TODAY: Chris Wray and National Counterterrorism Center Director Chris Miller testify on threats to the homeland — including foreign election threats and homegrown extremism.
As expected, Chad WOLF has not shown up despite a subpoena from Chairman Bennie Thompson.
THOMPSON begins the hearing by going over a timeline of his effort to secure Wolf's testimony.
Wolf bowed out last week, citing his formal nomination to the job by Trump, which he said makes him unable to testify.
Thompson notes that Wolf has appeared multiple times on Fox in recent days despite saying he couldn't testify to the House Homeland Security Committee.
WRAY reaffirms that there are "very active efforts" by Russia to influence the 2020 election, primarily to "denigrate Vice President Biden" and damage what they see as an "anti-Russia establishment" in the United States.
Rep. BISHOP asks Wray whether the FBI is scanning the Venmo accounts and cash sources of arrested rioters to determine how they're being financed.
Wray answers broadly, says there are many investigations into sources of funding and supplies are being targeted.
NEW: WRAY affirms that Russia is undertaking "very active efforts" to interfere in the election and damage Biden.
He also says antifa is "not an organization" but an "ideology" or "movement." QAnon, he says, is a "complex set of conspiracy theories.
WRAY under questioning from @RepSlotkin, says white supremacist violence is the largest part of the greatest domestic terrorist threat in the country: "racially motivated violent extremism."
@RepSlotkin WRAY, without mentioning that Trump is the loudest purveyor, says his greatest worry is that voters will believe "misinformation" that their votes are not secure:
"I worry people will take on a feeling of futility because of all the noise and confusion that’s been generated."
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1) Donald Trump could win by losing because in this case losing his most extreme argument means further delay of trial — and for Trump, delay is almost as good as an outright win
2) The conservatives on the court contorted themselves to avoid discussing the specific case in front of them — Donald Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election. They talked about FDR, Nixon and future presidents. But they rarely engaged w the present.
BREAKING: Arizona prosecutors have charged 11 fake electors for their roles in efforts to subvert the 2020 election. mcusercontent.com/cc1fad182b6d6f…
There are *seven* additional people charged in this indictment who have not yet been served. So their names remain redacted. mcusercontent.com/cc1fad182b6d6f…
There's some wild stuff in this newly unsealed (but heavily redacted) FBI interview from a high-level Trump-world person related to the classified docs investigation.
And while the interview is primarily about the docs investigation, this person apparently witnessed Jeff Clark hand Trump the letter about Georgia electors: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This person has a very low opinion of "person 24," who apparently tried to overplay a relationship with Trump and pushed the post-hoc claims that Trump had "declassified everything." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
JUST IN: The DC Circuit has upheld the conviction of former Ron/Rand Paul aide Jesse BENTON for orchestrating an illegal payment from a Russian national to the Trump campaign and RNC. documentcloud.org/documents/2455…
Trump had previously pardoned Benton for *other* campaign finance crimes. The story of this particular contribution is really incredible. the Russian, Roman Vasilenko, really wanted to meet Oprah, Stephen Seagal or Jimmy Carter. documentcloud.org/documents/2455…
Forget the experts: Prosecutors and Trump defense lawyers have already told us what they think is necessary in four different Trump cases. And the questions they want(ed) to ask range from pointed and political to philosophical and a bit odd.
At bottom there are five clear categories aimed at delving into jurors’ minds:
-Opinions about Trump, the man and his presidency
-Views about Trump’s criminal cases
-Political views/activity
-News consumption
-Wildcards aimed at unearthing hidden biases
Some interesting tidbits in Walt Nauta’s May 2022 interview with the FBI. They clearly had some doubts about his veracity and whether he had been coached in his answers.
At one point, the agents appealed to him to make sure he’d be “on the Govrnment’s side with this” because people risk/lose their lives to collect classified intel storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This is where the FBI agents seem to indicate Nauta’s story doesn’t check out, and it’s where the interview gets a little tenser.