Jan 6 committee member says Trump attempting to witness tamper is ‘highly improper’
After months trying to have his trial delayed, far-right agitator and Trump ally Steve Bannon is now in court facing a charge of criminal contempt of Congress, with prosecutors arguing he simply “decided he was above the law” when refusing to comply with a subpoena from the 6 January select committee.
“This case is not about what happened on Jan. 6,” said assistant US attorney Amanda Vaughan in court. “This case is about the defendant thumbing his nose at the orderly processes of our government.”
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani has been ordered by a judge to testify to the grand jury convened in Fulton County, Georgia to hear evidence on Donald Trump’s efforts to throw out Joe Biden’s victory in that state.
Tomorrow will see the eighth of the 6 Jaunary committee’s summer hearings, this one focusing on Mr Trump’s hours of inaction at the White House while a mob of his supporters violently attacked Congress.
ICYMI: Donald Trump has seized on a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling which outlaws ballot drop boxes in future elections, claiming that the court’s ruling that the Wisconsin Election Commission exceeded its authority by authorising drop box use as a pandemic mitigation measure means President Joe Biden’s win in state is invalid.
The former president is now pressuring Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to do something about this. “So what’s Speaker Robin Vos doing on the Great Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling declaring hundreds of thousands of Drop Box votes to be illegal?” he asked in a statement.
In reality, the court ruling did not invalidate a single vote cast by drop box. And neither Mr Vos nor the Wisconsin legislature have the authority to retroactively invalidate votes or rescind electoral votes.
But that has not stopped Mr Trump from arguing to the contrary.
Andrew Feinberg has more.
Wisconsin official says Trump phoned to pressure him to change election results
‘I explained that it’s not allowed under the Constitution, he has a different opinion’
Graeme Massie21 July 2022 04:05
Giuliani called to appear in Georgia election probe
ICYMI: Rudy Giuliani has been ordered by a New York Supreme Court judge to appear for testimony in front of a grand jury investigating election tampering in Georgia.
Mr Giuliani, who was part of a legal team assembled by Donald Trump to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, failed to appear at the “show cause” hearing in which he was due to challenge a subpoena that called him to testify.
Richard Hall has the story.
Rudy Giuliani ordered by judge to testify in Georgia election tampering probe
Giuliani was part of a legal team assembled by Donald Trump to overturn 2020 election results
Graeme Massie21 July 2022 03:01
The mystery of the Secret Service’s Jan 6 text exchange
ICYMI: The Secret Service has only provided one text exchange to the DHS inspector general despite receiving a request for a month of texts from 24 members of staff.
The news was revealed in a letter to the January 6 committee, CNN reported.
Assistant Director Ronald Rowe said in a letter to the panel that “the Secret Service submitted the responsive records it identified, namely, a text message conversation from former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to former Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Thomas Sullivan requesting assistance on January 6, 2021, and advised the agency did not have any further records responsive to the DHS OIG’s request for text messages”.
California Democrat and January 6 panel member Zoe Lofgren told MSNBC on Tuesday that the committee had been sent “one text message” that she hadn’t reviewed at that time. She said the committee would be “pursuing more information as a committee soon”.
Read more from Gustaf Kilander: