Current Events > Fourth January 6th Committee public hearing is scheduled for 1PM US Eastern

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://youtu.be/YZPBWZcr-vw

I'll be working today, but I'll try to capture as much as I can

I hope something happens today. Like announcing charges against Donald

Zikten posted...

I hope something happens today. Like announcing charges against Donald

We already found out its just some dumb show dat will result in literally nothing

Even Ivanka turned on Trump;

Hey she end up fucking him eventually, right?

Zikten posted...

I hope something happens today. Like announcing charges against Donald

The congressional committee wouldn't be the ones announce charges. They're planning to send all of their evidence to the DoJ in September.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

From what I'm reading, they'll be showing evidence of Mark Meadows' efforts to interfere in the Georgia election.

Showtime!!!

I hope dey don't have a slow speaker dis time

Looks like it's about to start pretty soon. PBS doing their intro

Today's hearing will focus on the pressures Trump and co put on state elections, especially Georgia, where he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to manufacture votes in his favor.

Thanks for the reminder, I'm actually able to watch this one live luckily

The chairman is referencing Otero county, New Mexico's election commission refusing to certify the election as an example of continued threats to democracy.

5 dollars that merrick garland doesnt bring charges against trump

Rep. Schiff is explaining the Trump campaign's fake electors plot.

Was that commissioner Gordon on screen earlier in the brown coat lol

A video of Jocelyn Benson, Michigan secretary of state, explaining the event where Trump supporters were outside her home.

Josh Roselman - investigative counsel for the select committee: Explaining Trump's fake electors plot and the Trump campaign's efforts to pressure states to appoint Trump electors.

• Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Cleta Mitchell (former Trump campaign lawyer)
• Republican officials in several states released statements calling the plot unconstitutional.
• Trump disclosed Mike Shirkey's (Michigan state senator) personal phone number in a tweet.
• Trump campaign left voicemails pressuring Mike Shirkey to appoint fake electors
• Pennsylvania house speaker Bryan Cutler received daily voicemails from the Trump campaign in late November pressuring him.
• Cutler felt the outreach was inappropriate and asked them to stop calling. Giuliani kept reaching out any way.
• December 30th - Steve Bannon announced a protest at Cutler's home.
• Trump supporters went to Bryan Cutler's home
• Cutler's personal info was released online
• Cutler had to disconnect his home phone for days
• Trump campaign spent millions of dollars running ads that asked his supporters to call their local election officials and demand special sessions and inspect election machines.

Wow

if they are not charged this whole thing is nothing but a "How not to get caught forming a coup" handbook

Today's witnesses:

• Rusty Bowers, Arizona Speaker of the House
• Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of Georgia
• Gabriel Sterling, Chief Operations Officer for the Secretary of State of Georgia

Rusty Bowers is testifying now

tremain07 posted...

if they are not charged this whole thing is nothing but a "How not to get caught forming a coup" handbook

I mean, technically they did get caught which is why all this is coming out, but it would definitely send the message that the only thing they did wrong was being bad at it.

Damn, this dude is old af

Shit's depressing tbh

Corruption and treason out in the open for the entire world to see and the best we can hope for is "Well, maybe we'll get a couple of swing votes in the Democrats' favor next election"

"You're asking me to do something fucking illegal without a way to get out of it! I'm not going to jail for you!"

Is what that really sounds like to me

Rusty Bowers' testimony:

• Trump claimed that Rusty Bowers informed him that the election was rigged and that he won Arizona. Rusty Bowers says that claim is false.
• Bowers received a call from a colleague saying that the White House was trying to get in touch with her and him, and they wanted to take the call together. Rudy Giuliani came on first, then Trump came on.
• Bowers asked Giuliani for proof of their allegations of fraud multiple times. Giuliani said he did have proof of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and thousands of dead people who voted. . Bowers asked for names. Giuliani said yes, and that he would give them the names. Trump told Giuliani to give Bowers what he needs. Giuliani never provided any names, evidence, or proof.
• Bowers remembers being asked to allow an official committee at a the capitol to hear the evidence and take action thereafter. He refused. "Up to that time, the circus had been brewing with lots of demonstrations" "I didn't want to have that in the house...." "I didn't want to be used as a pawn." \
• Bowers: "To what end, the hearing?"
• Giuliani: "We have heard by an official high up in the Republican legislature that htere is a legal there in Arizona that you can remove the electors of President Biden and replace them. We would like to have the legitimate opportunity through the committee to come tot hat end and do that.
• Bowers: "That's totally new to me. I've never heard of any such thing. You are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath when I swore to uphold the constitution. I also swore to the constitution and the laws of the state of Arizona. This is totally foreign to me, and I would never do anything of such magnitude without consultation with qualified attorneys. I will not break my oath."
• Giuliani: "Aren't we all Republicans here? I would think we would get better reception to this."

Bowers' testimony (continued):

• Bowers: As far as I was concerned, there was no strong judicial quality evidence to suggest I should deny his oath.
• Bowers asked Giuliani if his request had ever been done before. Giuliani replied that he didn't think so.
• Giuliani held a hearing in a hotel ballroom. Bowers says it was not an official hearing.
• Bowers met with Giuliani and associates while they were in Arizona.
• Giuliani again made the same allegations of illegal immigrants voting and dead people voting.
• Giuliani was again pressed for proof. Giuliani asked Jenna Ellis if they had the proof. Ellis said yes. Bowers asked Ellis for the proof. Ellis said she did not bring the evidence with her.
• Giuliani: "We've got lots of theories, but we just don't have the evidence." Bowers was not sure if this was a serious statement or a joke.
• Giuliani said that Arizona law would allow them to enact a special session.
• Bowers says he cannot go into a special session unilaterally.

Previously undisclosed video of protesters illegal entering and refusing the building where votes were being counted in Arizona is being shown. Jacob "QAnon Shaman" Chansley was there.

Bowers' testimony (continued):

• A call with Trump and his campaign team happened. Bowers explained that he wasn't going to grant the Trump campaign's requests because they would violate his oath. Bowers' counsel was also on the call.
• John Eastman wanted Bowers to decertify the electors "because they had plenary authority to do so."
• Eastman cited a clause in Arizona law that would give them the authority and/or justification to do so.
• Bowers again refused, citing his oath.
• Bowers: "What would you have me do?"
• Eastman: "Just do it and have the courts sort it out."
• Bowers: "You're asking me to do something that has never been done in the history of the United States. I'm going to put my state through that without sufficient proof? And that's going to be good enough with me? In my state where I swore to uphold the constitution and law? No sir."
• Eastman: "It is my suggestion that you let the courts figure it all out."
• Bowers: "I declined, and that was close to the end of our phone call."
• Bowers told Trump that he (Bowers) wouldn't do anything illegal for him (Trump).
• Bowers: "I can't call the legislature into session without a 2/3 majority vote."
• Bowers received a call from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) on the morning of January 6th. Biggs asked Bowers if he would sign onto a letter that had been sent from his state and that he would support the decertification of his state's electors. Bowers refused.
• Bowers: "We have no legal pathway, both in state law or federal law, for us to execute such a request. I am not allowed to walk or act beyond my authority. If I am not specifically authorized as a legislator or as a legislature, I cannot act."

I've got a meeting in a few minutes... crap. I'll probably have to come back and rewatch. This is at the point where Rep. Adam Schiff is going deeper into the fake electors plot.

CableZL posted...

Giuliani: "Aren't we all Republicans here? I would think we would get better reception to this."

Huh.

Fucking hell, it's stupid watergate

Lol, Giuliani admitting he has no evidence just theories is hilarious

Why aren't all dese people in prison yet doe

This post was meant for this thread:

Bill Barr testified in a recorded deposition that Trump's allegations of voter fraud had no merit.

• The ballots were valid
• They were not in a suitcase
• They were pre-opened in preparation to feed them into a tabulation machine

Richard Donaghue had a similar conclusion.

The video from Gabriel Sterling, a Georgia election official, sharply criticizing Trump and senate Republicans and their refusal to denounce the violence and harassment the state's election officials endured because of Trump's wild allegations.

Casey Lucier, investigative counsel for the committee (video recording):

• November 18th: Memo from Kenneth Chesebro (actually pronounced "Cheese bro"... just... come on...), attorney for the Trump campaign - "Prudence dictates that the ten electors pledged to Trump and Pence meet and cast their votes on December 14 (unless by then the race has been conceded.)"

Video deposition of Cassidy Hutchinson, Former Aide to Mark Meadows:

• Q: Who do you remember being involved in those early discussions around Thanksgiving time, regarding having alternate electors meet?
• A: Mr. Giuliani, several of Mr. Giuliani's associates, Mr. Meadows, members of congress although it's difficult to distinguish if the members I'm thinking of were involved on Thanksgiving or if they were involved as we progressed through December.

Casey Lucier, continued:

• At the president's direct request, the RNC assisted the campaign in coordinating this effort.

Video of the deposition of Ronna Romney McDaniel, RNC chairwoman

• Q: What did the president say when he called you?
• A: Essentially, he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any states. I think more just helping them reach out and assemble them. My understanding is that the campaign did take the lead and we just were helping them in that role.

Casey Lucier, continued:

• As president Trump and his supporters continued to lose lawsuits, some campaign lawyers became convinced that convening electors in states that Trump lost was no longer appropriate.

Video deposition of Justin Clark, former Trump campaign lawyer:

• just remember I either replied or called somebody saying unless we have litigation pending in these states, I don't think this is appropriate. This isn't the right thing to do. I don't remember how I phrased it, but I got into a little bit of a back and forth. And I think it was with Ken Chesebro, where I said alright, you know... You just get after it. I'm out.

Matt Morgan, former Trump campaign lawyer:

• At that point, I had Josh Finley email Mr. Chesebro politely to say, 'This is your task. You are responsible for the electoral college issues moving forward.' And this was my way of taking that responsibility to 0.

Casey Lucier, continued:

• The committee learned the Whtie House counsel's office also felt the plan was potential illegal.

Video deposition of Cassidy Hutchinson:

• Q: And so, to be clear, did you hear the WH counsel's office say that this plan to have alternate electors meet and cast votes for Donald Trump in states that he had lost was not legally sound?
• A: Yes sir.
• Q: And who was present for that meeting, that you remember?
• A: It was in our office, so it was Mr. Meadows, Mr. Giuliani, and a few of Mr. Giuliani's associates.

Casey Lucier, continued:

• The select committee interviewed several of the individual fake electors as well as Trump campaign staff who helped organize the effort.

Video deposition of Robert Sinners, former Trump campaign staffer:

• We were just kinda useful idiots or rubes at that point. A strong part of me really feels that it's just kinda as the road continued (???) and it was (???) that failure, failure, failure, that got formulated as what do we have on the table? Let's just do it.
• Q: And now after what we've told you today about the select committee's investigation about the conclusion of the professional lawyers on the campaign staff, Justin Clark, Matt Morgan, and Josh finley about their unwillingless to participate in the convening of these electors... How did that contribute to your understanding of these issues?
• A: I'm angry... I'm angry... because I think in a sense, you know, no one really cared if people were potentially putting themselves in jeopardy.
• Q: Would you have not wanted to participate in this any further as well?
• A: I absolutely would not have. Had I known that the three main lawyers for the campaign that I'd spoken to in the past or leading up were not on board? Uhh... yeah.

Video deposition of Andrew Hitt, former Wisconsin republican party chair:

• I was told that these would only count if a court ruled in our favor. So if that would have been using our electors, umm... well, it would have been using our electors in ways we weren't told about and we wouldn't have supported.

Casey Lucier, continued:

• Documents obtained by the select committee indicate that instructions were given to the electors in several states that they needed to cast their ballots in complete secrecy. Because this scheme involved fake electors, those participating in certain states had no way to comply with state election laws, like where the electors were supposed to meet. One group of fake electors even considered hiding overnight to ensure that they could access the state capitol, as required in Michigan. (Holy shit these people are dumb)

The first part gave us some insight about fake electors and Ron Johnson.

The second part was mostly old news, but it was good to get it out there for the mass public to see.

The last part was a nice personal touch to see how the narcissism of Trump and Guiliani hurt regular people on the ground in ways that most people don't see.

Video deposition of Laura Cox, former Michigan Republican party chair:

• Q: Did Mr. Norton say who he was working with at all on this effort to have electors meet?
• A: He said he was working with the president's campaign. He told me that the Michigan Republican electors were planning to meet in the capitol and hide overnight sot hat they could fulfill the role of casting their vote per law in the Michigan chambers and I told him in no uncertain terms that that was insane and inappropriate.

Casey Lucier, continued:

• In one state, the electors even asked for a promise that the campaign would pay their legal fees if they got sued or charged with a crime. Ultimately, fake electors did meet on December 14, 2020 in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin. At the request of the Trump campaign, the electors from these battleground states signed documents falsely asserting that they were the "duly elected electors from their state." And submitted them to the national archives and Vice President Pence in his capacity as president of the Senate.

Images of the fake elector certificates are shown. They don't look anything like the official ones. (Holy shit, these people are dumb)

• But these ballots had no legal effect. In an email to produced tot he select committee, Dr. Eastman told the Trump campaign representative that it did not matter that the electors had not been approved by a state authority. "The fact that we have multiple slates of electors demonstrates the uncertainty of either. That should be enough," Eastman said in the letter. Eastman urged that Pence act boldly and be challenged.
• Documents produced to the select committee show that the Trump campaign took steps to ensure that the physical copies of the fake electors' electoral votes from two states were delivered to Washington for January 6th. Text messages exchanged between Republican party officials in Wisconsin show that on January 4th, the Trump camping asked for someone to fly their fake electors documents to Washington.

Text message from Mark Jefferson (unclear who this is) is shown:

• "Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President. They're gonna call one of us to tell us just what the hell is going on. They talked to Jordan. I told Jordan to them that."

• A staffer for Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson texted a staffer for Vice President Pence just minutes before the beginning of the joint session:

Text conversation between Chris Hodgson and Sean Riley:

• Hodgson: Sup?
• Riley: Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise
• Hodgson: What is it?
• Riley: Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them
• Hodgson: Do not give that to him

• Even though the fake elector slates were transmitted to congress and the executive branch, the VP held firm in his position that his role was to count lawfully submitted electoral votes.

Video of Pence showing the count totals is shown

Dude... the rampant stupidity is insane

I'll have to continue a bit later... this is nuts

When Bowers learned that fake electors had met in Arizona and transmitted their documents to Congress, he thought it was a "tragic parody."

Bowers read a passage from the journal he was keeping during this:

• "It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor. I may, in the eyes of men, not hold correct opinions or act according to their vision convictions. But I do not take this current situation in a light manner, a fearful manner, or a vengeful manner. I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to. With any contrived desire towards deflection of my deep foundational desire to follow God's will as I believe he led my conscience to embrace. How else will I ever approach him in the wilderness of life, knowing that I ask this guidance only to show myself a coward in defending the course he led me to take."

Tag for later. Thanks TC for text documenting this stuff.

AirFresh posted...

Thanks TC for text documenting this stuff.

yeah, this. I've been reading these topics whenever I've seen them but haven't been watching.

Once again, you're doing a fantastic job with these topics.

Very small silver lining, but It's kinda of nice to see that there are actually some conservatives who live and stood by the principals they claim to have throughout this thing.

xXfireglzXx posted...

Very small silver lining, but It's kinda of nice to see that there are actually some conservatives who live and stood by the principals they claim to have throughout this thing.

true. how many of them did so at the cost of their careers? how many will still be in a position to stand by those convictions next time?

because there will be a next time.

Brad Raffensperger:

• Q: What was your impression of how election day had proceeded in Georgia?
• A: On election day in November, our election went remarkably smooth. In fact, we meet at the GEMA headquarters, that's the Georgia Emergency Management Association meeting location. We were following wait times in line in the afternoon. Our average wait time was 3 minutes and it actually got down to 2 minutes. At the end of the day, we thought that we had a successful election from a standpoint of the administration and the operation of the election.

Rep. Adam Schiff begins asking questions of Raffensperger

• Q: Secretary Raffensperger, did Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, and by what margin?
• A: President Biden carried the state of Georgia by approximately 12,000 votes.
• Q: Mr. Secretary, as I understand it, your office to several steps to ensure the accuracy of the vote count in Georgia, reviewing the vote count in at least three separate ways. These steps include a machine recount, a forensic audit, and a full hand recount of every one of the five million ballots cast. Did these efforts, including a recount of literally every ballot cast in the state of Georgia, confirm the result?
• A: Yes they did. We counted the ballots, well the first tabulation would be scan (???). When we did our 100% hand audit of the entire all 5 million ballots in the state of Georgia, all cast in place, all absentee ballots. They were all hand recounted and they came remarkably close to the 1st count. And then, upon the election being certified, President Trump, because the election was within a half percent, could ask for a recount. We recounted them again through the scanners and we got remarkably the same count. All three counts showed that President Trump did come up short.

Video shown of Gabriel Sterling's speech where he implored Trump to stop inciting acts of violence, in which he said, "Someone's gonna get hurt, someone's gonna get shot, someone's gonna get killed."

Sterling received a call from a project manager of Dominion Voting Systems who was audibly shaken. A young contractor they had was receiving threats from QAnon supporters. This particular tweet was a straw that broke the camel's back. The tweet accused him of committing treason with a slowly twisting gif (hard G) of a noose.

Sterling said he lost it when he saw that. He had lost his temper.

Giuliani and other representatives of Trump showed up in Georgia and started spreading new conspiracy theories about kicking out election observers and "suitcases of ballots from under a table and running them through counting machines multiple times," and the accusation that these were 18,000 ballots all for Joe Biden

I remember arguing with idiots about these exact conspiracy theories.

A video of Giuliani calling his conspiracy theory about the suitcase of votes under the table a "smoking gun"

Gabriel Sterling re-explaining the misunderstanding that there was a misunderstanding. The election workers believed they were going to go home, so they were putting the ballots away, then they were called back later that night.

Gabriel Sterling:

• If there were ballots scanned multiple times, the machine count would have been a lot higher than the total number of ballots.
• The hand recount results: .0153% of total votes cast, .099% of the total margin, which is considered "dead-on accurate." This absolutely disproves Giuliani's conspiracy theory about ballots being counted multiple times.

Video of US Attorney BJay Pak explaining that Giuliani's conspiracy theories about Georgia's election are wrong.

Bill Barr, same conclusion