News: Liz Cheney says multiple Republican congressmen sought Trump pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Cheney: "As you will see, Representative [Scott] Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election."

Breaking: The Jan. 6 Select Committee says it believes Trump may have engaged in criminal acts in his effort to subvert the election.

(link to court filing, which came in the committee's fight with Trump lawyer John Eastman)
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… This is big: it's now likely the Jan 6 Select Committee will make a formal criminal referral to DOJ and urge it to charge Trump. A symbolic move, but it increases pressure on Garland to act.

Committee says it has a good faith belief that Trump "engaged in a criminal conspiracy"

Jury selection is underway in the first Jan. 6 prosecution to go to trial (Guy Reffitt).

We've already had a few potential jurors get bounced because of their strong views.

They said Jan 6 was so beyond the pale and frightening that it's hard to give any defendant a fair trial. One prospective juror, who identified himself as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, said he had sought out a range of perspectives about the Jan. 6 riots by listening to both CNN and Fox News and believed he could be fair.

The abrupt ruling in Sarah Palin v. NYT has sparked some debate and confusion. I interviewed some media lawyers about it. Here's a thread on what Judge Rakoff was thinking and why jury verdict we're waiting on still matters. (1/10) After hearing the evidence come out at trial, Rakoff concluded that there is only one reasonable outcome: Palin didn't prove "actual malice" and should lose the case.

This sort of ruling, known as a directed verdict, is not that unusual — especially in defamation cases. (2/10)

McConnell calls Jan. 6 a "violent insurrection" and says the RNC shouldn't have censured Cheney and Kinzinger Seeing some complaints that the audio is poor quality, so here's a transcript of the exchange. Not sure who the reporter was, but they did a nice job.

New: Derek Chauvin has asked a judge for a reduced sentence, saying prison will inflict "long-term damage" on his "life prospects."
mncourts.gov/mncourtsgov/me… Derek Chauvin says his sentence should be relatively light because he himself is "a product of a broken system."

Do people like Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell even believe what they're saying? Is it a grift?

Interestingly, Dominion Voting now says it's possible Mike Lindell is a "cunning salesman" who doesn't actually buy his own claims but wants fame and money. Mike Lindell isn't crazy, Dominion says.

On the contrary, he and his company "promoted the inherently improbable Big Lie that the election had been stolen from Trump because they thought their defamatory marketing campaign would dupe Trump supporters into buying MyPillows."

Breaking: DOJ will appeal the recent court ruling that blasted ex-AG Bill Barr's handling of the Mueller report and ordered the release of an underlying memo to @CREWcrew.

Congressional Democrats had urged AG Garland *not* to do this. This filing from DOJ sheds light of AG Garland's thinking. In short, DOJ is appealing because this case would create a precedent, and because it's not happy with Judge Berman Jackson's view of a FOIA exemption known as the "deliberative process privilege."
drive.google.com/file/d/11Uv0aM…

Christopher Miller, the Pentagon chief on January 6, will testify tomorrow that he personally believes Trump "encouraged" the deadly attack. Christopher Miller, the Pentagon chief on January 6, is going to be grilled by Rep. Carolyn Maloney shortly, Judging by her opening remarks, she's skeptical of his claim that the Defense Dept did everything by the book.

It sure looks like DOJ is gonna get scolded for its "recent statements to the media" about the Capitol attack. The judge ordered a last-minute court hearing in the Oath Keepers case. In an unusual court hearing, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said he was "surprised" by remarks prosecutor Michael Sherwin made to "60 Minutes," and said other officials may have violated DOJ policies by speaking to the New York Times.

A defense lawyer is trying her best to humanize George Tanios, one of the men charged with pepper-spraying Capitol Police officers. She's called a bunch of witnesses — her client's distraught mother, a family friend, an ex-employee, the mother of his young children, etc... In a bit of a tangent, the judge is harshly criticizing Trump. To paraphrase, he's saying Trump's refusal to accept the democratic process led to the events of Jan 6, caused immense harm to our country, and brought out the worst in people with no prior criminal history.

The Oath Keepers tried to set up "quick reaction forces" stationed outside DC on 1/6 who would have "guns and weapons at the ready," a prosecutor said.

Because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, the judge has now closed the hearing to the public.

(fixed typos) The Oath Keepers made "substantial efforts" to set up a heavily armed strike force outside DC, ready to swoop in, a prosecutor said.

"There were substantial efforts to make that a reality — to have guns and weapons available, at the ready, for people like Jessica Watkins."

Now two lonely Republicans have voted to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has joined Rep. Adam Kinzinger in voting yes. Oddly, Rep. Newhouse (R-WA) switched from "yes" to "no" so deleted earlier tweet.

https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1357473330824163335?s=20

The U.S. Secret Service has "met extensively" with Lin Wood about his comments, including the tweet where he called for Pence to be executed, he said on a Mercer University School of Law conference call. I've listened to the audio. Lin Wood joined a call about whether Mercer University should rename a courtroom bearing his name. The law school's dean, not realizing Wood was on the call, spoke very candidly and said she's worried about his "violent" tweets. He got upset at her, and a student. Some excerpts:

Breaking: The National Rifle Association says it has filed a petition for bankruptcy The NRA says it'll restructure and continue as a Texas nonprofit. "To facilitate its strategic plan and restructuring, the NRA and one of its subsidiaries filed voluntary chapter 11 petitions in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas," the NRA said.

How can Rep. Scalise say this with a straight face? Rep. Scalise: "well, nobody wants any votes thrown out"
Judge Matthew Brann:

Wow: "This lawsuit smacks of racism," a Wisconsin judge just said to Trump's lawyer. She says Trump targeted two counties for litigation "because of their diverse populations, because they are urban, and because they vote Democratic." Judge Jill Karofsky: "In your lawsuit what you have done here is target the vote of 250,000 pple — not statewide, but in two of our 72 counties that have diverse populations, because they are urban, and because they vote Democratic. This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smacks of racism."

Wait a sec, Lin Wood just filed an amicus brief that asks SCOTUS to grant his attached cert petition !!?? An amicus brief is for saying "I'm not a party to this case but I'll explain why you should take it."
Lin Wood tacked on a request for the justices to hear his separate case. That's not a thing. Unless he's playing 3D chess and we've all been doing it wrong...

In an alarming statement, Chris Krebs's lawyer says a "shadow group" is advocating "the assassination of various Republican and Democratic leaders."
The lawyer add: "If blood is spilled, it is on the hands of the president." Here’s a link to the press release: mailchi.mp/9e068be944d8/c…

New: A judge dismissed Sidney Powell's lawsuit in Michigan overnight, saying "this case represents well the phrase 'the ship has sailed.'" Sidney Powell's "claims for relief are not merely last-minute—they are after the fact," a Michigan judge said in tossing her "Kraken" case.

Wow. Trump’s lawyers, bound by reality and ethical rules, are quietly abandoning his claims before a judge can even rule. This is their redlined amended complaint in PA. To clarify, Trump's lawyers filed this redlined document -- allowing us to see what they're abandoning. Link here. You'll notice the Porter Wright firm withdrew altogether. scribd.com/document/48445…