 |
| Wackydoodle sez: Y'al send him money now, ya hear! |
It is well known in the Swamp, nothing get done unless it become embarrassing to deny a problem any longer. Look how long it took Joe Manchin to support climate change legislation!* The Justice Depart was finally embarrassed by the January 6th Committee by the avalanche of evidence showing Herr Trumpilini's criminal culpability for the coup that culminated in the Capitol Insurrection. The Department has opened a criminal investigation in which Trump is a subject. Witnesses at the federal grand jury say they were asked question about Trump's involvement in the fake elector scheme by Justice Department prosecutors. Those witnesses included two top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence according to the WaPo that broke the story on Tuesday.
There are more indications that pressure is building against Trump's wall of omerta Former Chief of Staff Mike Mulvaney testified in private before the Committee on Thursday. Mulvaney resigned from his appointment as special envoy to Northern Ireland after the insurrection on January 6th. Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State told reporters that he has had discussion with investigators about testifying. The Committee has apparently reached an agreement with the Justice Department to turn over transcripts dealing with the fake elector scheme. This aspect of the coup has interested DOJ the most and has been under investigation the longest. Fraudulent elector certifications are tangible evidence and attempting to foist them onto Congress is an unambiguous indication of fraudulent intent. Trump's role in the gambit has not been made explicit until the latest communications turned over to the Committee show Trump direct involvement. At one point in the plotting he put the Republican National Chairperson on the phone with his chief legal minion,s John Eastman, telling her it was important that the RNC aid in obtaining alternative slates of electors. The plan went forward despite the fact that several legal advisors told him his plan was illegal
In an interesting historic sidenote, the idea for alternative slates of electors may have come from the 1960 election between Kennedy and Nixon, which was extremely close. The Kennedy campaign prepared a list of contingent electors for Hawaii, in case the recount of the popular vote there went against the Senator from Massachusetts. The recount came out in Kennedy's favor by only 115 votes, which was considered an upset at the time. Hawaii presented both the original three Republican electors and the three newly certified Kennedy electors. Nixon, as Vice President, counted the Kennedy electors at the joint session of Congress.
The salient distinction here is that the Hawaii popular vote was genuinely contested In the 2020 there was no credible dispute about who won the contests in swing states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Trump's scheme was a fraud from the beginning and he knew it. At the start of this sorry saga, many pundits thought (NOT US Person!) that the various facets of his plan to stay in power were unconnected-- the riot, the pressuring of the Vice-President, his demand to find more votes in Georgia, and the bogus electoral gambit. The evidence collected so far mostly by the House Select Committee, shows unequivocally that these were all facets of the same corrupt conspiracy to seize power in violation of the foundational laws of this country. The man who would be king was at its center like a poisonous spider in her web waiting to devour the hapless fly of democracy.
*The backstory behind Manchin's abrupt flip on climate legislations is laid out at Politico.com. Another example of how the Swamp really works: hee was pressured by CEOs, labor unions, Bill Gates, and even wildlife conservationists to support the Democratic bill. But what really counted is the fact that his state stands to gain new green industries like a battery factory backed by Gates, and millions in federal subsidies, which in one of the poorest states in the Union is not coals to Newcastle. As an extra added bonus he extracted a promise from Democratic leadership that they will support completion of a pipeline in his state that has run into permitting problems. Just doing his representation thing, folks!