Holding hearings on alleged criminal conduct by 76-year-old former President Donald Trump, the politically biased, one-sided Jan. 6 House Select Committee, led by Trump enemies Rep. Bernie Thomson (D-Tenn), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.), leap to conclusions about Trump’s crimes. Today’s hearings focus on election officials in Arizona and Georgia, all complained that Trump or his acolytes like former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani, pressured election officials to produce more votes for Trump or a clean slate of electors. What the House Select Committee couldn’t do at Trump’s impeachment hearing, they’re trying to do now at the Select Committee, proving Trump’s actions rose to level of criminal conduction. When it had to do with Jan. 6, ‘Democrat House impeachment managers lost their case in the U.S. Senate Feb. 13, 2020 to oust Trump from office.
House Select Committee managers now focus on the pressure tactics Trump and his followers used on election officials in the wake of President Joe Biden’s Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election victory. Trump’s closest White House advisers couldn’t fathom that Trump was beaten by “Sleep Joe,” a candidate mocked for his cognitive impairments and lack of pizzazz, a humiliating loss to Trump and his followers. But whatever happened, Trump’s closest advisers were also swept up in the disbelief that he has lost to old Joe Biden. Trump was being told by almost all his advisers that it had to be fraud or a rigged election. No one told Trump he was so demonized by the U.S. press as a racist and white supremacist, not to mention botching the Covid-19 crisis, that voters sought change in 2020. But the leap by the House Select Committee to Trump’s criminal intent was a tough thing to prove.
House Democrats and GOP Trump-haters have a field day slamming Trump for everything but the kitchen sink, trying to build a criminal case. But as most criminal defense attorneys know, no case in one-sided. Committee Chairman Bernie Thomson said Trump was “pressuring public servants to betray their oaths was a fundamental part” of Trump’s “playbook.” Thomson’s statements mirror the extreme prejudice of the committee, not saying he understood how Trump and his backers thought that voter fraud put Biden over the top Nov. 3, 2020. Trump’s statements about the Nov. 3, 2020 election are called the “big lie” by the committee, to underscore Trump intent to defraud the system when, in fact, no significant fraud took place. But has Trump’s legal consultant Atty. John Eastman said, it was impossible to determine voter fraud because of universal mail-in ballots used in 2020.
Thomson can’t let the hearings play out without injecting his own bias against Trump. “The lie has gone away. It’s corrupting our democratic institutions,” Thomson said. Thomson, Schiff and Cheney all said that democratic institutions were under attack with Trump’s falsehoods but said it could “break under pressure.” Funny how the same argument is used by 79-year-old President Joe Biden when it comes to supporting Ukraine’s government and war against the Russian Federation. Saving democracy is always a good excuse for any kind of extreme action. “The system held, but barely,” Schiff said. “And the system held because people of courage, Republicans and Democrats, like the witnesses we wll hear today put their oath to the country and the constitution above other consideration,” calling anyone opposing Trump or his backers true American patriots.
Anyone testifying at the public hearing confirms that they were pressured by Trump and his followers to scrutinize the vote, with the expectations to find new votes or reconsider the votes recorded. How Thomson, Schiff and Cheney leap to criminal intent shows their extreme bias against Trump. Institutions didn’t barely hold up under Trump’s withering pressure, they simply did their jobs, and reported back their findings. How that threatens Democrat institutions is anyone’s guess? Whatever Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to do, it wasn’t criminal, it was simply asking if there was anything missed. Yet Thomson, Schiff and Cheney all conclude Trump wanted to defraud the system to stay in power. All Trump ever said about the election was he wanted a clean election but was told by his associates that Democrats pulled some shenanigans to win in 2020.
Democrats may despise Trump for whatever reason but they can’t pretend to hold a quasi-judicial proceeding without exposing their extreme bias. Trump expressed what he believed to be true in the wake of the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election, that he was robbed of a second term. Democrats like to quote 72-year-old former Atty. Gen. William Barr, once reviled by Democrats as Trump’s lapdog, saying he though Trump was delusional about election fraud. If Democrats back Barr’s position, then Trump simply wanted clarity on the 2020 election, however he could get it. Rusty Bowers, Arizona House Speaker, said he got a call from Ginny Thomas, wife of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, asking or a clean slate of electors. Ginny wasn’t asking Bowers to commit fraud, she simply asked a question. House Select Committee members have a field day slamming Trump.
