Driving the Day:
The Justice Dept.’s Jan. 6 investigation is looking at … everything . 👀 https://t.co/kTab7ptqij
— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) September 16, 2022
Must Read Stories
What Will Election Deniers Do If They Take Office This Year?
- The Nation: Election Deniers Are Gearing Up to Take Office: Less than two months out from the 2022 midterm balloting, the national commentariat remains fixated on how the balance of power between the two major parties will shift, and how the ensuing convulsions will play out over the balance of Joe Biden’s term in office. But a far more ominous power shift has already taken place at the outset of this year’s election cycle. As FiveThirtyEight reports, election-denying candidates—i.e., Republican officials who claim without any evidence that the 2020 presidential election was rigged—are on the ballot for 60 percent of the American electorate. The site forecasts that in the House alone, 118 full-on election deniers, together with eight more equivocal “election doubters” are on track to take office next year. The site also reports that two gubernatorial candidates poised to win are election deniers, while four more are doubters; a handful of other hardcore deniers in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona can’t be ruled out of the running, either. Seven deniers are on the ballot in state attorney general and secretary of state races as well—elections that FiveThirtyEight doesn’t handicap. Some states—such as traditional swing bastions Florida and Pennsylvania—have their governors appoint secretaries of state, which brings the potential denier count up to 11 in this cycle. It’s safe to say that no significant swath of major candidates for office have denied the legitimacy of the American electoral system since the height of militant Confederate sentiment in the antebellum South. And it’s not just the breadth of election-denying dogma on the right that’s so worrisome; it’s the down-ballot reach of the denialist field. This critical mass of election deniers bears testimony to the success of former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon’s “precinct by precinct” strategy to consolidate grassroots power within the GOP—and to lay the groundwork to sow dissent over the outcome of a Republican-averse 2024 presidential result.
- Reuters: Explainer: What Election Deniers Could Do In 2024 If They Win U.S. November Midterms: Several Republican candidates for governor and secretary of state in this November’s congressional elections are election deniers in battleground states that play a decisive role in U.S. presidential elections. All back former President Donald Trump’s false claims that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. Voting rights groups and many Democrats worry that if the candidates win their races in these midterm elections, they will be in key positions to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Subpoena Details Reveal Vast Scope Of DOJ’s January 6 Investigation
- Washington Post: The Justice Dept.’s Jan. 6 Investigation Is Looking At … Everything: Dozens of subpoenas issued last week show that the Justice Department is seeking vast amounts of information, and communications with more than 100 people, as part of its sprawling inquiry into the origins, fundraising and motives of the effort to block Joe Biden from being certified as president in early 2021. The subpoenas, three of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, are far-reaching, covering 18 separate categories of information, including any communications the recipients had with scores of people in six states where supporters of then-President Donald Trump sought to promote “alternate” electors to replace electors in those states won by Biden. One request is for any communications “to, from, or including” specific people tied to such efforts in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most of the names listed were proposed fake electors in those states, while a small number were Trump campaign officials who organized the slates. Taken together, the subpoenas show an investigation that began immediately after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has cast an ever-widening net, even as it gathers information about those in the former president’s inner circle.
- CNN: Mike Lindell’s Phone Search Reveals New Details About Scope Of Federal Probe Into Efforts To Subvert 2020 Election Results: The Justice Department is seeking information about at least seven people in connection with a breach of a Colorado county’s voting system as part of efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, according to subpoena documents obtained by CNN that reveal new details about the breadth of the investigation. The subpoena issued to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell earlier this week lists the names of people considered “subjects” in the investigation — including people involved in efforts to seize voting machine data in several states as former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn his electoral loss. Lindell has not been charged with any crimes or wrongdoing. It’s unclear if federal investigators have opened probes into what happened in other states, but the subpoena shows they are gathering evidence related to three potential crimes in Mesa County, Colorado: identity theft, intentional damage to a protected computer and/or conspiracy to commit either.
Georgia Election Investigation Could Lead To Prison Sentences
- Washington Post: Georgia 2020 Election Inquiry May Lead To Prison Sentences, Prosecutor Says: The prosecutor investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia said this week that her team has heard credible allegations that serious crimes have been committed and that she believes some individuals may see jail time. “The allegations are very serious. If indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis told The Washington Post. No decision will be made for months on whether there will be indictments — and, most notably, if Trump himself will face charges. At least 17 people have been notified they are targets of the criminal investigation, meaning they could eventually face charges. And more targets will be added to the list soon, Willis said in an interview Tuesday in her Atlanta office. Willis would not discuss any of the targets by name and has not said if she’s willing to charge the former president. Trump could be called to appear as a witness before the special grand jury that was convened this spring as part of the investigation, Willis said Tuesday.
President Biden Pledges To Defeat The “Evil” Of Extremism And White Supremacy While Trump Threatens Civil Unrest If He Is Indicted
- New York Times: ‘Evil Will Not Win’: Biden Denounces White Supremacy and Takes a Swipe at Trump: President Biden convened a summit meeting at the White House on Thursday to denounce white supremacy and other forms of bias, calling on Americans to speak out against prejudice and taking a veiled swipe at former President Donald J. Trump for in his view countenancing hate-fueled violence. “In America, evil will not win, will not prevail,” the president told a selected audience that included activists and family members of victims of hate-motivated attacks. “And white supremacists will not have the last word.” Mr. Biden has long said he decided to run for president after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 turned violent and Mr. Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the protest and the counterprotest. To reinforce that theme, Mr. Biden was introduced on Thursday by Susan Bro, whose daughter, Heather Heyer, was killed by a driver during the Charlottesville protest. The “United We Stand” meeting, however, showcased the challenges of Mr. Biden’s vision of unity. No nationally prominent Republican elected officials took part, although the White House did recruit Ana Navarro, a longtime Republican commentator and critic of Mr. Trump, and some Republican mayors to speak. The event also showcased various nonpartisan and bipartisan efforts, including a new organization established by former presidential aides to address what the group called “a rising tide of hate-fueled violence in America.”
- Politico: Trump Warns Of ‘Problems’ Like ‘we’ve Never Seen’ If He’s Indicted: Former President Donald Trump said Thursday the nation would face “problems … the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen” if he is indicted over his handling of classified documents after leaving office, an apparent suggestion that such a move by the Justice Department could spark violence from Trump’s supporters. The former president said an indictment wouldn’t stop him from running for the White House again and repeatedly said Americans “would not stand” for his prosecution. “If a thing like that happened, I would have no prohibition against running,” Trump said in an interview with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I think if it happened, I think you’d have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before. I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.” Hewitt asked Trump what he meant by “problems.” “I think they’d have big problems. Big problems. I just don’t think they’d stand for it. They will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes,” Trump said.
Trump-Appointed Judge In Mar-A-Lago Case Rejects DOJ Arguments, Appoints Special Master To Review Documents
- Politico: Judge Rejects DOJ Bid To Delay Mar-A-Lago Ruling, Appoints Special Master: U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected a Justice Department demand to let federal prosecutors continue their review of records marked classified that were recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. In her ruling, Cannon refused to accept department officials’ contention that the records they are trying to review as part of an ongoing criminal investigation remain highly classified or contain extraordinarily sensitive defense information that could damage national security if released. “The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion,” Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote in her 10-page ruling denying the Justice Department’s request to essentially exclude about 100 documents marked classified from the special master process. Cannon instead appointed Raymond Dearie, a senior federal judge in New York, to lead an independent review of the seized materials. He was one of two potential special masters proposed by the Trump team, and prosecutors said they found him acceptable even though he was not one of their initial picks. In a signed filing released by the court on Thursday night, Dearie accepted the task. Cannon urged him to complete his review by Nov. 30 — more than a month after the Oct. 17 deadline the Justice Department had most recently asked Cannon to set.
In The States
ARIZONA: Blake Masters Floats Authoritarian Scheme To Fire All General And Replace Them With “The Most Conservative Colonels”
- Vice: Blake Masters Wants to Fire All Generals and Replace Them With Conservatives: Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, has repeatedly said the U.S. should clean house on the senior ranks of the military, pushing the claim that all the generals and admirals are “woke” and “left-wing” losers who’ve never won a war. His solution? Fire them all, and promote “the most conservative colonels.” “Your entire general class, they’re left-wing politicians at this point. It’s very hard to become a general without being some kind of left-of-center politician,” he said at an Apache Junction Ladies for President Trump event in August 2021, according to audio obtained by VICE News. “I would love to see all the generals get fired. You take the most conservative colonels, you promote them to general. Not because the ideology is important, but because the conservative colonels will be able to leave the ideology aside. They just care about an effective fighting force.” This is far from an isolated comment. Masters, who won his primary with major financial help from his former employer and friend Peter Thiel and a key endorsement from former President Donald Trump, has repeatedly suggested that only conservatives can be trusted to set aside ideology and maintain an effective military—and that they’re the ones who should be in charge. Masters explicitly called for a wholesale firing of the generals at least seven times between August 2021 and March 2022, according to a VICE News review of his remarks, and harshly criticized military leadership numerous other times.
MICHIGAN: Trump To Rally With Michigan GOP Slate Of Election Deniers On October 1
- Detroit Free Press: Trump to visit Macomb County on Oct. 1 for rally appearance with Dixon, DePerno, Karamo: Former President Donald Trump will return to Michigan soon to rally his supporters to vote for Michigan Republicans up and down the ticket. The visit by the former president is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 1 in Warren at the Macomb County Community College Sports & Expo Center, according to an announcement from Trump representatives. He’ll appear with Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo. All three were endorsed by Trump in the respective primaries, decisions that likely played a role in the three ultimately securing the nominations from the parties.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Hours After Winning His Primary, Don Bolduc Attempts To Reverse His Ardent Support For Election Lies
- New York Times: Right After Primary Win, Bolduc Reverses Support for Election Lies: Like a driver making a screeching U-turn, Don Bolduc, the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, pivoted on Thursday from his primary race to the general election, saying he had “come to the conclusion” that the 2020 presidential election “was not stolen,” after he had spent more than a year claiming it was. “I’ve done a lot of research on this, and I’ve spent the past couple weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party, and I have come to the conclusion — and I want to be definitive on this — the election was not stolen,” Mr. Bolduc said in an interview on Fox News. He continued to falsely claim there had been fraud in the election but acknowledged that the outcome was not in question. “Elections have consequences, and, unfortunately, President Biden is the legitimate president of this country,” he said. Mr. Bolduc won his primary on Tuesday over a more moderate candidate, Chuck Morse, the president of the New Hampshire Senate. Mr. Bolduc ran on an uncompromising right-wing platform, complete with declarations that former President Donald J. Trump had won the 2020 election. But now he faces a tough general election campaign against Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat. She is vulnerable in November — but, Republicans worry, less vulnerable against Mr. Bolduc than she would have been against Mr. Morse.
What Experts Are Saying
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “Judge Cannon appoints a special master & refuses to lift the injunction prohibiting DOJ from using classified documents to further the criminal investigation, also impeding intelligence community review of the damage Trump has done. Next, 11th Circuit for appeal. Terrible ruling.” Tweet
Jacob S. Hacker, a professor of political science at Yale University: “Trump’s assault on American democracy was also assisted, let us be honest, by the American media — and not just the right-wing sources that glorified his presidency and radicalized his voters. Trump would not have gotten into the White House at all were it not for the mainstream media routines that made classified messages on Hillary Clinton’s private email server the biggest character issue of the campaign. (The irony is too thick to cut.) Even after Trump took power, journalists struggled to restrain old instincts: to broadcast every tweet, to focus on political fluff rather than policy substance, to give “both sides” equal say. Only with time and increased understanding of Trump’s intentions did we see meatier investigations of his finances, policies and manipulations, and how they were abetted by his increasingly cultish party.” Washington Post
Aziz Huq, Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, David Landau, Mason Ladd Professor and Associate Dean for International Programs at Florida State University, and Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago: “Democracies require robust protections for free speech and association. But these freedoms can be abused by those seeking to undermine democracy itself. For example, [District Court Judge Francis] Mathew documents [Couy] Griffin’s persistent efforts to cast doubt on the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election and to instigate violence to derail President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Most of Griffin’s actions, however, fell far short of the threshold necessary to justify criminal penalties for incitement – the First Amendment requires that the violence be imminent. Griffin, nonetheless, participated in a concerted threat to American democracy. Disqualification is a way to address such threats without the heavy hand of the criminal law.” The Conversation
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Politico: Fraudulent Document Cited in Supreme Court Bid to Torch Election Law
Politico: Project Veritas faces off in court with Democratic activist
Washington Post (Analysis): There is not a bipartisan urgency among voters for preserving democracy
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Axios: Jan. 6 committee’s October surprise
The Hill: Jan. 6 panel members report progress on Trump-Secret Service probe
NBC: Jan. 6 rioter in ‘Camp Auschwitz’ hoodie sentenced to 75 days in prison
Politico: Gotta keep ’em separated: Why the Jan. 6 panel is keeping distance from DOJ’s Trump probes
Washington Post (Analysis): The 2020 election was neither stolen nor rigged: A primer
Washington Post: How DHS watchdog under fire in Jan. 6 investigation pushed to get his post
Other Trump Investigations
New York Times: N.Y. Attorney General May Sue Trump After Rejecting Settlement Offer
Politico: Trump’s Save America paid $3 million to cover top lawyer’s legal work
Political Violence
NBC: FBI charges Massachusetts woman with Boston Children’s Hospital bomb threat
