The new congress is a continuation of the J 6 Attack. The vote for speaker allegedly was directed by Mark Meadows. The treasonous insurrection is progressing in the MAGA Congress. I think the insurrection isn’t over until Mark Meadows is in prison.

“Meadows now holds the title of senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit founded by former senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). After a bipartisan lobbying firm grew too big for that Capitol Hill townhouse, Meadows and DeMint swooped in to pick up the lease and turned it into both a modern think tank — it includes a TV studio for members to do media hits — and a social networking club.”  - Washington Post

Does the "Conservative Partnership Institute" have a fireplace?

Louie Gohmert and Lauren Boebert are in the video.

"We have all the transcripts from Cassidy Hutchinson," said Schneider. "We're learning more details, particularly how she told the committee how she saw Chief of Staff Mark Meadows burning documents in his office fireplace around a dozen times, which she says amounted to once or twice a week between December 2020 and January 2021. She says at least twice she saw Meadows burning documents after he had meetings with Republican Congressman Scott Perry, who, in fact, was subpoenaed by the committee but never complied."

MORE AT:

Cassidy Hutchinson saw Mark Meadows burning documents in his fireplace 'once or twice a week'

Matthew Chapman

December 27, 2022

You can’t taste the final dish but many of the ingredients are out in full view in this Washington Post article:

“As members of Congress, Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) formed a brutally powerful duo on Capitol Hill last decade, developing a niche specialty in blowing things up.

In 2015, Meadows delivered the blow that helped sink the incumbent House speaker, John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), and Jordan led the charge over the next two weeks to help defeat the establishment choice, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), for speaker.

But for the past week, the co-founders of the House Freedom Caucus have been on opposing sides of Washington’s biggest fight: McCarthy’s marathon attempt to become House speaker.

Jordan served as lead emissary to the many conservatives who don’t trust the veteran GOP leader. All week he darted around the House floor, buttonholed defectors, hustled to talk to top McCarthy advisers and then ducked into at least a dozen closed-door meetings.

Three blocks away, in a corner townhouse that is home to a conservative nonprofit, Meadows played host to daily meetings of up to 20 staunch McCarthy critics, turning this corner of Washington into the new nerve center of “Make America Great Again” Republicans in Congress.

Meadows, who served seven years in the House and left in 2020 to become White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump, has asserted that he played no role in the uprising against McCarthy.

“That’s not me, that’s member-led,” Meadows told CNN reporters as he entered the townhouse Thursday morning.

But newer members of the Freedom Caucus acknowledged that Meadows served as spiritual adviser during their recent clashes with McCarthy, through the lens of his own battles last decade with Boehner.

“Mark is a friend and, as somebody who’s been through this place, a mentor,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), just entering his second term, said Friday. “He’s been through this place, he understands the dynamics, has the relationships. So to be able to rely on some of his counsel has been important…

Now, after all the concessions these conservatives won, today’s Freedom Caucus is poised to have more influence than Meadows and Jordan dreamed of when they founded it eight years ago as a breakaway group for roughly three dozen Republicans. But these recent fractures raise doubts about the Freedom Caucus’s ability to stay united and questions about whether the members will flail and waste this new political muscle.

All signs indicate that Meadows and Jordan remain very close friends, but their split on McCarthy reflects the awkward future for a hard-right conservative caucus founded at a time when none of them had a foothold in power.

Meadows now holds the title of senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit founded by former senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). After a bipartisan lobbying firm grew too big for that Capitol Hill townhouse, Meadows and DeMint swooped in to pick up the lease and turned it into both a modern think tank — it includes a TV studio for members to do media hits — and a social networking club.

Young conservatives gather for “First Friday” happy hours in the courtyard, and Freedom Caucus members and their allies use the outpost as a regular hangout for venting about everything from the Biden administration to establishment Republicans.

It’s a lot nicer setup than the dingy basement of the now-shuttered Tortilla Coast restaurant on Capitol Hill, which the far-right lawmakers used as their gathering spot seven years ago.

“The food’s not as good, but the coffee is better,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has never joined the Freedom Caucus but is a regular guest as an ideological kindred spirit.

The past week, as the meetings inside the Meadows group grew longer and McCarthy kept getting embarrassed, veteran Republicans saw the hand of their old adversary at work.

“Pretty telling,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a close ally of previous speakers Boehner and Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), said early Friday. “If they’re meeting in his townhouse, he’s at least a fly on the wall. But knowing Mark — and I know him pretty well — I’m sure he’s trying to exert some influence.”

Meadows never reached a peaceful accord with McCarthy, and that enmity and distrust lasted long after he left the House to become Trump’s chief of staff.

In the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, McCarthy accused Meadows of poisoning Trump’s thinking so much that he believed the 2020 election had been stolen.

“I can only imagine that’s coming from Mark. Mark’s lying to him,” McCarthy wrote in a text message to a top Meadows aide, according to documents produced by the Jan. 6 committee.”

MORE AT:

Washington Post 

Closest of friends, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan split over Kevin McCarthy

Paul Kane

January 7, 2023 at 4:40 p.m. EST

"Mark Meadows in the spotlight

While the committee made the historic move of referring Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, it also named several Trump allies as potential co-conspirators in its final report. One of them was former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“It was pretty obvious that the ex-president was the center of this conspiracy, but he was certainly assisted by many others, including … Mark Meadows and the like,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who served on the committee.

Meadows repeatedly comes up in the committee’s investigation, with evidence showing his involvement on some level in every gambit to overturn the election. Some of the most revelatory evidence came from Meadows himself – in the thousands of text messages he turned over to the committee before ceasing his cooperation with the investigation.

The texts show that beginning on Election Day, Meadows was connecting activists pushing conspiracy theories and strategizing with GOP lawmakers and rally organizers preparing for January 6. Two days after the election, Trump Jr. was texting Meadows with ideas for keeping his father in power that he thought were “the most sophisticated” and “sounded plausible.”

Meadows and Giuliani, Trump’s one-time attorney, were involved in early conversations about putting forward fake slates of electors, according to testimony that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave to the committee.

Transcripts released by the committee also reveal that Hutchinson testified before the committee how Meadows regularly burned documents in his fireplace around a dozen times – about once or twice a week – between December 2020 and mid-January 2021.

After producing the texts to congressional investigators, Meadows changed gears and did not show up for subpoenaed testimony before the House. A lawsuit he filed challenging the subpoena was unsuccessful, but the Justice Department opted not to bring criminal charges for his lack of cooperation.

The committee noted in their report’s summary that criminal prosecutors may have access to materials that lawmakers didn’t have, pointing to Meadows specifically.

“Indeed, both the Department of Justice and the Fulton County District Attorney may now have access to witness testimony and records that have been unavailable to the Committee, including testimony from President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and others who either asserted privileges or invoked their Fifth Amendment rights,” the summary said.

“When it comes to the President, he committed no crime so there should absolutely be no prosecutions related to him,” said Timothy Parlatore, one of Trump’s attorneys.

Parlatore insisted Trump and his team “were not looking to overturn the will of the people, only to ensure that the will of the people was accurately counted,” adding that Trump was “absolutely opposed” to the violence that took place at the US Capitol.

Meadows’ attorney declined to comment."

CNN’s Casey Gannon, Evan Perez , Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

MORE AT:

CNN

Two years after US Capitol attack, investigation into Trump and insurrection enters new phase

By Zachary Cohen, Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed, Sara Murray and Paula Reid, CNN

Updated 7:57 AM EST, Fri January 6, 2023

***

"House Republicans aim to gut the independent and nonpartisan Office of Congressional now that they have finally decided on a Speaker of the House. MeidasTouch contributor and Legal AF host Michael Popok reports:"

The MAGA Congress was torpedoed. MAGA Republican Reps. fought each other grabbing hold to flotsam & jetsam. Trump looks through his U-Boat periscope as the MAGA side lies in the Potomac. Captain Jack Smith maneuvers his destroyer in the Patomic

 Matt Gaetz wrestled control of the sinking MAGA Republican ship from its captain. 

A brawl led by a drunken redneck broke out. 

"Hudson described the moment he had to hold back Rogers from Gaetz on the House floor as 'very tense', adding that he was 'just trying to play a role and keep the tensions down,' the Hill reported.

While U.S. representative for Tennessee's 2nd congressional district, Tim Burchett, who was in between Gaetz and Rogers during their confrontation on the House floor, spoke to CNN about the blow out. 

'Rogers was making threats about ending careers. People shouldn't be drinking, especially when you're a redneck, on the House floor,' Burchett said to CNN's Kate Sullivan.

'I would drop him like a bag of dirt,' Burchett said of Rogers. 

'Nobody's gonna put their hands on me. Nobody's gonna threaten me.'

Burchett continued: 'It's just one of those things, you've been around fights before, you've seen it. Some guy gets in your face and then it's just an unfortunate moment is all it was. It shouldn't have happened. He shouldn't have crossed that line.'

The two Republicans almost came to blows over Gaetz's refusal to back McCarthy during the 14th vote, costing him that contest, with the violent clash coming as tempers frayed over the mammoth voting-process.

The U-Boat Captain sent a message:

“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pulls out all the stops: the initials 'DT' for Donald Trump are seen on her phone.

Greene tries to shove her phone over to Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana so he can answer to Trump on why he refuses to vote for Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California.”

MORE AT:

The Daily Mail

Mike Rogers sends stern warning to Republican Matt Gaetz

Aneeta Bhole

January 7, 2023

The U-Boat Captain has full control of his prize:

"MCCARTHY OFFERS FRESH CONCESSIONS TO WIN OVER HARD-RIGHT REPUBLICANS 

IN A STUNNING REVERSAL, THE GOP LEADER IS NOW OPEN TO ONCE 'RED-LINE' DEMANDS FROM RIGHT-WING REBELS 

• ONE-MEMBER 'MOTION TO VACATE' THE CHAIR 

In a major concession to the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, the California Republican has offered to lower the number of members required to sponsor a resolution to force a vote to remove the speaker - from five to one - a change that the GOP leader had previously said he would not accept. 

• FREEDOM CAUCUS TO HAVE RULES COMMITTEE SEATS 

McCarthy is open to allowing GOP hardliners to handpick four of the party's members on the powerful Rules Committee - no small concession as it controls what legislation reaches the floor, as well as allowing ANY lawmaker to propose changes on spending legislation, including any that would tank the measure.

• A VOTE ON TERM LIMITS

There were also discussions of introducing legislation limiting House members to three terms and Senators to two terms. The upper chamber is currently led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York meaning the proposal to limit the Senate is a no-go.

 • REBELS TO CHAIR SUB-COMMITTEE 

Several 'Never Kevin Caucus' members want high-profile assignments including Florida's Matt Gaetz as chair of the House Armed Services subcommittee and Maryland's Andy Harris as the head of the Appropriations subcommittee on Health and Human Services 

• CHANGES TO APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS

The Freedom Caucus wants rule changes that would decentralize power in both the House GOP - and the rest of the chamber - to give more power to individual members.  The demand that committee chairs are selected by the committee and not the leadership, and rewards fundraising and party loyalty."

FROM:

The Daily Mail

Mike Rogers sends stern warning to Republican Matt Gaetz

Aneeta Bhole

January 7, 2023

Captain Jack Smith is maneuvering in the Potomac:

Jews are under attack as not seen since Hitler & Mussolini within the Republican Party, whatever that is now. The rest of us Democrats & non-voters just accept Jews as normal folks.

Remember back in 2016 we almost had a Jewish President named Bernie Sanders. If it was Sanders vs Trump I think Sanders would have won but as they do now Republicans would have blood on their hands.

I remember the campaign of John F. Kennedy. It was mostly, can a Catholic be president of the United States?

The John Birch Society actively recruited in the square of York PA. York had competing liberal and conservative newspapers. It seemed that the JBS had lots of support but when JFK was shot the normally bustling streets of York PA were silent. The true character of the people of this nation was always tolerance of others. It just needs to be brought to the surface. 

Josh Shapiro did that in Pennsylvania. 

Here in Pennsylvania a Jewish Man, Josh Shapiro forcefully beat Nazi sympathizer Doug Mastriano. That a Nazi sympathizer can win a Republican primary for Governor in a state like Pennsylvania shows how deeply antisemitism has permeated Republican Party politics. 

"It’s been referred to as a “haven” for white supremacists and neo-Nazis. It’s been linked to Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has paid the platform for advertising. And it has been the focus of ire from state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the state’s Jewish Democratic nominee for governor, who has criticized his opponent for courting “antisemitic, racist, alt-right extremists” on the platform…

So what exactly is Gab, the conservative, Pennsylvania-based social media platform – and how does it factor into Pennsylvania’s race for governor? Below, City & State walks through the history of the social media platform, the type of content that appears on the site and how the platform and its founder have become a topic of conversation in the state’s midterm election for governor. Gab was most notoriously used by Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

In his Gab bio, Bowers described Jews as the “children of satan” and made other posts that use slurs directed at people of the Jewish faith, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Gab users have also directed antisemitic comments and attacks at Shapiro in the comments of posts published by Mastriano."

MORE AT:

What is Gab? A look at the far-right social media platform backing Doug Mastriano

Gab has been called a haven for hate speech and white supremacists

Editor’s note: This story includes text and images that some readers may find offensive. City & State does not endorse or condone any of the viewpoints expressed in this article.

By Justin Sweitzer

Back in the day of the “baby boomers” Jews had to hide their identity to run for office:

“The late Milton Shapp, who led the state for much of the 1970s, had changed his name out of concern for antisemitism, according to a National Governors Association biography. Shapp didn’t emphasize his heritage, but he was open about it. After his longshot bid for higher office in 1976 sputtered as soon as it began, he quipped that his memoirs should be titled, “I Never Became the First Jewish President.”

Gov. Ed Rendell, who served from 2003 to 2011, was also open about his Jewish heritage but spoke mainly of having a general Golden Rule philosophy of treating others as one would want to be treated.

While Jews have won public office for decades, even with the legacy of discrimination in the United States, many point to the political career of former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as a turning point. Lieberman was the first religiously observant Jew on a major presidential ticket when he ran as Democrat Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in 2000. His commitment to observing the Sabbath, including refraining from campaigning, won admirers.

“Once upon a time, having a Jew on your ticket would have cost you,” Sarna said. "In this case, the scholars concluded it actually aided him (Gore)," though not enough to win.

Mark Silk, professor of religion in public life at Trinity College in Connecticut, said that Shapiro, “in the current moment, given the purple character of Pennsylvania, may be considered to have done himself more good than harm” in forthrightly speaking of his religion.

“Any price that Shapiro might have paid for being out there publicly as a Jewish candidate hurt him less than it hurt Mastriano being out there as a Christian nationalist Trumpian," he said.”

Josh Shapiro will be taking office as Pennsylvania's next governor in January after running a campaign in which he spoke early and often about his Jewish religious heritage.

At a time of rising concern about overt expressions of antisemitism, some observers are seeing a bright spot in his decisive victory, particularly coming in a presidential battleground state in which he was competing with a starkly contrasting opponent who deployed Christian nationalist themes.

The state voted in 2016 for Donald Trump — the former president who was recently criticized even by his Jewish supporters for dining with guests with well-known antisemitic views. It’s also the state that saw the nation’s deadliest outburst of antisemitism in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh, which claimed 11 lives.

Shapiro won by 14 percentage points and built a classic Democratic coalition that included progressives from multiple faith traditions as well as the non-religious. He received the endorsement of groups like the Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity. Shapiro outpolled his opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, among Catholics, and he received an 80% share of votes of those with no religious affiliation, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of midterm voters.

And his candidacy was closely followed by the Jewish community, which recalled in particular his response as the state's top law enforcement officer to the Tree of Life attack.

MORE AT:

For Jews, Shapiro's big win is a high note amid antisemitism

By Peter Smith | Associated Press

Published December 26, 2022 at 5:35 AM EST

“I don’t want extremists in office,” he said, walking back to his truck. “And I have some small glimmer of hope that maybe things aren’t as screwed up as I think they are.” Republicans showed their hand. That’s why Democrats did well in the midterms.

 Like every corporate news outlet The Washington Post pulls punches at Republican Party extremism.  

The Post writes, "In Pennsylvania, they rejected a candidate who said America is a Christian nation.” The “candidate” is pro-Nazi Greg Mastriano SEE: Doug Mastriano has rattled a diverse swath of Pennsylvania’s Jewish community, alarming liberal Jews with his far-right associations and remarks. 

People see the internet posts and talk about them. Corporate news might be powerful in Washington DC but not in the rest of the nation.

I was a planning commissioner in Lower Frederick Township Montgomery County PA. One of the few registered Democrats in local government. I was told to “be careful.” There was an active KKK/Skinhead organization. They had cross lighting ceremonies along the Perkiomen Creek. I wasn’t careful. I got a reputation. A woman called me when she had a problem with the skinheads in the home next to her. I went to the mayor of Schwenksville. In a few days the skinheads were gone. 

Growing up around them I kind of have a nose for KKK. Who are the most frightening people I ever met. Talk to people a while and you can figure out who you can trust. The Mayor of Schwenksville was one person. A local auto mechanic, former Army MP was another. The Republican extremists might think they have areas locked down with fear & hate but they don’t. Americans are overwhelmingly good not hateful people. 

The Washington Post

In rural Georgia, an unlikely rebel against Trumpism

Why didn’t the Republican red wave materialize in the midterms? The life of Cody Johnson offers one answer.

Stephanie McCrummen December 22, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Bill Chertok asked me if I remembered “The Kaiser” a guy from Coatesville who was openly pro-German even during WWII. I think I might have seen “The Kaiser” but was too little to remember him.

There were some “America First” Nazis in the Republican Party before & even months after Germany declared war on the United States. 

“At its height, the Bund had organized 20 youth training camps. Promoted as family-friendly summer camps, Camp Siegfried in Long Island, Camp Hindenberg in Wisconsin, and Deutschhorst Country Club in Pennsylvania were some of the camps devoted to promoting favorable views of Nazi Germany and spreading Nazi ideology in the United States. The camps’ popularity grew rapidly. The New Jersey division of the Bund opened its 100-acre Camp Norland at Sussex Hills in 1937 and the annual German Day festivities at Camp Siegfried in Long Island attracted 40,000 people in 1938.”

FROM:

The National WWII Museum New Orleans

American Nazism and Madison Square Garden

April 14, 2021

Here in Coatesville John Birch Society Chapter Leader Pat Sellers kept his admiration for Hitler almost hidden. 

In York County PA I met several “Hitler did bad things but he was good for Germany' people. 

Now some PA Republicans like Doug Mastriano openly support Nazis. 

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is most famous for having participated in the January 6 insurrection, continuing to repeat Donald Trump’s election lies, and threatening to use his authority over that state’s election mechanics to instigate a constitutional crisis. But he also has maintained ties to an undisguised anti-Semite.

Mastriano has paid Gab, a white-nationalist site, for “consulting.” Gab’s founder and CEO, Andrew Torba, has responded to reporters who exposed his ties to Mastriano with a series of anti-Semitic diatribes.

Here (on Gab, via Media Matters) is one of Torba’s rants:

“We don’t want people who are atheists. We don’t want people who are Jewish. We don’t want people who are, you know, nonbelievers, agnostic, whatever. This is an explicitly Christian movement because this is an explicitly Christian country.”

FROM:

New York Magazine

Pennsylvania GOP Governor Candidate Doug Mastriano Refuses to Denounce Nazi Ally

An incredibly ominous sign in the GOP’s rightward lurc 

 July 28, 2022

Deposition Transcripts of January 6 TRAITORS Finally Released and OMG!:

 

***

Nick Fuentes' success story. His parents told him get a job. He said let me try out my white nationalist/Nazi podcast from the basement. It worked. Now he’s a leader in the Republican Party hate machine & moving into real estate. 

Southern Poverty Law Center

Nick Fuentes Trades Parents’ Basement for Pricey Livestreaming Den

Hatewatch uncovered Fuentes’ deception by examining police records and archives of Fuentes’ livestreams, conducting interviews and making observations in Fuentes’ new neighborhood of Berwyn, in the inner-western part of Chicago’s suburbs.

Pa Congressman Scott Perry “Italy Gate” Italian satellite QAnon Special Council Jack Smith’s target is Donald Trump

I think that Scott Perry’s use of telegram messenger encryption shows mens rea. 

Whether or not he believed “Italy Gate” is real is something else. 

Mens Rea refers to criminal intent. The literal translation from Latin is "guilty mind." 

WATCH THIS VIDEO FIRST  

I know it takes a while but this video makes the conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 Election a little easier to understand. And you will laugh:

Dec 16, 2022

MAGA Congressman Scott Perry squared off with the DOJ and Special Counsel Jack Smith before the DC Grand Jury in connection with his January 6 text messages. MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports:

Scott Perry (politician) Involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Perry was "one of the leading figures in the effort to throw out Pennsylvania’s votes in the 2020 presidential election."^[72]

After the election, Perry promoted false claims of election fraud.^[73][74] Days after the election, in text messages to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Perry suggested John Ratcliffe should direct the National Security Agency to investigate alleged Chinese hacking. Perry also asserted "the Brits" were behind a conspiracy to manipulate voting machines and that CIA director Gina Haspel was covering it up. The next month, he sent Meadows a link to a YouTube video that asserted voting machines had been manipulated via satellite from Italy; Meadows later sent the video to former Acting Attorney General Richard Donoghue, seeking an investigation.^[75][76][77] Donoghue told the committee the contentions in the video, originating from QAnon and far-right platforms which had been brought to the White House, were "pure insanity."^[78]

Perry was one of 126 Republican House members to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump.^[79][80]

Perry reportedly played a key role in a December 2020 crisis at the Justice Department, in which Trump considered firing Rosen and replacing him with Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the civil division of the DOJ.^[74] According to The Los Angeles Times, Perry "prompted" Trump to consider the replacement.^[81] The New York Times reported that Perry introduced Clark to Trump because Clark's "openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president's efforts to undo them."^[74] Before the certification of the electoral college vote on January 6, Perry and Clark reportedly discussed a plan in which the Justice Department would send Georgia legislators a letter suggesting the DOJ had evidence of voter fraud and suggesting the legislators invalidate Georgia's electoral votes, even though the DOJ had investigated reports of fraud but found nothing significant, as attorney general Bill Barr had publicly announced weeks earlier.^[74][82] Clark drafted a letter to Georgia officials and presented it to Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue. It claimed the DOJ had "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States" and urged the Georgia legislature to convene a special session for the "purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors." Rosen and Donoghue rejected the proposal.^[83] In August 2021, CNN reported that Ratcliffe had briefed top Justice Department officials that no evidence had been found of any foreign powers' interference with voting machines. Clark was reportedly concerned that intelligence community analysts were withholding information and believed Perry and others knew more about possible foreign interference. Clark requested authorization from Rosen and Donoghue for another briefing from Ratcliffe, asserting hackers had found that "a Dominion machine accessed the Internet through a smart thermostat with a net connection trail leading back to China."^[84]

On January 6, 2021, Perry joined Missouri senator Josh Hawley in objecting to counting Pennsylvania's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.^[85] During the storming of the U.S. Capitol that day, Perry and his congressional colleagues were ushered to a secure location.^[86]

On December 20, 2021, House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to Perry asking him to provide information about his involvement in the effort to install Clark as acting attorney general. Thompson believed Perry had been involved in the effort to install Clark, given previous testimony from Rosen and Donoghue, as well as communications between Perry and Meadows.^[87][88][89] Perry declined the request the next day, asserting the committee was illegitimate.^[90] Among several text messages to Meadows the committee released on December 14 was one attributed to a "member of Congress" dated January 5 that read "Please check your signal", a reference to the encrypted messaging system Signal. In his letter to Perry, Thompson mentioned evidence that Perry had communicated with Meadows using Signal, though Perry denied sending that particular text message.^[91][92][88] CNN acquired and published additional Meadows text messages in April 2022 that confirmed Perry had sent that message.^[75]

On June 9, 2022, Select Committee member Liz Cheney said that Perry requested a presidential pardon from Trump in the weeks after the January 6 attack.^[93][94] On June 10, Perry denied Cheney's assertion, calling it "an absolute, shameless, and soulless lie".^[95] On June 23, 2022, the Select Committee broadcast testimony from witnesses who said Perry and others had requested pardons. That included testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Meadows, that Perry was one of several lawmakers who contacted her to "inquire about preemptive pardons."^[96] In response, Perry said he had never spoken with any White House staff about a pardon for him or any other members of Congress: "this never happened."^[97][77]

On August 9, 2022, Perry reported that three FBI agents had seized his cellphone after presenting him with a warrant. He called the seizure an "unnecessary and aggressive action".^[98]

Text messages released in December 2022 documented Perry's involvement in the historically unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. ^[99]

Business career

In 1993, Perry founded Hydrotech Mechanical Services, Inc., a mechanical contracting firm in Dillsburg. The firm provides contract construction and maintenance services to municipal and investor-owned utilities from North Carolina to New York, specializing in large meter calibration. In 2002, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection accused the company of altering sewage monitoring reports while doing work for the Memphord Estates Sewage Treatment Company. Perry faced criminal charges of conspiring to falsify state-mandated sewage records. In the aftermath of the investigation and review, he was allowed to complete a diversion program and avoid any criminal charges, which allowed him to maintain his U.S security clearance.^[12][13]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2012

Main article: 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 4

In 2012, Perry gave up his state house seat to run for the 4th congressional district. The district had previously been the 19th district, represented by six-term incumbent Republican Todd Platts, who was giving up the seat to honor a self-imposed term limit. In 2010, when Platts wanted to become U.S. Comptroller General, he spoke to Perry about running for the seat.^[19]

Perry won a seven-way primary with over 50% of the vote. Although outspent nearly 2 to 1 in the campaign, he beat his closest competitor with nearly three times as many votes.^{[citation needed]} Political newcomer Harry Perkinson, an engineer,^[20] advanced in a two-way Democratic primary.^[21] Perry won the general election, 60%–34%.^[22]

2014

Main article: 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 4

In 2014, Perry was unopposed in the Republican primary and the former Harrisburg mayor, Linda D. Thompson, was unopposed in the Democratic primary.^[23] Perry won the general election, 75%–25%.^[24]

2016

Main article: 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 4

Perry won the 2016 election with no primary challenge and no official Democratic opponent. Joshua Burkholder of Harrisburg, a political novice, withdrew from the Democratic primary after too many signatures on his qualifying petition were successfully challenged. His subsequent write-in candidacy won the Democratic primary, but he was unaffiliated in the general election.^{[25][26][27][28][29]} Perry defeated Burkholder, 66%–34%.^[30]

2018

Main article: 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 10

After ruling the state's congressional map an unconstitutional gerrymander, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a new map for the 2018 elections. Perry's district was renumbered the 10th and made significantly more compact than its predecessor. It lost most of the more rural and Republican areas of York County to the neighboring 11th district (the old 16th). To make up for the loss in population, it was pushed slightly to the north, absorbing the remainder of Democratic-leaning Dauphin County that had not been in the old 4th.^[31] On paper, the new district was less Republican than its predecessor. Had the district existed in 2016, Donald Trump would have won it with 52% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 43%;^[32] Trump carried the old 4th with 58% of the vote.^[33]

Pastor and Army veteran George Scott won the Democratic primary by a narrow margin and opposed Perry in the general election for the reconfigured 10th. The two debated in October before Perry won with 51.3% of the vote to Scott's 48.7%, with the new district boundaries taking effect in 2019.^{[34][35][36][37]} Perry held on by winning the district's share of his home county, York County, by 11,600 votes.^[38] This was the district's closest race since 1974, when Bill Goodling won his first term in what was then the 19th with 51% of the vote.^[39]

2020

Main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 10

In 2020, Perry had no Republican primary challenge, and the Pennsylvania auditor general, Eugene DePasquale, won a two-way Democratic primary.^[40] Perry was reelected with 53% of the vote in the general election.^[41][42]

2022

Main article: 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania § District 10

Tenure

Perry is a member of the Freedom Caucus.^[43] In November 2021, he was elected to chair the group, succeeding Andy Biggs in January 2022.^[44]

In October 2017, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Perry accused CNN anchor Chris Cuomo of exaggerating the crisis in Puerto Rico.^[45]

In January 2018, Perry suggested that ISIS might have been involved in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities have maintained that gunman Stephen Paddock acted alone.^[46][47][48]

In December 2019, Perry was one of 195 Republicans to vote against both articles of impeachment against President Trump.^[49]

In October 2020, Perry was one of 17 Republicans to vote against a House resolution to formally condemn the QAnon conspiracy theory.^[50] He said he voted against the resolution because he was concerned about infringements on free speech, saying, "it's very dangerous for the government ... to determine what is okay to like and what is not okay to like."^[51][52]

In March 2021, Perry voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.^[53][54] He said only 9% of the act's spending was allotted to defeat the COVID-19 virus, while the rest would advance Democratic policies.^[55]

In April 2021, at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee meeting on immigration, days after Fox News host Tucker Carlson promoted the Great Replacement theory, Perry said, "For many Americans, what seems to be happening or what they believe right now is happening is, what appears to them is we're replacing national-born American—native-born Americans to permanently transform the political landscape of this very nation."^[56]

In June 2021, Perry was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6.^[57] He cosponsored a bill, introduced the same day, that would give the same medal to police officers without mentioning the attack.^[58]

At the June 2021 Republican Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, Perry said Democrats "are not the loyal opposition. They are the opposition to everything you love and believe in" and "want to destroy the country you grew up in", invoking comparisons to Nazis.^[59][60]

In July 2022, Perry was among 47 House Republicans to vote for the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and protect the right to same-sex marriage at a federal level.^[61] Perry said, "Agree or disagree with same-sex marriage, my vote affirmed my long-held belief that Americans who enter into legal agreements deserve to live their lives without the threat that our federal government will dissolve what they've built."^[62] Four months later, in an interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Perry said he was tricked because he did not want to appear racist by voting against the bill, which also protects interracial marriage.^[63] Perry voted against final passage on December 8, 2022.^[64]

^{MORE AT WIKIPEDIA} 

FROM WIKIPEDIA Scott Perry (politician)

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Wikipedia 

Italygate

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Italygate is a pro-Trump, QAnon-affiliated^[1][2] conspiracy theory that alleges the 2020 United States presidential election was rigged to favor Joe Biden using satellites and military technology to remotely switch votes from Donald Trump to Biden from the U.S. Embassy in Rome.^[1] The conspiracy was also rumored to involve the Vatican.^[2] Fact-checkers at Reuters and USA Today, who investigated these claims, described them as "false" and "baseless".^[1][3]

Contents

• 1 Details and propagation of theory
• 2 Role of Mark Meadows
• 3 See also
• 4 References

Details and propagation of theory

See also: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

Maria Strollo Zack, a Georgia-based lobbyist and leader of the 501(c)4 organization Nations in Action, said she told Trump about the conspiracy theory at his Mar-a-Lago resort on December 24, 2020.^[4] On December 29, Mark Meadows forwarded a letter explaining the Italygate claims to acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.^[4] The letter was printed on the letterhead of USAerospace Partners, a company led by Republican businesswoman Michele Roosevelt Edwards.^[4]

On January 6, 2021, the Institute for Good Governance—a firm also headed by Edwards—released a joint statement with Nations in Action^[5] stating an Italian hacker named Arturo D'Elia had confessed to "using Leonardo computer systems and military satellites located in Pescara, Italy" to change U.S. election results.^[4] The Italian bureau of prisons later said it was investigating how two American men gained access to the Salerno prison where they tried to interrogate D'Elia.^[6] D'Elia told reporters that he had refused to speak with the Americans, and that he had no connection to the alleged conspiracy, saying, "I didn't steal anything. I didn’t pass anything to anyone. I just created malware."^[7]

According to Zack, the operation had been coordinated by the American embassy in Rome, with the help of Italian general Claudio Graziano who was a member of the board of Leonardo.^[4][1][8] Also on January 6, Media Matters for America reported supporters of the theory were trying to get "#ItalyDidIt" to trend on Twitter. Related posts were retweeted by QAnon promoter Ron Watkins and other conspiracy theorists affiliated with the movement.^[9]

On January 11, a power blackout in Vatican City sparked a rumor among QAnon followers that Pope Francis had been arrested for his involvement in "Italygate" and that the blackout had been orchestrated by the police in order to cover the operation.^[2] Around the same time, a photo circulated on the Internet, which purportedly showed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arresting Italian president Sergio Mattarella for his role in the conspiracy; the picture had actually been taken during Pompeo's October 2020 visit to India and showed Pompeo with ambassador Kenneth Juster.^[10]

Role of Mark Meadows

According to The New York Times, during Trump's last weeks in office, his chief of staff Mark Meadows tried to persuade the Department of Justice to investigate these claims. Meadows emailed Rosen a link to a YouTube video about the claims; Rosen forwarded the email to his deputy Richard Donoghue, who responded it was "pure insanity".^{[11][12][13][14][15]} The Washington Post commented that Italygate was "the craziest election fraud conspiracy" pushed by Trump's associates, which showed "just how desperate President Donald Trump and his team were to grab hold of something — anything — that could genuinely cast doubt on his election defeat”.^[16]