insurrection

Jan. 6 attack ‘does not happen’ without Trump, Jack Smith told Congress

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In a closed-door interview, Smith characterized the Republican president as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol “does not happen” without Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers earlier this month in characterizing the Republican president as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released on Wednesday a transcript and video of a closed-door interview Smith gave about two investigations of Trump. The document shows how Smith during the course of a daylong deposition repeatedly defended the basis for pursuing indictments against Trump and vigorously rejected Republican suggestions that his investigations were politically motivated.

MORE: Read Jack Smith’s full deposition on the decision to indict Trump

“The evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit,” Smith said, bristling at a question about whether his investigations were meant to prevent Trump from reclaiming the presidency in 2024.

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Jack Smith told House committee he had ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ in cases against Trump

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Ex-special counsel testified in front of judiciary committee about aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump

Jack Smith, the former justice department special counsel who led the aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump, told a congressional committee that he never spoke to Joe Biden about his cases, according to the transcript of a deposition

In his behind-closed-doors testimony to the House judiciary committee earlier this month, Smith defended the charges he brought against Trump for allegedly possessing classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election, while warning of the consequences of allowing election meddling to go unpunished.

“Theoretically, what happens if there is election interference and the people who are responsible for that are not held accountable?” Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal asked.

“It becomes the new norm, and that becomes how we … conduct elections,” Smith replied, according to the transcript.

“And so the toll on our democracy, if you had to describe that, what would that be?” the congresswoman asked.

“Catastrophic,” Smith said.

Trump and his Republican allies have alleged that the former special counsel was a key figure in a justice department that Biden had “weaponized” against his predecessor. The Republican-controlled House judiciary committee earlier this year heard testimony from one of Smith’s top deputies, and months later subpoenaed the former special counsel for private testimony. Smith had offered to voluntarily testify in public, as special counsels typically do.

In questioning from Democratic congressman Dan Goldman, Smith said he operated without interference from Merrick Garland, the attorney general who appointed him, or any other top justice department officials. [ … ]

CONTINUE at source: Jack Smith told House committee he had ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ in cases against Trump

Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber Finally Arrested Half Decade Later

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The FBI sucks at its job but wants you to salute them anyway

By Ken Klippenstein

The FBI is taking a victory lap for its arrest this morning of a suspect in the January 6 planting of pipe bombs at DNC and RNC headquarters in DC nearly five years ago. Here’s the kicker: there was evidently no breakthrough in the investigation. In fact, the FBI reportedly had the evidence in its possession all along.

“The FBI’s case against the suspect is not based on a new breakthrough, according to two sources, but instead on a review the FBI conducted in recent weeks of evidence that had already been gathered and which the department had in its possession,” MS NOW (previously MSNBC) reported this morning.

“That voluminous trove of material was largely collected in 2021 and 2022.”

In other words, the FBI had all the evidence it needed from the start but never bothered to go through it until now. That’s the kind of failure that should lead to calls for resignations and investigations; but the major media are instead anointing the government agency as if it should be awarded a Nobel.

That’s not the FBI I know. The FBI I know undertook the COINTELPRO program from the 1950s through the Vietnam war that purported to target “radical” and “subversive” individuals and groups. The FBI I know targeted Martin Luther King Jr. and kept of dossiers on Americans from Albert Einstein to Marilyn Monroe. The FBI I know was so biased that their inattention to the Watergate scandals forced “deep throat” to go to the news media, a man who turned out to be a deputy director of the very agency. The FBI I know bungled high-profile investigations from the Anthrax attacks in 2001, the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing in 1996, the Parkland School Shooting in 2018 and its infamous mole, Special Agent Robert Hanssen. The FBI I know was responsible for Ruby Ridge and Waco. The FBI I know through its laboratory provided flawed, biased, and even intentionally false testimony.

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