Treacherous Plan: Donald Trump and his allies and supporters present a “clear and present danger” to American democracy, former federal appeals judge Michael Luttig said yesterday before the House January 6^th investigating committee.

  Luttig said the threat is not because of what happened on January 6^th, but  because Trump and his people pledge that if the former president or his “anointed successor” were to lose another presidential election, “that they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election, but succeed in 2024.”

  Luttig was elaborating on a stirring 12-page statement he released earlier in the day about the state of partisan politics in this country and Trump’s effort to reverse the legitimate election of Joe Biden to the presidency.

  In other testimony, witnesses said it was made perfectly clear to Trump that Mike Pence had no legal authority to suspend the vote. In a final phone call the day of the January 6^th insurrection, Oval Office witnesses including Trump’s daughter Ivanka said the then president called his Vice President a “wimp” and a “pussy” for refusing to reject the Electoral College vote .

  Witnesses including Ivanka Trump attested to overhearing Trump’s end of the conversation on videotaped interviews presented yesterday by the January 6^th committee.

  That call was just part of the pressure put on Pence, much of it coming from Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, who had urged Pence to break the law to block Biden’s ascendance to the Oval Office.

  In one memo Eastman said, “”the Electoral Count Act is not so sacrosanct as was previously claimed” and “I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation and adjourn for 10 days.”

  Eastman later asked to be put on the list of people to be granted a presidential pardon, which he never got, and pleaded the 5^th Amendment against self-incrimination 100 times before the January 6^th committee.

  Testimony yesterday revealed that the crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence” came within 40 feet of the vice president as he was led to safety through the corridors of the Capitol. He spent five hours in an underground loading dock until the building was cleared.

  Speaking of Trump near the end of the session, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney concluded that, “A man who loved his country more than himself would have conceded this election.”

Stake in The Heart: Here are some quotes from the Michael Luttig statement delivered to the January 6^th committee:

“A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, 2021, and our democracy today is on a knife’s edge. “

“We Americans no longer agree on what is right or wrong, what is to be valued and what is not, what is acceptable behavior and not, and what is and is not tolerable discourse in civilized society.”

“False claims that our elections have been stolen from us corrupt our democracy, as they corrupt us. To continue to insist and persist in the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is itself an affront to our democracy and to the Constitution of the United States — an affront without precedent.” 

“Today’s politicians believe that they never have to choose between partisan party politics and country, when in fact they are obliged by oath to choose between the two every day, and every day they defiantly refuse to choose. For today’s politicians, never the twain shall meet between partisan ambition and country, and never the latter before the former, either.” 

“All of these leaders then need to summon first the moral courage and then the political courage, the strength, and the patriotic will to extend their hands, and ask of the others — and of all Americans — “Can we talk? America needs us.” 

“We need to get back to the solemn business of preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States and the United States of America.” 

Read Luttig’s full statement here.

The Spin Rack: The Golden State Warriors last night won their fourth NBA title in eight years.  — The British government ordered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the US to face espionage and hacking charges. — USA Today removed 23 news stories from its website after concluding that reporter Gabriela Miranda had misattributed quotes and even may have fabricated interviews and sources. Miranda resigned.— Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti, who represented Stormy Daniels, pleaded to embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients. He’s already in prison on another conviction.

Family Values: Reporters have revealed that Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, a former NFL star, has not just a 10-year-old son he never sees, but also a 13 year-old-son and an adult daughter he fathered while still in college. Walker is a Trump-endorsed “family values” candidate who has denounced absentee black fathers.

-30-