Member of Congress to Meadows: “please check your signal” -why has the Select Committee not disclosed the members of Congress names? Update Gym-Bo comes clean.
Full disclosure this particular article lacks the underlying fact based documents and don’t you dare say I’m doing “game theory” because nothing in this article discuses mathematics.
Full disclosure if you are easily offended that I might continue to hold Twitter’s Blue-QANON accountable -then I’d advise you to stop reading now otherwise you do so at your own self-beclownment. As noted don’t you dare say I’m engaging in a little game theory because nothing in this article discusses:
…interacting choices of economic agents produce outcomes with respect to the preferences (or utilities) of those agents, where the outcomes in question might have been intended by none of the agents.
The purpose of this article is to open your scope just a tiny bit to contemplate the “if then what” scenarios…I don’t do conspiracy theories —mainly because I have a brain and conspiracy theories are discard eligible garbage. As conspiracy theories are rarely grounded in facts. And I like facts. And so should you …
I want the names, I have a twitter thread waiting
Just because you believe or you believe certain Blue QANON-sense dramatic prognostications - doesn’t mean the Committee is “selectively leaking” …The notion that certain individuals, many of whom are solely motivated by their own self grandiosity and their perceived twitter importance — that doesn’t mean they get to dictate the timelines of the Committee’s disclosure of the names of current (and former) members of Congress text sent/received by Meadows.
That’s not how this works. To those who continue to rage-tweet, your uniformed tweet-desperation has now entered the Realm of Deeper than Deep Stupid. I’ll make this easy for you -did it occur to you that the House Select Committee on Jan6th has a pragmatic strategy at play. And this requires patience from the American people. Slow your roll and give the Committee the time and room to conduct their investigation. (Apologies in advance for yelling)
EVENTUALLY WE WILL KNOW THE NAMES OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS THAT SENT THE TEXT MESSAGES
Updated December 15, 2021 6:59PM DC local time
Based on this evening’s Politico Reporting - earlier today Jim Jordon’s office came clean and confirmed (on the record) that he is one of the unnamed members of Congress that sent Meadows a text. To be clear the House Select Committee on Jan6th only disclosed a portion of Jordan’s text message and that matters a lot because those questioning the Select Committee handling of this week’s disclosures. This Committee knows what they are doing and as I’ve repeatedly said, I trust this committee and you should too
Here's the full text: “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916).”
And I’m comfortable in attributing the text message about Jeff Clark —is likely Scott Perry because based on my own (extensive) research —and I’ll keep repeating this: Scott Perry is the one who introduced Jeff Clark to Mark Meadows. During the summer of 2021 I laid down my findings because opinions are not always facts. And I prefer facts over opinions.
🌶 Spicy sidebar🌶 FTR I’m looking at you David Perdue, Paul Gosar, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Mo Brooks — it has been the worst kept secret in DC that each of you used WhatsApp and Signal to communicate with the Trump White House and yes I’m certain that Jared Kushner totally obeyed the PRA by taking screenshots of his WhatsApp communications and uploaded those to his official government email account (note my sarcasm)
If the recent public reporting is accurate —then the House Select Committee’s intentional withholding of the names of the (current) members of Congress text messages to/from Meadows makes a lot of sense. The House Select Committee, fully understands the solemnity of their Committee’s purpose and goal. Allow me to walk you through the various scenarios that are almost certainly at play:
Meadows was cooperating until he wasn’t
And while most might think: “okay so what -why didn’t the committee release the names” —you have to understand the text messages slowly being disclosed by the Select Committee were originally provided by Meadows. Keep in mind that he controlled what he sent to the Committee. But, yes there’s always a but and I’ll keep saying this until it finally sinks in: failing to acknowledge that Meadows had complete autonomy and unquestionably controlled what documents (some 9,000 pages) he turned over —then you’re not looking at the whole picture. And it would be an informed and reasonable question to ask yourself the following question:
What did Meadows withhold before going off the rails?
In particular of the 9,000 pages of documents that Mark Meadows voluntarily gave to the Select Committee…one can’t help but wonder what is Meadows is holding back from the Select Committee? And only time will tell but the Select Committee must be mindful that “the clock is ticking” and that “time is of the essence” —as. I said I completely trust the House Select Committee on Jan6th and you should too. Did Meadows really send Congress all of his communications before he stopped cooperating?
“Please check your signal”
The short answer to that question is absolutely not —During last night’s floor debate concerning the criminal contempt of Congress vote - Rep Luria cited a text message from Jan5th a current Member of Congress sent Meadows “Please check your signal” and as noted by Rep Luria signal messages are encrypted -
Additionally I’d like to remind you in August 2021 the Select Committee had already discovered that some of the communications were performed on encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal
Meadows has embraced Trump’s Triple D strategy
The litigation strategy of Trump aka “Triple D” and obviously fully adopted by Mark Meadows (you can read more about the Triple D strategy here)
delay
distract
deny
Which members of Congress sent text messages to Meadows? Well tiny details matter and now we know it is lawmakers from both chambers of Congress.
The issue of Trump/Meadows flawed argument concerning executive privilege, both of whom have attempted to wrap themselves in the “absolute immunity” -SCOTUS has long held that Executive Privilege isn’t as ubiquitous as. Trump thinks it is. If anything Executive Privilege is “qualified” —Meadows flawed calculus that he can some how claw back what he’s already produced. Bless his little heart. Again that’s not how this works, at all.
As to why members of Congress text messages have not been identified; the select committee perhaps wants those members of Congress to know that the select committee has their text messages, because again the past 48 hours the various text messages Meadows received/sent; there’s a tacit arrogance -this lawmaker didn’t care about our Democratic, our Constitution and most egregiously upholding his oath of office
Trump et al violated their solemn oath of office
Those of you who followed me on Twitter and now here on Substack know that the “oath of office” has been a constant chant I have repeatedly emphasized;
…support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…
{inset name}…I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Clearly the lawmakers who texted with Meadows may have in fact violated their own “oath of office”— by failing to protect and defend the constitution. Alternatively, and no this is not a random esoteric debate. Have you contemplated that it is more than possible a few of the unnamed lawmakers might be fully cooperating with the Select Committee or at least available themselves to the select committee? That said unnamed current lawmakers, the committee views them as material witnesses and perhaps there was a behind the scene agreement reached by the Select Committee that they wouldn’t publicly release the various lawmakers names until a mutually agreed upon set of conditions and time table: This November 4th text to Meadows (from senator)
Here’s an AGGRESSIVE STRATEGY: why can’t [sic] the states of GA, NC, Penn and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and Election not called that night and just send their own electors to vote and have have it go to the SCOTUS…
On December 14, 2021 the Committee disclosed that an unknown number texted excitement applauded the potential appointment of Jeffery Clark to be acting attorney general while Trump tried to get the Justice Department to support his false claims of election fraud. Clark was one of the big proponents at the DOJ who was pushing to use the power of the department to investigate unfounded claims of voter fraud, but he was rebuffed by the department's leaders. My educated guess is Scott Perry might have been the member of Congress that sent Meadows the following text (you can read more about Scott Perry here)
…I heard Jeff Clark is getting put in on Monday. That's amazing. It will make a lot of patriots happy, and I'm personally so proud that you are at the tip of the spear, and I could call you a friend,"
I don’t know why most are overlooking Scott Perry -he’s the one who introduced Jeffery Clark to Mark Meadows.
In what capacity were Trump/Meadows acting?
At some point that question needs to be fully flushed out and I trust this Select Committee —There’s a BIG distinction that many are overlooking, and here context and content are not mutually exclusive. Did Mark Meadows/Donald Trump act in a capacity of “candidate Trump” during the relevant time period, particularly in the context of asserting maximum pressure to various Republicans Governors and Secretary of State(s) —hear me out:
-Meadows communications November 2020 to January 19, 2021 —again it was candidate Trump and Meadows (based on the 9,000+ pages he voluntarily provided the Select Committee) or was Meadows acting in his Official White House Chief of Staff OR was he acting as part of Trump’s reelection team.
The salient point and not to belabor it; what capacity was Meadows acting when he received the crush of incoming text messages. But as previously noted (and yes I ran numerous LexisNexis and WestLaw searches no public reporting that he traveled to Georgia
On December 13, 2021 at 8:34PM DC local time the Select Committee published their final report —again both reports were part of the meeting packet and uploaded to the Committee’s House Document Repository over three hours after the Committee commenced their meeting.
“The devil went down to Georgia”
If Meadows was acting in a capacity of Trump’s Re-Election campaign then that presents one of the clearest forms of a Hatch Act Violation to date. This argument could apply to Trump (not the Hatch Act per say because POTUS & VP are exempt). As in I would expect that the Select Committee will zero in on what “role”—for example: at the time of the January 2, 2021 call to Georgia’s Secretary of State, was Trump acting in his capacity as POTUS or as a Candidate for the Domestic Terrorist-Political Party formerly known as the Republican National Committee? Again I am fairly confident that the Select Committee is viewing some of these text messages and further making an ascertainment of “in what capacity” did Meadows and Trump act.
On December 13, 2021 I explained to you that the Select Committee’s report made, for the first time) a finding of facts that Mark Meadows personally visited Georgia. I ran multiple LN & WL searches to verify that the December 13, 2021 disclosure was the first time, we the American people learned he traveled to Georgia…
This is further confirmed by the October 2021 Brookings Institute’s Report which specifically focused on the Fulton County DA’s investigation —you can run a word search and you’ll make the same factual assessment that until a few days ago it had never been publicly known that he went to Georgia. I now refer you to pages 40 thru 43 and pages 71 thru 75;
…To support this solicitation, Trump cited a variety of dubious sources—including “rumors,” “Trump media,” “political people,” and “what I’ve heard.” —Interjecting throughout the call, Meadows and Trump Attorney Cleta Mitchell sought to convince Raffensperger and Germany to meet with them personally to “find some kind of agreement to look at this a little bit more fully” by improperly sharing Georgians’ voter data.
At several points, Trump threatened Raffensperger and his deputies, insinuating that they were jeopardizing themselves by not uncovering the fraud Trump described. For instance, at one point he stated of alleged voter fraud, “you are going to find that they are—which is totally illegal—it is more illegal for you than it is for them because, you know, what they did and you’re not reporting it.”
Fundamentally —thus far the minimal text messages the Select Committee has shared with the General Public have been devastating to Trump/Meadows. I genuinely wish more individuals would understand the importance of the “oath of Office” and in what role Trump/Meadows were acting. Those are important datapoints.
Incidentally after the Watergate Investigation discovered the “secret recordings and equipment” HR Haldeman was indicted (along with several other Nixon Administration officials) a jury found Haldeman guilty and this resulted in Halderman being sentenced to eighth and two & a half years, respectively to prison. Again the original Indictment charged Haldeman with Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice and Perjury —as part of the criminal investigation prosecutors referenced the Congressional Investigation… see New York Times 1975 article
As to if there’s an ongoing DOJ criminal investigation into Trump and specifically Meadows —late yesterday I asked Nancy to tweet this thread because someone needed to cut through the twitter-screaming goats and just focus on the facts and then make an informed inference…there is absolutely zero public reporting that the Department of Justice has an ongoing investigation and as noted in March 2021 then acting US Attorney for USAO-DC was unequivocal that his office was “looking into Trump and his inner circle’s actions and that sedition was on the table” —
yet Channing Phillips either shuttered that investigation or Sherwin got ahead of his skis. In mid November I walked you through (now confirmed) PAS Nomination of Matthew Graves -in short I’m not overtly criticizing US Attorney Graves, I’m simply saying that he was newly confirmed and I want to give him the opportunity to “right the ship” that his most immediate predecessor apparently decided to take off course. Again I trust US Attorney Graves and genuinely believe that he is playing catch up because his predecessor really appears to have no appetite to hold the Domestic Terrorist Accountable and yes that includes Trump and Meadows…
At any rate I have to go back to my bonbons because it’s not like they are going to eat themselves. If you have questions please feel free to leave a comment but realistically I likely won’t respond until after COB ←as of late that’s been after 1!PM.
Be well. Filey
Thanks Spicey. Over the last 5 years I've gone from 'they are all going to prison', to 'I will wait until I can see what can be proven in court'. Also, did these people texting not think that their texts could come back to bite them? If something is written/typed(text), generally a second person receives it, and it is no longer under your control.
Screw game theory! That person is a grifter and fraud. I hear he's been playing at being the latest incarnation of Tundra. (Giant eye roll)
Meadows is toast and it's awesome! Definitely looking forward to when the traitors in Congress are released too. Thanks, Spicey!