Insurrection Fallout

News, Analysis and Opinion from POLITICO

  1. Elections

    Cable carnage: Trump turns CNN town hall into televised combat

    The former president’s town hall at CNN began with more 2020 denialism and went on from there.

    Former President Donald Trump refused to say he had lost the 2020 presidential election and defended his actions on Jan. 6 during a town hall event in New Hampshire on Wednesday night.

    In what became an hour-long form of television combat on a variety of issues, Trump received routine applause from the Republican and Republican-leaning crowd, including over his dismissal of a recent verdict that found him guilty of sexual assault. He did not flinch when asked by the moderator, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, if he owed his one-time VP Mike Pence an apology for the riot he helped incite while Pence was at the capitol.

    He later said he was inclined to pardon a “large portion” of the Jan. 6 rioters.

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  2. INSURRECTION FALLOUT

    Proud Boys leader found guilty of seditious conspiracy for driving Jan. 6 attack

    Jurors also convicted the leader and three others of conspiring to obstruct Congress’ proceedings on Jan. 6 and destroying government property.

    Updated

    A jury on Thursday convicted Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, and three allies of a seditious conspiracy to derail the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, a historic verdict following the most significant trial to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

    Jurors also convicted the four men — Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — of conspiring to obstruct Congress’ proceedings on Jan. 6 and destroying government property. The jury acquitted a fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, of seditious conspiracy but convicted him of obstructing Congress’ Jan. 6 proceedings as well as several other felony charges.

    Prosecutors cast Tarrio and the Proud Boys leaders as the most significant drivers of the Jan. 6 attack, assembling a “fighting force” that arrived at the Capitol even while Trump addressed a crowd of supporters near the White House. Members of the group were present for and involved in multiple breaches of police lines. They later celebrated their role in the breach.

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  3. Elections

    Secret recording: Top GOP recruit says Trump endorsement isn't all that

    Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State, offered some candid assessments about the value of the Trump backing during closed door remarks.

    Former President Donald Trump’s endorsement is widely viewed among Republican candidates as the golden ticket to the nomination.

    But at least one prominent GOPer weighing a bid in a competitive state has privately conveyed he thinks the former president's seal of approval is overstated.

    Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a potential candidate in the race to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, recently told a group of Ohio Republicans at a closed-door political event that while Trump’s endorsement “matters,” it doesn’t carry the same weight it used to. He pegged the proportion of Republican voters who would “vote for whoever” Trump endorses at just 20 percent.

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  4. Legal

    Pence appears before Jan. 6 grand jury

    Pence’s closed-door appearance marks an extraordinary flashpoint in special counsel Jack Smith’s probe.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence testified Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter.

    Pence’s closed-door appearance marks an extraordinary flashpoint in special counsel Jack Smith’s probe. Smith’s team is investigating Trump’s last-ditch bid to pressure Pence into single-handedly derailing the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Pence’s appearance was accompanied by a frenzy of security activity at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., where U.S. Marshals and other security personnel conducted sweeps of the building before Pence was whisked inside without being spotted by cameras at the courthouse’s main entrances.

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  5. Legal

    ‘Donald Trump’s army’: Prosecutors close seditious conspiracy case against Proud Boys leaders

    After a nearly four-month trial, the criminal case against five men who prosecutors say instigated the Jan. 6 insurrection will soon be in the hands of a jury.

    Updated

    Leaders of the far-right Proud Boys, fearful about their place in a post-Trump America, instead tried to prevent it from happening at all — even if it meant a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors argued Monday.

    “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

    Mulroe made the Justice Department’s closing pitch Monday in the most significant trial to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack. More than 1,000 people have been charged for their behavior that day, but prosecutors say the Proud Boys played the most critical, galvanizing role in assembling and leading the mob to the Capitol — and then breaching police lines and the building itself.

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  6. Legal

    Anatomy of a smashed window: Pezzola tells his Jan. 6 story

    “I should’ve turned and went home,” the member of the Proud Boys told a jury.

    Few events on Jan. 6 symbolized the fragility of American democracy more clearly than the moment Dominic Pezzola — a Proud Boy from upstate New York — smashed a Senate window with a stolen police riot shield, paving the way for a pro-Trump mob to enter the Capitol.

    On Wednesday, Pezzola tried to rewrite that history, telling a jury that the shield smash — which coincided with the frantic evacuation of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence — was the result of adrenaline, fear and confusion, not the carefully executed plot of an insurrectionist.

    It was, he said at the federal courthouse in Washington D.C., “just more of being caught up in the confusion, panic, chaos, mayhem that happened that day. It was stupid. I’m sorry I did it. It wasn’t anything I’m proud of. But it happened. What can I say?”

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  7. Legal

    Gun-carrying Jan. 6 defendant takes turn on the witness stand

    Chris Alberts' story remains relatively unknown despite his prolonged and notable role in the arc of attack on the Capitol.

    When Chris Alberts arrived on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump was still speaking to his supporters more than a mile away.

    Six hours later, he was one of the last to leave — when police wrestled him to the ground and placed him under arrest.

    In the interim, Alberts found himself at the vanguard of the riotous mob that overwhelmed police lines. He briefly huddled with rioter Guy Reffitt, who had been immobilized by pepper spray after a lengthy standoff with officers. Then, wielding a large wooden pallet, he ascended a Capitol staircase, turning the board into a shield against the rubber bullets and baton strikes of Capitol police — hindering efforts by the outnumbered officers to disperse the oncoming crowd.

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  8. Legal

    Judge in Proud Boys trial rejects claims of government misconduct

    District Court Judge Tim Kelly knocked down a series of thinly premised but eye-popping allegations.

    Prosecutors did not withhold or “suppress” Jan. 6 security footage — aired in February by Tucker Carlson — from the Proud Boys now on trial for seditious conspiracy, a federal judge ruled late Sunday.

    U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly used his 10-page order to knock down a series of thinly premised but eye-popping allegations lodged by one of those defendants, Dominic Pezzola, in recent weeks.

    In fact, Kelly wrote, Pezzola’s lawyers have had access to most of the footage since September 2021 and the rest since early 2023, far enough in advance for Pezzola to use at trial. But Kelly also noted that there’s simply no indication that any of the footage is exculpatory for Pezzola, who helped ignite the breach of the Capitol building when he smashed a Senate-wing window with a stolen police riot shield.

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  9. Legal

    Trump appeals order for Pence to testify in Jan. 6 probe

    Special Counsel Jack Smith is seeking Pence's testimony in the federal probe of Trump's bid to undermine the 2020 election.

    Donald Trump has appealed a judge’s order requiring his former vice president, Mike Pence, to testify to the grand jury probing the effort to subvert the 2020 election.

    Trump’s appeal, filed under seal, was lodged on the court docket Monday morning. The former president had challenged the bid by special counsel Jack Smith to compel Pence’s testimony earlier this year, claiming it would intrude on conversations protected by executive privilege.

    But Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg rejected Trump’s challenge, ruling last month that Pence could be compelled to testify. Boasberg, however, did fashion some limits to Smith’s inquiry; he agreed, in part, with a separate argument by Pence that some of his actions are protected by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause — which typically prevents Justice Department inquiry into members of Congress and their aides.

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  10. Legal

    Pence will not appeal ruling requiring him to testify to Jan. 6 grand jury

    The ruling limited the topics that prosecutors may ask Pence about.

    Mike Pence has decided against appealing a court order requiring him to testify before the grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

    “Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” spokesman Devin O’Malley said Wednesday in a statement.

    The decision follows an unprecedented — but secret — ruling by Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg to require Pence’s testimony but to acknowledge some limits to the topics prosecutors may grill him about.

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  11. Politics

    Move by Tennessee Republicans to oust 3 Dem lawmakers startles state

    House GOP leadership is trying to kick out a trio of Democrats for participating in gun reform protest.

    There’s the Oregon lawmaker expelled for his involvement in an armed incursion into the state capitol. The Idaho House member kicked out following a federal fraudconviction. And the Arizona representative removed over multiple accusations of sexual harassment.

    It’s rare but not unheard of for state legislators to oust their own colleagues, typically in cases where individuals are found guilty of crimes or accused of severe ethical lapses.

    But what’s unfolding in the Tennessee State Capitol, where Republican leaders want to expel three Democrats over participation in a protest demanding new gun-safety laws, is extraordinary for its political brazenness and scope.

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  12. Politics

    Opinion | Trump’s Huge Jan. 6 Mistake

    Valorizing the Capitol riot is bad for the country and his own political future.

    The philosopher Eric Hoffer famously wrote, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

    What he evidently didn’t count on was great outrages becoming causes.

    From the perspective of the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 it was hard enough to believe that Donald Trump would survive the event, let alone make it a plank in a powerful comeback bid just a few years later.

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  13. Insurrection fallout

    Judge sentences Jan. 6 defendant who breached Pelosi’s office to 36 months in prison

    A jury convicted Riley Williams of civil disorder and resisting police but deadlocked on a charge that Williams obstructed Congress and abetted the theft of Pelosi’s laptop.

    A Jan. 6 defendant who surged with the mob into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and helped strategize ways for the mob to overcome police resistance was sentenced Thursday to 36 months in prison, ending one of the earliest and most unusual sagas to stem from the Capitol attack.

    Attorneys for Riley Williams — a devotee of white nationalist Nick Fuentes who is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and was 22 at the time of the attack — repeatedly urged U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to treat her like an immature child who couldn’t be responsible for her actions. But Jackson sharply rejected that effort, noting that Williams repeatedly and intentionally took steps to breach police lines and marshaled the mob to resist even further.

    “She was not just a little waif blowing in the wind,” Jackson said, comparing Williams’ role in the mob to a “coxswain on a crew team.”

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  14. Legal

    Proud Boys attorneys: Informant had contact with defense team, defendants

    It’s the latest wrench in the seditious conspiracy trial, which has stretched into its fourth month and is the most significant to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

    Updated

    Attorneys for five Proud Boys on trial on charges of seditious conspiracy said on Wednesday that the Justice Department had informed them that a witness one of them had been prepared to call as part of the defense this week has been a government informant since 2021.

    “During this period of time, the [informant] has been in contact via telephone, text messaging and other electronic means, with one or more of the counsel for the defense and at least one defendant,” said Carmen Hernandez, an attorney for one of the five Proud Boys, Zachary Rehl, in a motion seeking more details of prosecutors’ use of informants in the case.

    According to Hernandez, who filed the motion on behalf of all five defendants — including Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys’ former national chairman — the informant also attended “prayer meetings” with at least one of the defendants’ families and, at one point, discussed the composition of the defense team.

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  15. Legal

    Former editor of Jewish newspaper charged for Jan. 6 actions

    Elliot Resnick faces charges of civil disorder and impeding police officers.

    The former editor of an Orthodox Jewish newspaper in New York City — identified two years ago as a member of the Jan. 6 mob by POLITICO — was charged Thursday with two felonies for his actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

    Elliot Resnick, who had drawn controversy prior to Jan. 6 for incendiary and bigoted commentslabeling African religions as “primitive” and suggesting white supremacy is fictional — grabbed a Capitol Police officer’s arm while he was attempting to defend the doors leading to the rotunda, according to charging documents. After those doors were breached, Resnick remained by the entrance and helped pull other rioters into the building at one of the earliest moments of the breach, according to the documents.

    Resnick faces charges of civil disorder and impeding police officers, as well as misdemeanor counts for entering and remaining in a restricted building, as well as disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building.

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  16. Congress

    In the mob's eyeline: A senior Republican's close brush revealed in new Jan. 6 footage

    “I wasn’t aware of any of it,” Sen. Chuck Grassley — third in line for the presidency at the time — said of his apparent encounter.

    Newly released video of the Capitol attack shows just how close rioters came to a senior GOP senator who was third in line for the presidency on Jan. 6, 2021.

    The footage, released after media requests to access videos used in connection with a Jan. 6 criminal case, shows the apparent evacuation of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) from the Senate chamber as a uniformed officer separates him and his security detail from the first wave of rioters who had breached the building. Those rioters were led by Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola, who used a riot shield to shatter a Senate window and ignite the breach of the building near the chamber.

    Grassley's caught-on-tape proximity to the pro-Trump rioters adds new dissonance to Fox News host Tucker Carlson's on-air minimization of the siege — a portrayal that palpably split Senate and House Republicans.

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  17. Politics

    Inside Pence world’s decision to go hard at Trump at the Gridiron

    The former VP has been simmering about Jan. 6 for some time. But he wanted to take advantage of his speech before a room full of top political journalists.

    The Friday after Jan. 6, 2021, then-Vice President Mike Pence sat down for his daily devotions, thumbed his Bible to the New Testament and James 1:19, and read these words: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

    Pence wasn’t slow to anger. In fact, he was plenty angry, as he wrote in his 2022 memoir "So Help Me God." But he was slow to speak.

    More than two years after those devotions, that still lingering anger over Jan. 6 burst out into the open. In remarks that turned from comedic to biting, Trump’s ever-loyal No. 2 broke from his former boss more sharply than any candidate in the GOP field so far.

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