A Few Thoughts As We Head In

The Second Hearing

[ I’m still stuck in Maine-flight out last night canceled. Here are a few top line thoughts as we head into today’s hearing]

Today is about the big lie

And perhaps more importantly, whether congress has the evidence to prove trump knew it was the big lie that we all know it is.

This is legally significant because DOJ would have to prove knowledge to convict on the types of charges being discussed as possibilities. DOJ will have to prove Trump knew he lost the election

One way of proving that knowledge, as I've mentioned to y'all earlier, is to show willful blindness: that Trump deliberately closed his eyes to what was obvious.

It looks like the committee has tee'd up witnesses to prove knowledge today. A witness from the campaign and one from Fox News who told Trump the numbers weren't there. The lawyer who saw case after case challenging state elections being lost. The US Attorney who  stepped down rather than cave to trump's demands that he investigate fraud when that US Attorney determined Georgia ran a fair election and no further investigation was merited.

The Committee is gunning to prove that a reasonable jury would find proof of knowledge. Hint, hint DOJ (we know they're watching.

At least two of today's witnesses, a Republican commissioner in Philadelphia, Al Schmidt, who helped oversee the election there and vouched for its integrity and a Trump-appointed US Attorney in Atlanta, BJ Pak, who resigned rather than pursue a merit less investigation designed to give Trump cover for promoting the big lie, also faced threats from Trump supporters because of their integrity. Trump knew his supporters had the capacity to turn violent against people he told them were enemies.

But of course Congress isn't the Justice Department and today is about convincing the jury of public opinion, not a trial jury. They face one initial challenge as Bill Stepien steps away from in-person testimony because his wife is in labor. The committee has all of his earlier testimony on video, so we'll likely still hear from him, albeit in a slightly less compelling form.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Please leave them in comments to this post.

We're in this together.

Joyce