The Saga of Mark Meadows (and lots of other stuff)

I. D.C. v. the Insurrectionists

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced on Tuesday that he was filing a lawsuit against the insurrectionists to recover the costs of the damage they did when they stormed the capitol, including covering the medical bills for the 65 officers they injured. So in addition to jail time and legal bills, they will also have their bank accounts drained and maybe their wages garnished because they’re gonna lose, possibly even by default. (Unless D.C. has a peculiar rule I am not familiar with, they are not entitled to court-appointed lawyers in a case like this, and defending against a lawsuit like this will get expensive.)

The lawsuit is here. There is much to learn from it. Shall we read it together?

My, what a lot of defendants:

The “John and Jane Does” at the end is a way of leaving room to add more defendants later. The names of the defendants appear to be taken from indictments filed so far–presumably the ones defendants for which there is clear evidence that they caused damage.

The complaint alleges that these groups formed for the purpose of perpetuating violence. The point here is to show that the violence wasn’t a one-off. It appears that the Oath Keepers took Reagan’s statement that “government is the problem” to heart:

One of the insurrectionists is quoted saying:

The complaint details the violent history of the Oath Keepers, and the efforts of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys to “Incite coordinated violence around the 2020 presidential election.” They used Trump’s loss (they referred to Trump as the “duly elected president”) to recruit new members. Notice how they describe what they plan to do:

Premediated crimes are always worse. The overarching point: “This was a coordinated plan for violence.”

It will be “wild,” they said.

Trump used that same word when he called people to D.C. What a coincidence! (You are not “gentlemen,” Teri says in her school-marm voice.)

I like this part. The Proud Boys will go “incognito”:

I mean how stupid do they think law enforcement is? Do they think the FBI won’t be able to figure out who they are because they aren’t wearing Proud Boy colors (even though they posted on social media what they planned to do, and then took pictures of themselves while they were storming the Capitol and posted the pictures on social media.)

If you read good detective novels and watch thrillers, you might have the idea that people who commit crimes are masterminds. Generally . . . no:

This makes it hard for Defendant Pezzola to say, “It wasn’t me”:

Here they are, beating up a police officer. Save this for the next time a right-winger tells you that blue lives matter (which we all knew anyway was just a way of saying that Black lives don’t matter; it was never about protecting police officers):

At least 65 Metropolitan Police officers were injured. The members of congress being evacuated are wearing gas masks:

They were gleefully coordinating their communication. It’s like they were absolutely giddy with the idea that they get to hurt and kill.

Charges against all defendants: U.S. Code § 1985 (Conspiracy to interfere with civil rights),42 U.S. Code § 1986 (Action for neglect to prevent), Assault, Battery, Intentional infliction of emotional distress.

This person asked:

Here’s the problem for Republicans. (Actually, two faces of the same problem.) First: The guys who stormed the capitol are their “base.” Given the changing demographics, without them, they have no hope of winning anything other than very local elections. Second, many of these Republicans secretly sympathize. They think the federal government IS the problem. They dislike what the federal government has become since the New Deal and Civil Rights movement. They want all power to be local. They’d love to disband the entire federal government. The difference between putting DeJoy in charge of the USPS and storming the capital is a matter of degree. You can either dismantle the federal government slowly or bring in wrecking balls.

II. A Comment: But Is Nothing Happening?

Someone wrote this to me:

Schiff said that if there was an investigation he would have heard about it & there would be a grand jury with witnesses. It would be very upsetting if there was not an investigation into Trump.

I’m really surprised that Schiff is spreading this nonsense. I assume that it’s just his way of trying to put pressure on the DOJ, but let’s take his apart.

To begin with, nobody knows what is going on. I don’t know, and either does anyone else. Any comments on whether there is an investigation into Trump himself is speculation.

Some things we know.

Investigations do not start off with Grand Jury proceedings. Grand Jury proceedings happen after evidence has been gathered.
The DOJ and the January 6 select committee are coordinating their efforts. The DOJ, for example, defended the select committee in Trump’s executive privilege lawsuit.
The select committee, on its website, says that it is coordinating with other investigatory agencies to prevent duplication of effort.
The select committee has said that it will (and it already has) made criminal referrals to the DOJ when warranted.
Liz Cheney has been hinting at evidence that Trump violated multiple criminal statutes.
The select committee is aggressively collecting evidence and they plan to be finished by Spring. It could of course, drag into summer.

The work of the select committee brings us to the saga of Mark Meadows.

II. The Saga of Mark Meadows

Mark Meadows, former Congressman, served as White House Chief of Staff from 2020 through January 2021.

Here’s what we learn from the lawsuit he filed against Nancy Pelosi and the select committee. You can read it here.

In a nutshell, Meadows was cooperating with the select committee and (he claims) sending the committee everything it asked for (except for a few small things.) Then, two weekends ago, Meadows was “blindsided” to learn that the committee subpoenaed Verizon, the carrier for his personal cell phone, for a list of the names and people he spoke to from October until January 31.

He was livid! He was enraged! How DARE they?

He immediately stopped cooperating and filed a lawsuit to prevent the committee from getting his personal call records. You know what this means, right? Whatever is in those call records is 🔥.

He says he doesn’t want anyone to see because it’s “intensely personal.” Yeah riiiiight. Intensely personal. Sure.

Well, he has a problem. In his brief, he came right out and said he won’t evoke the Fifth Amendment because Chairman Thompson made a public statement on December 2, 2021 that those who appear before the Select Committee and invoke their Fifth Amendment rights are “part and parcel guilty to what occurred.” (Yeah, well duh.)

So what is a desperate former chief-of-staff to do?

What he did was file a lawsuit claiming that the subpoena violates his Fourth Amendment right to be free from an illegal search and his First Amendment right to free speech. These are totally lame arguments, but he’s obviously desperate.

The following day, the select committee released some of the text messages to and from Mark Meadows:

So you can see exactly why he’s trying so hard to keep his phone records secret. Jim Jordan admitted one of the texts was his, but he claimed it had been taken out of context. Well, if so, all he has to do is turn over his phone records and everyone will see that he was innocent, right?

You can see that the entire story will come out and it will be very interesting.