For the purposes of proving their case, the House Managers did a great job.
For the purposes of keeping this in front of Republicans so they can squirm, I’d like this thing to go on for a little while longer. One reason is that that prosecutors are showing a few more of their cards as they argue against bail for some of the worst of the insurrectionists. Here’s one that was filed yesterday:
WASHINGTON — Hours before day three of former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial was set to begin on Thursday, federal prosecutors offered new evidence that a member of the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy charged with planning an assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was “awaiting direction” from Trump.
Jessica Watkins, an Army veteran and, according to court papers, a member of the Oath Keepers militia group, is accused of participating in a conspiracy to assault the Capitol in “an organized and practiced fashion” to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election. Watkins has been behind bars since her arrest on Jan. 17, and prosecutors filed papers on Thursday asking a judge to keep her in jail while her case moves forward.
[…]Prosecutors had previously released excerpts of messages that Watkins allegedly sent in the weeks before Jan. 6 as evidence of her role in organizing a violent assault on the Capitol, but Thursday’s memo included new details. According to the government, on Nov. 9, less than a week after Election Day, Watkins sent a text message to an unidentified person that showed she was concerned about taking action without explicit approval from Trump — “Watkins indicated that she was awaiting direction from President Trump,” prosecutors wrote.
“I am concerned this is an elaborate trap. Unless the POTUS himself activates us, it’s not legit. The POTUS has the right to activate units too. If Trump asks me to come, I will. Otherwise, I can’t trust it,” Watkins allegedly messaged at the time.
In case it isn’t obvious, she came to Washington and attacked the Capitol.
germy
Trump adviser Jason Miller mentions @SenMikeLee @SenTedCruz @LindseyGrahamSC 3 times, implying they’re with Trump. Said they came to impeachment team’s war room in room S-211 to help lawyers. “It was a real honor to have those senators come in and give us some additional ideas.” pic.twitter.com/ip7nJzLFhT
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 12, 2021
JWR
Isn’t there some sort of objection house managers can make here? I mean, IANAL and all that, but by Cruz’s “standard”, saying he’ll vote to acquit on the “it’s not constitutional” non-issue, and then breaking actual trial procedure by “huddling” with his co-conspirators, isn’t this reason enough to ask Leahy to toss them off the jury?
ETA, What Germy said! Also too, Sceodn!
piratedan
what I am finding worrisome is how many of these cases, when brought up in their local jurisdictions are finding jurists who are amendable to letting these people out, as if this shit was nothing more than a traffic ticket.
what the fuck is wrong with these judges?
The Feds have to appeal to a higher court to keep these asshats in jail.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Orange fucker’s determined he won’t be alone in hell. Can’t wait to watch these three Judases knife-fight it out in 2024.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@piratedan: that’s happened in several cases, most notably the thug-billy who had his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk and a fancy, fairly powerful (and I’m guessing illegal in several states) walking-stick stun-gun. He was released by a judge back in Arkansas and ordered back into custody by a federal judge. IIRC.
as to state judges, IANAL but I believe they’re either appointed or elected (Louie Goehmert was occupied a shockingly high bench, shocking to me and I think I’ve read every word Molly Ivins ever published), they’re to some degree political creatures who are often gonna reflect the politics of their states.
Patricia Kayden
Brachiator
It is weird that an intellectual stumblebum like Trump kinda got what he wanted with these Oathkeeper clowns, a personal militia loyal only to him. And although these dopes could cause some damage, they could never really take down the government. Not this time.
Trump was really a pathetic excuse of an autocrat. But fuck, he should not only be barred from ever holding office again, he should be rotting in a goddam prison cell for the rest of his miserable life.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@piratedan: I find that bizarre too. It’s like they can’t take in how bad the insurrection was. I might expect that from low information folks around me, but a judge?
James E Powell
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
At the core of every conservative’s worldview is the belief that nothing is bad or even real if it did not affect them. This is true of recessions, hurricanes, pandemics, and, apparently, insurrections to overthrow the government.
Sloane Ranger
But they are, fundamentally, decent, God-fearing folk from good families who were just a little misguided. Of course they’ll follow any bail conditions set and show up for court, not like those inner city people. Jail before trial was never meant to be for them, at least until they’ve exhausted the benefit of doubt!
rikyrah
@piratedan:
The traitors should have never been allowed to leave DC. They should have been loaded onto busses and taken to central booking.
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s really difficult to tell which of them were operating willfully in a conspiracy to overthrow the government and which are just nuttier than squirrel turds. I don’t envy prosecutors having to deal with these assorted freakshows.
kindness
I was kind of expecting to see the House Managers discuss how Trump’s DOD people pulled rank and told the National Guard to stand down on January 6th and restricted their ability to respond in such a manner that it was obviously part of what they hoped would be a successful overthrow of the Electoral College count by Congress. I thought that would be one more point showing how TrumpCo purposefully conspired for what happened on 1/6 to happen and worked behind the scenes to make that mob successful.
But no one brought it up. Oh well. It wouldn’t have mattered to Senate Republicans but it might have resonated with the MSM and the citizens of the country.
A Ghost to Most
Evidence? Evidence? Who said anything about evidence?
Facts don’t matter to fascists. Only the party matters.
Kent
@Just Some Fuckhead: In the end it doesn’t really matter. They all committed crimes.
Sure, the ringleaders you can bring up on additional conspiracy charges. But none of them are innocent.
Jeffro
I am loving the Graham/Cruz/Hawley meme flying around this morning, with them holding their hands over their eyes/mouth/ears like the proverbial three monkeys.
Seen it with ‘GQP’, too. here’s hoping THAT sticks!
MisterForkbeard
@Patricia Kayden: Like others have noted, it’s not that Pence is ‘loyal’ to Trump. But he’s got a sweet gig right now, working for some conservative outfit where collects money for doing nothing and also gets to relive his glory days as a radio guy by doing podcasts.
And that’s the entire problem. The conservative wurlitzer is a self-reinforcing systemic cult. If you leave it, your career options there ALL evaporate. The exceptions are people like Bill Kristol, who aren’t politicians and have enough other rich friends to keep funding his lavish lifestyle.
Pence doing anything negative about Trump would end his entire career. Dude would be doing ribbon-cuttings at malls for the rest of his life, because no one except for the Republicans have any kind of respect or affection for him at all.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: ICE deports immigrants for far less.
Mike in NC
We have no desire to watch the Trumpy ambulance chasers in action on TV today. Gonna read a couple more chapters in Mary Trump’s book.
Her uncle would look better if they replaced his baggy blue suit with a nice coat of tar and feathers.
trnc
Glad to see this acknowledgement by the militia. The constitution is very clear about the militias being under control of congress for training and the CIC for deployment, so send them to Yemen, etc. That’s what they agree to when they buy guns. No more cosplay on the Mexican border.
Brachiator
@MisterForkbeard:
This is true to some extent for most political leaders of advance democracies. In exchange for the promise not to loot the government (*cough* Trump excepted), there are speaking engagements, books and other gigs to keep these people paid and plugged into the political establishment.
trnc
@The Moar You Know:
(Roy Scheider voice) “We’re gonna need a bigger ninth circle.”
hells littlest angel
“I am concerned this is an elaborate trap.”
A concern that all normal, mentally healthy people who are not insane at all have.
trnc
Yeah, it surprised me that they didn’t mention it, too.
Geminid
@Kent: I want to see the feds nail Roger Stone, and charge him with felony murder. Stone probably was trump’s link to the militias.
Ken
@trnc: I’d bet we’re in agreement that the militia nutcases would do a sudden 180 if ordered by President Biden to do anything.
Ken
Hey, she didn’t talk about lizard people, or child hormone extraction, or chemical contrails, or Jewish space lasers, or vaccine microchips, or George Soros, or pizza parlor basements, or… God, this is a depressingly long list, isn’t it?
Though to be precise, she didn’t talk about them in the quote. I’m 90% sure at least one of them shows up in her Facebook account.
trnc
@Ken:
No doubt, but constitution sez. I wonder what kind of contortions Bart and Ice Truck Killer would go through once it got to scotus.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ken: You mean like wear a mask?
StringOnAStick
@kindness: I wonder if the reason we are not seeing evidence like this presented is because they (who ever “they” is) want to save it for the criminal prosecutions, and maybe letting out how much they know already might lead to more evidence hiding? I don’t know, it just seems like the impeachment managers have been so utterly thorough, and that suggests what hasn’t been presented is going to be used in a bigger case, a case that doesn’t have a pre-ordained conclusion because of R Senator-Cowards. I have to hope so at least.
scav
It’s profoundly satisfying somehow that the charges keep being added to. They can squeak all the short-term technical lack-of-consequnce — what’s the German for that? — as they can manage for their Senatorial selves, and pat themselves heartily on the back for it, but that background music isn’t sounding any better. Their flourishing is like that of the green bay tree and their vegetable nature is bleeding through.
Not that I wouldn’t mind a little old-school smiting if at all possible.
kindness
@StringOnAStick:
That would be nice. We all understand Senate Republicans will follow their donors orders and sweep this whole thing under the rug as much they can. I do appreciate that some have positive reasons for what we’ve seen happen. I wish I could be that positive but am more in a Show Me state of mind right now.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It may be that they don’t disagree with the insurrection. And or that shitforbrains lost. And or that one of their citizens could be so brazen or that they didn’t complete the job so why punish them.
A lot of the local people where these nutjobs come from are nutjobs themselves. A lot of local judges are powerful people in their areas, sort of like the sheriff. Or at least think they are.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Seeing as how the federal government is in many ways, DC, and the police were overloaded and the NG was not allowed to actually do it’s job and so many of them were not reasonably IDed early on it doesn’t actually astound me that they were not arrested. A point could be made in court that if they had been arrested and held without bail they were denied their rights. I don’t think it would stick but it could be made. This was an insurrection authored at the highest level and a lot of things were done to restrict law enforcement of any kind. A sore loser of epic magnitude and a shitty following got people killed, injured and attempted an insurrection of the government that he supposedly led. A government of 3 independent branches so that they supposedly can check each other doing their jobs was attacked, by the supposed leader. It boggles the mind that he still has support from people that likely would have been killed by this insurrection because of this insane moron.