Have to agree that the Dems are very good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Controlling Dems is like herding cats.
Controlling Repubs is like herding sheep.

States refer forged pro-Trump election docs to federal prosecutors
Two state attorneys general have asked federal prosecutors to investigate the scheme surrounding the Republicans' forged election documents.

Steve Benen
The Republican efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election have created a multifaceted scandal, but in recent weeks, there's been an unexpected twist. Republicans in multiple states created forged election materials and sent the documents to, among others, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Archivist, as if the materials were legitimate. They were not.

Among the many questions was one obvious line of inquiry: Was this legal? According to some who've reviewed what transpired, the answers is, perhaps not. The Detroit News reported the other day:


Nessel, who made the comments on The Rachel Maddow Show last week, added that she believes a variety of legal lines may have been crossed — and while she's referred the matter to ...

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-sho ... s-n1287622

There's the reason why REpublicans are so worried about Dems rigging elections. It might interfere with their rigging elections.

Supreme Court rejects Trump's bid to shield records from Jan. 6 committee
BY JOHN KRUZEL

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former President Trump's bid to block a trove of his administration's records from being handed to the Jan. 6 House committee.

The ruling came in an unsigned, one-paragraph order. Justice Clarence Thomas, a staunch conservative, was alone in indicating that he would have granted Trump’s request.

The move clears the way for congressional investigators to receive a batch of ...

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... from-jan-6

terrific news.

Trump kids’ refusal to pay their bills is coming back to haunt them in investigation: report
A dispute between Trump Org and a D.C. hotel is being considered in an investigation of inauguration funds misuse
By TOM BOGGIONI

According to a report from the Daily Beast, the Trump Organization — and by extension Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump — may have created another legal headache for themselves due to their history of not paying their bills.

As reported by the Beast's Jose Pagliery, Washington D.C, District Attorney Karl Racine is incorporating a dispute between the family's business and a D.C. hotel over an unpaid $49,358 bill into his investigation over the misuse of inauguration funds dating back to 2017.

At the center of the dispute was the Trump Org's refusal to pay for the block of rooms they booked at the Loews Madison Hotel after ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/17/kids-r ... t_partner/

Uh oh

More former staff members participated in anti-Trump meeting than expected- a former official now says they are all very worried
Tammy Marie Rose

Former Homeland Security adviser Olivia Troye told CNN that the gathering of former Trump administration officials drew a larger crowd than expected.

Troye told Jim Acosta on Sunday that the talks were still in the early stages, but that they were about how they could work together to counter the former president’s lies.

“It’s the first time we’ve all come together as a group,” she said. “This is a group of people that have worked across the Trump administration at varying levels, whether it be national security or more on the ...

https://vozwire.com/more-former-staff-m ... y-worried/

...asked by a reporter what his message was for "voters of color who are concerned" that without the legislation they won't be able to cast their votes in the upcoming midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said:

"Well, the concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans."

'TRYING TO OUT-TRUMP TRUMP'

Ron DeSantis Pounded by WaPo Editorial Board for Latest Attempt to ‘Poison Democracy’
Tom Boggioni

In a scathing opinion piece on Saturday morning, the editorial board of the Washington Post trashed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for his plan to create an “election police squad” that board suggests will be used to disrupt elections and scare voters away.

According to the board, the DeSantis proposal reeks of Donald Trump’s attempts to ...

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.c ... democracy/

Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines
The Jan. 6 select panel has obtained the draft order and a document titled "Remarks on National Healing." Both are reported here in detail for the first time.
BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN

Among the records that Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to shield from Jan. 6 investigators are a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.”

POLITICO has reviewed both documents. The text of the draft executive order is published here for the first time.

The executive order — which also would have appointed a special counsel to probe the 2020 election — was never issued. The remarks are a draft of a speech Trump gave the next day. Together, the two documents point to the wildly divergent perspectives of White House advisers and allies during Trump’s frenetic final weeks in office.

It’s not clear who wrote either document. But the draft executive order is dated Dec. 16, 2020, and is consistent with proposals that lawyer Sidney Powell made to the then-president. On Dec. 18, 2020, Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump in the Oval Office.

In that meeting, Powell urged Trump to ...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/2 ... nes-527572

No comment

https://vozwire.com/proud-boy-tiny-toes ... f-assault/

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes had network of "escape tunnels" in backyard, estranged wife says
Tasha Adams, the wife of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, shared photos of his "tunnel system" on Twitter
By JOHN WRIGHT

Tasha Adams, the estranged wife of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, is providing photographic evidence of the "elaborate escape tunnels" he allegedly constructed in their backyard.

On Wednesday, a federal magistrate judge cited Adams' testimony about the escape tunnels in an order denying Rhodes bond on seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Capitol insurrection.

A short time later, Adams posted photos corroborating her testimony.

"Folks if you ever feel tempted to rent a backhoe and dig escape tunnels in the backyard of your rental house, keep in mind it may come back to haunt you if you later attempt to ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/27/oath-k ... s_partner/

Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Fake Trump Electors
The panel demanded information from 14 people who were part of bogus slates of electors for President Donald J. Trump, digging deeper into an aspect of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
By Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued 14 subpoenas on Friday to people who falsely claimed to be electors for President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election in states that were actually won by Joseph R. Biden Jr., digging deeper into Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results.

The subpoenas target individuals who met and submitted false Electoral College certificates in seven states won by President Biden: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“The select committee is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/us/p ... ctors.html

Revenge of the Donald
Nostalgia and resentment could be enough to catapult Trump back into the presidency.
By David Frum

Losers don’t usually get a second chance in modern U.S. presidential politics. Back in the days of nominating conventions and party bosses, an Adlai Stevenson or a Thomas Dewey could gain two consecutive nominations. Richard Nixon actually won the presidency in 1968 after losing in 1960. But since the coming of primary contests, it’s win—or retire. Even Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, was debarred in 2004.

Donald Trump, who upended so many previous presidential precedents, now seems likely to upend one more. Trump has to be considered the massive front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination. He’s already running hard, and he’s already dominating the field. Fox News’s intense promotion of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as an alternative to Trump is not working out any better in 2024 than its similar effort on behalf of then–New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in 2016. Trump dominates in the polls. He has the lead in fundraising. Down-ballot races turn on loyalty to Trump. Potential rivals vow they will not run for president if Trump does.

It’s an amazing spectacle, because Donald Trump was no ordinary political loser. He was a huge political loser. He lost the popular vote in two consecutive presidential elections, the second time by a margin of 8 million votes. He led his party to a brutal midterm defeat in 2018 amid the strongest economy since the late 1990s. He was the first president to have been ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... on/620502/

"Trump conjured a vision of a second term that would function as a tool of personal vengeance"

Trump offers chilling glimpse into possible second term
Stephen Collinson

Former President Donald Trump conjured a vision of a second term that would function as a tool of personal vengeance, and become even more authoritarian than his first, when he vowed to pardon US Capitol insurrectionists if he runs for the White House again and wins.

His pledge at a Texas rally Saturday was accompanied by a call for demonstrations if prosecutors in New York, who are probing Trump's business practices, and those in Georgia, looking into his attempts to reverse his election loss in the state, do anything that he defined as wrong or illegal. The comments underscore Trump's obsession with delusional lies that he won the 2020 election, and his determination to put that falsehood at the core of the Republican worldview. As was often the case during his four years in office, Trump's pardons threat shows that he still makes no distinction between his personal goals and the national interest or rule of law.
But the former President's new rhetorical outburst also at times hinted at concern with his own legal position, and comes at a moment when various criminal and congressional lines of investigation seem to be ...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/politics ... index.html

The best that can be hoped for is he's prevented from running. He'll never see jail for his alleged crimes. I'd be surprised if he ever went to trial no matter how damning the evidence.

Georgia Prosecutor Investigating Trump Seeks Safety Assistance From the F.B.I.
The Fulton County district attorney expressed concern about the former president’s comments at a rally in Texas.
Richard Fausset

The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., who is conducting a criminal investigation of former President Donald J. Trump has asked for an F.B.I. risk assessment of the county courthouse in downtown Atlanta, citing “alarming” rhetoric used by Mr. Trump at a rally in Texas over the weekend.

The Fulton County prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, is planning to impanel a special grand jury in May to look into accusations that Mr. Trump and his allies tried to improperly influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Among other things, the investigation is looking into a call that Mr. Trump made to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to pressure him to “find 11,780 votes” — the margin by which Mr. Trump lost the state.

Ms. Willis, a Democrat, made her request for a security assessment in a letter on Sunday to J.C. Hacker, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Atlanta field office. Ms. Willis said that she and her staff had “already made adjustments to accommodate security concerns during the course of the investigation, considering the communications we have received from persons unhappy with our commitment to fulfill our duties.”

But she also noted that Mr. Trump, at his rally in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday, made “multiple references to ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/t ... orgia.html

Jan. 6 committee seizes on Trump's "admission": He wanted Pence to “overturn” election
After Trump's remarkable "overturn" statement, Liz Cheney warns: "He’d do it all again if given the chance"
By IGOR DERYSH

Members of the House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot called out former President Donald Trump's "admission" that he wanted Vice President Mike Pence to "overturn" his election loss.

Trump cited the recent bipartisan push to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to claim that he was correct that Pence had the power to "change the outcome" of the election. The admittedly confusing law, which governs the certification of electoral votes, makes clear that the vice president's role is purely ceremonial but Trump allies circulated a memo by right-wing lawyer John Eastman claiming that Pence had the power to unilaterally reject certain electoral votes on Jan. 6. A bipartisan group of senators is working on a bill that would clarify the law in an effort to deter similar efforts in the future.

"If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election?" Trump said in a statement, repeating his repeatedly debunked false claims about the election. "Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!"

"We're taking a look at the Electoral Count Act because it's an old statute and ... some of our colleagues in the House had tried to exploit ambiguities in it," she said. "But I frankly think the role of the vice president will probably remain unchanged."

Lofgren pointed out the irony of Trump's claim, noting that if he believes the vice president can "choose the next president" then Vice President Kamala Harris would be free to reject electoral votes from Republican states in ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/31/jan-6- ... -overturn/

Trump demands investigation of former VP Pence for refusing to overturn election results
By DAVE GOLDINER

Former President Trump wants Congress to investigate ex-Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Instead of investigating the storming of the Capitol by a mob of his violent supporters, Trump said the House select committee on Jan. 6 should probe Pence’s decision to obey the Constitution and affirm President Biden’s victory.

“(Congress) should be investigating ... why Mike Pence did not send the votes back for recertification or approval,” the twice impeached president said in an email statement. “It has now been clearly shown that he had the right to do so!”

The broadside amounts to Trump’s fiercest and most direct attack yet on Pence, his onetime loyal lieutenant turned potential rival.

Trump remains bitterly angry at Pence for rebuffing his demands to join his unconstitutional effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to Biden.

He is now openly defending the effort to ...

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politi ... story.html

NRA board member subpoenaed by Jan. 6 committee over role in fake Trump elector scheme
The Jan. 6 committee on Friday targeted 14 people accused of submitting falsified Electoral College paperwork
By BRETT BACHMAN

The latest round of subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 committee targeted 14 people accused of submitting falsified Electoral College paperwork across seven states — part of an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to subvert 2020 election results and have former President Donald Trump declared the victor in states won by current President Joe Biden.

"The select committee is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of efforts to send false slates of electors to the National Archives," the committee's chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. "We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme."

According to The New York Times, the 14 people subpoenaed were: ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/28/nra-bo ... or-scheme/

Donald Trump's having an awful week — and it's only Wednesday
This week's Trump news seems to have shaken even the D.C. press corps' jaded attitude
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

enerally speaking, the Washington press corps and, in particular, the political reporters at the New York Times (NYT) are not ones to engage in hyperbole when it comes to Donald Trump. If anything, the paper of record has been downplaying the ongoing saga of Trump's Big Lie and all the evidence that's been piling up about what happened in the lead-up to January 6th recently. But this week's Trump news seems to have shaken even their jaded attitude.

For instance, the Times' Peter Baker tweeted on Tuesday, "Even for Trump it's quite a week -- first dangling pardons for capitol attackers, then admitting his goal was to have 'overturned the election' and now calling on the House to investigate Pence for not throwing out votes of multiple states so a president who lost could keep power." Then the Times' Maggie Haberman, appearing on CNN on Tuesday night, said, "it's been a breathtaking couple of days." This NYT piece by Shane Goldmacher headlined "Trump's Words, and Deeds, Reveal Depths of His Drive to Retain Power" says it all.

Earlier this week, I wrote about Trump's scripted comments at the rally in Texas over the weekend in which he promised pardons for the January 6th insurrectionists who were "treated unfairly" and called for protests against prosecutors who are investigating him. But that was just the beginning. On Monday, Trump put out ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/02/02/donald ... wednesday/

Numerous live links at source