“The Deputy WH Counsel reiterated to Co-Conspirator 4 [#Clark] that there had not been outcome-determinative fraud in the election & that if the Defendant [#Trump] remained in office nonetheless, there would be ‘riots in every major city in the United States.’ #CoConspirator4 responded, ‘Well…, that’s why there’s an #InsurrectionAct.’”
The #InsurrectionAct allows the president to deploy the US armed forces against American citizens. The alleged plot inside the WH was not merely to invalidate an election; it included the possibility of unleashing the American #military against its own people.
A federal judge slapped down a $475m defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against CNN for the network’s use of the phrase “the Big Lie” when referring to Trump’s numerous false claims about the 2020 election
Raag Singhal, a Trump appointed judge said “the Big Lie” comment was opinion and didn't amount to defamation
Trump claimed CNN’s use of the phrase likened him to Hitler because it's been used to describe lies told by the Nazis to justify the horrors of the Holocaust.
"Astonishingly, only 52% of Republican voters surveyed [by Brightline Watch] indicated that they believed that Trump ever brought classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, even though Trump himself admits doing so. There have even been countless widely publicized photos of those documents in various places around his private club."
"In poll after poll, we have clear evidence that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters do not inhabit a fact-based reality on key questions about modern American politics, from 'Who legitimately won the 2020 election?' to 'Do you believe that Trump actually did the thing that he has directly admitted to doing?'"
"And yet, how many times have you read such a clear-eyed statement in the mainstream press as this: 'Polls show the majority of Republican voters hold delusional ideas that are at odds with objective facts'? That’s what this poll shows. No need to mince words. But too often, mince they do."
"If you break information flows, you break democracy. Therefore, the only lasting solution to a fracturing democratic system lurching toward authoritarianism is to do everything we can to ensure that the information pipeline to voters is pristine rather than polluted with toxic lies. And that requires a view from somewhere, in which journalists refuse to parrot what was said and solely focus on conveying what is true."
"Giuliani and Trump repeated those lies, over and over. And predictably, Trump's sicko supporters went on the attack, sending vile, racist messages to [Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss], following them on the street and screaming at them, threatening to kill them, and even conducting a home invasion at the house of Moss's terrified grandmother, claiming they were there to make a citizens' arrest of Moss (who wasn't there)."
"The women stopped going to the grocery store, and were even nervous to give their name over the phone when making food delivery orders. And then FBI advised Freeman to move because it was no longer safe for her to stay in her house. Both women went into hiding.
But Giuliani refuses to concede that his statements caused the women any damage. What would it take? Their murder?"
@LouisIngenthron@w7voa
The repugs aren't happy that Zuckerberg hasn't provided evidence that Facebook censored conservatives in 2020 buttressing their #BigLie that the election was stolen.
"As the Republican Party becomes ever more radical, its political motto seems to be: 'If you’re not lying, you’re not trying.' …
[A]ggressive measures are necessary if journalists are going to hold their own against lying politicians. Right-wingers aren’t simply misstating things. They’re weaponizing lies, and it can’t be tolerated.”
"One passage [in the new Florida curriculum] that has gotten a lot of attention is for middle schoolers. It states they should learn that 'slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.' The danger of this narrative is striking."
"A system that brutalized, raped, and killed human beings while stealing their freedom and denying their humanity is rotten to its core. That enslaved people were able to find resilience and build lives in some form is a testament to their courage and spirit. There is no 'other side' to the story of slavery."
As Heather Cox Richardson says, "the fundamental story" of Florida's new curriculum for teaching African American history is that "nonwhite Americans and women 'contribute' to a country established and controlled by white men, but they do not shape it themselves."
White men, especially straight property-owning ones, count supremely.
Investigation shows the fake “Donbas genocide” were fabricated by Prigozhin’s media empire. There was no genocide and no “civil war” in 2014: just a cover-up for 🇷🇺 aggression to 🇺🇦. It's a #BigLie that terrorist russia created in their genocide against Ukrainians.
Pam Hemphill, who served a brief prison sentence for her crimes (trespassing, interupting official proceedings) on Jan. 6, has now turned on Trump for lying to her and others who have been "brainwashed" and are part of his "cult." She's requesting a chance to testify under oath about what happened on Jan. 6 and takes full responsibility for her bad choices. She says the capitol police saved her life that day.
The MyPillow man Mike Lindell is being forced to sell off equipment after big-box retailers stopped stocking his stuff following his BigLie claims about the 2020 elections.
Voting Rights Groups Raise Alarm About House GOP Introducing 'Big Lie Bill'
"This bill would amplify the influence of corporations and billionaires by raising contribution limits and reducing reporting and transparency requirements, opening the floodgates to even more secret money in our elections," DFAD said. "Increasing the role of big money donors in our politics prevents Congress from taking action on the issues that matter most to Americans"
The special counsel must establish, in chronological order, everything that Trump said, did and participated in from Election Day to J6 to achieve his ultimate goal of preventing, or at least delaying, Biden's being inaugurated on J20.
In an 18 USC 2383 prosecution for inciting the Insurrection, Smith would need to convince a jury that Trump's acts, words and omissions before, during and after J6 were intended by Trump to incite an imminent and likely insurrection at the Capitol.
At trial, Smith would explain to the jury that Trump had one overriding goal: Prevent Biden from being sworn in on J20. He would then lay out for the jury in chronological order (starting on Election Day and continuing to at least J6) everything (legal or criminal) that Trump said, did, refused to do, and participated in with one goal in mind: Stop Biden's inauguration from talking place on J20.
Smith would then explain to the jury how everyone of Trump's actions and plans to stop Biden from becoming POTUS on J20
2/ failed. And as J6 approached Trump's last best hope of accomplishing his goal was violence, plain & simple. Violence that Trump primed his MAGA followers (over the preceding months) to believe the #BigLie.
Trump's J6 speech inciting violence was the culmination of all of his prior efforts (that apparently didn't involve violence but rather deceitful, dishonest and amoral, unethical conduct) to stop Biden from becoming POTUS on J20. Trump had nothing to lose at that point. And was not only willing to resort to violence but specifically intended imminent and likely violence to envelope the Capitol.
Inciting the Insurrection was Trump's most serious crime; a crime that involved violence; a crime that was intended to prevent the peaceful transition of power; a crime that was against American democracy itself. And a crime for which Donald Trump must be held accountable if the foundation of America -- the Rule of Law -- is to remain strong for the next 247 years. #DoJ #crime#conspiracy#SeditiousConspiracy
Mike #Pence's #BigLie campaign trail torture: He's reaping the disinformation he sowed
GOP voters torture Mike Pence with the Big Lie — too bad he was an avid disinfo fan for decades
Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination is not going well for Mike Pence. The former vice president's pitch to voters is that he stood up for the Constitution in the face of pressure to do otherwise. But even as he avoids saying who was exerting the pressure and for what...
D.C. Court of Appeals committee recommends #Giuliani be #disbarred
The committee found Giuliani’s challenges to the #2020election results were ‘utterly false’ & ‘recklessly so’; D.C. Court of Appeals will make a final decision.
Lest we forget, this salient reminder from Jay Kuo today about how the Trump campaign deliberately targeted Black election workers in Georgia as it ginned up its Big Lie:
"It wasn’t enough for the Trump campaign to gin up false conspiracies and work behind the scenes to overturn the election through their friends in the state legislature. The campaign wanted to put a human face to the fraud, so they chose two Black ones."