In the American system of law, not unlike Canada’s, the courts have the final say about challenges to election integrity. Candidates have the right to challenge official votes. The Trump campaign made dozens of such court challenges.

The Select Committee heard from a renowned legal expert Ben Ginsberg who had represented Republican George W. Bush in successfully resisting the challenge of his election for president by Al Gore that went to the US Supreme Court and led to the election of Bush. Ginsburg had represented numerous other Republicans in election litigation. He served as the national counsel to Republican presidential campaigns of 2000, 2004, and 2012.  He also represented George W. Bush in the most famous election case in America and won.

As Ms Lofgren of the Select Committee said, “it is fair to say that you are the most prominent Republican lawyer who has litigated elections.” Ginsburg had analyzed the Trump’s litigation. He pointed out to the House Select committee how the Trump campaign had major legal problems in pursuing their legal cases. The elections were not close. The narrowest margin was more than 10,000 votes. In 2000 there had been 500 votes apart. As he said, “you just don’t make up those sorts of numbers in recounts.”  He also pointed out how the Trump campaign did not have evidence to support their claims. After all, courts always demand evidence. That is just what they do. Unlike the American public who are often swayed by wild allegations without supporting evidence, American courts are much more circumspect.

Ginsburg said there was not one case in which an American court found a Trump allegation was proved. “There was never that instance. The simple fact is that the Trump campaign did not make its case.”

He looked at more than 60 cases with more than a 180 counts. Not one was made out in court!

 The House of Representatives Select Committee found that after the election and before January 6^th, the Trump campaign brought 62 cases to court and it lost 61. The 1 case they “won” did not actually affect the outcome of that election. The Trump campaign said the courts did not give them an opportunity to make their cases in court.  Ginsburg denied this. As Ginsburg said,

“They did have their day in court. About half of those cases were dismissed at the procedural stage.  For lack of standing, the proper people didn’t bring the case, or there wasn’t sufficient evidence and it got dismissed on a motion to dismiss. But in the others, there were discussions of the merits of cases made in the complaints. In no instances did the court find that the charges of fraud were real.”

It is also worth noting that even if the Trump campaign complained that it did not have its day in court, there were post election reviews in each of the 6 battleground states that could have made a difference, and those cases ranged from the somewhat farcical Cyber Ninjas case in Arizona, to the Michigan  Senate report to the hand recount case in Georgia that Mr. Pak addressed, in each of those instances there was no credible evidence of fraud produced by the Trump campaign or his supporters. 

In other words, Bill Barr was right. All of Trump’s claims of fraudulent elections were bullshit. Yet for 4 years since then Trump and the Trumpsters have been trying to use claims of a stolen election to persuade their fellow Republicans that Biden was not legitimately elected. Surprisingly, many of those Republicans support the former President on these issues. But the claims are all bullshit.

Trump and the Trumpsters are simply out of touch with reality.

Donald Trump did very little to protect democracy on January 6^th and Elizabeth Cheney, unlike many other Republicans, acknowledged that.  She was one of only 2 Republicans on the Congressional Select Committee and she knew the actions of the president were shameful.

This is what she said, in her opening statement:

“At 6:01 p.m. on January 6^th after he had spent hours watching a violent mob besiege, attack and invade our Capitol Donald Trump tweeted that he did not condemn attack. Instead, he justified it. This is what Trump said:

These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.  Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever.

Trump made it sound like they had done an honorable thing. Besieging the Capitol and rioting so much that 5 people died that day.

President Trump believed his supporters at the Capitol “were doing what they should be doing.” While Trump’s staff pleaded with him to call off the rioter,  and to instruct his supporters to leave and while he was aware of the rioters’ chants to hang Mike Pence the president responded with these words: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserved it.”…

 At 1:49 after the Capitol grounds were breached one of the Capitol police members “officially declared it a riot.”

Meanwhile, Proud Boys were in a leadership position. Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola breached the upper window on the Upper West Terrace at 2:13 p.m.  The House recessed at 2:18 p.m.  The crowd chanted to “hang Mike Pence” over and over again.  The scene was loud, violent and chaotic. At 2:25 the Crypt was breached. Many police were assaulted.  The police were repeatedly assaulted by citizens as they were badly outnumbered by the rioters. Rioters flooded into the Capitol building. 140 police were wounded that day defending the building from the rampaging mob. 5 people died. This is what vigilantism is all about. Not democracy.

 Trump loved the rioters; Mike Pence not so much.  Even though Pence had been his loyal foot soldier for 4 years Trump abandoned him to the angry mob. Many of those rioters were later charged and convicted of serious crimes for their” service” in favor of their master. The courts knew a riot when they saw one.

General Milley the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff contrasted how forcefully Mike Pence instructed him to take decisive action on January 6^th, while President Trump was silent. Instead, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called him to ensure that they would control the narrative to ensure the public “knew” that Trump was in charge and taking control of the situation, not Mike Pence, which of course was not just spin, but an outright lie.

Some of Trump’s administration did the right thing after the election of Joseph Biden. For example, Barr investigated the election to see if there was any fraud as his boss asked him to do. That was legitimate. Given what Trump and some of his advisors were saying about that election, the public had a right to know what “their” department of Justice thought about all of this. Then when he found no such evidence, Barr told the president in no uncertain terms that there was no significant evidence of voter fraud, even though he knew the President did not want to hear this. Then, when he could no more to serve his country and the constitution and resigned. Others like his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows enabled Trump’s absurd beliefs to flourish. Many Republican politician also supported the president in his baseless claims.

This is what Elizabeth Cheney had to say about those fellow Republicans in her statements to the Select Committee:

“There  is a reason why people serving in our government take an oath to the constitution. As our founding fathers recognized, democracy is fragile. People in positions of public trust are duty bound to defend it and step forward when action is required. In our country we don’t swear allegiance to an individual or a political party. We take our oath to defend the United States’ constitution. That oath must mean something. Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues–you are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.

 Finally, I ask all of our fellow Americans as you watch our hearings over the coming weeks, please remember what’s at stake. Remember the men and women who have died so that we can live under the rule of law, not the rule of men.

I ask you to think of the scene in our Capitol rotunda on the night of January 6^th. There, in a sacred space in our constitutional republic, the place where our presidents lie in state, watched over by statues of Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant, Eisenhower Ford and Reagan. Against every wall that night encircling the room there were SWAT teams. Men and women in tactical gear with long guns deployed inside our Capitol building. There in the rotunda these brave men and women rested beneath paintings depicting the earliest scenes of our republic, including one painted in 1824 depicting George Washington resigning his commission, voluntarily relinquishing power, handing control of the continental army back to Congress.  With this noble act, Washington set the indispensable example of the peaceful transfer of power, what president Reagan called “nothing less than a miracle”. The sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president except one.

 As Americans we all have a duty to ensure what happened on January 6^th never happens again. To set aside partisan battles, to stand together to perpetuate and preserve our great republic.”

 

After Ms Cheney’s words a video was shown at the House Select Committee hearings  that makes it clear–very clear–that the events of January 6^th were not just tourists’ visits as some Republican politicians had shockingly alleged. It was shocking to me, because I saw much of what happened on television. The video was largely previously unreleased.

This video showed carnage aided and abetted by the president of the United States.

Caroline Edwards is an American officer of the United States Capitol Police.  I don’t know what her politics are or were.  I don’t know if she supported Trump or Biden in the presidential election of 2022.  There is no evidence that I know which would suggest that she was “a woke Lib.” But she was there and she was attacked. She was one of the first officers to be attacked by the mob that day. She knows what happened and was an independent witness.

Edwards was one of the first witnesses at the House Select Committee hearings in the summer of 2022. She signalled on the police radio that her first responder unit had been attacked by the mob.  She reported to them that the officers were being overrun by the mob and that she had personally engaged in battle with the rioters for 4 hours on the hill that day.

As the mob pressed against the officers, she was pushed over by a Trumpster and reported to her superiors that the police were being overrun.

One of the mob, Ryan Samsel, pushed a bike rack over her and as a result Edwards hit her head on a handrail. As a result, she suffered a concussion but when she awoke minutes later and she continued her defense, engaging with the mob in hand-to-hand-combat for about 4 hours. She testified about the attack to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in the summer of 2022 and was later awarded the Presidential Medal for her services to the country.

Officer Caroline Edwards testified that she was part of a small group of officers trying to hold the line of bike racks. She heard rioters chanting “Fuck you Antifa.” I guess they thought she was a fake police official to hide her true identity as a member of Antifa.  She said she had participated in about a hundred events of civil unrest and she knew when she was being turned into the villain. She told her Sergeant what she called the understatement of the century, “I think we need some more people.” She movingly testified,

“what I saw was a war scene…I couldn’t believe my eyes there were officers on the ground. They were bleeding they were throwing up. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell…It was carnage. It was chaos…Never in my wildest dreams did I think as police officer, as a law enforcement officer  I would find myself in the middle of a battle. I am trained to handle a couple of subjects and to contain a crowd but I am not combat trained and that day was just hours of hand-to-hand combat, hours of anything way beyond what any law enforcement officer is trained for. I just remember that moment of stepping behind the line and seeing the absolute war zone the west front had become.”

Another video shown at the hearing revealed the rioters asserting that they were invited there  by the President of the United States! One of the rioters, Robert Schornack said “what really made me want to come, you know, I had supported president Trump all that time, and I did believe you know that the election was being stolen, and Trump asked us to come. Schornack  was sentenced to 36 months probation for his part in the riot.

Eric Barber, another rioter charged with theft and unlawful demonstrations in the Capitol said, referring to president Trump, said  “he personally asked us to come to D.C. that day. And for everything he has done for us, and if this is the only thing he has asked of us, I’ll do it.” Spoken like a true Trumpster. He was also found guilty.

Other rioters said the same thing. They came because president Trump asked them to come and things were going to happen that day. Trump summoned the Trumpsters and many of them came. Many of them have now been charged and found guilty and sentenced for their efforts.

This was indeed a riot.

Cheney analyzed the things Trump did and did not do on January 6, 2021 during the riot at the Capitol. She had some interesting comments to make about that.

She said, that during the violence on the Capitol Trump knew what was going on. His advisors all urged him to intervene to urge his followers to stop the violence. Not until it had been ongoing for many hours did he finally issue a lame appeal to them to stop the violence long after the damage had been done. His advisors knew what Trump should do, but Trump refused to do the right thing. This should surprise no one. Trump was never famous for doing the right thing. Trump was famous for doing what appealed to him and what h thought was in his own best interests.

Leaders on Capitol Hill begged President Trump for help including Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy who admitted he was “scared.”  Every one of the politicians was scared. Their lives were at risk in the presence of a violent unruly mob. McCarthy called multiple members of Trump’s family after he could not persuade the president himself.

As Cheney said,

“Not only did Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the capitol, he placed no call to any element of the United States government to instruct that the Capitol be defended. He did not call his Secretary of Defense on January 6^th ; he did not talk to his Attorney General; he did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump gave no order to employ the National Guard that day and he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets, but Vice-President Pence did each of those things.”

As Cheney told the Select Committee of the House of Representatives,  President Trump did nothing to constrain the rioters. He told them by video that he loved them. It is impossible not to reach the conclusion that what was happening at the Capitol that day had his full approval. He approved of the violence he had instigated. As Cheney said, “It was only after multiple hours of violence President Trump finally released a video instructing the violent mob to leave, and as he did so he said, “We love you and you are very special.”

 This is what he did while members of the House and Senate feared for their lives and rioters were rampaging and calling for Mike Pence to be hanged. And this man wants to be president again. And millions of Americans are fine with that.

John Eastman, a lawyer working for Trump who engineered the plan to have Pence overturn the election, worked relentlessly toward that goal. Greg Jacob, the Vice-President’s legal counsel, said this in an email about those efforts while the violent attack was underway: “Thanks to your bullshit we are now under siege.” That is where bullshit leads.

A federal conservative judge, Judge David O. Carter, of the California District Court, Central District of California, evaluated the facts and said this about the effort of Trump and Eastman to get around the constitution: President Trump’s efforts to pressure Mike Pence to act illegally by refusing to count electoral votes likely violated 2 Federal criminal statutes and also said this:

“If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.”

As Elizabeth Cheney said, “Every American should read what this federal judge has written.” The same judge, David Carter, issued another decision the week of the Capitol Assault hearings in Washington, where he said John Eastman and other Trump lawyers knew they had little chance of being successful with their legal arguments in court, but they relied on those arguments anyway “to overturn a democratic election.”

Later Eastman realized that what he had done might get him in trouble with the law and advised Giuliani that perhaps he should get a pardon, proving that he too was at home in the swamp that Trump claimed to be draining.

While Congress was under attack on January 6^th Trump’s legal team worked in the Willard Hotel War room  where they continued the work to halt the counting of the electoral votes.

On the evening of January 5, President Trump’s close advisor, Steve Bannon said this in his podcast:  “Just understand this–All hell is going to break lose tomorrow.”  How did Bannon know this?  He had been watching the social media that had been unleashed by Trump’s supporters and he knew what was going to happen because it had been planned. It was not a spontaneous action. It was premeditated.

Bannon knew what was happening and did not hold back.

It is clear what Trump was up to. He was upto–nothing less  than the disruption of the lawful election of the President for his own benefit. What amazes me is the extent to which millions of Americans have acquiesced to this attack on a fundamental  aspect of democratic elections, namely that after the election there must be a peaceful transfer of power to the one who won the election.

Elizabeth Cheney spoke out against Trump, after loyally following his for years and that cost her dearly. Basically, it cost her a political career. Once you speak out against the leader of the Republican Party, like cult, you are ousted never to return. Heretics are not permitted in the world of Trump.

Cheney explained what happened after William Barr resigned:

“After Barr’s resignation on December 23^rd the acting Attorney General who replaced him Jeff Rosen and the acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue told President Trump over and over again that the evidence did not support allegations he was making in public.”

And of course, Trump continued his insinuations about a stolen election no matter how many of his own advisors advised him that he was wrong, for there was no significant fraud in the election. None of them found fraud even though they knew their boss wanted to find fraud and their lives would have been much easier had they found fraud. The new attorney general, like the old one, told Trump that the evidence did not support the statements he was making in public.

 Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who had been leading the charge on the 60 court cases that the Trump team filed trying to over turn the election in court, and which were lost in court, was severely criticized by the courts, including the New York Supreme Court which said this about him:

“Mr. Giuliani communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for the former president Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.”

As a result, Giuliani lost his license to practice law.

 As Elizabeth Cheney said,

“President Trump invested millions of dollar of campaign funds purposely spreading false information, running ads he knew were false, and convincing millions of Americans that the election was corrupt and that he was the true president.. and this provoked the violence in January 6^th . “

Elizabeth Cheney who spoke knowing that her decision to speak out against Trump was deeply unpopular with many of her supporters and many of the people in her state, yet she chose to speak out against her President and party leader because she saw the corruption of her president and realizing that she had a higher loyalty to the country and the constitution.  She spoke after hearing many weeks of testimony by many witnesses behind closed doors. At the Select Committee Hearings she summarized that evidence for the benefit of viewers. As a result, Ms. Cheney drew our attention to the fact that President Trump corruptly planned to replace the Attorney General of the United States so the US Justice Department would spread his false stolen election claims. In the days before January 6, President Trump told his top Justice Department officials “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.”

Senior officials whom Trump had appointed told him he could not do that because it was not true. What was Trump’s response?  Cheney described it this way:

“So president Trump decided to replace them. He offered Jeff Clark, an environmental lawyer at the Justice Department, the job of acting Attorney General. President Trump wanted Mr. Clark to take a number of steps including sending this letter to Georgia and 5 other states, saying the US Department of Justice “… have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election…”

As Ms. Cheney said,

“This letter is a lie! The Justice Department had in fact repeatedly told President Trump exactly the opposite that they had investigated his stolen election allegations and found no credible fraud that could impact the outcome of the election! This letter and many others like it would have urged multiple states to withdraw their official and lawful electoral votes for Biden.”

Acting Deputy Attorney General Donoghue saw the proposed letter and said this about it: “This would be a grave step for the department to take and it could have tremendous Constitutional, political, and social ramifications for the country.”  Ms. Cheney added, “The committee agrees with Mr. Donoghue’s assessment.  Had Clark assumed the role of Attorney General in the days before January 6^th and issued these letters, the ramifications indeed could have been grave.”

Mr. Donoghue also said this about Mr. Clark’s plan, “and I recall toward the end saying what you are proposing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election.” This of course is precisely what it was. It is also precisely what president Trump wanted. It did not matter to him that he would have been corrupting the Department of Justice. The only thing that mattered was that this is what Donald Trump wanted. Nothing else mattered a whit.

As a result of all of this, the senior leadership of the Department of Justice threatened to resign. The White House counsel threatened to resign. They confronted Jeff Clark and Donald Trump in the Oval office. As Ms. Cheney said, “the men involved including acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue were appointed by President Trump. These men honored their oaths of office, and did their duty. They were all lawyers who did what was hard because it was right. They put party behind country. They did this at the expense of their careers. As Cheney said, “By contrast, Jeff Clark has invoked his 5^th amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify.” He was a less honorable lawyer.

One of the more sickening things pointed out by Elizabeth Cheney was that multiple Republican politicians sought presidential pardons for their efforts to thwart American democracy. These are the same political leaders who praised Donald Trump for his efforts to “drain the swamp.” Is that how it done, by seeking presidential pardons for themselves?

 As Cheney said, “President Trump engaged in relentless efforts to  pressure, both in private, and in public” to thwart the will of the American voters. As she said, “What President Trump demanded was wasn’t just wrong, it was illegal and unconstitutional.”

America needs more heretics like Elizabeth Cheney.

Elizabeth Cheney spoke out against Trump, after loyally following his for years and that cost her dearly. Basically, it cost her a political career. Once you speak out against the leader of the Republican Party, like cult, you are ousted never to return. Heretics are not permitted in the world of Trump.

Congress woman Cheney explained what happened after William Barr resigned:

“After Barr’s resignation on December 23^rd the acting Attorney General who replaced him Jeff Rosen and the acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue told President Trump over and over again that the evidence did not support allegations he was making in public”.

And of course, Trump continued his insinuations about a stolen election no matter how many of his own advisors advised him that he was wrong, for there was no significant fraud in the election. None of them found fraud even though they knew their boss wanted to find fraud and their lives would have been much easier had they found fraud. The new attorney general, like the old one, told Trump that the evidence did not support the statements he was making in public.

 Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who had been leading the charge on the 60 court cases that the Trump team filed trying to over turn the election in court, and which were lost in court, was severely criticized by the courts, including the New York Supreme Court which said this about him:

“Mr. Giuliani communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for the former president Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.”

As a result, Giuliani lost his license to practice law.

 As Elizabeth Cheney said,

“President Trump invested millions of dollar of campaign funds purposely spreading false information, running ads he knew were false, and convincing millions of Americans that the election was corrupt and that he was the true president.. and this provoked the violence in January 6^th .”

Elizabeth Cheney spoke knowing that her decision to speak out against Trump was deeply unpopular with many of her supporters and many of the people in her state, yet she chose to speak out against her President and party leader because she saw the corruption of her president and realizing that she had a higher loyalty to the country and the constitution.  She spoke after hearing many weeks of testimony by many witnesses behind closed doors. At the Select Committee Hearings she summarized that evidence for the benefit of viewers. As a result, Ms. Cheney drew our attention to the fact that

“President Trump co”rruptly planned to replace the Attorney General of the United States so the US Justice Department would spread his false stolen election claims. In the days before January 6, President Trump told his top Justice Department officials “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.”

Senior officials whom Trump had appointed told him he could not do that because it was not true. What was Trump’s response?  Cheney described it this way:

“So president Trump decided to replace them. He offered Jeff Clark, an environmental lawyer at the Justice Department, the job of acting Attorney General. President Trump wanted Mr. Clark to take a number of steps including sending this letter to Georgia and 5 other states, saying the US Department of Justice “… have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election…”

As Ms. Cheney said,

“This letter is a lie! The Justice Department had in fact repeatedly told President Trump exactly the opposite that they had investigated his stolen election allegations and found no credible fraud that could impact the outcome of the election! This letter and many others like it would have urged multiple states to withdraw their official and lawful electoral votes for Biden.”

Acting Deputy Attorney General Donoghue saw the proposed letter and said this about it: “This would be a grave step for the department to take and it could have tremendous Constitutional, political, and social ramifications for the country.”  Ms. Cheney added, “The committee agrees with Mr. Donoghue’s assessment.  Had Clark assumed the role of Attorney General in the days before January 6^th and issued these letters, the ramifications indeed could have been grave.”

Mr. Donoghue also said this about Mr. Clark’s plan, “and I recall toward the end saying what you are proposing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election.” This of course is precisely what it was. It is also precisely what president Trump wanted. It did not matter to him that he would have been corrupting the Department of Justice. The only thing that mattered was that this is what Donald Trump wanted. Nothing else mattered a whit.

As a result of all of this, the senior leadership of the Department of Justice threatened to resign. The White House counsel threatened to resign. They confronted Jeff Clark and Donald Trump in the Oval office. As Ms. Cheney said, “the men involved including acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue were appointed by President Trump. These men honored their oaths of office, and did their duty. They were all lawyers who did what was hard because it was right. They put party behind country. They did this at the expense of their careers. As Cheney said, “By contrast, Jeff Clark has invoked his 5^th amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify.” He was a less honorable lawyer.

One of the more sickening things pointed out by Elizabeth Cheney was that multiple Republican politicians sought presidential pardons for their efforts to thwart American democracy. These are the same political leaders who praised Donald Trump for his efforts to “drain the swamp.” Is that how it done, by seeking presidential pardons for themselves?

 As Cheney said, “President Trump engaged in relentless efforts to  pressure, both in private, and in public” to thwart the will of the American voters. As she said, “What President Trump demanded was wasn’t just wrong, it was illegal and unconstitutional.”

America needs more heretics like Elizabeth Cheney.