Trump Loses Arizona Audit: Jan 6 Investigation Cranks Up the Volume
Like the aroma of startled skunk in the morning, the after effects of the Trump gang's Stop the Steal seem to linger on forever. Every single investigation into the 2020 election has confirmed the accuracy of results and proven how rare fraud is.
We can now add the results of Arizona’s partisan Cyber Ninja audit, a money grift promising to find the fraud in Maricopa County’s vote count, to the list of failed attempts to discover some basis for the Big Lie.
The results of what Republican state lawmakers have called a "forensic audit," according to a leaked draft of the report, actually added to President Joe Biden’s vote count and failed to find evidence of malfeasance.
Predictably, Trump denounced media reports coming out of Arizona as fake news.
“Huge findings in Arizona! However, the Fake News Media is already trying to ‘call it’ again for Biden before actually looking at the facts—just like they did in November!” Trump said, invoking once again his baseless claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
“This is a major criminal event and should be investigated by the Attorney General immediately,” he added.
As anybody who’s followed this effort to overturn election results knows, they’re not really interested in election integrity; this is all about trying to delegitimize any Democratic victory in future elections.
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1441422737700835329?s=20
Even in states where the former President won in 2020, the pressure to delegitimize the process is on.
From the New York Times:
“Governor Abbott, we need a ‘Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election,’” Mr. Trump said in a midday open letter to Mr. Abbott. “Texans know voting fraud occurred in some of their counties.”
Texas is currently without a secretary of state, after the May retirement of Ruth Ruggero Hughs. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, has yet to appoint a successor.
Nevertheless, the office released a two-sentence statement late Thursday stating that it would examine ballots from the 2020 election in Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant Counties. The news release called those counties the “two largest Democrat counties and two largest Republican counties” in the state, but of the four, only Collin County backed Mr. Trump against Mr. Biden in the 2020 election. The statement said the audit process had already begun.
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The House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack issued subpoenas yesterday for Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff; Dan Scavino Jr., was deputy chief of staff; advisor Stephen K. Bannon, and Kash Patel, former Pentagon chief of staff.
From Rolling Stone:
The announcement of the subpoenas also described the committee’s interest in the four former officials. It states that Meadows “reportedly communicated with officials at the state level and in the Department of Justice as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election or prevent the election’s certification.” It also noted Meadows was reportedly “also in communication with organizers of the January 6th rally” on the national mall that precipitated the attack.
The statement noted Scavino was reportedly “with the former President on January 5th during a discussion of how to convince Members of Congress not to certify the election for Joe Biden.” It also noted Scavino promoted the January 6 rally.
Patel is highlighted for his role in “discussions among senior Pentagon officials prior to and on January 6th, 2021, regarding security at the Capitol.” The statement also mentions Bannon’s reported attendance at “a gathering at the Willard Hotel on January 5th, 2021, as part of an effort to persuade Members of Congress to block the certification of the election the next day.”
https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1441254140857012224?s=20
The committee is demanding that the four men turn over documents by October 7 and submit to depositions the following week.
Record preservation demands have been sent to 35 technology companies. Included among the scores of people whose records at issue are about a dozen House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has threatened to retaliate against any company that complies.
Seven executive-branch agencies have responded to the panel’s first, sweeping set of Trump administration document requests. Additionally, two separate sets of White House documents have been forwarded to the former president for review, a legally required step before the committee can obtain them — or fight any objections from Trump.
The Trump camp responded to news of the subpoenas:
“The highly partisan, Communist-style ‘select committee’ has put forth an outrageously broad records request that lacks both legal precedent and legislative merit.”
Despite an anticipated GOP legal blitzkrieg, Select panel Chair Bennie Thompson says he hopes to complete the committee's inquiry this spring.
Rep. Adam Schiff told the Guardian they will consider recommending potential criminal prosecution to the Justice Dept for people who in bad faith refuse to cooperate with Capitol attack probe.
If the House cannot complete its investigation prior to the fall 2022 election campaigns, it’s likely they never will. Donald Trump’s entire life story of “success” is built around fending off legal opponents until they cave or run out of time.
Further, it should be obvious that no matter what any entity comes up with concerning Trump, it will only enhance his status in the eyes of his supporters. Two things are important with the January 6 investigation, public humiliation of Trump’s enablers and motivating voters to turn out in large enough numbers in 2022 to stop the country from returning to the path toward authoritarianism.
https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1441230537725595658?s=20
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