Who Would You Rather See In Jail, Giuliani Or Flynn? How About Both?

One down, 2 to go

Today Giuliano associate Igor Fruman got off very lightly, sentenced to just a year and a day in prison. He pleaded guilty to soliciting a million dollars from Putin crony, Andrey Muraviev, to illegally contribute to Republican campaigns in Nevada, Florida and other states. He wasn't tried-- at least not yet-- for being part of Giuliani's machinations against Biden in Ukraine. The crooked Republicans who accepted the illegal contributions-- Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and the Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, now running for governor-- haven't been charged either.

Giuliani, on the other hand, is facing a much tougher judicial future and just saw federal prosecutors granted possession of more than 3,000 documents he was trying to keep them from bein gable to read. You've probably been reading about the part of the Trump coup attempt where phony electors forged documents claiming they were the legal 2020 electors representing Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. From the moment Rachel Maddow started intensive reporting on the story, she kept asking who coordinated the efforts. Turns out it was Giuliani.

CNN reported last night that Giuliani led the Trump campaign officials to persuade Republicans in the 7 states-- all of which were won by Biden-- to submit the forged documents and then have Pence count them as if they were the legitimate electoral college votes. CNN's sources told them that "Giuliani and his allies coordinated the nuts-and-bolts of the process on a state-by-state level [including] multiple planning calls between Trump campaign officials and GOP state operatives, and that Giuliani participated in at least one call. The source also said the Trump campaign lined up supporters to fill elector slots, secured meeting rooms in statehouses for the fake electors to meet on December 14, 2020, and circulated drafts of fake certificates that were ultimately sent to the National Archives... 'It was Rudy and these misfit characters who started calling the shots,' a former Trump campaign staffer said. 'The campaign was throwing enough shit at the wall to see what would stick.'... The scheme was integral to Trump's plan to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to throw out Biden's electors and replace them with the GOP electors on January 6 when Congress counted the electoral votes. It has also come under renewed scrutiny by the January 6 select committee and state attorneys general, raising questions about the involvement of Trump's campaign and whether any laws were broken."

Slate: "Last week, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel referred to federal prosecutors a criminal investigation into who was behind a Dec. 14, 2020, certificate falsely attesting that Donald Trump won Michigan’s electoral votes. The next day, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas made a similar referral to federal prosecutors in his state. Those who had a hand in crafting and attempting to submit false certificates of electors may have committed multiple crimes, including forgery and fraud. The actions of these state officials are important steps toward uncovering the scope and depth of the attempted plot to steal the election and keep former President Donald Trump in power. Significantly, the Michigan and New Mexico schemes were not isolated episodes. Rather, they appear to have been part of an organized scheme run through seven states. Many of the certificates used the same words and font, as if coordinated and copied from a common template. By contrast, the genuine certificates vary greatly in form, language, and look... To former prosecutors, the most obvious entry point to investigating the plot is to question the fraudulent Republican “electors” whose names are on the certificates. They can almost surely point the way up the chain of command.

Another person surely worth questioning is Ian Northon, an attorney representing the conservative Thomas More Society’s Amistad Project, which unsuccessfully filed numerous legal challenges to the 2020 election results and which counts Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis as special counsel. (Ellis was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday.) Northon joined the Michigan Republican electors on Dec. 14 and asked police officers stationed outside the state Capitol to deliver a manila envelope carrying the electors’ votes, which he described as the official “certificate of ascertainment,” to the Senate majority leader.

Other promising witnesses include Pence’s aides, such as Marc Short and lawyer Greg Jacob. They are likely to have been the ones who assisted the former vice president in altering the language of the “script” the last five vice presidents used before the electoral vote count took place. Pence added words stating that he could, per the parliamentarian, only count a slate whose documentation included “a certificate from an authority of that state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.” Those words almost certainly reflected his awareness of the fake electoral count certificates that lacked authentication from state officials.

Nothing will happen on the potentially criminal side of these cases, though, unless someone in the Department of Justice acts. Swiftly and vigorously investigating the fraudulent electoral slate plot would be a vital step toward accountability for those atop the conspiracy to end 235 years of presidential power transitions under the rule of law.

Maybe Giuliani can share a cell with Michael Flynn. The two of them had their honorary degrees from the University of Rhode Island revoked today.) The Guardian's Peter Stone reported today that the FBI has learned Flynn and his allies gathered dirt "on top Republicans [Pennsylvania Senator Pat Roomey and Congressman Brain Fitzpatrick] to 'move' them to back election audits in key states Trump lost."

The source is Everett Stern, "who runs the intelligence firm Tactical Rabbit and is a Republican vying for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania. He told The Guardian that "two Flynn associates with the rightwing Patriot Caucus group enlisted his help in April in a scheme to seek potentially damaging information on two Republican members of Congress to prod them to back an audit of the 2020 vote that Joe Biden won." Stern says he played along for a couple of months and then alerted the FBI of the plot in June.

The efforts by Flynn’s Patriot Caucus allies were launched after Trump failed to block Biden from taking office, and are part of a wider drive by Trump loyalists and Flynn to help boost Trump’s political fortunes via more state audits nationwide into false charges that Biden’s win was rigged, and elect like-minded candidates in key states to top electoral offices.

Stern provided text messages, emails and other documents revealing he had multiple contacts with one of the Patriot Caucus members, Velma Anne Ruth, and two other influential Flynn allies, Houston real estate mogul Al Hartman and former army Green Beret Ivan Raiklin, who were pushing audits in several key states.

...Stern gave The Guardian a voice mail he received in which Hartman talked about leaning on moderate Republican “Rinos” in Pennsylvania to gain support for an audit of that state’s vote which Biden won by over 80,000, and Hartman said a similar drive in Michigan was needed.

Stern said Hartman wanted to use Tactical Rabbit’s intelligence gathering tools and his campaign to dig up potentially embarrassing campaign finance information and other dirt about the Pennsylvania members, plus Republican political figures in Michigan who were also resisting audits.

Hartman and Raiklin also talked with Stern about meeting Flynn, Trump’s disgraced ex-national security adviser, and proposed compensating him for his information via campaign donations, said Stern.

In an April exchange of Hartman text messages seen by the Guardian, Hartman asked a Flynn scheduler to help “connect” Flynn with Stern whose Senate campaign and credentials he touted highly, calling Stern a “strong believer,” in their cause.

...Stern’s allegations have echoes of Flynn’s scheming with Trump and other loyalists in late 2020 to thwart Biden’s win, efforts that included a White House meeting with Trump where Flynn proposed declaring martial law in several states Biden won and then rerunning the election there.

In November, the House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack subpoenaed Flynn who Trump had pardoned post-election even though he had pled guilty twice to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation. In response to the subpoena to testify and turn over documents, Flynn sued the panel but a judge quickly dismissed his lawsuit last month.