2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's Grassley's response:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The jury has been deliberating since before lunchtime in Peter Navarro's contempt of congress case. They have already deliberated longer than the 2 and a half hours that another jury took to convict Steve Bannon on the same charge.

ETA: But it looks like there might be a verdict.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And, to no one's surprise,

[Frelga]

Screenshot_20230906-085557.png (264.55 KiB) Viewed 4396 times

[N.E. Brigand]

Before he was sentenced, Enrique Tarrio told the judge that he had learned his lesson and wouldn't be making an announcement after his sentencing (unlike Dominic Pezzola). But today, per Tess Owen of Vice, Tarrio is sending out fundraising emails in which he describes himself as a "dissident" punished for "speaking the truth."

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Roger Parloff notes that the Proud Boys were offered and rejected plea deals before going to trial, and despite what many are seeing as leniency from the judge, the sentenced imposed in each case are twice as long as what they would have gotten if the pled guilty.

[N.E. Brigand]

L. [Leo] Brent Bozell IV, the son of prominent conservative commentator L. Brent Bozell III, and the great nephew of the late William F. Buckley (founder of National Review) and the late U.S. senator James Buckley (who passed away at age 100 a few months ago), was found guilty in a bench trial today of ten charges stemming from his conduct on Jan. 6th, when he entered the U.S. Senate chamber. The guilty counts include assault, obstruction, and destruction of property. In text messages prior to the day of the attack, Bozell expressed his wish to "take the Capitol and hang those pedo-satanistic traitors" and specifically to vandalize the office of Rep. Adam Schiff. The judge said that Bozell's explanations for his actions that day were "simply not credible."

[N.E. Brigand]

On Friday, Owen Shroyer will be pleading guilty to misdemeanors for his conduct on January 6th. Shroyer is or was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's cohost on InfoWars. When Shroyer was originally charged in August 2021, he said he would fight the charges, but he was in plea discussions with the Dept. of Justice as far back as April 2022. Jones was also at the Capitol on January 6th. There are unanswered questions about both men's roles that day. Whether deliberately or unwittingly, they do seem to have played a part in moving the crowd to where they would be most effective at breaching the Capitol.

Shroyer today pled guilty to one misdemeanor charge of being on restricted grounds on January 6th. He was facing three other misdemeanor charges which were dropped. "As part of his plea, Shroyer has also agreed to cooperate with authorities on an 'additional investigation.' The plea agreement reads: 'Your client agrees to allow law enforcement agents to review any social media accounts operated by your client for statements and postings in and around January 6, 2021, prior to sentencing.'" What does that mean for Alex Jones, Ali Alexander, Roger Stone, Donald Trump, or others? I couldn't begin to guess. Maybe nothing.

There is no actual evidence that he is cooperating.. The plea agreement just includes standard language that they can access social media.

And if you don't believe me, here is Marcy Wheeler saying the same thing.

I for one believed you at the time. Even before the time! Which is why I wrote that one possible outcome of Shroyer's plea was "maybe nothing."

Sorry. Like Marcy Wheeler, I've been annoyed at how many people (up to and including famed Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe) have reported that it was a big deal that Shroyer was "cooperating".

Owen Shroyer has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.

[N.E. Brigand]

Bryan Metzger of Business Insider has watched newly-released security video from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6th. (Reporters can see in person at the Capitol, by appointment, for one three-hour slot per week. So he's watched three hours.) He writes here about what it shows.

[N.E. Brigand]

Zachary Alam, who broke the window through which Ashli Babbitt tried to climb before she was shot on Jan. 6th, was found guilty today on 11 charges.

[N.E. Brigand]

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 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.

A new article in Texas Monthly illuminates why it's taken so long for Ken Paxton to face any consequences for his misdeeds. He's been the beneficiary of a longtime division in the state's Republican party between moderates like the five-time Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (2009-2019) and the more hardline Chrisian conservatives. A key funder of the latter group is an oilman named Tim Dunn, who flatly told Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should hold House leadership positions. Dunn repeatedly backed candidates to defeat Straus for the speakership. Paxton was that candidate in 2011. (He lost 132-15.) But Dunn rewarded him for his loyalty, and he continued to be loyal to Dunn. And in particular, when Ken Paxton became the state's Attorney General, he undercut the Texas Ethics Commission, which had required that Dunn's agents register as lobbyists and not conduct election activities in secret. Paxton's decisions were shady if not downright illegal but "if doing a favor for your biggest donor were prima facie evidence of a quid pro quo, most of the Texas state government would be in jail." Later, Dunn, alarmed by activism among educators, got Paxton's office to officially "clarify what school districts could and couldn’t do without violating the law—and then a Dunn group cited the opinion in a mailer to teachers indicating that they might be guilty of 'crimes that violate the Texas constitution' and asking for snitches."

Dunn is rallying to Paxton’s defense. The AG hasn’t disclosed who is paying his defense lawyers—but you can take a good guess. It isn’t coming cheap. Dunn’s new group, Defend Texas Liberty, promised to launch primary challenges to House members who voted for impeachment and senators who vote to convict, and it recently gave $3 million to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the judge of the impeachment trial—$2 million of which is in the form of a loan that can be forgiven. Dunn’s current agitprop shop, Texas Scorecard, is covering the trial in furious detail. A consultant who often advises Dunn’s candidates even made a music video in support of Paxton.

[N.E. Brigand]

More from the new book (excerpted in the Atlantic) on Mitt Romney's time in the Senate. Sen. Angus King of Maine, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, texted Romney on Jan. 2, 2021 asking Romney to call him:

Romney calls, and King informs him of a conversation he’s just had with a high-ranking Pentagon official. Law enforcement has been tracking online chatter among right-wing extremists who appear to be planning something bad on the day of Donald Trump’s upcoming rally in Washington, D.C. The president has been telling them the election was stolen; now they’re coming to steal it back. There’s talk of gun smuggling, of bombs and arson, of targeting the traitors in Congress who are responsible for this travesty. Romney’s name has been popping up in some frightening corners of the internet, which is why King needed to talk to him. He isn’t sure Romney will be safe.

Romney hangs up and immediately begins typing a text to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. McConnell has been indulgent of Trump’s deranged behavior over the past four years, but he’s not crazy. He knows that the election wasn’t stolen, that his guy lost fair and square. He sees the posturing by Republican politicians for what it is. He’ll want to know about this, Romney thinks. He’ll want to protect his colleagues, and himself.

Romney hangs up and immediately begins typing a text to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. McConnell has been indulgent of Trump’s deranged behavior over the past four years, but he’s not crazy. He knows that the election wasn’t stolen, that his guy lost fair and square. He sees the posturing by Republican politicians for what it is. He’ll want to know about this, Romney thinks. He’ll want to protect his colleagues, and himself.

Romney sends his text: “In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”

McConnell never responds.

Speaking on the future of American democracy with an eye to the fate of past nations, Romney says:

"This is a very fragile thing. Authoritarianism is like a gargoyle lurking over the cathedral, ready to pounce."

There's also this:

Perhaps Romney’s most surprising discovery upon entering the Senate was that his disgust with Trump was not unique among his Republican colleagues. “Almost without exception,” he told me, “they shared my view of the president.” In public, of course, they played their parts as Trump loyalists, often contorting themselves rhetorically to defend the president’s most indefensible behavior. But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped, toddler­like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator frankly admitting, “He has none of the qualities you would want in a president, and all of the qualities you wouldn’t.”

Romney's Republican colleagues in the Senate, including McConnell, would tell him, after he opposed some action by Donald Trump, that they respected him for it but didn't have a moderate Republican base of support like he did. McConnell is cited by Romney as having been highly critical of Trump and even conceding that Democrats had convincingly proven the case against Trump in the first impeachment trial. But McConnell now says he doesn't recall the details of those conversations.) Romney himself says that he wasn't convinced of Trump's guilt and was leaning toward acquittal until a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham prompted Trump's defense team to say that even if Trump had done what he was accused of, it woudn't be an impeachable offense.

Another great quote from Romney: nobody was "more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly than Mike Pence."

I also appreciate his harsh comments about my senator, J.D. Vance.

[RoseMorninStar]

Perhaps Romney’s most surprising discovery upon entering the Senate was that his disgust with Trump was not unique among his Republican colleagues. “Almost without exception,” he told me, “they shared my view of the president.” In public, of course, they played their parts as Trump loyalists, often contorting themselves rhetorically to defend the president’s most indefensible behavior. But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped, toddler­like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator frankly admitting, “He has none of the qualities you would want in a president, and all of the qualities you wouldn’t.”

What is so discouraging is this 'going with the flow' for the sake of public perception has lowered the bar and made all of that 'unacceptable behavior' acceptable.

[N.E. Brigand]

"Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander's way of dodging questions reminds me a lot of Carter Page.

Among many interesting (but meanderingly conveyed) details in Alexander's testimony is the fact that despite being subpoenaed by the committee for all communications pertaining to January 6th, he didn't give them his communications with the office of Congressman Mo Brooks, although it's clear from other messages he did provide the committee that he had been in touch with Brooks's team about January 6th. He also failed to give the committee his communications with White House staffer Garrett Ziegler.

ABC reports that Hunter Biden is suing Garrett Ziegler (who worked under Peter Navarro) in California for "accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and damaging computer data that they do not own" (on the infamous "laptop").

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, with regard to the 2020 election and it's aftermath, we have this very interesting tidbit in the news about Mitt Romney.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, with regard to the 2020 election and it's aftermath, we have this very interesting tidbit in the news about Mitt Romney.

I also quoted that one above, but it is admittedly buried in the midst of a longer post.

[N.E. Brigand]

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 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.

A new article in Texas Monthly illuminates why it's taken so long for Ken Paxton to face any consequences for his misdeeds. He's been the beneficiary of a longtime division in the state's Republican party between moderates like the five-time Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (2009-2019) and the more hardline Chrisian conservatives. A key funder of the latter group is an oilman named Tim Dunn, who flatly told Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should hold House leadership positions. Dunn repeatedly backed candidates to defeat Straus for the speakership. Paxton was that candidate in 2011. (He lost 132-15.) But Dunn rewarded him for his loyalty, and he continued to be loyal to Dunn. And in particular, when Ken Paxton became the state's Attorney General, he undercut the Texas Ethics Commission, which had required that Dunn's agents register as lobbyists and not conduct election activities in secret. Paxton's decisions were shady if not downright illegal but "if doing a favor for your biggest donor were prima facie evidence of a quid pro quo, most of the Texas state government would be in jail." Later, Dunn, alarmed by activism among educators, got Paxton's office to officially "clarify what school districts could and couldn’t do without violating the law—and then a Dunn group cited the opinion in a mailer to teachers indicating that they might be guilty of 'crimes that violate the Texas constitution' and asking for snitches."

Dunn is rallying to Paxton’s defense. The AG hasn’t disclosed who is paying his defense lawyers—but you can take a good guess. It isn’t coming cheap. Dunn’s new group, Defend Texas Liberty, promised to launch primary challenges to House members who voted for impeachment and senators who vote to convict, and it recently gave $3 million to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the judge of the impeachment trial—$2 million of which is in the form of a loan that can be forgiven. Dunn’s current agitprop shop, Texas Scorecard, is covering the trial in furious detail. A consultant who often advises Dunn’s candidates even made a music video in support of Paxton.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's alleged mistress, Laura Olson, was at the state capitol today for his impeachment trial but "was deemed unavailable to testify." Reportedly she said she would plead the Fifth.

Paxton isn't attending his trial. His wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, is required to attend the trial but won't be permitted to vote.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, with regard to the 2020 election and it's aftermath, we have this very interesting tidbit in the news about Mitt Romney.

I also quoted that one above, but it is admittedly buried in the midst of a longer post.

I missed not only that you had quoted that one above, but the entire longer post!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Not sure what is up with this, but I guess we will find out soon.

[N.E. Brigand]

Adam Fox, one of the leaders in the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, was sentenced today to 16 years' imprisonment. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Fox, so I guess this result confirms the failure and humiliation of the FBI.

Barry Croft, the other leader of the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer, was sentenced today to 19 years' imprisonment.

In the final trial of those charged with plotting to kidnap Governor Whitmer, a jury acquitted three defendants, William Null, Michael Null, and Eric Molitor, who had been indicted for providing support for a terrorist act and for a gun charge. William Null and Molitor testified during the trial that while they had participated in the group's weapons drills and had even gone on a reconnaissance visit to Whitmer's property, they didn't believe the plotters woudl actually go through with the scheme.

In all, fourteen men were charged for the plot. Nine were convicted (some tried twice after a jury hung) or pled guilty, and five were acquitted.

(Looking at responses to today's news, I see there are many people who falsely believe the FBI tricked these men into joining this plot; e.g., see most of the replies here.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

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

A new article in Texas Monthly illuminates why it's taken so long for Ken Paxton to face any consequences for his misdeeds. He's been the beneficiary of a longtime division in the state's Republican party between moderates like the five-time Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (2009-2019) and the more hardline Chrisian conservatives. A key funder of the latter group is an oilman named Tim Dunn, who flatly told Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should hold House leadership positions. Dunn repeatedly backed candidates to defeat Straus for the speakership. Paxton was that candidate in 2011. (He lost 132-15.) But Dunn rewarded him for his loyalty, and he continued to be loyal to Dunn. And in particular, when Ken Paxton became the state's Attorney General, he undercut the Texas Ethics Commission, which had required that Dunn's agents register as lobbyists and not conduct election activities in secret. Paxton's decisions were shady if not downright illegal but "if doing a favor for your biggest donor were prima facie evidence of a quid pro quo, most of the Texas state government would be in jail." Later, Dunn, alarmed by activism among educators, got Paxton's office to officially "clarify what school districts could and couldn’t do without violating the law—and then a Dunn group cited the opinion in a mailer to teachers indicating that they might be guilty of 'crimes that violate the Texas constitution' and asking for snitches."

Dunn is rallying to Paxton’s defense. The AG hasn’t disclosed who is paying his defense lawyers—but you can take a good guess. It isn’t coming cheap. Dunn’s new group, Defend Texas Liberty, promised to launch primary challenges to House members who voted for impeachment and senators who vote to convict, and it recently gave $3 million to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the judge of the impeachment trial—$2 million of which is in the form of a loan that can be forgiven. Dunn’s current agitprop shop, Texas Scorecard, is covering the trial in furious detail. A consultant who often advises Dunn’s candidates even made a music video in support of Paxton.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's alleged mistress, Laura Olson, was at the state capitol today for his impeachment trial but "was deemed unavailable to testify." Reportedly she said she would plead the Fifth.

Paxton isn't attending his trial. His wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, is required to attend the trial but won't be permitted to vote.

Paxton was aquitted by the Texas Senate on all counts and was immediately reinstated. The votes on all the charges was 14 in favor of conviction, and 16 against. Only two Republicans voted in favor of conviction.