of office: FBI searched Trump’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say” Tweet 

Asha Rangappa, former FBI special agent: “THREAD. Unpacking the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C., Chapter 36. We are concerned here with Section 793 — Gathering, Transmitting, or Losing Defense Information… Given the seriousness of all this, keep in mind that NARA and DOJ tried a) to obtain voluntary compliance and b) a subpoena. And yet, he hung on to these. Why??? A former POTUS would surely understand the disastrous potential of having these secrets unsecured…the point here is it is NO WONDER that the FBI executed a warrant. The focus now should be not on the search, but why the 🤬 Trump hung on to these documents, and why his supporters think that is very legal and very cool” Twitter Thread 

Steve Vladeck,  Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law: “Key point in AG Garland’s statement: DOJ was willing to do this quietly, *without* making a public spectacle of the search. It was *President Trump’s* decision to make it public that turned this all into a spectacle (and is leading DOJ to move to unseal part of the application). (1) This underscores the professionalism on the government’s side; (2) it’s a rather powerful counterweight to the claim from Trump and his supporters that this is about scoring political points (how do you do that silently?); and (3) it puts the ball in Trump’s court … again.” Tweet | Tweet 

Eli Merritt, political historian at Vanderbilt University: “Demagogues are as ancient as democracy itself, and, historically, watchful gatekeepers prevent them from seizing the bully pulpit and winning the public trust. Gatekeepers need to have eagle eyes for spotting this corrupting subset of political actors. Then they must work to sideline them by all means permissible, public and private…Today, the Republican Party is duty bound to defend our democracy and Constitution against further assault by Trump. If the party of Lincoln does not stand up for candidates committed to free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, it stands for nothing at all. Its failure to reject Trump resulted in institutional breakdown — and violence. And that is what will continue to happen if the party does not act decisively.” LA Times Op-Ed: Democracy’s survival depends on fighting demagogues. The GOP is embracing them

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

New York Times: Progressives Push Democrats to Make Their Fight About Freedom, Too

Politico: How the Trump-FBI feud puts swing-state Republicans in a bind

January 6 And The 2020 Election

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Trump hires attorney Findling to represent him in grand jury probe

Bloomberg: US Capitol’s ‘600 Rooms’ Spurred Subpoena Confusion, Ex-Trump Aide Says in Jan. 6 Case

The Guardian: Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasure

Politico: Read: What DHS watchdog employees wanted to tell Congress about missing Jan. 6 Secret Service texts

Washington Post: Ex-Va. police officer gets more than 7 years for role in Jan. 6 riot

Other Trump Investigations

Axios: Florida swing voters: Bring on the search warrants

New York Times (Analysis): The Poisoned Relationship Between Trump and the Keepers of U.S. Secrets

New York Times: Subpoena Preceded Search Warrant in Push to Retrieve Material From Trump

New York Times: Garland Moves to Release Details on Search of Trump’s Home

Wall Street Journal: Trump Won’t Oppose Release of Search Warrant

Opinion

The Hill (Steve Israel): Forget the optics: Trump must be held accountable

Los Angeles Times (Jackie Calmes): Will the Republican Party trigger another round of Jan. 6-style violence?

New York Times (David Brooks): Did the F.B.I. Just Re-Elect Donald Trump?

New York Times (Michelle Goldberg): The Absurd Argument Against Making Trump Obey the Law