A happily small load of actual election coverage. At the Cook Political report, Amy Walter sees a red wave coming, but wonders how big it can be, How Big Is the House Playing Field? To quote Yogi Berra, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" At least she managed to do it without whining about gerrymandering. Ryan King at WaEx notes the After setbacks, House Republicans finishing strong on redistricting. But as Yogi also said, it ain't over till it's over. The Center Square finds Joe Biden underwater with crucial constituency in Arizona, per polling. "Biden’s approval rating among independents, however, was even worse; just 34% of them approved of the job he is doing, while 59% disapproved."
Guy Benson at Town Hall also hears Progressives: Actually, Please Stop Calling Us 'Progressives,' Thanks. Don't worry, I think we can come up with an alternative. KT at Haut Hair thinks She's on a roll: Kamala's latest rambling two-minute non-answer is ... something "She’s almost as bad as Joe Biden in sounding incoherent and stumbling through public remarks. These two are a nightmare on the world stage and dangerous, too." In Joe's case it's dementia, but in hers? Maybe she just doesn't have much going on upstairs.
Run, Sarah, run! Fox, Sarah Palin announces run for Congress in Alaska, "Palin joins a crowded field looking to replace late Rep. Don Young." Jazz Shaw at Haut Hair, The return of Sarah Palin?
That would make this a good day to catch up on Jan. 6 matters. Tristan Justice at Da Fed catches the J6 Star Chamber saying the quiet part out loud, Democrats Admit Jan. 6 Committee Is All About Midterms and Jan. 6 Committee Claims Its ‘Digital Watergate’ Is Above The Law. Jazz Shaw, Jan. 6 committee pushing Garland to prosecute Trump. Julie Kelly at Am Great takes a turn off from the riot coverage to observe A Trump-Hating Backer of Biden’s Supreme Court Nominee Is Married to the Top J6 Prosecutor. Washington is a small place at the top of the pyramid. Witness, Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx finds Democratic staffer on Jan. 6 committee was part of intel effort to help Biden out of Hunter jam.
HE, House Jan. 6 Inquisition Seeks Contempt Charges Against Scavino, Navarro. At JTN, Dan Scavino, Peter Navarro targeted in House Jan. 6 committee contempt report and Jan. 6 committee recommends Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro face criminal contempt charges. Politico, ‘Do your job’: Jan. 6 committee presses DOJ as push for Meadows contempt charge languishes. Some wishful thinking on Da Hill, Brooks’s turn on Trump could give the Jan. 6 probe momentum. At Am Think, Michael G Zey wonders What Happens When a GOP Majority Can Investigate the Jan. 6 Committee?. Well, for one thing, the media coverage will all turn negative. 'Jay Whig' at Am Great, The Conspiracy to Get the Conspirators, "Is the January 6 Committee itself actually a criminal conspiracy?" Yes. Clarice Feldman at Am Think thinks Even Republican Presidents Would Seem to Have a Right to Free Speech. What a quaint notion! Bloomberg (at MSN), Jan. 6 Panel Weighs Subpoena of Trump’s Personal Phone Records. HE, Biden Rejects Executive Privilege for Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Ahead of Jan. 6 Inquisition Testimony
It's almost amusing to watch new "scandals" flower, then wilt in the sun.
Sauron's Eye, White House records turned over to House show over 7-hour gap in Trump
phone log on Jan. 6. Althouse, "The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by
Trump for 457 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021 – from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. – means
the committee has no record of his phone conversations as his supporters
descended on the Capitol..."
"... battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety.... The House panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, known as 'burner phones,' according to two people with knowledge of the probe, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information."
From "Jan. 6 White House logs given to House show 7-hour gap in Trump calls/The House select committee is now investigating whether it has the full record and whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, according to people familiar with the probe" by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa (Washington Post).
Dan Chaitin at WeEx, Bolton affirms Jan. 6 investigators' suspicions of Trump favoring 'burner phones'. But then, as seems inevitable, Spencer Brown at Town Hall notices CNN Debunks Conspiracies About Trump's January 6th Call Log. Matt Margolis at PJ Media, Another January 6th 'Bombshell' Conspiracy Crumbles. Breitbart, Media’s ‘7-hour Gap’ Story in White House Logs Turns Out to Be Hoax: CNN. Da Mail, White House phone records for Jan 6 are COMPLETE, official review finds with seven-hour gap in logs 'explained by Trump's habit of having staff use landlines or cell phones to place calls for him'. Ace, Media All This Week: TRUMP MUST EXPLAIN "MISSING 7 1/2 HOURS OF PHONE RECORDS" ON JANUARY; DELETION OF RECORDS RECALLS WATERGATE, Media Today: Oops Nevermind the Records Are All There, "The Walls Are Truly Closing In, this time. . . .They do nothing but churn out fake news and disinformation, all day, every day." Then CNN starts to whine, Trump's presidential diarist tells Jan. 6 committee White House officials provided less detail about his activities days before riot. I didn't even know the President had a diarist. No doubt it will be amusing to interrogate President*** Biden's. Politico whines Inside Pence-world's preparation for a Jan. 6 legal showdown, "The former vice president asked his top lawyer to draft a memo — first obtained by POLITICO — a month before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that laid out the history of counting electoral votes." Can you imagine that, actually asking for advice? Hang him!
Da Hill happy that DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe expands to rally preparations, conspiracies: report, along with news from Dan Chaitin that Biden wish for Trump prosecution leaked as Democrats mount pressure campaign on DOJ. Insty, THIS IS ALL DESIGNED TO CHILL ANY EFFORTS BY THE DEPLORABLES TO ORGANIZE PROTESTS: DOJ expands Jan. 6 probe to look at rally prep, financing. "Only groups approved by the establishment are allowed to engage in disruption or, really, free speech of any kind." Althouse, "And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor..."
"... who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6... The Jan. 6 investigation is a test not just for Mr. Garland, but for Mr. Biden as well.... Complicating matters for Mr. Biden is the fact that his two children are entangled in federal investigations, making it all the more important that he stay out of the Justice Department’s affairs or risk being seen as interfering for his own family’s gain... Justice Department officials do not keep Mr. Biden abreast of any investigation, including those involving his children.... The cases involving Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden are worked on by career officials, and people close to the president... have no visibility into them.... The Justice Department has given no public indication about its timeline or whether prosecutors might be considering a case against Mr. Trump.... Even in private, [Garland] relies on a stock phrase: 'Rule of law,' he says,'means there not be one rule for friends and another for foes.'... Quiet and reserved, Mr. Garland is well known for the job he was denied: a seat on the Supreme Court.... His critics say that his... years as an appeals court judge made him slow and overly deliberative...."
From "Garland Faces Growing Pressure as Jan. 6 Investigation Widens/The inquiry is a test for President Biden and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who both came into office promising to restore the Justice Department’s independence" (NYT).
Remember, what comes around, goes around.
Bob Spencer at PJ Media, Man Told by an Officer That He Could Enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 Now Faces 20 Years in Prison. AP, Niceville man pleads guilty to role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Repeating the usual lies. Scott MacFarlane@MacFarlaneNews, "ARRAIGNMENT tomorrow in one of the wave of newly charged Jan 6 cases Iraj Javid of Virginia. Charging documents allege Javid was in proximity to Ashli Babbitt on Jan 6. Charging papers say Javid's employer has been Washington DC transit agency." Rajan Laad at Am Think thinks The January 6 Witch Hunt Kills a Good Man.
The Crime Report, Feds Accused of ‘Double Standard’ in Jan. 6 Prosecutions. Matt Margolis, Federal Judge Blasts Double Standards in J6 Sentences
“I know that the government believes that the January 6th cases are sui generis [one of a kind] and therefore can’t be compared to other cases. But I don’t agree,” said U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden.
“It does feel like the government has had two standards here, and I can’t abide by that,” he added, noting that before January 6, he couldn’t remember an instance where a nonviolent, first-time offender was “sentenced to serious jail time … regardless of their race, gender or political affiliation.”
McFadden expressed his views during the sentencing of a defendant who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing. The Biden administration called for her to be sentenced to 75 days in jail and one year of probation, which McFadden believed to be excessive. “The government’s sentencing recommendation here is just so disproportionate to other sentences for people who have engaged in similar conduct,” he said.
Instead, McFadden sentenced her to two months probation and a $5,000 fine. McFadden noted the same U.S. prosecutor’s office that recommended jail time for the J6 defendant sought a much lighter sentence for a Code Pink activist with a lengthy criminal record who infiltrated Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in September 2018.
Dan Cahitin again, Justice Department preparing Ray Epps 'disclosure'. Hmmm
“What I can … tell the court is that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has been working on a disclosure pertaining to Mr. Epps,” Rochlin said, according to Politico. The federal prosecutor also said the information would be ready to share with defense lawyers who ask for it in, “give or take, another week or two," and stressed that the plan does not imply agreement by prosecutors that any informants were "fomenting rebellion" on Jan. 6 as suggested by some of the defandants' lawyers, the report added.
The redoubtable Julie Kelly at Am Great, More Scandals Envelop the Scandalous FBI
You’re in big fucking trouble.”
So said an FBI agent to Julian Khater, one of two men accused of assaulting Capitol police officers with pepper spray on January 6, during a tense interrogation last year. Desperate to sustain the falsehood that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by Trump supporters during the Capitol protest, the FBI claimed to possess video footage that showed Khater and his friend, George Tanios, attacking Sicknick and other officers with chemical spray. Khater was arrested on an airplane at the Newark airport on March 14, 2021 after he arrived home from a trip to Florida.
For more than two hours—shackled to a metal bar in a freezing room at the New Jersey FBI field office—Khater, who has no criminal record, was interrogated without a lawyer present. FBI Special Agent Riley Palmertree refused to tell Khater why he was under arrest until he agreed to proceed without counsel in the room, which Khater reluctantly did. Recently released video confirms Khater initially told the agents he “would feel more comfortable if I had a lawyer” answering questions on his behalf. An hour later, Khater again said he wanted his lawyer.
But Palmertree pushed back, presenting videos and photos implicating Khater in the alleged assault. Palmertree assured Khater that by admitting he sprayed Sicknick with pepper spray rather than a can of bear spray—an item Palmertree later testified was not used that day—a judge would go easy on him. Khater signed a statement confessing that he attacked officers with pepper spray.
Khater has been in jail ever since, housed in the D.C. gulag specifically used to detain January 6 protesters; his trial is scheduled for June 6.
But Khater’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, is now asking the court to toss the interrogation as evidence, arguing that the FBI used “coercion and deception” to force Khater into waiving his Miranda rights. Further, Tacopina wrote in a February 22 motion that Palmertree lied in his FBI report by claiming he advised Khater about the “nature of the interview” before asking Khater to waive his rights.
Khater’s unconstitutional confession is just the latest example of how this rogue agency filled with dirty cops operates with impunity. In just the past several weeks, a number of new FBI scandals have emerged.
At Am Great, the redoubtable Julie Kelly continues to document the FBI-led efforts to recruit a group of right-wing nuts to kidnap Gov. Whitmer, The FBI’s ‘FAFO’ Kidnapping Plot Unravels. At JTN, Ex-FBI agent pleads guilty to tampering in bungled criminal case against Missouri governor, "Plea deal reached just before jury selection was set to begin in case of William Tisaby."
William Tisaby appeared in a St. Louis Circuit Court and entered the plea to one count of misdemeanor evidence tampering and was sentenced to probation, which was immediately suspended. It was not immediately clear whether Tisaby was required to cooperate in any further investigation.
Tisaby had been facing trial on six counts of perjury and one count of evidence tampering in an indictment that accused him of hiding evidence and lying during the investigation into Greitens, a Republican who was forced to resign as governor after St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged him as taking a compromising photo of a woman he had an affair with.
The charges were dramatically dropped when Gardner admitted she did not have evidence the photo was taken and the woman testified she may have dreamed up the allegation.
Gardner has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing but has been accused by Missouri's chief legal disciplinarian with violating dozens of attorney standards of conducts during the prosecution, including withholding exculpatory evidence. She faces a hearing on those allegations on April 11 and has denied wrongdoing.
A 2019 indictment accused Tisaby of lying during a deposition ahead of the Greitens’ trial and concealing notes taken during an interview with the former governor’s accuser. Prosecutors charged that Tisaby's lies were “about matters which could substantially affect, or did substantially affect, the course or outcome of the Greitens case.”
FBI delenda est.
At Behind the Black, Today’s blacklisted American: TV reporter fired for covering protest objectively, "The new dark age of silencing: A television reporter for the ABC affiliate in Seattle, KOMO, Jonathan Choe, was fired after he had covered, as accurately as possible, a peaceful Proud Boys demonstration in Seattle, including a photo montage of the event." At PM, Antifa shooter found guilty of attempted manslaughter in 2020 shooting at BLM riot.
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