Tag: Jan 6

Officer Who Fatally Shot J6 Protestor Ashley Babbitt Has Lengthy Disciplinary Record

Just the News
Ashli Babbitt

The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riots and then was promoted has a lengthy internal affairs and disciplinary record that includes firearm-related incidents, a sweeping congressional investigation has found.

The issues in Captain Michael Byrd’s background included a failed shotgun qualification test, a failed FBI background check for a weapon’s purchase, a 33-day suspension for a lost weapon and referral to Maryland state prosecutors for firing his gun at a stolen car fleeing his neighborhood, according to congressional and police documents obtained by Just the News.

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Arizona State University Scholars Ruben Espinosa and Curtis Austin Condemn ‘White Ownership’ of English Playwright and Poet William Shakespeare

The College Fix
Ruben Espinosa, Curtis Austin

Two faculty members condemned “white ownership” of William Shakespeare and the state’s manipulation of black history during an “Appropriation Series” at Arizona State University last week.

The scholars are pushing for changes in curriculum and leadership that reflect more “diverse” voices. During the panel, they spoke to eleven ASU students in the audience and other faculty members via Zoom.

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‘Totally Failed:’ Pelosi Admitted in Secret Video She Should Have Sought National Guard for January 6

Just the News
Nancy Pelosi in front of January 6 protesters (composite image)

As she fled the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear she did not want to evacuate the building and expressed regret that the National Guard had not been pre-positioned to protect Congress ahead of the contentious certification of the 2020 election results, according to video footage turned over this week to House Republican investigators and obtained by Just the News.

“We’re calling the National Guard now?  They should have been here to start out,” Pelosi can be heard saying as she flees through a tunnel under the Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, as her daughter Alexandra videotaped her for an eventual HBO movie.

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Commentary: Teacher Fired after Alleged Jan. 6 Involvement Wins Wrongful Termination Lawsuit

The College Fix
Allentown School District

A Pennsylvania teacher who was fired for allegedly attending the U.S. Capitol “insurrection” on January 6, 2021, has won a wrongful termination lawsuit after a two-week trial.

Jason Moorehead, a 17-year veteran social studies instructor in the Allentown School District, had always maintained he was “at all times over a mile away” at the Washington Monument when the riot occurred.

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Evidence Gathered Since January 6 Shows Select Committee Investigation Missed Key Security Failures

Just the News
January 6 protesters

New evidence gathered by Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight’s investigation into Capitol security on Jan. 6, and the breach, shows that the Democrat-led Select Committee’s investigation missed some of the most important evidence of security failures and missteps that led to the events of that day.

Years of investigation and multiple reports later, the official January 6 probe from the Select Committee missed several key developments that have now come to forefront in the debate over how the U.S. government can learn from what happened on the day the U.S. Capitol was breached.

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Key House Investigator Vows to Pierce Coverup on Secret Service’s January 6 Failures with a Subpoena

Just the News

As Congress turns its attention to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, a key House investigator vowed Monday to issue a subpoena to force the disclosure of a long-delayed report on an earlier Secret Service failure to detect a bomb that could have jeopardized Kamala Harris’ life the morning of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general has completed a report on Secret Service missteps during the Capitol crisis 3 ½ years ago but is refusing to release it even though footage Just the News published a year ago shows Secret Service agents took then Vice President-elect Harris within 10 yards of an undetected explosive device planted at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said.

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Pelosi’s Top Security Aides Got Warning About Capitol Breach Night Before January 6 Riot, Memos Show

Just the News
Nancy Pelosi in front of January 6 protesters (composite image)

Two top House security aides under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi got stark warnings from police the night before the Jan. 6 riots that protesters might try to breach the U.S. Capitol through its tunnel systems and block lawmakers from voting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election win, according to newly obtained memos and text messages.

The documents obtained by Just the News also confirm that Pelosi’s team played a role in the botched security planning for that fateful day.

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Mar-a-Lago Case Dismissal Could Spell the End of Smith’s D.C. Prosecution and Anti-Trump Lawfare

Just the News
Mar-a-Lago Documents

After surviving an assassination attempt over the weekend, Trump began the week with good news in the form of Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing special counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago case against him in a seismic ruling that could spell the end of his federal legal woes and build on his existing momentum in the national spotlight.

Smith had charged Trump in connection with his storage and retention of materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which the FBI raided in August of 2022. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in late 2022 to pursue the case and he brought an initial indictment in 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty though Smith in July of that year brought a superseding indictment with additional charges. The former president has long maintained he was innocent of any wrongdoing and that the case was part of a broader political witch hunt designed to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.

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Some Jan. 6 Defendants Win Early Release Ahead of Key Supreme Court Decision

Just the News
January 6 protesters

Judges are ordering Jan. 6 defendants who fought against their sentences to be released early pending an appeal as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week about the legitimacy of a key charge that many of them were indicted.

The attorneys of three Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants are set to argue before the Supreme Court that the crime of obstructing or impeding an official proceeding is only limited to destroying evidence in governmental probes, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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Cassidy Hutchinson’s Ex-Lawyer Cleared by Disciplinary Panels After January 6 Committee Allegations

Just the News
Attorney Stefan Passantino

Stefan Passantino, the lawyer who represented Democrats’ Jan. 6 star witness Cassidy Hutchinson in her early interactions with Congress, has been cleared by legal ethics investigators in both Washington, D.C. and Georgia regarding complaints that he engaged in improper conduct in his representation of Hutchinson.

In Washington, D.C., allegations of attorney misconduct are reviewed by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In Georgia, the practice of law is regulated by a State Disciplinary Board, made up of volunteers who are appointed by the Supreme Court and the State Bar president for three-year terms. The state Supreme Court has final approval of any decision made by the board.

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Commentary: America’s Intelligence Community is Broken

Admin
CIA Logo

In the current discourse surrounding the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), a prevailing narrative has emerged, as highlighted in a recent Politico article, that mistakenly warns of a future Trump administration’s destruction of the IC as we know it. This perspective is biased and misguided. The real crisis in the Intelligence Community is not what Trump will do if reelected but how to resolve the total erosion of public trust in the IC due to the actions of the D.C. intelligence establishment over the past several decades.

The intelligence officials quoted by Politico, in decrying politicization, ironically contribute to it, exacerbating the broader loss of faith in our institutions. The Intelligence Community, a cornerstone of our national security, must operate insulated from politics — a necessity for its credibility and effectiveness in safeguarding national interests.

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Trump Takes Victory Lap After Secret Service Driver Disputes Democrats’ J6 Narrative: ‘Fabricated!’

Just the News
President Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump claimed vindication Monday after new evidence released by Congress undercut two sensational claims Democrats made about him during the Jan. 6 investigation, including that he tried to commandeer his Secret Service vehicle that day to go to the Capitol and never offered National Guard troops for extra protection ahead of the fateful event.

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Commentary: Was It Legal to Appoint Jack Smith in the First Place?

Admin
Jack Smith

Was Special Counsel Jack Smith illegally appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland and is his prosecution of former Pres. Donald Trump unlawful? That is the intriguing issue raised in an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court by Schaerr Jaffe, LLP, on behalf of former Attorney General Ed Meese and two law professors, Steven Calabresi and Gary Lawson, in the case of U.S. v. Trump.

We won’t get an immediate answer to this question because on the Friday before Christmas, the Supreme Court issued a one-line order refusing to take up Smith’s request that the court review Trump’s claim of presidential immunity, which was denied by the trial court, in the federal prosecution being pursued by Smith in the District of Columbia. The special counsel had petitioned the court to take the case on an expedited basis, urging the justices to bypass review by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

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Commentary: Trump Should Love the Colorado Ruling

RealClearWire
Trump Colorado Supreme Court

The Colorado Supreme Court, acting as supplicants for the enemies of Donald Trump seeking the most extreme remedy for driving the former president into the ditch, may have just unwittingly gifted the former president a Rocky Mountain high – in the polls. 

This time, four left-wing Colorado justices attempting to kneecap Trump were not even going to wait on due process – the very foundation of law – to effectively declare Trump guilty of insurrection, a crime for which he has not, repeat not, even been charged. After believing their attempts to wipe Trump off the ballot would be a knockout punch, it is the left that is about to get walloped to the canvas with a right hook. 

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Exclusive: Former TN GOP Candidate Stewart Parks, Sentenced to 8 Months on Jan. 6, 2021 Conviction, Claims Obama-Appointed Judge ‘Colluded’ with Prosecutors

M.D. Kittle

Stewart Parks is now looking at eight months in federal prison for, among other things, being in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He is marked by the Left as an “insurrectionist” on a conviction of five federal charges.

The 30-year-old Nashville man was sentenced on Wednesday by, according to Parks, a vindictive U.S. district court judge who helped the prosecution work out its case against him in the trial.

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Commentary: The Insatiable, Unaccountable, and Unsatisfied Bloodlust of the DOJ

Julie Kelly

Nejourde Thomas “Jord” Meacham was the sort of person the elites in Washington despise.

One of ten children in what appears to be a tight-knit family, Jord lived in rural Utah near the Nevada border working on his family’s ranch; he enjoyed fishing, hunting, and riding horses. “He was a big history buff. Listening to music was a big part of his life and young kids were drawn to him,” his obituary read. Jord is survived by his parents, siblings, grandparents, and “many aunts, uncles, and cousins.”

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Trump Legal Team Asks Jan. 6 Case Judge to Recuse Herself

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday filed a motion seeking the recusal of Judge Tanya Chutkan, asserting that her prior statements suggest a bias against the former president.

Specifically, the ex-commander-in-chief’s attorneys asserted that prior statements she made that they saw “create a perception of prejudgment incompatible with our justice system,” CBS reported. “Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned. Such statements, made before this case began and without due process, are inherently disqualifying.”

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As Ramaswamy Rises in the Polls, Political Knives Come Out

M.D. Kittle

Political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy is heading back to Iowa this week with a lot of momentum and a big target on his back in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase. 

The Ohio biotech engineer is set to join the cattle call of candidates at Friday’s “pinnacle” event of the Hawkeye State’s long, hot summer of presidential politics — the Republican Party of Iowa’s sold-out Lincoln Dinner fundraiser in Des Moines. 

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Jan. 6 Defendant Appeals to Supreme Court in Case that Could Upend Hundreds of Riot Charges

Just the News

Jan. 6 defendant Edward Jacob Lang is asking the Supreme Court to hear his challenge against one of the 11 charges he was indicted on – obstruction of an official proceeding – in a case that could upend legal proceedings against hundreds of other defendants indicted on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. 

The obstruction charge could be levied against “anyone who attends at a public demonstration gone awry,” attorneys for Lang wrote in an appeal to the Supreme Court last week. The proceeding for which the charge was brought refers to the event where Congress certifies the Electoral College votes to confirm the president.

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Pence Battles Boos, Tucker Carlson’s Tough Questions at Iowa Family Leadership Summit

M.D. Kittle

Former Vice President Mike Pence has long been a standard bearer for the evangelical Christian movement in American politics.

On Friday, before a gathering of hundreds of Christian faithful at the 12th Annual Family Leadership Summit in downtown Des Moines, it felt, to some degree, that the GOP candidate for president had lost a good portion of that faithful base.

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Whistleblower: Top FBI Official Made ‘Chilling’ Threat to Agents Questioning January 6 Cases

Just the News

A top official with the FBI has filed a protected disclosure to the Office of the Inspector General alleging that FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told the bureau’s internal critics of its Jan. 6-related cases to seek employment elsewhere and offered to personally address his subordinates’ agents concerns.

In a sworn affidavit, the 15-year veteran FBI special agent alleges that, during a routine meeting in February 2021, the deputy director addressed internal concerns that the bureau had not taken the same approach to its investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as it did with the 2020 riots and protests related to the death of George Floyd.

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Plainclothes Police Officers at Capitol During January 6 Riot, One on Video Exhorting Crowd, Key Lawmaker Says

Just the News

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C. has confirmed to Congress that it had plainclothes officers at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot and that at least one was captured on video exhorting the crowd, a key House investigator told Just the News.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said in wide-ranging interview Wednesday night that MPD body cam video that leaked onto the video platform Rumble is authentic and confirms that officers in plainclothes were at the riot.

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Pence Launches Presidential Campaign in Iowa, Skewering Former Running Mate in Partial Break from Trump

M.D. Kittle

Former Vice President Mike Pence launched his long-anticipated run for the White House Wednesday in suburban Des Moines by taking aim at his old boss, former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate in the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination. 

Pence laid out his vision for America, but he also used his campaign launch in Ankeny to differentiate himself from Trump — and to explain to conservative voters why he believes the former president let him and the country down on Jan. 6, 2021. 

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Commentary: Two Tiers of Justice Aren’t Democrats v. Republicans, But Bureaucratic Insiders v. the Rest of Us

RealClearWire

The elite set of individuals that sit atop our federal agencies have completely weaponized our entire government apparatus. It is no longer a one-off “mistake,” but rather the intentional creation of a two-tier system of justice that has gone unchecked. The resulting impact is a death knell for American faith in all three branches of government.

Allow me to preface with one important factor: This is not an indictment of the men and women who are our “boots on the ground.” They remember every day why they signed up to serve. They investigate real crimes, protect the public from acts of terror, and root out rampant corruption. These men and women across the country serving in all agencies remain heroes and are equally as frustrated with the leadership at the top of our federal government.

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J6 Unmasked: Security Footage Shows Pelosi Evacuating Hollywood-Style from Capitol as Daughter Films

Just the News

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has described having to evacuate a riotous Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as traumatic. But Capitol Police security footage obtained by Just the News shows the long-time Democrat leader exited Hollywood-style from the home of Congress that fateful day with her daughter filming her as security officers tried to guide her through a secret safe passage corridor. The footage, made available by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and aired for the first time on the Just the News, No Noise television show on Real America’s Voice on Thursday night, provides three different angles of Pelosi’s evacuation the afternoon of Jan. 6. Each show her daughter Alexandra roving around her mother’s delegation with a camera as they moved briskly through corridors, led by members of the Capitol Police protective detail.

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Whistleblower: FBI Manipulated January 6 Cases to Make Domestic Terrorism Appear Widespread

The Center Square

A former FBI agent testified before Congress Thursday saying that the FBI manipulated data to make domestic terrorism linked to Jan. 6 seem like a nationwide phenomenon instead of an isolated incident.

The revelation came as part of a hearing held by the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government where  FBI whistleblowers testified before lawmakers about abuse and politicization of the FBI. They also testified about backlash they received, even losing their jobs as retaliation for refusing to toe the narrative established by FBI leadership.

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Far-Left Senator Criticizes Conservative Justices’ Wives’ Activism But Pushes Legislation Relating to His Own Wife’s Work

Admin

Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has raised concern about the employment of Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, though has introduced around two dozen bills touching on issues his wife works on as a consultant for Ocean Conservancy.

Whitehouse has criticized Justice Clarence Thomas for his wife’s consulting work for conservatives and communication with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, sending a letter last year requesting Chief Justice Roberts ensure Thomas recuse himself from cases relating to Jan. 6. Yet his wife Sandra Whitehouse has worked since 2008 as a consultant and senior policy advisor for Ocean Conservancy, while Whitehouse has introduced at least 24 ocean-related bills and co-founded the Senate Oceans Caucus in 2011.

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Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s Questionable ‘Friends’ the Liberal Media Seem to Have Forgotten About

M.D. Kittle

The liberal media are hitting Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Daniel Kelly hard for campaigning with a conservative activist who was “on the grounds” of the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riots. But Kelly’s opponent, far left Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, has some interesting “friends” of her own. 

Protasiewicz was photographed smiling next to Brett Blomme, the former Milwaukee County Children’s Court judge now serving nine years in prison for distributing child pornography. 

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Commentary: ‘Geofence Warrants’ Threaten Every Phone User’s Privacy

Admin

The last time your phone asked you to allow this or that app access to your location data, you may have had some trepidation about how much Apple or Google know about you. You may have worried about what might come of that, or read about China’s use of the data to track anti-lockdown protesters. What you probably didn’t realize is Google has already searched your data on behalf of the federal government to see if you were involved with January 6th.

But last month, the federal district court in DC issued an opinion in the case of  one of the many defendants who stands accused of sacking the Capitol in the wake of the 2020 election.

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Commentary: From What, Exactly, Is the FBI Protecting Us?

Admin

After the tiered releases of the Twitter files, many suspicions have been thoroughly confirmed. Namely, social media monopolies like Facebook and Twitter worked hand-in-glove with the FBI, as well as other government agencies, to suppress accounts and censor stories they jointly deemed misinformation, disinformation, or otherwise harmful to the country during the 2020 election.

The most significant malfeasance arises from the coordinated campaign to suppress the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. The laptop exposed in great detail Hunter’s dissolute lifestyle, along with his role as the family “bag man” for various overseas financial interests.

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Twitter Exec Pushed to Ban Matt Gaetz’s Account After January 6 Unrest

Admin

Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, pushed internally for the company to ban Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, despite messaging another employee that such a decision did not align with the company’s policies, according to the company’s internal documents published by author Michael Shellenberger Friday as part of Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files.”

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Tennessee Man Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Spending 22 Minutes in Capitol on January 6

Just the News

A Tennessee man was sentenced to four years in prison after he entered the U.S. Capitol through a fire door on Jan. 6, 2021, and spent 22 minutes in the building during the riot.

Matthew Bledsoe, 38, was found guilty in July on a felony obstruction charge and four misdemeanor counts. He “scaled a wall … and entered through a fire door at the Senate Wing,” the Justice Department stated Friday.

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Federal Judge Sentences 69-Year-Old Grandmother with Cancer to 2 Months in Jail for ‘Parading’ in the Capitol on January 6

Admin

A federal judge has sentenced a 69-year-old Idaho grandmother and cancer patient to two months behind bars for parading in the Capitol, a misdemeanor.

Pam Hemphill pleaded guilty in January to one count of demonstrating, picketing, or parading in a Capitol building.  The diminutive senior was photographed inside the Capitol Rotunda.

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Bannon Discusses Testifying for Jan. 6 Panel After Trump Agrees to Waive Executive Privilege

Admin

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who was held in criminal contempt for not testifying to the Jan. 6 Capitol committee, is now in talks with the Democrat-led panel about testifying after former President Donald Trump sent a letter agreeing to waive his executive privilege.

Trump wrote in a letter obtained Sunday by The Guardian to Bannon and his attorney, Robert Costello, explaining why he changed his mind regarding privilege.

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Seven Whoppers Peddled by House Democrats’ Jan. 6 Committee

Admin

House Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee has showcased numerous false allegations over the course of its hearings and investigations that have since been debunked and, in some cases, withdrawn.

The committee, which is made up of Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans handpicked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has promoted inaccuracies and falsehoods regarding people and events in weaving its narrative about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, even refusing to back down from some of its allegations despite contradictory evidence.

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White House Co-Worker: ‘Phony’ J6 Witness Cassidy Hutchinson ‘Did This to Basically Get Famous’

Neil W. McCabe

In an exclusive interview with The Star News Network, a fellow White House staffer who worked together with the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack’s star witness Cassidy Hutchinson shortly after the former Trump aide testified June 28 before the panel hand-selected by California Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“She’s a total phony and a social climber, and she did this to basically get famous,” said Joanna Miller, who now works for Save America, a political action committee founded by President Donald J. Trump to support election integrity.

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Jake Evans Calls the January 6th Committee a ‘Political Witch Hunt’

Addison Basurto

Jake Evans, the Trump endorsee who made it to Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District primary runoff against Rich McCormick, contended that the “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” is a “political witch hunt.”

“The hearings [Thursday] are theatre to change the topic from [the Democrats’] failing agenda,” said Evans in a statement released to supporters on Thursday.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: Justice Department Threatens Oath-Keepers with Life in Prison

Admin

In a letter obtained by American Greatness, the U.S. Department of Justice is threatening defendants charged with seditious conspiracy in the sprawling Oath Keepers case to accept plea deals or face life in prison.

Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia handling every prosecution related to the events of January 6, 2021, imposed a May 6 deadline for the remaining defendants to accept plea deals. Three men have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy; nine others, including Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes, have rejected government attempts to reach a plea.

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Latest Candidate in the TN-5 GOP Primary Is Currently on Trial for Charges Related to January 6

Aaron Gulbransen

Stewart Parks, the latest candidate to announce that he is actively running in the Republican primary ballot for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, is also currently facing charges stemming from the January 6 Capitol incident. Parks is also collecting qualifying petitions.

The Tennessee Star confirmed with Parks that he is indeed the individual that is facing federal charges in connection with the events of January 6, 2021. Parks told The Star, “I did nothing wrong.” He also said that he believes the charges will have no logistical effect on his ability to campaign for TN-5.

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Trump Raises Possibility of Pardons for January 6 Defendants, Slams Biden on Border

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Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump vowed Saturday night to ensure fairness for the Jan. 6 defendants if he is voted back into office, including possible pardons for some.

“If I run, and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” Trump told a raucous rally in Conroe, Tex.

“And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons,” he added. “Because they are being treated so unfairly.”

Trump also dismissed Democrats in Washington as “raving lunatics” who put “America last” and suggested President Biden was more concerned about protecting Ukraine’s border from Russia than America’s border from illegal migrants.

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