Capitol Insurrection Report

On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested for his participation in the Gunpowder Plot, a scheme by disaffected Catholic terrorists to blow up King James I and his Parliament using 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the House of Lords. It seems oddly fitting that the presidential general election of 2024 is taking place on the 419th anniversary of that date. It seems very likely that the contest will drag on for days or even weeks, but the result may come down to this question: how many Americans just want to blow it all up? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G8vSbD4YHaTmzNcF3zu1fzv75w1Hu1tWPLe9XvfiuqQ/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HIlBqFI4WAk3-ehiqMM3jw_qGT_jmLBpoLXyXGTVfOM/edit?usp=sharing https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/brothers-new-york-arrested-assaulting-law-enforcement-weapon-and-other-charges-during https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/voisine-v-united-states/ https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/21847422/stephen-leigh-voisine/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/ballot-boxes-set-fire-portland-vancouver-rcna177611 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/what-happens-to-trump-s-november-sentencing/ar-AA1tkenR?ocid=BingNewsSerp https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67656604/united-states-v-trump/?page=2 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/02/jack-smith-trump-election-brief-details-00182287 https://rollcall.com/2024/11/04/outlier-or-early-warning-late-iowa-poll-confounds/ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7484kwl55qo https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/24/americans-take-a-dim-view-of-the-nations-future-look-more-positively-at-the-past/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-trump-timeline/ https://apnews.com/article/trump-harris-presidential-election-2024-labor-day-151f82b59473d29a448ef1cea9afe471 https://www.wgal.com/article/pennsylvania-ballot-counting-rules-2024/62786512

Returning again to the "19th Brumaire Scenario," I examine what documentary evidence there is regarding the "OTR movement" on January 6th, 2021, when the Secret Service informed Trump they would not take him to the Capitol. It is likely that this is a key question for the evidentiary hearings in DC before Judge Chutkan, presuming these actually move forward. Key questions include what Trump's intent was in his plan to go to the Capitol, what he intended to do once there, and the possibility that Trump had intended to lead a "procession" of 10,000 National Guard personnel from the Ellipse to the Capitol as a show of force to cow Congress. I will discuss the evidence that shows that there are documents cited in the Final Report that have not been uploaded to the GovInfo site for the Committee: though insurrection apologists have asserted this is evidence of obstructing, it seems far more likely that his is evidence that there are materials the Committee thought were vital to any DOJ case that would be brought, and so were reserved for any future prosecution. The identifying information of these witnesses p[rovided by the Committee are listed: there are six anonymized transcripts cited in seven pages of Chapter 7 that may be pivotal. I include selected evidence from the documentary record, mainly the materials cited in the Final Report of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. This includes some of the 26 documents submitted by the Secret Service and cited in the Report, the transcripts of Max Miller, Katrina Pierson, Tony Ornato, and more. I will also suggest that, while there's plenty of support for the idea that the USSS under Trump was obstructionist, the documentary evidence supports the idea that there was a "team normal" at the USSS, and these included the persons who ultimately did block the OTR movement. Although the documentary evidence is more scant than one would like, it seems probable that the final decision on the OTR movement was made by Kimberly Cheatle, who was the Assistant Director in charge of the Office of Protective Operations on January 6th, but who since has been promoted to Director. Some discussion also of the recent events in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how the evidence from January 6th shows that Donald Trump is an extraordinarily uncooperative and difficult person for the Secret Service to protect. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-J6-WITHOLDING/ https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000021632_00096/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000021632_00096.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000030809/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000030809.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000021633_00030/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000021633_00030.pdf https://archive.org/details/january-6th-committee-witness-testimony-20221129-anthony-ornato-1 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000152321/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000152321.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000028929_00001/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000028929_00001.pdf https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/politics/house-gop-january-6-committee-report/index.html https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117118/witnesses/HHRG-118-HA06-Wstate-MatthewsE-20240417.pdf https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000208061/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000208061.pdf

With sentencing in the hush money case coming right before the Republican National Convention, the leading contender for that party's presidential nomination has claimed that he doesn't care about his supporters, he just wants their votes, and also that suicide ought to be preferable to them than voting for his opponent. At the same time, every discussion of consequences too includes some claim that allowances ought to be made for the possibility of political violence, as if leniency for the dear leader should be a consequence of the threat of political violence posed by the Trumpist movement. No electoral or judicial process ought to be held hostage by the threat of political violence. In this episode, I examine a recent arrest made for threats against the FBI, new charges brought by the State of Wisconsin against three defendants who allegedly conspired to commit fraud, and other developments. Political violence must be deterred, and so I also revisit a "top ten" list of the worst defendants charged to date I compiled for Episode 1, Season 8, "The Worst." Each of these gets a "where are they now" treatment, and a review of their sentences, release dates, and the progress of the relevant legal processes. https://time.com/6982979/trump-conviction-judge-jail/ https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/06/politics/merchan-trump-gag-order-contempt/index.html https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59869101/united-states-v-coffee/?page=1 https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60044813/united-states-v-mchugh/?page=2 https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59743200/united-states-v-padilla/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59780846/united-states-v-mckellop/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59704067/united-states-v-egtvedt/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59249721/united-states-v-foy/?page=2 https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/58955673/united-states-v-lang/ https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.226964/gov.uscourts.dcd.226964.133.0.pdf https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59291007/united-states-v-sabol/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59735143/united-states-v-webster/ https://www.justice.gov/usao-az/pr/arizona-man-charged-selling-guns-use-mass-shooting

"It was just a delay that somebody or somebodies were willfully, deliberately delaying making the decision." (Transcript of Major General William Walker before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, p 118) For three hours and 19 minutes, the NC National Guard waited in the DC Armory on January 6th, 2021, supposedly awaiting approval from Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy to deploy to the US Capitol. That order was never conveyed to Walker, although Secretary of Defense Chris Miller claims he authorized deployment at 3:04 pm, and Secretary McCarthy claims he called Walker to authorize deployment at 4:30 pm--a phone call Walker has consistently denied took place. Who were the "somebody or somebodies" who delayed deployment on January 6th, and what were their motivations? Given the conflicting accounts and the threadbare relationship between the official account of the DOD and what actually happened on January 6th, it seems unlikely we will ever see a definitive account of why the delay was felt to be necessary. Nonetheless, there is circumstantial evidence in the documentary record that shows that both the civilian and military leadership on duty on January 6th were uniform in their desire to keep both active-duty and National Guard servicemembers on the sidelines in the fight for the Capitol. The fact that this actually happened, and very much aligned with the preferences of top leadership is probably more than just a coincidence. If Trump had intended to misuse the military, why is there no record of his attempting to issue an illegal order on January 6th? Why did Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy believe it was necessary to personally develop a CONOP for January 6th, a circumstance that seems as unlikely as Jeff Bezos delivering your Amazon order? Why is it that neither General Walker or anyone else has seen the plan McCarthy supposedly developed in 20 minutes? Why was Ryan McCarthy so surprised to "I don't know what actually happened." (Miller, 115) "I -- I can't -- I don't know how to explain that." (McCarthy, 136) "You're coming up with a plan without me being involved in the plan?" (Walker, 108) Q: Was there any hesitation by DOD leadership to deploy the D.C. National Guard? A: None. No. (Milley, 258) "In fact, even in hindsight, I am really glad the cops showed up first. I'm glad that the FBI or the DEA or whoever it was, I'm glad they were the ones that showed up first and cleared the Capitol. Because they're the pros, they know how to do it. They're cops." (Milley, 275) https://www.govinfo.gov/collection/january-6th-committee-final-report?path=/gpo/January%206th%20Committee%20Final%20Report%20and%20Supporting%20Materials%20Collection/Supporting%20Materials%20-%20Transcribed%20Interviews%20and%20Depositions/%7B%22pageSize%22%3A%2250%22%2C%22offset%22%3A%220%22%7D https://www.govinfo.gov/collection/january-6th-committee-final-report?path=/gpo/January%206th%20Committee%20Final%20Report%20and%20Supporting%20Materials%20Collection/Supporting%20Materials%20-%20Transcribed%20Interviews%20and%20Depositions/%7B%22pageSize%22%3A%2250%22%2C%22offset%22%3A%220%22%7D https://www.militarytimes.com/news/2022/08/08/milley-almost-quit-over-trump-wrote-biting-resignation-letter-new-book-reveals/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/chairman-joint-chiefs-says-no-role-military-presidential-election-n1238772 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMrvbCVNcwE&t=1s https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/09/mark-esper-fired-defence-pentagon-donald-trump https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/politics/chris-krebs-fired-by-trump/index.html DOD Statement on Personnel Changes at the Pentagon > U.S. Department of Defense > Release https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/d-c-mayor-muriel-bowser-press-conference-on-capitol-protests-transcript-january-6 https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IJ/IJ00/20211213/114313/HRPT-117-NA.pdf

I interview Aquilino Gonell, formerly of the United States Capitol Police. Gonell has published American Shield, an autobiography recounting his life story from his childhood in the Dominican Republic, and New York City, his service in the Second Iraq War, and also detailing his leadership role in a Civil Disturbance Unit on January 6th, 2021, as well as the aftermath of the attack and his decision to testify before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. Sergeant Gonell is a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal and the Congressional Gold Medal. https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/american-shield/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741940/escudo-americano-by-aquilino-gonell/ https://www.uscp.gov/department/united-states-capitol-police-memorial-fund https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/03/politics/capitol-police-officers-exclusive-interview-january-6/index.html https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117hhrg50139/html/CHRG-117hhrg50139.htm https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/01/06/remarks-by-president-biden-at-presentation-of-the-presidential-citizens-medal/

For the third anniversary of the January 6th Attack, I speak with Riverfox, a sedition hunter whose current role includes a crowdsourced effort to debunk the "Fedsurrection" narrative. We discuss what this campaign of far-right propaganda is, why it is central to the politics of the Trumpist movement, and how to counter it. After the interview, I will review some recent developments, to include the arrests of three longstanding Florida fugitives for charges stemming from their alleged roles in the January sixth attack. I also review some recent developments in the January 6th cases against Trump: 2023 was the year in which cases were finally charged against the apex of the January 6th Attack conspiracy, but 2024 will be the year in which these cases are tried. I'll then discuss what it means for the electoral prospects of a major party nominee who will be campaigning for the presidency while embroiled in multiple felony cases in different jurisdictions. Finally, I will review the numbers, using some interesting data visualizations from the people behind the X account @jan6thdata that show some intriguing patterns among January 6th defendants. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-capitol-police-officer-harry-dunn-announces-bid-for-congress/ar-AA1mvgED https://news.gallup.com/poll/311825/presidential-job-approval-related-reelection-historically.aspx https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/supreme-court-denies-special-counsels-request-to-take-up-trump-immunity-claim/ar-AA1lUOoc https://www.ijpr.org/npr-news/2024-01-05/supreme-court-takes-up-colorados-decision-to-kick-trump-off-its-primary-ballot https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/121120zr_p860.pdf https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/supreme-court-refuses-quick-action-on-trump-election-lawsuits.html https://cha.house.gov/cha-subcommittee-reading-room-fe781e74-d577-4f64-93cc-fc3a8dd8df18 https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67891889/united-states-v-donald-trump/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24250215-us-v-trump-gov-appellate-response-to-trump-immunity-dc-case?responsive=1&title=1 https://archive.org/embed/TheKGBAndSovietDisinformationLadislavBittman

This episode's guest is Julie Farnam, who was a witness before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, in which she testified regarding intelligence she had obtained before January 6th that attendees intended to come to the event armed, that white supremacists planned to attend, that participants were sharing maps of the Capitol tunnels, and many other data points that ought to have been sufficient for the USCP to adequately prepare. This interview is occasioned by the publication of her forthcoming book, “Domestic Darkness: An Insider’s Account of the January 6 Insurrection and the Future of Right-Wing-Extremism,” which is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold, with a publication date of January 2nd, 2024. Farnam had served as the Assistant Director of the Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division (IICD) for the USCP during the run-up to, and then in the aftermath of, the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Following the resignation of her immediate superior, Jack Donohue, in the Spring of 2021, Farnam assumed the position of Acting Director of the Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division for the USCP. Then, when she was passed over for Donohue’s job in March of 2022, Farnam returned to her Assistant Director position, which she later left. We discuss Farnam's experiences in her government career, and the "culture of mediocrity" that was evident in the failure of USCP leadership to act on the intelligence IICD had provided in the assessment she wrote and submitted on January 3rd, 2021. We also discuss how it was that she came to be interviewed by the FBI regarding an MPD officer who allegedly gave sensitive law enforcement information regarding investigations and pending arrests with the Chairman of the Proud Boys. Also discussed: a pressure campaign by USCP intended to force Farnam not to submit her manuscript for publication, in incident involving Russian nationals behaving suspiciously on January 6th, an interview she conducted with a DOD source who told her that Charles Flynn and Bradley Gericke were concerned that an as-yet not public intelligence report was too focused on the danger to the Capitol from the crowd that would attend Trump's Ellipse speech, and insufficiently concerned with Antifa and BLM. https://www.igpub.com/tag/julie-farnam/ https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000034626/ https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21174477/uscp-jan6-intelreports-cnn.pdf https://www.rules.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Jan%206%20HSGAC%20Rules%20Report.pdf https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/30/capitol-police-trump-insurrection-485138

Following the latest developments in the January 6th story, including the arrest of the 1,200th January 6th Attack defendant, a key ruling by the DC Circuit Court in the Blassingame civil case in DC, the rejection of Trump's claim of absolute immunity in the election interference case in DC, the rape allegation against the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party, and the claim by the House Speaker that he will release all the security video from the Capitol taken on January 6th, 2021, but only after he blurs the faces of the Trumpist mob so that these individuals will not be identified and charged by the Department of Justice. In the final segment, I will read from a transcript from an audio recording of an online "space" taken from the website formerly known as Twitter. There's an ongoing effort led by a Texas Three Percenter and several supporters of the Proud Boys paramilitary gang to harass federal law enforcement officials at federal prisons, and also to collect their names for unspecified purposes. The participants claim that this is being done in an effort to secure the early release of Proud Boys and other January 6th defendants, even though that's not how this works. I will also play excerpts from the space so listeners can hear these Trumpist "activists" harassing federal officers who are sworn to protect the community. https://www.businessinsider.com/moms-for-liberty-gop-chairman-threesome-christian-bridget-ziegler-conservatism-2023-12 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/06/sarasota-gop-joins-ron-desantis-in-pushing-ziegler-to-resign/71822927007/ https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.38510/gov.uscourts.cadc.38510.2029472.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148.171.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148.176.0.pdf https://www.modeldmedia.com/features/timeline-of-calls-to-action-at-tcf-center.aspx https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/19/2123875/-Faketriots-stage-protest-of-Jan-6-veterans-by-trying-to-clog-up-VA-suicide-prevention-hotline

We get caught up on arrests in the January 6th Attack, which have picked up again. I also discuss the attempt by an AFO defendant in New Jersey to flee from the FBI, and the sentencings of some notable defendants. Also: leaked proffer videos in the Fulton County case, and the effort to get cameras in the courtroom in the Trump's DC case. Most of the episode consists of a review of the figures connected with the Tomotley Plot, a ring of attorneys and former military intelligence officials who worked together to overturn the 2020 presidential election at Lucian "Lin" Wood's plantation in South Carolina. I draw on dozens of transcripts to show how extensively Powell and her co-conspirators are connected to every part of the January 6th story. The story of what happened at Tomotley is one that's had little coverage, but it was every bit as important to the progress of the Trumpist plot as Trump International or the war room at the Willard. Apparently no one took even a moment to consider the wisdom of a group of white, southern lawyers working together with retired military officials in an attempt to disenfranchise millions of American voters, particularly black voters, at a locale so thoroughly associated with the Confederacy that General Sherman burnt the place to the ground in 1865. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/special-counsel-says-trump-wants-jan-6-trial-to-be-a-media-event-as-it-argues-against-live-court-tv/ar-AA1jRGcm https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.260552/gov.uscourts.dcd.260552.16.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.260552/gov.uscourts.dcd.260552.22.0.pdf https://www.rawstory.com/lin-woods-tweet/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/prosecutor-asks-judge-to-revoke-bond-for-harrison-floyd-in-georgia-election-case/ar-AA1jZN9w https://abc7chicago.com/jenna-ellis-sydney-powell-donald-trump-2020-election/14054154/ https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/who-is-misty-hampton-former-coffee-county-elections-director-indicted-for-election-interference https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/16/a-stay-at-lin-woods-maga-friendly-bed-and-breakfast https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/lin-wood-loses-again-as-federal-appeals-court-savages-georgia-election-lawsuit/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/05/politics/lin-wood-law-license/index.html https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/wisconsin-federal-judge-picks-apart-sidney-powell-and-lin-woods-lawsuit-in-brutal-order/ https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000082296/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000082296.pdf https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/politics/michigan-voting-machine-plot-charged-lambert/index.html https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/trump-indictment-georgia-protective-order-plea-deal-interviews https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21201004/documents-for-eo-story.pdf https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/09/14/2018-20203/imposing-certain-sanctions-in-the-event-of-foreign-interference-in-a-united-states-election

In this episode, I will read the final chapter of Franz Neumann's Behemoth, which I see as a touchstone for understanding Trumpism. Writing in exile, Neumann described Germany as a nullity, a place with no underlying political theory, no theory of society, and ultimately not even properly a state. He describes it as a nation where a coalition of elites rule through careful application of propaganda, which is used to control the people directly, without the mediation of the state. https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.10130/page/9/mode/2up https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691134130/secret-reports-on-nazi-germany https://web.archive.org/web/20020809080635/http://www.wbenjamin.org/Behemoth.html