POLITICO NIGHTLY: The 1/6 question: Not what, but when

 

BY KYLE CHENEY Security bike fences stand near the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images DELIVERED — It’s the timestamps, stupid. Investigators, prosecutors and journalists have spent a year reconstructing the horror of Jan. 6 in granular, painstaking detail — unearthing eye-popping vignettes about a president obsessed with subverting his own defeat, and a mob willing to do his bidding at nearly any cost. The evidence has been as voluminous as it has been devastating: President Donald Trump, glued to his television as violent supporters ransacked the Capitol, ignored increasingly frantic efforts by his aides and his own children to call off the assault. They believed his words would make a difference, but for hours, he refused to use them — and dozens of police officers paid for it in blood. But as the Jan. 6 select committee scrounges for scraps of even more devastating evidence of Trump’s inaction, the most explosive details they may be sitting on could, on the surface, be the most mundane. That’s because the committee, unlike the rest of us, knows precisely what time key texts were sent and urgent pleas went ignored. Where those messages fit in the already-known timeline of Trump’s movements on Jan. 6 could be among the panel’s more crucial findings. We’ve long known, for example, that Trump sent a 2:24 p.m. tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence, as the mob penetrated deeper into the Capitol: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” We also know Trump placed a 2:26 p.m. call to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to encourage further challenges to the election results that could buy time to execute other elements of his plan. But what occurred in the immediate moments before and after that phone call remains imprecise, at least to the public. Precision on the timing and order of these exchanges is crucial. Did Donald Trump receive urgent pleas to call off the rioters before he decided to call Tuberville and ask him to continue challenging the election? Did he return to a single-minded focus on overturning his defeat even after his daughter Ivanka Trump attempted to prevail on him in the Oval Office? Until now, those episodes have been described largely in isolation and without an exact relationship to other known developments that day. The committee is attempting to change that. For example, we don’t know — and the Jan. 6 select committee likely does — whether Trump’s tweet and call to Tuberville preceded GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s plea to Trump by phone to publicly denounce the riot. Trump, according to one account, downplayed his supporters’ role in the violence and said, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” McCarthy, according to an account in Jonathan Karl’s “Betrayal,” responded that he had heard shots fired near the House floor, which places the conversation sometime after 2:44 p.m., when a Capitol Police officer shot and killed Ashli Babbitt. We don’t know — and the Jan. 6 select committee does — the precise time Ivanka Trump went into the Oval Office to plead for her father’s help stanching the violence or when Donald Trump Jr. texted Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and urged him to get his father to “condemn this [shit] ASAP.” Meadows replied, at a time unknown to the public, that he was “pushing it hard.” Like Ivanka Trump, Keith Kellogg — a national security adviser to Pence — also appealed directly to Trump to intervene. According to the Washington Post, Kellogg told the president, ”You’ve got to get on top of this and say something.” The timing of that exchange is unclear, but Kellogg has interviewed with the Jan. 6 committee — one of several Pence aides to comply with the panel’s requests. What time did Laura Ingraham warn Meadows that Trump was “destroying his legacy” and needed to tell rioters to retreat? What time did Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade make similar entreaties? And when did Trump’s staff finally get Trump to begin filming a video that, however haltingingly, urged rioters to “go home?” When did Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) talk to Trump? The congressman has acknowledged talking to him at least once that day. We know that the video the White House ultimately released, which arrived after 4 p.m., was the third take. Trump said of the rioters, “We love you. You’re very special,” even as he urged them to leave. The Jan. 6 committee has been quietly filling in the timeline of Trump’s actions during the 187 minutes it took before he told his supporters to leave. Unless the Supreme Court allows Trump to shield his White House records from the committee, the panel will obtain a trove of call and meeting logs, as well as contemporaneous notes and documents created during those frantic hours. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at kcheney@politico.com, or on Twitter at @kyledcheney.   BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.     At center, Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, speaks during a committee meeting. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images 'THAT'S THEIR CHOICE' — Many of the blanks the Jan. 6 committee is trying to fill are eminently knowable: Lawmakers who placed calls to Trump, Meadows or other allies could share their phone records or offer assistance to the panel but haven’t. The committee has, in recent days, issued voluntary interview requests to Fox News host Sean Hannity and Jordan, both of whom had contact with Trump, Meadows or both on Jan. 6. But Chair Bennie Thompson indicated that the panel may end up relying on their good will rather than any heavy-handed enforcement mechanisms to procure their testimony. Thompson told POLITICO that efforts to get testimony from Republican lawmakers, in particular, will likely rely on “the court of public opinion” rather than subpoenas or mechanisms meant to compel their cooperation. These lawmakers may be able to invoke constitutional protections to frustrate demands for testimony, he said, so the panel will instead use the specter of its so-far-unknown trove of evidence as a pressure point. “The public should know to what extent any member participated in encouraging, promoting or whatever involvement in what occurred on Jan. 6. If a member decides that it’s in their best interest [not to cooperate] because of some self-incriminating information, that’s their choice,” Thompson said. “Every few years on the House side, those members will have to defend not telling what they did about what occurred on Jan. 6.” WHAT'D I MISS? U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice. | Carolyn Kaster-Pool/Getty Images — Garland rebuts criticism of Jan. 6 probe: Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back against criticism of the Justice Department’s response to the Jan. 6 attack , arguing that prosecutors are methodically building cases against the most serious offenders. Speaking via video link to Justice Department employees nationwide, Garland also suggested that those who did not play a physical role in the insurrection could face charges over their involvement. — McConnell cracks door to Electoral Count Act reform: Mitch McConnell is signaling he’s open to reforming the Electoral Count Act, one year after a mass of Republicans objected to certification of President Joe Biden’s win ahead of an attempted insurrection. Democrats are pursuing more sweeping election reforms and federalization of elections, but some lawmakers in both parties are also suggesting there may be more modest reforms that could pass on a bipartisan basis. Centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema both endorsed pursuing work on the Electoral Count Act today, as did a number of Republican senators. — Psaki: Schools can open safely ’including in Chicago’: The teachers union dispute in the nation’s third-largest school district has put the Biden administration at odds with a key labor constituency over the safety of in-person learning amid a holiday-inflected Covid spike . “Long story short we want schools to be open, the president wants them to be open and we’re going to continue to use every resource and work to ensure that’s the case,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters today. The Chicago Teachers Union today voted to not report to schools — a move that prompted the city’s school officials to cancel both in-person and remote instruction. The union said that the city’s leaders “have yet to provide safety for the overwhelming majority of schools” and that its members intend to work remotely until they are satisfied their concerns are sufficiently addressed. — CDC advisers: All teens ‘should’ get Pfizer Covid booster: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outside advisers on vaccines recommended today that adolescents ages 12 to 17 should get Covid-19 booster shots as the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the U.S. The advisory panel signed off on the recommendation in a 13-1 vote following presentations by doctors suggesting boosters are likely to increase antibodies in young teens that could help them fight off disease caused by the new strain. Data also indicates the risks of myocarditis, an inflammatory heart condition that’s a rare side effect of the messenger RNA Covid vaccines, are lower for 12- to 15-year-olds compared to 16- and 17-year-olds, especially males. — Prosecutors alert Maxwell judge of juror’s sex abuse claims: Prosecutors urged the judge who presided over the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell to conduct an inquiry into a juror’s reported claims that he was a victim of sexual abuse. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, prosecutors said the claims published in several interviews by press outlets “merit attention by the Court.” The juror was not fully identified in the articles, and the identities of jurors were not released during Maxwell’s trial. — Governor pardons Plessy, of ’separate but equal’ ruling: Louisiana’s governor posthumously pardoned Homer Plessy, the Black man whose arrest for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in 1892 to protest racial segregation sparked the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cemented “separate but equal” into law for half a century. The state Board of Pardons in November recommended the pardon for Plessy, who boarded the rail car as a member of a small civil rights group hoping to overturn a state law segregating trains. Instead, the protest led to the 1896 ruling known as Plessy v. Ferguson , solidifying whites-only spaces in public accommodations such as transportation, hotels and schools for decades.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     AROUND THE WORLD SANCTIONS HEAD TO THE BALKANS — The Treasury Department imposed sanctions today on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, accusing him of destabilizing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ali Walker writes. The U.S. said Dodik — the current Serb representative in the country’s threeway presidency, who has threatened to create a breakaway Serb army — had undermined Bosnian institutions and threatened the country’s territorial integrity through a combination of corruption and “divisive ethno-nationalistic rhetoric.” Sanctions were also leveled at Alternativna Televizija d.o.o. Banja Luka, a media outlet linked to Dodik. The U.S. said Dodik “exerts personal control over ATV behind the scenes, such as by requiring personal approval on media stories related to politically sensitive topics.” Regional experts fear the 1995 peace deal holding Bosnia together is under threat. NIGHTLY NUMBER More than 8 hours The amount of time tennis champion Novak Djokovic was held at Melbourne Airport in Australia today. Djokovic was not permitted to enter Australia, after authorities judged there was an issue with his visa application. On Tuesday, Djokovic said that he had received an “exemption permission” to Australia’s vaccination requirements and would play in this month’s Australian Open. PARTING WORDS A crowd of Trump supporters gather outside as seen from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. | Cheriss May/Getty Images FROM RIOT TO RUNNING — At least 57 individuals who played a role in the events of Jan. 6 — either by attending the Save America rally that preceded the riots, gathering at the Capitol steps or breaching the Capitol itself — are now running for elected office, Brittany Gibson writes. Rather than disqualifying them from public service, the events of Jan. 6 appear to have served as a political springboard for dozens of Republicans who will be on the ballot this year for federal, state and local offices. It’s difficult to state with precision just how many of those who participated in the rally on the Ellipse, marched to the Capitol or stormed the building will be on the ballot in 2022 — in many states, candidate filing deadlines are months away. But a POLITICO review of Department of Justice case reports, social media posts, news accounts and interviews with attendees found that last year alone, 11 Jan. 6 protesters were elected to offices ranging from state legislature to city council to school board. This year, more than two dozen are running for Congress, state legislature or statewide office — including at least two protesters who actually entered the Capitol. At least five Jan. 6ers are gearing up for gubernatorial races, among them Doug Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator and a leading voice in the national movement to discredit the 2020 election results.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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