2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[RoseMorninStar]

My neighbor (who was at the capitol on the 6th but not INSIDE) still claims that this is all made up by Antifa.

[Sunsilver]

That is some pretty damning evidence, for sure!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

That forthcoming book about Donald Trump's presidential administration that I've been referencing lately (based on pre-release reviews; it's official publication date is today), mostly in the Russia investigation thread, is The Divider by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker. A new excerpt from the book is specifically about the 2020 election.

Bret Baier is one of Fox News's top news anchors (as opposed to their primetime anchors including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, whom Fox has described in court filings as entertainers rather than journalists in order to block defamation lawsuits). In the days following the 2020 election, Baier told Fox's president that the Trump campaign was very upset by Fox's early call of a Joe Biden victory in Arizona. Baier suggested that Fox retract that call. Not only that, but Baier thought Fox should call the state for Trump instead. Additionally, Fox's CEO proposed internally that Fox not call any more states -- including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia, all of which were close -- until after the Electoral College certified the vote in December. Other Fox executives had the sense to push back on that idea, but in the days following the election, they did prevent the network's election decision desk from calling Nevada for Biden long after other networks had done so, because doing that would mean that (even without Pennsylvania, the state whose outcome led to the other networks calling the election for Biden) since Fox already had called Arizona for Biden, adding Nevada would put him over the top.

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN reports that the January 6th Committee will be interviewing Ginni Thomas.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's almost impossible to keep up with everything going on (I haven't even mentioned the craziness happening at the latest Alex Jones trial in which he lost it on the stand and declared that he was not sorry after all), but this one is big.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yet more.

Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell a no-show for election probe grand jury

[N.E. Brigand]

Per stories in the Orlando Sentinel and Tampa Bay Times, three more people have been charged in this scheme, in which individuals were paid to be phony candidates in an effort to dilute the vote and help Republicans win.

It is worth noting that while he is not under investigation in this case (though he is still under investigation for sexual misconduct), the candidate that the ghost candidate was designed to benefit is a close associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz as well as Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector who has been charged in the sexual misconduct case and is cooperating in the investigation of Gaetz.

Charges Filed In Gaetz-Linked Florida Ghost Candidate Scheme

The Washington Post reports that federal prosecutors have decided not to file charges relating to sexual misconduct against Rep. Matt Gaetz, apparently because potential witnesses have credibility issues.

I am mindful of another famous case in which federal prosecutors in Florida failed to bring (most) charges of sexual misconduct against someone who turned out to be very, very guilty. I hope that prosecutors in this case are making the right decision.

Edited to add: It's probably worth pointing out that the most of the sources for stories about the investigation into Gaetz are probably witnesses: people who were asked about Gaetz by the FBI.

Oh, and one more thing: the FBI investigation into Gaetz, a Republican, apparently was opened while Donald Trump, a Republican, was president, and apparently will be closed while Joe Biden, a Democrat, is president.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Read the whole thread for a cogent explanation of why the DoJ should prevail

[N.E. Brigand]

... [Renato Mariotti discussion of Dept. of Justice efforts to overcome privilege claims by former White House attorney Eric Herschmann (not Hirschmann)]

Read the whole thread for a cogent explanation of why the DoJ should prevail.

Whitewater!

See also this essay that Marcy Wheeler posted six days ago. That was well before CNN broke the latest news, but Wheeler has been predicting for months that this issue would eventually come to a head, and like Mariotti, she expects the Dept. of Justice will win it:

And whatever else this story [about in-fighting between Trump's lawyers] conveys, it tells anyone who has already testified and invoked privilege that Chief Judge Beryl Howell has recently gotten, and will be deciding on, the first known formal invocation of privilege. Howell will be asked to weigh not just whether a White House Counsel can invoke Executive Privilege in a criminal investigation implicating the President, a topic about which Bill Clinton would have a lot to offer. She’ll also be asked, generally, about the privilege claims lawyers are making about an event — January 6 — that the Supreme Court has already decided Executive Privilege, at least, must be waived.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Per stories in the Orlando Sentinel and Tampa Bay Times, three more people have been charged in this scheme, in which individuals were paid to be phony candidates in an effort to dilute the vote and help Republicans win.

It is worth noting that while he is not under investigation in this case (though he is still under investigation for sexual misconduct), the candidate that the ghost candidate was designed to benefit is a close associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz as well as Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector who has been charged in the sexual misconduct case and is cooperating in the investigation of Gaetz.

Charges Filed In Gaetz-Linked Florida Ghost Candidate Scheme

The Washington Post reports that federal prosecutors have decided not to file charges relating to sexual misconduct against Rep. Matt Gaetz, apparently because potential witnesses have credibility issues.

I am mindful of another famous case in which federal prosecutors in Florida failed to bring (most) charges of sexual misconduct against someone who turned out to be very, very guilty. I hope that prosecutors in this case are making the right decision.

Edited to add: It's probably worth pointing out that the most of the sources for stories about the investigation into Gaetz are probably witnesses: people who were asked about Gaetz by the FBI.

Oh, and one more thing: the FBI investigation into Gaetz, a Republican, apparently was opened while Donald Trump, a Republican, was president, and apparently will be closed while Joe Biden, a Democrat, is president.

Many of the legal folks that I follow on twitter have been expressing skepticism about this story.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Mitt Romney: "This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection."

Just came across this post from the afternoon of January 6th. Was Senator Romney the first person to describe that day's events as an insurrection?

[N.E. Brigand]

Very fine people.

That guy, Robert Keith Packer, was sentenced last week to 75 days in jail after having pled guilty early this year to the misdemeanor charge of unlawful picketing and parading.

Prior to sentencing, his sister had urged the court not to "judge a book by its cover," in an apparent reference to his "Camp Auschwitz" hoodie.

But it turns out that underneath that sweatshirt he had on an SS t-shirt.

Anyone who watched the final episode of the new PBS documentary America and the Holocaust this week will have seen images of Packer in the closing minutes.

[N.E. Brigand]

Been seeing this line of thought get pushed a lot today. Considering that it seems that the police may have shot and killed a white woman, perhaps it is not the best time to push that particular narrative, eh?

KUSI has identified the dead woman as a 14-year veteran of the Air Force. My condolences to her family on their loss, but, and this is a completely serious question:

Is she a terrorist who was shot while trying to overthrow the United States government?

Answering myself: Yes.

That is not the relevant question when discussing her death. If she was shot by police, the only relevant question should be - was she armed and posing an immediate threat? I know there's a lot of shit going on right now but I certainly hope we all don't forget that is a question that needs to be answered.

Also: the police officer had no way of knowing if she was armed, but lots of the terrorists that day were armed, and yes, she was posing an immediate threat.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wait, what?

[River]

Ummm...yeah...switchboards don't pocket dial.

WTF. That's pretty wild. And sloppy of whoever made the call.

[N.E. Brigand]

We've all seen the footage of Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman as he's facing down the mob at the top of a stairwell, checks to his left and notices that the Senate doors aren't secured, and pushes one of the attackers in order to draw the crowd's attention to him as he leads them in the other direction.

Well, the Washington Post reports that if the insurrectionists had reached the top of the stairs just a few seconds earlier, they would have seen Mike Pence and his family and, to judge from the "Hang Mike Pence" chants we've all heard in videos from that day, very possibly would have tried to kill him. That's how close they came. Seconds.

(What probably would have happened is that Pence's Secret Service agents would have opened fire on the crowd and a lot more people would have died.)

In which case, how many Republicans later would have voted against the election results anyway? More or fewer than the 139 who did so?

I think this is a photo of Jensen confronting Officer Goodman:

[N.E. Brigand]

Huh. CNN's Jim Acosta reported this afternoon: "A source close to the White House who is in touch with some of the rioters at the Capitol said it's the goal of those involved to stay inside the Capitol through the night."

Wait, what?

I bet Jim Acosta knows.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wow, N.E.B!