It's Been A Day

(and thank you for being here!)

This morning, I launched Civil Discourse, this new Substack venture of mine. After seeing a couple of subscriptions and some comments (I’m still getting the hang of it, but it’s fun to be able to chat with y’all here), I taped the Podcast Preet Bharara and I do, Cafe.com’s Insider. Then there was a fast dash to the dentist to get a cracked tooth fixed. I’m definitely not a fan of dental work. But it was fun after he finished, several hours later, to take a look at my email and see that it was full. Very full. So many of you signed up for Civil Discourse while I was trying to pretend the noise of the dentist’s drill wasn’t getting to me! I’m grateful to those of you who signed up, those who opted for paid subscriptions, and those of you who left such lovely comments. Thank you, all of you, for being here.

This is Bella. Bella thanks you too.

Bella & Me

As many of you know, Bella is my German Shepherd. My husband surprised me with her after Hilary lost in 2016 — he was worried I wouldn’t have anything to do, because I’d shared my intention of stepping down from DOJ with him. Life didn’t work out quite that way, I did get to binge watch the Gilmore Girls, but then everything started happening all at once and here we are. But I got a fantastic friend out of it. Bella is always at my side. Some of you will recognize her occasional barks when I’m on TV. Most of the time she’s a very good dog, and, tonight, she’s taking good care of me, along with our boxer, Fig. (Points to anyone who can figure out the theme for dogs’ names in our house).

Before I sign off for the night to rest up, I want to share some information with you so everyone is set for Thursday night, when the January 6 committee has it’s first public hearing.

The hearing starts at 8:00pm ET and the committee says it “will present previously unseen material documenting January 6th…and provide the American people an initial summary of its findings about the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.” We’ll also get a preview of future hearings.

The committee has identified two witnesses who will testify Thursday. Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards was seriously injured during early fighting on the 6th and can talk about the (one suspects) military-style attack that breached the Capitol. Nick Quested is a documentary filmmaker who the committee notes was present at the Capitol the morning of January 6. Other reporting identifies him as filming the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers in advance of the failed coup, including a meeting between the leaders of the two groups, Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes.

Both groups are now under indictment for seditious conspiracy. Members of the Oath Keepers were first, in January of this year. The seditious conspiracy statute, 18 USC 2384, is here. Prosecutors have to prove every element in the statute beyond a reasonable doubt to convict. This past Monday, DOJ superseded (fancy DOJ talk for updated, amended) the existing indictment charging members of the Proud Boys to include a seditious conspiracy charge, as well. So now, we’ve got two separate indictments with seditious conspiracy charges against participants in the attack on the Capitol.

Given how deliberate and careful Attorney General Merrick Garland has been, it’s notable that he’s confident he has evidence to prove agreements in each case to “oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States.” That’s my bolding of the language from the Proud Boys indictment, but the words are very important. “By force” means more than just dress-up militia cosplay and Garland will have been acutely focused on that requirement. I suspect it will also be a major part of the Committee’s presentation Thursday night, given the witnesses they’ve identified.

If you’ve got a little time to read in advance of the hearing, I’d encourage you to take a look at at the 10-count indictment, which names Proud Boys leader Rick Tarrio and four other members of the group. The first count, which begins on page 8, is the seditious conspiracy charge. Federal prosecutors typically provide more detail in conspiracy indictments than we get from the four corners of most indictments, which can be a little bare bones. In addition to describing the purpose of the conspiracy and the manner and the means by which it was conducted, we get 13 pages laying out what prosecutors call overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy — the things members of a conspiracy do to move it along.

This is interesting because unlike the general conspiracy statute prosecutors most frequently use, seditious conspiracy doesn’t require proof of an overt act. But they went this in this case, and we get a lot of the texture and flavor of DOJ’s evidence in this part of the indictment. And of course, the big question is left hanging: committee members have said they believe the former president engaged in a criminal conspiracy. DOJ has charged members of both the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys with seditious conspiracy. Will the committee connect the dots during its hearings? Will there be a meet in the middle moment that connects Trump or some of his inner circle to the use of force being contemplated by the pro-Trump groups? We’ll get some answers, or at least the beginning of some answers, Thursday night.

We’re in this together.

Joyce