DOJ Finally Gets around to Sharing Discovery with Oath Keepers Mark Grods and Caleb Berry
As background for some other things, I’d like to lay out some of the information sharing DOJ has been doing since charging some of the the Oath Keepers with sedition on January 12.
After mistakenly asking to share information with defendants in the previously charged caption (US v. Caldwell) on January 13, on January 14, DOJ asked to share grand jury material with Jon Schaffer and also asked to share sealed material from the Schaffer case with the defendants in the Rhodes, Crowl, and Walden cases, the newly spun out captions after the sedition charges (I describe how those cases got spun out here). Judge Amit Mehta approved that sharing request on January 14.
Prosecutors got a protective order with Schaffer in April, just days before he pled guilty.
This seems to confirm that Schaffer’s cooperation was regarding some aspect of the Oath Keeper’s actions, which is consistent with a discovery letter DOJ sent in April (at that time, defendants included the Stack, plus Joshua James and Roberto Minuta) saying that defendants had been informed, “about whether Mr. Schaffer has had communications with your clients.” But there still seems to be some aspect of his cooperation that is hidden. A November status update on Schaffer’s cooperation explained that,
Multiple defendants charged in the case in which the Defendant is cooperating have been presented before the Court; several are in the process of exploring case resolutions and a trial date has yet to be set.
At the time, there were trial dates set for the main Oath Keepers case and several people charged in it had already flipped, suggesting Schaffer’s cooperation didn’t pertain directly to the main Oath Keeper conspiracy. One possible explanation is that the description is just inaccurate. Another is that Schaffer is directly cooperating against different Oath Keepers who were charged sometime before November 12 under seal, or someone like Jeremy Brown, not charged in the January 6 conspiracies, but potentially facing new weapons charges in Florida.
On January 21, for the first time, DOJ asked for a protective order and permission to share grand jury materials with Caleb Berry. Mehta approved those requests on January 24.
On January 25, also for the first time, DOJ asked for a protective order and permission to share grand jury materials with Mark Grods. Mehta approved those requests the next day, January 26.
(The other two known Oath Keeper cooperators, Graydon Young and Jason Dolan, would be covered by existing protective and grand jury sharing orders, so we wouldn’t know if they were newly seeing existing discovery.)
This seems to suggest that, for the entirety of the time Berry and Grods have been cooperating with DOJ, seven months, they’ve only been shown information that they themselves brought to the table. There would have been real limits on what was available, too, because both Berry and Grods admitted to deleting evidence about Oath Keeper organizing leading up to and on January 6. So for the first time since they deleted this evidence more than a year ago, they may be shown the specific comments not otherwise included in public charging documents from those organizing chats.
Perhaps prosecutors are just moving towards follow-up interviews in preparation for April and July trials.
But there are details about both men’s cooperation — notably, what Berry knew of Roger Stone’s ties with the Oath Keepers and the Oath Keepers coordination with the Proud Boys from Florida, what Berry witnessed of Kelly Meggs’ intentions as they walked down a hallway hunting Nancy Pelosi, what Grods knew of the disposition of his and Joshua James’ weapons, and what Grods witnessed at the Willard Hotel the morning of the insurrection — about which prosecutors were especially coy in the new set of indictments.
That suggests those topics — topics directly implicating Roger Stone — remain an active part of the investigation, one that cooperating Oath Keepers may get new questions about now that DOJ has obtained all the other assistance necessary to wrap up their more obvious co-conspirators in a sedition conspiracy.
In the recent round of indictments, DOJ purposely hid what they’ve learned about Roger Stone from witnesses whose testimony they needed to finalize the sedition conspiracy. And for the first time, overt cooperators may get more questions about that.
I try to not overreact to the grotesque lowbrow bleatings of the 45th Oaf of Office. But, last night in Texas, he told his MAGA crowd that if he is reelected in 2024, the January 6 insurrectionists would all get pardons. And, in rather unsubtle dog whistle language, exhorted his peeps to rise up en masse in the event he is prosecuted by ”these racist, vicious prosecutors…I’m trying to save this country.”
The importance of your work just ramped up a serious notch.
Trump is operating in the zone even Bill Barr stated would be criminal. And yet, the Republicans want the coup, if he can pull it off. Their silence says everything.
If IQ45 is offering pardons to insurrectionists, isn’t that witness tampering?
Perhaps that could be a part of the J6 Committee legislation aspirations ?
Only one Presidential Pardon allowed per person / per lifetime.
I reckon Roger Stone was in this insurrection (Brook Brothers 2.0) up to his neck.
https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/the-five-must-see-insurrection-videos
Um, no, that be facially, and patently, unconstitutional legislation. Come on man, let’s not reach into the absurd.
And, as to jhinx, no it is nowhere near that simple. There are elements to crimes, and they ALL have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Lower bar with civil cases of course. Basically, since the GQP seems willing to bankroll Twitler’s legal defenses still, Twitler seems to be upping the sedition.
What is GQP and Twittler? Are we so petty here that we cannot use accurate denominations? Really? Does that make you feel better?
Wouldn’t that also be considered obstruction?
It certainly looks like it could be.
The pardon talk is an inducement, an offer for future seditionists.
Okay. How are you going to prove that? Just blurting that phrase out will not make it so. Also, too, how does your snap conclusion allow for protected First Amendment speech, not to mention political speech??
So I get that proving that dangling pardons is obstruction or witness tampering (especially since Trump added an “If” statement, and also given basic First Amendment rights), but what do you make of the implication made by Adam Schiff that these hypothetical inducements add to the evidence (though not by itself proof) of Trump’s intent regarding the events on January 6? Proving intent for, say, inciting a riot, some of the conspiracy charges, or election/official business interference is (I believe) required. So I think his reasoning is that if Trump did not intend that the mob would storm the Capitol and felt it was an improper action, why would he even think of pardoning any of the violators if convicted? Perhaps this another case where Trump would have been better served he shut up and said nothing.
Intent is usually established via circumstantial evidence, so sure that could help bolster such an effort.
The last time Trump invited people to protest en masse, the Capitol was attacked.
I wonder if his right wing media pals will see this as a signal to start banging the war drums. And if he has figured out how to make money from such a protest. The more bellicose the rhetoric, the closer Trump sees the prosecutorial net tightening.
Pardoning people who are not facing jail time or whose jail sentence will have already been served by the time Trump is elected doesn’t seem like a such a great deal. But, perhaps, Trump was aiming this dangle at the people higher up in the chain who have not yet been charged.
This.
Exactly. The media keeps acting as if this applies only to rioters, but it seems better aimed at the Republican functionaries who carried out the conspiracy.
Hand wringing press concerns are surfacing speculating on this exact thing — that Trump’s TX pardons dangle will affect plea deals negotiations with some of the higher-up J6 perpetrators.
I just wasted an hour trying to find out crowd size/demographics at that Conroe thing. What matters is the platform he’s being handed to label Black women prosecutors “racist.” That won’t get missed by those who watch online, or on Newsmax, or–did I get this right?–C-Span.
Now that they’ve got so many on the hook for seditious conspiracy, they may even to try to enlist those folks’ cooperation too to be able to charge Stone et al in the same conspiracy.
By subtly making it known that they’re also interviewing those who ratted the seditious conspirators out on the first place about such matters, which they HADN’T done until now is some powerful incentive to flip.
After all first one to the finish line gets the best deal. And the known cooperators are obligated to be truthful about EVERYTHING they know, or deal’s off. Plus the cooperators have a heads up in that they have the upper hand by having the GJ material to refer to. So they already know what they can’t lie about, whereas the merely indicted do not.
This is some 4 dimensional prisoner’s dilemma stuff….I love it!
Oh they’ve explicitly gone back to the seditionists and said NOW do you want to flip. Those in it are, in part, those with the most important information to share.
Is this going to work though? Have many flippers gotten much, much better deals than hardcore seditionists as yet?
Dr. Wheeler laid out the contours of a five level criminal conspiracy some weeks ago. This new information indicates that DOJ is actively investigating Level 2, the ties between the Oath Keepers leadership and Roger Stome. That puts them within one degree of tfg in their ongoing criiminal investigation. That also might explain the outburst in Texas regarding the “racist, vicious prosecutors” and the dangle of pardons. Either tfg can read the tea leaves or someone who knows the score is telling him that the investigation is moving closer. I would expect more unhinged rants like that one last night.
The “racist, vicious prosecutors” likely had more to do with NYAG Letitia James and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg who both coincidentally happen to be Black.
source: Trump teases a presidential run and dangles pardons for January 6 rioters at Texas rally, CNN
How dare they investigate a white man, don’t those Black people know who he is? ~eye roll~
Also, too, Fulton County DA Fans Willis. All three POC, two women.
Adding that the long knives of cop unions and authoritarians are out for Bragg completely independent of Trump.
True, that last one having obtained a grand jury this week was likely the immediate trigger. Odd how CNN didn’t mention Willis though their HQ is in Atlanta, seat of Fulton County.
Not positive about Fulton County, but here a “special grand jury” is different from a regular grand jury in that it is dedicated, not general purpose. And that is notable, because prosecutors have to apply for that and have a presiding court grant it.
Someone on TV (a former GA state prosecutor, I believe) said that special grand juries in Georgia are also dedicated. He also said they are rare, and added that Willis can simultaneously pursue indictments via regular grand juries.
I figured that, just did not bother to go confirm. Thanks.
https://twitter.com/ZcohenCNN/status/1487988898655526913
10:19 PM · Jan 30, 2022
Yes, I realized that mistake after I read the account of the rally. I was replying to Bobby Gladd’s post. Thanks for the correction.
Famously racist white guy accuses his prosecutors of being racists? Famous also for projection! When will he accuse AG James of wearing shoe lifts and body foundation garments?
While watching Watergate unfold for months in congressional hearings and federal indictments, I never once got to see Nixon indicted, all the while he was the conspirator-in-chief. I sure hope we get to see the conspirator-in-chief for this conspiracy indicted and prosecuted.
A real shame federal trials can’t be broadcast live.
Or can they?
Please?!!
“. . .In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you.” This line really stuck out to me, and while it seems like a toss away, I think the “blacks are out for you” (the crowd) is actually rather more provocative in the context of “the racists” along with the word salad about “the courts” and whatever fears he and his ilk are promoting relative to the “black woman” headed to the Supremes.
Yup, still using some dog whistles along with the foghorn of racism.
It’s absolutely critical white people get out of their insular worlds before Trump’s version of Radio Rwanda blows up everything around them.
I’m curious how far DOJ has developed paths to Stone besides just PB related evidence. The Joel Greenberg signal texts to Stone about the pardon bid payments seem like one obvious one, as well as the DOJ moves against him for tax evasion, or possibly leftover threads related Mueller, either directly or regarding obstruction of Mueller.
One obvious explanation, which seems to be what Matt Zapotosky was saying in his claims of no investigation, is the lack of criminal charges is somehow proof nothing is happening. But it definitely doesn’t seem to me like the only explanation.
Lack of charges [so far] isn’t evidence of lack of investigative action. Or of progress of said action. They want to make sure they have all of his criming locked down before charging.
There are a lot of hints of stuff going on behind closed doors, but what it means is harder for me to get a handle on beyond the fact that there seems to be a lot of it. It seems like the odds of something being tied in will increase the more threads there are.
Considering the way his tax case seems to predate the issues that led to his previous conviction, I wonder if he wouldn’t prefer to have all of his potential exposure on tax grounds to be a part of this action so he at least has a better handle on what DOJ is doing on this front.
I speedread, whether I want to or not, and when I glanced at your comment, I saw
– “Dr. Wheeler laid out the contours of a five *alarm* criminal conspiracy some weeks ago.”
I think we’re both right …
What TRUMP said about pardons:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1487672610863431681
1:22 AM · Jan 30, 2022
It’s important to keep in mind that first phrase: And if it requires pardons
Trump had a chance to pardon all these people between 1/6/21 and noon on 1/20/21.
BANNON got
pardonedPAID 1/19/21.There MAY be other relevant examples on that list, but I don’t think so.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-j-trump-2017-2021
MID-2019 BANNON hires CLETA MITCHELL as legal counsel for the scam he was pardoned for.
Inside Steve Bannon’s Alleged Scheme To Fleece Trump Voters Who Wanted A Border Wall The president’s family denies knowing anything about the scheme, but a HuffPost investigation reveals close ties.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-bannon-arrested-trump-supporters-build-the-wall-investigation_n_5f3ee771c5b697824f9644a1 08/20/2020 08:17 pm ET
Foley wisely later shitcanned Mitchell, er, she resigned.
Oh no, she was told to go.
I agree that Michelle Childs is very good, but she belongs on the DC Circuit, to which Biden has already nominated her. (Her move is on hold, pending Biden’s choice for the Supremes.) Everyone on Biden’s short list should be promoted to the federal appeals bench (if they’re not already there) – for the same reason one of them should be appointed to the Supremes. Their current positions should be backfilled with people from similar diverse backgrounds.
Dems should throw away the “deliberate” half of their chosen oxymoron and move with speed on this nomination. Get things done. Brag about them afterwards. There’s no reason to wait until Breyer retires or shortly before. Building momentum now is important. Gooper support for any nominee will be another Lucy’s football. Susan Collins’s latest pablum is proof of that. There will be plenty more to deal with and to defend against as the midterms get closer. The Dems should see to it; if they don’t, Goopers will.
Childs has already been nominated to the DC Circuit. Get her confirmed; replace her with a like-minded and experienced judge for her SC district court position. If KBJ is the nominee, nominate Kruger to replace her on the DC Circuit or put her on the Ninth. (Sherrylin Ifill would be a good nominee for the circuit bench.) Dems need to move on this for a host of reasons, including before a death or the mid-terms make such appointments impossible.
By the way, a judge I have known for decades, Andy Hurwitz, just announced he is taking senior status from the 9th. There is your opening. Although Kruger has been spectacular on the California Supremes. She is seriously brilliant. Might even prefer her to KBJ, but KBJ is the obvious choice to get confirmed easily.
Margaret McKeown announced a couple weeks ago that she is taking senior status as well, so that’s another 9th Circuit slot for Biden.
fingers crossed on the day of the votes the senior Senator from California is well enough to attend (or not called home to be at the side of her ailing husband).
How the fuck did the Down Easters vote for Collins?
On occasional visits to Maine, the slogan “The Way Life Should Be” hits you between the eyes.
For years, Mainers have been blindsided by the feathered-birdie Queen of Bangor playing shuttlecock.
Let us review Collins’ “sterling” record of consistent inconsistency:
1) Supported Kavanaugh saying “I do not believe he will overturn Roe”. (We shall see about this in June, if it’s not pre-determined already).
2) Said Trump had “learned his lesson” after the first impeachment. Except that Trump doesn’t “learn lessons”. Ever.
3) Etc. Etc.
That trademark sing-songy tone of voice that is her natural way of speaking softens the hypocrisy contained therein. I guess.
This article in Washington Monthly, “Do Democrats Who Supported Susan Collins Regret…?” answered with a “nope.”
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/01/30/doj-finally-gets-around-to-sharing-discovery-with-mark-grods-and-caleb-berry/
Frustrating, but reminds me that as clear as it is to me that Senator Collins is never really our ally, so many people just don’t see it that way.
Sorry, wrong link in my comment above.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/01/17/do-democrats-who-supported-susan-collins-in-2020-regret-their-vote/
I was adhering to the public record, but that she left to spend more time with her family – which must include Bannon, Meadows, Stone, and Trump – the standard euphemism for being fired, seemed obvious.
Leaving a high-powered job to “take more time with [your] family” makes sense if you’re 30-45 and have kids at home. If you’re 71 and the only person at home is your multiple-felony-conviction husband, who you rarely spend even your off time with, it’s a bullshit line.
How can someone be pardoned for a crime that hasn’t been charged yet?
Should he win the presidency in 2024, Trump issuing J6 pardons in 2025 will help very few of the rally-attending demographic. Most will have served their time by then, if my understanding of the typical sentencings so far is correct. I’m sure Trump knows this.
But this isn’t really about J6 pardons. This is about promising his followers that if they commit violent acts in the future to shield him from the rule of law and/or help install him back into the White House, he will make sure they’ll be glorified instead of prosecuted.
Trump’s now acting like he knows indictments are coming, and that he believes he’ll be found guilty. He also apparently believes that he can rally his base using the future announcement of his prosecution(s) to terrorize his prosecutors into submission.
Actually, maybe this is why Letitia James put out a press release about his criminal practices instead of levying charges – to see how hard Trump would squirm. And he’s gotten purdy squirmy.
And so, good people of Dr. Wheeler’s comments sections, I ask you: How many pieces of paper can you eat before you’d have to start ripping them into shreds? ASKING FOR A FRIEND
Before there was Wordle there was Word Ladder. Here’s an example of how to get from crime to Stone:
crime (or, if you prefer, “urine”)
crine
cline
clone
alone
atone
Stone
“Word ladder – Wikipedia”
“Word ladder (also known as Doublets, word-links, change-the-word puzzles, paragrams, laddergrams, or word golf) is a word game invented by Lewis Carroll. A word ladder puzzle begins with two words, and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of other words to link the two, in which two adjacent words (that is, words in successive steps) differ by one letter.”
…..
“Vladimir Nabokov alluded to the game using the name “word golf” in the novel Pale Fire, in which the narrator says ‘some of my records are: hate—love in three, lass—male in four, and live—dead in five (with “lend” in the middle).”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_ladder
Ever since spouse introduced my sisters to Wordle I have felt abandoned, shunned, and mistreated. (I’m also the only Oxford comma cling-on in the group.) Thank you, SL, for reviving in my conscious mind a game I only vaguely remembered, albeit without a name, from childhood. Or maybe grad school, where I walked in Nabokov’s footsteps in a vain quest for inspiration and/or a legal basis for prosecuting Humbert Humbert in an Am. Lit. class.
I too favor the Oxford comma. In case you’re not familiar, see the short book “Eats Shoots and Leaves.”
Is that a book about panda bears?
Almost. That book was titled “Eat Leaves and S**ts.”
Putting “atone” right next to “Stone” is a giant mental leap. Other than this word game, those two words have probably never been in the same sentence.
Yeah, with Stone, the best case scenario is always a long shot. This might be more realistic:
crime
crine
brine
brink
blink
slink
stink
stunk
spunk
spank
spans
spins
spine
swine
swipe
stipe
stope
Stone
I’ve been trying to figure out a word ladder that starts with “cucks” but I’m not having any luck. Maye someone else can take this further. But getting from “cucks” to “crime” or maybe “crook” would work very well for Roger.
CUCKS
COCKS
CONKS
CONNS
COINS
CHINS
CHINE
CHIME
CRIME
crime
clime
cline
etc.
Try the duet game of Only Humans* Wordle Tennis.
It has been enjoyed and exposed embarrasing memory and cognitive lapses in all players.
* No devices, no pen, no paper. The use of thumb and fingers is permitted.
This, my friends, is how you put the fox in the midst of the chickens. That was in November, and if you aren’t one of the defendants who was presented with a “case resolution,” you have to have spent a good chunk of the last two months worried about those who did, and what they can say about you.
More importantly, though, are the worries this little filing creates for those higher up in the conspiracy. As Marcy wrote at the end of the the post about what Grods witnessed at the Willard that she linked to above,
Making other people sweat . . . that’s how you break open a conspiracy. The DOJ knows it, and so do the insurrectionists. As has been said above, I think Trump’s recent remarks reflect a certain amount of desperation, because someone has finally gotten through to him (at least a little bit) that he may be in real danger as this investigation proceeds.
Make them sweat.
The obvious question the DoJ would ask people it hopes to flip is, if Trump didn’t pardon rank and file rioters during the two weeks after Jan. 6th – when he had the power to do what he now only promises – why would he keep a promise three years after he made it?
Trump famously does not keep promises, his memory doesn’t last half that long, and few or none of the rioters would still be in jail. Mostly, though, Trump would no longer need them after he’s already won re-election. He would treat them the way he treats immigrant construction workers, the people who cut his golf course fairways and those who make his beds.
I agree with you, but what I find significant is that Trump felt the need to get out in front of what he surely will call a huge rally and say anything at all.
He didn’t need to make a speech in order to remind the GOP that he is running their show. They all get that.
He made the speech because he needed the adulation and attention that he so desperately craves. He can’t stand the fact that he is no longer the lead story on the evening news every night, the top story on Twitter every hour, or that the media in general no longer hangs on his every word. He made the comments about pardons in an attempt to grab the microphone once again.
This was all about Trump, not about who he was speaking to. He is increasingly nervous about prosecutions (plural) and disconsolate about not having the spotlight to himself. It probably didn’t help his disposition that Biden now gets to appoint a SCOTUS justice. “But that’s MY job!”
Either that, or . . .
adjusts tin foil hat
. . . Putin asked Trump to “do us a favor, though” and stir the political pot in the US while he eyes Ukraine.
“I will pardon all of the J6 Patriots” is probably a relative red herring. Mass preparatory “jury nullification“ incitement is probably the primary motive, given all of his pending civil and criminal liabilities. Those actions are going to ripen much quicker and are way more certain than his getting elected again.
I would call it a false promise – the kind he usually makes – because Trump will no longer need these particular rioter/witnesses if he’s re-elected. But like playing the lottery, Trump’s followers think they will all win, no matter how many dud tickets they buy.
You’d think, after all these years, people would notice that all those tickets have the same number on them.
Depends on how he gets “re-elected” though. Basically, he’s saying if you put him in power by any means then you will be pardoned.
Perhaps the inauguration of a new campaign slogan? The kind that gets the crowd chanting. Classic call and response (Think ‘lock her up’, ‘build the wall’ etc.
“Pardon Them’
Trump often gives voice to his current obsession. Here, it’s that there are people who can or have flipped, who can do him and his first degree contacts harm, not least by connecting the dots between them and with Trump.
Trump must be desperate to persuade them to recant and to stop others from flipping. The unspoken, “or else,” in dangling pardons is that he can still harm those who refuse to protect him. By outing them to the mob, for example. It’s always about the Don
I think part of the aim of these kinds of statements is the press. He wants to gauge how much they care, and he wants to desensitize them to his outrages.
His deliberately provocative claim last month that the NY Times was run by Jews wasn’t idle chatter. I think he was testing how compliant the Times would be. And he got his answer — they didn’t even bother to react.
Their response to his latest outrage is the usual mild tut-tutting. And to be clear, I don’t think he’s doing any close reading of their reporting.
What’s he looking for is whether there is any real change in their approach — is any of this going to create a drumbeat like the press treated Clinton’s emails? I think the answer is pretty clearly no, it won’t, at least so far. He still has a lot harder he can push.
The hottest of hot buttons for the NYT and it whiffs, giving Trump the field of play. The press seems desperate to re-elect Trump for clickbait and because its owners would rather have right wing near fascists maladministering government instead of centrists, who don’t like their own leftists. Sounds fucked up to me.
I think the Times made the decision not to feed the troll. Trump is desperate for attention, and they chose not to give it to him.
Whether that was the right call or not is another issue.
Condolences to the Chefs.
It’s really really quiet in our neighborhood tonight.
There is no joy in Mudville, the mighty Casey has struck out.
I agree that may be behind the institutional response, but I think it underlines a massive problem at the Times and a lot of the press.
They see it as a simplistic binary — cover it in a single story with varying degrees of criticism, or memoryhole it.
There’s an alternative, which is make his antisemitism, and the antisemitism of the GOP, a permanent part of their narrative, in the same way they decided that Hillary Clinton’s supposed untrustworthiness was a permanent part of their narrative.
The Times has narratives that permeate everything they write — Dems in disarray, big spending Dems ruining the economy, etc.
But they’re unwilling to do the obvious which is make GOP fascist maneuvering the running theme of their coverage, from headlines to ledes to photo editing.
Those are the things I think Trump and the GOP are looking for as they push the envelope.
They’ll happily accept the occasional editorial or Book Review piece criticizing the GOP if the overall tenor of coverage is like Bush and Gore. And so far, it’s business as usual even after Trump’s doubling down.
Thanks for explaining the otherwise baffling headline “Schaffer documents unsealed”.
I think the Schaffer story will be one of the more interesting stories of J6, when it can be fully told. Operatic tragedy with heavy metal music score.
As a modestly successful heavy metal front man, Schaffer’s business model has been performative provocation for decades. Whatever his political views, I suspect one element of his lifetime membership was a conscious mutual cross promotion with Stewart Rhodes, who apparently personally bestows this title. Schaffer is reported to have marched with OK at previous high profile events.
Schaffer’s decision to cooperate with prosecutors is not clear, but there are hints in the reporting. One report, IIRC in the heavy metal press (apparently a thing), was that he said he would do anything to get out of pretrial detention as he was being physically harassed by guards and prisoners. He may have thought his performative provocation act would work in jail, but he may have misread the unfamiliar venue. Real violent criminals might recognize a poser, and he might have seemed a little “off” to any white nationalist gangs, who might have protected him if he demonstrated loyalty. Speculation.
The fact that the OK association did not offer Schaffer protection in jail or legal aid, soured him on the association and he looked to cut his losses. IIRC he pleaded to a felony that would not preclude future touring in the EU. His touring band quickly denounced him and cut ties, but he has had an intermittent solo act, and, with the new notoriety played right, he could be back to filling profitable, medium sized music venues. Not sure how he can spin the cooperation with the government, though. Speculation.
If this analysis is correct, it contributes to the notion that Rhodes is a self absorbed performative provocateur, and seeing this in Schaffer, they had a mutually beneficial cross promotion, with Schaffer’s celebrity possibly a draw for membership from angry transgressive heavy metal people. Speculation.
Prosecutors have been tight lipped about Schaffer’s role in the larger conspiracy, and he was arrested for acts physically separate from the main OK assaults. The terms of his plea agreement, and his possession of bear spray in the Capitol, suggest he knew more than Rhodes just invited him to show his celebrity face at the biggest op in OK history.
I estimate Schaffer is a lot smarter than the average rioter, and may have chosen to appear separate from the high risk op, where his face would still make the news, and it did, though the bear spray (perhaps a performative prop) got him a felony rather than the more workable misdemeanor. This might put him a similar category as the original Trump electors who wisely chose not to participate in the 7 alternate slates of electors scheme. Speculation.
I don’t know whether Schaffer was a veteran, but he appears not. If he was not, it suggests a narrative that as Rhodes tried to expand OK membership beyond a few tightly-loyal angry veterans (think James), some of the new people brought different motives, values, discipline and skills. Another example is Kelly Meggs, the non veteran car dealer whose operational incompetence apparently contributed to the fiasco. Meggs appears to be another poser.
Continuing the notion of breaking the OK accused into useful categories might be: who brought their spouse to the riot: Caldwell, Meggs, Parker. It would never have occurred to James and the other more experienced operators to bring their wives. Differing motives.
What a puzzle.
I also think part of the deal was that by flipping Schaffer would not be charged with something that would preclude travel to Europe.
Concur.
I’ve been stewing on the notion of a tragic opera about this. Major story arc is forging a union, success, and then betrayal that had been foreshadowed. Rhodes as a baritone, Schaffer as a tenor. Estranged wife, as alto and SoRelle as a soprano, singing a duet about how foolish Rhodes is in the last act. Caldwell as over the top crazy grandpa. Meggs, as the impetuous, aging prince. Might center the story around Watkins’ remarkable real life story, the hero’s journey, if redemption can be found at the end.
I hope there can be redemption at the end of the larger story, but it is hard to visualize today.
I would pay for a ticket, but only if it were done bel canto style. Yes, old fashioned, but wonderful to watch and listen to. Check out this Donizetti:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR1zzv9zIO8
Thanks for this link. Marvelous art. I am not an opera (or heavy metal) fan, but both forms (and pro wrestling, as mentioned below), find audience with exaggerated exciting depictions of the human conflict, often as morality play.
The source text of the future libretto is not finished. If it ends as a morality play that strengthens the nation, my speculative musical show might work as durable high civic art. Nobody would have thought Hamilton would become the phenomenon that continues.
If the outcome is not what we hope for, a different piece of art may happen.
I can see his being concerned about travel to Europe with his group(s). But he has also requested, and granted, entry into the Special Witness Protection program. Surely he knows that it won’t be an option to fly to Europe and appear as part of Iced Earth as “some guy we picked up.”
When he was first arrested, Schaffer was held in jail in Indiana somewhere. He and his lawyer claimed that he wasn’t exactly accepted by the others in the jail. He received several threats and got the old monkey treatment (feces flung upon his person).
Lots of metalhead performers are drama queens, almost like unto professional wrestlers. Jon may just be the type who really hates and fears jail.
Yeah witness protection is inconsistent with Schaffer’ business model and I had also wondered about that. Thank you for putting it into clear words. Shaffer’s preferred business plan is to somehow get back to touring under some version of his commercial persona.
I suspect that at the time Schaffer pleaded, it was not clear whether there was going to be an organized crime backlash against him that would require witness protection. It cost DoJ nothing to offer witness protection as a maybe, to get him to cooperate. Neither Schaffer nor DoJ want to have to do witness protection, and DoJ likely has insight into any credible threats against him.
From the filings, Some OKs are paranoid about informers, but it doesn’t look like they have a record of whacking snitches, like the more common drug gangs. The public OK mission of preparedness for disasters as community service and lawfully defending the constitution (J 6 operation notwithstanding) , and the fracturing of the national organization, suggests OK national is a low risk for Schaffer, but anything can happen.
If there is a credible organized threat against Schaffer and others for cooperation, it may mean the threat to our democracy is worse than we thought, if that is possible.
Still not determined is WHAT was Roger Stone doing the morning of Jan 6th? He spoke at the Rally on the evening of Jan 5th as did Alex Jones and friends. But Stone did not go to the Ellipse Rally or the Capital riot while Alex Jones, Ali Alexander and Owen Shroyer did go to the Ellipse and later to the Capital. So where was Roger and why did he appeared to be pissed off?
Try this:
https: //www.emptywheel.net/2021/12/10/joshua-james-frequent-updates-from-his-jilted-viper/
(There is a space after the first colon that needs to be removed.)
My speculation is that the entire Willard component has been intentionally skirted, rather than ignored or bypassed. It is probable that there are all sorts of events/conversations/actions that tie the conspiracy to Stone, legislators and those close to Trump: family and WH staff.
Why provide the opposition with any info on your game plan? As said upthread, let them sweat.
Continuing from here: https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/01/30/doj-finally-gets-around-to-sharing-discovery-with-mark-grods-and-caleb-berry/#comment-919093
1/29/22 TRUMP dangles future PARDONS
1/30/22 TRUMP: PENCE could have “change[d] the results of the election”
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1487945948500307972
1/30/22 MICHIGAN AG Dana NESSEL:
4:32 PM · Jan 30, 2022 [Link in next comment]
THIS is what NESSEL is responding to:
MICHIGAN AG Dana NESSEL:
https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1487901573732786179
4:32 PM · Jan 30, 2022
You’ll want this, too:
Yes. THANKS, Rayne!
https://twitter.com/SollenbergerRC/status/1488047933253693440
2:14 AM · Jan 31, 2022
MARCY notes:
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1488069288615424004
3:39 AM · Jan 31, 2022
Some other things that were going on at the time:
10/13/20 Over SOTOMAYOR’s dissent, the SUPREME COURT allows the TRUMP administration to end the CENSUS count NOW. https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1316118907191726086 4:49 PM · Oct 13, 2020
10/13 – 10/14/20 BARRETT SCOTUS confirmation hearings.
MEADOWS and CIPOLLONE are there.
10/15/20 TRUMP refuses to disavow QANON
10/15/20 [approx] MCENTEE installs Josh WHITEHOUSE as White House liaison to the PENTAGON. WHITEHOUSE says: “I’m going to the Pentagon to fire [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper and those deep-state bastards!”
10/16/20 [Still unknown] ENTITY disburses $11, 000 to Stop the Steal PAC
BARRETT will go on to be confirmed and become the third sitting JUSTICE – with ROBERTS and KAVANAUGH – who worked on behalf of the GOP on the 2000 litigation that resulted in George W. Bush winning that year’s presidential election.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/bush-v-gore-but-worse-barrett-scotus.html
RICHARD L. HASEN and DAHLIA LITHWICK OCT 19, 2020
STONE and his “BROOKS BROTHER’s RIOT” was also involved.
The ROBERTS Court [beginning in 2005] would go on to:
1] hold, in Citizens United [2010], that Congress could not regulate independent expenditures in political campaigns by corporations, unions, and non-profits, and
2] in Shelby County [2013], strike down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, thereby effectively gutting the whole thing.
BARRETT will go on to be confirmed and become the third sitting JUSTICE – with ROBERTS and KAVANAUGH – who worked on behalf of the GOP on the 2000 litigation that resulted in George W. Bush winning that year’s presidential election.
STONE and his “BROOKS BROTHER’s RIOT” was also involved.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/bush-v-gore-but-worse-barrett-scotus.html HASEN / LITHWICK OCT 19, 2020
The ROBERTS Court [beginning in 2005] would go on to:
1] hold, in Citizens United [2010], that Congress could not regulate independent expenditures in political campaigns by corporations, unions, and non-profits, and
2] in Shelby County [2013], strike down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, thereby effectively gutting the whole thing.
I said earlier I was rereading this:
The Election That Could Break America If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?https://theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/ Barton Gellman November 2020
Mentioning Shelby county reminded me of this:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/12/09/in-his-mike-flynn-opinion-emmet-sullivan-made-a-finding-of-fact-against-billy-barrs-new-reality/#comment-870681
on 12/11/20 I wrote:
:-(
David BOSSIE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_(organization)
11/10/20 TRUMP fires ESPER. The new Acting SecDef is Christopher MILLER
12/4/20 The WHITE HOUSE removes nine members of the Pentagon’s Defense Business Board and installs Corey LEWANDOWSKI and David BOSSIE. The DBB provides independent business advice to Pentagon leadership and members are appointed by top Pentagon leaders.
12/10/20 BOSSIE [along with 75 others] signs the CONSERVATIVE ACTION PROJECT Letter [written by Cleta MITCHELL]
[For the last, see: https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/01/28/john-durham-flew-to-italy-to-get-joseph-mifsuds-blackberries-but-never-walked-across-doj-to-obtain-james-bakers-phones/#comment-918904 ]
Some other things that were going on at the time:
10/13/20 Over Sotomayor’s dissent, the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to end the CENSUS count NOW. https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1316118907191726086 4:49 PM · Oct 13, 2020
10/13 – 10/14/20 BARRETT SCOTUS confirmation hearings. MEADOWS and CIPOLLONE are there.
10/15/20 TRUMP refuses to disavow QANON
10/15/20 [approx] MCENTEE installs Josh WHITEHOUSE as White House liaison to the PENTAGON. WHITEHOUSE says: “I’m going to the Pentagon to fire [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper and those deep-state bastards!”
10/16/20 [Still unknown] ENTITY disburses $11, 000 to Stop the Steal PAC
This is just a repeat of a previous comment in the thread, above.
There’s a lot of information in these two articles I feel I need to reintegrate into my thinking:
1] CONSERVATIVE OPERATIVES FLOAT PLAN TO PLACE RETIRED MILITARY, POLICE OFFICERS AS GOP POLL WATCHERS ON ELECTION DAY At a February meeting, GOP-aligned leaders expressed a need for Republican poll watchers in “inner city” and predominantly Native American precincts.
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/11/republican-poll-watchers-vote-by-mail-voter-fraud/
Lee Fang, Nick Surgey 4/11/20
2] The Big Money Behind the Big Lie Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich and powerful conservative groups that are determined to win at all costs.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie
Jane Mayer August 2, 2021
…and these two:
3] We’re Living in the Shadows of a Bush v. Gore 2.0 The same people spending money to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court are also trying to suppress the vote. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/bush-v-gore-but-worse-barrett-scotus.html HASEN / LITHWICK OCT 19, 2020
4] New Details Suggest Senior Trump Aides Knew Jan. 6 Rally Could Get Chaotic Text messages and interviews show that Stop the Steal leaders fooled the Capitol police and welcomed racists to increase their crowd sizes, while White House officials worked to both contain and appease them. https://www.propublica.org/article/new-details-suggest-senior-trump-aides-knew-jan-6-rally-could-get-chaotic Kaplan / Sapien 6/25/21
Another one:
5] The Election That Could Break America If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?https://theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/ Barton Gellman November 2020
Did you get this latest bit, that DHS might also have been enlisted to snag voting machines?
Sure would like to know who the multiple sources are.
Wonder if this stuff is the reason hearings are getting pushed out to April-May.
Oh…you mean THIS DHS?:
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1303763125204811776
2:32 PM · Sep 9, 2020
Links to:
SCHIFF is now on the J6 Committee. In August, MARCY retweeted this:
https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/1425471400157003783
10:57 AM · Aug 11, 2021
NYT came out a little later:
Trump Had Role in Weighing Proposals to Seize Voting Machines New accounts show that the former president was more directly involved than previously known in plans developed by outside advisers to use national security agencies to seek evidence of fraud.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/donald-trump-election-results-fraud-voting-machines.html 1/31/22
Marcy links to Haberman’s tweet thread about the article:
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1488431306543452162
3:37 AM · Feb 1, 2022
Continuing here:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/01/30/doj-finally-gets-around-to-sharing-discovery-with-mark-grods-and-caleb-berry/#comment-919381
Earlier today:
Jordan FISCHER comments:
https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1488265494981332994
4:38 PM · Jan 31, 2022
MARCY responds:
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1488266463794413569
4:42 PM · Jan 31, 2022
That made me laugh, because at the time, I had been staring at Catherine ENGELBRECHT’s name for quite a while.
Continuing from:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/01/30/doj-finally-gets-around-to-sharing-discovery-with-mark-grods-and-caleb-berry/#comment-919379
Trump Had Role in Weighing Proposals to Seize Voting Machines New accounts show that the former president was more directly involved than previously known in plans developed by outside advisers to use national security agencies to seek evidence of fraud.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/donald-trump-election-results-fraud-voting-machines.html 1/31/22
This TRUMP / BARR White House meeting might have been the one on 12/11/20
Trump raised firing Barr in White House meeting on Friday
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/12/politics/william-barr-donald-trump-white-house-meeting/index.html 12/12/20
12/11/20
12/14/20 TRUMP announces AG BARR’s resignation by tweet
12/14/20 BARR resigns effective 12/23/21
12/14/20 ALSO happens to be this day:
12/14/20 Special Assistant to the President Molly Michael emails
DeputySOON-TO-BE ACTING Attorney General Jeffery Rosen two documents “From POTUS”: (1) a set of talking points alleging voter fraud in Antrim County, Michigan; and (2) a purported “forensic report” by Allied Operations Group on Dominion Voting Systems’ performance in Antrim County.12/15/20 TRUMP summons Jeffery ROSEN and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard DONOGHUE to the Oval Office to ask why DOJ was not “doing more to look at the Antrim County allegations and the “bad things” he claimed happened in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
CURRENT Attorney General BARR was not invited.
SHOULD READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE BEFORE COMMENTING:
Possible TIMING for that:
11/23/20 BARR privately tells Trump the claims of major problems with voting machines are nonsense. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/jan-6-insurrection-capitol/
11/25/20 TRUMP grants full PARDON to FLYNN
11/25/20 POWELL posts links to legal documents on her website:
“The Kraken is released on Georgia!” and “The Kraken is released on Michigan!”
FLYNN and WALDRON worked together on all this.
From the article today:
Remember (as I keep pointing to the weekend beforehand, from the outset) that Saturday 11/21/2020 MDPA Judge Brann dismissed Trump’s suit* (seen then as his last viable path); Sen. Toomey released a major (GOP) statement on that, saying Trump should pack it in *and* upbraiding Trump for pressuring state legislators (incl. the MI party, and obligating them to do the right thing); Powell goes on Newsmax and says, among other things, that Bill Barr does not have control over DOJ (nor does Trump). Powell also promises “biblical” suit(s) later known as the Krakens. [As I’ve noted before, she got these suits filed sooner than she had anticipated she could have in this interview /help.]
Then Sunday 11/22/2020 Rudy and Jenna Ellis hold a press conference disavowing Powell as working for the campaign/denying that she is a Trump atty. [Not a coincidence IMO that the J6 committee subpoenaed them together… (with Epshteyn).]
—
*In that suit, Donald J. Trump for President et al. v. Boockvar et al., Rudy was trying to get the Trump campaign’s mitts on Pennsylvania’s mail ballot envelopes (continuous with later notions/efforts to seize machines).
There never really was a Philly freeze out.
That’s before the game, bmaz, that does not count.
What’s the splaination for Chicago, eh?
Don’t start with the gaslighting or I’ll have to bring up the whole cheating in 2005 thing (in a 3-point game, I might add…).
But that’s our BDN swag right there…
Hey besides chewing over the goat, did you see the video (link top right of that page) of the Golden Corral brawl?
#steakshortage
YES! Would like to note that I went to a Golden Corral once. Only once, and it was on the way back to Phoenix from Lake Powell, i.e. Flagstaff, and it was just there. But there is NO FOOD I saw there worth fighting over, much less their “steak”. That is crazy.
Right- I never would have imagined such a place would even have steak. I’m gonna have to consult w spouse on this one but many moons/state ago we went one-time to a place like that and the food was limited, awful, and weird. Also quite a large crowd spilling outside. A napkinful of dirty-ish “fresh” silverware is floating back into my mind. OH — and the lure (as per the recommending friend) was some kind of “expensive” food like, if not, steak (might even have been surf and turf), which was not available! This is some business model to snag poors on a budget!
Dawning realization: a lifetime ago I was had so bad that it vanished from consciousness. UNTIL NOW!
Well, you know, Golden Corral does have the Chocolate Wonderfall.
• Powell Newsmax interview partial transcription (w/some links to older comments, incl. re timeline, elsewhere in thread):
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/10/19/ryan-grims-gibberish-about-co-conspirator-statements/#comment-905416
• Rudy and the last-ditch effort to get (all or some of) the mail ballot envelopes (tl;dr same effect as seizing actual ballots or machines) in their possession:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/11/18/rudys-coup/#comment-867461
• re Judge Brann’s decision (in aka, his words, the “Frankenstein’s Monster” case) with link to filing:
https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania-election-lawsuit-trump-dismissed-matthew-brann-certification-vote-results-20201121.html
• Toomey statement [it was as important (distinctive) then, if with some mealymouth persuasion, as what Liz Cheney is doing now, all scales relative and here’s hoping J6 committee has better (visible) success]:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/11/20/three-things-about-emily-w-murphy-gsa-administrator/#comment-867930
[more on this case elsewhere on page, search “Brann” to locate threads]
Thank you, Eureka. It’s really hard to know where to begin/end these things…
I put a longer section below, but it’s in moderation.
[To RAYNE…I tried twice, so there may be two…they are exactly the same, so only one is necessary.
THANKS for taking the trouble…]
[9:53 am 02-FEB-2022 — There’s a comment with a 7:30 am time stamp in the bin; I’m assuming you’ve replaced it with this 7:32 am comment. /~Rayne]
Yes, I just wanted to add that context because I think it’s key to a lot of turns.
I posted a set of links for reference right after the first comment but that went to moderation (in that case for too many links at once).
:-)
Bennie THOMPSON did say on Face the Nation… over the weekend that the J6 Committee had spoken with BARR.
11/19/20 GUILIANI / POWELL / ELLIS News Conference: false election claims
11/19/20 [6:56 AM] MEADOWS to Raffensperger [text]: “Mr Secretary. Mark Meadows here. If you could give me a brief call at your convenience. Thank you.”
11/20/20 GEORGIA certifies election
11/20/20 MICHIGAN dismisses TRUMP campaign lawsuit
11/20/20 Emily MURPHY (GSA) still hasn’t signed the [TRANSITION] ascertainment determination letter
11/21/20 PENNSYLVANIA dismisses TRUMP campaign lawsuit
11/21/20 POWELL vows to bring a “biblical” lawsuit in GEORGIA; says BARR not in control of DOJ
11/22/20 POWELL “fired” from TRUMP campaign and personal legal team
11/23/20 GSA [MURPHY] finally allows Biden transition team access
11/23/20 BARR privately tells Trump the claims of major problems with voting machines are nonsense. [WaPo] [I think this might be the meeting where Trump raised the idea of whether the Justice Department could be used to seize machines]
11/25/20 Sham Hearing in Gettysburg, PA (Rudy, Jenna, Trump via phone)
11/25/20 TRUMP grants full PARDON to FLYNN
11/25/20 POWELL posts links to legal documents on her website:
“The Kraken is released on Georgia!” and “The Kraken is released on Michigan!”
11/27/20 FLYNN announces FLYNN ORG’s “hybrid warfare” op to overturn the election
11/30/20 TRUMP nominates Charles FLYNN to be promoted to FOUR STARS
12/1/20 KERIK is quoted as saying that “they are likely to establish enough probable cause for POLICE to confiscate some electronic voting machines” by this date.
11/19/20 GUILIANI / POWELL / ELLIS News Conference: false election claims
11/19/20 [6:56 AM] MEADOWS to Raffensperger [text]: “Mr Secretary. Mark Meadows here. If you could give me a brief call at your convenience. Thank you.”
11/20/20 GEORGIA certifies election
11/20/20 MICHIGAN dismisses TRUMP campaign lawsuit
11/20/20 Emily MURPHY (GSA) still hasn’t signed the [TRANSITION] ascertainment determination letter
11/21/20 PENNSYLVANIA dismisses TRUMP campaign lawsuit
11/21/20 POWELL vows to bring a “biblical” lawsuit in GEORGIA; says BARR not in control of DOJ
11/22/20 POWELL “fired” from TRUMP campaign and personal legal team
11/23/20 GSA [MURPHY] finally allows Biden transition team access
11/23/20 BARR privately tells Trump the claims of major problems with voting machines are nonsense. [WaPo] [I think this might be the meeting where Trump raised the idea of whether the Justice Department could be used to seize machines]
11/25/20 Sham Hearing in Gettysburg, PA (Rudy, Jenna, Trump via phone)
11/25/20 TRUMP grants full PARDON to FLYNN
11/25/20 POWELL posts links to legal documents on her website:
“The Kraken is released on Georgia!” and “The Kraken is released on Michigan!”
11/27/20 FLYNN announces FLYNN ORG’s “hybrid warfare” op to overturn the election
11/30/20 TRUMP nominates Charles FLYNN to be promoted to FOUR STARS
12/1/20 KERIK is quoted as saying that “they are likely to establish enough probable cause for POLICE to confiscate some electronic voting machines” by this date.
I should note that KERIK is an “investigator” for GIULIANI…
From the WaPo WILLARD article:
11/5/20 KERIK and GIULIANI set up shop at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel
11/26/20 [Future FALSE ELECTOR] Lisa Vranicar PATTON [PA] and state events director for former President TRUMP’s 2020 campaign makes a post indicating she had just spent “the day” with former New York City Police Department Commissioner Bernard KERIK and Rep. Scott PERRY (R-PA) […]
12/1/20 KERIK is quoted saying that they will have “probable cause” on this date to have POLICE seize voting machines.
[…]
12/18/20 GIULIANI and KERIK move their operation to the WILLARD
12/18/20 The “craziest” meeting at the WHITE HOUSE [GIULIANI is called in by TRUMP Is KERIK there, too?]
Danke harpie ;)
ETA: whoopsie, now I see you are a-thread-building and here I am in your flow…
LOL
YOU are always welcome!
I think I’m done here, for now…
… there’s always so much more to try to get my head around!
MARCY has a post up about this article, here:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/02/01/i-do-share-information-rudy-you-never-read-your-emails-you-never-read-your-texts-sidney-powell-purportedly-said-while-plotting-a-coup/