Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway23597 1281 days ago
Hate to say it but I don't think the DoJ is gonna act on this, especially not while they're currently investigating Trump for other malfeasance. This committee is pretty partisan - 7 D, 2 R. You'd be setting off a real firestorm to indict top political leadership (not just Trump but McCarthy & Jordan as well) based on this report. One can already imagine the Fox News reports.
3 comments

>Hate to say it but I don’t think the DoJ is gonna act on this, especially not while they’re currently investigating Trump for other malfeasance.

This is one of the areas the DoJ has already been investigating, and which has been included in the Special Counsel’s mandate, to wit, “the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer ofpower following the 2020 presidential election or the certification ofthe Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021.” [0]

> This committee is pretty partisan - 7 D, 2 R.

This committee is “pretty partisan” because the Republican Party chose to boycott the committee over the rejection of certain members (largely because they were expected to be subjects of the investigation.)

> You’d be setting off a real firestorm to indict top political leadership (not just Trump but McCarthy & Jordan as well) based on this report.

Indicting top political leadership will set off a firestorm in any case; the only thing worse is sending the message that political sensitivity of such indictments means that top political leadership are free to ignore the law (in fact, one can argue that one of the key reasons for a series of post-Watergate executive abuses culminating in Jan. 6 is exactly that message stemming from Ford’s pardon of Nixon, and the failure to prosecute top officials, though some underlings were prosecuted, in each of the series of subsequent abuses.)

[0] https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1552896/downl...

You're barking up the wrong tree here, guy. I don't care about the politics or whether it's right or wrong, I'm just telling you, they're not gonna indict Trump based on this House committee report. If the DoJ is investigating it as well, that's fine, but this report will be completely ignored outside the media just like all the other partisan congressional reports. If you feel so strongly about this, then go write a letter to the DoJ or something.
> You'd be setting off a real firestorm

Nah, lot of Trump supporters have moved on already. Indict away.

Maybe if DoJ has some spare time they and the FBI could look into the very real crimes and corruption evidenced on the Hunter Biden laptop—in evidence since 2019 and nothing done.
The evidence is taken out of context. On Jan 6th he did post to his Twitter account to be peaceful and remember that they are the law and order party. His account was banned after that. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump

@realDonaldTrump · Jan 6, 2021 I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!

@realDonaldTrump · Jan 6, 2021 Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!

Evidence that he wanted a peaceful protest with no violence.

For anyone who experienced the events in real time, it was very obvious these tweets went out way to late. It was damage control.
with all due respect, I don't think you're aware of the scope and nature of the evidence if you believe these two tweets somehow magically ameliorate their implications. Particularly given their source.

Here is the introductory material to the final report:[0], which lays out the case and presents the evidence.

[0]https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=23466430-int...

> @realDonaldTrump · Jan 6, 2021 I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. […]

“Remain peaceful” at 2:38pm Eastern, well into the violence, and while he was being urged to tell people to stop the violence. (Which, again, he had incited.) [0]

> @realDonaldTrump · Jan 6, 2021 Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!

Again, “Stay peaceful” at 3:18pm Eastern, as the violent insurrection he had incited continued, after insurrectionists had overwhelmed police outside of the Speakers Lobby were lawmakers and staff were sheltering, and almost simultaneously with the breach of the Speaker’s Lobby in which Ashli Babbit was shot.

By that point, even if they hadn’t been there at his instigation, Trump was at best grossly derelict in his duties by not issuing the insurrectionists a proclamation to disperse.

> Evidence that he wanted a peaceful protest with no violence.

No, those are evidence that once the violence was well under way and it was clear that most of the principal targets had evaded the mob, and that the mob would fail to pressure the Congress (either under the VP or a different presiding officer) to act in accord with his wishes, he wished to be seen as opposed to the violence that up to that point he had been inciting (his tweet that enraged the mob against Pence–unlike the ones that serve his post-Jan. 6 propaganda narrative, since deleted–having been issued at 2:24pm Eastern.)

[0] see the timeline here for a fairly accessible tick/tock of the day’s events: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1069977469/a-timeline-of-how-...

I mean I'm not surprised. Everyone knows that congress is a joke and these "committee investigations" are the biggest partisan frauds. These congresspeople are a bunch of incompetent morons who care only about political point-scoring and have no interest in actually getting to the truth of any matter. The DoJ on the other hand is far more serious... if the DoJ indicts Trump then I'd say he's actually in legitimate trouble. This committee report is a stupid media charade, nothing more.