GOPer Demands Unredacted J6 Transcripts, Biden Calls His Bluff

I don’t know about you but I enjoy it when President Biden lets “Dark Brandon” out to play. I’m not so sure GOP Rep. Eliot Barry Loudermilk of Georgia is enjoying it so much though.  GOPers have manufactured ‘outrages” about the January 6 Committee including some outright lies. Stuff about hiding or destroying information and so on. It’s been debunked but some of the huge volume of material that’s been publicly released has some redactions. Loudermilk decided to try and make hay about that. So our President pulled out the sunglasses and said “Are you sure? Ok.”

Raw Story has a short article outlining this little matter which will probably get lost in the larger news of the day so I figure while we wait to see what the jury in NYC is going to award E. Jean Carroll let’s take a quick look. As I noted the J6 Committee published everything, but there were some statements/exhibits that had redactions. At issue it seems are four people who were willing to share all with the committee on the condition that their names not be made public.

Well, that makes me wonder just who they were and what they saw. And more importantly if we’ll wind up hearing from them if Jack Smith is ever allowed to put Trump on trial in DC. (Don’t want to get started down that road again today!) Maybe Smith won’t need them. Or maybe what they had to share wasn’t all that big a deal. We may never know. What matters is that they were afraid to have it known they’d spoken to the committee – cooperated. If they were going to be obstinate I doubt they’d have asked for anonymity.

So we wound up with some transcripts that had redactions. The names for sure and possibly other indications about who they were. It’s not like even then these people had good reason to be worried about Trump unleashing MAGA on them. However, with each passing week they are likely increasingly terrified of their names being tossed out into the “MAGA-sphere.” And that’s where this is going to get interesting.

“We will make the unredacted transcripts available to you for review in camera, provided that you agree in writing to abide by the commitments made on a bipartisan basis by the Select Committee — to maintain the anonymity of the four witnesses consistent with the conditions under which the witnesses agreed to appear before the Select Committee, and to prevent the disclosure of ‘operational details and private information,’” wrote White House Counsel’s Office member Richard Sauber in a letter to Loudermilk.

Bluntly speaking Loudermilk and his crew can look, but can’t keep or copy anything. And can’t tell anyone the names of the people who talked to the committee or release certain other details. The article suggests their testimony confirmed key details about Trump’s actions before and during the riot, and also his reaction to Mike Pence telling him a VP doesn’t have the kind of Constitutional authority to do what Trump wanted him to do.

It’s that part about confirming key details in the linked article that caught my attention. It’s probably why the witnesses were granted anonymity in the first place. They were just confirming information/details and not the primary sources. But for some wild-eyed drunk on orange Kool-Aide Trump fluffer a redaction is PROOF, proof even more irrefutable than Mike Lindell keeps offering up that the J6 Committee’s redactions were “nefarious.”

The thing to watch for is whether Loudermilk quietly does his “Peeping Tom” thing and takes a look and comes away let down because the folks inside sat their fully clothed watching TV, or reading or other normal boring stuff OR if he still wants to kick up a stink. Frankly, since these are witnesses confirming other evidence/testimony it’s likely those making sure no one tries to use a cell phone to snap pics of the transcripts will helpfully have the materials/exhibits the witnesses ONLY confirmed right there. All bookmarked and highlighted.

IF Loudermilk follows through it would be fun to have someone record him and his crew entering and leaving that room. Walking in all excited and confident with their chests puffed out, and later slinking away hoping their “walk of shame” goes unnoticed. I have weird fantasies sometimes and now I’m having one. Of this actually going down and President Biden being in the WH that day. And being alerted Loudermilk was getting ready to leave and hustling over to the door of that room. AND when the door opens and the GOPers walk out putting on his sunglasses, giving them a big shit-eating grin and asking “find what you were looking for?”