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Judge upholds Jan. 6 committee subpoena for RNC records
U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly said the select committee had demonstrated its need for the party’s data on its fundraising emails.

A large group of protesters overtake police and barriers at the Capitol Building.
A large group of pro-Trump protesters overtake police and barriers on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. | Jon Cherry/Getty Images

By KYLE CHENEY

05/02/2022 06:53 AM EDT

A federal judge late Sunday resoundingly supported the Jan. 6 select committee’s effort to obtain internal Republican National Committee data about efforts to fundraise off claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

In a landmark ruling rejecting an RNC lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly said the select committee had demonstrated its need for the party’s data on its fundraising emails between Nov. 3, 2020, and Jan. 6, 2021 — when the RNC and Trump campaign sent supporters messages falsely suggesting the election was stolen. The committee contends those emails helped sow the seeds of the violence that erupted on Jan. 6.

“[T]he Select Committee seeks reasonably relevant information from a narrow window during which the RNC sent emails promoting claims that the presidential election was fraudulent or stolen,” Kelly, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the 53-page ruling.

Kelly issued an injunction to allow the RNC to appeal his ruling by May 5.

The RNC on Monday morning indicated it will indeed appeal the ruling and claimed a partial victory by forcing the select committee to narrow the terms of its Salesforce subpoena. That narrowing, which came in response to some of the RNC’s sharpest concerns about the breadth of the subpoena, was cited repeatedly by Kelly as a reason to permit the committee to obtain the data.

“While the RNC strongly disagrees with this ruling, our lawsuit compelled Nancy Pelosi’s January 6th committee to dramatically narrow the subpoena’s scope,” chief RNC counsel Matt Raymer said. “

The decision overall is a major victory for the select committee and could open the doors to reams of internal RNC data held by Salesforce, a third-party vendor that the RNC used to run email fundraising campaigns and analyses. The select committee subpoenaed Salesforce for the records in February and the RNC filed suit soon after, seeking to block Salesforce from complying.

In a letter accompanying the subpoena, the select committee noted that Salesforce raised concerns within days of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that some of the fundraising campaigns the RNC and Trump campaign ran through its systems may have played a part in stoking the unrest that led to violence at the Capitol. The select committee is seeking Salesforce records that support the company’s analysis of those fundraising efforts, as well as data about how many RNC supporters viewed those messages and which RNC staffers logged into Salesforce’s system to deliver them.

The RNC argued that a legal victory for the select committee could grant Democrats access to the sensitive secrets of their political rivals, shedding light on internal RNC digital strategies that the party has spent years crafting. That argument was joined by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which submitted its own brief comparing the select committee’s subpoena to Watergate.

But Kelly rejected the notion that sensitive GOP data was at risk, describing it as “speculative” and suggesting any competitive disadvantage that results pales compared to the committee’s legitimate need for the documents at issue.

“Nothing suggests that the Select Committee is demanding, or that Salesforce is preparing to produce, internal RNC memoranda laying out its digital strategy,” Kelly ruled. “Obviously, information that shows which email campaigns attracted more attention, and which attracted less, has some strategic value. But on the record here, whatever competitive harm may come to the RNC from disclosure of the actual material at issue is too ‘logically attenuated’ and ‘speculative’ to defeat the Select Committee’s weighty interest.”

Kelly ruled that the select committee had narrowly tailored its request only to a set of records that would reveal the impact of the RNC’s efforts, alongside Trump, to fundraise off claims the 2020 election was stolen — messaging efforts that the select committee argues played a part in stoking the attack on the Capitol.

“That two-month window is plainly relevant to its investigation into the causes of the January 6 attack,” Kelly wrote.

Kelly also rejected an RNC argument that the select committee’s subpoena to Salesforce lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose” and was really a “law enforcement” effort that Congress was not permitted to pursue.

“The subpoena’s valid legislative purpose is apparent enough to sustain it against this challenge,” he determined.


In his ruling, Kelly swept aside a host of arguments lodged by the RNC against the Jan. 6 select committee, many of which have been made in dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump allies seeking to frustrate the committee’s subpoenas. His ruling could resonate in all of those ongoing legal battles.

For example, Kelly rejected the notion that the committee has been operating improperly because it has no members selected by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy initially recommended five members to the panel, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of them — Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan — contending that they were too closely linked to Trump to be legitimate investigators. In response, McCarthy withdrew all five picks and boycotted the panel.

But Kelly argued that just because Pelosi disagreed with him — and then opted to permit the select committee to operate without its full 13-member contingent — does not make the committee invalid. Rather, Kelly noted that the House had repeatedly voted to accept the select committee’s recommendations to hold various Trump associates in contempt of Congress.

“[T]he House views the Select Committee to be duly constituted and empowered to act … even though the Select Committee has only nine members,” Kelly noted. “This understanding is reflected by the House’s adoption of the Select Committee’s recommendations to find witnesses in contempt of Congress for their refusals to comply with Select Committee subpoenas.”

Kelly also contended that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of two Republicans appointed to the committee by Pelosi, can be properly considered the panel’s ranking GOP member. Many McCarthy allies in the House and reluctant witnesses have argued that Cheney can’t be considered the ranking member because she was appointed by Pelosi.

“[T]o the extent there is any uncertainty about whether she fits the bill, on this record the Court must defer to the Select Committee’s decision to treat Representative Cheney as the ranking minority member,” he ruled.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/subpoena-rnc-records-capitol-riot-00029265

Former Marine who kicked officer on Jan. 6 sentenced to more than 2 years in prison

Kevin Creek apologized in court to officers and his family, saying he intended only to attend President Donald Trump's rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...gBSKAgWYa1oPbKMtjVeuURH0thffp0gIVQgIIkK4

Brooklyn Judge's Son Sentenced to 8 Months in Prison for Role in Capitol Riot

Aaron Mostofsky was sentenced to eight months in jail, followed by 12 months supervised release and 200 hours of community service, U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia.

The son of a New York City judge who referred to himself as a “caveman” eager to protest Donald Trump’s presidential election loss and pleaded guilty to charges he stormed the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, was sentenced Friday to eight months in prison, according to federal prosecutors.

Aaron Mostofsky was seen inside the Capitol wearing a fur costume and a police bulletproof vest that he was accused of stealing during the mayhem. He also gave a video interview inside the building, telling the New York Post he was there “to express my opinion as a free American that this election was stolen.”

Mostofsky, 35, pleaded guilty in February to charges of civil disorder, theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

Federal sentencing guidelines in his case recommended a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Ultimately, he was sentenced to eight months in jail, followed by 12 months supervised release and 200 hours of community service, U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia. Mostofsky also agreed to pay $2,000 restitution.

Mostofsky’s father is Steven Mostofsky, a state court judge in Brooklyn. A message seeking comment was left with a court spokesperson.

Aaron Mostofsky’s unusual garb made him stand out from the crowd of camouflage-wearing, flag-waving rioters. At one point, he was photographed sitting on a bench near the Senate chamber holding a stick and the riot shield, which he said he picked up off the floor.

According to prosecutors, Mostofsky took a bus from New York to Washington and joined protesters in overwhelming a police line and storming the Capitol. Along the way, he picked up and put on the bullet proof vest, valued at $1,905, and the riot shield, worth $265, prosecutors said.

Before the protest, Mostofsky messaged another demonstrator that he could be found at the protest by looking for “a caveman,” adding, “Even a caveman knows it was stolen,” prosecutors said. Afterward, as his photo circulated, he said the image was unfortunate because “now people actually know me.”

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg told Aaron Mostofsky Friday that he was “literally on the front lines” of the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

“What you and others did on that day imposed an indelible stain on how our nation is perceived, both at home and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the judge told Mostofsky, 35.

Mostofsky had asked the judge for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”

“I feel sorry for the officers that had to deal with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report to prison on or after June 5.

Nearly 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot in the 15 months following the shocking event, according to federal prosecutors. More than 250 individuals were charged with assaulting or impending law enforcement. More than 200 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investig...prison-for-role-in-capitol-riot/3676554/

I've never seen people get sentenced to jail time for a "normal tourist visit" before.

Best hurry up and arrest Trump because he is getting all these Republican Candidates elected.

The people are behind him and voting.

Of course you can't arrest him without facts or proof to use in a court of law where he can defend himself
and would have the ability to cross examine.

Keep up the hearings and political witch hunts libs, they make for good tv.

Pfft.


(Edited to add Pfft.)

Upholding a grifter is not a good look.