Capitol Insurrection Report

Commemorating the first anniversary of the vicious, cowardly attack on democracy in the US on January sixth, 2021.

Topics include: reaction to comments by Liz Cheney, new arrests of AFO defendants, analysis of a possible scheme to pay to bring violent men to DC for the January 6th Insurrection, the referral to the DOJ of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress, the release of the Army Report that Colonel Matthews alleges served as the basis for incorrect claims made in the DODOIG Report, the release of a PowerPoint authored by Philip Waldon aimed at ending electoral democracy in the US, and the private spectacle of Roger Stone taking the fifth in his testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-9cdb-dca7-a1fd-bddb02d50000 https://web.archive.org/web/20210716135230if_/https://www.ingersolllockwood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/voter-fraud.pdf

Being in the main a page by page account of the content of the memorandum authored by Colonel Earl Matthews of the DC National Guard dated December 1, 2021. This memo is consequential because it draws into question the findings in the official DODOIG Report into the events of January sixth, particularly drawing into question the actions of Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy in "planning" the deployment of the DC National Guard, and also accusing General Charles Flynn and Walter Piatt of perjury. I would urge regular listeners to read the memo and judge for yourselves. You can find the memo at https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-8aca-dee4-a5ff-eeda79e90000

Catching up on the latest developments: Bannon's self surrender, new subpoenas from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, an update on the National Archives executive privilege case, and the report by Representative Zoe Lofgren that the Committee now has spoken with 200 witnesses, to include figures in the MAGAsphere. Then we turn to this week's theme, a review of the people who have been charged in the January 6th Attack who also have relatives charged in the January 6th Attack.

Reviews recent developments in the January 6th Attack cases, to include the Rolling Stone article listing what some are calling the "Sedition Seven." Also examines the question of what we know about the ancestry of 631 Capitol Insurrection defendants and relates this to theories of political culture in political science.

On October 7, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued its staff report: "Subverting Justice: How the Former President and his Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election." This episode summarizes and analyzes the findings of this report, along with the transcript of the testimony of former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen before the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can find the staff report here. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/subverting-justice-how-the-former-president-and-his-allies-pressured-doj-to-overturn-the-2020-election

Reviewing the 15 persons issued subpoenas by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and the release of the Eastman memo detailing plans to circumvent the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 election. I also examine the data on the educational attainment and employment histories of 100 of 623 January sixth defendants, and how the classical Marxist category of the "lumpenproletariat" can help to understand the character of the Insurrectionist mob that continues to pose a threat to electoral democracy in the US.

Following a recap of the events in the ongoing investigations and criminal cases in the Capitol Insurrection, the episode proceeds to the main subject, the activities and ideology of one of the largest extremist gangs that took part in the Capitol Insurrection, the Three Percenters, with special attention to the indictment of the "DC Brigade" of paramilitary terrorists from California, and a summary of the ideas of the folk ideology of Mike Vanderboegh, a self-described former leftist who founded the Three Percenter gang in 2008.

Topics include the strange story of John Pierce, the Capitol Insurrection attorney representing 17 defendants who appears to be missing court dates because he is an anti-vaxer who is on a ventilator, the arrest of several violent offenders in the Capitol Insurrection, including #flaggaitercophater, a California Proud Boy identified by volunteer internet sleuths working to protect electoral democracy in the US from the threat of political violence, an analysis of a controversial Reuters article that relied on anonymous sources to suggest that the FBI has rejected the possibility that more high profile defendants involved in planning "stop the steal" protests would be charged in the Insurrection, a description of the latest developments in the investigation by the House Select Committee to investigate January sixth, and my critique of the failure of political science to adequately address the danger of authoritarian populism in the United States. https://www.lawfareblog.com/justice-department-shouldnt-open-pandoras-box-seditious-conspiracy https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/08/20/reuters-doesnt-mention-terrorism-when-discussing-the-january-6-investigation/

Topics include the Jeffrey Rosen testimony, the MyPillow cyberfraud telethon, the role of online volunteer activists in the January 6th investigations, and the latest example of far right political violence in DC, this time in the form of a bomb threat at the Library of Congress by an apparent neoconfederate from North Carolina. I'll also use Vilfredo Pareto's theory of circulation of elites to examine the Trumpist attempt to build a successful electoral coalition to elect "America First" seditionists to office across the US.