Trump cultists

Law & Crime reports: “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain but we didn’t find her.” Federal authorities are attributing those words to Dawn Bancroft, and they say she was talking about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith are now facing charges over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Investigators alleged …

The New York Times reports: Federal prosecutors investigating the violent riot at the Capitol this month announced their first conspiracy charges against the Proud Boys on Friday night, accusing two members of the far-right nationalist group of working together to obstruct and interfere with law enforcement officers protecting Congress during the final certification of the presidential election. In a brief …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host Alex Jones. Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in …

Mother Jones reports: In the days ahead of the January 6 Capitol riot, there were warnings, but no guarantee that the day would turn violent. But users of TheDonald.win, a major online pro-Trump forum, were preparing for a fight, posting maps of the Capitol and swapping messages about being ready to die. In the wake of the carnage, law enforcement …

Via email from right wing columnist Erick Erickson: Today, I learn the congresswoman from Georgia who replaces Cynthia McKinney as Georgia’s in-house antisemite believes the Jews have an orbital space laser that started wild fires in California to clear a path for a high speed rail system. Marjorie Taylor Greene also believes or believed that the Newtown, CT and Parkland, …

The Arizona Republic reports: The Arizona Republican Party is rebuffing demands from some of its activists to audit the procedures and results of its own election for chair and other positions, according to an email sent Thursday night to party members. During a radio interview Friday with KFYI’s “The Conservative Circus With James T. Harris,” Kelli Ward, who was reelected …

My Central Jersey reports: A former Republican mayoral candidate has been charged with voting twice in the November election by using two different names. Frederick Gattuso, 43, was arrested without incident and charged with one count of third-degree fraudulent voting, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone announced Thursday. Gattuso was charged after an investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined …

Pittsburgh’s ABC News affiliate reports: A criminal complaint alleges a South Park man submitted a mail-in ballot for November’s election in the name of his wife who had died seven years earlier. Allegheny County police said they learned of the crime while investigating an allegation of voter fraud in which Judy C. Presto had voted in the November election, despite …

Law & Crime reports: Because attorney Lin Wood said publicly on Thursday that the State Bar of Georgia demanded he undergo a mental health evaluation in order to keep his law license, the Bar told Law&Crime on Friday that it could confirm an active inquiry into Wood. The Bar said that although the investigative process is normally confidential, Wood’s statement …

The Daily Beast reports: Saying that the Capitol riot was planned by antifa and “even some right-wing groups that were enemies” of Trump, the ex-mayor wildly claimed that anti-Trump political action committee The Lincoln Project was involved in this supposed scheme. “Hang on! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa—what are you saying ‘working for The Lincoln Project?’ Right-wing groups, like who?” Bannon …

Reuters reports: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Friday called on the Justice Department to prosecute all those who illegally entered the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot and to provide detailed information about how it is making charging decisions. Nadler made the request in a letter to acting attorney general Monty Wilkinson, citing news accounts that prosecutors …

Media Matters reports: In early 2019, conspiracy theorists — including QAnon supporters — claimed that Democrats were hiding Ginsburg or covering up that she was dead so they could hold on to her Supreme Court seat. In one iteration, some people claimed that a body double replaced Ginsburg when she was seen in public. Greene is one of those people. …

The Christian Post reports: Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, said prominent Christian entertainer Lecrae “should never be allowed” to perform in Christian churches after he campaigned for Raphael Warnock, a pro-choice Democrat. Kirk, author of The MAGA Doctrine, made the comments at Pastor Jack Hibbs’ Calvary Chapel Chino church the week of the inauguration …

The Washington Post reports: The two pipe bombs that were discovered on Jan. 6 near the U.S. Capitol shortly before a mob stormed the building are believed to have been planted the night before, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation and video footage obtained by The Washington Post. The explosive devices, which were placed blocks from …

From the editorial board of the Charlotte Observer: Can someone please keep Madison Cawthorn away from the cameras? And the microphones? And really, most situations in which he publicly tries to turn words into meaningful thoughts? The first-term, District 11 U.S. House member has been an embarrassment to the institution, to his party, and to his state. In the last …

Mediaite reports: MSNBC’s Brian Williams cuttingly lampooned House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy by presenting what Williams said was footage of McCarthy’s meeting with ex-President Donald Trump at Trump’s West Palm Beach resort. McCarthy traveled to Mar-a-Lago Thursday for a meeting with Trump less than two weeks after announcing on the floor of the House that Trump “bears some responsibility” for …

Reuters reports: The head of the U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday urged U.S. lawmakers to add permanent fencing and back-up security staff at the Capitol building after a deadly Jan. 6 attack. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers would also probably need more funding for security as the “the enemy is within” the House, following a warning …

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration has halted an effort to install several Trump loyalists on Defense Department advisory boards, Pentagon officials said, as the new administration considers a series of unusual appointments that were made in the waning days of the Trump administration. At least temporarily, the decision affects appointees who include Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, both …

Law & Crime reports: Al Watkins, a lawyer for accused Capitol rioter Jacob Chansley, is offering his client as a witness in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Chansley is better known in popular culture as the “QAnon Shaman” or, as Watkins called him, the “guy with the horns and the fur” who was photographed raiding …

The Jerusalem Post reports: Among the many posts being unearthed amid renewed scrutiny of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s social media history is one in which the new congresswoman implicated “Rothschild Inc” in connection with a deadly forest fire that, she wrote, was started using secret laser beams from space. In her post, Greene noted that Roger Kimmel, a board member at …