January 6 Select Committee

[Kendra]

Of all of the surveillance footage released today of the group with Rep. Barry Loudermilk R-GA, this one is the most puzzling to me.
This guy is literally taking a picture of a staircase in the basement of the Longworth Building. 1/

[Kendra]

Edit: Forgot the text.

Let’s game out the possibility that Loudermilk didn’t realize he was giving a reconnaissance tour: congress people rarely give tours. Their staffers usually do. And there were no tours because of covid. 1/

[Kendra]

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) about staircase picture allegation by Jan 6 committee:

'There are some stairwells that are worth taking pictures of... because of their historic nature."

Deadline Whitehouse is talking about this very topic right now.

[Kendra]

Some crumbs in this thread to hold us over until tomorrow.

[Gregg]

I hez questionz....

If the Capitol isn't closed, anyone can go take a tour. You don't even have to be white.

If you know someone, your Congressman might just arrange a special tour, usually with someone from the Architect of the Capitol if you're very lucky or a staffer or intern. (If you get the tour from the Architect of the Capitol, try to get them to take you up into the Rotunda, there are two galleries up there that few have ever been too)

If your brother is a lobbyist on K Street or you went to Yale with the Congressman he might even escort you onto the floor (which he has to have prior approval from the Speaker and isn't done when the House is in session. This is a very big deal. I bet this only happens a few times over the career of a typical Congressman.

That is the general hierarchy of Capitol VIP Tours. So knowing that,...

Congressman Loudsedition said at first he didn't give anyone a tour. Then they got tapes.
Now he says it was just a constituent family, first time in DC, for the kids, ya know? So, they must have been big shots back in Buttphuck Georgia to get a tour in person from a genuine US Congressman. Not an intern, not an aide, but the Man hi'self. I mean, surely he doesn't do that very often so they must be pretty special, amirite? But when asked, today, he said he didn't even know them, don't know who they are.
He also said the strange pictures were because "the kids" wanted to see the choo choo and the big gold eagle. I ain't biting, but okay. How come the kids didn't pose in the pictures?

I have pictures of me on the Conch Train in Key West, with me in the picture. .

It wouldn't really make sense otherwise, would it?

But then, I wonder what kind of rubes these people are, they come all the way to the big city, they waltz in and get their actual Congressman to give them the VIP tour of the Capitol. And he shows them the hallways of the Hart Office Building?

No Rotunda dome? Not even the floor of the Rotunda. Not the crypt with the star on the floor where George Washington was meant to be entombed? No Statuary Hall, the old House Chamber where the Supreme Court used to meet before they had their own building? No gander of the really neat staircase that goes up to the visitor's gallery of the House? FFS he didn't even show them the actual Capitol. They got the basement corridors of a mid 1950s GAO Office building.

What a gip.

Dagnabbit, when I go to the big city and get a personal tour of the Capitol from my actual Congressman, if he doesn't even show me the actual building, I ain't gonna vote for him next time.

[Kendra]

Scoop: the Jan. 6 committee has obtained emails between John Eastman & Ginni Thomas & is now discussing whether they should spend time during hearings exploring Thomas's role. With
@jdawsey1
&
@emmersbrown
>

[Kendra]

Hill source texts: "Back in my youth, I led scores of Capitol tours. People stopped to take photos of all sorts of things — the rotunda, the Speaker’s Office sign, the statute of King Kamehameha. No one ever stopped to take a photo of the metal detectors in the Cannon Hallway."

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6 ... -referrals

Jan. 6 probe may not issue a criminal referral and here's why that may not matter

Thompson told reporters the committee would not issue a criminal referral for Trump or anyone else it has investigated because that, he said, is the work of the United States Department of Justice. In response, vicechair Liz Cheney issued a statement saying a conclusion on issuing criminal referrals had not yet been reached.

“We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time,” she said.

While this division is notable for a committee that has been largely unified in most steps it has taken publicly, in truth, whether the select committees issues a criminal referral or not, there are still other essential elements at play: The nation’s top cop on the beat, Attorney General Merrick Garland, is watching and so too are throngs of federal prosecutors flanking him.

The committee has strived to respect the boundaries between itself and the DOJ for months and even as members waded through huge amounts of information posing equally huge amounts of potential criminal liability.

A criminal referral, even if the committee issued one, would be symbolic at this point and even superfluous given what the probe has already established in court.

U.S. District Judge David Carter’s issued an opinion this March after reviewing a trove of communications between Trump and attorney John Eastman. Carter found the former president and Eastman were “more likely than not” engaged in a corrupt attempt to obstruct Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, and that “their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower—it was a coup in search of legal theory.”

[New Turtle]

Tomorrow they are gonna play video of Eastman repeatedly taking the fifth.


I wouldn't be surprised if they throw in some clips of Trump and what he says about people who take the fifth.

[roadscholar]

Someone needs to try to stand where each of those MAGAATS were standing in the videos and take pictures in the same direction. Then we’ll see how believable the (latest) story is.

[dan1100]

Bold prediction.

The Select Committee already has the deposition of someone who was on the tour or who helped set it up.

[Kendra]

NEW: Raskin tells CNN that we WILL learn who the “backchannel” was between the proud boys and the White House.

That was an interesting interview. If anyone finds it before I do, please post here. I checked New Day twitter page and nothing there.

Meanwhile, count down to 10AM my time

[Kendra]

Some people seem to be missing this: Loudermilk's "guest" took a picture of the sign to Nadler's office a day before he threatened to come after him (and made a joke with someone else about a spear integrated into an American flag).

[Kendra]

Exclusive - conservative legal icon ⁦
@judgeluttig
⁩ says January 6 was a⁩ 'well-developed plan' by Trump to cling to power. Read his statement for ⁦
@January6thCmte
⁩
first time here:

[Slim Cognito]

It's 5:00 somewhere.

[Kendra]

It's 5:00 somewhere.

I'm stuck at work, so only coffee for now

Two more hours until showtime.

[Kendra]

NOTHING THIS:

Any Jan 6 committee hearing about the danger to Mike Pence is going to include references to the Proud Boys, who were specifically accused of going after Pence on Jan 6

Hearing starts at 1pm today

Proud Boys are in court at... 2pm

In a December 9, 2021 deposition with the Jan 6 Select Committee, John Eastman invoked his 5th amendment rights dozens of times

Including to this question from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) =====>

[raison de arizona]

In a December 9, 2021 deposition with the Jan 6 Select Committee, John Eastman invoked his 5th amendment rights dozens of times

Including to this question from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) =====>

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/stat ... 2634784770

Cheney: Dr. Eastman, do you believe that the violence on January 6th was justified?
Eastman: Fifth.

[Kendra]

Yeah, that one sticks out, doesn't it?

Open. Open. Open. Glad it's a slow work day

[Kendra]

Bennie Thompson, who chairs the January 6 committee, says panel will invite Ginni Thomas to come talk to the committee "soon" in light of new emails that show she was communicating with right wing lawyer John Eastman.

"It's time for us to invite her to come talk,” per
@MZanona

Will she claim executive privilege?

Greg Pence, the brother of former Vice President Mike Pence, discounted Trump’s pressure campaign waged on his brother to overturn the election results. “Don’t think about it all,” he told me ahead of the hearing focusing on the issue, declining to comment further

[pipistrelle]

Don’t know what that means. Pence did have work done to see what he could do legally as though he might have taken that route if he could.

[Kendra]

I'm watching CNN pre-coverage. George Conway on panel, and boy did he just rip into Eastman's actions. Also, nice to see Chris Wallace on same panel.

[Kendra]

Meanwhile, unlike CNN and MSNBC covering the J6 hearing, Fox/Outnumbered is bitching about Kamala Harris and how she's failed at the border

[neonzx]

Sure, he can get "equal time" in front of the J6 Select Committee to answer questions under oath (no lawyers speaking on his behalf).

[Luke]

Luttig's actual tweets Jan 5 2021: