AT&T and January 6th

and why the Bannon/Meadows gambits are doomed

I worked as a paralegal in the 90s (and into the early Aughts).

I once worked on a divorce case in which the ex-husband to be was hiding assets. I examined 5 years worth of checks, and within 2 days, I knew the husband’s routines, spending habits, credit card information, maildrops, names of girlfriends, etc. And I was able to ascertain that he was hiding a sizable asset - he had controlling interest in a bank. With just checks.

His wife, the firm’s client, was amazed. The lawyer on the case was not. Given enough discovery, witnesses do little more than to confirm the paper trail.

Over the Summer, the Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection issued subpoenas for cell phone data from Verizon, AT&T, et al. Several GOP members of Congress and former Trump White House staffers freaked out. And for good reason.

Knowing the time a call was made, the length of the call length, and identity of a phone call recipient is a treasure trove of information. So is SMS data. While the content of the call or a text is important, being able to connect the White House and certain Members of Congress to participants in the attack on the Capitol will likely significantly shift public perception for all but the most virulent Trumpists and QAnon crazies. The January 6th Insurrection is looking more and more like a planned coup to overthrow a democratically elected President.

Earlier this week, AT&T produced 6,000 pages of cell phone data on the Select Committee’s investigators. It won’t tie the noose, but it will supply the rope.

Faced with the overwhelming likelihood of an indictment, former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows announced he will no longer cooperate with the Committee. The House is expected to find Meadows in contempt in the coming weeks.

His decision makes perfect sense. Why cooperate when the paper trail leads straight to the scaffold?

His gambit, though, is pointless. By next month, the flurry of phone calls and texts on January 6th (as well as the days and weeks preceding it) will be known and follow a time line that is certain to draw a net around Meadows and others. While it may be important to avoid waiving his 5th Amendment privilege, non-cooperation gets you a hot seat in front of the Select Committee. And at that point, contempt of Congress gets less defensible.

But Meadows might be looking at Steve Bannon’s legal strategy and decided to play the trial delay then take an appeal gambit.

The government told a federal judge in Steve Bannon’s case that the United States could present its evidence in one day. Bannon’s attorney responded that the case would take weeks to try. The government asked for a March trial date, Bannon asked for October, and the judge said mid-July and tacked on a two week time frame.

Bannon’s thinking is that his case will disappear with a GOP controlled House so delaying the trial as long as possible will aid in his defense. If the Department of Justice worked for Congress, he might be somewhat correct.

That aside, however, it seems that neither Mark Meadows nor Steve Bannon studied the Watergate Hearings very much.

The Senate Watergate Committee was authorized in February 1973. Its work got underway in March 1973 and on May 17, 1973, televised hearings began. It got really interesting in June 1973, when former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean revealed a White House taping system. The obstruction of justice charges poured out from there.

The House Impeachment of Nixon proceeding took a similar tack. The Committee authorized an impeachment inquiry in February 1974. By April 1974, the contents of the White House tapes became publicly known. The Impeachment Hearings began in May and by July, Nixon was dead in the water. The bipartisan vote to Impeachment Nixon on three Articles on July 30, 1974 was the nail in Nixon’s coffin.

Believing the cell phone data and other subpoenaed information is going to exculpate or exonerate them somehow is pure optimism.

The Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection is working a timeline that promises huge Nielsen ratings come May 2022. By June and July, alibis and defenses could be as rare as a pragmatist in the House GOP caucus.