Source: Bloomberg

A federal watchdog is looking into former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s decision to roll back the U.S. Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs at the end of 2020, an issue that has become a point of partisan tension in Congress.

The Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery is also inquiring into Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s role in persuading the central bank to expand the eligibility rules for the Main Street Lending Program to make it easier for oil and gas companies to apply for the low interest rate loans.

The probes were revealed in the watchdog’s quarterly report released Monday.

The investigations, led by Brian Miller -- the special Inspector General in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve’s response to the pandemic -- could shed more light on Mnuchin’s decision and legal basis for winding down the programs, which Democrats say was politically motivated.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-01/pandemic-watchdog-is-probing-mnuchin-cruz-roles-in-fed-lending

By Adam Goldman, Katie Benner and Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Jan. 30, 2021

WASHINGTON — As racial justice protests erupted nationwide last year, President Donald J. Trump, struggling to find a winning campaign theme, hit on a message that he stressed over and over: The real domestic threat to the United States emanated from the radical left, even though law enforcement authorities had long since concluded it came from the far right.

It was a message that was quickly embraced and amplified by his attorney general and his top homeland security officials, who translated it into a shift in criminal justice and national security priorities even as Mr. Trump was beginning to openly stoke the outrage that months later would culminate in the storming of the Capitol by right-wing extremists.

Mr. Trump’s efforts to focus his administration on the antifa movement and leftist groups did not stop the Justice Department and the F.B.I. from pursuing cases of right-wing extremism. They broke up a kidnapping plot, for example, targeting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat.

But the effect of his direction was nonetheless substantial, according to interviews with current and former officials, diverting key portions of the federal law enforcement and domestic security agencies at a time when the threat from the far right was building ominously.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/us/politics/trump-right-wing-domestic-terrorism.html

Hillary was being kind when she called these people deplorables:

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Dominion Lawsuit Against Giuliani Reveals Shocking Death Threats Made Against Company
By Leia Idliby

Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani revealed shocking death threats made against employees of the company following the 2020 election.

...

Without any evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, Giuliani, and other lawyers representing Trump, publicly promoted the baseless theory that the election was rigged. Many of those theories involved the unfounded claim that Dominion, a voting company used in U.S. elections, was used to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden.

Giuliani’s own assertions about the company prompted Trump supporters to launch graphic death threats at Dominion employees.

“You’re all fucking dead, You’re all fucking dead. We’re bringing back the firing squad and you fuckers are all dead, everybody involved up against the wall you motherfuckers,” one voicemail sent to Dominion customer support said. “We’re gonna have a fucking lottery to fucking give people a chance to shoot you motherfuckers you fucking wait you cocksuckers you commie pieces of shit. We’re going to fucking kill you all you motherfuckers.”

Read more:

https://www.mediaite.com/news/dominion-lawsuit-against-giuliani-reveals-shocking-death-threats-made-against-company/

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan wound up his speech on the floor of the House in strange fashion, somehow connecting his opposition to the impeachment of President Donald Trump to… the history of flight.

As the House of Representatives debated whether to impeach Trump a second time, this time for his incitement of the Capitol insurrection, Jordan rose to voice his opposition. And in the climax of his speech, the legislator name-checked the Wright Brothers, Chuck Yeager, and the Moon.

“Think about this,” Jordan said. “Think about this, in 1903, in Kitty hawk North Carolina, two guys fly this thing they called a plane a hundred feet. Barely got off the ground. Barely got off the ground. Amazing thing. 44 years later, Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier.”

.....

“That’s what this country is capable of. That’s what we can do,” Jordan said, before going on to add “So I hope, I hope we defeat this, I hope we can begin to come together and recognize the greatness of the American people and focus on the things they want us to focus on.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-jim-jordan-says-trump-should-not-be-impeached-because-the-history-of-flight/

By Leia Idliby
Jan 8th, 2021

Supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed and invaded the Capitol on Wednesday reportedly intended to find and execute Vice President Mike Pence.

Reuters News Pictures Editor Jim Bourg revealed in a Twitter post that he heard “at least 3 different rioters at the Capitol say they hoped to find Vice President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol Hill tree as a traitor.”



“It was a common line being repeated,” he added. “Many more were just talking about how the VP should be executed.”

A Twitter user later responded to the report, sharing a video of rioters chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”

More:

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-rioters-wanted-to-find-and-hang-mike-pence-reuters-reporter-and-eyewitness-says/

Rush Limbaugh cited the American Revolution and its leaders to rebuke those “calling for the end of violence” following the violent attack on the United States Capitol.

...

Limbaugh also claimed that Republicans do not know how to protest or loot, despite the crowds of President Donald Trump supporters who protested and looted the Capitol on Wednesday.

...

“There’s a lot of people calling for the end of violence. There’s a lot of conservatives, social media, who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable. Regardless of the circumstances,” he said. “I’m glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual tea party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn’t feel that way.”

https://www.mediaite.com/radio/rush-limbaugh-rebukes-people-calling-for-the-end-of-violence-after-capitol-riots/

https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1339556005877788672

Republicans are assholes.

.......

MADISON - The Republican-led Legislature's budget committee is holding up reimbursements to two counties for their recount costs.

President Donald Trump's campaign paid $3 million for recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties, Wisconsin's two most Democratic areas.

But two top Republicans said Friday they were withholding the money from the counties for now. They did not explain why.

Lawmakers "are playing politics with money that isn't theirs," said Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson.

"It's acting in bad faith," he said. "It's not their money. It's Trump's money and this is what he decided to spend it on."

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/11/republicans-withhold-trump-recount-funds-milwaukee-dane-counties/6514385002/

Sidney Powell’s ‘Military Intelligence Expert’ Witness Was Actually an Army Mechanic Who Never Worked in Military Intelligence

By Jerry Lambe

Sidney Powell, the former Trump campaign attorney behind a series of “Kraken” lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election in multiple states where the president lost the popular vote, appears to have misled courts as to the qualifications of one of her key witnesses.

Powell’s team described the witness in question as a “Military Intelligence expert” who would provide unambiguous proof that voting systems used in the election were compromised. The witness was known only as “Spyder” to protect him from an “established pattern of witness and attorney harassment and coercion,” Powell’s team wrote. But a Friday report from the Washington Post revealed that “Spyder,” whose real name is Joshua Merritt, was actually an army vehicle mechanic who had never even worked in military intelligence.

According to the report, the 43-year-old Merritt is an information technology consultant in Dallas who had previously been enrolled in the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion training program but failed to finish even the entry-level training course.

“[E]ven by his own account, he was only a trainee with the 305th, at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, and for just seven months more than 15 years ago,” the Post reported.

https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/sydney-powells-military-intelligence-expert-witness-was-actually-an-army-mechanic-who-never-worked-in-military-intelligence-report/