Edition · January 28, 2022

Trump’s January 6 Paper Trail Gets Worse

On January 28, 2022, the House panel probing the Capitol attack widened its reach, and Trump’s legal team kept taking hits over his efforts to wall off records from investigators.

The biggest Trump-world story on January 28, 2022 was the January 6 committee’s widening dragnet. Investigators subpoenaed additional people tied to the fake-elector effort, including a former Trump White House spokesman, while the broader records fight continued to underline how much of Trump’s post-election conduct is now being pulled into official scrutiny. It was a day that made the former president’s attempts to keep the documentary trail hidden look less like strategy and more like a losing holdout.

Closing take

The through-line here is simple: the more Trump’s orbit tries to slow-walk, obscure, or reframe January 6, the more official records and subpoenas keep turning up. On January 28, that dynamic was the story, and it was not flattering.

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Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.

Story

Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas 14 People in Fake-Elector Probe

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

On January 28, 2022, the House Jan. 6 committee said it had subpoenaed 14 people tied to the fake-elector effort in seven states won by Joe Biden. The panel said it wanted information on how the scheme worked and whether it was aimed at delaying or blocking certification, with former White House spokesman Judd Deere among those reported subpoenaed.

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Story

Trump’s Records Fight Keeps Losing Ground

★★★☆☆Fuckup rating 3/5 Major mess

The broader January 6 records battle kept cutting against Trump’s effort to seal off White House documents from investigators. By this point, the Supreme Court had already rejected his bid to block the National Archives from turning over records, and the committee had begun receiving the material it wanted. The practical result was that Trump’s privilege claims looked weaker by the day, and his effort to bury the paper trail looked increasingly futile.

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