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Tag: house select committee
'Less Than Credible' GOP Witness Hits Hutchinson With $10M Libel Lawsuit

'Less Than Credible' GOP Witness Hits Hutchinson With $10M Libel Lawsuit

Former President Donald Trump's ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Monday was sued by House Republican "star witness" Tony Bobulinksi for defamation, according to The Daily Beast.

Bobulinski — who's an ex-business partner of Hunter Biden's turned GOP impeachment witness — sued Hutchinson over allegations she included in her September memoir, Enough, saying that Bobulinski was "involved with some sort of shady business dealing."

The GOP witness' filing, according to the report, "contends he is being treated unfairly '[b]ecause [he] did not pledge blind loyalty to the Democrat Party and to the Biden family."

The Beast notes during "a Feb. 28 deposition by the House Oversight Committee, Hunter Biden said, 'Tony is a bitter, bitter man that did not get in on a deal that he wanted to get in on, because I thought that he was both incompetent and an idiot."

Highlighted in Bobulinski’s defamation claim are details of "a 2020 Trump campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, in which former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows handed 'a folded sheet of paper or a small envelope' to Bobulinski while Bobulinksi was wearing what Hutchinson called a 'ski mask.'"

According to her book, the report notes, "Hutchinson observed the two men huddling, with Bobulinski covering his face with a ski mask, 'through a gap in the vehicles,' she wrote. Meadows had asked Hutchinson to locate Bobulinski, then 'work with [the] Secret Service to find a hidden spot.'"

The Beastreports:

According to Bobulinski’s lawsuit, nothing 'nefarious' was going on, and the face-to-face was simply 'an exchange of pleasantries.' It says Bobulinski had become the target of death threats, and that Meadows 'asked to meet with him for the sole purpose of checking on his and his family’s health and safety due to the ongoing threats against them.'

Bobulinski insists in the suit that, under oath last month before the Jan. 6 Committee, he 'unequivocally rejected' the notion he was wearing a ski mask during the meeting with Meadows. He further complains about being mocked on social media about the mask, embedding a photo of himself in his dress whites, 'an actual photo of Plaintiff, a decorated Navy veteran,” to distinguish himself from a meme-ified cartoon showing a masked man smoking a cigarette.

The news outlet also notes, "in describing Hutchinson as a liar, Bobulinski cites a trio of far-right conspiracy theorists, one of whom was banned from Twitterand Facebook for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election, as 'proof' of his assertions."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent a February 12 letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), saying Bobulinski "is a less-than-credible witness whose 'mysterious ties to the Trump campaign, his refusal to engage with the Committee’s Democratic staff, and his problematic personal finances, raise significant concerns about his truthfulness, credibility, and motivations.'

Reprinted with permission from Alternet


Hunter Biden

Why Hunter Biden Defied House GOP At Capitol To Speak Publicly (VIDEO)

Hunter Biden was scheduled to appear before a House committee on Wednesday and answer questions in a closed-door session. Instead, President Joe Biden’s son did the one thing that Republicans were desperately trying to avoid: He spoke in public.

Hunter has offered to appear before the House Oversight Committee in an open public session. He offered to testify on Wednesday or on any day that the committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer, might suggest. But Comer was horrified by the idea. He and the other Republicans on the committee want Hunter in a closed session so they can bury any exculpatory evidence, selectively leak fragmented quotes to feed their baseless "impeachment inquiry," and release carefully edited snippets of themselves haranguing the president’s son for their 2024 campaigns.

Expectations were that Hunter Biden would not show today, but he surprised everyone by appearing, though not in the star chamber that Republicans wanted. Instead, he stepped in front of the U.S. Capitol—and the cameras—to speak openly to the public. And Republicans will be upset about what he had to say.

“I’m here today to see that the House committees’ illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies,” said Hunter Biden. “And I’m here today to acknowledge that I’ve made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded. For that, I am responsible. For that, I am accountable. And for that, I’m making amends.”

His appearance on Capitol Hill drew widespread press attention. Even Fox News ended up running a portion of what he had to say, though their YouTube clip of his remarks cut off his opening words.

“For six years, MAGA Republicans, including members of the House committees who are in a closed-door session right now, have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family, and my friends,” Hunter continued. “They’ve ridiculed my struggle with addiction, they’ve belittled my recovery, and they have tried to dehumanize me—all to embarrass and damage my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service.”

In describing the actions of Reps. Comer, Jim Jordan, and other Republicans on the committees, Hunter pulled no punches.

“They have lied, over and over, about every aspect of my personal and professional life—so much so that their lies have become the false facts believed by too many people,” he said. As he went on listing some of the actions Republicans have taken in their efforts to demean and degrade him, he reached a point where he became clearly emotional. “They have taken the light of my dad’s love, the light of my dad’s love for me, and presented it as darkness. They have no shame.”

Hunter’s statement is absolutely worth listening to in full. It effectively rebutted both the nature and the content of the House proceedings on a day when Republicans intend to turn their mock investigation into a formal impeachment inquiry.

To say that Republicans weren’t pleased about having their game laid out in public is putting it mildly. Jordan and Comer hustled out to give an erratic press conference and threaten Hunter Biden with contempt proceedings.

And if it weren’t clear enough that this was all about trying to grab back some camera time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to sleaze her way in. The result was an abrupt end to the hallway gathering as even Jordan and Comer tried to run from Greene’s Pizzagate-level conspiracy theories.

Hunter Biden’s surprise appearance was a broadside into Republicans’ planned day of waving false evidence and preparing for a vote to relabel their fishing expedition as a formal impeachment inquiry. They should be ashamed, but as Hunter said, “They have no shame.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Hutchinson Said She Saw Meadows Burning Key Documents In Fireplace

Hutchinson Said She Saw Meadows Burning Key Documents In Fireplace

Cassidy Hutchinson revealed under oath that Mark Meadows burned official documents, The Independent reports.

The House Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack released a new set of testimony transcripts, and Hutchinson’s May appearance was included. In the transcript, she revealed to the committee that she witnessed Meadows “roughly a dozen times” burn papers, once or twice weekly between December 2020 and January 2021.

Hutchinson, who recently revealed that one of former President Donald Trump's attorneys urged her to lie during her testimony, described how the burning of documents was carried out in detail. She is unsure of what was contained in any of the documents that Meadows allegedly destroyed, however.

“So throughout the day, he would put more logs on the fireplace to keep it burning,” she said. “And I recall roughly a dozen times where he would take the – I don’t know the formal name for what it’s called that covers the fireplace – but take that off and then throw a few more pieces of paper in with it when he put more logs on the fireplace.”

Politico reporter Kyle Cheney tweeted a thread of transcripts, which included Hutchinson’s.

Cheney posted: Here's what Hutchinson said about Meadows burning papers in his WH fireplace — including 2-4 times after meeting with Rep. Perry. We wrote about this testimony in May.

Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Scott Perry is known for falsely claiming widespread voter fraud and was in support of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Select Panel Report Shows Trump Isn't The Only 'Big Ripoff' Grifter

Select Panel Report Shows Trump Isn't The Only 'Big Ripoff' Grifter

Most Americans know by now that former President Donald Trump isn't a brilliant business executive, let alone a "stable genius" who earned billions. We have learned from various investigations, including the forced release of his tax returns, that he is a financial loser — and that his most conspicuous talent is for brazen grifting.

Now the House Select Committee, in a scathing appendix to its final report on the January 6 insurrection and coup attempt, has exposed the latest and perhaps most successful Trump grift. It's called "The Big Rip-off" because it depended on Trump's Big Lie about election fraud in 2020. Using hundreds of emails sent incessantly to its millions of supporters, the Trump campaign continued to raise enormous sums after the election ended by pretending that the Biden campaign had "stolen" its victory — and that with enough money that victory could be overturned.

Trump's principal co-conspirators in this bigtime scam were officials of the Republican National Committee, or RNC, which had a joint fundraising agreement that split proceeds with the campaign. From extensive interviews with top officials from both the RNC and the Trump campaign, the House investigators determined that the Republican leadership continued that deal long after it knew that the funds obtained were tainted by the Big Lie.

"The RNC knew that Trump's claims about winning the election were baseless and that post-election donations would not help him secure an additional term in office," the report explains. Yet both the RNC and the Trump campaign decided to continue fundraising after the election ended — "a decision that would have come from President Trump himself." The operations of that joint fundraising machine, known as Trump Make America Great Again Committee (or "T-Magic" to insiders) were overseen by the former president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and approved by Trump himself.

Their letters used incendiary language to damage public confidence in the electoral process, insisting that the election had been "stolen" and that the money would be used to "fight back" and "stop the steal." Sending out as many as 25 inflammatory emails every day, TMAGAC saw its most lucrative fundraising immediately after Election Day, hauling in as much as $100 million in the first three days, by claiming to establish a nonexistent "Official Election Defense Fund."

Eventually they raised more than $250 million.

They perpetrated that historic larceny, in the report's words, "by claiming to fight fraud they knew did not exist and to challenge an election they knew he lost." The RNC copywriters would "draft a lot of the content based on what the president was saying... a very aggressive, excitable tone... giving them 'red meat'... to make it seem as if the president himself was writing these letters and texts," according to the Select Committee's report.

This belligerently deceptive approach to monetizing the Big Lie began on Election Day 2020 when the campaign decided how to report election results to its supporters. As outlined by the Select Committee report, the campaign had three options: It could say that Trump had won, knowing that was false; it could say that the outcome remained uncertain which was then true; or it could claim, as it did, that "the Democrats are trying to steal the election" — a destructive accusation that the campaign decided to use even before Election Night results came in. As campaign officials later confessed to the Select Committee investigators, that claim was not based on any actual information received by TMAGAC staff or any attempt by them to determine its veracity.

RNC attorneys made a few feeble efforts to moderate that language in the TMAGAC donor messaging, to cover their own collective behind. But as the Select Committee notes, the RNC "was clearly aware that President Trump's claims regarding the election were not true and tried to have it both ways."

So, the RNC knew that Trump was lying to the American public every day and did virtually nothing to oppose that strategy. Its leaders, including RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, chose only to "tinker around the edges" of that false messaging. RNC officials admitted that they had seen no evidence to support Trump's claim that he had won the election and were not aware of any evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the election's outcome.

Despite its lawyers' concerns about repeating the most extreme and unsupportable claims of fraud, the RNC "stayed the course with a coordinated, single fundraising plan with the Trump campaign... and publicly stood shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump and his Big Lie."

To this day, most of the money raised remains in the bank, but millions have been paid out to Trump himself, his political associates and his businesses.

Among many egregious examples of pilfering and looting, well over $100,000 was paid for "strategic consulting" to Melania Trump's fashion stylist. A million dollars went to a "conservative" nonprofit that employs former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and participated in planning for Trump's Jan. 6 coup, and over $10 million went to an event-planning firm that helped to run the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse that preceded the Capitol riot. Additional millions were later spent on lawyers representing witnesses called to testify before the Select Committee.

There is no honor among thieves, so chair McDaniel is now being challenged for her position by an even more extreme MAGA politician. What this report shows in embarrassing detail is how they fleeced their own followers — who are, alas, mostly gullible enough to continue listening to them, at great cost to our country.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.