Public gallows would be nice. Even better, a public cuisinart blender. Drop these treasonous scumbags into it one at a time, feet first, and make a scumbag slurry.
Our forefathers would have lined them all up in a firing squad on Jan 7th.
Jeff Tiedrich @itsJeffTiedrich seems like a good day to remind everyone that in 1861, 11 senators and 3 representatives refused to accept Lincoln's electoral victory and they were expelled straight the ^*%# from Congress. two years after 2020 we're still spinning our ^*%#ing wheels
Our forefathers would have lined them all up in a firing squad on Jan 7th.
While their slaves were working in the fields and their woman and non land owners couldn't vote. I never understood why people act like the forefathers were some kind of know it all God's.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Our forefathers would have lined them all up in a firing squad on Jan 7th.
While their slaves were working in the fields and their woman and non land owners couldn't vote. I never understood why people act like the forefathers were some kind of know it all God's.
While others act like like know it all gods.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
a pole worker and a poll worker are 2 different things.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
a pole worker and a poll worker are 2 different things.
Many years ago, a colleague (and sufferer of bi-polar disorder) went off his meds just before the start of the new season. On Day One, he showed up in a black t-shirt. red flag, red flag, red flag
The graphic was a white silhouette of a strip club pole dancer. The text: "I SUPPORT WORKING MOMS."
My colleague disappeared for a few weeks. When he came back, he was back on his meds. And that t-shirt never returned.
*EDIT* "We now return you to your regularly-scheduled broadcast-"
10 members of Congress file a civil lawsuit seeking injunctive relief against Trump for breaking the law in the Ku Klux Klan Act. A judge found Trump was not immune to civil suit during his time as POTUS.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 12/17/2310:19 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Washington — A growing number of Democrats are signing onto efforts to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for his role in the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol through the courts, with 10 House Democrats joining an earlier suit against Mr. Trump filed by the NAACP.
The Democratic lawmakers getting behind the lawsuit were in the House gallery when the mob of Mr. Trump's supporters breached the Capitol and attempted to gain access to the chamber. The rioters broke windows, ransacked offices and sought out Democratic leaders to harm, while their surge into the building led to the evacuation of lawmakers from the House chamber to a secure location.
"There is no question that the mob's unlawful actions — their brutal, anti-Democratic attack against the very seat of our democracy — interfered with my ability to exercise my constitutional responsibility of certifying the 2020 presidential election," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said in a statement. "This violence was anything but spontaneous; it was the direct result of a conspiracy to incite a riot, instigated by President Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers."
The Democratic House members who are joining the suit are: Nadler of New York, Karen Bass of California, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Barbara Lee of California, Maxine Waters of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, and the NAACP first filed their lawsuit in federal court in Washington in February alleging Mr. Trump, personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and two far-right extremist groups conspired to incite the attack on the Capitol.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Former NYPD spokeswoman, 54, is jailed for 22 months for taking part in Capitol riot - where she was filmed waving a tambourine while screaming, 'I am a f*****g animal'
A former Proud Boys leader was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to court records.
Charles Donohoe, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to 40 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release on two felony counts: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding a law enforcement officer.
Donohoe was the second Proud Boys leader to plea guilty to the charges last year, when he agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors’ investigation into the right-wing group’s alleged role in organizing members to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election results.
Donohoe could be eligible for release in the coming months as he gets credit for the jail time he already served since being arrested in March 2021, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
During his sentencing Tuesday, Donohoe apologized to family members, the law enforcement officers who were working on Jan. 6 and “America as a whole” for his actions, the wire service added.
“I knew what I was doing was illegal from the very moment those barricades got knocked down,” he said, per The AP.
Kelly on Tuesday said Donohoe appears to be taking actions to make amends for his conduct, telling him in court, “I think you’ve got all the ingredients here to put this behind you.”
Donohoe, of Kernersville, N.C., was the former leader of the Proud Boys chapter in that state.
Donohoe fell under the direction of the organization’s national leader, Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced in September to 22 years in prison. Tarrio’s sentence marked the highest so far given to any defendant charged in the riot by four years.
Tarrio, alongside three other former Proud Boys leaders, was convicted by a jury in May of seditious conspiracy charges. While Donohoe agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation into the group, he was not called to testify at the trial of Tarrio and the other Proud Boys earlier this year, the AP noted.
Federal prosecutors sought a sentence of 35 to 43 months for Donohoe, while the sentencing guidelines recommended a prison term of 70 to 87 months. Calling him a “trusted lieutenant” of Tarrio, prosecutors said Donohoe was “instrumental” in the aftermath that followed the riot, along with serving a “key role on the ground” during the riots.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Donohoe was among more than 100 Proud Boys members who marched from the Washington Monument towards the Capitol, prosecutors stated. While he did not enter the Capitol, prosecutors said he threw two water bottles at a line of officers and later celebrated that Jan. 6 made him “feel like a complete warrior.”
Donohoe, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has “eagerly divorced himself” from the Proud Boys, said defense attorney Ira Knight, according to the AP.
“It took Charlie time to understand the nature of his wrong,” Knight said, per the news wire.
Exclusive: Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election Marshall Cohen Zachary Cohen Jeremy Herb Katelyn Polantz By Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb and Katelyn Polantz, CNN 11 minute read Updated 4:47 PM EST, Thu December 28, 2023
— Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail.
So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification.
The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.
The new details provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the chaotic last-minute effort to keep Donald Trump in office. The fake electors scheme features prominently in special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictment against the former president, and some of the officials who were involved have spoken to Smith’s investigators.
The emails and recordings also indicate that a top Trump campaign lawyer was part of 11th-hour discussions about delivering the fake elector certificates to Pence, potentially undercutting his testimony to the House select committee that investigated January 6 that he had passed off responsibility and didn’t want to put the former vice president in a difficult spot.
These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was an architect of the fake electors plot and is now a key cooperator in several state probes into the scheme. Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to a felony conspiracy charge in Georgia in connection with the electors’ plan, and has met with prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, who are investigating the sham GOP electors in their own states.
Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference indictment against Trump.
Michigan investigators ask pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro about the role of the Trump campaign in the fake electors plot. Chesebro tells them that top Trump campaign lawyers were alarmed that the sham certificates might not make it to the nation’s capital before the January 6, 2021, certification proceeding in Congress.
Source: Obtained by CNN
CNN has obtained audio of Chesebro’s recent interview with Michigan investigators, and exclusively reported earlier this month that he also told them about a December 2020 Oval Office meeting where he briefed Trump about the fake electors plan and how it ties into January 6.
An attorney for Chesebro declined to comment. A spokesman for the special counsel’s office did not reply to a request for comment for this story.
‘A high-level decision’ Emails obtained by CNN corroborate what Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors: He communicated with the top Trump campaign lawyer, Matt Morgan, and another campaign official, Mike Roman, to ferry the documents to Washington on January 5.
From there, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and a Pennsylvania congressman assisted in the effort to get the documents into Pence’s hands.
“This is a high-level decision to get the Michigan and Wisconsin votes there,” Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors. “And they had to enlist, you know, a US senator to try to expedite it, to get it to Pence in time.”
Trump campaign considered chartering jet to fly ballots to DC, Chesebro says
Pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of the fake electors plan, tells Michigan prosecutors that top Trump campaign lawyers considered chartering a private jet to bring the fake elector ballots to the nation’s capital in time for the January 6, 2021, certification proceeding in Congress.
Source: Obtained by CNN
Chesebro also discussed the episode with Wisconsin investigators last week when he sat for an interview with the attorney general’s office as part of a separate state probe into the fake electors plot, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Wisconsin prosecutors asked about the episode “extensively,” the source said, noting Chesebro discussed how a Wisconsin GOP staffer flew the certificate from Milwaukee to Washington and then handed it off to Chesebro.
The firsthand account from Chesebro’s perspective helps fill in the narrative behind the effort to hand-deliver elector slates to Pence, which is vaguely referenced in Smith’s federal indictment.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include conspiring with Chesebro and others to obstruct the January 6 certification proceeding. Before Chesebro’s guilty plea in Georgia, his attorneys reached out to Smith’s team. As of this week, he has not heard back from federal prosecutors, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Federal investigators have spoken with several individuals involved in the scramble with the phony elector certificates, according to a source familiar with the matter. This includes interviews with Trump staffers who were tapped to fly the papers to DC, and some fake electors who knew of the planning.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not reply to a request for comment.
Asked about the episode, a spokesperson for Johnson pointed to his previous comments, where he said, “my involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds,” and that, “in the end, those electors were not delivered.”
‘Day-by-day’ coordination According to the recordings of Chesebro’s sit-down with Michigan prosecutors, he explained how a legal memo he wrote for Wisconsin transformed into a nationwide operation, where Trump lawyers were “day-by-day coordinating the efforts of more than a dozen people with the GOP and with the Trump campaign.”
On January 4, 2021, Morgan sent an email to Chesebro and Roman asking for confirmation that all of the Trump elector slates had been received by Congress, according to the documents obtained by CNN.
Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Roman responded that the Michigan certificate had been mailed on December 15 but was still “in transit” at a US Postal Service facility in DC. Wisconsin’s certificate also had apparently not arrived.
Chesebro told prosecutors that Morgan was “freaked out” when the campaign realized the phony certificates from Michigan were still in the mail.
That same day, Morgan weighed in over email asking Chesebro and Roman to rethink how they would deliver the certificates to Pence.
“As I thought about this more, a courier will not be able to access the Capitol to deliver a sealed package,” Morgan wrote on January 4, according to emails obtained by CNN “You will probably need to enlist the help of a legislator who can deliver to the appropriate place(s). I strongly recommend you guys discuss a revised delivery plan with Rudy (Giuliani) to make sure this gets done the way he wants.”
‘Can we charter a flight?’ Roman was concerned the Wisconsin documents wouldn’t reach Washington in time.
“Can we charter a flight? The only available commercial from MKE (Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport) to DCA (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) arrives at 2130 tomorrow night,” Roman wrote to Chesebro on January 4 at 11:24 p.m.
The job of physically flying the elector documents to Washington fell to two people: A Trump campaign staffer and a Wisconsin GOP official, according to the emails and what Chesebro told prosecutors.
The Wisconsin GOP official who had that state’s elector documents landed after 10 a.m. on January 5 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, according to the emails.
Trump campaign aide Michael Brown flew with the Michigan certificates to Washington National Airport with a scheduled arrival around 1 p.m., according to emails obtained by CNN. A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Brown flew to DC from Atlanta, because the Trump staffers who had custody of the Michigan ballots were in Georgia for the Senate runoffs.
The campaign booked and paid for Brown’s flight on Southwest Airlines, the source said. Federal campaign finance records indicate that a pro-Trump super PAC paid the airline on the day of Brown’s flight for travel related to election “recount” efforts.
Trump Hotel meetup The emails show that Brown and the Wisconsin GOP official were instructed to meet Chesebro at the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington to hand off the fake elector certificates. Chesebro said in an email that he’d keep the ballots in his hotel room safe until it was time to pass them along.
Wisconsin Republican Party officials were annoyed at the request to courier the fake elector certificates to Washington. “Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President,” a Wisconsin GOP official wrote to then-state party chairman Andrew Hitt on January 4, according to the January 6 committee report.
Hitt – who has provided information to federal investigators about the efforts to get the fake elector certificates to Washington, according to a source familiar with the matter – told the January 6 committee that the couriering ended up being overkill, because the original documents that the state party had mailed to Washington actually made it in time.
Getting the certificates inside the Capitol The documents still had to be hand-delivered to Pence’s Senate office in the Capitol.
The electors plot – as envisioned by Chesebro and other Trump allies – was that Pence could reject Biden’s legitimate electors and recognize Trump’s “alternate electors” on January 6, while lawmakers tallied the electoral votes from each state. Per federal law, the certificates need to be physically presented on the floor of Congress during the joint session, while lawmakers tally the electoral votes.
Chesebro told investigators that Roman connected him with an aide for a Pennsylvania GOP lawmaker that he believed was Rep. Scott Perry to turn over the documents. Chesebro wasn’t certain which congressman the staffer worked for – and the January 6 report says a staffer for a different Pennsylvania Republican, Rep. Mike Kelly, helped shuttle the documents that day.
“I had the Wisconsin stuff. [Trump campaign aide] Mike Brown had the Michigan stuff. We walked to the Longworth Office Building, and the guy with Perry, or whatever his name is, and some other fellow, that were like staff members of the House, took them and said, ‘We’re going to walk them over to the Senate and give it to a Senate staffer,’” Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors, according to the audio obtained by CNN.
“I don’t know why logistically we didn’t take it directly to Johnson. But that’s how we did it,” he added.
Chesebro describes role of two GOP lawmakers in electors scheme
Pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of the fake electors plan, tells Michigan prosecutors about how Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, both Republicans, helped get the fake elector ballots to the Capitol floor for the January 6, 2021, certification proceeding.
Source: Obtained by CNN
Kelly and Perry’s offices did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Brown did not comment for this story. CNN previously reported that he testified in June to Smith’s grand jury in the Trump election subversion probe.
CNN previously reported that Roman sat for a proffer interview with Smith’s team before Trump was indicted. He was also indicted in the sweeping Georgia election racketeering case, in connection with the fake electors scheme, and has pleaded not guilty.
Roman’s attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The details from Chesebro put a finer point on how members of Congress, including a sitting US senator, were involved in making sure the electoral certificates for Trump ended up in Pence’s hands.
The January 6 committee first revealed last year Johnson’s involvement in trying unsuccessfully to deliver the fake elector certificates to Pence, who announced on the morning of the joint session that it would be unconstitutional to do what Trump wanted and unilaterally overturn the election results.
The committee revealed text messages during their hearings last year that Johnson aide Sean Riley sent to Pence aide Chris Hodgson, saying that Johnson “needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise.”
“What is it?” Hodgson asked.
“Alternate slates of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,” Riley responded.
“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson said.
‘F**k these guys’ In his Michigan interview, Chesebro also dished on some of the internal disagreements among the Trump lawyers, campaign officials and other allies, who clashed over the purpose of the electors’ plan and how far to take things on January 6.
Chesebro has maintained – then, and now – that the plan was a lawful move to preserve Trump’s legal rights.
Even before the Trump electors met in their state capitals on December 14, 2020, to cast their fake ballots and sign the certificates, Chesebro heard about concerns from some of the electors about possible legal jeopardy, according to emails and text messages reported by the Detroit News and obtained by CNN.
Chesebro added hedging language for the faux certificates from Pennsylvania and New Mexico in response to those concerns. He proposed to Roman and Morgan that they add the contingency caveats to the paperwork for all seven states in the plan. But Roman rejected the idea, according to the emails.
“F**k these guys,” Roman texted Chesebro on December 12, 2020.
By this time, the Trump campaign had essentially cleaved in two. Top officials who had managed day-to-day activity for Trump up to the election, including in court, say they ceded responsibility to Rudy Giuliani and others, such as Chesebro, according to congressional testimony transcripts. Roman effectively switched teams to work under Giuliani’s structure, according to the testimony from Morgan and others.
A spokesperson for Giuliani did not reply to a request for comment.
‘It really went south on me’ Chesebro told Michigan investigators that his own emails show that Morgan remained deeply involved, including in the final hours before January 6, to ensure that the certificates reached DC.
“I don’t have a really warm feeling toward, at least, the top Trump lawyers that did this, hid from me what they were doing and then lied to Congress about me. So, it’s been really difficult,” Chesebro said.
Chesebro describes role of GOP lawmakers in electors scheme
Pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of the fake electors plan, tells Michigan prosecutors about how Congressional staffers helped get the fake elector ballots to the Capitol floor for the January 6, 2021, certification proceeding. (Chesebro says a staffer from Rep. Scott Perry’s office was involved, but the January 6 report says it was someone from Rep. Mike Kelly’s office.)
Chesebro further describes the fallout from his involvement the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Source: Obtained by CNN
In his congressional testimony, Morgan said he knew of the elector plan but wanted to distance himself from the effort, delegating the work to others, including those under Giuliani.
Morgan told the January 6 committee last year that he initially believed the electors were only meant to be used as a contingency. The electors, he believed, should meet in their state capitals and cast their electoral votes but “not necessarily submit” the certificates to Congress unless “we prevailed” in court.
Morgan told the committee that the plan changed in December, saying it morphed from a “cast-and-hold” operation and had “shifted to cast-and-send.” And that’s when Morgan told the committee that he backed out, testifying that he directed an aide to “email Mr. Chesebro politely to say, ‘this is your task. You are responsible for the Electoral College issues moving forward.’”
“This was my way of taking that responsibility to zero,” Morgan told the committee, later adding that he “moved on” after that email was sent.
Morgan explained that he was concerned that the new plan to try to count the fake electors on January 6 “would make the Vice President’s life harder, and I didn’t want to be a part of that.”
“Mr. Morgan stands by his congressional testimony,” his defense attorneys told CNN in response to his emails and Chesebro’s statements to investigators.
Ultimately, on the eve of the joint session of Congress, Morgan helped get the ballots in place, according to the emails and according to Chesebro, who blamed his legal troubles squarely on the Trump campaign’s legal team.
“I could have avoided all this,” Chesebro vented to Michigan prosecutors. “It’s been a real lesson in not working with people that you don’t know and are not sure you can trust, because it really went south on me.”
CNN’s Avery Lotz, Annie Klingenberg, Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.
Trump doesn't have immunity from Jan. 6 civil suit brought by U.S. Capitol Police officers, appeals court says
Washington — A federal appeals court on Friday allowed a lawsuit brought by a group of U.S. Capitol Police officers against former President Donald Trump to move forward, ruling that Trump is not entitled to absolute immunity from civil lawsuits. The suit focuses on Trump's alleged conduct surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit based its decision on a ruling in a separate case brought by two Capitol Police officers and a group of House Democrats that was handed down earlier this month. In its Dec. 1 opinion, the D.C. Circuit rejected Trump's claim that he is shielded from civil liability because his alleged actions in connection to the Jan. 6 attack fell within the official functions of the presidency.
In its unsigned opinion Friday, the three judges said the case before them is "indistinguishable" from the other dispute and said Trump's argument that he has immunity "fails."
"'Whether [President Trump's] actions involved speech on matters of public concern bears no inherent connection to the essential distinction between official and unofficial acts,'" Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judges Bradley Garcia and Judith Rogers wrote in their opinion, quoting from the D.C. Circuit's earlier ruling.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case was brought in August 2021 by seven Capitol Police officers who defended the Capitol complex on Jan. 6 and were assaulted and harassed during the riot, which they said was the result of "unlawful actions" by Trump and his allies.
In addition to suing Trump, the officers named more than a dozen others as defendants. Among them are members of the far-right extremist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as well as Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally. The Capitol Police officers sought civil damages for the physical and emotional injuries they said they suffered as a result of the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump asked the federal District Court in Washington to dismiss the case, arguing he is absolutely immune from being sued for the alleged acts. But in January, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected his argument and allowed the case to proceed.
Mehta applied the same reasoning used in the case filed by the Democratic lawmakers and two police officers. There, he ruled in February 2022 that Trump is not entitled to broad immunity from civil lawsuits seeking to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6 riot.
Referencing Trump's speech outside the White House before the Capitol building was breached, Mehta said the remarks were not part of the president's official duties. Instead, the judge said, Trump's words were "an implicit call for imminent violence or lawlessness" that is not protected by presidential immunity or the First Amendment.
The D.C. Circuit agreed with the lower court's finding and rejected Trump's argument that he was engaging in an official function of the presidency when he spoke outside the White House on Jan. 6.
"When a first-term president opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act," Srinivasan, who was assigned both cases, wrote for the three-judge panel. "The Office of the Presidency as an institution is agnostic about who will occupy it next. And campaigning to gain that office is not an official act of the office."
Trump can seek review of the adverse rulings in both cases to the full D.C. Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The former president has argued on several occasions that cases against him should be dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity, though with little success. Most recently, the federal district judge presiding over his criminal case in Washington, D.C., ruled Trump cannot be shielded from federal prosecution for crimes allegedly committed while he was in the White House.
His criminal case arose out of his alleged efforts to thwart the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the four charges he faces.
The former president appealed the ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, and the D.C. Circuit has fast-tracked the case, scheduling arguments on the immunity issue for Jan. 9. Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against Trump, asked the Supreme Court to bypass the appellate court and quickly decide the matter, but the high court rejected Smith's request last week.
Florida man and Proud Boy member who fled before Jan. 6 sentencing gets 10 years in prison
Christopher Worrell, a 52-year-old member of the Proud Boys, cut off an ankle monitor four days before he was supposed to be sentenced and never showed up.
Florida man who fled after being convicted in a Jan. 6 case, triggering a six-week manhunt, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday, federal prosecutors said.
Christopher Worrell, 52, was arrested at his home in Naples on Sept. 28, a little more than six weeks after he cut off his ankle monitor four days before his sentencing date and disappeared, officials said.
A judge in Washington had convicted Worrell in May on charges connected with his assault on police during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Worrell was arrested "when he attempted to covertly return to his home," the FBI field office in Tampa said at the time of his arrest.
Worrell, who had gone to Washington with other members of the Proud Boys, sprayed an irritating pepper gel at Capitol Police officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said, as the pro-Trump mob attacked police that day.
After another Proud Boy member assaulted police defending a stairwell and the mob overwhelmed the police line, Worrell recorded himself on video saying, “Yeah! Taking the Capitol!” prosecutors said.
Worrell was convicted at a bench trial on six felony counts and a misdemeanor.
An attorney listed as representing Worrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
Prosecutors wrote in a memorandum ahead of sentencing that when Worrell fled, "he apparently had no intention of ever turning himself in."
The FBI had staked out Worrell's residence, and it caught him when he tried to return, but he faked a drug overdose to try to fool officers and FBI agents who entered the home, prosecutors wrote.
He ended up staying in a hospital for five days before he was cleared by doctors, which prosecutors called a "delaying tactic."
Special counsel probe uncovers new details about Trump's inaction on Jan. 6: Sources KATHERINE FAULDERS, MIKE LEVINE, ALEXANDER MALLIN and WILL STEAKIN Sun, January 7, 2024 at 8:02 AM EST·12 min read
Special counsel Jack Smith's team has uncovered previously undisclosed details about former President Donald Trump's refusal to help stop the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago as he sat watching TV inside the White House, according to sources familiar with what Smith's team has learned during its Jan. 6 probe.
Many of the exclusive details come from the questioning of Trump's former deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, who first started working for Trump as a teenager three decades ago and is now a paid senior adviser to Trump's reelection campaign. Scavino wouldn't speak with the House select committee that conducted its own probe related to Jan. 6, but -- after a judge overruled claims of executive privilege last year -- he did speak with Smith's team, and key portions of what he said were described to ABC News.
New details also come from the Smith team's interviews with other White House advisers and top lawyers who -- despite being deposed in the congressional probe -- previously declined to answer questions about Trump's own statements and demeanor on Jan. 6, 2021, according to publicly released transcripts of their interviews in that probe.
MORE: Supreme Court denies special counsel's request to take up Trump immunity claim in Jan. 6 case
Sources said Scavino told Smith's investigators that as the violence began to escalate that day, Trump "was just not interested" in doing more to stop it.
Sources also said former Trump aide Nick Luna told federal investigators that when Trump was informed that then-Vice President Mike Pence had to be rushed to a secure location, Trump responded, "So what?" -- which sources said Luna saw as an unexpected willingness by Trump to let potential harm come to a longtime loyalist.
House Democrats and other critics have openly accused Trump of failing to do enough that day, with the Democrat-led House select committee accusing Trump of committing "an utter moral failure" and "a clear dereliction of duty." But what sources now describe to ABC News are the assessments and first-hand accounts of several of Trump's own advisers who stood by him for years -- and were among the few to directly engage with him throughout that day.
Along with Scavino and Luna, that small group included then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and Cipollone's former deputy, Pat Philbin.
PHOTO: President Donald Trumps supporters gather outside the Capitol building in Washington D.C., Jan. 6, 2021. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, FILE) According to sources, when speaking with Smith's team, Scavino recalled telling Trump in a phone call the night of Jan. 6: "This is all your legacy here, and there's smoke coming out of the Capitol."
Scavino hoped Trump would finally help facilitate a peaceful transfer of power, sources said.
In his wide-ranging indictment against Trump, announced this past August, Smith accuses the former president of trying to unlawfully retain power by, among other things, "spread[ing] lies" about the 2020 election and pressuring Pence to block Congress from certifying the results when it convened on Jan. 6. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
'Very angry'
As the House investigation established, after Trump finished his remarks at the "Save America" rally early on Jan. 6, as protesters began making their way to the Capitol, Trump returned to the White House, where he and Meadows settled into chairs around a table in the Oval Office dining room to watch TV coverage of the event.
But, as also previously recounted in public reports, when Scavino and other White House officials learned that rioters had violently stormed the Capitol, they rushed into the dining room to urge Trump to help calm the situation.
Still, Trump didn't do anything.
According to what sources said Scavino told Smith's team, Trump was "very angry" that day -- not angry at what his supporters were doing to a pillar of American democracy, but steaming that the election was allegedly stolen from him and his supporters, who were "angry on his behalf." Scavino described it all as "very unsettling," sources said.
At times, Trump just sat silently at the head of the table, with his arms folded and his eyes locked on the TV, Scavino recounted, sources said.
After unsuccessfully trying for up to 20 minutes to persuade Trump to release some sort of calming statement, Scavino and others walked out of the dining room, leaving Trump alone, sources said. That's when, according to sources, Trump posted a message on his Twitter account saying that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done."
Trump's aides told investigators they were shocked by the post. Aside from Trump, Scavino was the only other person with access to Trump's Twitter account, and he was often the one actually posting messages to it, so when the message about Pence popped up, Cipollone and another White House attorney raced to find Scavino, demanding to know why he would post that in the midst of such a precarious situation, sources said.
MORE: Judge puts hold on Trump's federal election interference case while appeals process plays out
Scavino said he was as blindsided by the post as they were, insisting to them, "I didn't do it," according to the sources.
Some of Trump's aides then returned to the dining room to explain to Trump that a public attack on Pence was "not what we need," as Scavino put it to Smith's team. "But it's true," Trump responded, sources told ABC News. Trump has publicly echoed that sentiment since then.
At about the same time Trump's aides were again pushing him to do more, a White House security official heard reports over police radio that indicated Pence's security detail believed "this was about to get very ugly," according to the House committee's report.
As Trump aide Luna recalled, according to sources, Trump didn't seem to care that Pence had to be moved to a secure location. Trump showed he was "capable of allowing harm to come to one of his closest allies" at the time, Luna told investigators, the sources said.
With the chaos inside the Capitol continuing, Trump's aides believed Trump still needed to do more. Sources said Cipollone recalled telling Trump that he needed to explicitly instruct rioters to leave the Capitol.
Scavino printed out proposed messages to post on Twitter, hoping that Trump would approve them despite his reluctance to write such posts himself, sources said. The congressional probe found that even Trump's daughter, Ivanka, "rushed down to the Oval Office dining room" to convince her father that issuing a public message could "discourage violence," as the congressional report put it.
More than a half-hour after Trump was first pressed to take some sort of action, Trump finally let Scavino post a message on Trump's Twitter account telling supporters to support law enforcement and "stay peaceful." It was 2:38 p.m.
PHOTO: Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C, Jan. 6, 2021. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images) Minutes later, Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot when she tried to break through a barricaded entrance near the House chamber.
And the violence at the Capitol continued to escalate.
At least six of Trump's closest aides continued to push Trump to do something more forceful than posting what they saw as a weak message on Twitter, sources said.
Trump listened to the pleas, "but he was just not interested at that moment to put anything out," Scavino told Smith's team, according to the sources. Instead, Trump was focused on watching TV and taking in the chaotic scenes, Scavino said, the sources added.
Testifying before the House committee, an aide to Meadows similarly said she heard Meadows say of Trump that day, "He doesn't want to do anything."
MORE: Supreme Court will consider special counsel's request to rule on Trump's immunity in Jan. 6 case
As recounted in public reports, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, other members of Congress, members of Trump's family, and even Fox News personalities also tried to push Trump to take further action. But in response, Trump repeated to many of them that his supporters were simply angry about the election being stolen, sources said.
In his own closed-door interviews with federal investigators, Meadows confirmed previous media reports saying that when a desperate McCarthy called Trump, the then-president told him, "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are."
Instead of taking action at that point, Trump allegedly continued to watch Fox News on TV.
"During this time, law enforcement agents were attacked and seriously injured, the Capitol was invaded, the electoral count was halted and the lives of those in the Capitol were put at risk," the House committee said in its report.
'Doesn't justify this'
Sources said that eventually, at the urging of Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, Trump agreed to record a video for release. The video, more than a minute long, was posted to Twitter at about 4:15 p.m.
"This was a fraudulent election," Trump said. "[But] we have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special."
PHOTO: In a video message posted to Twitter on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald Trump addresses supporters participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. (White House) Sources said that when investigators questioned him, Scavino told them he has yet to be shown any evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election. As ABC News has previously reported, sources said other loyal aides to Trump, including Meadows, allegedly provided similar statements about the 2020 election when speaking to Smith's team.
According to the House panel's report on Jan. 6, the video Trump released -- several hours after the attack on the Capitol began -- "immediately had the expected effect; the rioters began to disperse immediately and leave the Capitol."
As for Trump, after the video was released, he returned to watching TV coverage of the day with Philbin and others, according to sources. And when clips of the riot were splashed across the screen, Trump declared something to the effect of, "This is what happens when they try to steal an election," Philbin recalled to investigators, sources said.
According to the sources, Philbin said he responded: "Mr. President, it doesn't justify this."
Sounding 'culpable'?
As described by sources, it was a tense, uncomfortable evening for Trump. Sources said one close aide told Smith's team that Trump was in "disbelief" that night, even as he showed no remorse.
None of the Trump aides who spoke with investigators said they heard Trump concede even in private that he lost the election, sources told ABC News.
According to the sources, shortly before 6 p.m. on Jan. 6, Trump showed Luna a draft of a Twitter message he was thinking about posting: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots. ... Remember this day for forever!" it read.
The message echoed what Trump had allegedly been saying privately all day.
Sources said Luna told Trump that it made him sound "culpable" for the violence, perhaps even as if he may have somehow been involved in "directing" it, sources said.
Still, at 6:01 p.m., Trump posted the message anyway.
About an hour later, Twitter suspended Trump's account.
PHOTO: Supporters of President Donald Trump protest inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images, FILE) After that -- but before Congress reconvened to finish its vote certifying the 2020 election -- Cipollone called Trump, relaying what a "horrible day" it had been and urging Trump to tell Republican allies in Congress that they should withdraw any objections to the certification so the country could move on, sources said.
Instead, Trump again declined to act, telling Cipollone, "I don't want to do that," Cipollone recalled to investigators, according to sources.
Trump then had another strained phone conversation, when he called Scavino to ask for his take on how the public was digesting the day's events, sources said.
"Not good," Scavino told Trump, according to the sources.
Scavino had hoped Trump's presidency would end on a better note, and he told investigators his conversation with Trump was not "comfortable," sources said.
But Scavino also essentially told Trump that -- despite how the media might portray Jan. 6 -- his "legacy" could remain intact if he took the right steps moving forward, sources said.
MORE: Timeline: Special counsel's probe into Trump's efforts to overturn 2020 election
As a longtime Trump associate, Scavino has been so supportive of Trump over the years that he was asked to speak at the Republican National Convention in 2020. At a campaign rally in Colorado a few months earlier, Trump joked that, as a close aide to the president, Scavino was "the most powerful man in politics."
In April 2022, the House held Scavino in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena seeking testimony in the congressional investigation, after Scavino cited executive privilege. The Justice Department ultimately declined to charge him in that matter, but last year -- after a monthslong court battle -- a federal judge ruled that Scavino had to comply with a grand jury subpoena from Smith's team.
A federal judge similarly ruled that, despite any claims related to executive privilege, Meadows, Cipollone, Philbin and Luna also had to comply with Smith's subpoenas for testimony.
When asked about what sources told ABC News regarding Scavino's statements, including his comments to Smith's team about "smoke coming out of the Capitol" and Trump's "legacy," a spokesperson for the Trump campaign said, "President Trump and Dan Scavino both agreed that it could be part of legacy but, regardless, wanted to get it done and did it. There is no dispute over that."
"Media fascination with second-hand hearsay shows just how weak the Witch-Hunt against President Trump is," the spokesperson added. "Dan Scavino is one of President Trump's longest-serving, most loyal allies, and his actual testimony shows just how strong President Trump is positioned in this case."
An attorney for Scavino, Stanley Woodward, declined to comment to ABC News, as did an attorney representing both Cipollone and Philbin, Michael Purpura. An attorney for Luna did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the special counsel also declined to comment to ABC News.
The candidates are holding events across the state on the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump calls for Jan. 6 rioters to be released from prison
Trump brought up the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 who remain in prison, many who pled guilty or were convicted by a jury and sentenced to serve time behind bars. Trump called them "hostages" and called on Biden to release them from federal prison.
"They ought to release the J6 hostages. They’ve suffered," Trump said, using the abbreviation for Jan. 6. "I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages Joe. Release them Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe."
Trump has suggested that if returned to the White House he would pardon those who have been charged in connection with the riot.
More of what trump calls "hostages" who were on the lam captured and arrested.....
Multiple Jan. 6 fugitives arrested at Florida ranch 3 years after Capitol attack: FBI
One suspect has been on the lam since the attack, court records show.
Three Jan. 6 suspects were arrested at a ranch in Florida on Saturday, the FBI said -- including one who has been sought ever since the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and two who never showed up for trial, court records show.
The FBI's Tampa field office said three Jan. 6 fugitives -- Jonathan Daniel Pollock, Olivia Michele Pollock and Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III -- were taken into custody early Saturday morning, three years after the assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The FBI executed three federal arrest warrants at a ranch in Groveland, it said. No further details on their capture were available.
The arrests cap a yearslong search for one of the fugitives -- Jonathan Daniel Pollock, 24 -- who was considered armed and dangerous. The FBI was offering a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Jonathan Daniel Pollock -- along with Olivia Michele Pollock, 33, Hutchinson, 27, and two other defendants -- were charged by complaint in June 2021 on a slew of counts in connection with the Capitol attack and subsequently indicted by a grand jury.
The FBI released photos showing the three suspects at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in their "most wanted" posters.
Prosecutors stated in court documents that the defendants -- described as either relatives or close friends who lived near each other in Florida -- traveled together to D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, some dressed in military-style tactical gear. They are accused of assaulting U.S. Capitol Police and/or Metropolitan Police Department officers in a manner that "demonstrated prior planning and coordination," prosecutors stated in court filings.
Jonathan Daniel Pollock also allegedly stole two Capitol Police riot shields during the attack, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors considered Jonathan Daniel Pollock "the most violent of the defendants in this case," according to a court filing. He fled his area of residence before he could be arrested and was wanted on federal charges including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees; theft of government property; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to court documents.
The two other fugitives were previously arrested in June 2021 -- Hutchinson was taken into custody in Georgia and Olivia Michele Pollock in Florida, court filings show. They did not qualify for pre-trial detention and had been released subject to bail conditions, court records show. During the pre-trial court proceedings they were ordered not to have any communication with Jonathan Daniel Pollock.
Both pleaded not guilty to multiple federal charges including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
The two had been attending court proceedings following their initial arrest, when Olivia Michele Pollock failed to appear for a status conference in March 2023, according to online court records. Their jury trial start date was scheduled to begin on Aug. 7, 2023, though both failed to appear, according to online court records.
Olivia Michele Pollock's attorney told ABC News she has no comment on the arrest at this time.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Hutchinson's listed attorney to an email seeking comment.
No attorney information is listed for Jonathan Daniel Pollock.
The three suspects are scheduled to appear in federal court in Ocala, Florida, on Monday.
It appears as though Blue Lives didn't Matter on Jan. 6th to trump and his supporters. And since those in jail and prison are now being called hostages by trump it appears they still don't.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Three less idiots walking free. Three more of donny’s cult going to the clink. Ultimately three less voters for the tresonous scumbag come November. The world is a better place. Lose the key.
Judges Seem Skeptical of Trump’s Claim of Immunity Alan Feuer Updated Tue, January 9, 2024 at 12:44 PM EST·4 min read 2.5k
FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Reno, Nevada, U.S. December 17, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (REUTERS / Reuters) Three federal appeals court judges expressed deep skepticism Tuesday about former President Donald Trump’s central defense to an indictment accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election: that he is immune to the charges because they arose from actions he took as president.
All of the judges on the three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — composed of two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee — peppered a lawyer for Trump with tough questions about arguments he raised to support the immunity claims.
While the judges also pressed James Pearce — a lawyer representing special counsel Jack Smith — their queries to him were not quite as aggressive. The panel adjourned the hearing after about an hour and 15 minutes and reserved judgment for another day.
The case is expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court. Its pace and outcome will be central in deciding when — or even whether — Trump will go to trial in the election interference case, which is unfolding in U.S. District Court in Washington. It could also go a long way in determining the timing of the three other criminal trials that Trump is facing in the months ahead.
In one tough moment for Trump, who was present for the hearing but did not speak, Judge Karen Henderson, the sole Republican appointee on the panel, pushed back on an argument made by his lawyer, D. John Sauer, that for more than 200 years American courts had never sat in judgment over official actions that a president had taken while in office.
Henderson pointed out that until Trump was indicted, courts had never had to consider the criminal liability of former presidents for things they did in the White House.
Henderson also seemed less than convinced by Sauer’s argument that Trump was acting in his role as president and upholding his constitutional duty to preserve the integrity of the election when he sought to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.
“I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ allows him to violate criminal law,” Henderson said.
At one point, Judge Florence Pan presented Sauer with an hypothetical situation, asking if a president could be criminally charged for ordering SEAL Team 6 — an elite commando unit — to assassinate a political rival. Sauer said that a prosecution would be possible in that situation only if the president had first been found guilty in an impeachment proceeding.
When Pearce addressed the court on behalf of the special counsel’s office, he seized on Pan’s example. Pearce said it was a terrifying prospect that a president could use the military to kill a rival and then escape criminal liability by simply resigning before he could be impeached.
Pearce fended off a question by the judges asking if a ruling denying Trump immunity would trigger a flood of partisan charges against future presidents by arguing that Trump was a unique case as the only president in U.S. history to have been charged with a crime.
Because no former president has ever been prosecuted before, there are few definitive precedents to guide the appellate judges in deciding the question of immunity. While the Justice Department has long maintained a policy that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, Trump’s bid to claim total immunity from prosecution is a remarkable attempt to claim the protections of the presidency even though he is no longer in office.
But winning the appeal on the question of immunity is only one of Trump’s goals. He is also hoping that the litigation can eat up enough time to postpone the election trial — now set to start in early March — until after Election Day. If he retakes the White House, he could seek to order the charges against him to be dropped or try to pardon himself.
As they should be. Applying pressure to Georgia election officials to "find you votes" isn't part of presidential duties. It's trying to steal an election.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
The Recount Trump dodges question on whether he will tell his supporters “no violence” if he loses the election amid criminal cases.
Outside a federal appeals court hearing on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump dodged a question on whether he will tell his supporters “no violence” after the former president warned “it’ll be bedlam in the country” if he loses the election amid his criminal cases.
While speaking to the press at the courthouse, Trump said: “I think we’re doing very well. I think it’s very unfair when an opponent, a political opponent, is prosecuted by the DOJ, by Biden’s DOJ. So, they're losing in every poll. They’re losing in almost every demographic. Numbers came out today that are really very mind-boggling if you happen to be Joe Biden. And I think they feel this is the way they’re going to try and win. And that’s not the way it goes. It’ll be bedlam in the country. It’s a very bad thing. It’s a very bad precedent. As we said, it’s the opening of a Pandora’s box.”
A reporter then followed up and asked Trump, “You just used the word ‘bedlam.’ Will you tell your supporters now, no matter what, no violence?”
Trump refused to answer and continued walking away.
Republican senators are slapping down President Trump’s claim that people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes are “hostages” who should be pardoned or set free by President Biden or a future president.
Three years after a mob of pro-Trump protestors invaded the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, GOP senators who witnessed the violence of that day bristle at the characterization of individuals who were convicted of crimes as “hostages” or political prisoners.
“I don’t condone that characterization at all, no,” said Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) when asked about Trump calling Jan. 6-related convicts “hostages.”
“We got a justice system and they’re working through it,” Thune said of the nearly 900 people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes, including more than 200 people who have pleaded guilty to felonies.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, dismissed Trump’s claim — echoed by some other Republicans — that individuals who were convicted of destroying property or assaulting police officers in the Capitol are “hostages.”
“Somebody who’s been duly convicted of a federal crime is not a hostage,” he said.
He expressed confidence that people who were tried and convicted, such as the former leader of the Proud Boys, received due process.
“I’m a big believer in our criminal justice system and believe that people are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But once they are, I accept that verdict and that judgment,” said Cornyn, a former Texas state Supreme Court justice.
Asked about the third anniversary of Jan. 6 and the characterization of people convicted of storming and damaging the Capitol as “hostages,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters that he stands by the remarks he made at the end of Trump’s second impeachment trial when he denounced the former president and the “criminals” who “were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him.”
“Let me say this about Jan. 6: I’ve had remarks that I made on Feb. 13 of ’21 about how I felt about Jan. 6. I recently reread it, I stand by what I said,” McConnell said.
McConnell voted to acquit Trump of the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection but did so on the technical grounds that he was no longer in office by the time the Senate held its trial.
But he left no doubt that he viewed the actions of the people who overran Capitol police in a failed effort to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory as “criminals” who were spurred on by Trump’s “wild falsehoods” about a stolen election.
McConnell at the time accused the “mob” of attacking their own government and using “terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like.”
He said they “beat and bloodied our own police,” “stormed the Senate floor,” “tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House” and “built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president.”
McConnell and other Republican senators who fled the Senate chamber three years ago to protect themselves were personally shaken and disturbed by what they saw that day.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) balked at the notion that people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes are somehow hostages or political prisoners.
“That’s like calling drug traffickers unlicensed pharmacists. At the end of the day, they’re J6 convicts to me,” he said.
“If they were proven guilty in a court of law of a crime, it is what it is,” he said. “Are there some people that were swept up in it? Yeah, but use better judgment. If you were only accidently in the Capitol, you probably didn’t get convicted. If you hurt a police officer, you should have been convicted. If you broke anything on the Capitol, you should have been convicted. You should serve your time. Period, end of story.
“That’s not a hostage,” he added. “We have hostages held by Hamas right now. I have a different standard for what I consider hostages.”
Even with Trump heavily favored to win the nomination to serve as the Republican Party’s standard-bearer in 2024, the GOP senators who spoke with The Hill were not willing to swallow his campaign trail argument from Iowa that what happened on Jan. 6 was “patriotic and peaceful.”
Trump got cheers at a middle school in Clinton, Iowa, by calling for Biden to “release the J6 hostages.”
“They ought to release the J6 hostages,” he said. “I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You could do it real easy, Joe.”
At least one high-ranking House Republican has embraced Trump’s characterization of people who have pleaded guilty or been found guilty of Jan. 6 crimes as hostages.
House Republican Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that she has “concerns about the treatment of Jan. 6 hostages.”
“I believe we’re seeing the weaponization of the federal government against not just President Trump, but we’re seeing it against conservatives,” she claimed.
Those comments stirred speculation that Stefanik is angling to be Trump’s vice presidential pick.
“Does her change of heart have anything to do with wanting to be Trump’s running mate?” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
About 170 people have received convictions after standing trial for Jan. 6 crimes, while more than 710 people have pleaded guilty.
More than 450 of those individuals have received prison sentences.
On Tuesday, Ray Epps, 62, who had been at the center of some of the most persistent conspiracy theories connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was sentenced to a year of probation for his role in the riot.
Epps had pleaded guilty in September to one count as part of a deal with Justice Department prosecutors. He admitted to engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds after storming the Capitol.
Epps was sentenced the same day Trump was in Washington to attend a hearing in one of his own legal cases connected to the election. Trump is arguing he is immune from prosecution for actions connected to the election and Jan. 6 because he was president at the time. A three-judge panel on Tuesday seemed skeptical of his legal team’s arguments.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) told The Hill that “if you’re convicted of a crime, you are deserving of the punishment.”
“I think if you’re convicted of a crime, you’re a criminal,” he added.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) also slammed the door on attempts to portray people who broke the law by invading the Capitol as being unfairly persecuted for their political beliefs.
“I view them the same as the individual juries that convicted them. There was violence on that day. There were people that violated the law. There were people that tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power after an election,” he said.
“I do not agree with anybody that says they are political prisoners. That’s simply the way I see it,” he added.
Trump has said he would pardon many of the people convicted of Jan. 6 offenses if he’s reelected.
Republican senators say that’s a bad idea.
“I have nothing to do with whether a president grants a pardon, but I would think in most instances any blanket pardon is a mistake. Every pardon case ought to rest upon the specific facts of that individual,” Moran said.
Rounds, a former governor, said he had granted pardons in the past but only when individuals admitted they broke the law, expressed remorse, and indicated they would return to becoming a productive citizen.
Florida man sentenced to 5 years for assaulting officers, other charges in Jan. 6 Capitol breach
A Florida man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to three felonies, including assaulting a law enforcement officer, during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The Justice Department (DOJ) announced the sentencing of Kenneth Bonawitz, a 58-year-old “Proud Boys” member, whom the DOJ described as “one of the more violent January 6 rioters.”
Bonawitz was sentenced to to 60 months in prison, 36 months supervised release and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and fines. He also pleaded guilty to felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, the DOJ said.
Bonawitz “assaulted at least six law enforcement officers on the West Plaza” on Jan. 6, 2021. The attacks, several of which are detailed in the news release, “included hurling himself at officers and tackling them to the ground, placing one officer in a chokehold, and lifting the officer up by the neck,” according to the DOJ.
One police officer who had also been a first responder at the Pentagon on 9/11, the DOJ said, was injured “so severely that the officer has now been forced to retire from the United States Capitol Police.”
Bonawitz, who was carrying an 8-inch knife in a sheath attached to his belt, was at the front of the crowd that pushed through the police defensive line near the West Front, the DOJ said.
As police were trying to hold rioters back, Bonawitz climbed onto the pre-set presidential inauguration stage, and “he then ran the length of the stage, raised his arms, threw himself into the air as the stage ended, and used his outstretched arms to tackle two United States Capitol Police officers who were standing at the base of a short set of stairs.”
After the two officers managed to confiscate his knife, Bonawitz managed to slip away from the officers “due to the unfolding chaos.” He then rejoined the mob, the DOJ said. He assaulted four Washington, D.C., police officers “almost immediately … in a melee.”
At one point, Bonawitz shoved an officer, who stumbled forward and then turned around to face Bonawitz. Bonawitz then “wrapped his arms around the officer from behind, inserted his forearm under the officer’s shield, and then put the officer in a chokehold. He briefly lifted the officer off the ground and caused the officer to gag before struggling free of his grip.”
He assaulted three more officers before leaving, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ noted Bonawitz gave two media interviews as he was leaving, during which he identified himself and described some of his interactions with police.
More than 1,265 people have been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including more than 440 who were charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
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