2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, in Brandon Fellows case,



Judge McFadden's response doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

[RoseMorninStar]

Meanwhile, in Brandon Fellows case,
(...)

Judge McFadden's response doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

No, as a juror I would not feel comfortable.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The jurors nonetheless found Fellows guilty on all charges.

[N.E. Brigand]

Either there's something wrong with the sentencing guidelines, or there's something wrong with the judges in the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys trials, who have, I believe, consistently imposed sentences at the bottom end of or below the guidelines.

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Edit: Also, as noted here, Judge Kelly today said of Zach Rehl that "There's nothing to suggest that he intended to kill people" on January 6th, but right after the 2020 election, Rehl said, "Hopefully, the firing squads are for the traitors that are trying to steal the election from the American people." Yes, an argument can be made Rehl's expressed Nov. 2020 desire was not his Jan. 2021 intention, but I don't think Kelly even acknowledged that statement.

[N.E. Brigand]

Matt Schlapp? Crossing the streams a bit with this one.

Matt. Schlapp. One day after CPAC's vice chair Charlie Gerow resigned amidst new calls for the organization to investigate its leader Schlapp, the Washington Post reports that besides the lawsuit filed against Schlapp by a Herschel Walker campaign staffer who alleges that Schlapp groped him, "some CPAC board members and staffers have been told about other incidents involving Schlapp, 55, and two younger men, multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation said ... In one incident, a staffer said Schlapp attempted to kiss him while drinking late after a work function in 2017. The staffer also provided documentation from that night ... showing physical contact that the staffer said was unsolicited."

Per new reporting in the Daily Beast, Matt Schlapp tried to settle the suite against him by a Herschel Walker campaign staffer, but his offer was rejected.

Matt Schlapp and his wife Mercedes have claimed over the past couple days that The Daily Beast is run by Satan.

[N.E. Brigand]

Update (Dallas News): Ken Paxton's "attorney ... believes the FBI charges against Nate Paul involve Paxton [and that] the FBI is trying to get Paul to flip on Paxton."

Per this article in the Houston Chronicle, Attorney General Ken Paxton made a loan, still outstanding, of $125,000 to Dan Patrick, who is the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. In that role, Patrick is the President of the Texas Senate, and unlike other states -- or for that matter the U.S. Senate -- where the body's president only has an occasional role, in Texas, the President regularly presides.

And the Texas Senate is going to try Paxton on the impeachment counts brought by the Texas House.

Texas's lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, will preside over the Texas Senate's impeachment trial of the state's Attorney General, Ken Paxton. As noted above, Patrick is the recipient of a $125,000 loan from Paxton that he has yet to pay back.

And yesterday, we learned from quarterly campaign filings that Patrick's 2026 reelection campaign got a $3 million donation from a pro-Paxton PAC.

The Associate Press has a new story on Ken Paxton's general awfulness.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wow, after emotional pleas for mercy by Pezzola and his wife, daughter and mother, and Pezzola seemingly expressing remorse for his actions:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

(Poor Brandi is having keyboard issues. That should be "Stewart Rhodes.")

[N.E. Brigand]

Wow, after emotional pleas for mercy by Pezzola and his wife, daughter and mother, and Pezzola seemingly expressing remorse for his actions:

If Judge Kelly had factored Pezzola's apparent remorse into his sentencing decision, can he now haul Pezzola back into court and give him more years?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't know for sure, but I doubt it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The longest 1/6 sentence yet. Imposed by a Trump appointed judge on someone who wasn't there that day.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile in the same courthouse

[N.E. Brigand]

The longest 1/6 sentence yet. Imposed by a Trump appointed judge on someone who wasn't there that day.

And the sentenced defendant, Enrique Tarrio, was in the White House less than a month before Jan. 6th. We never did get a full explanation of how that happened, since he was already a convicted felon at that time and per the rules should only have been allowed on a tour if a senior White House official approved it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile in the same courthouse

And just like that, the trial is over, but for closing arguments, which will take place tomorrow morning, with the case then going to the jury.

[N.E. Brigand]

Jared Wise was in the FBI's counterterrorism office in New York, leaving in 2017 to join the conservative pseudo-media outlet Project Veritas where he worked with Trump ally Erik Prince to train personnel in counter-intelligence techniques for the company's sting operations. Project Veritas's secret operations included "female undercover operatives arrang[ing] dates with the F.B.I. employees with the aim of secretly recording them making disparaging comments about Mr. Trump."

Just because this is the most recent thread to reference the right-wing Project Veritas operation:

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye.

[N.E. Brigand]

At the Eastman state bar proceeding, they are taking a break from Eastman's testimony to accommodate the schedule of former Pence aide Greg Jacob. The last time the two of them interacted was documented in an email by Jacob on 1/6 that ends "thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege."

I was waiting for more info to come out before saying anything, but since that isn't happening... This morning the office of President Pro Tempore of the Senate Chuck Grassley announced that Grassley would be certifying the electoral college results tomorrow instead of Pence since "we don't expect him to be there." Pence's office immediately responded with "uh... yes he will be." Grassley's people then replied that what they *meant* to say was that Grassley would preside if Pence had to step out of the room for a minute for some unspecified reason (presumably not to grab a smoke). Separately, but perhaps not independently, rumors began to swirl that Pence would be resigning tonight.

Another WTAF moment. Perhaps Trump really really wants Pence to resign, but he's refusing?

After the events of January 6th, there was a lot of speculation -- but no more than that -- that Sen. Chuck Grassley's comment on Jan. 5, 2021 suggested there was some scheme to have the too-honest Vice President Mike Pence out of the way when the electoral votes were certified. In response to that theorizing, more measured commentators argued that this was probably just what it appeared to be: a simple misunderstanding on Grassley's part.

But yesterday John Eastman, the lawyer who advised Donald Trump on the 2020 election, was asked about these comments during his state bar hearings. He responded that he couldn't answer due to his attorney-client privilege with Trump.