Monday pro-Trump rallies a massive flop as event photos show tiny crowds

On CNN Wednesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning tax expert David Cay Johnston predicted that now House Democrats have obtained tax returns from former President Donald Trump's years in office, they will try to put those returns out to the public and effectively "crowdsource" an audit, allowing people to look for signs of tax evasion or crimes.

The key obstacle, Johnston said, is that Trump's taxes still are not, legally speaking, a matter of public record, even after the lengthy court battle that made the IRS hand them over to congressional investigators.

On CNN Wednesday, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig walked through how the newly-elected Republican House majority could try to sabotage the criminal investigations into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Republicans don't have the power to order the Justice Department to shut down the investigation. However, warned Honig, they could launch counter-investigations of their own designed to harass or distract the DOJ.

On Wednesday, The Hill reported that a state judge in Georgia has singled out David Shafer, the chair of the Georgia Republican Party, as having a singularly significant role in the plot to overturn the results of the election in that state.

Shafer, who has been subpoenaed in connection with a state investigation into the plot, was one of the fake Trump electors in Georgia. But, the court ruled, he had a more significant role than the other electors.