"The key to last night’s hearing is found in criminal law — especially in three elements of the most serious criminal violations: knowledge, intent, and malice.
The committee has already confirmed that Trump knew he lost the election. They have also confirmed that he intended to stop the transition of power to Biden.
Tonight, the committee provided evidence of Trump’s malice — his deliberate intent to stop or delay the electoral count with a violent attack on the Capitol that endangered the lives of many people, in order to remain in power." Robert Reich, The Key To Last Night's Hearing
I was not surprised to learn from former DOJ spokesperson Matt Miller several days ago (on Deadline White House, MSNBC) that an imbecilic DOJ policy exists to the effect no president can ever be indicted. This bullcrap, as Miller emphasized, is not any kind of hard and fast law or rule - just a policy that's been blindly adhered to. Well, it no longer can be after the 8th House Select Committee hearing revealed Trump to be the degenerate outlaw who desecrated his oath of office with impunity. This disclosed during 3 1/2 hours of spellbinding testimony - especially from Sarah Matthews who spoke directly of how she was so disgusted by Trump's incendiary antics she resigned the same day as the insurrection.
Most frightening was the Pence security officer - in disguised voice - relating what the Pence Secret Service team heard, about how much they feared the moment they were in.
"The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their lives.There was a lot of yelling and a lot of very personal calls over the radio. It was disturbing. I don't like talking about it. These were calls to say goodbye to family members. And the VP detail on the ground thought this was about to go very ugly."
Goodbye to family members? VP detail thought it was about to go 'very ugly'? This totally reinforces what I had written after the 3rd hearing,
It also puts the kibosh on a rightist meme that this was a mere political protest display since "only five" were killed and not five hundred or more. So "why the big deal"? Well it's a frickin' big deal because the orange fungoid worm fired a shot at the heart of our democracy! This is also how democracies are lost. Ask the 'good Germans' of 1932 who just wanted out of hyper-inflation so bad they picked a psychotic dictator to lead them. Into the bowels of hell as it turned out, many German cities, towns laid waste by May, 1945.
Co-author of the book 'Peril' (with Bob Woodward), Robert Costa, cited the hearing witnesses all of whom repeatedly pleaded with Trump to get control of the mob he'd worked up. In his CBS Morning appearance, and especially after the replay of the words of Pence's security aid, he responded: "Facts are facts". In other words there is no amount of spin or minimization that can recast what occurred as a mere "tourist riot" or legitimate protest". (As too many deranged commenters in today's WSJ were wont to believe.) As Vice -Chair Liz Cheney put it: "He used the crowd's own patriotism and weaponized it with his lies, targeting our democracy."
And another Trump toadie, Elise Stefanik, tried to add on another layer of lies that "all the hearings had was hearsay", which John Dickerson promptly shot to smithereens in a CBS post -hearings discussion with Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan. Pointedly noting that all those giving testimony were first hand witnesses, there was no 'hearsay'" But noting this was yet another layer of lies the Trumpists were trying to use to dismiss the J6 Committee findings.
Trump himself, via the Committee's tracking 187 minutes on January 6th, was shown to be the maggot most of us always believed. A mob boss -type criminal who premeditatedly planned the January 6th insurrection that injured 147 officers and took 5 lives. That this orange cockroach must be stopped from ever holding power or authority again ought to be blatantly obvious, even to the most purblind moral moron.
The essence of it all was how, despite incessant pleading from different staff members, Trump simply ignored them- opting to watch his giant suspension HDTV - with all the violent action unfolding on FOX. Even resetting the DVR over and over in case he missed a particular officer getting clocked over the head by one of his deranged MAGA apes. This is the brute and lowlife criminal many millions are actually considering putting back into the Oval Office again. And millions more, ready to commit partial democracide from this November - when they might actually vote back into power the Reepo turds who could make it happen. Why? Because those millions have lost control of their senses and intellects because of the high inflation. Which I already pointed out is not not Biden's fault. E.g.
9 of 10 Say Country "Is On the Wrong Track?" Why?
But never mind. The important thing now is for the citizens of this country to process what a mega-criminal Trump is and the dire threat he poses to everything this nation stands for. This maggot, or cockroach - which description even risks insulting those lesser vermin - couldn't even bring himself to deliver a clear, heartfelt denunciation of the violence on the day after, January 7th. The fucker hemmed and hawed, objected to the words - then rejected having to read a script from his aides which read: "The election is now over". The rat bastard instead preferred to say:
“I don’t want to say the election’s over. I just want to say Congress has certified the results, without saying the election’s over, okay?”
The POS was only mildly mollified when Ivanka Trump told the Turd that Congress certifying the results meant it was over. The imp also continued to seed his lie with a 6 p.m. tweet the night of January 6th:
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
Does anyone with more than air between the ears really want to see this two legged pestilence back in power again? The personal vendettas alone that this psychotic asswipe would mete out would tear this country asunder - with violence in the streets - not just words or sporadic mass shootings. It would be a genuine civil war unleashed and with no likely peaceful end. That is exactly why he must be indicted and prosecuted, irrespective of how his MAGA mob squawks. The ancient political meme about legally targeting a former head of state goes thus: "If you take a shot at the king, you had better not miss."
This hearing's conclusion put the DOJ and Garland on notice and now they have no choice but to act. To me and many others they have the judicial 'ammo' not to miss the most heinous traitor in American history, worse than Benedict Arnold. That means ditching the DOJ policy nonsense about not being able to indict a president. As well as putting the final knife into Bill Barr's myth of the imperical presidency" i.e. that presidents are above the law and can't be indicted or prosecuted.
See Also:
by Robert Becker | July 26, 2022 - 6:31am | permalink
And:
by Marjorie Cohn | July 26, 2022 - 6:46am | permalink
Excerpt:
More than two years after Donald Trump orchestrated a massive criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, including directing an armed and violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has still not indicted the former president.
The House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol (“Select Committee”) presented overwhelming evidence — nearly all from Trump loyalists — that Trump committed at least two federal crimes, as well as criminal offenses in the state of Georgia. Although the Select Committee has no power to bring charges against Trump, it can make a criminal referral. The decision to prosecute, however, rests solely with the DOJ.
And:
by Heather Digby Parton | July 23, 2022 - 7:35am | permalink
Excerpt:
If Donald Trump knew any history — which he most certainely does not — you might think that he based his January 6 rally and march to the Capitol on the infamous March on Rome, a 1923 coup d'etat orchestrated by Benito Mussolini. That is when Mussolini's blackshirts staged a dramatic march to the Italian capitol and took over the government. (Like Donald Trump, Mussolini didn't actually accompany his followers on their march but did have his picture taken with them.) The existing Italian government didn't put up any resistance and Mussolini easily assumed power the next day without any blood being shed. Everyone had already known the mob violence the blackshirts were capable of, they'd been wreaking havoc on the population for some time.
And:
5 things we learned in the committee’s stunning hearing
And:
Trump's behavior on Jan. 6 was worse than you thought. Much worse.
And:
How Trump violated his oath on Jan. 6 by doing nothing
And:
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