One of the best investigative journalists around. From @SethAbramson on twitter
The main players in this thread (please note the recurrence of actors from Arizona and Alabama as well as the White House):TrumpGiulianiRep. Biggs (R-AZ)Rep. Gosar (R-AZ)Rep. Brooks (R-AL)Sen. Tuberville (R-AL)Arizona Proud BoysAlabama Attorney General Steve Marshall
The picture I discuss here is an emerging picture. All individuals discussed in this thread are innocent until proven guilty. This thread is a compilation/curation of evidence already publicly reported by major-media—not an attempt to imply a final portrait has been developed.
In addition to the men listed in Tweet #1, the following men are also relevant to this account:▪️ Ali Alexander, far-right activist▪️ Roger Stone, friend and advisor to the president▪️ Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager▪️ Donald Trump Jr., son of the president
As I mentioned, all pieces of evidence discussed in this thread were previously posted (with links, images, and videos, as appropriate) on this feed within the last week. Scroll through my feed since January 6 (inclusive) if you wish to find any or all of this key information.
The phrase "Stop the Steal" was developed by Trump friend and adviser Roger Stone, a convicted criminal and self-described "political dirty trickster" who Trump rewarded with a corrupt presidential pardon during the possible seditious conspiracy described in this thread.
In addition to being an associate of the Proud Boys as well as Trump, Stone was implicated in the Russia scandal—including not just contact with Kremlin cutout WikiLeaks in 2016, but contact with Israeli officials pre-election to get political intel via Trump's Turkish allies.
Stone is a longtime associate of former Trump campaign manager Manafort, who the Mueller Report found colluded with a known Russian intel agent and who was recently rewarded with a corrupt pardon by the president. Trump has told friends Manafort could hurt him if he "flipped."
Ali Alexander, a far-right activist, has confessed that he organized a "Stop the Steal" rally for January 6 as part of a "scheme" to stop Biden's November 2020 election landslide from being certified in Congress. He identifies Biggs, Gosar, and Brooks as his co-conspirators.
After being developed using Stone's tagline ("Stop the Steal"), Alexander's event quickly merged with a "Save America March" being orchestrated by several "dark money" pro-Trump groups. Alexander's event—with a new name—ended up being the event Trump appeared at on January 6.1
One of Alexander's co-conspirators, Brooks, spoke alongside Trump and Jr. at the rally associated with the Save America March. At the rally, Trump, Jr., and Brooks all incited insurrection—Brooks, who'd already promised to challenge Biden's electors, most stridently of all.1
The Save America March got its name from Trump's Save America PAC—which raised $300+ million post-election on the false claim the cash was for "election defense"; instead, it went to (besides the RNC) Trump and Giuliani—and was planned by a Manafort company, Event Strategies.1
So the rally Trump incited insurrection at:▪️ Took its tagline from Roger Stone;▪️ was planned by a company Stone's associate Manafort worked for;▪️ was allegedly part of a plot hatched by Biggs, Gosar, and Brooks;▪️ featured Brooks, Trump, and Jr. inciting insurrection.1
At the January 6 rally, Giuliani told the crowd that Trump desperately needed the January 6 election certification delayed—and not delayed for a few hours, but for *days*. He promised the gathered mob that that delay would lead to *conclusive proof* Trump had won in November.1
If indeed there was a seditious conspiracy on January 6, it involved Trump allies inside the Capitol on January 6 artificially delaying Biden's certification long enough for the mob incited by Trump and his allies outside the Capitol to shut down the joint session completely.15
The key figures inside the Capitol on January 6 were Trump allies Gosar and Biggs, whose job was to object to the certification of Arizona's electors—leading to two hours of useless debate in the House—and Brooks' Alabama peer Sen. Tuberville, who would support the objection.1
While Trump and Giuliani could be sure Gosar and Biggs would—with the aid of Tuberville—force the joint session into a 2-hour debate, less clear was how to ensure the "Save America March" disrupted the joint session as Ali Alexander (and Biggs, Gosar, and Brooks) had planned.17
The alleged conspirators needed militants outside the Capitol who'd "spark" an assault on the Capitol once enough of the mob incited by Trump at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue had arrived at the Capitol. This is where the Proud Boys came to be of great utility to Trump.1
Trump had falsely said at a pre-election debate that he didn't know who the Proud Boys were; he did know, from his friendship with Stone, a major Proud Boys booster and mascot. That's why he told the group to "stand back and stand by"—which soon became the Boys' rallying cry.
On December 12, the leader of the Proud Boys went to the White House, saying in advance of his trip (on social media) he had been "invited" there. Team Trump claimed that he had merely been on a Christmas tour of the White House. The truth of the matter still remains unknown.
7 days after the Proud Boy leader visited the White House by invitation, a Trump rally scheduled by a pro-Trump dark money group was moved to January 6. Within minutes, Trump was promoting it, saying that it'd be "wild." It had Proud Boy ally Stone's "tagline" attached to it
At the time a random Trump rally suddenly became the January 6 "march"—intended to coincidence with Congress' joint session—Trump was looking for a Representative to challenge electors during the session. He found Brooks, who then planned the January 6 rally with Alexander.
At around this time, the Arizona GOP—with two of its most prominent leaders being apparent Alexander co-conspirators Gosar and Biggs—tweeted out one of the most bizarre/horrifying tweets of 2020: the party formally asked readers if they were willing to "die for" Donald Trump
Different states have different "Proud Boy" chapters. As Arizonans Gosar and Biggs were plotting with Trump a rally intended to lead to disruptive violence; and as the Arizona GOP the two men led was asking people to "die for" Trump; the Arizona Proud Boys became *important*.
As noted, Trump and his allies needed a group of militants who'd be willing to spark the invasion of the Capitol. Trump ally Stone was close with the Proud Boys; the Proud Boys advocate using of violence; Trump had told them to "Stand by"; they'd adopted it as a rallying cry.
An hour before the invasion began, a USCP officer now tells Buzzfeed News that he was unnerved by seeing a menacing social media message shown to him by a fellow officer. In the message, the Proud Boys use one of their usual online channels to promise to "breach the Capitol."
According to the WSJ, the attack on the Capitol was launched when a group of men "in blaze orange hats" suddenly attacked a barricade. CNN later identified the use of "blaze orange hats" as connected to the Proud Boys, which the aforementioned Proud Boy leader angrily denied.
Unfortunately for the Proud Boys, they decided to livestream their participation in the events of January 6. The early part of a 100-minute livestream shows Proud Boys in tactical gear with "blaze orange" arm bands and blaze orange strips of duct tape on at least one helmet.
But the most damning moment in the livestream comes nearly an hour in, when the group of Proud Boys doing the filming encounters a group of their fellow Proud Boys on the street—all of whom are wearing blaze orange hats.The men identify themselves as the Arizona Proud Boys.
This same group—the Arizona Proud Boys—was separately photographed and tweeted about by Will Sommer of THE DAILY BEAST. It's unknown why both the leader of the Proud Boys and its founder falsely claimed on Parler that no Proud Boys were wearing blaze orange hats on January 6.
In order to ensure that the sizable mob from Trump's rally would have an open path to the Capitol, the way had to be opened just before Trump's speech ended. A recent NYT timeline includes a picture of the Arizona Proud Boys—in blaze orange hats—at the Capitol at 11:50AM ET.
Trump's speech at the Ellipse was very, very well attended. One reason it was so well attended is that Brooks' and Tubervillle's peers in the Alabama GOP had apparently been just as busy as Biggs' and Gosar's peers in the Arizona GOP had been. And they had a key role to play.
The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)—run by the Alabama Attorney General—was secretly running "robocalls" urging people across the country to go to Trump's Save America March. The Alabama Attorney General now claims that he had no idea what his group was up to.
But the two most important Alabama Republicans were—without question—Brooks and Tuberville. The Alabaman Brooks was the first House member to say he'd contest Biden's win, and the Alabaman Tuberville the first senator to say he'd do so. (You need one of each to make it work.)
During a speech at a rally he'd set up with Alexander, Biggs, and Gosar—using Stone's tagline and Manafort's event-planning company—Brooks *explicitly* told the mob to go to the Capitol and "kick ass." His full speech is absolutely terrifying. It is seditious, and incitement.
So Trump and Giuliani had the Arizona Proud Boys at the Capitol barricade at 12, and the Arizona Congressmen inside the Capitol with objections ready; they had Alabama's Mo Brooks inciting insurrection at the rally and Alabama's Tuberville aiding the Arizonans in the Capitol.
The problem was timing. How to time the rally, the march, an invasion of the Capitol, and the objections during the joint session in such a way that each event began at ended—or as the case may be, was violently interrupted—at the right moment. In the end, the timing was off.
We now know that both Giuliani *and* Trump desperately tried to call Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville during the joint session—in each case calling the wrong man by mistake. And Giuliani was stupid enough to leave a *voicemail message* on the phone of Utah senator Mike Lee.
Giuliani, in inciting the crowd at the rally—he demanded "trial by combat!"—had promised them he had up to *five* states he and Team Trump could legitimately challenge. But when he called Tuberville, he said that Trump needed Tuberville to object to a *stunning* "ten" states.
Trump likewise called Tuberville to try to get the joint session extended. Let's be clear: there was *no benefit* legally, politically, or constitutionally to Trump or Giuliani to getting the joint session extended by a few hours unless they believed the *mob* would aid them.
In speaking to Tuberville Giuliani made little sense. Team Trump had never challenged "10" states before—and Giuliani saying that such challenges would give Team Trump time to get "more evidence" was nonsense, as the joint session was going to end on January 6 no matter what.
In the event, the Capitol was breached with substantial assistance—per WSJ—of the men in "blaze orange hats." And of those who breached the Capitol, the ones in tactical gear appear to have been most interested in either (a) accessing the House chamber or (b) taking hostages.
The quickest ways to make it impossible for the joint session to conclude on January 6 would've been 1) for the electoral ballots—which were on the House floor—to be destroyed/stolen; 2) for a member of Congress to be taken hostage—as it'd preclude a full vote on Biden's win.
But a third possibility was simply chaos—chaos that lasted so long the Congress lost the will or the logistics to continue their work on January 6. Team Trump could then set about litigating and lobbying over when Congress would meet to finish its work certifying Biden's win.
Top Trump adviser Peter Navarro had already told Fox News that Trump had the power to "move inauguration day" if events demanded it—as sufficient chaos on January 6 might have done. So evidence of Donald Trump's reaction to the insurrection on that date becomes critical, now.
According to half a dozen major-media reports, Trump's reactions to the insurrection included being "pleased," "excited," "delighted," "borderline enthusiastic," and having no interest in doing anything but "watching the show."He "repeatedly" refused to call out the Guard.
Ali Alexander articulates the plan he and Trump allies Biggs, Gosar and Brooks had in *identical* terms: he wanted the action outside the Capitol to directly and viscerally influence what was happening inside the Capitol, which is clearly what Trump wanted as events unfolded.
The connections—and mutual interests—of the Proud Boys, RAGA, Tuberville, Brooks, Biggs, Gosar, Alexander, Giuliani, Trump, and Don Jr. (whose January 6 speech was the second-most inciting after Brooks') seem to be inarguable. The primary question is what contacts there were.
An investigation must look to any key post-election contacts within Arizona (between Biggs, Gosar, the Arizona Proud Boys, the Arizona GOP and Alexander) and Alabama (Brooks, Tuberville and RAGA) and then if these entities communicated with the White House *or* with Giuliani.
What is inarguable is that all of these men and entities—including Stone and Manafort—present a mass of interconnections, but an identical goal: using an "inside/outside" conspiracy (politicians in the Capitol, inciters outside it) to ensure Biden's win couldn't be certified.
If sufficient additional evidence is developed—see my caveat atop this thread—the picture of a seditious conspiracy begins to emerge. And of course I haven't focused on the Pentagon, USCP or Guard piece much, except to note Trump wanted the end to the siege delayed maximally.
CONCLUSION/ The Trumps and Giuliani are undoubtedly capable of an anti-democratic plot—they did the same with Russia, Ukraine, China, and Trump's Middle East allies. Brooks is a maniac, and Gosar, Biggs, and Tuberville lack principles. So we'll see what the evidence reveals.
PS/ Please consider retweeting the first tweet in this thread (my pinned tweet), if you haven't done so already. Many journalists and politicians follow this feed—thousands, in total—but I'd love for this picture of the current state of the evidence to reach even more folks ASAP.
(UPDATE) Apropos of this thread, Maddow notes that the DC U.S. Attorney says he's using *public corruption* prosecutors—among others—to pursue "seditious conspiracy" charges.This seems to suggest public officials are being criminally investigated. Perhaps ones I mentioned here.
You can follow @SethAbramson.
No comments:
Post a Comment