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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The techbro takeover of the US continues: while CDC employees "clap out" their principled leaders who resigned, Trump swears in a 2-decade Peter Thiel advisor to lead CDC. Thiel's Palantir already has all your data. He controls your VP. Now he controls your public health too. 1/
No one's even trying to hide the Thiel takeover anymore. Jim O'Neill's been a key Thiel lieutenant for nearly 20 years. He ran the Thiel foundation, Thiel's Clarium Capital and Mithril Capital (the one that employed JD Vance). 2/ citizen.org/article/jim-on…
Jim O'Neill's not just a Thiel lieutenant, he's a true acolyte, pushing all Peter's fruitcake ideas: building government-free floating cities. Achieving eternal life. Getting kids to drop out of college. And he says drug safety testing is for wimps. 3/ technologyreview.com/2025/06/30/111…
Trump's posts are getting really transparent. His plan for power - probably Jan 6, certainly now - is to create a violent, chaotic event and order in troops. He's saying it plainly now. He's also invoking the antisemitic Soros conspiracy created by his own political mentors. 1/
What's happening in the US makes more sense if you get that it's the same group of people doing the same things, over and over. The Soros conspiracy was created by a US political advisor - Roger Stone's mentor - to elect Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban. 2/
The US is not special, and our would-be fascist overlords - not just Trump but Silicon Valley techbros - look to Hungary as a model. Orban crashed his economy and made Hungary the poorest country in Europe, but he got power and that's what they want. 3/
A political rule of thumb so far unbroken: any Peter Thiel protege supports Putin and undercuts Ukraine. That's JD Vance, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz (when it counts), failed candidate Blake Masters, PayPal Mafia members David Sacks & Elon Musk... name one who doesn't. I'll wait. 1/
In Feb 2023, as Ukraine fought heroically, Josh Hawley declared the US must pull out ("we cannot defend Ukraine and stop China in Taiwan"), called the fight a "proxy war", sneered at "blank checks to Ukraine". Putin couldn't have written it better. 2/ heritage.org/china/heritage…
Ted Cruz, Peter Thiel's first political project, is more ambiguous in his words on Ukraine (he decries Russian agression, but weirdly blames Biden for it). But he voted to cut off Ukraine aid when it counted. 3/ texastribune.org/2023/12/06/ted…
Can we ask why Trump's new hire for the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a podcast promoting Project 2025 IN FRONT OF A PICTURE OF A NAZI WARSHIP? @briantylercohen flagged the podcast but missed the Bismarck. Is any reporter going to cover actual Nazis in our government? 1/
Compare the images. Who would do a podcast in front of a ship launched by Hitler, used to attack the US and Allies in WWII? Trump's appointees. People asked today, why did Trump pick the woefully unqualified Antoni for BLS? This is his qualification. 2/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_ba…
See that forward gun turret right behind EJ Antoni, our new head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics? Here's Adolf Hitler inspecting the Bismarck in front of that same turret. We are way beyond dog-whistles. Antoni CHOSE to use Hitler's navy up as a backdrop. It was a choice. 3/
Don't sleep on how telling it that Trumps prepares to abandon Ukraine by using Russia-loving Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban as the excuse: 'Orban told me that Russia is too powerful'. Remember that Orban, Trump, and Netanyahu are the product of the same US political machine. 1/
Orban made his country the poorest in Europe, but he's the role model for America's neo-fascist oligarchs. Peter Thiel & Yoram Hazony's "National Conservatism" is full of Hungarians; Orban's adviser signed their "principles". Even the Economist gets it. 2/ archive.is/GJWuN
Decades of fuckery is the same people, over and over. Arthur Finkelstein's army of dirty tricksters (Roger Stone and Paul Manafort are his 'boys'; Orban, Trump, and Netanyahu the products). Russian influences pushing the far right in the US and Europe. 2/
Sean Casten just learned that Mike Johnson was Dean of a planned law school named after pedophile Southern Baptist leader Judge Paul Pressler, who preyed on young boys. Wait til he learns that Ted Cruz was on its board. Pressler also gave Cruz one of his first endorsements. 1/
Johnson's failed Paul Pressler School of Law was a major play by the religious right. Its board, formed in 2010, was full of the biggest luminaries in the fundamentalist Evangelical universe. Then in 2011, the obscure Ted Cruz was added. Ask him why. 2/ web.archive.org/web/2012012200…
The Paul Pressler School of Law was an intensely political project, meant to train lawyers to overturn US law, build a Christian-focused government. That's why its board were key names - and then Cruz. Many of these people have Jan 6 connections. They're still power players. 3/