by Darren Beattie at Revolver News
The January 6 commission expanded its fishing expedition still further last week with its request of phone records from President Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.
The House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol has instructed telecom and social media companies in recent weeks to preserve records of Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The move positions the select committee on the doorstep of the Oval Office as it pursues a far-reaching inquiry into whether Trump and his White House helped plan or had advance knowledge of the insurrection perpetrated by the former president’s supporters.
House select committee investigators signaled their intention to examine potential involvement by the Trump White House and House Republicans when they made a series of records demands and records preservation requests for Trump officials connected to the Capitol attack.
In the records preservation requests, the select committee instructed 35 telecom and social media companies to avoid destroying communications logs of several hundred people, including the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and 10 House Republicans, in case it later issues subpoenas.
But the previously unreported inclusion of Meadows on the list of people whose records the select committee wants preserved suggests the panel will seek more information on the most senior aide in the Trump administration and could upturn every inch of the West Wing in its inquiry.
The former chief of staff is among several top White House officials who may hold the key to unlock inside information pertaining to the extent of the former president’s involvement in the Capitol attack that left five dead and nearly 140 injured.
With this request, the Commission added Meadows to the never-ending list of individuals the Commission wants to investigate in its increasingly desperate attempt to preserve its flailing collusion narrative—namely, that senior White House officials and/or Trump-aligned members of congress were somehow complicit in the events of January 6. The ever-expanding list already includes Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert and many others.
The commission, led by Bennie Thompson, a high-ranking Mississippi Democrat, has demonstrated no compunction over wielding its subpoena powers against hapless civilians with threadbare connections to January 6. In the past month, the commission has pursued a huge swath of innocent third parties with reckless abandon:
- The commission demanded highly sensitive network and user data from social media sites and forums such as Gab, Parler, 4chan, 8kun and TheDonald.win.
- All phone records concerning the time, location and duration of calls—including the content of texts—have been demanded from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.
- All communications and documents between White House staff and dozens of outside Republican influencers have been demanded. The level of obscurity of these contacts extends all the way down to gay rights activist Brandon Straka, InfoWars host Owen Shroyer and black MAGA rapper Bryson Gray.
But the Commission’s never-ending appetite for phone records of anyone remotely associated with 1/6 belies the fishiest and perhaps darkest aspect of this otherwise merely farcical fishing expedition.
That is, the Commission seems to have requested data from the communications devices of everyone who set foot in DC on January 6, except for Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oathkeepers, which is the largest militia group associated with the events of 1/6 . Stewart Rhodes looms so large over the Oath Keepers that he is said to effectively be the Oath Keepers. Given that the Oath Keepers are the most widely prosecuted organized militia group charged with carrying out a conspiracy to obstruct the Senate vote on January 6, the omission of Rhodes from the Commission’s fact-finding expedition is quite strange, to say the least.
Under normal circumstances, of course, we might chalk this up to standard congressional incompetence.
However, the commission’s seeming neglect of Rhodes must be considered in light of the fact that after more than eight months, the Feds have refused to indict Rhodes for a single charge related to his span of alleged activities leading up to, and on the day of, January 6. From our reporting on June 30th of this year:
The Justice Department argues that Stewart Rhodes both substantially organized and activated an imputed plan to use violence, on 1/6, in real-time, through a series of encrypted Signal messages beginning at 1:38 p.m., as Trump concluded his rally speech on the National Mall, and 62 minutes before Oath Keepers lieutenants allegedly formed a “military stack” to rush the Capitol doors.
These facts alone, as alleged, are more than legally sufficient to secure an indictment of Stewart Rhodes. We will walk you through the mountains of direct and circumstantial evidence built on top of these allegations, but readers must understand this: the only reason Stewart Rhodes is not in jail *right now* is because of a deliberate decision by the Justice Department to protect him.
And yet, while protecting Rhodes, the Justice Department has used Rhodes’s extraordinary breadth of January 6 activities to throw the book at his alleged underlings.
For example, while regime media and blue-check journalists (and Rhodes himself) have tried to justify Rhodes’s strange protection by the Justice Department on grounds that Rhodes never went in the Capitol building, this fails to take into account the basic fact that several of Rhodes’s indicted alleged lieutenants never went inside the Capitol either.
Somehow these underlings are being prosecuted on conspiracy charges, while Rhodes remains unscathed.
For example, 65 year old fully-disabled defendant Thomas Caldwell never went inside the Capitol. Yet, incredibly, the government argued in a public filing that Caldwell should have his bail denied on the grounds that he joined in “a plan to use force” activated by “Person One,” that is, Stewart Rhodes. The government began:
Evidence that the government will disclose to the defense this week—a Signal chat called “DC OP: Jan 6 21”—shows that individuals, including those alleged to have conspired with the defendant, were actively planning to use force and violence. The participants in this chat include: Person One, Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, and regional Oath Keeper leaders from multiple states across the country. To date, there is no evidence that Caldwell participated in the chat, but the investigation is ongoing. The chat discusses members and affiliates of the Oath Keepers coming to Washington, D.C., for the events of January 5-6, 2021, to provide security to speakers and VIPs at the events.
Yes, you read that right. In order to establish Caldwell’s participation in a conspiracy to use force and violence, the government cites statements from a chat that Caldwell didn’t even belong to! But Person One, i.e., Stewart Rhodes, did belong to the chat in question. The government has incriminated Caldwell on the basis of other people’s statements—principally those of Rhodes. The government continued:
There is no discussion of forcibly entering the Capitol until January 6, 2021. However, there is talk about being prepared for violence. Person One warns the group, “DO NOT bring in anything that can get you arrested. Leave that outside DC.” He goes on to say, “We will have several well equipped QRFs outside DC. And there are many, many others, from other groups, who will be watching and waiting on the outside in case of worst case scenarios.” Person One also says, “Highly recommend a C or D cell flashlight if you have one. Collapsible Batons are a grey area in the law. I bring one. But I’m willing to take that risk because I love em. Good hard gloves, eye pro, helmet. In a pinch you can grab Mechanix gloves and a batters helmet from Walmart. Bring something to put on your noggin. Antifa likes brikes.”
Remember, these excerpts are not from an indictment of Person One (Rhodes)—rather, they are from a government document attempting to deny Rhodes’ alleged Oathkeepers underling Thomas Caldwell bail. The document continues to cite the statements and actions of Person One (Rhodes):
These messages echo the words of Person One in the call for action he posted to the Oath Keepers website on January 4, 2021, in which he stated: “It is CRITICAL that all patriots who can be in DC get to DC to stand tall in support of President Trump’s fight to defeat the enemies foreign and domestic who are attempting a coup, through the massive vote fraud and related attacks on our Republic. We Oath Keepers are both honor-bound and eager to be there in strength to do our part,” including “prepar[ing] to do whatever must be done to honor our oaths[.]” (ECF No. 18 at 2.)
These statements and messages all show that the co-conspirators joined together to stop Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote, and they were prepared to use violence, if necessary, to effect this purpose. It does not matter whether they planned to use this violence to support the president when he invoked the insurrection act or to attack the Capitol if the vice president allowed the certification to go forward—under either scenario, they were plotting to use violence to support the unlawful obstruction of a Congressional proceeding.
So far the document has leaned almost exclusively on Rhodes’ statements in a chat group Caldwell didn’t even belong to in order to link Caldwell to a conspiracy to use force and obstruct election certification on January 6. Person One is the star of the show here, and the government continues to use his statements to attempt to bury Caldwell:
The Signal chat referenced above shows that the group—which included at least two individuals alleged to have conspired with Caldwell—was activating a plan to use force on January 6. At approximately 1:38 p.m., Person One wrote, “All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no intent by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it into their own hands. They’ve had enough.” At 2:14 p.m., an individual leading the coordination of the security details run by the Oath Keepers on January 5-6 stated, “The have taken ground at the capital[.] We need to regroup any members who are not on mission.” Person One then reposted that message and instructed the group: “Come to South Side of Capitol on steps” and then sent a photograph showing the southeast side of the Capitol. At 2:41 p.m., Person One posted another photograph showing the southeast side of the Capitol with the caption, “South side of US Capitol. Patriots pounding on doors[.]” At approximately 2:40 p.m., the individuals in the “stack,” to include co-defendants Kelly and Connnie Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Graydon Young, Laura Steele, Donovan Crowl, and Sandra Parker, forcibly entered the Capitol through the Rotunda door in the center of the east side of the building. On the other side of the Capitol, at 2:48 p.m., Defendant Caldwell wrote to his Facebook contacts, “We are surging forward. Doors breached.”
Some might argue that Rhodes’ statements and actions are no big deal. There might be some validity to this claim in a world in which the Government and media alike weren’t acting as though 1/6 were the new 9/11. Given the media and government’s hyperbolic hysteria over 1/6, and given the associated indictments of all kinds of minor figures for trivial 1/6 related offenses—it is a big deal, or at least a big question, that the founder and head of the main “boogeyman” militia group associated with 1/6 remains unindicted. The Feds’ decision not to indict Rhodes is still more bizarre when one notes, as we have above, that the government is more than happy to cite Rhodes’ statements as constitutive of a criminal conspiracy on the basis of which to incriminate, indict, and deny bail to alleged Oathkeepers underlings.
Perhaps even more bizarre than the Feds’ protection of Rhodes from indictment is the fact that the FBI still does not appear to have searched Rhodes for evidence related to his own role in January 6. The search warrant for a single iPhone that Rhodes was served in May—cited by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times as evidence of an investigation into him—appears to be deeply misleading. According to statements made by Rhodes’ attorney Kellye SoRelle to Mother Jones, that warrant, issued four months after January 6, was for dirt on other people indicted over the day’s events. Not on Rhodes himself.
And for that matter, how do we account for the fact that the Feds haven’t bothered to search Rhodes beyond a single cell phone taken four months after January 6? The Feds’ lack of interest in Rhodes’ communications is downright remarkable in comparison to the aggressive treatment visited upon major and minor figures alike, no matter how remotely associated with 1/6.
If you will recall, the Feds raided Rudy Giuliani’s apartment and seized all electronics as part of a sham investigation into the mayor’s activities regarding Ukraine.
Federal investigators in Manhattan executed a search warrant Wednesday at Rudy Giuliani’s apartment as part of a probe into the former New York City mayor’s activities involving Ukraine, his attorney told NPR.
Robert Costello said the FBI conducted the raid at Giuliani’s apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at around 6 a.m. and seized electronic devices. He said the search warrants are connected to an investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act tied to Giuliani’s Ukraine-related work. [NPR]
Recently, yet another innocent MAGA couple accused of no crimes had their homes raided and electronics confiscated with a search warrant. On August 10, more than seven months after 1/6, 40 FBI agents raided a Georgia family’s home, held their 11-year-old daughter at gunpoint using laser sights, and seized ‘every electronic device,’ including cell phones, computers, and even the 11-year-old girl’s tablet.
The FBI’s reason? The couple had attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ protest on January 6, and even though they did not participate in any riot, they had been in “frequent communication” with a Georgia Three Percenter militia leader who was at a smaller protest at the Georgia State Capitol that day. Even though the couple were not involved in any illegal acts, and were not even members of the Three Percenter militia, their mere contact and association with an unindicted militia leader suspected of having “other people do his dirty work” was enough to have electronic and communications device in their house seized.
Such unnecessarily aggressive behavior on the part of the Feds is appalling. We do not wish this treatment on an 11-year-old girl, nor on Mr. Rhodes, nor anyone else for that matter. We cannot help but wonder, however, why the Feds seem more interested in the electronics of a random 11-year-old girl than in the communications of the founder and head of the militia group that features most prominently in the government and media’s boogeyman narrative of 1/6. We will address this issue of search warrants further in a forthcoming investigative report.
Is the fact that the Feds seem to want to indict everyone but Rhodes, and raid everyone else’s electronic devices except for Rhodes, connected to the fact that the January 6 commission now seems eager to seize communications from everyone in the MAGA universe but Rhodes?
Here, the “congressional incompetence” argument goes out the window. It’s as though the Commission is unaware of Rhodes. In fact, they are acutely aware.
Remarkably, Rhodes plays a central role in the theory of the case personally advanced by the head of the January 6 commission itself: the aforementioned Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss).
Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson.
Five months before he was tapped as chairman of the Commission…
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