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The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack revealed at its inaugural hearing that Donald Trumps top Republican allies in Congress sought pardons after the January 6 insurrection, a major disclosure that bolstered the claim that the event amounted to a coup and is likely to cause serious scrutiny for those implicated.

The news that multiple House Republicans asked the Trump White House for pardons an apparent consciousness of guilt was one of three revelations portending potentially perilous legal and political moments to come for Trump and his allies.

At the hearing, the panels vice-chair, Liz Cheney, named only one Republican member of Congress, congressman Scott Perry, the current chair of the ultra-conservative House freedom caucus, who sought a presidential pardon for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The select committee did not elaborate on which other House Republicans were asking for pardons or more significantly, for which crimes they were seeking pardons, but it appeared to show at the minimum that they knew they had been involved in probably illegal conduct.

The extraordinary claim also raised the prospect that the Republican members of Congress seeking clemency believed Trumps election fraud claims were baseless: for why would they need pardons if they really were only raising legitimate questions about the election.

Its hard to find a more explicit statement of consciousness of guilt than looking for a pardon for actions youve just taken, assisting in a plan to overthrow the results of a presidential election, Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, told reporters.

The disclosure about the pardons came during the opening hour of the hearing in which the panel made the case that Trump could not credibly believe he had won the 2020 election after some of his most senior advisers told him repeatedly that he had lost to Joe Biden.

Trump, according to videos of closed-door depositions played by the select committee, was told by his data experts he lost the election, told by the then attorney general, Bill Barr, that his election fraud claims were bullshit, a conclusion Ivanka Trump said she accepted.

The admissions by some of Trumps top aides are important since they could put federal prosecutors one step closer to being able to charge Trump with obstructing an official proceeding or defrauding the United States on the basis of election fraud claims he knew were false.

At the heart of the case the panel appears to be trying to make is the legal doctrine of willful blindness, as former US attorney Joyce Vance wrote for MSNBC, which says a defendant cannot say they were not aware of something if they were credibly notified of the truth.

The potential case against Trump might take the form that he could not use as his defense, against charges he violated the law to stop Bidens certification on January 6, that he believed there was election fraud, when he had been credibly notified it was bullshit.

Also in the first hour of the hearing, the select committee cast in a new light the contentious 18 December 2020 meeting Trump had at the White House with his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell.

The Guardian has reported extensively on that meeting, where Powell urged Trump to sign an executive order to seize voting machines and suspend normal law, based on Trumps executive order 13848, and to appoint her special counsel to investigate election fraud.

Cheney confirmed the reporting by this newspaper and others, that the group discussed dramatic steps such as seizing voting machines, but also alluded to a potential discussion about somehow obstructing Bidens election win certification.

The basis for that characterization, based on how Cheney described the late-night meeting in the Oval Office that later continued in the White House residence, appears to be how Trump, just hours later, tweeted that there would be a wild protest on January 6.

It was not clear whether Cheney was laying the groundwork for the select committee to tie Trump into a conspiracy of some sort, claiming this represented two people entering an agreement and taking overt steps to accomplishing it the legal standard for conspiracy.

But the wild protest phrase would shortly after be seized upon by some of the most prominent far-right political operatives.

Hours after Trumps tweet, according to archived versions of its website, Stop the Steal changed its banner to advertise a wild protest before Ali Alexander, who led the movement, even applied for a permit to stage a rally on the east side of the Capitol on January 6.

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Capitol attack pardon revelations could spell doom for Trump and allies - The Guardian US

Modern U.S. presidents such as Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan rank near the top of the best leaders in American history, while Donald Trump is closer to the bottom, according to the latest survey of presidential historians.

The five highest rated presidents, according to the C-SPAN survey, are Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The bottom five include William Henry Harrison, Donald Trump, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.

What the presidents at the very top of the list have in common is that most faced monumental challenges related to the nations survival. Lincoln presided over the Civil War and kept the country from breaking apart. Washington, Americas first president, helped nurture the budding democracy by not becoming king and stepping down after serving as president. Franklin Roosevelt presided over America during World War II and Eisenhower negotiated an end to the Korean War.

They were all president during critical periods in American history, says Cassandra Newby-Alexander, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and a professor of history at Norfolk State University, who took part in the survey. And all of them, from John F. Kennedy (8th), all the way up to Abraham Lincoln (1st) created some idealized vision of America.

The presidents were judged on the vision they had for America, public persuasion, crisis leadership, economics, moral authority, foreign affairs, administrative skills, relationship with Congress, pursuit of equal justice and their performance within the context of the time they led the country.

Political scientist Robert Kaufman, a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, who also took part in the survey, says it is important to make a distinction between greatness and an effective president.

Not all very effective presidents can be great, in my estimation, because greatness also depends upon the magnitude of the challenge, he says. Theodore Roosevelt, at the beginning of the 20th century, and Bill Clinton, at the end, were effective, but never faced the type of challenge that would lend itself to greatness.

The man at the bottom of the list, James Buchanan, is often ranked as one of the worst U.S. presidents. His refusal to take a side on slavery, while at times siding with slaveholders, is thought to have inflamed divisions within the country ahead of the Civil War.

Both Kaufman, who calls himself a Republican, and Newby-Alexander feel Truman (6th) might be the most under-rated president. Both point to his fight for civil rights while Kaufman also praises the 33rd president for laying the successful architecture for winning the Cold War.

Overall, Newby-Alexander says, the survey results reflect a conventional view.

If you consider the average age of historians, they tend to be older, they tend to be white and they tend to be male, so that actually leads to many of them having a somewhat traditionalist perspective, she says, pointing out how high Theodore Roosevelt (4th) and Woodrow Wilson (13th) ranked despite their well-established racist views and actions.

Under their administrations, we had the largest number of concentrated lynchings that went unpunished than any other time in American history, she says. [Wilsons] the one who strictly segregated the federal government. That did not exist before. He segregated the Navy. That did not exist before. He initiated a lot of very retrograde policy during a critical period in American history.

The passage of time and the gaining of perspective tends to change how presidents are viewed. While Newby-Alexander thinks Reagan (9th) is overrated, specifically mentioning his stance on apartheid he vetoed the Comprehensive Apartheid Act, which levied economic sanctions against South Africa in 1986 Kaufman lists the reasons he would push the 40th U.S. president higher up the list.

Winning the Cold War, restoring American economic prosperity rooted in Judeo-Christian values, and optimism about America's exceptionalism, Kaufman says. He understood a) what the Soviet threat was about, b) what we needed to do to defeat it, and he left Bill Clinton a very strong hand. In many ways, we've been living off borrowed military capital of the Reagan buildup of the 1980s, when he inherited a military in disarray.

And, although he says it might be an unpopular opinion, Kaufman thinks Trump (now ranked 41 out of 44 presidents) will also rise in future surveys.

I think that, as the years go by, the president will get credit, however sausage-like the process was, for putting certain issues on the table that had long been neglected sovereignty, particularly China, and energy independence, he says. I think China, which is the dominant foreign policy threat of our time, by my estimate, is something where Trump will get more credit, substantively, not temperamentally, than one would rate him now in the wreckage of his presidency.

Newby-Alexander believes history will judge Obama (10th) more favorably.

I would have put Barack Obama under Abraham Lincoln because he managed to not only provide us with an incredibly important health care initiative while it has a lot of flaws, it was something that presidents have been trying to do for almost 100 years, and he succeeded, she says. Also, he was someone who got us out of a crisis that was actually deeper than the Great Depression when the stock market crashed in 1929. What we experienced right before he took office was worse than what Franklin Roosevelt dealt with, and he was able to pull us out. And I think that that has been tremendously underrated.

The current president, Joe Biden, is not on the list, and historians say it is too early to judge him.

Read this article:
America's Best and Worst Presidents Ranked - Voice of America - VOA News

For the entirety of her 40 years on earth, Ivanka Trump has had the dubious honor of being Donald Trumps favorite child. And while its difficult to imagine her doing literally anything that would result in Don Jr. or Eric moving up in the ranks, on Thursday evening she came extremely close when the January 6 committee aired a portion of her April testimony in which the former first daughter said she knew there was no evidence that her father had won 2020 election, i.e., the lie hes maintained for approximately 19 months now.

Not surprisingly the ex-president didnt take kindly to being thrown under the bus by his own flesh and blood, and on Friday morning, fired up the internet to inform his followers that his eldest daughter doesnt know what the hell shes talking about.

Ivanka, of course, stood by her father as he pushed his election liesas other members of the administration resigned in protestso she shouldnt actually receive any credit for only now admitting something that half the country already knew. But the fact that she did, to the January 6 committee, obviously makes her father look even worse than he already didand clearly, he knows it.

Unsurprisingly, Ivanka wasnt the only object of Trumps rage on Friday. He also sent out a series of truths attacking former attorney general Bill Barr, who called his election-fraud claims bullshit in deposition to the committee and insisted that Vice Chair Liz Cheneys claim that he supported the rioters hang Mike Pence chants false. I NEVER said, or even thought of saying, Hang Mike Pence. This is either a made up story by somebody looking to become a star, or FAKE NEWS! Trump ranted, according to Politico. In reality, Cheney didnt say that Trump uttered the words hang Mike Pence, but that he reportedly suggested to White House aides that the then V.P. deserved what the insurrectionists had in mind for him. Also, his denials would be a lot more convincing if he wasnt literally on tape defending the Hang Mike Pence calls.

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Jared Kushners former White House colleagues pan his January 6 hearing appearance

That probably has something to do with the former first son-in-law snivelingly telling committee investigators that he dismissed their threats to resign over Trumps election lies as whining. Per The New York Times:

Read the rest here:
Donald Trump Throws Predictable Shit Fit After Ivanka Throws Him Under ...

Donald Trump criticized the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack soon after the panel's first televised hearing, during which he was blamed for the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The former president shared his reaction to the televised proceedings on Truth Socialthe social network he created after he was banned from Twitter in the wake of the January 6 riot over fears he would use the platform to incite violence.

"So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and Irregularities that took place on a massive scale, and decided to use a documentary maker from Fake News ABC to spin only negative footage," Trump said. "Our Country is in such trouble!"

Trump was making reference to former ABC News television executive James Goldston, who was brought in by the panel to help them produce televised hearings that are being broadcast live on all major news networks except Fox News.

Before the hearing began, Trump attacked the House Committee investigating the attack while repeating his long dismissed claims of voter fraud in a series of Truth Social posts, including describing the panel as an "Unselect Committee of political Thugs."

During Thursday's proceedings, the committee's chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, described January 6 as a "culmination of an attempted coup" that was Trump's "last stand" and his "most desperate chance" to halt the transfer of power to Joe Biden following the 2020 Election.

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, one of only two Republicans on the panel, said the crowd of Trump's supporters, which included far-right extremists, stormed the Capitol on January 6 because they were "motivated" by the former president's false election fraud claims and assertion he was the rightful president.

"President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack," Cheney said.

Thursday's hearing was a mixture of speeches from the panel, multimedia presentations and live testimony from Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer who was severely injured in the riot, and Nick Quested, a documentary filmmaker who was filming members of the Proud Boys on January 6.

The panel said that the far-right group, whose members have been charged with sedition in connection to January 6, were partially inspired by Trump's "will be wild"' tweet telling his supporters to attend protests in Washington D.C. that day.

One of the most damning clips played during on Thursday was of the former president's eldest daughter, former White House adviser Ivanka Trump, admitting that she didn't share her father's view that the last election was rigged against him.

The footage showed Ivanka Trump saying she "accepted" former Attorney General William Barr's assessment that claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 Election were "b******t."

Cheney also revealed that Trump reacted to reports of Capitol rioters chanting "hang Mike Pence" by suggesting they "have the right idea" and that his former vice president "deserves it."

In the run up to January 6, Trump repeatedly and falsely suggested that Pence could stop the certification of the 2020 Election results during his purely ceremonial role as presiding officer of the Senate.

Even as the attack was taking place, Trump tweeted that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done" with regards to stopping the election being certified.

"Donald Trumpthe President of the United Statesspurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy," Thompson said in his opening statement.

"Any legal jargon you hear about 'seditious conspiracy', 'obstruction of an official proceeding', 'conspiracy to defraud the United States' boils down to this: January 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup. A brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after January 6th, to overthrow the Government.

"Violence was no accident. It represented Trump's last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power."

Update 06/10/22 at 3:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with background information throughout.

Originally posted here:
Donald Trump Reacts to First Jan. 6 Hearing'Such Trouble'

It seems that the greatest sin an offspring of former President Donald Trump can commit is to tell the truth about him.

That happened on Thursday during the initial hearing of the select committee looking into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And Trump, defensive and paranoid as ever, is happy to throwhis daughter Ivanka under the bus for her honesty.

Nice dad.

It began with a video clip of former Attorney General Bill Barr that was broadcast during the hearing. In it, Barr was asked about his decision to leave office and his reaction to Trump continuing to spread the Big Lie about election fraud.

Former President Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka

Barr said, I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bull----. And I didnt want to be a part of it.

A little later the committee showed a video of Trumps daughter Ivanka, who served as an adviser to her father, in an interview about Jan. 6. She was asked what she thought of Barrs assessment of her fathers fraud claims.

She said she believed the attorney general.

Another view: How the right should respond to the Jan. 6 video

I respect Attorney General Barr. So, I accepted what he was saying, Ivankasaid.

Ooooo, Daddy Donald is having none of that.

As if we needed any more proof of how low the former president is willing to sink in order to satisfy his ego, this is it.

On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote, Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!).

So, his handpicked attorney general was terrible and his daughter isa liar.

According to the committee a number of other members of Trumps inner White House circle will be offering testimony that backs up both Barr and Ivanka.

Story continues

Id guess Trump will attackeach one of them as well.

For now, however, its his own dear child who doesnt know what shes talking about according to Trump because she had long since checked out.

Well, if she hasnt already, Id guess Ivanka most likely will checkout of one notable upcoming event.

Fathers Day.

If I was the Donald, I wouldnt bother checking the mailbox for a card.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Donald Trump trashes daughter Ivanka for being honest about Jan. 6

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Donald Trump trashes his daughter Ivanka for daring to be honest with ...