Thread by @SethAbramson

(🆚) EXCLUSIVE: PROOF has been working for 5 months—facing lawsuit threats from Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Joe Oltmann and the Proud Boys—to expose Trump's pre-insurrection war rooms. Here's a comprehensive report on what PROOF found. Please share widely. sethabramson.substack.com/p/exclusive-a-…

1/ When I briefly worked as a public defender investigator in the federal criminal justice system in D.C., I was trained to first determine all the relevant parties in the fact-pattern, which typically requires first determining all the key locations involved in the fact-pattern.

2/ That the United States Capitol is a key location in the January 6 investigation is clear. The FBI, major media, and some excellent citizen journalists have been using video and stills from that location to create a massive suspect list for January 6. This is all to the good.

3/ An event like January 6 doesn't just spontaneously happen at one location, however. It requires planning, incitement, and coordination by individuals too cowardly or rich or powerful or influential or canny to show up at the perpetually filmed/photographed scene of the crime.

4/ We always knew this was the case, inasmuch as the Ellipse was the "second location" in the January 6 insurrection—where much media focus went because Trump spoke there and incited the mob. PROOF worked off the Ellipse in the *opposite* direction: how did we get to the Ellipse?

5/ When I was a public defender, I learned that bad actors who are also poor, working class or middle class almost invariably get what's coming to them—which is generally okay because I believe in zealously advocating for defendants' constitutional rights but also in rule of law.

6/ I also learned, over years as a public defender, that the rich, powerful, and influential (as well as the well-connected) often escape any responsibility for their actions—even as they talk the loudest about how no one in America takes responsibility for their actions anymore.

7/ Rich, powerful, influential, and well-connected criminals are exponentially more dangerous than street criminals. They have more resources, grander ambitions, less belief they will face accountability, and in many instances better training in management and critical thinking.

8/ Unfortunately, the FBI fears that going after the rich, powerful, influential and well-connected will put a target on its back—i.e., it will anger those who control its budget, who manage its oversight, and who can turn the public against it as an institution almost overnight.

9/ Major media has no problem discussing the criminal activity of obscure persons—or the lack of ethics of the rich, powerful, influential and well-connected. But the *criminal activity* of the rich, powerful, influential and well-connected? It too fears angering the wrong folks.

10/ All this is what led PROOF to launch a comprehensive investigation of the insurrection's "kingpins," tracking literally dozens of figures—most of them rich, powerful, influential, and/or well-connected—across many locations and dates and types of potential criminal activity.

11/ What we find is that, at every turn, these men and women knew what their actions would bring, and intended those results. They appear to have been in communication with one another and, through key intermediaries, with militants whose actions on January 5 and 6 they *feared*.

12/ PROOF began its work in January—and was immediately threatened with a lawsuit by Roger Stone. The Washington Post reported Stone was under DOJ investigation in February. But folks are *just now* celebrating that Stone is being looked at. *That's* how far behind most media is.

13/ The other thing I learned as a criminal investigator in the federal criminal justice system is that there's a time value to all investigations. As time passes, evidence deteriorates or is destroyed; witnesses forget; suspects synchronize their stories or manufacture new ones.

14/ So the indifference of media, the FBI, and Congress to *immediately* launching an *aggressive* investigation of the insurrectionist kingpins is making *more likely*—by the day—the very result most Americans expect: nothing will happen to the rich, powerful, and influential.

15/ The article atop this thread lists every war room, every known participant, every suspected participant—with likelihood of being a future confirmed participant—describes everything we know about each war room, and links to each component of PROOF's reporting that got us here.

16/ With each new component, we get closer to Trump—not via speculation or anonymous sources, but hard evidence with major-media corroboration. For instance, we know that Trump asked Alex Jones to lead the Capitol march on 1/3, and that on 1/5 Jones's aide tried to incite a riot.

17/ If Trump made Jones his agent (in the legal sense) to execute his will during Stop the Steal events (January 5-6) beginning on January 3 at the latest, and on January 5 an employee of Jones tried to incite a riot—which we have *on video*—where does that put Donald Trump now?

18/ Neither of the two locations involved in the January 5 riot—which no one has reported on, but PROOF is about to—is the U.S. Capitol. And yet understanding this riot explains the actions of the men and women in the war rooms, which in turn explains Ellipse and Capitol events.

19/ We're fortunate to live in a country with *so* many independent, freelance, part-time and citizen journalists and OSINT researchers that we can come at January 6 from *both* directions: from Capitol recordings and from the war rooms. But we need media to cover *both equally*.

20/ As the latter investigation unfolds, the same bottom-feeders who didn't want the Trump-Russia, Trump-Ukraine, or Trump-MBS scandals investigated—as they threatened the rich, powerful and influential—will attack this work. Capitol rioters? They don't care what happens to them.

21/ Many of you have noticed that there's been almost no pushback to arresting 500 Capitol rioters—*nor should there have been*. But when a potential January 6 Commission threatened the powerful, the GOP went crazy. Even Stone and Jones being probed led Carlson to attack the FBI.

22/ What the GOP and its allies are doing is sending a *clear signal* to the FBI: if you come after the rich, powerful or influential, we'll *destroy* you. And we'll do it *easily*—as we'll just tell GOP voters *you* (the FBI) did January 6, and then GOP politicians will end you.

23/ I urge people to note the synchronicity and direct relationship between the anger of the powerful scions of the far right in this country and the closeness with which *anyone*—Congress, FBI, major media—gets to talking about holding the insurrectionist kingpins *accountable*.

24/ The first thing I learned in training to be a criminal investigator at Georgetown is that 99% of investigation is failure. Investigations will occasionally have false starts; anyone who says a false start is a reason to stop investigating doesn't know how investigations work.

25/ So I urge folks to support the independent, freelance, part-time and citizen journalists who are now doing work that Congress, the FBI, and major media won't do—with far fewer resources and at far greater risk. And do *not* allow occasional false starts to scuttle the effort.