Genesis was in concert last week, here in Columbus. Phil Collins now struggles with physical disability, but he can still sing. But he didn’t sing the haunting “In the Air Tonight”, that was in his post-Genesis era.
Contempt
President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, is in contempt of Congress. He’s not the first high government official held in contempt. President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder was the last one in 2012. Not surprisingly, Holder’s own Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against him. But Meadows is in a very different situation. Evidence, much given to the January 6th Committee by Meadow’s himself, shows that he was in the center of the storm of “Stop the Steal” and the Insurrection. The contempt recommendation moves onto the Biden Justice Department.
The January 6th Committee hasn’t held public hearings yet. But they have already released mountains of evidence. Meadows turned over text messages from Congressmen and a PowerPoint presentation on how to overturn the legitimate election. What seemed from the outside like a confused and desperate attempt to keep Trump in the Presidency turns out to be an organized and documented conspiracy. And, as more information is revealed, Mark Meadows is the nexus, just one step away from the final decision maker. As Congresswoman Liz Cheney said so carefully:
“Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’ official proceeding to count electoral votes?”
That’s a direct quote from the US Code (18 U.S. Code § 1505). Conviction under that law carries a penalty of five years in prison and fines. Could Donald Trump go to prison? Maybe, but a felony conviction would disqualify him for public office.
So where do we stand now.
Stop the Steal
We know that in the months before the 2020 election, the Trump Campaign, led by the President, intentionally and consistently sowed the seeds of distrust in the election results. The campaign message was clear: if I lose, it’s because someone else cheated. He questioned any election returns that were counted after election night.
The 2020 election was in a world pandemic. The absolute safest action was to vote by mail. Many states, including those swing states that were so important, had laws prohibiting counting votes before election day. So many millions of mail-in ballots were left unopened until the polls closed on Tuesday night.
Counting mail-in ballots requires a lot more time than those automatically registered at the polls, and it took several days before the final results were in. Meanwhile the Trump Campaign continued to claim election fraud. But every audit of the election results, including those conducted by openly pro-Trump organizations (the Cyber Ninjas in Arizona, for example) found that the election outcomes were accurate.
Recounts
We know that extreme pressures were brought on Republican election officials in swing states like Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona to alter vote counts. The President himself was recorded telling the Secretary of State of Georgia to “find just enough votes” for Trump to win. Not only was Mr. Trump openly pressing to alter election results, but Mr. Meadows, and others like Senator Lindsey Graham, pressured election officials to “rig” the final count for Trump.
A state investigation is already underway in Georgia regarding the White House actions. We don’t know whether Federal investigations for election interference are underway, or who targets of those investigations might be. But common sense says the Justice Department must be investigating.
The Big Lie
We all saw the public campaign after the election. Rudy Giuliani was the “front man” for “Stop the Steal”, and made a series of catastrophic public speeches. What we didn’t know was that much of his information was coming from a former Army Colonel and expert in “psy-ops”, Phil Waldron. He published a PowerPoint presentation on election fraud for the “Stop the Steal” campaign. Waldron is linked to Trump National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn, who was convicted and pardoned for lying to the FBI. Flynn and Waldron were part of a group of former and current military officers involved in the “Stop the Steal” movement.
Waldron’s convoluted PowerPoint not only tried to build a case for election fraud, it also outlined a path for “declaring a national election emergency” and disqualifying all of the mail-in ballots and many electronic votes. Not surprisingly, if all of those votes were disqualified, Trump would win. It also laid out a path for Vice President Pence to overturn the election results on January 6th.
The Legal Case
Waldron’s path to electoral victory was backed by the legal presentation of John Eastman, a former Clarence Thomas clerk and Law School Dean. Eastman determined that Vice President Pence had the power to deny the Electoral votes from those swing states that went to Biden, and either declare a Trump victory, or throw the election to the House of Representatives in a “tie-breaking” situation (in that scenario Republicans would control the outcome, even though the House itself was majority Democratic).
But Pence was dubious. His own legal advisors were telling him that the Eastman memo was flawed. Even Trump himself was unable to convince Pence to exercise a power he didn’t believe the Constitution allowed. We now know that several Congressmen and Senators were also in on the “Eastman” scheme. But with Pence standing firm, more pressure was required.
The Rally
President Trump invited his supporters to Washington for a “wild time” on January 6th. The rally was timed to pressure the Congress to alter the outcome of the election as they certified the Electoral Votes. Particularly, the pressure was put on Vice President Pence to follow through with the strategy outlined in the “Eastman” memo. Speaker after speaker implored the masses to “fight” and stand up” for President Trump, presumably against the Congress. Then President Trump himself told the crowd to march on down to the Capitol and “tell them” what you want.
We don’t yet know all of the interactions between the Trump White House and the rally organizers. Mark Meadows does. We also don’t know whether there was direct planning for the protests on the Capitol building. Meadows did, in a text, promise that the National Guard would protect the “Trump supporters”. And we don’t yet know if there was collusion between the White House and the militant groups that led the actual attack on the Capitol building.
The Cavalry
After the attack began, the Capitol Police Chief, the DC Metro Chief and the Mayor of Washington asked for National Guard assistance. That assistance was delayed by the Pentagon for over three hours. Those were the three hours that we all watched the “medieval” battle on the steps of the building, with flags used as staffs to cudgel the police. We saw the sacred halls of Democracy defiled by the mob. And the “cavalry” didn’t come to the Hill, not until the damage was done, and the Electoral confirmation was halted.
What we don’t know; why the delay? The District National Guard General believes that it was intentional. Did the cabal of former military behind the “Stop the Steal” movement include Mike Flynn’s brother, Lt. General Charles Flynn, a part of the decision making team in the Pentagon stalling the National Guard? National Guard Major General William Walker says that Charles Flynn lied about his actions on January 6th.
Insurrection
How close was the United States to a coup d’état? Was the Insurrection planned, or just a mob pointed in a direction and left to its own devices? We cannot paper over what happened, just because it wasn’t successful. We owe it to those that lost their lives, the police officers but also those in the “mob” who were manipulated into an attack. And it’s not over. Mr. Trump continues to claim that election was corrupt. Republicans throughout the nation are using that whole fabrication to justify restrictive voting laws. Several states have legislated the power to ignore the vote count and determine who won by a vote of the legislature. Stop the Steal may have been a fraud, but the result of that effort is very real.
The mob attacked Congress. No one else is better able to bare the facts of what happened. It’s not just for history, but for the future of our nation.
Insurrection is still in the air tonight.
