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J6 Committee must publicize TFG's guilt now...before the midterms. [1]

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Date: 2022-09-07

We need the J6 Committee Interim Report before the midterms.

My only caveat on this is that I awakened in the middle of the night, and realized that I believe the January 6th Select Committee must release their Interim Report in September as they promised and not wait until the end of the year. I am going to send Chairman Thompson this letter once I edit it further. They only can be reached by phone or through the mail. (I will remove the phone number from my letter, but am including it should any of you share my concern and wish to call.) I wrote it in the third person, and possibly should change that. If there is any information that’s not correct, please let me know.

Chairman Bennie G. Thompson

January 6 Select Committee

Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Phone: (202) 225-7800

Dear Chairman Thompson,

Since July of 2021, many of us who cherish democracy, have believed that the January 6 Select Committee was the only governmental entity that was steadfastly working to save our country from tyranny, extremism, and lawlessness. Although Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DOJ have now come on board, and are sharing your witness transcripts and evidence, their timeframe is different than yours, and there will be little transparency until people are indicted.

But, with the midterms approaching, time is of the essence, and I implore you to release the Interim Report you promised in September rather than waiting until the end of the year. Providing the truth about the legitimacy of the 2020 election is an underlying theme of the 2022 election. And, it has been the purpose of all of your hard work, all of the documents and records you uncovered and read, all of the interviews you conducted and the evidence you amassed, and the analysis, which is critical for making sense of a multipronged conspiracy to overthrow our democracy.

Yet, Mr. Trump, the Republican Party, and its leadership throughout the country, MAGA extremists, Republican donors, and allied groups of domestic terrorists, white nationalists, Q-Anon followers, and others who wish to destroy our democracy have been pushing the Big Lie and Stop the Steal relentlessly for two years, and there have been no repercussions.

And, in fact, the number of Republicans who believe Mr. Trump’s and the Republican Party’s false claims about election fraud has risen by 15 percent since the first anniversary of the Insurrection. In July 2021, according to Reuters, 55% of Republicans believed the election was stolen from Mr. Trump. As of June 16, 2022, according to the Poytner Organization, 70% of Republicans believe the election was stolen.

In addition, according to July 18, 2022 study (which was updated September 8), from FiveThirtyEight and ABC news, 60 percent of Americans will have an election denier who is running for the Senate, House, governor, attorney general, secretary of state or for local offices on their ballot this November Although polling is imperfect, they project that 118 election deniers and 8 election doubters will win. Thus, these elected officials will perpetuate The Big Lie while in office, and will be poised to destroy the legitimacy of the 2024 election.

As popular as your last primetime hearing was on July 21, 2022, only 17.7 million Americans watched it, and we need the results of your findings about the legitimacy of the 2020 election to be widely distributed in an Interim Report before the midterms. It is critical for voters to learn that the 2020 election was not fraudulent, and that Mr. Trump, the Republican Party, and the election deniers running for office are liars, and enemies of democracy.

Your committee is the only entity that has all of the documentation, interviews, and evidence to prove that. It is also important for voters to know which members of Congress participated in the Insurrection. How else can they determine which political party and which candidates they should vote for in the midterms, particularly if we want to protect our democracy?

We recognize that the nine members of the January 6th Select Committee members were given a herculean task, and you and your colleagues have done a superlative job despite unimaginable personal threats, and unwarranted professional risks. And, while we realize that the committee’s work could go on for years, unfortunately there is a deadline, independent of which political party wins at the polls in November.

But, the critical problem right now is that the former president is in the spotlight again, this time for stealing top secret and classified documents, which have compromised our national security, put the lives of our assets in danger, include foreign nuclear defense information, and possibly have been shared with our enemies or could be if Republicans lose the midterm elections or the former president is indicted for any of the multifarious crimes he has committed.

And, once again, the Republican party, has turned a blind eye to Mr. Trump’s most heinous crime of espionage. Instead, they are pretending that this act of espionage is “a storage problem,” or a political attack on the former president by President Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, the FBI, DOJ, and the Democratic party.

Instead of protecting our country, the very worst of Republican leadership, the RNC, and others, including Mr. Trump, are using his ultimate betrayal as a fundraising tool, and are once again spreading disinformation. Unfortunately, the former president’s popularity has surged among Republican voters since the documents were recovered. And, once again, Mr. Trump has been given preferential treatment in the judicial process, this time by a Federal Judge he appointed, and sought out to oversee his case.

Chairman Thompson, although this case of espionage isn’t under your purview, it is an extension of the lawlessness, criminality, and anti-American rhetoric and behavior that former President Trump and the Republican party have embraced since he lost the 2020 election. The DOJ was nipping it in the bud until a Trump appointed federal judge chose to accede to all of Trump’s demands. It was a dangerous and unprecedented step to take when dealing with classified information.

That is why it is more important than ever that the conclusions the January 6 Select Committee has reached regarding the 2020 election, and Mr. Trump’s role in the Insurrection and coup be released ASAP. In fact, that was your timeframe as late as the end of July. You told reporters that you and the committee would be working on the Interim report in August, issue it in September, and present the final report by the end of the year, including your recommendation of legislative fixes to try and thwart new efforts to circumvent U.S. election laws in the future.

But, suddenly on September 4, 2022, we heard there is a new timeframe and the report won’t be released until the end of the year. While we understand why you wish to hear from Newt Gingrich, Ginni Thomas, and former Vice President Mike Pence, perhaps the DOJ could handle these interviews. With the election only two months way, and possible charges against Trump forthcoming, we need Americans to understand the depth and breadth of Trump’s guilt and criminality—written in a way that the majority of Americans will understand.

It is with the utmost respect, that I say this: We all are aware that the January 6 Select Committee has made extraordinarily progress in record time, and that all of you have spent voluminous hours working on our behalf. But, if you do not release an interim report ASAP, you will have failed the American people, and despite your intent to do otherwise, aided Mr. Trump and the election deniers he has endorsed.

Independent of the number of offices election deniers win, it will mean that the Big Lie will be institutionalized to a greater or lesser degree. It will increase the number of anti-American politicians in Washington D.C. and in states throughout our nation. Their overriding purpose will be to do everything in their power to discredit your reports, malign and punish members of the committee, and ignore your recommendations for protecting our democracy. And, your report—which many committee members have stated is their finest achievement—will be buried beneath unread copies of the Mueller report.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/7/2121424/-J6-Committee-must-act-ASAP-my-letter-to-Chairman-Thompson

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