Looking Ahead: What's Next for the January 6 Committee

The second hearing suggests that the success of the January 6 Committee’s first hearing wasn’t a fluke. The subject was the big lie and the committee went straight to the most important issue: showing their proof that Trump knew it was a big lie. The evidence was compelling.

If you’ve been reading along here, you were already aware that Trump’s knowledge it was all a lie is a critical element that DOJ would have to believe it could prove beyond a reasonable doubt before it would decide to indict charges like conspiracy to interfere with Congress.

Knowledge can be shown with direct evidence. We haven’t really seen that here. There are no emails where Trump says something like, let’s keep lying to Americans about the outcome of the election. Instead, the evidence suggests Trump was, as we’ve discussed, “willfully blind” to the truth. That evidence was overwhelming and came from multiple fronts:

• Trump’s own campaign officials told him not to declare victory election night because the numbers weren’t there.

• Trump’s AG, Bill Barr (who was willing to lie to the American people about the contents of the Mueller Report but drew the line at Trump’s fake claims of election fraud) told Trump his fraud claim was “bullshit.” He investigated specifics Trump raised and explained directly to the former President that they didn’t pan out. One example, Trump’s claim big truckloads of ballots were being brought into Detroit. The truth was, precincts transported properly maintained ballots to a central location for counting. Barr testified Trump wasn’t interested in the truth.

• Other DOJ officials, including acting AG Rosen and acting DAG Donoghue testified they debunked story after story that Trump threw at them in his efforts to push the big lie. The Trump appointed US Attorney in Atlanta, BJ Pak, who was forced to resign when he refused to support the lie, testified that he looked into Atlanta-area claims Barr set as a priority for him to pursue and his investigators found…nothing.

• The 60+ lawsuits Trump lost in court, where judges consistently declined to find any merit in the big lie. 10 of those judges were Trump appointed judges.

There’s more, but that is some of the strongest.

Context also matters. Trump revelled in claiming he could only lose if there was election fraud. He made that claim in advance of the 2016 election, dropping it when he won. And as early as April of 2020 he predicted that if he lost, it would be due to fraud. That’s quite a crystal ball to have so far in advance of the first ballot even being cast. And of course, it was always bunk. If anything, it was projection. Stop the Steal was a motto that could have been used to describe Trump’s content.

Another thing we learned about on Monday was motive. It seems crazy that Trump would pursue the big lie when it was so readily proven to be a lie. Why do that? Maybe, some even suggested, Trump was crazy. Maybe that would be his defense if he was ever prosecuted? But we learned from senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick [permit me a brief moment of pride, Amanda was an AUSA in my office while I was US Attorney and I’m very proud of her work on this] that when they chased the money, they found a different reason Trump might perpetrate a falsehood on his base: graft.

Shocker, right? But Trump raised something in the neighborhood of $250 million by asking his supporters to donate to an official election defense fund. That fund, however, didn’t exist and the money was doled out to groups populated by former Trump personnel, a million here and a million there. That includes $1 million to a group where Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows was and $5 million to the group that ran the rally on the Ellipse. The big ripoff is a fitting counterpart to the big lie. If the former president were prosecuted, prosecutors would not have to prove motive to convict. But, having one helps to explain his conduct and rule out the “I really believed I’d won” defense.

The Trump campaign continued to raise money off of false election fraud claims through January 6. The last email was sent 30 minutes after the Capitol building was first breached by the mob. It’s breathtaking when you take a step and think about the fact that this man wants to reclaim the White House in 2024 — and that in last night’s cycle of primary elections, many pro-Trump candidates won.

So the moment is urgent. We’ll continue to watch the hearings, stay informed, and stay alert to any signs of a breakthrough, as unlikely as that may seem. We can all try to encourage those around us to pay attention, if they haven’t been watching so far. I hope you’ll consider sharing Civil Discourse with friends and family as well.

Can I be petty here for just a moment? I try not to be petty, but I’m going to stoop here. It’s hard to not applaud the way Deputy AG Richard Donoghue says he put wannabe Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark, who Trump had appointed to run DOJ’s Environment Division, in his place when Clark told Trump he wanted to be the AG. Donoghue says he told Clark, “You’re an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill.” Clark deserved it and we all deserve better. Thank you Rich Donoghue for that well placed shot!

There’s a lot more to parse from the first two hearings, so expect more. Also expect chickens. A little sad news, we lost two of our baby chicks last week, but the other two, Barney & Mavis, are doing great. In fact, they grew like crazy while I was away. There will be pictures soon.

We’re all in this together.

Joyce