Skimming the Jack Smith filing, seems that Ken Chesebro (CC5 here, p. 53) was openly telling people his fake elector plan was a gambit to let Congressmen make false claims disputing the election. He seems to be clearly aware the votes were illegal. Not a good look. 1/
On p. 58: again, Chesebro knew the fake electoral votes were just a "pretext" for a fake fight to deny Biden the presidency. Interestingly, the same para says Trump was in "almost daily" contact with someone whose podcast spread the false claims - who? 2/ storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
On p. 59 we learn that Trump spoke directly and privately to Ken Chesebro (CC5), and that someone else closely involved (CC6) warned Chesebro to not talk about the plan in chat groups and to text about the fake electors to just a few people. They knew it was illegal. 3/
On p. 60 we learn about a Dec. 23 memo Chesebro helped draft, not previously reported, that told Pence what to do: to simply declare Donald Trump the winner of the election based on the presence of two competing sets of electoral votes. A written plan to steal the election. 4/
Here's the timeframe of the election-stealing memo. It was Plan B - Chesebro's Plan A was still the Supreme Court: "the odds of action before Jan 6..become more favorable if the Justices start to fear that there will be, quote, "wild" chaos on Jan 6.." 5/ docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
By early Jan, as militias bought their tickets to DC, multiple plans were still in play. Chesebro says so on Jan 1: that he sees "two tracks" for delaying certification. To him, the prospect of violence would soften up the Supreme Court. But the violence became the plan. 6/
We knew already that Trump called Pence on Christmas - Dec. 25 - and pressured him to just declare Trump the winner. We didn't know, til today, that Chesebro outlined this plan in a text message that same day. It is really, really not looking good for Chesebro. 7/
Also looking VERY bad for Trump. If you should ever want to pressure a vice president to appoint you president (threatening him with a mob of "hundreds of thousands"), it is best to not tell him "You're too honest". Because that shows you know what you're asking is illegal. 8/
Fun fact: this filing confirms the identity of CC6: it's Boris Epshteyn. Why? Because on Jan 2, co-conspirators 1, 2, and 6 appeared on P1's podcast, i.e. Steve Bannon's War Room. His title that day: "New Year, Old Fights: w/ Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, and John Eastman". 9/
Here's a clip of Steve Bannon talking to CC6 on Jan 2, 2021: "..the most important vote you will have, ever. That is about these electors, about the Biden slate versus the Trump slate in these six states... We're going to start with Boris Epshteyn from the campaign..." 10/
To summarize the redacted people in the indictment and Jack Smith's filing, known so far are "Person-1" and "co-conspirators 1-6":
P1 Bannon
CC1 Giuliani
CC2 Eastman
CC3 Sidney Powell
CC4 Jeffrey Clark
CC5 Chesebro
CC6 Epshteyn
(h/t @jamiedupree for confirming CC2-4)
11/
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What's happening in Venezuela is not war but deal-making (and back-stabbing). As VP Delcy Rodriguez assumes power, remember that she was negotiating with Trump in 2025 for this outcome: new boss, same regime. And that she's alleged to be involved in drug trafficking herself. 1/
It's not war when the only people killed are a few civilians and the president's bodyguards - and Russia barely reacts. The Miami Herald says Rodriguez' reached out in early 2025, less than a year after Maduro stole the election - with Maduro's OK. 2/ miamiherald.com/news/nation-wo…
Maduro surely imagined a cushy retirement rather than arrest and extradition. The Miami Herald says Trump nixed that. But Delcy Rodriguez and her brother Jorge succeeded - they now control the presidency and National Assembly of Venezuela, icing out the democratic opposition. 3/
The best take on today's attack on Venezuela is likely the most cynical: that it is staged and transactional. Trump wouldn't attack Russia's ally without permission - but in 2019 Putin offered Trump a swap: Russia cedes Venezuela and gets Ukraine. @davetroy as usual called it. 2/
Most of our politics today has decades-old roots involving Russia. Putin has tried to take Ukraine since 2014. That's why he needed Trump, why Russia paid the influencers who pushed January 6. Troy: today is not "some new sui generis Trump adventurism" 2/
Trump rehashes old actors and old plans - it's the same people who boosted him into office, who cut deals with Putin in 2019, who pushed Jan 6, who surround him now. Fiona Hill's testimony in Trump's first impeachment is as valid today as it was then. 3/ pbs.org/newshour/polit…
Since this ominous video about Trump and his pageants is going viral, might as well note that Erika (Frantzve) Kirk competed in at least 5 of those pageants: Miss Colorado 2009 and 2010, Miss Arizona 2011 and 2012, and then, after she finally won at state level, Miss USA 2012. 1/
The contestants for the 2012 Miss USA contest spent the 2 weeks beforehand at the Trump Tower Las Vegas, "touring, filming, rehearsing, and making new friends". 2/ nypost.com/2012/05/31/mis…
It's likely Frantzve became close with Trump during the pageants because 3 years later she reportedly called her former classmate Tyler Bowyer to offer help with Trump's first large rally, in Arizona in 2015. Bowyer was organizing; he placed her right behind Trump. 3/
Steven Pinker, buddy of Jeffrey Epstein and prominent in the latest Epstein files release, is now awfully concerned about "academics cancelling each other". (Here he's reposting an op-ed by eugenicist nobleman Baron Young, himself 'canceled' for racism, sexism and homophobia). 1/
The Harvard Crimson has been going hard after Harvard professor Pinker, highlighting his creepy appearances in the Epstein files. In this clip Pinker poses with Epstein on his plane while a plaintive little-girl's voice asks "where are you taking us?" 2/
Steven Pinker is the 2nd most prominent Harvard faculty member in the Epstein files, after Larry Summers who was pulled from his teaching role mid-semester when the files came out. Pinker's now acting like he has a reason to worry too. 3/ thecrimson.com/article/2025/1…
@MeidasTouch is wrong here. These images are two different filings in Giuffre v Maxwell, with different dates. In 2024, she re-filed material with Trump's name unredacted. Media covered it; it was a scandal! But, both versions remain up on the DOJ website. No one deleted. 1/
Giuffre's 2024 filing, with Trump's name unredacted, was newsworthy - @JayShah found that Trump had been hidden as "Doe 174" in Giuffre's suit. The documents here were reported on. 2/ businessinsider.com/donald-trump-d…
People should have remembered - you don't forget a sentence like this. But, both documents 1296-17 (from 2022) and 1332-16 (from 2024) remain up. The key point isn't that DOJ is making new redactions. It's that they're releasing little new material. This stuff is old. 3/
To all marveling at photos of NYT columnist David Brooks dining with Jeffrey Epstein, 2 years after Epstein finished his sentence for procuring a child for prostitution, here's what it was: the 2011 "Edge Billionaire's Dinner". Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were there too. 1/
The Edge founder John Brockman was lauded for his "discerning taste in the choice of participants." Funny how the photos he posted - the same as in the Epstein files - highlight so many luminaries but leave out convicted felon & registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 2/
The NYT imperiously dismissed the issue, declaring Brooks must of course dine with "noted and important business leaders". But details aren't hard to find. The Silicon Valley pantheon was there: Musk, Bezos, Brin, Mayer, Wojcicki, Mundie, Myhrvold... 3/ edge.org/event/the-edge…