“Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff,” roaredThe late-Sunday Rolling Stoneheadline The report describes two January 6 protest insiders who claim they worked “back to back to back” with several Republican House members — Representatives Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Marjorie Taylor Greene — and their senior staffers, who they allege were “intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.”
These are the January 6 organizers “have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol,” accordingTo Rolling Stone. “This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. Although there were previous indications that Congress members were involved, this report details their purported role in the incident and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.”
If confirmed, this report would put the word “bombshell” to shame, and would also go a long way toward explaining why Trump’s congressional allies have been turning themselves inside outTrying to change the subject. This, however, is an unfortunate side effect. Rolling Stone’sJournalistic reputation took a hitSeven years ago, it reported on the University of Virginia rape scandal. It is therefore important to confirm the reporting by other news outlets.
There are good reasons to believe that Rolling StoneThe report is sound. It reveals that the two sources have been cooperating with the January 6, commission. This provides details about who was involved in which aspects of the insurrection. Such a claim could and likely would be debunked by members of that committee if it weren’t accurate.
The Rolling StoneReport comes with a damning Washington PostReport detailing how space in the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. was used to launch war against the 2020 election. “They called itThe ‘command center,’” reports the Post, “a set of rooms and suites in the posh Willard hotel a block from the White House where some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants were working day and night with one goal in mind: overturning the results of the 2020 election…. Their activities included finding and publicizing alleged evidence of fraud, urging members of state legislatures to challenge Biden’s victory and calling on the Trump-supporting public to press Republican officials in key states.”
The central element of this effort was the immense pressure placed on Vice President Mike Pence to refuse certification of the election results on the exact same day as the insurrection. Pence struggled under the strain and sought advice at one point from Dan Quayle, an ex-senator from Indiana. He eventually decided to certify the election results. At the peak of the day’s violence, Pence was whisked from the building by the Secret Service as a mob of furious Trump supporters stormed the halls of the Capitol demanding his head. The Willard operation was so serious that its members were actually fired. brought in a retired Army colonelNamed Phil Waldron, who was a specialist in psychological operations, to assist in the overall effort.
Multiple witnesses are scheduled to testify before this committee under subpoena. They will be asked about their knowledge of pre-meditated plans and where they went. One of them, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon — who said on his podcast the day before the violence that “all hell is going to break loose” and “tomorrow is game day” — is ignoring his subpoena. The House approved the measure that held Bannon in contempt and placed him in the strangely indifferent hands of Attorney General Merrick Grland.
There are many moving parts to this. However, there is a growing sense that those involved with planning and executing Jan. 6’s attempted overthrow may be running out room for maneuver. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the Jan.6 investigation committee. told CBS News on Sunday there is “no question” the attack that day was premeditated. One wonders if Thompson is one of the members of the committee who spoke to the sources in the Rolling StoneReport. It sure sounds like that.
Thirty years ago this week, the remnants of Hurricane Grace were engulfed by a powerful nor’easter in the waters off the Mid-Atlantic states. The system was jostled by a cold front and a barometric Ridge, and charged north as a subtropical storm before becoming a truly unusual hurricane. The “No Name Storm,” or the “Halloween Storm,” as it came to be called, raged for days and killed 13 people. It was named the Perfect Storm by Robert Case, a National Weather Service meteorologist, and Sebastian Junger (an adventure author).
Thirty-years later, another perfect storm is brewing in Washington, D.C. If all goes according to plan, Trump’s obedient minions and Trump himself could be exposed as active treason practitioners within the halls the very government they claimed to serve.
