It is hard to keep track of all the flying poop, as thoughtful Merrick Garland knits his brow over the facts and the law and how best to follow them, but this model prosecution memo, by Barbara McQuade, lays some of it out — the part about Trump’s plan to coerce Pence to throw out votes that made him lose the election, and the conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — as clearly as possible.  Then she analyzes the legal cases. The actions taken by the conspirators were varied, frenzied and included throwing every possible kind of shit against the wall to see what might stick as a talking point on right wing media to amplify widespread belief in unfounded lies and justify overturning an election lost by the incumbent.  Here are a few nuggets (her full memo is linked at the bottom of this post):

In a separate suit, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tx) brought an action on Dec. 28 to declare Pence had authority to reject the election results. In a response submitted by the Justice Department on Dec. 31, Pence opposed the suit.[47] Pence’s brief said, “A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction.” The district court and court of appeals dismissed the suit in the following two days. . .

. . . Later on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump and attorneys Rudolph Giuliani and John Eastman conducted a Zoom conference call with 300 legislators from swing states won by Biden.[55] According to Michigan State Sen. Ed McBroom (R), who participated in the call, the Trump team urged the legislators to overturn the choice of voters in their states, but provided no evidence of voter fraud.[56] As McBroom reported: “I was listening to hear whether they had any evidence to substantiate claims” of significant voter fraud that could change the results in Michigan.”[57] “(T)he callers did not provide additional information, he said, and he did not support a delay in the electoral vote count.”[58] . . .

. . . Also on Jan. 5, Eastman met with Short and Jacob at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Eastman argued that Pence should reject the Biden electors, according to two sources.[104] By the end of the two-hour meeting, Eastman had conceded that having Pence reject Biden electors was not a viable plan. Eastman later denied so conceding.[105] . . .

. . . Late on the evening of Jan. 5, Trump issued a false statement that Pence had agreed to take action beyond counting votes on Jan. 6.[110] According to reporting, Trump directed his campaign to issue a statement that he and Pence were in “total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” In fact, this statement was false, the exact opposite of Pence’s position, and was issued without consulting with the vice president or his office.[111] Soon after issuing the statement, Trump called Giuliani and then called Steve Bannon who was also at the Willard Hotel. Trump said that Pence had not caved. Pence was “very arrogant,” Trump repeatedly said.[112]

[even fascistic secret torture memo author/professor John Yoo advised Pence he had no legal right to do what Trump had demanded]

“I advised that there was no factual basis for Mike Pence to intervene and overturn the results of the election,” said Yoo, who now teaches law at the University of California at Berkeley. “There are certain limited situations where I thought the Vice President does have a role, for example in the event that a state sends two different electoral results. . . . But none of those were present here.”[140] . . .

. . . At about 2 p.m., protestors broke a window at the U.S. Capitol and climbed inside.[142] The Senate and House of Representatives soon went into recess and members evacuated the two chambers.[143] At 2:24 p.m., Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”[144] The Capitol would not be secured again until about 6 p.m.[145] . . .

Barbara McQuade concludes that 

This evidence is sufficient to obtain and sustain convictions of charges for conspiracy to defraud the United States and for obstruction of an official proceeding.

and lays out the case for each.  She acknowledges certain dangers in prosecuting a former president with an angry private army, but concludes the only thing worse than the possibility of deadly violence by his followers is not prosecuting the lawless turd. Merrick?

When, on Election Night 2020, Donald Trump announced, as the votes were being counted, that he frankly did win a rigged election, it was just they they kept counting these late, fake votes, he was nodding to his plan, with PostMaster General/Trump megadonor Louie DeJoy, to delay millions of mail-in ballots until they arrived too late to be counted. 

Trump and DeJoy had done everything imaginable to make it harder to vote by mail: removed mailboxes in Democratic-leaning areas, dismantled high speed mail sorting machines in several Democratic voting cities, announced slowdowns in mail delivery, suspended overtime pay customarily paid to ensure prompt delivery.   

Hans von Spakovsky, insane far right conspiracy-monger and keeper of the Voter Fraud Database at Heritage Foundation (documenting the steady infinitesimal fraction of fraudulent votes, a hundredth of a tenth of a percent — 0.001% — fraud since the 1980s), met secretly with the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA, MAGA, RAGA!) prior to the 2020 election to limit drop boxes in large Democratic counties and engage in other chicanery that would advantage the bloated Orange faux populist in an election he was in grave danger of losing.   

Trump and his people brought hundreds of extremely feeble court cases, prior to the election, based on unfounded theories of massive Democratic election fraud, trying to limit absentee voting in all forms during the deadliest phase of the Trump pandemic.  None of these Hail Mary cases had the desired results, though Boof Kavanaugh and co. tried their best with a couple that reached the top court.

Frankly, we did win, in an historic landslide, he still insists, frankly.   Frankly, this election was rigged, by us, but not well enough apparently, to stop the counting of votes at 10 pm Election night when I was still leading in all the tallies, though fading fast because of a fake flood of massive Democrat [sic] fraud in a rigged election that brought many more Republicans to power than expected but, on the same ballots, fraudulently fucked the rightful president.  

We learned recently (unless you get your news from FOX, OANN, Newsmax, Breitbart or Der Sturmer) that two days after the election, before the final count was certified, and showed that Trump lost to Biden by a healthy margin, the defeated president’s oldest boy was already at work (this was treacherously revealed by the traitorous Liz Cheney and her friends on the fake January 6 Committee) texting the White House chief of staff, hatching the mad, multi-pronged plan to keep his father in power, using all the leverage at the president’s disposal.

Once this shit-show stolen election nonsense and the riot that stopped the certification of Biden’s victory for several hours were officially over (they’ll never be over to a good 30% of the very best Americans!), it was time for norms and democracy to reassert themselves. Or so it appeared to many Americans.

Talk of doing away with the elitist Electoral College that put Trump and the aptly named Dick Cheney in office over the will of the voters?   No, not any more, we’re too divided, too many other pressing problems, like stopping the next insurrection/tourist visit/legitimate violent political discourse.   Talk of adding five justices to the Supreme Court?  No, it sounds too partisan when we already have a partisan 6-3 Trump majority poised to invalidate much of the constitutional order.   Talk of ending the filibuster for Voting Rights, as it was ended to put three Federalist Society vetted extremists on the Supreme Court, each one appointed by a slim, sub-filibuster majority?   Well, there was some talk, but talk is cheap.   So is Trump, the Republican National Committee is picking up the tab for his dozens of ongoing and past lawsuits.  To be determined, will they pay his legal bills when Merrick Garland finally follows the facts and the law and… whoa! they directly lead to… unbelievable, the former president . . . the DOJ finally prosecutes the Notorious Orange Polyp for a few of his many crimes against democracy?

Frankly, we should find that out before very much longer, or my name isn’t Robert Mueller the Third!

The PBS moderator points out that this is not the first time that Ginni Thomas’s political activism has raised these questions of influence, and mentions a recent Affordable Care Act challenge. He doesn’t mention Bush v Gore or Trump’s Muslim ban case, but the point is made.

Then it’s time for the conservative defense of the victimized Thomases. At 2:44 Mr. Malcolm begins his master class in fancy legal footwork to dazzle an opponent and sway a jury. He doesn’t think Clarence needs to recuse just because his wife Ginni is an attorney and conservative activist consulting for multiple organizations with occasional business before the court (during Bush v Gore she worked for Bush). Malcolm flashes legal gold, worth every penny they pay him.

“Yes, look, I completely disagree with that. Ginni Thomas is not a lawyer, she is not a litigant, she does not work for any organization that is a party to any lawsuit. There’s no reason to believe that she is in any legal jeopardy, whatsoever.”

That’s why the Heritage Foundation pays him the big bucks!

If it’s good enough for the American Enterprise Institute website, why not Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post? Justice Biden must resign!

After all, one Supreme Court Justice has a wife who is a highly paid, prominent right wing extremist activist/consultant with clients’ cases regularly before the court and the other has a son who is a sleazy scumbag! Fair is fair.

The Guardian reported that the AEI received $1.6 million in funding from ExxonMobil, and further notes that former ExxonMobil CEO Lee R. Raymond is the vice-chairman of AEI’s board of trustees.

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