As we open the Select Committee hearings many items seem so far incongruous.
It may be that Michael Simmons may be a stalking horse for actions of the Oath Keepers in 6 January 2021, as Congress begins its inquiries led by the House Select Committee.
Simmons may have always been designated to take attention away from the other more insidious overlaps of the insurrectionists with other anti-government groups and as might be revealed, members of Congress. Simmons, as one of those designated to protect Roger Stone seems to have had a role that gave but one public face to what seems to be several other coordinated actions on that day.
Three suspected members of Oath Keepers were federally indicted in January for conspiracy for planning their activities during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol with six more being added to the indictment in February.[63] Eight to ten members of the group entered the Capitol wearing paramilitary gear, moving "in an organized and practiced fashion," according to the indictment. The group communicated with portable devices, with Watkins messaging to others, "We have a good group. We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan."[64][65][66] Prosecutors alleged one member sent a text message to a member of the anti-government Three Percenters group days before the incursion, suggesting using a boat to ferry a “Quick Response Team” and heavy weapons across the Potomac River to other members already in the Capitol.[67] Federal prosecutors were considering whether to pursue charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is typically used to prosecute organized crime syndicates.[68]
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According to the Justice Department, participants in the January 6 mob assaulted approximately 140 police officers as well as members of the media and caused $1.5 million in damages to Congress. Some threatened to murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence. Five people who were at the Capitol died on or shortly after January 6. The siege marked the first time in US history that a mob, driven by lies, attempted to violently prevent the peaceful transition of power in Washington.
Michael Simmons also goes by the name Michael Greene (he declined to explain why) and said that he is a former employee of Blackwater, the infamous private security company founded by Erik Prince, a claim Mother Jones was unable to verify. He insisted that his involvement with the Oath Keepers is purely professional and not political. He said he went to Washington as as a security expert, helping to guard longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone and others for pay. He said his experience in the military and his life “as a Black man from a low-income neighborhood” underwrite his disinterest in politics. “It’s exactly the same whoever’s in office,” he said, which is why he said he supports neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump.
Until now, Simmons has not been publicly identified for his role at the Capitol. During multiple phone interviews in recent weeks with Mother Jones, Simmons confirmed he is “Person Ten” in a sweeping federal conspiracy case, an unindicted co-conspirator described by prosecutors in court filings as the leader of operations for a group of Oath Keepers who descended on Washington that day. So far, 19 of the group’s members have been charged with plotting to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory, among other alleged crimes. Four have pleaded guilty, including Caleb Berry, an Oath Keeper from Florida, who in a July 20 plea hearing admitted that he and his co-conspirators “intended” to hinder Congress by “intimidating and coercing government personnel.”
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Prosecutors revealed what they said was a suspected effort by Oath Keepers to stash weapons in Virginia ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.
The so-called “Quick Reaction Force” — a spoken-of group of armed Oath Keepers waiting for their command to join the fight — has been mentioned before by prosecutors in the cases of several Oath Keepers charged with conspiring to disrupt the certification of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.
Defense attorneys have argued that there is little evidence the QRF existed, beyond text message chatter between the Oath Keeper defendants ahead of Jan. 6.
But Monday’s filing from the government, advocating for the continued detention of Oath Keeper Kenneth Harrelson (circled in red, above), argued explicitly that “the evidence suggests that Defendant Harrelson was both aware of the presence of an armed Quick Reaction Force and likely contributed weapons to it.”
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Why there were no more infrastructure weeks during the Trump regime.
Donald Trump shut down infrastructure talks during his presidency and threatened there wouldn’t be a deal unless Democrats stopped investigating him, according to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.
As Joe Biden’s $1.2trn infrastructure package threatens to unravel over how to pay for the massive spending bill, Mr Durbin said Mitch McConnell was pressuring Republicans not to negotiate with Democrats following Mr Trump’s latest calls on Monday for the party to back out of the deal.
Mr Durbin said on the Senate floor that the former president’s refusal to work with Democrats on infrastructure dates back to a May 2019 meeting at the White House where he said no deal on infrastructure would be made while he was being investigated by Democrats.
"He walked in the room, and he said to all of us assembled there, ‘As long as you’re investigating me for any reason there’ll be no infrastructure bill’," Mr Durbin said.
"Wheeled around and walked out. That was the end of the conversation about infrastructure in the Trump administration. It was never seriously considered or debated after that."
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