Capitol Insurrection Report

Elmer Rhodes + MTG = OMG

A summary and review of the discovery documents submitted by Oath Keeper Ed Vallejo in his effort to win release from pretrial detention. New revelations in the discovery material are reviewed in the context of the well-publicized "Marshall Law" text from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Mark Meadows, which demonstrates a common thread of similar elements in the overall case against the plot to install Trump in the White House for a second term, despite his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential...

A Change of Venue

Description and analysis of the latest developments in the investigation of the January sixth attack on the US Capitol, to include: guilty verdict against Thomas Robertson, the first acquittal of a January 6th defendant, contempt referrals against Navarro and Scavino, the reported claim that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack now has sufficient evidence to issue a criminal referral for Donald Trump, the claim that there's a split on the Committee on that question...

The Grand Jury

Topics include the testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the release of over 100 emails by John Eastman to the Committee, and the usual update on the progress of the criminal proceedings against members of the mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. The main topic of the episode is the bombshell revelation that the Department of Justice has been actually taking action to hold rally organizers accountabl...

Season 2, Episode 7: Ginni's Drunk Texts

Mainly focusing on a series of bizarre text messages sent from Ginni Thomas to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows between 11/5/20 & 1/10/21. Also updates on the conviction of Guy Reffitt, the failure of the DOJ to properly issue charges against one Texas paramilitary gang president, the detention of Enrique Tarrio, the second Proud Boys superceding indictment, the parking garage meeting between Tarrio, Rhodes and others, Manafort's attempt to travel to Dubai on a revoked passport, and the reve...

Season 2 Episode 6: A Roadmap for the Prosecution

A close reading of Judge Mehta's 112-page decision finding that Donald Trump does not have absolute immunity in the January 6th Attack, and how this ruling contains valuable information pointing towards criminal prosecution of alleged conspirators. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59292668/66/thompson-v-trump/

Season 2 Episode 5: The Continuation of Politics

Examining the latest developments in the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, the brief filed by the Committee in the appeal of the Eastman privilege case, suicidality in the criminal justice system, the latest subpoenas from the Committee, and the backstory of the war in Ukraine as it relates to Trump.

Season 2 Episode 4: A Sinking Ship

We catch up on some of the bad news as this phase of the fallout from the Capitol Insurrection moves forward, including Senate Minority Leader McConnell's criticism of "legitimate political discourse" messaging being applied to the Insurrection by the RNC, the discovery of 15 boxes of material taken to Mar-A-Lago by Trump in violation of the Presidential Records Act, disclosures regarding Trump's regular habit of destroying government documents, the news that the accounting firm employed by t...

Oath Keepers, Part Two

Continuing the examination of the folk ideology created by Elmer Stewart Rhodes and posted on the website for his nationwide paramilitary gang, examining how the pretense of nonpartisanship and libertarianism faded away over time to focus increasingly on a reactionary agonal politics that defines domestic political opponents as existential threats to be fought with political violence in an increasingly apocalyptic and milliniarian account of politics as a secularized eschatology.

Oath Keepers Part One

The seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and 10 other members of his paramilitary gang prompt an examination of Rhodes’s redefinition of politics in founding the group, particularly how he defines politics as a potentially armed struggle against a domestic political enemy, an ideologically defined "other" that would have been recognizable to Frankfurt School political scientist and critic of Nazism Franz Neumann. Other topics include the latest news from th...

Season 2, Episode 1: A New Phase

Commemorating the first anniversary of the vicious, cowardly attack on democracy in the US on January sixth, 2021.

Episode 20: The Plot Thickens

Topics include: reaction to comments by Liz Cheney, new arrests of AFO defendants, analysis of a possible scheme to pay to bring violent men to DC for the January 6th Insurrection, the referral to the DOJ of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress, the release of the Army Report that Colonel Matthews alleges served as the basis for incorrect claims made in the DODOIG Report, the release of a PowerPoint authored by Philip Waldon aimed at ending electoral democra...

Episode 19: The Matthews Memo

Being in the main a page by page account of the content of the memorandum authored by Colonel Earl Matthews of the DC National Guard dated December 1, 2021. This memo is consequential because it draws into question the findings in the official DODOIG Report into the events of January sixth, particularly drawing into question the actions of Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy in "planning" the deployment of the DC National Guard, and also accusing General Charles Flynn and Walter Piatt ...

Episode 18: A Family Outing

Catching up on the latest developments: Bannon's self surrender, new subpoenas from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, an update on the National Archives executive privilege case, and the report by Representative Zoe Lofgren that the Committee now has spoken with 200 witnesses, to include figures in the MAGAsphere. Then we turn to this week's theme, a review of the people who have been charged in the January 6th Attack who also have relatives charged in the Janu...

Episode 17: Hurry Up and Wait

Reviews recent developments in the January 6th Attack cases, to include the Rolling Stone article listing what some are calling the "Sedition Seven." Also examines the question of what we know about the ancestry of 631 Capitol Insurrection defendants and relates this to theories of political culture in political science.

Episode 16: Subverting Justice

On October 7, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued its staff report: "Subverting Justice: How the Former President and his Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election." This episode summarizes and analyzes the findings of this report, along with the transcript of the testimony of former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen before the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can find the staff report here. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/subverting-justice-how-the-former-president-and-his-all...

Episode 15: The Trumpenproletariat

Reviewing the 15 persons issued subpoenas by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and the release of the Eastman memo detailing plans to circumvent the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 election. I also examine the data on the educational attainment and employment histories of 100 of 623 January sixth defendants, and how the classical Marxist category of the "lumpenproletariat" can help to understand the character of the Insurrectionist ...

Episode 14: Three Percenters Gang

Following a recap of the events in the ongoing investigations and criminal cases in the Capitol Insurrection, the episode proceeds to the main subject, the activities and ideology of one of the largest extremist gangs that took part in the Capitol Insurrection, the Three Percenters, with special attention to the indictment of the "DC Brigade" of paramilitary terrorists from California, and a summary of the ideas of the folk ideology of Mike Vanderboegh, a self-described former leftist who fou...

Episode 13: The Panglossian Fallacy

Topics include the strange story of John Pierce, the Capitol Insurrection attorney representing 17 defendants who appears to be missing court dates because he is an anti-vaxer who is on a ventilator, the arrest of several violent offenders in the Capitol Insurrection, including #flaggaitercophater, a California Proud Boy identified by volunteer internet sleuths working to protect electoral democracy in the US from the threat of political violence, an analysis of a controversial Reuters articl...

Episode 12: The New Normal

Topics include the Jeffrey Rosen testimony, the MyPillow cyberfraud telethon, the role of online volunteer activists in the January 6th investigations, and the latest example of far right political violence in DC, this time in the form of a bomb threat at the Library of Congress by an apparent neoconfederate from North Carolina. I'll also use Vilfredo Pareto's theory of circulation of elites to examine the Trumpist attempt to build a successful electoral coalition to elect "America First" sed...

Episode 12: The New Normal

This week's episode addresses the attempt by a cohort of "America First" Insurrectionist candidates to remake the Republican Party in the runup to the 2022 midterm elections. Other topics include the Lindell event in Sioux Falls, the latest arrests in the Insurrection cases, the role of volunteer sedition hunters, and the prospect of a continued wave of political violence, as evidenced by the truck bomber at the Library of Congress.

Episode 11: Truth and Competency

Addressing ongoing disinformation by unindicted co-conspirators in the Capitol Insurrection and also the process at least five Insurrection defendants will undergo to assess their competency to assist counsel in preparing their cases.

Episode 10: Ceilings and Floors

Examining the Munchel decision by the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and how the standard of dangerousness established may not be adequate in the face of the threat of far right political violence. We'll also explore the 8 month sentence awarded to Paul Hodgkins, the first felony defendant to be sentenced for his crimes committed during the Capitol Insurrection.

Episode 9: The Politics of Acclamation

Outlining what the theory of the public sphere presented by Habermas has to tell us about our current political predicament.

Episode 8: The Worst

This week's episode examines some of the worst allegations of violence against defendants in the Capitol Insurrection. For comments, feedback or suggestions, follow the show on Twitter @capinsurrep

Episode 7: 500+ Defendants

This week, the Justice Department announced that a Florida man had been arrested, becoming the 500th individual charged federally in the Capitol Insurrection. We'll step back to assess what is known about these defendants to date, and also assess what information revealed in the latest sets of charging documents tells us about what we can expect in what are likely to be hundreds of cases yet to come. Also, the show is now on Twitter, so you can address questions, comments and suggestions @cap...

Episode 6: The Impunity of White Mobs

In this episode, I examine the Capitol Insurrection in the context of the long history of civil disturbances perpetrated by white mobs in the United States, with special consideration for why these mobs are so often allowed to operate with the expectation of complete impunity.

Episode 5: Grand Old Party Animals

Exploring the danger that the Republican Party is in the process of becoming an insurrectional Party that will take part in electoral politics, but also use political violence when it is unsuccessful in elections. I'll review 18 defendants who have established ties to the Republican Party and its affiliated institutions. https://youtube.com/c/CommitteeonHouseAdministrationMajority

Episode 4: Misguided Tourists

Exploring the legislative history of the laws under which over half of the Capitol Insurrection defendants have been charged, debunking claims such as those of Representative Clyde of Georgia who minimized the severity of the 1/6 Attack by describing it as tourism, and also an analysis of how it was that laws inspired by Congressional fear of the militant left ultimately are being applied with urgency against the far right.

Episode 3: Monkey see, Monkey do: The Proud Boys

Consisting of a description of the chauvinistic group "Proud Boys," and their alleged role in the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th, 2021, drawn from the charging documents and published media accounts. Is this the last hurrah of the most important alt-right extremist group in America, or will the Proud Boys somehow continue, despite the fact that most of its leadership is in federal custody?

Monkey see, Monkey do: The Proud Boys

Consisting of a description of the chauvinistic group "Proud Boys," and their alleged role in the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th, 2021, drawn from the charging documents and published media accounts. Is this the last hurrah of the most important alt-right extremist group in America, or will the Proud Boys somehow continue, despite the fact that most of its leadership is in federal custody?

Episode 2: Shane Leedon Jenkins

This episode serves as a case study of one of the more allegedly violent mob members, reconstructing the radicalization of an ex-convict who was at the Capitol on January 6th, and detailing the allegations against him in his indictment. His increasing frustration at the loss of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election is evident in his Twitter feed, which provides a record of the process whereby he was incited to come to the Capitol, allegedly prepared to commit political violence. I'll...

An introduction to the themes we will be exploring as we investigate the Capitol insurrection

1. An updated account of the Capitol insurrection 2. Case studies of participants 3. Development of cases 4. Conspiracy theories 5. Relationships between elites and mass public 6. Myths and lies 7. Massive failures 8. Reason and reasonableness 9. Impunity of white mobs 10. Visibility and recognition in the digital age 11. Political violence in a state founded by revolution 12. Predictions regarding findings. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases?combine=&order=changed&sort=...

Capitol Insurrection Report (Trailer)