Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

42/ Now Rep. Cheney is speaking, noting that Eastman and Giuliani were involved in pressuring Pence *and* many state officials. I do worry that she is focusing only on Eastman and Giuliani, and not others who were engaged in parallel efforts, like Ginni Thomas and Ali Alexander. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

41/ Thompson links the subject of today’s hearing to the Trumpist insurrectionists now running for office and *winning* GOP primaries. He notes that if these people are in office rather than people like those the Committee will hear from today, outcomes could be very different. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

40/ Thompson references New Mexico insurrectionist Couy Griffin (R-NM)—who was recently convicted of entering the Capitol on January 6—just successfully blocking, for a time, the certification of an election in New Mexico on the basis of Team Trump’s Dominion conspiracy theory. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

39/ Rep. Thompson emphasizes that Trump issued threats and knew his actions would lead to further threats against certain officials. So I expect we will hear today from a large number of officials—live and via video depo—talking about Trump’s actions *and* the threats they faced. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

38/ In his opening statement, Thompson says the theme of this hearing is a continuation of the last one: Trump pressuring elected officials to violate their Oath of Office. But in this case the focus will be on state officials—and Trump trying to get new electors in a few states. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

37/ The rumor on cable news is that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) will be the primary questioner today. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has just gaveled in the hearing. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

36/ I’m as nervous about this hearing as any yet, as the potential for the Committee to *start telling the full story of January 6* is so high, but candidly I fear—and expect—it will stop short not out of cowardice or lack of commitment, but because they fear confusing Americans. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

35/ The hearing is about to begin. Again, do not be surprised if much of the *beginning* of the hearing focuses on information that—if you have been following feeds like this one, and regularly reading January 6 news—you already know. But it will be *new* to many other Americans. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

34/ If even *one* member of Congress is referenced at today’s hearing, it’ll "break the seal" of the Committee hearings—an unwillingness to "go there" that (candidly) really must end very soon. The coup plotters were in many instances radicals, influential GOPers, or politicians. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

33/ Side note: as ever, nearly every witness the Committee is calling is an ardent Republican. The Committee has made its case using Republicans, not Democrats. *But* it has also avoided referencing crazies (Alexander), influential GOPers (Ginni Thomas), or members of Congress. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

32/ You can see, from all this, that today is a "can of worms" hearing—there is *so much* connected to today’s topic that Americans don’t yet know about that the Committee may be loath to broach it, but if it is not bold enough to do so the question becomes, "If not now, *when*?" — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

31/ The January 2 call is so critical that if it is not discussed in full today, the hearing will have been a failure (unless for some reason it is being pushed to Thursday). Stop the Steal leadership was on the call, and others we have not heard about, like the Amistad Project. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

30/ PROOF also reported (see below; 🔓) on one of the most desperately under-reported moments in the January 6 timeline: a January 2, 2021 call Trump had with 200+ state legislators outlining his need for special sessions and fake electors. This is so key. https://t.co/0oDvCK2Msb — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: 2/ This live thread is of course free. If, as you follow it from now until 3:30PM, you feel moved to use the tip jar in m… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: 1/ At times I may make reference in this thread to evidence previously published in the nearly 200 reports on January 6 t… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: (🧵) LIVE THREAD: I’m live-tweeting today’s (Tuesday’s) 1PM ET House January 6 Committee hearing. I’m a lawyer, journalist… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

29/ So today’s hearing has the potential to be damning but *also* a massive missed opportunity—we’ll have to see which direction it goes in. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

28/ Indeed, when Don Jr. said *pre-election* that Team Trump had "operational control" of every potential avenue to win the election if Trump lost the popular vote he surely meant that the GOP controlled sufficient state legislatures to enact a "fake elector" coup plot if needed. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

27/ ...we get a woefully incomplete picture. By the same token, how do you talk about a "fake electors" plot without underscoring that it was co-conceived by Ginni Thomas *pre-election*, and was so obvious a plan the PROOF podcast could devote an episode to it in *October* 2020? — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

26/ We’re told the Committee will present a lot of evidence Giuliani and his team—Jenna Ellis, et al—were passing knowing disinformation to state legislators, and that is fine, but if the Committee does not emphasize that they were working *with* some *other* state legislators... — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

25/ According to CNN, the Committee will provide evidence of at least *one* member of Congress who participated in Trump’s pressure campaign on state legislators. But Rusty Bowers must *not* be allowed to pretend *his own colleagues* weren’t *also* actively conspiring with Trump. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

MID-THREAD BREAKING NEWS 2/ Alex Holder of AJH Films is a UK filmmaker who has footage from late summer and early fall of 2020, a critical period during which the "Green Bay Sweep" was contrived by Ginni Thomas and others, Thomas friend Eastman was made a Trump lawyer, and so on. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

MID-THREAD BREAKING NEWS 2/ Alex Holder of AJH Films is a UK filmmaker who has footage from late summer and early fall of 2000, a critical period during which the "Green Bay Sweep" was contrived by Ginni Thomas and others, Thomas friend Eastman was made a Trump lawyer, and so on. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

MID-THREAD BREAKING NEWS/ A filmmaker with stunning footage never before seen by anyone of key figures in the coup conspiracy before January 6—including Trump himself—has just agreed to turn over his footage. He will give his initial Committee interview (closed-door) on Thursday. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

24/ On the other hand, if Rusty Bowers utters the name "Ali Alexander" in his testimony, you *know* in that moment that it’s "game on": the Committee is about to start swinging its attention toward Stop the Steal, the entity Trump directly conspired with to attack the US Capitol. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

23/ I worry the Committee won’t want to introduce so many new characters at once—let alone a nationwide conspiracy most Americans don’t fully realize was in the works pre-January 6—and therefore will focus on the relative small-ball of Trump’s state and federal crimes in Georgia. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

22/ But this is a tough nut for the Committee to crack—as thus far it hasn’t even *mentioned* Finchem, Alexander, Ginni Thomas, Mastriano, or other state GOP legislators Trump didn’t have to pressure because they were already conspiring with him in a *nationwide* coup conspiracy. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

21/ So will we hear today about the "Green Bay Sweep" coup plot? Or just pressure placed on state executives? The presence of Rusty Bowers on the witness list—an Arizona state legislator lobbied by Ali Alexander, Ginni Thomas and others—suggests (I say this hopefully) the former. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

20/ But if you want to tell the story of how Trump dealt with state GOP *legislators*, well, it’s a different story because he wanted something different *and* because he had co-conspirators like Finchem, Ginni Thomas, Ali Alexander, and so on. That story is *far* more complex. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

19/ So you see now why I’m uneasy about how today’s hearing is being framed. The story of the Trump-Raffensperger call is easy to tell and is obviously criminal, plus we have the audio. While Trump also pressured other state executives, those stories are fairly easy to tell also. — PolitiTweet.org