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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Ed Martin just got named Trump's "Pardon Attorney" (plus Associate Deputy AG). He does know the subject - in 2020, Martin brokered a pardon for Michael Flynn in exchange for Flynn's speaking at Stop the Steal rallies. Martin knows how to cut a pardon deal. 1/
This 2023 thread covers the story. Nov. 4, the day after the election, Ali Alexander spun up Stop the Steal with Ed Martin as a top recruit. Nov. 7, Martin reaches out to the White House with a deal: pardon Flynn and he'll help with "base-rallying". 2/
People like to think of Michael Flynn as a villain but in 2020, it was Ed Martin leading. Flynn would do nothing til he got that pardon - a straight quid pro quo. But Ed Martin was all-in from the start, busily working to overthrow the rule of law. 3/
Trump just declared Harvard ineligible for all grants and the NYT botches the story. It's not that "Harvard.. relies on federal money..[for] its projects". It's the federal government that relies on Harvard for its projects. Harvard provides services for you, the taxpayer. 1/
The NYT's phrasing is as dumb as saying gosh, your plumber relies on your money for HIS plumbing projects! What happens is the federal government puts out a call for research in some area, on YOUR behalf. Individuals then submit proposals to do that work. Just like plumbers. 2/
The NYT article is astoundingly backwards. You'd think @alanblinder, an education reporter, would know better, if he'd ever lifted his head beyond admissions grievances and culture wars to consider what universities actually do. Unpaywalled link. 2/ archive.is/Mcwtc#selectio…
Reporters: yes, alt-right gadfly Ivan Raiklin says crazy stuff, but what's most interesting about him is the backstory, how he was groomed to be an influencer. Because Raiklin is of Russian origin: parents are Russian emigres, brother a Russian scholar, wife a Russian teacher. 1/
Ivan Raiklin could have been on a list since his summer in Moscow in 2002. His brother Ben would be known from his PhD ("Stalin’s Documentary Filmmaking Industry, 1926-1946"). And Ben's insecure little brother, an officer in the National Guard, would be such a tempting target. 2/
We have to stop pretending far-right influencers appear spontaneously. They have histories: normal childhoods, then they're recruited into the game. It's rarely natural. Always ask: how did this person become known, who set them onto this new path? That's the bigger story. 3/
Stephen Miller confirms what anyone who studies Jan 6 knows: Trump's government wants to control education and impose a national 'patriotic' curriculum. It was OBVIOUS this was coming: Trump promised this in 2020 in exchange for support for his coup. But pundits ignored it. 1/
This account first called it in 2022. THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION Trump set up a commission on patriotic education. The people who led it - from Hillsdale & Claremont - then wrote his election-fraud lawsuits, arranged fake electors. They met on Jan 5. 2/
Education was Trump's barter with the religious right: public funds for private religious schools and a national 'patriotic' curriculum. It could have been stopped: Michigan should have indicted Larry Arnn, Hillsdale president, 176 Commission leader. 3/
Our new Navy Director of Communications watched the action at the Capitol on Jan 6 for Breitbart News. Her worst post might be this one: she flippantly captioned a video of people attacking the North Doors: "Things got a lil sporty here". To her it was a joke. Video tk. 1/
Here's Wong's video of the attack on the North Doors. She can claim she was just a reporter, but her caption shows that she thinks an attack on our Capitol and officers is funny. @SECNAV: is this the message you want to send to the troops, who swear to uphold the Constitution? 2/
Actual reporters, not Breitbart hacks, should ask @SecNav John Phelan: why was Kristina Wong picked? Is this the right message to send the US Navy? That attacking our own Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power is just "a lil sporty"? 3/
It's clear by now: we WILL lose US democracy without a civil society pushback. Today the universities finally rose up, bluntly denouncing "undue government intrusion". The coalition is is now top-heavy with establishment heavyweights. Summary follows. 1/ theguardian.com/us-news/2025/a…
Who signed? Let's start with the Ivies. Status-worship is gross, but it matters that they're nearly all leading now:
* Ivy: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Penn, Brown
NOT Columbia, Dartmouth
* Ivy-plus: MIT, Duke
NOT Stanford, Univ. of Chicago
2/
continuing... universities with big research arms:
* Other elite tech:
NOT Caltech, Rice, Georgia Tech
* Big state R1s: Rutgers, U WA, U MD, U WI Madison, U HI, UC Riverside, Stony Brook
NOT U MI, UIUC, other UCs, UT, etc.
3/