Mike Benz Explains Why He Is ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About President-Elect Trump’s Nomination of Pam Bondi as Attorney General

Pam Bondi and Donald Trump

Mike Benz, a former Trump State Department official and current executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as U.S. Attorney General, given Bondi’s shortcomings while she served as Florida’s chief legal officer.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump announced his nomination of Bondi as attorney general just hours after the president-elect’s initial choice, former Florida U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, withdrew his nomination.

Read the full story

Marjorie Taylor Greene Renews Call for January 6 Pardons as DOJ Opposes Wave of Legal Filings Citing Trump Victory

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday renewed her call for President-elect Donald Trump to pardon those prosecuted under the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) for participating in their civil unrest on January 6, 2021, in remarks delivered as attorneys representing January 6 defendants are reportedly filing to have trials moved or frozen due to Trump’s prior promises of pardons.

Greene confirmed in Tuesday remarks to CNN, which her team recorded and posted to the social media platform X, Greene confirmed she’s previously spoken with Trump about the release of January 6 defendants, and noted his campaign trail promises to pardon them.

Read the full story

Steve Baker Explains ‘Only Reason’ Why He Pleaded Guilty in January 6 Case

Steve Baker

Steve Baker, an opinion contributor for Blaze News and independent investigative journalist, said he pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges stemming from his presence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to avoid a “shaming exercise” of a trial by a liberal jury in a D.C. courtroom.

Baker, who is among a small group of journalists being prosecuted for being present at the Capitol on January 6, entered an Alfred plea to avoid a trial by jury in a Washington D.C. courtroom in front of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Tuesday.

Read the full story

Reporter Steve Baker Enters Guilty Plea in January 6 Case to ‘Avoid Shaming Exercise of a Trial’

Journalist Steve Baker

Reporter and January 6 defendant Steve Baker entered an Alford plea on Tuesday, acknowledging the state has enough evidence to convict him without admitting guilt, in what he later called a move to avoid the “shaming exercise of a trial.”

Then working as an independent journalist, Baker was inside restricted parts of the U.S. Capitol complex on January 6, 2021. Three years after the protest, he was charged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice for attempting to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory with his presence.

Read the full story

Lawyer Working for Trump Says DOJ Attorneys Who Don’t Get on Board with Trump Agenda May Get Fired

Mark Paoletta

A conservative attorney on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team said that attorneys at the Department of Justice could face getting fired if they don’t cooperate with his agenda.

“Once the decision is made to move forward, career employees are required to implement the President’s plan,” Mark Paoletta wrote on the social media platform, X.

Read the full story

Tennessee U.S. Rep Steve Cohen Predicts ‘Chaos,’ ‘Blood’ If Trump Loses, Reveals Democrats Plan to Install Fences in D.C.

Steve Cohen

U.S. House Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) predicted “blood” and “chaos” will follow should former President Donald Trump be declared to have lost the presidential election but dispute the election results, and revealed House Democrats already have plans to install security fences in Washington, D.C. before the next president is inaugurated.

Cohen made the remarks during an appearance on NewsNation in remarks to host Dan Abrams on Monday, after predicting Vice President Kamala Harris will win both the popular and Electoral College votes on November 5.

Read the full story

Commentary: The Real Threat to American Democracy

US Capitol

Heading into Election Day, we hear constantly that the presidential candidates are mortal threats to American democracy. Anxieties about Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage at the U.S. Capitol and his declaration that he would act as “dictator for a day” are countered by Elon Musk’s warning that if Harris wins, “this will be the last election,” or alarms that Harris’ designs on overhauling the Supreme Court will lead to an end to the rule the law.

The very idea that our republic’s future hangs on the outcome of a single presidential contest, however, reveals the deeper, unacknowledged, underlying danger: a Congress incapable of performing its constitutional duties as our country’s lawmaking body and the guarantor of our representative democracy.

Read the full story

Jack Smith Argues Trump Isn’t Immune to Charges in D.C. Election Case

Special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday submitted a new filing in his DC election case against former President Donald Trump, arguing that he is not immune from prosecution in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. Smith originally charged Trump with four counts related to his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election. Trump had argued he was immune form prosecution due to presidential immunity. The Supreme Court, earlier this year, found that the president enjoys immunity for constitutional acts and presumptive immunity for official acts. Smith subsequently filed a revised indictment and has asked the court to determine that Trump’s alleged conduct does not fall within the scope of presidential immunity.

Read the full story

Key House Chairman to Ask Congress to Repudiate Democrats’ January 6 Findings in Face of New Evidence

Barry Loudermilk

No, Donald Trump didn’t grab the wheel of his presidential limousine and try to commandeer it. Yes, Nancy Pelosi felt responsible for security lapses at the Capitol, including the failure to pre-position National Guard there.

There’s no doubt that Trump did in fact order the Pentagon to send troops to secure the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of electoral votes, but political and military brass declined to do so. And yes, there were both intelligence and security blunders by police that led to the breach of one of America’s most storied buildings.

Read the full story

DOJ IG Horowitz Won’t Say How Many Confidential Human Sources Were Among Crowd on January 6, 2021

U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Wednesday would not say how many U.S. government confidential human sources were among the protestors during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when pressed on the matter by a lawmaker on Wednesday. Horowitz was asked if he has evidence of the number of confidential human sources that were operating on the Capitol grounds on January 6th.

Read the full story

Bombshell Transcripts: Trump Urged Use of Troops to Protect Capitol on January 6 , but Was Rebuffed

Trump January 6

Then-President Donald Trump gave clear instructions to Pentagon brass days before the Jan. 6 riots to “do whatever it takes” to keep the U.S. Capitol safe, including deploying National Guard or active-duty troops, but top officials did not comply because of political concerns, according to transcripts of bombshell interviews conducted by the Defense Department’s chief watchdog that shine new light on government disfunction ahead of the historic tragedy.

Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, confirmed to the Pentagon inspector general three years ago that during a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting Trump pre-approved the use of National Guard or active duty troops to keep peace in the nation’s capital on the day Congress was to certify the results of the 2020 election.

Read the full story

Trump Attorneys Ask Judge to Stop Jack Smith from Making Case in ‘Court of Public Opinion’ Before Election

Special counsel Jack Smith should not be allowed to make an important public filing in his election interference case against former president Donald Trump while there are lingering evidence disputes, Trump’s attorneys told the judge Thursday.

His attorneys urged Judge Tanya Chutkan, who set a schedule allowing prosecutors to file the first brief on presidential immunity Sept. 26, to reconsider her decision. Without addressing ongoing evidence issues, Smith’s filing would “amount to an improper motion for summary judgment in the court of public opinion” ahead of the election, they argued.

Read the full story

Commentary: DOJ Gets Political Before 2024 Election

Attorney General Merrick Garland broke precedent just weeks before the November election, delivering politically charged remarks at the U.S. Attorneys’ National Conference in Washington – pointedly speaking publicly rather than privately in a departure from his usual practice. “Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon,” he said before a packed house, gathered in the Great Hall of DOJ headquarters on Sept. 12. “Federal prosecutors and agents may never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution for the purpose of affecting any election or the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

Read the full story

Biden DOJ Dropped Nearly Half of Pending Obstruction Charges for January 6 Defendants After Supreme Court Ruling

January Six

The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped nearly half of pending obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants since the Supreme Court issued a major ruling in June, according to recent data.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that in charging Jan. 6 defendants, the DOJ had interpreted too broadly a statute that carries up to 20 years in prison for anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” Since the Fischer v. United States ruling, around 60 of 126 defendants had the pending obstruction charges dropped, DOJ data from Sept. 6 shows.

Read the full story

January 6 Defendant Receives First Reduced Sentence After Supreme Court Ruling

January Six Protest

A former Virginia police officer on Wednesday became the first January 6 defendant to receive a reduced sentence after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of an obstruction charge used against Jan. 6 rioters.

The Supreme Court in June made it more difficult to charge the defendants with obstruction but charges can still be brought if prosecutors can prove that rioters were intentionally trying to stop the arrival of certificates used to certify electoral votes during the riot.

Read the full story

Knoxville Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for ‘Heave-Ho’ on January 6

A Knoxville man who was sentenced to four months in prison and two years of supervised release, including, the first four months in the form of home detention, “heave-ho’d’ his way to prison, according to the United State’s District Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (USADC). 

The sentence was levied against Michael Asbury, 44, of Knoxville, after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of obstruction of justice during a civil disorder, an obscure federal charge that has been levied against many people who attended the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Read the full story

Secret Service Bombshell: Mike Pence Escape Car Left Its Position During January 6, Redactions Reveal

Mike Pence

The Secret Service failures at last month’s Trump rally were foreshadowed in once-redacted passages from a Jan. 6 after-action report that was shared with agency brass weeks before the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt and exposed harrowing blunders that may have put the lives of Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in jeopardy.

The redacted sections from a recently released Homeland Security inspector general report, obtained by Just the News, chronicle how Pence’s escape vehicle left its post without explicit permission and left him stranded at an increasingly violent scene at the Capitol.

Read the full story

Commentary: Media Continues to Ignore Kamala Harris’ DNC Pipe Bomb Scare

Confirmation last week by the Department of Homeland Security that Vice President Kamala Harris came within several yards of an explosive device on the afternoon of January 6, 2021 should be one of the hottest stories right now.

The fact that the installed Democratic candidate for president barely escaped an attempt on her life by an alleged MAGA terrorist during what she compares to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor makes for ripe clickbait. Further, her stoicism in the face of such a grave threat—she has never discussed the matter publicly—not just to herself but to her staff and police officers protecting her that day at the DNC is the stuff heroes are made of.

Read the full story

January 6 Bombshell: Secret Service Got Intel on ‘High Potential’ for Violence but Didn’t Tell Agents

January Six Riot

The Secret Service developed intelligence that there was a “high potential for violence” before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but failed to share that information with its agents guarding Donald Trump, Mike Pence or Kamala Harris that fateful day, according to a bombshell report delivered to Congress on Thursday that exposed a fresh round of failures by the presidential protection agency.

Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s report was forced into the public by pressure from House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and it confirmed earlier Just the News reporting, including that the Secret Service whisked Harris, then the Vice President-elect, within 20 feet of an undetected pipe bomb at Democrat National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington because it failed to employ its normal explosive detection tools.

Read the full story

Loudermilk Seeks Records from Capitol Police on Investigation of Gallows on Capitol Grounds January 6

U.S. Capitol police uniform

Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., is pressing United States Capitol Police (USCP) Chief J. Thomas Manger for “records and information” related to their investigation of the “gallows assembled on the Capitol Grounds on January 6, 2021,” according to a news release sent out on Tuesday.

Read the full story

Commentary: Supreme Court Overturns DOJ’s Use of Key January 6 Felony Court

January Six

In a devastating but well-deserved blow to the Department of Justice’s criminal prosecution of January 6 protesters, the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the DOJ’s use of 18 USC 1512(c)(2), the most prevalent felony in J6 cases.

The statute, commonly referred to as “obstruction of an official proceeding,” has been applied in roughly 350 J6 cases; it also represents two of four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s J6-related criminal indictment of Donald Trump in Washington.

Read the full story

Key House Chairman Intervenes in Bannon Case, Tells Supreme Court Democrat January 6 Contempt Was ‘Invalid’

The House subcommittee chairman investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot’s intelligence and security failures made an extraordinary intervention Wednesday at the Supreme Court, telling the justices he believes an earlier Democrat-led investigation into the tragedy was “factually and procedurally invalid” and therefore could not lawfully hold ex-Trump adviser Stephen Bannon in contempt.

Read the full story

House Republicans Request All Documents Previously Turned over to January 6 Committee

Barry Loudermilk

House Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., sent requests to 15 federal agencies Wednesday asking for all documents that were previously turned over to the Jan. 6 Select Committee after that Democrat-led committee failed to hand over a majority of those files to the new Republican majority after the 2022 election.

Loudermilk’s House Administration Committee Subcommittee on Oversight has been investigating the response to Jan. 6 by various federal agencies and the Capitol Police as well as the investigation of the Democrat-run Jan. 6 committee and its final report.

Read the full story

Commentary: J6 Vampiress Swoops Down to Salvage Decomposing Carcass of Insurrection Narrative

Nancy Pelosi

For more than three years, Democrats, the news media, and a fair share of Republicans have insisted Donald Trump was solely responsible for security failures at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Never mind he already had warned of potential violence—not at the hands of his supporters but by BLM and antifa thugs who tried to burn down the nation’s capital for weeks after George Floyd overdosed in May 2020 then attacked pro-Trump demonstrators on the streets of D.C. during “Stop the Steal” events in November and December 2020—and urged deployment of the National Guard for that day.

Read the full story

Julie Kelly Commentary: The Audacity of Merrick Garland

FBI agents last week arrested a man from Maine for his involvement in the events of January 6. According to a Department of Justice press release, Lincoln Deming spent about 30 minutes inside the building after entering through an open door with Capitol Police standing by. Deming faces numerous charges including civil disorder and the dreaded “parading” in the Capitol misdemeanor. The DOJ bragged in the press release about the government’s scalp count for its unprecedented prosecution of Jan 6 protesters. “More than 1,424 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol,” Matthew Graves, the Joe Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, boasted. The investigation into the four-hour disturbance, Graves warned, is “ongoing.” Indeed. The DOJ, astonishingly, is on pace to arrest one J6 protester a day this year; Graves has stated his intention to bring the total caseload to at least 2,000 defendants before the statute of limitations expires. If DOJ Didn’t Have Double Standards, It Would Have No Standards at All…Oh Wait At the same time, the DOJ refuses to bring federal charges against pro-Palestinian demonstrators who in many instances engaged in similar if not worse…

Read the full story

Biden Attempt to Hide Tapes to Collide with Precedent from Past Democratic Probes

President Joe Biden’s attempt to assert executive privilege over the tapes of his interview with federal investigators in his own classified documents case could run into the history of Democratic tactics to obtain information from former President Trump.

For example, recent court decisions surrounding Trump’s efforts to invoke executive privilege over subpoenaed documents by the Jan. 6 Select Committee confirmed a legitimate congressional investigation is often a strong basis for requesting documents or information from the executive. Though, Biden’s current control of the executive branch may allow him to stonewall successfully.

Read the full story

Commentary: Defund and Investigate Jack Smith

Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now.

In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation.

Read the full story

Lawyer for Steve Bannon Releases Statement After Appeals Court Upholds Bannon’s January 6 Contempt Conviction

The Court of Appeals panel held today that it does not have the authority to overrule the 1961 panel of the Court that issued the decision in the Licavoli case on the definition of the word “willfully” as used in the Contempt of Congress statute.  Mr. Bannon will now seek redress before the full Court of Appeals, which has the authority to overrule Licavoli.

Read the full story

Julie Kelly Commentary: The Supreme Court Can Right an Egregious Wrong in Jan 6 Cases, But Will It?

In July 2023, Joshua Youngerman was arrested in California on five misdemeanors for his participation in the events of January 6. According to charging documents, Youngerman entered the Capitol at 2:37 p.m. — 20 minutes after the House went into recess amid the escalating chaos — through an open door as Capitol Police stood by. He exited through the same door two minutes later. But just last week, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves added another charge to Youngerman’s case: 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding. Youngerman is one of more than 330 J6ers charged with the evidence-destroying statute passed in the wake of the Enron-Arthur Anderson accounting scandal that Joe Biden’s Justice Department has weaponized to punish Americans who protested Biden’s election that afternoon. The count also is included in both of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictments against Donald Trump. Graves’ decision to indict Youngerman now is a stunning act of hubris and defiance. Why? Because the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this Tuesday in Joseph Fischer v. USA, which challenges the government’s interpretation of the obstruction count in Jan 6 cases. Many legal and court observers expect the court to wholly or partially overturn how the…

Read the full story

Biden DOJ Convicts ‘J6 Praying Grandma’ Rebecca Lavrenz, 71, Who Faces Year in Prison

Rebecca Lavrenz

The Biden Department of Justice successfully convicted 71-year-old January 6 defendant Rebecca Lavrenz on Thursday. Known as the “J6 Praying Grandma,” the great grandmother now faces up to a year in prison and a serious fine.

Lavrenz, who owns and operates a Colorado bed and breakfast, was convicted by a Washington, D.C. jury after almost 26 hours of deliberation, The Gazette reported.

Read the full story

Bureau of Prisons Denies Transfer of Unjustly Imprisoned J6 Defendant Stewart Parks to Minimum Security Camp

Stewart Parks Memphis

Unjustly convicted and imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks told The Tennessee Star on Monday that his request to transfer to the minimum security satellite camp at FCI Memphis was denied despite intervention by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) and his congressional colleagues.

Parks called Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Star, and were able to share a brief conversation Thursday morning before the phone system at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis automatically disconnected the call after just five minutes.

Read the full story

‘Evil is What It Is,’ Says Journalist Steve Baker, Who Reported on J6 and 3 Years Later Self-Surrendered on Misdemeanor Charges, Only to Be Placed in Leg Shackles by U.S. Marshalls

Steve Baker

Steve Baker, a current opinion contributor for Blaze News and an investigative journalist, said he is being treated as a “terrorist” by the weaponized Department of Justice (DOJ) for covering the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, as an independent journalist.

Baker has been charged with four misdemeanors for being present at the Capitol on January 6.

Read the full story

Reporter Tom Pappert Says Tennessee Congressional Delegation ‘Fear’ Defending J6 Prisoner Ronald Colton McAbee

Ronald McAbee

Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, said members of the Tennessee congressional delegation have not shown an interest in taking up J6 prisoner Ronald Colton McAbee’s case due to the level of “fear” surrounding the overall defense of J6 defendants.

Last month, McAbee was sentenced to almost six years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $32,165 in restitution after being convicted and pleading guilty to six felony charges and one misdemeanor charge for being present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Read the full story

U.S. Reps. Andy Ogles, Matt Gaetz, and Andy Biggs Send Letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Requesting J6 Prisoner Stewart Parks Be Transferred to Minimum Security Satellite Camp

Andy Ogles, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Stewart Parks

U.S. Representatives Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) have sent a letter to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons requesting that unjustly imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks be moved to the minimum security satellite camp located at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis.

Read the full story

Peter Navarro to Serve Sentence at Wing of Minimum Security Prison Camp for Inmates over 60

Peter Navarro

Federal prison consultant Sam Mangel confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that former Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro will serve just 90 days of his four-month sentence, and will complete the prison term at part of the minimum security satellite camp of the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Miami reserved for older inmates.

In a Tuesday phone conversation, Mangel contradicted previous reporting by The New York Times that claimed Mangel “said he was working to get Mr. Navarro into a unit devised for inmates over age 60 in a minimum-security satellite camp in the prison.”

Read the full story

Wife of Unjustly Imprisoned J6 Defendant and Former Williamson County Deputy Sheriff Ronald McAbee Incarcerated Since 2021 Says Tennessee Congressional Delegation Is Ignoring His Case

Ronald McAbee

Sarah McAbee, the wife of J6 defendant Ronald Colton McAbee, said her husband has undergone unfair treatment both while incarcerated awaiting trial and during his jury trial for being present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

D.C. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Ronald McAbee last month to almost six years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $32,165 in restitution after being convicted and pleading guilty to six felony charges and one misdemeanor charge.

Read the full story

Bureau of Prisons Tells Rep. Andy Ogles It Refuses to Transfer Unjustly Imprisoned J6 Defendant Stewart Parks to Minimum Security Satellite Camp

Stewart Parks FBI

A Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) official on Wednesday formally refused the written request by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) to move unjustly imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks to the minimum security satellite camp located at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis.

Despite Parks being a nonviolent, first-time offender convicted after he merely entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the letter by BOP Legislative Affairs Chief David Mapp claims the medium security prison is an “appropriate facility” for the Tennessee entrepreneur and former congressional candidate.

Read the full story

Commentary: The Anti-Democratic Democratic Left

BLM protesters

Joe Biden has claimed that his opponents are assaulting democracy on the basis of the January 6, 2020, buffoonish riot.

Aside from the fact that storming the Capitol Rotunda sometimes is apparently deemed permissible—as in the recent pro-Hamas takeover of it—or aside from the fact that disrupting a federal government proceeding is deemed exempt—as in the recent pro-Hamas throng that blocked the route of the presidential motorcade and thus delayed the State of the Union address to the nation by 26 minutes—who really is attacking democracy?

Read the full story