Late Tuesday night Trump released his last batch of pardons, 137 people including Steven Bannon. Here is a description of some of his last minute pardons.
The Washington Post captures Trump’s last day in the White House: President Trump spent his final full day in office Tuesday the same way he spent many of his 1,460 prior days as president: brooding over imagined injustices, plotting retribution against perceived enemies and seeking ways to maximize his power.s week.
On Tuesday, in McConnell’s final speech as majority leader, he linked the mob attack to Trump by saying they were fed lies by the president.
January 20 Noon: Trump’s term ends. He left the White House on Marine One with his family at 8am, made a short speech before boarding Air Force One and was in the air by 9AM, headed for Mar-A-Lago.
One final Maggie Haberman Trump story, this one on his last hours as President: The route from the airport to his private club, Mar-a-Lago, was lined with people waving flags, some weeping as he passed. Around 11:30 a.m., Mr. Trump was whisked inside the gates of the Mar-a-Lago compound, leaving behind the press corps that was assigned to cover him for four years. Mr. Pirro’s pardon was announced around that time.
Mr. Trump had another 30 minutes left of his presidency, but he had said all he was going to say.
Coppins on the coming Trump amnesia: Indeed, the narrative now forming in some GOP circles presents Trump as a secondary figure who presided over an array of important accomplishments thanks to the wisdom and guidance of the Republicans in his orbit. In these accounts, Trump’s race-baiting, corruption, and cruel immigration policies—not to mention his attempts to overturn an election—are treated as minor subplots, rather than defining features.
On Friday the new York Times and other outlets ran a story about yet another (final?) Trump scandal regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 election: a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.
Meanwhile, the Senate reached a compromise plan to receive the impeachment articles by Monday and begin a trail February 9.
Monday the Washington Post ran a story about Pence’s now strained relations with Trump. It had this detail: McConnell told others he was enraged with Trump and planned to never speak to him again.
Tuesday Liz Cheney said she will vote to impeach: “Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Tuesday night Pence officially rejects the House’s request that he invoke the 25th Amendment. And the New York Times reports: Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking…. highlighted the gnawing uncertainty that they and many other Republicans have about whether they would pay more of a political price for abandoning him or for continuing to enable him after he incited a mob to storm the seat of government.
In this piece Edsal reviews the motivations of white male grievance that spurred the attack: Coming days will determine how far this goes, but for the moment the nation faces, for all intents and purposes, the makings of a civil insurgency. What makes this insurgency unusual in American history is that it is based on Trump’s false claim that he, not Joe Biden, won the presidency, that the election was stolen by malefactors in both parties, and that majorities in both branches of Congress no longer represent the true will of the people.
Washington Post reported: A day before rioters stormed Congress, an FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and “war,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post that contradicts a senior official’s declaration the bureau had no intelligence indicating anyone at last week’s demonstrations in support of President Trump planned to do harm.
On Wednesday a group of Congresspeople released a shocking statement: Led by Representative Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey Democrat and former Navy pilot, more than 30 lawmakers called on Wednesday for an investigation into visitors’ access to the Capitol on the day before the riot. In a letter to the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the U.S. Capitol Police, the lawmakers, many of whom served in the military and said they were trained to “recognize suspicious activity,” demanded answers about what they described as an “extremely high number of outside groups” let into the Capitol on Jan. 5 at a time when most tours were restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The House impeached Trump for a second time Wednesday afternoon, January 13. Only 10 Republicans joined. Pelosi chose to hold impeachment articles until the Senate plan is made clear.
Washington Post story on Trump’s last days in the White House and plans to relocate to Florida.
Here is a good article describing recent history of Capitol Police racism and incompetence.
Axios tracks the Big Lie going back months before the election.
Georgia may prosecute Trump for the January 2 hone call: Mr. Banzhaf and other legal experts say Mr. Trump’s calls may run afoul of at least three state criminal laws. One is criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, which can be either a felony or a misdemeanor.
There is also a related conspiracy charge, which can be prosecuted either as a misdemeanor or a felony. A third law, a misdemeanor offense, bars “intentional interference” with another person’s “performance of election duties.”
“My feeling based on listening to the phone call is that they probably will see if they can get it past a grand jury,” said Joshua Morrison, a former senior assistant district attorney in Fulton County who once worked closely with Ms. Willis. “It seems clearly there was a crime committed.”
A DOJ report on child separation was released this week: Mr. Hamilton said that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions “perceived a need to take quick action” from Mr. Trump and that after a meeting at the White House on April 3, 2018, Mr. Sessions “directed that I draft a memo that would put in effect a zero-tolerance approach to immigration enforcement at the border.” During a meeting with Mr. Sessions on May 11, 2018, the attorney general told the prosecutors, “we need to take away children,” according to the notes. Moments later, he described Mr. Trump as “very intense, very focused” on the issue, according to one person taking notes at the meeting.
Another person who attended the May 11 meeting wrote about the same part of the conversation involving Mr. Trump: “INTENSE: prosecute everyone.”
January 3: the newly elected Congress is seated January 6: the House and Senate meet jointly for a formal count of the electoral vote; 12th A: “The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.”
On Sunday the Washington Post released an hour long recording of a phone conversation between Trump and the Georgia Secretary of State, in which Trump is pressuring him to make him the winner in Georgia. Here is the recording and full transcript.
Here is the lead in the New York Times: President Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to overturn the presidential election and vaguely threatened him with “a criminal offense” during an hourlong telephone call on Saturday, according to an audio recording of the conversation.
Below are key quotes from the transcript:
so we’ve spent a lot of time on this, and if we could just go over some of the numbers… We think that if you check the signatures, a real check of the signatures going back in Fulton County, you’ll find at least a couple of hundred thousand of forged signatures
You don’t need much of a number, because the number that in theory I lost by, the margin would be 11,779
it’s been reported that they said there was a major water main break. Everybody fled the area, and then they came back, [name], her daughter and a few people…. Late in the morning, they went, early in the morning, they went to the table with the black robe, the black shield, and they pulled out the votes. Those votes were put there a number of hours before. The table was put there. I think it was, Brad, you would know, it was probably eight hours or seven hours before, and then it was stuffed with votes.
I mean you know, and I didn’t lose the state, Brad.
The other thing, dead people, so dead people voted. And I think the, the number is in the close to 5,000 people. And they went to obituaries. They went to all sorts of methods to come up with an accurate number. And a minimum is close to about 5,000 voters. The bottom line is when you add it all up, and then you start adding, you know, 300,000 fake ballots.
You’re not the only one. I mean, we have other states that I believe will be flipping to us very shortly.
RAFFENSPERGER: Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, they — people can say anything.
TRUMP: Oh, this isn’t social media. This is Trump media. It’s not social media. It’s really not, it’s not social media. I don’t care about social media. I couldn’t care less. Social media is Big Tech. Big Tech is on your side, you know. I don’t even know why you have a side, because you should want to have an accurate election. And you’re a Republican.
RAFFENSPERGER: We believe that we do have an accurate election.
Potential Legal Threat: But the ballots are corrupt. And you’re going to find that they are — which is totally illegal, it is more illegal for you than it is for them, because you know what they did, and you’re not reporting it. That’s a criminal, that’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.
And you can’t let it happen, and you are letting it happen. You know, I mean, I’m notifying you that you’re letting it happen. So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.
And flipping the state is a great testament to our country because, you know, this is — it’s a testament that they can admit to a mistake or whatever you want to call it.
Look, we need only 11,000 votes. We have far more than that as it stands now. We’ll have more and more. And, do you have provisional ballots at all, Brad? Provisional ballots?
So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.
Why don’t you want to find this, Ryan? What’s wrong with you? I heard your lawyer is very difficult, actually, but I’m sure you’re a good lawyer. You have a nice last name.
And I think you have to say that you’re going to re-examine it, and you can re-examine it, but re-examine it with people that want to find answers, not people that don’t want to find answers.
And I know this phone call is going nowhere other than, other than ultimately, you know — Look, ultimately, I win, OK? Because you guys are so wrong. And you treated this. You treated the population of Georgia so badly. You, between you and your governor, who is down at 21, he was down 21 points. And like a schmuck, I endorsed him, and he got elected, but I will tell you, he is a disaster.
Sunday night, Senator Tom Cotton came out in opposition of the January 6 scheme. Some others followed as the vote neared.
Senators began lining up this week in support of using Congressional action on January 6 to overturn the election, or against that plan. Josh Hawley was first, on Wednesday.
Ben Sasse criticized the move: “Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Mr. Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong — and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”
Then on Saturday: In a joint statement on Saturday, the Senate Republicans — including seven senators and four who are to be sworn in on Sunday — called for a 10-day audit of election returns in “disputed states,” and said they would vote to reject the electors from those states until one was completed. They did not elaborate on which states.
The group is led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and includes Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana, and Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
Romney released a statement opposing the move: “The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. … Were Congress to actually reject state electors, partisans would inevitably demand the same any time their candidate had lost. Congress, not voters in the respective states, would choose our presidents.
“Adding to this ill-conceived endeavor by some in Congress is the President’s call for his supporters to come to the Capitol on the day when this matter is to be debated and decided. This has the predictable potential to lead to disruption, and worse.
“I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?”
Trump pardoned Stone, Manafort, Popadopolous and others charged in the Mueller investigation: In complaining about “prosecutorial misconduct,” though, Mr. Trump seemed to be talking as much about himself as his allies. In the flurry of 49 pardons and commutations issued this week, he granted clemency to a host of convicted liars, crooked politicians and child-killing war criminals, but the through line was a president who considers himself a victim of law enforcement and was using his power to strike back.
The gathering of electors in all the states went smoothly despite some fears of violence and more legal wrangling. Also more GOP publicly accepted the results: The comments amounted to a notable and swift sea change in a body that for weeks has essentially refused to acknowledge the inevitable, although the shift was far from unanimous. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, stayed conspicuously silent on Monday, declining to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory.
Trump announced Bill Barr’s resignation on Monday. He will stay on until December 23.
Also on Monday the first vaccines were given to the public: The day played out in a remarkable fashion as television viewers watched images of health care workers receiving lifesaving injections juxtaposed with live shots from state capitals around the country showing electors casting votes formally confirming the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris.
On Tuesday McConnell did congratulate Biden from the Senate floor. Also this: A short time later, on a private call with Senate Republicans, Mr. McConnell and his top deputies pleaded with their colleagues not to join members of the House in objecting to the election results on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to ratify the Electoral College’s decision
Tuesday December 8 – safe harbor day: each state must appoint them by the safe-harbor date to guarantee that Congress will accept their credentials. The controlling statute says that if “any controversy or contest” remains after that, then Congress will decide which electors, if any, may cast the state’s ballots for president.
In the New York Times on Monday: Intensifying his efforts to undo his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr., President Trump twice called the Republican speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in recent days to encourage challenges to the official results in the state…. Pennsylvania is the third state in which Mr. Trump is known to have reached out to top elected Republicans to try to reverse the will of voters. He earlier summoned Michigan legislative leaders to the White House, and over the weekend he pressed Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia to call upon that state’s legislature to reverse the election.
Then on Tuesday: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a long-shot request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the state, delivering an unmistakable rebuke to President Trump in the forum on which he had pinned his hopes.
The Texas lawsuit to overturn votes in swing states that went for was released on Tuesday December 8. It asked the court to “enjoin the use of unlawful election results without review and ratification by the defendant states’ legislatures,” meaning it would allow GOP held state legislatures to appoint their own slate of electors for the Electoral College.
By Friday the Supreme Court had rejected the Texas case.
Analysis by the New York Times: The court’s decision on Friday night, an inflection point after weeks of legal flailing by Mr. Trump and ahead of the Electoral College vote for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Monday, leaves the president’s party in an extraordinary position. Through their explicit endorsements or complicity of silence, much of the G.O.P. leadership now shares responsibility for the quixotic attempt to ignore the nation’s founding principles and engineer a different verdict from the one voters cast in November…. And it meant that Republican leaders now stand for a new notion: that the final decisions of voters can be challenged without a basis in fact if the results are not to the liking of the losing side, running counter to decades of work by the United States to convince developing nations that peaceful transfers of power are key to any freely elected government’s credibility.
During a Friday night, contentious Oval Office meeting Trump floated the idea of appointing election conspiracy theorist Sydney Powell to his administration, directing Homeland Security to seize voting machines, and using the military to help keep him in power. Flynn and Guilliani were present.
This Washington Post story recounts Trump attempts to overturn the election: However cleareyed Trump’s aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were “happy to scratch his itch,” this adviser said. “If he thinks he won, it’s like, ‘Shh . . . we won’t tell him.’ ”
Bill Bar acknowledged that there was no voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Monday evening’s New York Times: President Trump’s government on Monday authorized President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to begin a formal transition process after Michigan certified Mr. Biden as its winner, a strong sign that the president’s last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the election was coming to an end.
Mr. Trump had been resisting any move toward a transition. But in conversations in recent days that intensified Monday morning, top aides — including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff; Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel; and Jay Sekulow, the president’s personal lawyer — told the president the transition needed to begin. He did not need to say the word “concede,” they told him, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions.
Since the race was called Trump has made three televised appearances, none about the election. He has mostly addressed the country through Twitter: Since Nov. 3, he has posted some 550 tweets — about three-quarters of which attempted to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election results.
Legal Challenges
Then late Monday night Trump tweeted: Will never concede to fake ballots & “Dominion”.
Trump fired a member of his administration responsible for election security on Tuesday. Chris Krebs “had systematically disputed Mr. Trump’s false declarations in recent days that the presidency was stolen from him through fraudulent ballots and software glitches that changed millions of votes.”
Legal Challenges
Lindsey Graham has been calling election officials trying to get them to toss out legal ballots: he suggested to the Georgia Secretary of State “had the power to toss out all of the mail-in votes from counties with high rates of questionable signatures on ballots”
