[ Was there a conspiracy — even if it only involved a handful of
people — at the highest levels of our government to end the American
Experiment that was only defeated by sheer luck?]
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DID SOME IN OUR FEDERAL POLICE CONSPIRE TO OVERTHROW AMERICA?  
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Thom Hartmann
November 30, 2022
The Hartmann Report
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_ Was there a conspiracy — even if it only involved a handful of
people — at the highest levels of our government to end the American
Experiment that was only defeated by sheer luck? _

, Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 

Congressman Ron Paul’s former staffer, Elmer Stuart Rhodes, leader
of the Oathkeepers, was just convicted of seditious conspiracy. But
how did he and his merry band get close enough to Mike Pence and Nancy
Pelosi to present the kind of deadly threat they tried to carry out?

“Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my
attention?” the Scotland Yard police inspector asked Sherlock Holmes
in Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story _The Adventure of Silver Blaze
[[link removed]]_.
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” Holmes
replied.
“The dog,” the inspector said, “did _nothing_ in the
night-time.”
“_That_,” replied Holmes, “was the curious incident.”

WHY DIDN’T THE “DOGS” OF OUR FEDERAL POLICE, INVESTIGATIVE, AND
MILITARY AGENCIES “BARK” WHEN THEY KNEW FULL WELL IN ADVANCE THAT
AN ARMED MOB WAS COMING TO THE CAPITOL TO TRY TO OVERTHROW OUR
GOVERNMENT, AND THAT MANY WITHIN THE MOB WERE ARMED AND WILLING TO
KILL (AND DID) TO TRY TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOAL?

WHY, AFTERWARD, DID THE SECRET SERVICE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE WIPE
[[link removed]] THEIR
PHONES SO THE DATA COULD NEVER BE RETRIEVED? WHY HAS THERE NEVER BEEN
A PUBLIC EXAMINATION OF MOST OF THIS?

It’s as if a small-town police force was warned that a gang of bank
robbers was on their way into town on the following Saturday, and that
weekend the entire police force decided to leave their phones off the
hook and go fishing. And after the bank was robbed, they all said they
didn’t realize they’d _really_ intended to rob the town’s
bank. And then destroyed the note warning them the robbers were coming
to town.

WHY ARE SO FEW PEOPLE OPENLY SPECULATING THAT CORRUPT INDIVIDUALS —
POSSIBLY ONLY A TINY HANDFUL — WITHIN THE FBI, SECRET SERVICE, AND
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MAY HAVE PARTICIPATED IN A PLOT LED BY DONALD
TRUMP TO OVERTHROW OUR GOVERNMENT?

Is it simply because treason is such an unimaginably heinous act? Does
journalistic integrity require them to await “smoking gun”
evidence that, at the very least, some people within these
organizations were knowing or unknowing participants in Trump’s plot
to become America’s last president? Is it fear of losing sources in
the agencies?

WHEN I WAS 13 YEARS OLD MY FATHER GAVE ME A JUST-PUBLISHED BOOK HE’D
GOTTEN FROM A FRIEND IN THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY TITLED _NONE DARE CALL
IT TREASON
[[link removed]]_.
IT POSITED THAT THE US STATE DEPARTMENT WAS RIDDLED WITH COMMUNIST
SYMPATHIZERS, LARGELY BASED ON CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE AND THE
“INVESTIGATIONS” CONDUCTED A DECADE EARLIER BY SENATOR JOE
MCCARTHY.

There was no such conspiracy (although there were a few identified as
“commies,” mostly just good liberals), but that didn’t stop the
head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, from frequently and
loudly suggesting
[[link removed]] to
the press that there was.

SIMILARLY, FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF SOME OF THE PEOPLE WORKING IN THE FBI
AND SECRET SERVICE ON JANUARY 6TH, IT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN AS ABSURD AS
IT SOUNDS TODAY TO HAVE THEN BELIEVED THAT DEMOCRATS IN A HALF-DOZEN
STATES HAD SUCCESSFULLY STOLEN THE ELECTION FROM TRUMP.

AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WAS MAKING THAT CLAIM
HIMSELF, REPEATEDLY. AND DOZENS OF OTHER HIGH-RANKING OFFICIALS,
INCLUDING MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE FROM THE VARIOUS STATES
WHERE THE CRIMES ALLEGEDLY OCCURRED, WERE THEMSELVES CORROBORATING HIS
CLAIM.

Trump was the boss, and if people in police agencies are anything
it’s deferential to the boss. And highly aware of the chain of
command. As the old saying goes, if he says, “Jump!” it’s their
job to reply, “How high?”

Anybody who’s ever had much contact with members of police and
military agencies knows they lean conservative, sometimes to the point
of outright support for police-state style fascism. In many instances
and circumstances a certain amount of authoritarianism seems necessary
to do the job, particularly policing, which is why that kind of work
draws authoritarian personalities to it.

It’s also no secret that both police officers and military enlistees
vote overwhelmingly Republican, largely for the same reasons (although
the GOP also goes out of its way to court those voters).

SO, SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT A HANDFUL OF MEMBERS OF OUR
FEDERAL POLICE AGENCIES — THE FBI AND SECRET SERVICE — AND A FEW
MOST SENIOR OFFICIALS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE MAY HAVE CONSPIRED
— WITTINGLY OR UNWITTINGLY — WITH DONALD TRUMP TO END DEMOCRACY IN
AMERICA AND INSTITUTE A TRUMP-LED STRONGMAN GOVERNMENT?

As the January 6th Select Committee in the House is wrapping up their
work and writing their final report, there are more than a few
questions around the DOD, FBI, and Secret Service that remain
unanswered, particularly about the days and weeks leading up to that
fateful day.

THE LARGEST QUESTION, OF COURSE, IS WHY THEY ALL STOOD DOWN, KNOWING
THAT ARMED MILITIAS WERE COMING TO TRY TO OVERTURN AN ELECTION. AND
THAT THE MILITIA MEMBERS WERE WILLING TO SPILL BLOOD, WHICH THEY DID,
INCLUDING THAT OF THE THREE POLICE OFFICERS KILLED AND OVER 140
INJURED, TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOAL.

The attack heading toward the Capitol wasn’t a secret, by any
measure. Trump had tweeted an invitation on December 19th saying it
would be “wild” and reiterated the invitation multiple times both
on Twitter and in other venues.

RHODES TEXTED
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HIS OATHKEEPER MEMBERS, WHICH INCLUDED AT LEAST ONE FBI INFORMANT:

“We are not getting through this without a civil war. Prepare your
mind, body and spirit.”

If that wasn’t clear enough, he also proclaimed:

“We will have to do a bloody, massively bloody revolution against
them. That's what's going to have to happen.”

PLANNING WAS ALL OVER RIGHTWING MEDIA, TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. PEOPLE
WERE OPENLY DISCUSSING VIOLENCE AND PLANS FOR VIOLENCE. THERE WAS
BRAZEN TALK OF REVOLUTION, OF ASSASSINATION.

Somebody brought and assembled a gallows on the lawn of the capitol
building, but somehow nobody stopped the construction or knows the
identities of its builders and how or why it was organized.

And we now know that FBI field offices across the country had noticed
the boiling calls for violence, and the Secret Service and DOD were
also fully aware of it.

BUT NOT ONLY DID THEY DO _NOTHING_: THEY ACTIVELY PREVENTED — FOR
DAYS IN ADVANCE, AND FOR MULTIPLE HOURS DURING THE ACTIVE ARMED
ASSAULT — ANY RESCUE OF THE SMALL CONTINGENT OF CAPITOL POLICE AND
LEGISLATORS LEFT TO DEAL WITH AN ARMED MOB OF THOUSANDS.

The Commanding General of the National Guard, Gen. William J. Walker,
has openly complained that he was prevented — for four hours —
from helping the Capitol Policy that day. As 
[[link removed]]_The
Washington Post
[[link removed]]_ reported
[[link removed]]:

“Walker contends that restrictions placed on him by McCarthy and
Trump’s acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, prevented him
from sending Guard members to assist sooner.”

HOW IS THIS AN ACCIDENT?

When Trump took the dais to whip up the crowd before sending them to
the Capitol to “hang Mike Pence,” he took the unusual step of
speaking from behind a wall of bulletproof glass. Congressman Mo
Brooks, among others, wore a bulletproof vest.

They knew what the hell was up.

HOURS BEFORE TRUMP’S RALLY, IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS, ARMED PEOPLE
HAD STARTED SHOWING UP NEAR THE ELLIPSE; DC POLICE AND THE SECRET
SERVICE HAD REPORTS OF AN ARMED PERSON IN A TREE AND OTHERS CARRYING
SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPONS.

JANUARY 6TH COMMITTEE TESTIMONY SUGGESTS THE SECRET SERVICE REPORTED
THIS TO TRUMP HIMSELF ALTHOUGH, WEIRDLY, NOBODY TRIED TO DISARM THESE
PEOPLE IN A CITY WHERE GUNS ARE LARGELY ILLEGAL. INSTEAD, APPARENTLY
THERE WAS A DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT TO TURN OFF THE MAGNETOMETERS.

Trump then demanded — in real time, from the stage — that those
armed followers be allowed in to hear his speech without having to go
through the magnetometers that would have identified their weapons.

Yet somehow his hand-picked FBI Director hadn’t prepared to deal
with an armed mob in advance and, on the day of the assault, went
fishing or something (his statement to Congress is here
[[link removed]]).

Whatever he was doing, he was seemingly paralyzed for most of the day
and only took direct action, he testified
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oath to Congress:

“_Beginning on the evening_ of January 6, the FBI surged
substantial resources to help ensure the safety and security of the
U.S. Capitol complex, members of Congress, and their staff, and the
public.” (emphasis mine)

FOR SIMILARLY UNKNOWN REASONS HIS ACTING DEFENSE SECRETARY TOLD THE
NATIONAL GUARD TWO DAYS EARLIER, ON JANUARY 4TH, THAT THEY WERE NOT,
WITHOUT SPECIFIC PERMISSION FROM HIM, ALLOWED TO HELP THE CAPITOL
POLICE ON JANUARY 6TH. (HIS MEMO IS REPRODUCED AT THE END OF THIS
ARTICLE.)

Meanwhile, as convicted seditionist Stuart Rhodes testified at his own
trial, Oathkeepers were fully expecting counter-protestors to show up,
people they could identify as “Antifa” and attack. General Mike
Flynn was pushing Trump to use that expected battle as the excuse to
declare martial law and suspend election activity.

And it now looks like Trump may have been prepared to execute
Flynn’s plan, had those counter-protestors actually showed up.

THE DAY BEFORE, ON JANUARY 5TH, TRUMP ISSUED
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EXECUTIVE ORDER ASSERTING THAT “ANTIFA” WAS BOTH A DOMESTIC
TERRORIST _AND_ ORGANIZED CRIME GROUP AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH
BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

“[R]eliable reporting,” the January 5th order notes
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“suggests that the movement known as Antifa is directly or
indirectly responsible for some of the recent lawlessness in our
communities, and has exploited tragedies to advance a radical,
leftist, anarchist, and often violent agenda.  In fact, Antifa has
long used otherwise permissible demonstrations to engage in lawless,
criminal behavior to further its radical agenda. …

“Those affiliated with Antifa have also repeatedly threatened
violence, including against law enforcement officers.  …

“In late September of 2020, individuals in a moving truck
distributed riot equipment — including shields, masks, and a sign
emblazoned with an Antifa symbol — in Louisville, Kentucky, before
riots ensued there.  Hours later, the violent situation resulted in
the shooting of two police officers.  And on October 5, 2020,
reported Antifa activists in Portland were captured on video attacking
a woman carrying an American flag.

“The Department of Justice has already publicly confirmed that
actions by Antifa and similar groups meet the standard for domestic
terrorism.”

OVER AT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE THEN-ACTING DEFENSE SECRETARY CHRIS
MILLER AND HIS CHIEF OF STAFF KASH PATEL (FORMERLY OF DEVIN
NUNES’ STAFF) WERE RUNNING THE PLACE. 

They controlled the Pentagon and our armed forces but, more
importantly, they controlled the National Guard, whose troops
had previously
[[link removed]] surrounded
buildings in the Capitol area three-deep during the peaceful BLM
protests just six months earlier.

[Twitter avatar for @mannyfidel]
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manny @mannyfidel
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this is a photo of the National Guard stationed in response to a Black
Lives Matter protest at the Lincoln Memorial in June
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[Image] [[link removed]]

8:05 PM ∙ Jan 6, 2021
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14,378Likes6,719Retweets
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THE PROSPECT THAT VIOLENCE WAS HEADING TOWARD THE CAPITOL ON JANUARY
6TH WASN’T A SECRET TO ANYBODY WITH A TWITTER OR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT:
THE NATION WAS AWASH WITH THREATS AND PLANNING FOR VIOLENCE, MUCH OF
IT IN THE OPEN. IT WAS DISCUSSED ON TALK RADIO AND PODCASTS.

This apparently so alarmed ARMY SECRETARY RYAN MCCARTHY that, on
January 4th, he reached out to his boss, Trump’s recently-appointed
Acting DEFENSE SECRETARY CHRIS MILLER, to get permission to send the
National Guard to the Capitol building on January 6th to prevent the
violence they were seeing being planned all over social media.

Acting Defense Secretary Miller, in the effective role of commander of
our entire military just one step below Commander-in-Chief Trump (on
whose behalf he acted), then issued a memo on January 4th specifically
directing McCarthy and the National Guard that they were:

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*NOT AUTHORIZED TO BE ISSUED WEAPONS, ammunition, bayonets, batons, or
ballistic protection equipment such as helmets and body armor.

*
*NOT TO INTERACT PHYSICALLY WITH PROTESTORS, except when necessary in
self-defense or defense of others.

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*NOT TO EMPLOY ANY RIOT CONTROL AGENTS.

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*Not to share equipment with law enforcement agencies.

*
*NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE
(ISR) ASSETS OR TO CONDUCT ISR OR INCIDENT, AWARENESS, AND ASSESSMENT
ACTIVITIES IN ASSISTANCE TO CAPITOL POLICE.

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*Not allowed to employ helicopters or any other air assets.

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*NOT TO CONDUCT SEARCHES, SEIZURES, ARRESTS, OR OTHER SIMILAR DIRECT
LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY.

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*NOT AUTHORIZED TO SEEK SUPPORT FROM ANY NON-DC NATIONAL GUARD UNITS.

There’s no coherent theory about why Chris Miller wrote this memo
and thus blocked the National Guard from protecting the Capitol and
the members of Congress within it.

Some have suggested it was to retain an appearance of “normality at
the Capitol,” but that makes no sense when you see their response to
things like that summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. That was the
new normal.

But something wasn’t normal at all in the Trump administration.

RECALL, WAY BACK ON NOVEMBER 9, 2020, RIGHT AFTER HIS ELECTION LOSS
WAS CALLED ON NOVEMBER 7TH, THE _LOS ANGELES TIMES
[[link removed]]_ WROTE
[[link removed]]:

“President Trump’s decision to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper
on Monday [the day before the election] raised concerns that he may be
planning far-reaching military moves in his final weeks in office —
and is putting in place new leadership more inclined to go along.

“Trump named Christopher Miller, director of the national
counterterrorism center, to take over as acting Defense secretary,
bypassing the normal practice of having the Pentagon’s No. 2
official take charge temporarily if the top job becomes vacant.”

THE ARTICLE ALSO NOTED THAT MILLER’S PREDECESSOR, WHO’D BEEN
THROUGH A SENATE CONFIRMATION AND WAS A “LEGAL” SECRETARY OF
DEFENSE (MILLER WAS NOT), WAS CONCERNED:

“In an interview conducted before his dismissal but published after
he was fired Monday, Esper suggested that his successor might be more
willing than he was to go along with Trump’s questionable uses of
the military.

“‘Who’s going to come in behind me?’ Esper told Military
Times,
[[link removed]] which
covers the armed forces. ‘It’s going to be a real ‘yes man.’
And then God help us.’”

WHAT DID IT TAKE FOR TRUMP TO GET CHRIS MILLER TO WRITE THIS MEMO? WAS
HE DUPED? WAS HE AN ENTHUSIASTIC OR RELUCTANT PARTICIPANT? DID DONALD
TRUMP OR HIS CHIEF OF STAFF AND APPARENT CO-CONSPIRATOR MARK MEADOWS
DICTATE IT?

If this isn’t bad enough, on January 6th itself — as armed
traitors were attacking police and searching to “hang Mike Pence”
— Chris Miller oversaw a mid-afternoon, mid-riot conference call in
which Army Secretary McCarthy was again begging for authority to
immediately bring in the National Guard.

Then-DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR OPERATIONS GENERAL CHARLES FLYNN, the
brother of convicted/pardoned foreign agent GENERAL MICHAEL
FLYNN (who had been pushing Trump to declare martial law and seize
voting machines nationwide) was on the call; both the Pentagon and the
Army, it has been reported
[[link removed]],
lied to the press, Congress, and, apparently, to the Biden
administration about his presence on that call for almost a year.

It wasn’t until December, 2021 that it was widely reported
[[link removed]] that
the NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL’S COLONEL EARL MATTHEWS (who was
also on the call) wrote a memo calling
[[link removed]] both CHARLES
FLYNN and LT. GEN WALTER PIATT, the Director of Army Staff,
“absolute and unmitigated liars” for their testimony to Congress
in which they both denied they’d argued to withhold the National
Guard on January 6th.

Then we discovered
[[link removed]] that
the phones and text messages of most of the group, including Chris
Miller, Walter Piatt, Kash Patel
[[link removed]], and
Ryan McCarthy were all wiped of all conversations and text messages
they had on and in the lead-up to January 6th.

Most of the communication-based evidence was destroyed. Completely
destroyed. By coincidence, they said.

WHY IS IT SUCH A STRETCH TO IMAGINE THAT AT LEAST SOME OF THESE MEN
BELIEVED, AS STUART RHODES HAS SAID HE BELIEVED, THAT THE BATTLE OF
JANUARY 6TH WOULD END WITH DONALD TRUMP DECLARED THE PRESIDENT?

That, once declared, he’d award them all presidential medals and
give them promotions and positions of even greater power in his second
administration?

That 2016 would be the last election actually determined by the people
themselves, and they were all okay with that?

IS IT SIMPLY TRUE THAT “NONE DARE CALL IT TREASON?”

Perhaps I’m missing some critical detail that reduces this
speculation to nonsense. Or maybe it’s just that because I’m
publishing here on Substack in my own little silo I don’t have to
answer to a nervous editor who wants to maintain his publication’s
access to the FBI, Secret Service, and DOD.

IF YOU KNOW WHAT I’M MISSING, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS
SECTION BELOW.

If not, please join me in asking this simple question:

“Was there a conspiracy — even if it only involved a handful of
people — at the highest levels of our government to end the American
Experiment that was only defeated by sheer luck? And, if so, who were
the conspirators and who were the unwitting dupes?”

Americans deserve to know why the dog didn’t bark on January 6th and
in the days leading up to it. _And, if a_ppropriate, to dare to call
it treason.

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_Thom Hartmann is the NY Times bestselling author 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* January 6
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