The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller’s, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.

BOSTON – “Let’s not forget who assaulted democracy on January 6th – [Trump] did,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi in her speech at the Democratic National Convention.

New Pelosi footage released

But as part of their ongoing effort to shift blame for the Capitol riot away from Donald Trump, a Republican-headed oversight committee has released previously unaired video footage of the then-House Speaker, which was turned over to Congress by HBO and obtained by CBS News. It shows a livid Pelosi citing her “responsibility” to protect the House and bemoaning the absence of National Guard troops who might have kept the Capitol Police from being overwhelmed by the mob.

The Republicans claim that proves is was Pelosi who was negligent, not Trump. But former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a member of the bipartisan commission that investigated the events of that day, said that’s false: “The DC National Guard is controlled by one person – the President of the United States.” 

Will Jan. 6 work for GOP in New Hampshire?

Is Jan. 6 a topic that can work for Republicans this fall?

At their convention, Democrats featured multiple speeches about the riot, including Capitol police officers who tried to hold off the rioters. And in the days and weeks that followed, the top Republicans in Congress took turns blaming and denouncing Trump for sparking the siege.

But instead of changing the subject, Trump has made support for the rioters a part of his campaign, promising to pardon them if elected.

And an expert on New Hampshire politics said keeping Jan. 6 front and center won’t help Trump win wavering swing voters there.

“That’s not their politics, the politics of grievance,” said UNH professor Dante Scala. “Their politics, I think, is a lot more about the politics of normalcy. People who normally vote Republican, they don’t necessarily want to rehash January 6, they’d rather put January 6 down the memory hole. The thing is, the best way to do that is to vote for Harris. The best way to do that is to turn the page.” 

Going after Pelosi will surely excite the core Trump base for whom she is a satanic figure. 

But Trump already has those voters locked up. 

The Harris campaign features the word “forward,” asking voters to move past the Trump era (and maybe the Biden era as well). But even as Trump urges voters to recall the “good old days” when he was president, Harris also wants swing voters in swing states like New Hampshire to remember days like January 6th, when Trump lived up to the nickname Niki Haley gave him during the primaries – “chaos agent.” 

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawyers for a man charged with raping a teenage girl at a youth holding facility in New Hampshire tried to erode the accuser’s credibility at trial Wednesday, suggesting she had a history of lying and changing her story.

Now 39, Natasha Maunsell was 15 and 16 when she was held at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord. Lawyers for Victor Malavet, 62, who faces 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, say she concocted the allegations in hopes of getting money from a civil lawsuit.

Testifying for a second day at Malavet’s trial, Maunsell acknowledged that she denied having been sexually assaulted when asked in 2002, 2017 and 2019. She said she lied the first time because she was still at the facility and feared retaliation, and again in the later years because she didn’t think anyone would believe her.

“It had been so long that I didn’t think anybody would even care,” she said. “I didn’t think it would matter to anyone … so I kept it in for a long time.”

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they have come forward publicly, as Maunsell has done. She is among more than 1,100 former residents of youth facilities who are suing the state alleging abuse that spanned six decades.

Malavet’s trial opened Monday. It is the first criminal trial arising from a five-year investigation into allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, though unlike the other eight men facing charges, Malavet worked at a different state-run facility where children were held while awaiting court disposition of their cases.

Under questioning from defense lawyer Maya Dominguez, Maunsell acknowledged Wednesday that she lied at age 15 when she told a counselor she had a baby, and that in contrast to her trial testimony, she did not tell police in 2020 that Malavet had kissed her or that he had assaulted her in a storage closet. But she denied the lawyer’s claim that she appeared “angry or exasperated” when questioned about Malavet in 2002.

“I appeared scared,” she said after being shown a video clip from the interview. “I know me, and I looked at me, and I was scared.”

Maunsell also rebutted two attempts to portray her as a liar about money she received in advance of a possible settlement in her civil case. After Dominguez claimed she spent $65,000 on a Mustang, Maunsell said “mustang” was the name of another loan company. And when Dominguez showed her a traffic incident report listing her car as a 2021 Audi and not the 2012 Audi she testified about, Maunsell said the report referred to a newer rental car she was given after she crashed the older car.

In the only civil case to go to trial so far, a jury awarded David Meehan $38 million in May for abuse he says he suffered at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s, though the verdict remains in dispute.

Together, the two trials highlight the unusual dynamic of having the state attorney general’s office simultaneously prosecute those accused of committing offenses and defend the state. While attorneys for the state spent much of Meehan’s trial portraying him as a violent child, troublemaking teenager and a delusional adult, state prosecutors are relying on Mansell’s testimony in the criminal case.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A New Hampshire man has died of the mosquito-borne illness tripe E – or Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Earlier this week, 41-year-old Steven Perry from Hampstead, New Hampshire went to the hospital with a brain infection and died from the disease.

In Vermont, mosquitoes have tested positive for the virus in Grand Isle and Franklin counties, and the state had a human case of the disease for the first time in 12 years.

There is no anti-viral treatment or human vaccine for the illness, so officials recommend avoiding being outside during dawn and dusk, wearing bug spray, and removing standing water from your property.

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