The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the importance of a free and non-political media to maintaining freedom and liberty. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, aided by two anti-Trump Republicans, have presented nine primetime investigative hearings about the January 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building. They are uninterested in getting to the truth because they are not asking the essential questions that would uncover the truth.
John Solomon at Just the News suggested
that one of those essential questions should be: “If Donald Trump wanted to
incite violence that fateful day, as his critics suggest, then why did he order
the Pentagon to have a large military force ready to quell a disturbance?”
Another essential question is: “Why did a Democrat-led Congress turn down the
assistance of pop National Guard troops in the face of intelligence warnings
about violence?” I suggest that a third essential question is: “What did Nancy
Pelosi know and when did she know it?”
In his article, Solomon outlined
several ways that the Democrats try to evade such scrutiny. They put questions
about what Pelosi knew and when she knew it off limits. They never called
Secret Service agents to publicly testify about Cassidy Hutchinson’s story
about Trump assaulting an agent in an attempt to get to the Capitol. Democrats
use hearsay testimony from Hutchinson and snippets of testimony, but they do
not allow any cross-examination of witnesses or challenges.
Legal experts, such as Harvard law
professor Alan Dershowitz, question the procedures. Democrat Dershowitz voted
for Joe Biden in 2020 but declared the process of using hearsay testimony to be
unethical, unfair, and bad lawyering. According to Dershowitz, the committee
shows that they are being “partisan zealots” rather than truth-seekers.
Dershowitz was joined in his
condemnation by former career federal prosecutor David Sullivan. According to John
Sullivan, David Sullivan believes that the entire accountability process for
January 6 – at both the Justice Department and the congressional hearings –
raised questions about fairness. He called the interrogations “very scripted”
and gave viewers reasons to tune out. Contrary evidence and true cross-examination
would have given Democrats “more credibility and traction.” “Legal scholars are
very troubled by the way these hearings are being conducted…. There is no due
process. For people who don’t have an agenda to promote, these [hearings] are
Stalinist. And I hate using that term.”
John Solomon continued his article
by explaining that the hearings were undercut by facts. He wrote, “Trump’s
actions before the riot began included urging supporters to ‘peacefully and
patriotically’ express their opinions and ordering his top aides to ensure
there was a large contingent of National Guard troops at the ready to ensure no
trouble ensued.”
Solomon reported that a timeline
from Capitol Police shows that “the Trump Pentagon first offered National Guard
troops to the Capitol Police on Jan. 2, 2021, four full days before the event. First
turning down the offer, the police had second thoughts and went to “their
political minders – the House sergeant at arms chief among them – for permission
to accept the troops on Jan. 4.” They were turned down with the excuse that
military personnel would create bad “optics.”
Even more compelling evidence comes
from a lengthy memo written by the Pentagon inspector general. According to Solomon, his memo “chronicled
the assistance the Defense Department offered Congress both ahead of and during
the riot.”
In it, the IG recounts a fateful meeting
on Jan. 3, 2021, in the White House when then-acting Defense Secretary
Christopher Miller and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
met with Trump on national security matters.
The complete passage – hardly mentioned by
Democrats at the hearings or the news media covering them – is worth absorbing
in its entirety.
“Mr. Miller and GEN Milley met with the
President at the White House at 5:30 p.m.,” the IG reported. “The primary topic
they discussed was unrelated to the scheduled rally. GEN Milley told us that at
the end of the meeting, the President told Mr. Miller that there would be a
large number of protestors on January 6, 2021, and Mr. Miller should ensure
sufficient National Guard or Soldiers would be there to make sure it was a safe
event. Gen Milley told us that Mr. Miller responded, ‘We’ve got a plan and we’ve
got it covered.’”
In advance of the Jan. 6 rally, the
president told the most senior civilian and uniformed leaders of the military
he knew the event was going to draw a “large number of protestors,” and he
instructed the secretary of defense to ensure it was “safe” by having troops
available. Democrats have not offered any evidence to counter that story.
Sullivan continued by stating that
the Pentagon memo yielded other information: “insight into the mindset of the
Democrat-led Congress, top military officials and the local police before Jan.
6. It revealed that those key players “repeatedly raised concerns about
accepting the offer of National Guard help, fearing it would create the
perception of a military coup or martial law as the election results were
certified.”
As an example, Sullivan quoted Army
Secretary Ryan McCarthy as telling the IG that “he did not want to create the
perception that the military was involved in the electoral process…. He said
that Mr. Miller made it clear that the military would not be involved in
certifying the election results and that 10 different news agencies asked him
about military use and martial law.”
According to Sullivan, the memo states
that District of Columbia Police Chief Robert Contee also opposed having the
military present, but he had a different reason. “Chief Contee explained to us
that he did not want other Federal law enforcement involved on January 6, 2021,
because of the risk associated with having unidentified Federal officers
carrying weapons within D.C.”
Even as key security officials were
against deploying the National Guard troops for fear of bad “optics,” the FBI,
the Marshal’s Service, and the Homeland Security Department were sending to the
police “raw intelligence warning of possible violence,” according to a recent
report by Just the News.
The intelligence reports began more
than two weeks before the riot. They “flagged online chatter about waging a ‘bloody
war,’ using nerve gas, concealing guns, and burning down the Supreme Court and
specifically flagged two groups for possible trouble, the Proud Boys and Oath
Keepers.”
Capitol Police intelligence expert
John T. Nugent Jr. wrote in an email Dec. 21, 2020, sent to a distribution list
of the department’s Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division: “Right-wing
extremists are talking about tunnels below the Capitol Complex and the
allegiances of USCP officers.”
The Pentagon memo shows that Trump
wanted National Guard troops in place. It also shows that intelligence reports warned
of violence. Even though Trump offered troops and warnings were given, the
Capitol Police were not prepared to protect the Capitol Building. Even worse,
the Democrats on the congressional committee have not explained why.
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