2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Actually, Navarro did speak on his own behalf, despite his lawyer saying that he was not going to.

[N.E. Brigand]

Axios has some interesting reporting on how the acquittal happen.

Scoop: How GOP pressured Texas senators over Paxton's impeachment trial

Two of the Texas state senators who voted to acquit Ken Paxton now want the impeachment trial reopened because last week, in a filing in a whistleblower lawsuit related to the same matters for which Paxton was impeached, Paxton wrote that he "elects not to contest any issue of fact in this case," and these state senators say that despite Paxton's argument to the contrary, this is an admission of guilt.

[N.E. Brigand]

I've scrolled past something claiming that they said they would not accept anything smaller than the Dominion payout, can't remember what the source was.

Ah, there it is. There is no link in the tweet.

BREAKING: Smartmatic WINS its first major legal battle as Fox News will have to turn over additional documents. Smartmatic will now receive deposition transcripts, and exhibits from the recently settled Dominion Voting Systems defamation case. This is a significant development as Smartmatic reportedly has already received over 30,0000 documents from Fox News. Fox will also give Smartmatic documents related to the Murdoch’s and Raj Shah, a former Trump administration official who is now a vice president at Fox Corp.The monster case brought by Smartmatic is against Fox News, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and former host Lou Dobbs. Smartmatic’s suit is currently biggest pending defamation case against Fox News. It is suing $2.7 billion in damages and has said they won’t settle for less than Dominion’s $785 million settlement.

CNN reports that "Executives at the pro-Trump network One America News may have 'engaged in criminal activities' while promoting 2020 election lies, Smartmatic alleges" in its defamation lawsuit against OAN. Specifically, the network's president seems to have emailed Sidney Powell (the sometime Trump campaign lawyer) a spreadsheet supposedly including Smartmatic employee passwords.

[N.E. Brigand]

The far-right, dirty-tricks "news" organization Project Veritas has settled a claim brought by Robert Weisenbach, the postmaster in Erie, Pennsylvania, arising from Project Veritas's reporting that Weisenbach had directed an employee to illegally backdate ballot envelopes in the 2020 election. Project Veritas says they now recognize that isn't true.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, Michigan attorney general charges 'false electors' over efforts to overturn the 2020 election

AP, reporting on a hearing today: "Fake Michigan Certificate of Votes mailed to U.S. Senate after 2020 presidential vote, official says."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Axios has some interesting reporting on how the acquittal happen.

Scoop: How GOP pressured Texas senators over Paxton's impeachment trial

Two of the Texas state senators who voted to acquit Ken Paxton now want the impeachment trial reopened because last week, in a filing in a whistleblower lawsuit related to the same matters for which Paxton was impeached, Paxton wrote that he "elects not to contest any issue of fact in this case," and these state senators say that despite Paxton's argument to the contrary, this is an admission of guilt.

More importantly, it looks like Paxton might finally be going on trial for securities fraud in the coming months, after being indicted almost 9 years ago.

[N.E. Brigand]

Matt. Schlapp.

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.

Matt Schlapp can at least say that unlike Donald Trump, he wasn't eating the documents.

[N.E. Brigand]

More than three years later, people are still being charged for their actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

[N.E. Brigand]

More than three years later, people are still being charged for their actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

And still more. Those two were arrested in Florida. This one was arrested here in Ohio.

[N.E. Brigand]

For reference, here's today's list:
Liz Cheney (WY) [Jan. 2017-Jan. 2023]
Adam Kinzinger (IL) [Jan. 2011-Jan. 2023]
Anthony Gonzalez (OH) [Jan. 2019-Jan. 2023]
Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) [Jan. 2011-Jan. 2023]
Peter Meijer (MI) [Jan. 2021-Jan. 2023]
Fred Upton (MI) [Jan. 1987-Jan. 2023]
Tom Rice (SC) [Jan. 2013-Jan. 2023]
John Katko (NY) [Jan. 2021-Jan. 2023]
Dan Newhouse (WA) [Jan. 2015-current]
David Valadao (CA) [Jan. 2021-current]

As noted above (I have added the dates of office), Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, was one of just ten House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump in his second impeachment proceedings in January 2021. Kinzinger subsequently served on the bipartisan House committee that investigated the January 6th insurrection. He did not run for reelection in 2022, and as you can see, eight of the ten are no longer in office, because their constituencies objected to this vote.

Only one person elected as a Republican, Justin Amash of Michigan [Jan. 2011-Jan. 2021], voted to impeach Donald Trump in his first impeachment proceedings in December 2019. But by that point, Amash had left the Republican Party in response to the release of Robert Mueller's report in May 2019, which Amash believed showed that Trump had engaged in impeachable conduct. He did not run for relection in 2020, and he was succeeded by Peter Meijer, who's on the list above. The reason I revisited this list is that I just saw that Kinzinger said today that he regrets not voting to impeach Trump the first time -- although he added that had he done so, he surely wouldn't have been in office to vote the second time. However, checking the Wikipedia page on Kinzinger, I see this is not news: he said the same thing a couple years ago.

[N.E. Brigand]

Jan. 6th defendant Brandon Fellows, representing himself in court, made an ass of himself and, while he's awaiting the jury's verdict, was found in contempt and sentenced to five months in jail by Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee who has generally issued light sentences in Jan. 6th cases.

Meanwhile, in Brandon Fellows case,

[Kyle Cheney on Twitter: "Wow, jury in Brandon Fellows Jan. 6 case is nervous that he might have their personal information."]

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

No, as a juror I would not feel comfortable.

The jurors nonetheless found Fellows guilty on all charges.

Per the entry filed when Fellows was convicted in late August, he was to have been sentenced on Nov. 29, but that only happened today.

Fellows was initially granted pretrial release but had his bond revoked after multiple violations, including calling the mother of his probation officer. His defiant behavior continued following his rearrest. Fellows fired multiple attorneys and ultimately chose to represent himself – including during a disastrous bond review hearing in which he appeared to admit to illegally attempting to get judges removed from cases in D.C. and New York. In addition to his conviction at trial, Fellows was also found in criminal contempt of court for repeated outbursts, including calling the proceeding a “kangaroo court” and a “nazi court.”

Prosecutors asked for 37 months -- the longest period for the crimes of which he was committed -- and that's what Judge McFadden, a Trump appointee, sentenced him to:

McFadden, a former deputy assistant attorney general who was nominated to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump in 2017, said in all his years in law he had never seen a defendant as contemptuous as Fellows.

“You have repeatedly made a mockery of these proceedings,” McFadden said, noting Fellows had shown the “height of contempt” for all three branches of government and had “flagrantly lied” on the stand at trial. McFadden also pushed back against Fellows’ belief that he was the victim of a “grand conspiracy” against him.

“It is, rather, your defiance of any and every attempt to try to get your actions to conform to what the law requires that has gotten you to this point,” McFadden said, adding in exasperation a short time later, “It’s time for you to grow up!”

He's already spent 32 months in prison, so he'll be out after five more months, following which he'll be under supervision for three years.

- - - - - - - -
Also sentenced today: Ronald McAbee, "who was employed as a Tennessee sheriff’s deputy when he assaulted police officers protecting the U.S. Capitol from a mob of Donald Trump supporters ... [He] wore a bulletproof vest with two patches — one that said 'SHERIFF' and another bearing an insignia for the Three Percenters militia movement — when he stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. 2021. During a melee on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, McAbee dragged an officer away from a police line and punched another officer who tried to stop him." And the "day after the riot, McAbee smiled and held a newspaper with the headline 'INSURRECTION' as he posed for a photograph with a friend."

To McAbee's credit, he did administer CPR to a woman in the crowd that day who passed out and died.

Judge Rudolph Contreras didn't feel that McAbee's expressed contrition was very convincing today and sentenced him to six years' imprisonment. Prosecutors had asked for twelve years. McAbee has already served 31 months, so he'll be out by 2027.

The linked article notes that 1,300 people have been charged and 800 sentenced so far for their actions on Jan. 6. That's so many to keep track of that we never even mentioned McAbee in this thread, even though he's just received one of the longer sentences issued.

[N.E. Brigand]

Politico: "Arizona investigators issue grand jury subpoenas as state’s 2020 Trump election probe accelerates."

It's not clear whether this probe is limited to the actions of Arizona's would-be electors or also those associates of Donald Trump who may have coordinated them.

[N.E. Brigand]

In 2020, Donald Trump (and Ted Cruz) endorsed Daniel Rodimer, a former pro-wrestler, the Republican candidate for Congress from the 3rd Congressional district in Nevada. Rodimer would go on to lose to Rep. Susie Lee, the sitting Democrat, 48.8%-45.8%. In 2021, Rodimer ran for Congress in an open primary in Texas but finished in eleventh place.

Yesterday Rodimer was charged with murder in Las Vegas. His alleged victim, Christopher Tapp, had "spent more than 20 years in jail for a wrongful murder conviction" before being fully exonerated of the crime in 2019 and awarded $11.7 million as part of a settlement with law enforcement". His death in October was originally reported as an accident at the Resorts World Hotel -- it was said that he slipped -- but later it was found that he was in a fight in a hotel room.

[N.E. Brigand]

Michigan: "Judge issues bench warrant for pro-Trump lawyer who worked to reverse 2020 election."

"Stefanie Lambert ... has 24 hours to turn herself in. ... She didn't appear for a court hearing in Oakland County over her failures to get fingerprinted."

[N.E. Brigand]

NBC: "A Trump supporter has been charged with shooting off two gunshots at the Capitol on Jan. 6."

NBC News identified John Emanuel Banuelos two years ago as the man in photos and video footage who appeared to be flashing a gun in his waistband as he fought officers on Jan. 6, 2021.

Last month, Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans, who is now running in a Republican House primary in West Virginia, published previously unseen video that appeared to show that Banuelos actually fired his weapon twice outside the Capitol that day. Online "sedition hunters" who have aided the FBI in hundreds of arrests of Capitol rioters — and who first sent Banuelos' name to the FBI in February 2021 — quickly surfaced additional footage that confirmed that Banuelos was the man who appeared to have fired the weapon.

Banuelos, 39, now lives in Summit, Illinois, and he made his first appearance in federal court in Illinois on Friday after his arrest.

Banuelos was previously arrested in mid-2021 for fatally stabbing someone in a Utah park on July 4th of that year, but he claimed self-defense and wasn't charged.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

One of the unarmed sightseers, no doubt.

[N.E. Brigand]

I've been reading some of the final committee interview with Tony Ornato, the Secret Service agent who became the Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Trump administration and then returned to the Secret Service before retiring earlier this year. The committee confronts him with the testimony of three different people -- Cassidy Hutchinson, Robert Engel, and an unidentified military attaché -- who say that on the afternoon of January 6th there was a discussion in Ornato's office about (1) whether President Trump would go to the Capitol and (2) that the President was irate not to have gone there. Ornato repeatedly says that he has no memory of this discussion happening.

House Republicans have released a new report in which four witnesses confirm Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony -- which she had at secondhand from Tony Ornato -- that President Donald Trump wanted to be taken to the Capitol following his speech at the Ellipse and was upset when that didn't happen. Mind you, the new report is being spun as contradicting Hutchinson's statement -- again based on what she claimed Ornato said -- that Trump lunged for the steering wheel. But a close reading of the new material does not, in fact, contradict what she said. For instance, the driver says Trump "never grabbed the steering wheel" -- but Hutchinson said that Ornato told her that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel, not that he did it -- and the driver adds, "I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all." But if Trump was behind the driver and his eyes were on the road, it's not surprising he didn't see that.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And, of course, Hutchinson never said that any of that actually happened, only that Ornato said that it had happened. It would not at all be surprising that the events would be reported slightly differently in essentially a game of "telephone".

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Peter Navarro is going to jail.

[N.E. Brigand]

Peter Navarro is going to jail. ...

Peter Navarro then appealed to the Supreme Court, his last hope. Today, Chief Justice John Roberts turned him away.