What Bolsonaro’s Thugs Learned From Jan. 6

This content comes from the latest installment of our weekly Breaking the Vote newsletter out of VICE News’ D.C. bureau, tracking the ongoing efforts to undermine the democratic process in America. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday.

Your job is your discredit

It seems unlikely that we’ve heard the end of the story on the classified documents that were found in President Joe Biden’s post-veep office and his garage. Mishandling of classified documents is serious. Whether it’s a criminal matter is a different issue entirely. There have been plenty of good comparisons between what’s known about how Biden’s team handled documents, and what former President Donald Trump did that now has him under criminal investigation for hiding documents and also for obstruction. 

How classified documents got into Biden’s possession after he left office is now the subject of a special counsel investigation. There are also legitimate questions as to why it took more than two months after the Nov. 2 discovery of the documents for the public to learn of it. But that’s a political question. So far there is no publicly known evidence Biden knowingly or corruptly mishandled or hid classified materials. 

For the purposes of this newsletter, what’s always concerned me about the Mar-a-Lago case isn’t document retention rules. It’s the lawlessness Trump wields by shirking subpoenas, lying to investigators and possibly obstructing justice… coupled with the anti-democratic cynicism and bad faith his supporters revel in when attacking prosecutors, threatening violence, and just plain lying about the case. 

Within hours of the Biden document story breaking, Republicans called for his homes to be raided and for Attorney General Merrick Garland to be impeached. Others wailed that unlike presidents, vice presidents (like Biden, formerly) have no authority to declassify documents, which is both untrue and completely irrelevant to the case. It was a fog of false equivalency and whataboutism, all with the ultimate goal of absolving Trump of accountability. Now imagine what those same people will do with subpoena power. 

Which brings us to the House GOP, which this week launched its campaign to discredit investigators and undermine the law. GOP lawmakers voted to give themselves broad powers to probe and interrupt ongoing criminal investigations and to use classified information to do it. In addition to going after Hunter Biden and government communications with social media companies, they plan to use this government power to paint efforts at enforcing the law at Mar-a-Lago or on the coup attempt as corrupt. 

Some of the loudest cheerleaders for this GOP investigation are lawmakers who might have the most to lose from a thorough accounting of the coup. Rep. Scott Perry—known to Breaking the Vote readers as a multi-level coup plotter who reportedly asked for a pardon—cried “civil rights” in celebration of GOP investigations. Rep. Jim Jordan texted on Jan. 5 about how former VP Mike Pence should flip the election for Trump, then refused to tell the truth about multiple conversations he had with Trump on the morning of Jan. 6. He’ll be in charge of the select committee investigating the investigators. 

MAGA Republicans have a demonstrated history of taking obscure procedural details, washing them through a Fox-led hype machine, then simply lying over and over until they’ve got a right-wing article of faith. Ever heard Trump’s indignant claim that President Barack Obama’s FBI “spied on my campaign”? It’s false, and is also entirely the product of Trumpist House Republicans, including Jordan and Rep. Matt Gaetz, going “on offense’ with their investigation of Robert Mueller. 

Get ready for much more of the same now that Jordan has the gavel. As for Trumpist GOP and their coming claims of persecution, I humbly suggest checking if the Republican making them asked for a pardon for their participation in Jan. 6.

The ploys from Brazil

Last weekend’s riot at Brazil’s National Congress and other buildings in Brasilia was an awful case of deja vu. In image after image rioters seemed to be emulating the tactics and idiosyncrasies of Jan. 6 rioters. They broke through barricades, trespassed in lawmakers’ offices, pretended to use their phones, then paraded the souvenirs.

I got in touch with Michele Prado, an expert on Brazil’s far right and author of the book “Bolsonarism: The Alt-Right and Illiberal Populism in Brazil.” Americans didn’t invent the Brazilian far-right, or even its contemporary propagandists. But Jair Bolsonaro is infamous for his mimicry of Trump… both in personal style and political tactics. How deep do the ties between Brazilian authoritarians and American Trumpists go? 

Prado told me, “There is a wide constellation of far-right influencers from the United States and other countries that are disseminated in the digital ecosystems of the Brazilian far-right: Ben Shapiro, Jack Posobiec, Milo Yanouppolous, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Dinesh d'Souza, (Mike) Cernovich, Alex Jones and many others. Jason Miller, specifically, sponsors events produced by Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the former president who is one of the main responsible for the abominable attack that Brazilian democracy suffered last Sunday.”

No journalist covers Latin America, and Brazil specifically, better than VICE News’ David Noriega. David and I sat down together last night on VICE News Tonight (check us out at our new time, 10 p.m. on Thursdays!) to talk about Steve Bannon and the sordid ties that bind MAGA and Bolsonarismo.

T.W.I.S.™ Notes

Recent fights over Kevin McCarthy and government documents continue to obscure a deeper truth: More coup participants are likely about to get indicted. We talk about it every day in our newsroom. From Mar-a-Lago to Georgia to the coup plot grand jury, it seems like every week is now This Week in Subpoenas.

- The Fani countdown

The special purpose grand jury that spent the last eight months investigating attempts to illegally overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election has ended. Now there’s little else to do but await charges. 

Fulton County DA Fani Willis petitioned to empanel the group a year ago. Since then dozens of witnesses have appeared, including close Trump confidants, and 18 people were told they’re targets of a criminal investigation. This panel doesn’t issue indictments. It now has to submit a report that will possibly recommend criminal charges. A judge will decide after a scheduled Jan. 24 hearing whether to release that report. But the next big question is whether a separate grand jury will agree to indict anyone for trying to overturn the election in Georgia. The list of possible targets is long and includes GOP fake electors, Trumpworld characters like Rudy Giuliani, and, of course, Trump himself.  

- Subpoenile dysfunction

Trump campaign officials got subpoenas last month demanding information on a huge range of coup-related topics, potentially expanding the scope of questions prosecutors are looking at in connection with Trump’s bid to stay in power in 2020 and 2021. 

Officials got requests for information on issues ranging from Dominion and Smartmatic voting machines, to post-election Trump PAC fundraising, to analyses staffers may have done on whether the election was actually stolen, to who’s paying who’s legal fees. 

Several reports this week suggested the DC grand jury investigating the coup plot had picked up speed, bringing in a large number of witnesses to testify. I’m no expert on grand jury proceedings, but nothing says “urgency” like staying ahead of anti-democratic Trumpist House Republicans gearing up to discredit your investigations!

- New sedition

Opening arguments began yesterday in the seditious conspiracy trial of Proud Boys “chairman” Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the militia group for planning and executing a breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Tarrio wasn’t in DC on the 6, having been banished by a judge because of another charge. 

VICE News’ Tess Owen was in the federal courtroom as jurors heard how Tarrio and others texted and made videos planning and celebrating their riot operations. “We’re probably going to have a civil war now,” Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs said in a video prosecutors showed the jury. Dominic Pazzola, another member who’s now infamous for images of him smashing a Capitol window with a stolen police shield, is also on trial with the group. 

- Taken Baked

Tess also has the story on Anthime Gionet, aka Baked Alaska, the far-right internet troll who was sentenced to 60 days this week for trespassing and illegally parading on Jan. 6. Gionet, who also attended the Charlottesville white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in 2017, live streamed himself in two senators’ offices during the Capitol riot. 

“The relatives threw you out of the house… Now you want to go back into the house, but the crazy fucking relatives still live in the house—and they’re not leaving.” — Arizona GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin on a new effort to marginalize MAGA extremists in the state’s Republican primaries.  

Se-dona with extremism  — Arizona Democrats—along with Republicans who are sick of losing because of the MAGA takeover of their party—are trying to team up to bring some sanity back to the state’s elections. They’re hatching plans to make Arizona an open primary state, or maybe even go to ranked-choice voting. Either move would empower independents and make it harder for extremists to dominate primaries. But getting measures on the 2024 referendum ballot would also take a lot of money and a whopping 500,000 signatures. 

Meanwhile, newly-minted Dem Gov. Katie Hobbs moved to form a bipartisan commission also with an aim to overhaul Arizona’s election rules. What does losing GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake have to say about that? She accused moderate Republicans of “scheming.”  “Arizona is MAGA country, that will never change,” she said. Never!

Propagandists’ playground — Legendary ratfucker Roger Stone, QAnon leader Ron Watkins, confidence man Trump, Ali “Stop the Steal” Alexander, and (what in God’s name happened to) Michael Flynn. David Gilbert has the story on how Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of nearly every pro-insurrection figure by the second anniversary of Jan. 6. 

Rampant voter fraud unlike we’ve ever seen — More of our continuing coverage of voter fraud from the party that’s Very Concerned about voter fraud. A former GOP election official in upstate New York pled guilty to fraudulently using the identities of local residents to illegally obtain 12 absentee ballots in 2021. Jason Schofield is the second GOP official in Rensselaer County, New York, to resign and plead guilty to ballot fraud. Last summer, North Troy Republican Councilwoman Kim Ashe-McPherson resigned and copped to a felony.

Still more rampant voter fraud unlike we’ve ever seen — Meanwhile, the wife of Woodbury, Iowa Republican County supervisor Jeremy Taylor was arrested by the feds Thursday and charged with 52 counts for fraudulently registering and voting in two elections. Kim Phuong Taylor is accused of falsely submitting information for dozens of registrations, ballot requests, and votes, and could face years in prison if convicted.  

Fani Willis has taken on seemingly untouchable targets.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

The Trump-Bolsonaro connection.

FROM THE ATLANTIC

Brazil’s insurrection reminds us of the power of strongman personality cults.

FROM LUCID