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A COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING the 6 January Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to six more associates of former president Donald Trump who were involved in his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
The committee’s chairman Bennie Thompson said in a statement yesterday that the panel is demanding testimony and documents from former Trump campaign officials and others who participated in a “war room” ahead of the siege and strategised about how to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Thompson said the committee had issued new subpoenas to Bill Stepien, manager of Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign; Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign; Angela McCallum, national executive assistant to the campaign; John Eastman, a lawyer who advised the former president; Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to Mr Trump who talked with the former president ahead of the insurrection; and Bernard Kerik, who the committee says paid for hotel rooms that served as command centres ahead of 6 January.
Thompson said: “In the days before the 6 January attack, the former president’s closest allies and advisers drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes.
“The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all.”
The subpoenas come after the panel has already demanded documents and testimony from several other Trump advisers — some who have cooperated and some who have not.
The House voted last month to hold Steve Bannon, a long-time ally of Trump, in contempt after he refused to comply with his subpoena.
Trump himself is fighting the probe in court.
The rioters who violently pushed back police to break into the Capitol and interrupt the electoral count repeated Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud, and the committee says the six newly subpoenaed witnesses helped amplify the misinformation in the days ahead of the attack.
Trump’s false claims came as election officials and courts across the country verified Biden’s win, and as his own attorney general said there was no evidence of significant fraud.
Thompson says in the letters to the Trump associates that the panel has uncovered “credible evidence” of their participation in the former president’s efforts to overturn the election and cites ways that they individually tried to further his cause.
In Stepien’s subpoena, Thompson cites the testimony of an unnamed witness in saying he oversaw the “conversion” of Trump’s presidential campaign to a “Stop the Steal” effort.
In letters to Miller and McCallum, Thompson cites specific efforts to spread the false claims, including a phone call from McCallum to an unidentified Michigan state legislator asking if the Trump campaign could “count on” them and urging the person to push for the appointment of new state electors.
Thompson detailed several efforts by Eastman, a lawyer and professor, to persuade former vice president Mike Pence to try to overturn the election as he presided over the congressional certification — a power Pence did not legally have.
Thompson also cites Eastman’s outreach to states, including a briefing to state legislators, and his participation in the so-called “war room” at the Willard Hotel where he, Bannon, Kerik and others strategised ahead of the siege about how to overturn Trump’s defeat.
Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner who was pardoned by Trump after serving time in prison for tax fraud and other charges, responded to his subpoena with a lengthy statement yesterday evening.
He said that he “was not hired to overturn the will of the people, only to look into the integrity of the process” and that his focus after the election was on “looking for evidence”, not public relations.
“As to the events of 6 January, I was not involved,” he said.
The others contacted by The Associated Press did not respond to requests for comment.
In the letter to Flynn — the former national security adviser who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was also pardoned by Trump — Thompson cited a December Oval Office meeting with the then-president.
Citing media reports, Thompson said Flynn and other participants “discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers and continuing to spread the message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud”.
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The world is going to wait until it’s too late to tackle this maniac.
Something tells me that the international community doesn’t believe he is capable of what he says he is
No oil so…..
It has nothing to do with oil. America already sacrificed thousands of their own to protect South Korea. The issue is China and the fact that they’ve shown to be willing to fight to protect the North and their egomaniac leaders.
@Jason Culligan: You are correct the North has China behind them but you still aren’t seeing the US doing much about the WOMD that the North has but it invaded Iraqi with obvious no proof of any WOMD but plenty of oil.
2nd lad in, first row from left. foot too low. Family shot.
He’s obviously spent the army’s rifle money on nukes then.
Under normal conditions I’d say that they’re parade rifles, much like the Americans who still use M1 and M14 rifles for marching. In North Korea though, where they have 1 million more soldiers than rifles, you’re probably spot on.
Delighted, just the news we were waiting for
Look at all those robots dressed up as soldiers,wow.
I’d say they all blink in unison.
He’s only a mount like his auld fella
Another loony state supported by SF/IRA.
@Paddy Lions: Why do you stick SF and IRA into everything you don’t like? If you hated Guinness, do you put SF or IRA into that as well?
@Paddy Lions: It’s 2017, make a resolution to grow up, PLEASE
In 1986, the Sinn Fein Foreign Affairs Bureau sent a message of solidarity to the North Korean regime. The message, signed by Sile ni Dhara, stated clearly: “We offer our support to the Workers’ Party of Korea in its fight for the establishment of the Democratic Confederated Republic of Korea.” (“Sinn Fein Letter to Korea,” Ireland’s War, issue 18 (June 1986) p.7). Also, during a visit to Scandinavian countries in 1987, Gerry Adams attended a reception at the embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the occasion of the 75th birthday of Kim Il Sung. (“Gerry Adams visits Scandinavia”, Ireland’s War, issue 23 (July 1987), p.7) In 1989, an official Sinn Fein delegation including Gerry MacLochlainn, Sheena Campbell (later murdered in 1992 by loyalists) and John Doyle attended the World Youth Festival in Pyongyang (cfr “Sinn Fein Delegation at World Youth Festival”, An Phoblacht-Republican News, (vol.11 number 26), 29 June 1989 p.14).Alois Irlmaier:
DPRK is the perfect socialist state form which we can learn
Yep. Were the masses starve, are interned or executed while the leader gourges on cheese, meat and booze
Kim has nukes on the brain,the poor lad. That’s what must have caused the hair loss.
Why do I think the Yanks must have this guy covered?…Can China pull Kim’s chain in at any moment but use him as a counter against the yanks especially since Trump is sabre rattling over Taiwan.
Kim has nukes on the brain,the poor lad. I bet that’s what caused his catastrophic hair loss.
Kim is storing his farts now to power it? That is why it is taking so long?
No harm. The threat of mutual annihilation seems to be the best way to stop the deployment of nuclear weapons. Let’s hope Iran gets there too asap to negate the imbalance created by Israeli nuclear capability. Maybe then they will start to act like a civilised nation
The problem is that North Korea seem incapable of understanding that point. They already picked a fight with the US once when America had nukes and their guardian angels the Chinese still hadn’t developed nuclear weapons of their own. North Korea is also constantly close to collapsing in on itself. The last thing you want is a civil war in a nuclear capable state.
Some jowls on him the little fooker . Destroyed with the gout at this stage . Him and Donald J Trump be arm and arm skipping down the yellow brick road shortly .. soon as Donald builds one
have your say