Trump calls for Jan. 6 committee members to be indicted
By: Brett Samuels and The Hill (WGN-TV)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
(The Hill) - Former President Trump on Thursday fumed over a federal judge ordering his longtime ally Steve Bannon to report to prison, calling for members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot to be indicted.
Trump called it a "Total and Complete American Tragedy" that Bannon and Peter Navarro, another former aide, have been ordered to prison for separately refusing to comply with the congressional investigation led by the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee.
The former president claimed in a Truth Social post that members of the House panel had committed crimes, asserting they "deleted and destroyed all material evidence."
"The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before," Trump posted. "INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR 'FINDINGS!'"
The panel's former chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), has previously pushed back against GOP claims that the committee withheld information.
Trump's post follows several interviews he gave this week in which he suggested it would be fair game for his political opponents to be prosecuted if he wins the White House in November. Trump made the comments on the heels of his own conviction on 34 felony counts in New York for falsifying business records.
The former president has claimed that the Biden White House played a role in his legal battles, though there is no evidence that was the case.
"It has to stop, because, otherwise, we're not going to have a country," Trump said Wednesday on Fox News of prosecutions of political opponents. "Look, when this election is over, based on what they have done, I would have every right to go after them."
The House select committee comprised seven Democrats and two Republicans: former GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), both vocal Trump critics. The panel spent months investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and held public hearings detailing its findings about the riot and Trump's actions on that day and the weeks leading up to it.
The committee ultimately unveiled criminal referrals targeting Trump, and the former president has since been criminally charged in Washington, D.C., over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, among other cases.
A federal judge Thursday ordered Bannon, who served as a top Trump adviser on the 2016 campaign and briefly in the White House, to begin his four-month prison sentence in July as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, is currently serving his four-month sentence on contempt charges. He had similarly mounted last-ditch efforts to avoid prison, including unsuccessfully seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
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www.msnbc.com /rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-demands-prosecutions-cheney-jan-6-committee-members-rcna155992
Trump demands prosecutions for Cheney, Jan. 6 committee members
June 7, 2024, 7:00 AM CDTBy Steve Benen 4-5 minutes 6/7/2024
There’s no longer any question about whether Donald Trump would seek prosecutions against his perceived political enemies . Not only does he keep publicly acknowledging his intentions — including in a new interview aired late yesterday — he’s trailed by a record of already having made such attempts .
The question, rather, is who he’d go after first. There’s reason to believe members of the Jan. 6 committee would be high on the former president’s list.
After U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols ordered former White House strategist Steve Bannon to report to prison on July 1, Trump found it difficult to lash out at the justice system. After all, he’s the one who tapped Nichols for the federal bench.
So the Republican did the next best thing: As NBC News reported , he lashed out at the members whose subpoena Bannon ignored.
In fact, given the relevant details, “suggested” is a generous description.
“It is a Total and Complete American Tragedy that the Crooked Joe Biden Department of Injustice is so desperate to jail Steve Bannon, and every other Republican, for that matter, for not SUBMITTING to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, made up of all Democrats, and two CRAZED FORMER REPUBLICAN LUNATICS, Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger, and Liz ‘Out of Her Mind’ Cheney,” the presumptive GOP nominee wrote on his social media platform .
The same hysterical screed added, “It has been irrefutably proven that it was the Unselects who committed actual crimes when they deleted and destroyed all material evidence, in a pathetic attempt to protect Crazy Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats from the TRUTH — THAT I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG. The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before.”
Trump concluded , “INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR ‘FINDINGS!’”
0 seconds of 6 minutes, 19 seconds Volume 90%
There’s obviously no real point to fact-checking every individual error of fact and judgment in the former president’s harangue, but it’s probably worth pausing to note a few key elements.
First, the idea that the Jan. 6 committee illegally destroyed evidence is ridiculous .
Second, there is a degree of irony to Trump condemning the “weaponization” of law enforcement and demanding criminal indictments against his critics in successive sentences.
But even if we put these relevant details aside, the broader takeaway of the presumptive GOP nominee’s online rant is that he appears quite serious about wanting to prosecute the bipartisan group of lawmakers who investigated the Jan. 6 attack. In fact, yesterday wasn’t even the first such tirade: It was last summer when Trump started accusing members of the former House select panel of being “ criminals ” who engaged in “ highly illegal ” misconduct. He kept the offensive going for months , paying particular attention to former Rep. Liz Cheney .
“SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY!” he wrote a few months ago , referring to the former Wyoming congresswoman. Trump added at the time, “She should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!”
To be sure, the Jan. 6 committee’s members have plenty of company — I long ago lost count of the number of people Trump has falsely accused of felonies — but that doesn’t change the unsettling set of circumstances: The former president is simultaneously talking about prosecuting his domestic foes and demanding indictments against those who investigated the Jan. 6 attack.
www.msnbc.com /rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-claims-liz-cheney-collapse-embarrassing-fashion-rcna132028
Trump’s claims against Liz Cheney collapse in embarrassing fashion
Jan. 3, 2024, 7:00 AM CSTBy Steve Benen 3-4 minutes 1/3/2024
On Christmas Eve, Donald Trump used his social media platform to peddle a familiar line of attack. Targeting the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee, the former president repeated his absurd claims that the House select panel “destroyed all of the evidence” it used to prepare its report, which the Republican characterized as “illegal.”
Like too much of the GOP candidate’s rhetoric, the Christmas Eve complaints were delusional. Nevertheless, on New Year’s Day, Trump returned to the subject , narrowing his focus to former House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, whom he accused of “illegally deleting and destroying” Jan. 6 evidence. “THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME,” he wrote.
The former president added that there was evidence of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “turning down 10,000 soldiers that I offered to to [ sic ] guard the Capitol Building,” which he said is now “gone.”
The former Wyoming congresswoman, who co-chaired the Jan. 6 committee, responded online , “Seems like someone is starting 2024 hangry.” Cheney went on to remind Trump that he and his defense attorneys have had the congressional panel’s materials “for months.” She concluded, “Lying about the evidence in all caps won’t change the facts. A public trial will show it all.”
So, who’s right? Readers probably won’t be surprised to learn that Trump’s entire case against Cheney is based on cascading falsehoods. A Washington Post fact-check piece summarized:
Let’s take the claims one by one.
Did the Jan. 6 committee “destroy all of the evidence” it used to prepare its report? Of course not. As the Post’s report noted, some documents were withheld from the House archive to protect witnesses, but all of the materials were preserved.
Were the Jan. 6 committee’s actions “illegal”? If the former president and his allies have any evidence of the panel crossing legal lines, they’ve kept it well hidden.
Did Pelosi turn down Trump’s offer of 10,000 soldiers to protect the Capitol from Trump’s mob? The idea that this offer existed continues to be rooted in fantasy .
Do Trump and his defense attorneys have the relevant information in preparation for his upcoming trials? Have they had the materials for months? Yes and yes .
I don’t doubt that the former president and his allies will continue to push the lie, and it’s all but certain that much of the GOP base will buy into the nonsense. But the repetition won’t turn fiction into fact.
Would somebody please put a sock in his mouth? Preferably a dirty one
Once Trump is settled in for his second term, I foresee a lot of investigations and indictments falling on the Democrats.
People like me post articles to back up what I say.
People like you make one sentence "pronouncements" that mean nothing.
The sad part is that on NT are comments are equal.
[deleted][✘]
I dont have to believe any article about Trump, Ive been watching the asshole on tv every day for the past 10 years. There are at this point thousands of words from Trumps own mouth that make him COMPLETELY unfit to be in political public life.
Nothing can change that,
but his cult members are too addled to see.
Wow, that is kinda sad.
It's sad for all of America that Trump has been on TV for even one day.
Tell that to the folks that watch him. As long as people are willing to watch cable will show him