TaMara is in meetings all day today, so you get this from me instead of TaMara.
WATCH Today at 3:00pm ET: Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin for the District of Columbia and FBI Washington Field Office ADIC Steven D’Antuono to provide update on criminal charges related to events at the Capitol on January 6. @FBI @FBIWFO @USAO_DC https://t.co/VOabbFCPRW
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) January 12, 2021
If anyone finds it on YouTube, please add a link in the comments so I can embed it. (Thank you NotMax)
Major Major Major Major
Are these guys Trumpy assholes or can we trust them, anybody know?
CaseyL
Sherwin is an “Acting,” which means he was appointed by Trump after elbowing someone else out. So: suborned and seditionist until proven otherwise.
I don’t know about the other guy.
PenandKey
@Major Major Major Major: No clue, but dear lord, am I looking forward to not needing to have that question answered before a federal official starts talking.
WaterGirl
It doesn’t seem to have started yet.
VeniceRiley
Is it too much for one of these to start on time?
Major Major Major Major
@CaseyL: Sherwin is the fourth person to hold this position during Trump’s presidency… looks like he’s a hack https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Sherwin
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
At this point, unless I actually know their political affiliations, everyone at every department is untrustworthy. Especially Bill Barr’s Justice Department.
WaterGirl
@VeniceRiley: Apparently, the answer to your question is YES.
@Major Major Major Major:
If he starts with ‘luckily, they haven’t located most of our guys yet”, it will not be a good sign.
CaseyL
D’Antuono seems to be OK: he was promoted from the Detroit FBI office after breaking up the plot against Whitmer.
ETA: Sherwin, however, seems to be standard issue Barr-Trump acolyte. IOW, what @Major Major Major Major: said.
geg6
Just a public service announcement OT:
Nancy Pelosi will be on “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates tonight on PBS. The other two will be Zac Posen, fashion designer and cutie patootie, and Nora O’Donnell, major media hack who needs a fucking sandwich.
geg6
@CaseyL:
That’s really good to know. And really fortuitous.
Central Planning
@VeniceRiley: Did I miss it, or hasn’t it started yet?
geg6
@Central Planning:
Late start.
CaseyL
Maybe the press conference is running late because the two of them keep disagreeing on what to say, with D’Antuono wanting to be truthful and Sherwin… not.
ETA: I apologize in advance if it turns out D’Antuono is a drone.
lee
Trump is live at the wall in Alamo, Tx right now.
My guess is they will wait until his rant is over.
WaterGirl
Here’s Badger to help keep
usme calm.Jim, Foolish Literalist
got MSNBC on in the background and they are for some reason playing trump live, lying about how everyone told him “Sir, a vaccine will take five years, seven years, ten years, but “we” developed it…”
CaseyL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No network should carry anything of him, and certainly not live.
Gin & Tonic
Here we go.
WaterGirl
I added a new category today for this little ride we are on. I called it:
Investigations Into Violent Extremist Attacks
but if you guys want to come up with a better name while we wait, have at it.
HumboldtBlue
An official with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives was quite candid about white supremacists in policing, and she finds it rather odd police unions from across the country have gone silent about how many of their members took part in the riot. “Silence is complicity,” she said.
Added: she was interviewed by ABC news, I was watching live.
Heartened by “hundreds of criminal prosecutions”
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger
Alison Rose
@geg6:
This is unnecessary.
Ian
Well this crime is unrelated, but I hope they find the time to find out who carved the word Trump into a manatee.
Sick fuckers.
tom
OT, but former Michigan governor Rick Snyder and other members of his administration are being charged in connection with the Flint water scandal. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2021/01/12/rick-snyder-charged-flint-water-crisis/6642755002/
patrick II
Washington Post
This should answer whether Christopher Wray completes his ten-year appointment.
SiubhanDuinne
@CaseyL:
They only went to him for less than a minute, to see if he was saying anything newsworthy. They quickly determined that he wasn’t, and returned to studio and then to FBI briefing.
Geoboy
@tom: That’s wonderful news. Put Snyder in jail for the rest of his life and claw back his ill gotten gains to pay for the medical care for the people suffering at his hands.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m sure he wants to take credit for the vaccine. Right now, no-one fucking cares one way or the other; the whole “foment an insurrection” thing is kind of higher-priority. Which is amazing and terrifying at the same time.
Central Planning
I’m going to need a cigarette after this press conference.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Insurrection
Old School
@Central Planning:
It’s all seems rather vague to me: We’re going to keep investigating. This will take months. We’re gathering information. We’re looking at trespassing to excessive force.
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: How about “Treason Followup”? Seems more correct and more widely applicable, too. :)
NotMax
On YouTube.
geg6
Liking what I’m hearing so far. No weasel words from either.
geg6
@Old School:
I cut them lots of slack. I was astonished to hear this morning that they already had a grand jury seated and it was already issuing indictments. They can only say so much and, honestly, they only have so much. It’s pretty early in the investigation.
MisterForkbeard
@Central Planning: Doubt it. They’re probably going to talk about the number of arrests they made, they vast majority of which are going to be for…. violating curfew.
I very much doubt they’re going to talk about Republicans or even appropriately shame the physical rioters and insurrectionists beyond stating that it was unacceptable. Look for a whitewash until proven otherwise.
HumboldtBlue
@Old School:
As was repeatedly said by both men “this is just the beginning” there is a lot to do and Sherwin pointedly said these investigations will come into laser focus in the coming weeks.
It sounds to me the full force of the Federal government is being gathered and soon Merrick Garland will be at the wheel.
The one thing they did dance around was how, if they had the intelligence, and we know they had the intelligence, the police response and preparedness was so poor. The answer I suspect, is complicity.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
Guess it was no big deal since Wray isn’t there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT, but not really:
cain
@tom:
GOP politicians going to jail (especially for past sins), getting charged or humiliated are always on topic – on any thread – at any time.
gwangung
@MisterForkbeard: So you don’t think Merrick Garland will be taking an interest in their activities?
raven
@MisterForkbeard: bullshit
MisterForkbeard
@gwangung: When he’s in, absolutely. Not expecting much from these Trump guys until proven otherwise.
What I would expect is that they’re going to leave Garland the actual hard work and decisions and wont’ charge anyone with insurrection or similar. They’ll let HIM do that so that Republicans can whine about Democratic overreach and so on.
Happy to be wrong.
@raven: Certainly hope I’m wrong, but I have very little confidence in the DOJ while Trump is president. I don’t think that’s unreasonable, though at least one of the guys presenting seems legit.
rivers
@geg6: I’m having the same reaction. U.S. Attorney Sherwin seems angry (about what happened) – he’s saying that people don’t grasp yet the extent of what happened on Wednesday inside the Capitol. Also that the early charges are misleading in that they expect felony charges in many cases to follow – he talked about seditious conspiracy charges. The FBI guy was much more low key.
Random lurker
Is it my imagination or did they basically gave out no real information on what happened?
raven
Chuck Schumer confronted in NYC: “I was sexually excited” regarding events at Capitol building
MisterForkbeard
@rivers: That’s good news. Seditious Conspiracy would be a good charge. It also means they can bring in people who didn’t directly riot but supported and incited.
Maybe I’m wrong about how they’re handling this.
CaseyL
@MisterForkbeard: Even if they’re only angry that a bunch of cosplay losers ruined their happy little meal ticket by “taking what we say seriously, when it’s all just for shits and giggles” I will take it.
PJ
@Random lurker: They have over 170 files open on individuals they have identified from the assault. They have convened and will be convening grand juries in DC.
ETA: See also what rivers said at 44: @rivers:
WaterGirl
@raven: She seems nice.
I hope someone got her name, sounds like she could use a visit from law enforcement.
raven
@MisterForkbeard: They were pretty clear this was not a short term situation.
WaterGirl
@Random lurker: I think it’s your imagination.
They talked about seditious conspiracy charges. That’s not nothing.
J R in WV
They said they, the FBI, had information that violence was being planned.
But then they allowed the “protest” with Trump speaking, and followed up by allowing that crowd to move to attack and “storm the capitol” immediately after Trump’s protest rally.
Something bad wrong there, again.
If these guys [anyone at FBI, to be specific] really knew violence was planned and did nothing to prevent that violent attack, they are as guilty of insurrection as any of the folks actually “storming” the capitol.
Mary G
Why wasn’t the FBI director there? The latest acting AG?
I cannot think of a huge crime like this when they didn’t have much higher level people briefing the American public.
gwangung
@MisterForkbeard: Given that ANY investigation of this size is going to take months, I think any thoughts of Trump oversight is irrelevant. Garland’s oversight is much more meaningful.
And let’s not forget Democratic Congress people; I think THEY are going to be breathing down their necks (and with good reason).
raven
@WaterGirl: Why does it seem like some of these women are especially out of control? The woman in the airport with Correa was insane and the one who got killed was really nuts.
cain
@raven:
And it shouldn’t be – there is a lot to unravel.
It’s going to be pretty bad for the GOP – because their people are going to be in the headline doing actionable traitorous things. They’ll have to STFU and take it because to pontificate otherwise will show aid to the “enemy” which is Y’all Qaeda
WaterGirl
@Mary G: Maybe Wray doesn’t want to be out front if he thinks he’ll be out in a short while. Maybe the higher-ups are covering their asses because they have been complicit. Maybe the higher-ups know they don’t have much credibility here?
japa21
I hope they are going through the phone records of every member of Congress and all staff. Would be interesting to track calls and texts in the period leading up to and during the invasion. I say all, otherwise we wouldn’t hear the end of how is a political witch hunt.
Chyron HR
@japa21:
But “waaah boo hoo unmasking”
raven
@cain: I mean the dude was pretty clear that they would levy whatever charge they could but that was just the start.
Josie
I am sensing the winds of change in the American attitude toward these awful people. I suspect that if the Republicans don’t get on the right side of this, they are going to go the way of the dodo bird.
HumboldtBlue
Interesting read about the district of the GOPers who voted against electoral college.
Where sedition is rewarded An analysis of Pro-Trump congressional districts
Here’s Adam Serwer on the upper-white-middle-class riot
Spanky
It’s very early in this investigation. There’s quite a tangled thread as to all that happened, and I suspect a lot of these puppies will be singing like canaries, so there will be a shit ton of legwork to do.
Garland’s going to come in early on too. This little dog & pony show today is to let us know they’re not sitting on their asses. A lot of career folks feel really stung by last Wednesday. It’s gonna be a long ride, so settle in.
Poe Larity
A US Attorney is thinking about his next job at a big firm or as a judge. So he needs to not screw it up.
An ADIC would generally be pretty ambitious, so he’ll have to make the new leadership happy. Given his Financial Crimes background, an SEC appointment might be a reward. But this job is really one of those cases of the century for these folk.
raven
@Spanky: I get it that people are skeptical but that dude wasn’t fucking around and he is pissed.
Ken
They’re “persons of interest” and so excluded from the investigation?
More likely, they’re updating their resumes and trying to decide whether to include the last couple of years.
Ken
@Chyron HR: Unmasking, AKA “I want to be able to say anything I want, but I don’t want anyone to know it’s me.” See also Citizens United.
MisterForkbeard
@raven: Just my own personal experience, but women are generally more unflappable and so on because they have to be.
When women commit, they really commit. At least, this is what I’ve seen in Tech work, where they have to put up with a lot of shit and tend to save outrage and so on for when it can do the most good.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Good. I can’t watch.
Scout211
@Spanky:
This public news conference was demanded for by the Democratic leadership yesterday. It may be a dog-and-pony show but it more transparent than anything else from government officials since 1/6/21. Thanks to the Democrats.
Ken
Garland is too mature for this, but I hope at least a few people reply to GOP objections with “Don’t you want these Antifa people punished?”
zhena gogolia
Asha Rangappa is scaring me.
zhena gogolia
I’m in moderation for posting a tweet by Asha Rangappa. She thought this press conference was amateur hour. It didn’t address the COMING threat. And a lot of people are very alarmed that the FBI director and Acting AG didn’t appear.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mary G: Given the unreliability of the administration, I appreciated that the people actually taking action did the presentation.
It was like having Fauci do the COVID briefings rather than Trump
Ken
Testing – my last two comments were first marked “awaiting moderation”, then disappeared. Anyone else seeing that? (Assuming anyone else sees this….)
And they’ve now appeared. Glitch? The boundless mercy of WaterGirl?
Scout211
Double post. Deleted.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: If Wray appeared, he’d be gone at midnight. He might just be trying to hold things together until the twentieth. Of course he could be a coward.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Actually something like 7 comments in a row were in moderation. Some kind of hiccup, i presume. Looking into it now.
Wapiti
@raven: Talking only from my experience. When I was in Army courses in the early 1980s, we were taught/told that women in terror/insurgent cells were totally dedicated and frankly should be engaged/shot first. Expect them to be the fiercest fighters once they’ve bought into something.
Of course, it could have been bullshit; maybe we were being told that so we didn’t treat them as something other than male fighters.
JoyceH
@raven:
A lot of the women involved in this stuff are coming in by way of QAnon, and they think they’re acting on their concern for abused children. It really torques my jaws, too, that these airheads think that hunching over a computer all day emoting about FICTIONAL abused children somehow demonstrates their concern for children.
Hey, look, if they don’t want to leave their computers, why don’t they go on some of these chat boards and pose as a 13-year-old girl? Quite a few women do this and they’re assisting in the apprehension of REAL pedophiles rather than getting hysterical about slanderous fictions.
raven
@MisterForkbeard: I think they also think no one will bust them in the mouth.
raven
@JoyceH: I was thinking that too, momma bears.
Josie
@raven:
I think you are right. It’s another manifestation of white privilege.
MisterForkbeard
@raven: I have no idea.
I do remember a few girls in my highschool that liked to punch dudes. Like, not friendly punches. But if you said something they didn’t like they would clock you in the chest/arm/back though not the fact, and they’d do it pretty hard. All of them were fully cognizant that NONE of the men would hit them back and very few of them would even complain about it.
Is that privilege or just being smart? I remember being really annoyed about it at the time.
WaterGirl
@Ken: See my comment at #80. Some weird glitch I have never seen before. Hopefully that’s all it was.
geg6
@rivers:
Yes! I did a head snap when the word “sedition” came out of his mouth.
Faithful Lurker
It’s been my experience that most men don’t have a clue and don’t want to have a clue about the level of rage that almost every woman carries all the time. We have to suppress it and smile and be sweet but it’s there and when it finds an outlet ,it can be truly terrifying.
Haroldo
O/T
How reliable are these folks? They purport to be progressive pollsters. The website is very amateurish.
We are progressives
Hoodie
Presser was ok, but speaks volumes that it’s local agent and some US attorney instead of the FBI director and AG. I guess these guys got stuck with the detail because the acting AG is a tool who’s on the way out and doesn’t want to be involved, while Wray wants to wait until after Trump can’t fire him. They did seem to be auditioning for the new AG, cause this a career-maker of a case (look what OKC did for Garland). They better not fuck this up and do dumb – or deliberate – stuff that compromises future prosecutions.
geg6
@Faithful Lurker:
This is very, very true.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Would you believe the current top level people?
I don’t. These guys may actually have skin in the game. At that beats any trump sycophants.
HumboldtBlue
Via sonnergrunt’s twitter feed, the Joint Chiefs have issued a statement regarding the attack on our government on Jan. 6.
stinger
Hello, Badger! Love your sweet face — very calming!
MagdaInBlack
@Faithful Lurker: Exactly
feebog
Well, they are right about one thing, this is going to be a huge investigation. It will take months just to identify the worst of the participants. Going to need several Grand Juries working non-stop.
zhena gogolia
@HumboldtBlue:
Good. I just read that out loud to my husband, which made him happy.
HumboldtBlue
This could be a pretty huge development.
NYT impeachment tracker — Senator Mitch McConnell is said to believe that the impeachment effort will make it easier to purge President Trump from the party. And Representative Kevin McCarthy has asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of the Capitol siege.
Ken
Freely offered to anyone who knows how to amplify memes:
“How bad is the January 6 insurrection for Trump?”
“He’d rather talk about his COVID response.”
Just Chuck
@SiubhanDuinne: mushroom mushroom
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Where the fuck was this guy in November and December???
debbie
@Random lurker:
In the middle of the investigations??? Are you nuts???
debbie
@HumboldtBlue:
Hope it’s a signal that they will be investigating their own members, past and present, who participated in the insurrection.
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Heard yesterday that the Capitol Police reached out to DoD for support six times and were refused on each. [Something, something, email server, Benghazi!]
All the apples in the barrel are rotten, the barrel is rotten and the apple tree has fallen over. I want people responsible to pay for their actions.
debbie
@trollhattan:
It was during a conference call so there are witnesses. Apparently the DoD was worried about “appearances.”
rjm
This Gizmodo article shows GPS metadata from hundreds of parler posted videos from the capitol. I’m not very familiar with what areas of the white house grounds are accessible to the public at the moment, but there are at least several locations that look like they’re from very near or inside the white house and EOB that can’t be open to the public. gps uncertainty that I would expect in that relatively open area of the city isn’t nearly large enough to move many of them onto the streets. FBI (and secret service?) could be busy with this data for a long time, and traffic from parler alone could finger bad actors inside the trump admin before they even get to cellular and .gov network logs. Good!
https://gizmodo.com/parler-users-breached-deep-inside-u-s-capitol-building-1846042905
trollhattan
@HumboldtBlue:
Tom McClintock has a newly developed interest in unification and healing.
This is not a Tom McClintock with whom we are familiar, going back several decades. What’s changed, I wonder?
debbie
trollhattan
@debbie:
Good! We can’t get our arms around the massive amount of evidence right now, but capturing these details is going to be very important in the investigation.
The Watergate and Ellsberg break-ins seem so, quaint.
p.s. Ellsberg is still kicking at 89 years.
RSA
@trollhattan:
I want to see McClintock et al.’s letter to President Trump, the leader of their own party, calling for unity. Oh, really? There isn’t one? Hmm…
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
No clue, I’m as surprised as you.
Martin
@MisterForkbeard: Not a chance.
Understand that right now the FBI is entirely focused on disruption, not on investigation. They’re arresting people because they’re likely to want to be a part of what’s next, but that’s it – placeholder charges.
And given that new USAs and a new AG is coming in 9 days, they aren’t going to close off their options.
Mind you, if it wasn’t Congress that was hiding under the furniture, I’d be more inclined to agree with you, but there is a very personal motivation to hammer the nails in deep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I didn’t post the sirens because I didn’t know if they’d show up
Captain C
@HumboldtBlue: Five bucks says Pat Lynch of NYPD Union fame actively and publicly complains about any accountability for any of his members being involved in the putsch attempt. Five more says he’s eventually found to be complicit.
Miss Bianca
@tom: GOOD, about goddamn time.
HumboldtBlue
@Captain C:
I ain’t taking that sucker’s bet.
Captain C
@japa21: I would hope they’re checking the Parler dump too.
Random lurker
@WaterGirl: @WaterGirl: That’s why I lurk. They said nothing about how they were caught off guard, their own officers joining in or the status of the officers injured.
All they said was we are coming for you and ended questions quickly. That was not normal. I will not post here again.