Republican Attorneys General Association Needs To Be Investigated By The House Select Committee To Investigate The January 6th Attack On The U.S. Capitol

Above: Executive Committee of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021. Republican Attorneys General Dark Money Group Organized Protest Preceding Capitol Mob Attack:

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” on the March to Save America website alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others. (MarchtoSaveAmerica.com has been taken down but an archived version of the website can be accessed through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)

RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Republican attorneys general [were] heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican state attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican Texas attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election [joined by 17 other Republican Attorneys General]. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

Note: Paxton spoke at the January 6 rally in Washington, D.C., before the insurrection began, touting his unsuccessful legal effort to overturn the 2020 election. “We will not quit fighting. We’re Texans, we’re Americans, and the fight will go on,” Paxton told the crowd. U.S. House panel probing Jan. 6 attack wants Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s communications with Trump administration.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the frivolous lawsuit filed by Ken Paxton and 17 other Republican state attorneys general. Supreme Court rejects Texas bid to overturn election results in four states (December 12. 2020):

The high court refused to take up the lawsuit filed Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that took aim at the election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.

“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. [A roundabout way of saying a frivolous claim.] All other pending motions are dismissed as moot,” the court said in an unsigned order.

The long-shot lawsuit from Paxton, which was supported by 17 state attorneys general and more than 100 House Republicans, joined a flurry of legal challenges brought by Mr. Trump and his attorneys that have unsuccessfully sought to reverse the outcome of the presidential election in battleground states won by Mr. Biden. Federal and state judges have largely tossed out their lawsuits because they lacked evidence to support claims the election was rife with fraud.

Now we learn GOP Group Held ‘War Games’ Session For State AGs To Discuss Strategies If Trump Lost:

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), held a special “war games” meeting weeks before the election to discuss its strategies if Trump lost.

The two-day conference in September 2020 was among more than 20 meetings that the Rule of Law Defense Fund held in the four months before the November election for senior aides to Republicans who were their states’ chief law enforcement officials. But unlike the others, it was held in-person despite coronavirus cases surging and the vaccine still months from coming to market, and the group paid attendees’ travel costs.

[E]mails from the offices of the Republican attorneys general in Kansas and Missouri show that the Tule of Law Defense Fund held weekly calls for senior staffers in state offices, a “virtual roundtable” with senior corporate attorneys in July and the in-person summit in September. It also held a Zoom “strategy session” eight days after the election and a Dec. 1 call to discuss immigration policy.

A Sept. 24 email from the Republican Attorneys General Association executive director, addressed to “Generals,” called the Atlanta event “WAR GAMES” and a “series of conversations planning for what could come if we lose the White House.”

“It was a fast paced, productive series of war games, which hopefully will not have to be utilized in November,” then-Executive Director Adam Piper said in an email the next day, again addressed to “Generals.”

Piper resigned from the attorneys general association five days after the violence in Washington and after the Defense Fund’s robocall came to light. The call did not advocate violence or suggest invading the Capitol.

No, RAGA’s frivolous lawsuit just laid the predicate for the Big Lie that the election was stolen; totally not the same thing (sarcasm).

Taken together, the meetings and robocalls underscore how deeply elements of the Republican Party were invested in trying to keep Trump in office or to challenge the incoming Biden administration. Seventeen Republican state attorneys general, including those from Kansas and Missouri, also joined the Texas attorney general in a separate lawsuit seeking to overturn the presidential election results based on unfounded claims of voter fraud; the Supreme Court ultimately rejected that effort.

An agenda for the Defense Fund’s Atlanta summit listed three policy sessions and a set of breakout sessions over two days. An email two days before the event from the Defense Fund’s executive director said, “All the policy conversations are off the record.”

While the Defense Fund also allowed people to participate virtually, the emails said more than 30 people attended in person.

In a written statement Thursday to The Associated Press, RAGA spokesperson Johnny Koremenos said the September 2020 meeting “was strictly focused on administrative law and preparing attorneys general teams for a potential Biden Administration or a second term of President Trump — common practice in an election season.”

The frivolous lawsuit challenging the election results, and the robocalls promoting the January 6 rally strongly suggest otherwise.

Koremenos did not answer questions asked in multiple emails about whether Defense Fund videoconferences last year addressed possible challenges to the election results.

[In] Missouri, contacts between the Defense Fund and state Solicitor General John Sauer, who is under Schmitt’s office, became public this year through a records request from a government transparency group.

Schmitt said in January that he didn’t know about the Defense Fund robocall, and his spokesperson said Thursday that he wasn’t going to “rehash” issues raised early this year. Schmitt is running for the U.S. Senate in 2022.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office sent two staffers to the September “war games” summit — Chief Deputy Attorney General Jeff Chanay and Communications Director Clint Blaes. Their pre-event travel authorization forms showed that the Defense Fund would cover their expenses — as it did — and listed the purpose of their travel as “Training.”

Chanay said in an email to himself and Blaes that Schmidt had concluded the event “serves a legitimate state purpose and interest” and that the office otherwise would have covered their expenses — making it legal under Kansas law for them to accept the Defense Fund’s hospitality.

Their participation was first reported this week by the Kansas Reflector, which obtained 15 pages of emails through an open records request. The Associated Press also obtained the emails through an open records request.

Another email showed that Eric Montgomery, Schmidt’s chief of staff, registered for online sessions.

Schmidt, first elected in 2010, is running for Kansas governor in 2022. He served as a director of the Defense Fund but left its board in August 2020. After the Jan. 6 insurrection, he publicly condemned the violence as “sickening” and told The Topeka Capital-Journal that he hadn’t known of the robocalls beforehand.

Schmidt’s spokesperson, John Milburn, said in an email that the September event was to discuss possible responses to regulations or other actions from a potential Biden administration that Schmidt worried might have “devastating consequences for Kansas.”

“There was no discussion about challenging the results of an election that was still six weeks away,” Milburn said.

Again, the frivolous lawsuit challenging the election results, and the robocalls promoting the January 6 rally strongly suggest otherwise.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol must investigate these 18 state Republican Attorneys General and their 501(c)(4), the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), for their role in promoting the January 6 seditious insurrection.

As Pam Martens and Russ Martens argue:

The Executive Committee of RAGA includes Attorneys General from nine states (see above graphic). Its Chairman is Chris Carr, Attorney General of Georgia. For RAGA to participate in fomenting a riot at the Capitol on incendiary information it knew to be false demands a thorough and formal FBI and Congressional investigation. RAGA has thrown a bone to the media by firing its Executive Director, Adam Piper. But the entire structure of RAGA needs deep scrutiny.

The Rule of Law Defense Fund is the dark money fundraising arm of RAGA and located at the same address and suite number as RAGA according to its IRS filings. Both the Rule of Law Defense Fund and RAGA were at varying times listed as “Coalition Partners” on websites set up to promote the January 6 event.

There may be grounds for referring these 18 state Republican Attorneys General to their state bar associations for disciplinary investigations, which the corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton already faces. AP Exclusive: State bar investigating Texas attorney general:

The Texas bar association is investigating whether state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud amounted to professional misconduct.

The State Bar of Texas initially declined to take up a Democratic Party activist’s complaint that Paxton’s petitioning of the U.S. Supreme Court to block Joe Biden’s victory was frivolous and unethical. But a tribunal that oversees grievances against lawyers overturned that decision late last month and ordered the bar to look into the accusations against the Republican official.

The investigation is yet another liability for the embattled attorney general, who is facing a years-old criminal case, a separate, newer FBI investigation, and a Republican primary opponent who is seeking to make electoral hay of the various controversies. It also makes Paxton one of the highest profile lawyers to face professional blowback over their roles in Donald Trump’s effort to delegitimize his defeat.

It couldn’t happen to a more deserving unethical and corrupt attorney who needs to be prosecuted and disbarred.