A Few Honest Folks?

The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes was famously said to walk the streets looking for an honest man. (They also described him as badly lacking in manners and civil discourse and a man who had outbursts of public urination and defecation!) So, I am uncertain just how he would define honesty. But, since we have recently had a rash of public officials who were not familiar with truth-telling, it is good to come across several people who have testified honestly in the House Select Committee Hearings about January 6^th.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recorded the call from the President and testified about that conversation where he was asked to find 11,780 votes so that they could declare him the winner of Georgia’s electoral votes. The Secretary could hardly get his explanation out in the conversation with the former President when he explained the multiple counts and ballot reviews. He also told the committee that one discrepancy was that many people voted for other offices on the ballot but did not vote for any candidate for president, leaving that ballot line blank so that other candidates in some counties received more votes than the Office of the President did. In his testimony, he spoke of the turmoil that resulted from opposing this request. Phones for his family members were “doxed” and unknown persons subjected them to cyberbullying and personal threats. He, his wife, and other family members were physically threatened and his daughter-in-law’s home was invaded. When asked why he just didn’t give up and quit, he simply answered that he had to remain faithful to his job and the Constitution.

The Arizona Speaker of the House also testified about pressures from the White House and its’ associates. He was not asked to find more votes but was asked to call the Arizona House back into session, so it could select a new set of presidential electors which would then cast votes in the president’s favor, although Biden had won the state by several thousand votes. He tried to explain that this was not something he could do subject to state laws. He explained he had taken an oath to defend the Constitution and his legislative office and could not go against this oath or his faith in making that vow. He also described attacks against him and his family and protestors surrounding his home with loudspeakers defaming his character. Although I disagree with this official in his devotion to former President Reagan, his personal conservatism, and his statement that if DJT were to run again, he would vote for him, I have to applaud the fact that his oath of office meant something to him; (even though the oath taken by the former president apparently meant nothing in his case).

Several officials from the Department of Justice also gave testimony in the Committee hearings.

NPR reports that “former Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and former Office of Legal Counsel head Steven Engel all testified before the committee about the pressure they faced to use their positions at the Justice Department (DOJ) to help then-President Trump overturn his election loss.”

They mentioned daily phone calls from the White House to call the election fraudulent or to investigate ever-increasing conspiratorial claims, all of which were proven false. They explained they had even been told to just find fraud; the White House would take care of the rest. When they learned of a plan in transition from the president to name as a new acting Attorney General (AG), an inexperienced DOJ environmental attorney named Jeffrey Clark who was ready to do the President’s bidding, the upper staff of the Department of Justice uniformly threatened to resign. Rep Scott Perry, from PA, brought Clark to the attention of the president as one who would be on the team. Clark had prepared a letter for Rosen’s signature that would have been sent to several states and stated that the DOJ had found enough evidence to decertify the election and encouraged the states to choose new electors. Since none of this was true, Rosen, who was asked by the president to serve under Clark (preposterous!) showed that the senior staff would all resign if they put this unqualified person in the AG office. The president dropped this plan in the face of this collective action. These three officials all spoke about the integrity of the department and how moves such as this would threaten the independence and reputation of Justice. Here again, truth-telling and integrity are valued, as are the oaths the staff attorneys take to serve.

The NPR analysis criticized the DOJ senior officials for not going public with this episode of coercion by the president, which has been called a scheme leading to a constitutional crisis. Interestingly, Perry (who denied this) and several other members of Congress requested advance pardons that were not granted. Congressman Mo Brooks (who wore body armor and spoke at the Jan 6^th rally) requested blanket pardons for all who voted against certifying the election, some say.

Last week Jeffery Clarks’ home was searched on a DOJ Inspector General (IG) warrant carried out by Federal agents. They ousted Clark from his home, leaving him to stand on the street in his PJs. Also, Attorney John Eastman, mastermind of several election schemes and rally speaker, had his iPhone seized on a Federal warrant from the DOJ IG office. Reports show the agents used his own facial scan to unlock the phone. Well now, that no longer seems like such a secure method, does it?

Now comes the surprise testimony of 26-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. She spoke in a live hearing scheduled on short notice by the Select Committee. After her testimony, we learned she had recently changed attorneys, leaving a DJT-provided and funded lawyer, for one of her choosing after receiving somewhat thinly veiled warnings ‘to remain a team player, to say the correct things, and to keep in mind that if she wants to stay in DJT world, that the former president was reading transcripts of the hearings’. In a warning to others, Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney spoke against witness tampering and intimidation and asked several of those who had not given testimony to come forward.

Her desk was in a short corridor between Meadows’ office and the Oval Office and next to the office of the VP. Press photos pictured her in meetings, sitting along the wall in a meeting room, taking notes, and bringing messages. One person derisively called her the coffee girl. Be that as it may, she was in a position to hear exchanges among several of the major players in the White House, including attorneys, advisors, and security staffers. At times, she was in the Oval Office for discussions there. She was also present after DJT threw dishes across the room or pulled the tablecloth off his dining table, scattering the remnants of a meal across his private dining room. Hutchinson recounted assisting a White House valet one day in wiping ketchup off the walls after the president had thrown food. Somehow, I do not think those were duties in any of her job descriptions. Surely, they picture a man who never should have been elected.

She overheard parts of discussions that Meadows had with Congressmen such as Jim Jordan or Minority Leader McCarthy. She described escorting Rudy Giuliani from the White House and being told that January 6^th would be wild. Later, asking Meadows about it, she was told that some bad things might be happening. On January 5^th Meadows planned to go join Bannon, Giuliani, and others in the Willard Hotel ‘War Room’; she said she discouraged that; he ended up calling into the meeting.

There were lengthy discussions about the speech the president would give before the rally; the attorneys kept telling him to tone it down. Hutchinson attended the rally and was backstage before it started. There she heard the president arguing with security about the crowd. He wanted more people allowed into the protected area so the cameras would see a good crowd. The Secret Service said many people did not want to go through the magnetometers where weapons were being confiscated. DC police already had reports of marchers with bayonets fixed to flagpoles, armed men in trees, and marchers with AK-15s. The president reportedly told the agents that the armed marchers were not there to harm him, let them in. It was unclear if they obeyed his orders. He gave a speech telling his supporters “To fight like hell because if they didn’t, they would not have a country anymore”. In his speech, he also went after Mike Pence again.

After the march, he demanded to be taken to the Capitol to be with the marchers, but the security agents refused to do so, citing the danger and the unruliness of the armed mob. Hutchinson reported that the security detail told a story about the president becoming enraged in the secure SUV and becoming physical with the agents while trying to turn the vehicle, which finally brought him back to the West Wing.

As the day went on, she gave testimony about the many advisers and family trying to get the president to call off the mob. She reported, as others have, that the president was unmoved at the calls to “hang Mike Pence”, saying he probably deserved them. When he finally sent out a tweet, he further fanned the flames.

I will not recount all of her testimony here, but her reports are of a man clearly out of control listening to none of his advisors or family members; a man who could not concede an election he knew he had lost. Cassidy Hutchinson, like many before her, came to Washington as an intern. She was the first in her family to go to college; she had dreams about serving her country. Before she became the assistant to Meadows, she worked in the offices of Steve Scalise and Ted Cruz. She was a conservative Republican. Yet she also described in her truth-telling way, her disillusionment with those leading the country; how could they approve of attacking the Capitol? To her, those actions were un-American. To her, this meant that she had a duty to set the record straight, to tell the truth as she saw and overheard it.

We are all in her gratitude and salute her courage in coming forward.

‘Til next week-Peace!