Jan 6 hearings: Trump-linked lawyer compares FBI to Stasi, as ex-president’s call to Putin revealed

Trump to DOJ: Say the election was corrupt and ‘leave the rest to me’

Donald Trump is celebrating the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion, saying it will “work out for everybody” and amounts to “giving rights back when they should have been given long ago” – this as the furor over the decision overshadows devastating evidence of his plan to subvert the US’s democratic process in 2020 and 2021.

At yesterday’s hearing of the 6 January select committee, several ex-Justice Department appointees confirmed that even after being repeatedly briefed that his election claims were meritless, Mr Trump still praised supporters who rioted at the Capitol.

“They’re smart,” Mr Trump told filmmaker Alex Holder, “and they see and they saw what happened, and I believe that that was a big part of what happened on January 6.”

Mr Holder has described an incident in October 2020 when an interview he had scheduled with Mr Trump was cancelled because the then-president was on the phone with Vladimir Putin. The substance of their conversation is so far unknown.

Meanwhile, a former Department of Justice lawyer who tried to advance Donald Trump’s baseless election claims inside the government has been searched by the FBI.

In an interview with Fox news shortly after, Jeffrey Clark compared the raid to the Stasi secret police of East Germany.

Key points

• Trump told DOJ to say election was corrupt and ‘leave the rest to me’ and GOP
• Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mo Brooks asked for pardons from Trump, Jan 6 hearing told
• Trump calls Capitol rioters ‘smart’ in clip from documentary that shocked his aides
• What did Trump and Putin talk about in October 2020?
• ‘Proud’ Donald Trump Jr boasts his father and ‘God’ overturned Roe v Wade

[24 June 2022 21:59 · Josh Marcus]

‘Stop the Steal’ Organiser Ali Alexander appears before grand jury in Jan 6 investigation

Ali Alexander, who helped organise some of the “Stop the Steal” demonstrations that bled into the 6 January riot at the US Capitol, testified before a federal grand jury on Friday as part of the government’s investigation into the election insurrection.

Mr Alexander has already handed over documents to and testified before the special January 6 committee in Congress.

“Today a DC grand jury brought me in under subpoena and the threat of imprisonment. I told them I committed no crimes and observed no one committing any crimes during the 2020 Election and January 6th,” Mr Alexander posted on Friday on Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media app.

Here’s his full statement on the grand jury, where he describes being called in as a “fact witness.”

And here’s our April report on the controversial activist.

[24 June 2022 22:57 · Josh Marcus]

Trump ally who tried to get DOJ to assist election plot compares FBI search to Stasi

Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice lawyer who was a key player in Donald Trump’s attempt to reverse his 2020 loss, compared the FBI to the infamous East German Stasi secret police after his home was searched by law enforcement.

“I don’t recognize this country anymore with these kinds of Stasi-like things happening,” Mr Clark told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Thursday, a day after agents raided Mr Clark’s Virginia home and seized electronic devices.

As Thursday’s January 6 hearings laid bare, Mr Clark was at the center of an unprecedented pressure campaign from Donald Trump and his allies to use the DOJ to change the election results.

More details here.

[24 June 2022 23:34 · Josh Marcus]

ICYMI: Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks and Louie Gohmert among lawmakers who asked for pardons from Trump, Jan 6 hearing told

Representatives Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Scott Perry were among the Republican members of Congress who asked President Donald Trump to insulate them from future prosecutions by granting them presidential pardons in the days immediately following the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January last year.

Their names were revealed by the House January 6 select committee hearing on Thursday that focused on Mr Trump’s efforts to pressure the Department of Justice to assist in his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger, the Republican select committee member who led the hearing, suggested that seeking pardons implied that his colleagues may have at least suspected they may later face prosecution.

“All I know is if you’re innocent, you’re probably not gonna go out and seek a pardon,” he said.

Read more from Andrew Feinberg.

[25 June 2022 00:20 · Josh Marcus]

WATCH: The most impactful quote from the January 6 hearings yet

It’s perhaps the most succinct summation of Donald Trump’s sprawling effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

”Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest up to me and the Republican congressmen,” Mr Trump allegedly told a top DOJ offiical, according to testimony on Thursday.

Watch the exchange for yourself.

[25 June 2022 01:24 · Josh Marcus]

Signing off

That’s all for our live coverage of the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump for today.

Thanks for reading, and do stay tuned with The Independent for the latest updates, news, and analysis on the former president.