{"id":1550018,"date":"2022-07-12T08:05:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T12:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1550018"},"modified":"2022-07-12T08:05:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T12:05:26","slug":"exclusive-jan-6-committee-is-using-innocent-americans-assertion-of-their-constitutional-rights-as-proof-of-guilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-jan-6-committee-is-using-innocent-americans-assertion-of-their-constitutional-rights-as-proof-of-guilt\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Jan. 6 Committee Is Using Innocent Americans\u2019 Assertion Of Their Constitutional Rights As Proof Of Guilt"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-jan-6-committee-is-using-innocent-americans-assertion-of-their-constitutional-rights-as-proof-of-guilt%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1550018&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-12-at-6.10.40-AM-1024x619-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Jan. 6 Committee is abusing its power by asking inappropriate questions about their fellow Americans\u2019 beliefs and associates, and publicly portraying witnesses who exercise their Fifth Amendment rights as guilty \u2014 all to put on a show trial.<\/p>\n<p>Later on Tuesday, the Jan. 6 Committee will hold yet another public hearing, this one purportedly to focus \u201con the role of extremists\u201d in the attack on the Capitol. While the precise script for the afternoon\u2019s proceedings remains unknown, last week Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin previewed the committee\u2019s plans, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/29\/us\/politics\/trump-flynn-stone-jan-6-extremist.html\">telling<\/a> The New York Times that when public hearings resumed in July, \u201che intends to lead a presentation that will focus on the roles far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and 1st Amendment Praetorian played in the Capitol attack.\u201d According to the Times, \u201cMr. Raskin has also promised to explore the connections between those groups and the people in Mr. Trump\u2019s orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Recycling the Fifth Amendment Tactic<\/h2>\n<p>An attorney for 1st Amendment Praetorian, or 1AP, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting free speech, spoke exclusively with The Federalist about the committee\u2019s questioning of 1AP, the group\u2019s founder, and another member of the nonprofit, all of whom she represents. From the framing of the questions posed to her clients, Leslie McAdoo Gordon was left with the firm impression that the Jan. 6 Committee merely wanted video capturing her clients declining to answer the questions for the purpose of impugning their character during the televised hearings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee knew before the depositions that my clients would be asserting their First and Fifth Amendment rights, and also would not answer any questions because the depositions were being held in violation of the rules established by the House,\u201d McAdoo Gordon told The Federalist. So, shortly after the hearing began and the 1AP witnesses made clear they would not answer any questions, the staffers moved to general topic areas and would ask a few prepared questions, then the committee representative would note that he had more questions on the topic and inquire whether if he asked those questions, the witnesses intended to assert the same objections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy clients would respond \u2018yes\u2019 to that question, so then the committee would move forward with the next topic,\u201d McAdoo Gordon said. \u201cBut after covering various topics, the committee staffer at the end volleyed a litany of individual questions to my clients, forcing them to respond to each question with \u2018Rules, First, and Fifth,\u2019 the shorthand we had agreed to with the committee to convey their objections to questions posed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given that the committee had broadcast video of Michael Flynn asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an earlier hearing, McAdoo Gordon said she wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Tuesday\u2019s hearings include clips of her clients refusing to answer the committee\u2019s questions. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, she said as much to the committee <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/08\/exclusive-1st-amendment-praetorian-goes-after-jan-6-committee-for-mccarthy-esque-defamation-tactics\/\">in a letter last week<\/a>. After calling the lawmakers out for implying to the public that Flynn was guilty of some crime because he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights, McAdoo Gordon wrote that implying guilt based on a witness asserting his rights, \u201cis a McCarthy-esque tactic that offends the Constitution and is unworthy of the United States Congress.\u201d The attorney added that she is \u201cforced to anticipate that the Committee will use the same totalitarian tactic to improperly smear 1AP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The irony is that McAdoo Gordon was working with the committee to arrange for her clients to testify voluntarily, within the bounds of the First Amendment, until the committee concocted what she has called a \u201ccockamamie\u201d criminal conspiracy theory. The committee argued in litigation with former Trump attorney John Eastman \u201cthat President Trump, Dr. Eastman, and others conspired to defraud the United States by disrupting the electoral count,\u201d supposedly in violation of Section 371 of the federal criminal code, which makes it a crime to \u201cconspire to defraud\u201d the United States. The committee\u2019s pushing of what she called a \u201cpreposterous\u201d legal theory left McAdoo Gordon \u201cwith no option but to recommend that my clients assert their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McAdoo Gordon told The Federalist that during her clients\u2019 depositions, the committee asked a series of questions that she likely would have allowed her clients to answer if the meeting had been on a voluntary basis. Putting aside the question of whether the committee was properly constituted, the 1AP\u2019s attorney noted Congress had a legitimate interest in investigating the riots and violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat 1AP did, or more accurately put, didn\u2019t do, on Jan. 6 was relevant to the committee\u2019s investigation into the riot and the violence at the Capitol, and I was working to arrange for my clients to voluntarily provide the committee with that information,\u201d McAdoo Gordon said. Likewise, the committee had questions about a couple tweets my clients sent on the sixth, and again, such questions were relevant to the Jan. 6 investigation. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut once the committee advanced the absurd Section 371 criminal conspiracy theory, I could no longer recommend my clients speak with the committee,\u201d the attorney explained. McAdoo Gordon did respond to the committee on behalf of her clients, however, after Raskin \u201cfalsely described 1AP as a \u2018far right\u2019 group with a \u2018role\u2019 in the \u2018Capitol attack\u2019\u201d in his interview with the Times. \u201cAll of those points are false and defamatory,\u201d she told the committee. \u201c1AP is a mainstream, non-partisan group with no role whatsoever in the attack on the Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Violating the First Amendment<\/h2>\n<p>It isn\u2019t just the Fifth Amendment the committee has been shredding, however. \u201cEven if my clients did not assert the Fifth Amendment, I would have still objected to several questions on First Amendment grounds,\u201d McAdoo Gordon added. While some questions related to Jan. 6 were relevant, the majority of the questions posed to 1AP representatives were none of Congress\u2019s business, McAdoo Gordon stressed. And even the process reveals the warped authoritarianism of the committee, the attorney added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the beginning of the depositions, the congressional staff sought confirmation that we were not recording the proceedings in any way, while they proceeded to video record the questioning,\u201d McAdoo Gordon said. She then noted that while witnesses called before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., can obtain a transcript of their testimony, the Jan. 6 Committee refuses to allow those they target to obtain transcripts of their subpoenaed testimony.<\/p>\n<p>The committee\u2019s hiding of the transcripts serves to cover their lies and to control the narrative of the show trial, but it also allows the Jan. 6 Committee to hide the wildly inappropriate questions it posed to the witnesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you believe in QAnon?\u201d \u201cDo you believe that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States?\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s your understanding of what happened on 1\/6?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Committee of the United States Congress actually asked my clients those questions,\u201d McAdoo Gordon told The Federalist in an exclusive weekend interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore the deposition, I assured my clients that their political and personal beliefs would not be probed,\u201d the D.C. attorney explained. \u201cWhile I knew from the subpoenas the Jan. 6 Committee intended to seek constitutionally protected information concerning other 1AP members, my jaw just kept dropping further when they started to question my clients on what they thought and believed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The committee also asked Robert Lewis, who is a retired United States Army Green Beret and recipient of the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and Philip Luelsdorff, a former U.S. Army Ranger, to describe 1AP activities. For whom and for what purpose did they provide volunteer services? Did they provide security? Surveillance? Assistance with legal activities? What training did they provide? And how were they able to afford to provide the training and volunteer services? Where did the money come from? Who made donations? What bank accounts were used? Did the organization accept cryptocurrency?<\/p>\n<p>Again, none of those questions concerned the events of Jan. 6. Rather, the committee focused on events long before the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol. For instance, it asked whether 1AP provided security for polling places. Other questions concerned 1AP\u2019s security work at a Nov. 14 rally and a Dec. 12 rally.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, the committee is seeking information about 1AP\u2019s members, financial status, donors, and activities. None of that is relevant to the Jan. 6 riots, and all of it is off-limits to the government, the lawyer said. \u201cThe Committee had no business asking those questions, so my clients weren\u2019t about to answer them in violation of their First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Committee had cited as \u2018evidence\u2019 against my clients that they obtained a permit for a demonstration the day before the riot. How is obtaining a permit to hold a peaceful protest evidence of a role in a riot the next day? It isn\u2019t,\u201d McAdoo Gordon said. The committee also sought to quiz Lewis and Luelsdorff on their relationship with the Trump family, the White House, the campaign, and numerous specific individuals such as Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn. The staff further asked whether they had been in contact with any of the defense attorneys representing any of the Jan. 6 defendants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government should not be asking a civic organization, which is what 1AP is, about its relationships, in general, with other people, much less about the organization\u2019s donors or lawyers with whom they spoke,\u201d McAdoo Gordon stressed.<\/p>\n<h2>Assuming Guilt with Dishonest Framing<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond asking inappropriate questions that implicated 1AP\u2019s First Amendment rights, the committee framed several questions in the \u201cdo you still beat your wife\u201d format. Before the election, did they provide security \u201cin order to overturn the election\u201d? \u201cHave you engaged in any activities to overturn the certified election results?\u201d \u201cHave you engaged in any activities to reinstall Donald Trump as president of the United States since Jan. 20, 2021?\u201d These questions all presuppose that the \u201celection results\u201d were sought to be \u201coverturned,\u201d as opposed to challenged.<\/p>\n<p>But of course, the Jan. 6 Committee\u2019s focus on the few unfounded claims of election fraud, as opposed to the numerous violations of state election law and evidence of illegal voting \u2014 issues Trump and his legal team pursued \u2014 aids in the narrative that the protesters wanted to \u201cinstall\u201d Trump or overturn the election, as opposed to protest election irregularities. And by using a guilt-by-association strategy, the committee paints not just 1AP and its volunteers as complicit in the violence at the Capitol, but every American who attended the rallies and peacefully protested the disastrous 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee might be using nicer language, but its questioning is Stalinist in nature nonetheless,\u201d McAdoo Gordon said.<\/p>\n<p>The 1AP lawyer is correct. But because the corrupt media is effectively serving as a state-run press for its preferred politicians, most of America will be oblivious to that fact when the hearings resume later today.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Jan. 6 Committee is abusing its power by asking inappropriate questions about their fellow Americans\u2019 beliefs and associates, and publicly portraying witnesses who exercise their Fifth Amendment rights as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}