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January 6th Committee Hearings Thread of Dominance


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12 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Im skeptical that the text messages are truly deleted. Even people relatively in the know may not be aware of all of the backups. Not to mention that worker bees, ordered to do shady/illegal tasks, may not really follow through.

also as we frequently relearn, coverups are often punished more than the actual crime.

 

How can this be known?  If the coverup is successful it is not punished so how can you say the odds are the punishment harsher? Maybe they get caught on a lesser crime but the coverup hides the major one.  Is the punishment for covering up the minor one greater than the one they would have had for the major one?

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This is a weird as shit story. It looks like both the Secret Service and current DHS' OIG are slimy operations.

 

 From the Washington Post:

Quote

A government watchdog accused the U.S. Secret Service of erasing texts from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, after his office requested them as part of an inquiry into the U.S. Capitol attack, according to a letter sent to lawmakers this week.

Joseph V. Cuffari, head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees indicating that the text messages have vanished and that efforts to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack were being hindered.

“The Department notified us that many U.S. Secret Service (USSS) text messages, from January 5 and 6, 2021 were erased as part of a device-replacement program,” he wrote in a letter dated Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post. The letter was earlier reported on by the Intercept and CNN.

Cuffari emphasized that the erasures came “after” the Office of Inspector General requested copies of the text messages for its own investigation, and signaled that they were part of a pattern of DHS resistance to his inquiries. Staff members are required by law to surrender records so that he can audit the sprawling national security agency, but he said they have “repeatedly” refused to provide them until an attorney reviews them.

“This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced,” he wrote, and offered to brief the House and Senate committees on the “access issues.”

[BREAK]

The Secret Service has had a history of important records disappearing under cover of night and agency staff members refusing to cooperate when investigators came calling seeking information.

When a congressional committee was investigating assassinations and assassination attempts, it sought boxes of records that reportedly showed the Secret Service received ample advance warnings and threats before President John F. Kennedy’s death that white supremacists and other organizations were plotting to kill Kennedy using high-powered rifles from tall buildings. The Secret Service told investigators the records had been destroyed as part of a normal culling of old archives — days after investigators had requested them.

On Cuffari:

Quote

Cuffari, nominated by Trump in 2019 and confirmed by the Senate, has faced significant criticism since he took over the office. His first-year audits plummeted to historic lows, he clashed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the veracity of an inspection of a detention center, and he blocked investigations into the Secret Service’s handling of protests in Lafayette Square following the murder of George Floyd and the spread of the coronavirus in the agency’s ranks, documents show.

The OIG’s office is under investigation by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an independent entity in the executive branch, for undisclosed allegations of misconduct,

I think the SS destruction of evidence is a pattern for that organization. I think the phone replacement excuse is a cover. I think the casual forgetfulness about backing up texts when new phones are issued is lame as shit.

The accuser, Cuffari, is a shitbag. 

It appears to me that the entire Secret Service operation in the White House needs to be cleaned out wholesale and top-to-bottom. You can't even have the appearance that the Secret Service is acting for political reasons. None.

Every little world that ever has light shined on it ends up looking like a cesspool snake pit.

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So this is what I glean:

1. Media outlets report that SS deleted texts from Jan. 5 and 6.

2. SS says that is"categorically false."

3.SS then says that the deletions were part of a normal process.

So what exactly was false about the report that texts were deleted? 

Edited by Horndog
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3 minutes ago, Horndog said:

So this is what I glean:

1. Media outlets report that SS deleted texts from Jan. 5 and 6.

2. SS says that is"categorically false."

3.SS then says that the deletions were part of a normal process.

So what exactly was false about the report that texts were deleted? 

Well, they are claiming "no texts were lost".  Whether that's true or not, I don't know.

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4 minutes ago, Horndog said:

So this is what I glean:

1. Media outlets report that SS deleted texts from Jan. 5 and 6.

2. SS says that is"categorically false."

3.SS then says that the deletions were part of a normal process.

So what exactly was false about the report that texts were deleted? 

image.gif.5d4ee9684d559f933d755215fff47e0f.gif

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4 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

This is a weird as shit story. It looks like both the Secret Service and current DHS' OIG are slimy operations.

 

 From the Washington Post:

On Cuffari:

I think the SS destruction of evidence is a pattern for that organization. I think the phone replacement excuse is a cover. I think the casual forgetfulness about backing up texts when new phones are issued is lame as shit.

The accuser, Cuffari, is a shitbag. 

It appears to me that the entire Secret Service operation in the White House needs to be cleaned out wholesale and top-to-bottom. You can't even have the appearance that the Secret Service is acting for political reasons. None.

Every little world that ever has light shined on it ends up looking like a cesspool snake pit.

It was pretty clear even Biden was not comfortable with those assigned to take a bullet for him.

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1 minute ago, Pig Bellmont said:

I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist, but at some point the through line between all these coincidences becomes clear

It was all out in the open.  We all fucking saw what happened.  It's the most obvious crime of all time.  I would say I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, but I'm just kinda numb to it now.

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3 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

It was all out in the open.  We all fucking saw what happened.  It's the most obvious crime of all time.  I would say I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, but I'm just kinda numb to it now.

Of course- I guess my point was the level of inter-governmental cooperation wasn’t out in the open. The secret service stuff at Biden’s inauguration surprised me.
 

Sure I can believe that whatever acting hack at the DOD and Flynn’s brother slowed the deployment of national guard to the Capitol, but I didn’t know the secret service tried to kidnap Pence or supported the insurrection 

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23 hours ago, TXSG8R said:

 

What pillar was Joe Biden the candidate a moderate on exactly?  He promised to get rid of student debt, elect a black woman to the SC, kill fossil fuels, yada yada. He’s being crushed by the left for not eliminating student debt, and the majority of the party doesn’t want him to run again. It’s largely impossible to be a moderate in any party leadership position, and absolutely impossible on the right. 

It says something about you if you think that electing a black woman to the Supreme Court is somehow radical. 

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1 hour ago, Pig Bellmont said:

I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist, but at some point the through line between all these coincidences becomes clear

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

It was all out in the open.  We all fucking saw what happened.  It's the most obvious crime of all time.  I would say I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, but I'm just kinda numb to it now.

All this evidence pointing at conspiracies by Trump and Co., and Qanon is fucking too busy chasing down JFK Jr. in Dallas.

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On the Secret Service thing, it appears that the may have "lost" the texts after the DHS IG asked for them.  Not the 1/6 Committee

There's currently no evidence to support the notion that the texts were withheld from the Committee  Normally, I might wonder whether the Committee subpoenaed or requested them, because Congress and all.

It's not a sure thing, but I have been impressed with the diligence and thoroughness of the Committee, and, based on that might guess that SS texts were requested and duly delivered months ago.

So, this may screw up whatever internal investigation is going on, but theres no evidence it's screwing up the Committee.

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15 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Is there a story associated with this? Interesting.

From December 2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-to-make-changes-to-presidential-detail-to-bring-on-agents-who-worked-with-biden/2020/12/30/d6fb8fe8-49ce-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html

Quote

The Secret Service is making some staff changes in the presidential detail that will guard President-elect Joe Biden, amid concerns from Biden allies that some current members were politically aligned with President Trump, according to two people familiar with the changes.

As Biden readies his new administration, the Secret Service plans to bring back to the White House detail a handful of senior agents whom Biden knows well from their work more than four years ago guarding him and his family when he was vice president.

Staff changes are typical with the arrival of a new president and are designed to increase the trust and comfort the incoming president feels with his protective agents, who often stand by the president’s side during sensitive discussions and private moments.

But the shifts underway occur at a particularly contentious time, as Trump has blamed his reelection loss on unfounded allegations of voter fraud and has sought to block his administration from treating Biden as the president-elect. Some in the Secret Service also came under criticism during Trump’s tenure for appearing to embrace his political agenda.

For instance, some presidential detail members urged other agents and Secret Service officers not to wear masks on presidential trips this year — against the administration’s own public health guidance — as the president felt wearing masks projected weakness, The Washington Post has reported.

The Secret Service also took the unprecedented step of allowing the former detail leader to temporarily leave his job to become a White House political adviser. Anthony Ornato was hired as White House deputy chief of staff earlier this year. In that role, he helped coordinate a controversial June photo opportunity in which Trump strode defiantly across Lafayette Square to pose with a Bible after the park was forcibly cleared of peaceful protesters.

Ornato also helped coordinate numerous rallies across the country during the pandemic, per Trump’s wishes. The mass gatherings were blamed for increasing the spread of the coronavirus in some of the communities where they took place and left many in the ranks of the Secret Service infected or exposed.

More than 130 Secret Service officers and dozens of Secret Service agents helping to protect the president and vice president either tested positive for the coronavirus in 2020 or had to quarantine because of suspected contact with infected co-workers.

Ornato will be leaving the White House and is slated to return to the Secret Service to become the assistant director overseeing the agency’s Rowley Training Center, according to the people familiar with the changes, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe personnel decisions. The posting is prestigious but outside of the president’s immediate protection team.

Meanwhile, some well-respected supervisory agents who worked on the protective detail for Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, during the Obama administration are set to join the presidential protection team come Jan. 20. That includes Darryl Volpicelli, who will become the second-in-command of President Biden’s detail, and Brian McDonough, who will become a senior detail supervisor, according to the people familiar with the changes.


“That is smart to give the incoming president the comfort of the familiar,” said one former Secret Service executive, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel changes. “You want him to be with people he knows and trusts, and who also know how he operates.”

A White House spokesman and Biden transition officials declined to comment for this story.

Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan declined to comment on Ornato’s White House role or the staffing changes but said the Secret Service remains true to its apolitical mission.

“The U.S. Secret Service is uniquely authorized to provide protection to designated U.S. and other world leaders and remains steadfastly dedicated to a standard of excellence in those operations, wholly apolitically and unaffiliated with the political parties of protectees,” Milhoan’s statement said. “As a matter of practice and due to operational security, the agency does not comment on protective operations inclusive of internal decisions on agency assignments. ”


All incoming presidents need to feel comfort and trust in their Secret Service protection team, whose agents shadow them wherever they go and stand as silent witnesses to their private moments. But not all presidents have felt sure of their protectors upon their arrival.

Notably, President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton were highly distrustful of the agents around them early on, fearing the detail agents had grown very close to President George H.W. Bush and were the sources of leaks to reporters about a few private details of their first months in the mansion.

The addition of the vice president’s former protective agents to the presidential detail after such a long gap in time is somewhat unusual. Both Volpicelli and McDonough had moved on to higher supervisory positions since Biden was in the White House. But this is the first time since Richard Nixon’s 1968 victory that a vice president has won the presidential election several years after serving in the White House.


The Secret Service also plans to name a new special agent to lead the Biden presidential detail, David Cho, according to the people familiar with the changes. Known as a perfectionist supervisor, he had risen to become the second-in-command of the protective detail during the Trump administration.

Cho was awarded the Department of Homeland Security’s gold medal for exceptional service in 2019 for his negotiations with North Korean officials to arrange security for Trump’s historic visit there, while still overseeing security planning at the White House complex.

 

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1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It says something about you if you think that electing a black woman to the Supreme Court is somehow radical. 

I don’t know where you or BLKNSTY interpreted what I said meant anything radical or extreme. I said you couldn’t be in party leadership if you don’t support the party pillars. Joe electing a black woman is totally in line with the DNC platform. The two party system forces both sides to align more and more to rigid pillars, and that purity test is now moving down to the rank and file party members. 

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7 minutes ago, TXSG8R said:

I don’t know where you or BLKNSTY interpreted what I said meant anything radical or extreme. I said you couldn’t be in party leadership if you don’t support the party pillars. Joe electing a black woman is totally in line with the DNC platform. The two party system forces both sides to align more and more to rigid pillars, and that purity test is now moving down to the rank and file party members. 

You clearly ain’t passing no purity test

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49 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

Good job sending out subpoenas (checks notes) 20 months after the crime was committed and three days after it became obvious this was kind of fucking important.

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14 hours ago, elguapo said:

 

And wasn't there a ton of phone call transcripts that were stored on a top-secret server and couldn't be accessed for the Mueller investigation? Wouldn't the current staff have those passwords and such?

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Of course- I guess my point was the level of inter-governmental cooperation wasn’t out in the open. The secret service stuff at Biden’s inauguration surprised me.
 
Sure I can believe that whatever acting hack at the DOD and Flynn’s brother slowed the deployment of national guard to the Capitol, but I didn’t know the secret service tried to kidnap Pence or supported the insurrection 

What stuff at Biden’s inauguration?
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14 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

On the Secret Service thing, it appears that the may have "lost" the texts after the DHS IG asked for them.  Not the 1/6 Committee

There's currently no evidence to support the notion that the texts were withheld from the Committee  Normally, I might wonder whether the Committee subpoenaed or requested them, because Congress and all.

It's not a sure thing, but I have been impressed with the diligence and thoroughness of the Committee, and, based on that might guess that SS texts were requested and duly delivered months ago.

So, this may screw up whatever internal investigation is going on, but theres no evidence it's screwing up the Committee.

 

5 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

Goddammit.

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