Social media influencer is charged with joining the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol
A conservative social media influencer has been charged with storming the U.S. Capitol and passing a stolen table out of a broken window, allowing other rioters to use it as a weapon against police, according to court records unsealed on Monday.
Isabella Maria DeLuca was arrested last Friday in Irvine, California, on misdemeanor charges, including theft of government property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area.
DeLuca, who has more than 333,000 followers on the platform formerly known as Twitter, is a former congressional intern who works as a media associate for The Gold Institute for International Strategy. DeLuca’s profile on the institute’s website says she served as an ambassador for the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.
DeLuca also interned for former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, both of whom are Republicans who have supported former President Donald Trump.
DeLuca, 24, of Setauket, New York, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Online court records don’t list an attorney representing her. A spokesperson for the Gold Institute for International Strategy said it learned Monday that DeLuca — who was hired in an unpaid position to update the organization’s social media presence — was facing criminal charges and said, “following further internal investigation, we felt it necessary to sever our relationship.”
During the Jan. 6 riot, DeLuca replied to a Twitter post by writing, “Fight back or let politicians steal and election? Fight back!”
Videos captured her entering a suite of conference rooms inside the Capitol through a broken window on the Lower West Terrace. She passed a table out of the window and then climbed back outside through the same window. A table that another rioter threw at police resembled the one that DeLuca passed out the window, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
DeLuca posted about the riot for days after the Jan. 6 attack. When an Instagram user asked her why she supported breaking into the Capitol, she responded, “According to the constitution it’s our house.”
Several days later, she posted on social media that she was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and had “mixed feelings.”
“People went to the Capitol building because that’s Our House and that’s where we go to take our grievances. People feel, as do I that an election was stolen from them and it was allowed,” she wrote.
When the FBI questioned her roughly two weeks after the Capitol attack, DeLuca denied entering the building on Jan. 6, the agent’s affidavit says.
More than 1,300 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
Man who used megaphone to lead attack on police during Capitol riot gets over 7 years in prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington state man who used a megaphone to orchestrate a mob’s attack on police officers guarding the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Wednesday to more than seven years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said videos captured Taylor James Johnatakis playing a leadership role during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Johnatakis led other rioters on a charge against a police line, “barked commands” over his megaphone and shouted step-by-step directions for overpowering officers, the judge said.
“In any angry mob, there are leaders and there are followers. Mr. Johnatakis was a leader. He knew what he was doing that day,” the judge said before sentencing him to seven years and three months behind bars.
Johnatakis, who represented himself with an attorney on standby, has repeatedly expressed rhetoric that appears to be inspired by the anti-government “ sovereign citizen ” movement. He asked the judge questions at his sentencing, including, “Does the record reflect that I repent in my sins?”
Lamberth, who referred to some of Johnatakis’ words as “gobbledygook,” said, “I’m not answering questions here.”
Prosecutors recommended a nine-year prison sentence for Johnatakis, a self-employed installer of septic systems.
“Johnatakis was not just any rioter; he led, organized, and encouraged the assault of officers at the U.S. Capitol on January 6,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
A jury convicted him of felony charges after a trial last year in Washington, D.C.
Johnatakis, 40, of Kingston, Washington, had a megaphone strapped to his back when he marched to the Capitol from then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.
“It’s over,” he shouted at the crowd of Trump supporters. “Michael Pence has voted against the president. We are down to the nuclear option.”
Johnatakis was one of the first rioters to chase a group of police officers who were retreating up stairs outside the Capitol. He shouted and gestured for other rioters to “pack it in” and prepare to attack.
Johnatakis shouted “Go!” before he and other rioters shoved a metal barricade into a line of police officers. He also grabbed an officer’s arm.
“The crime is complete,” Johnatakis posted on social media several hours after he left the Capitol.
He was arrested in February 2021. He has been jailed since November 2023, when jurors convicted him of seven counts, including obstruction of the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress that certified Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. The jury also convicted him of assault and civil disorder charges.
Justice Department prosecutor Courtney Howard said Johnatakis hasn’t expressed any sincere remorse or accepted responsibility for his crimes on Jan. 6.
“He’s going so far as to portray himself as a persecuted victim,” she said.
Hmmmm sounds familiar.
Lamberth said he received over 20 letters from Johnatakis, his relatives and friends. Some of his supporters don’t seem to know the full extent of Johnatakis’ crimes on Jan. 6, the judge added. He said he would order the clerk of court’s office to send all them copies of his prepared remarks during the sentencing hearing.
“There can be no room in our country for this sort of political violence,” Lamberth said.
Last April, Lamberth ordered a psychologist to examine Johnatakis and determine if he was mentally competent to stand trial. The judge ultimately ruled that Johnatakis could understand the proceedings and assist in his defense.
Approximately 1,350 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting terms of imprisonment ranging from several days to 22 years.
Trump ally Clark broke ethics rule in election subversion attempts, panel rules Andrew Goudsward Updated Thu, April 4, 2024 at 6:31 PM EDT·2 min read 646
FILE PHOTO: Justice Department makes announcement on opioids settlement in Washington By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney Jeffrey Clark, who held a senior role in the U.S. Justice Department during Donald Trump's presidency, should face professional discipline over his effort to enlist the agency in the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a Washington legal panel concluded on Thursday.
The finding, which is preliminary, followed several days of testimony on Clark’s attempt to take charge of the Justice Department in the final days of Trump's term as he sought to block certification of his defeat to Democratic President Joe Biden using false claims of rampant voter fraud.
The three-member committee of the District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility, which handles attorney ethics cases in the U.S. capital, determined Clark’s conduct violated at least one attorney ethics rule.
A lawyer for Clark denied that he violated any ethics rules, arguing there was an internal dispute within the Justice Department about the election.
Russ Vought, head of the conservative legal advocacy group Center for Renewing America, where Clark works as a senior fellow, called the decision a "gross miscarriage of justice" and said Clark was being sanctioned for "doing his job and telling the truth."
The panel will recommend a specific sanction later, which could include suspending or revoking Clark’s law license. Any sanction must first be approved by the full board and a Washington appeals court.
Hamilton Fox, head of the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which brought the charges, said he would seek to have Clark disbarred. Fox said Clark was willing to aid Trump's attempts to use the Justice Department to undermine the election results.
"It doesn't matter whether it's magical thinking, misplaced loyalty, personal ambition. It's conduct that violated the rules," Fox told the panel.
Clark, who served as acting head of the Justice Department's civil division under Trump, faced two legal ethics charges accusing him of attempting to take actions "involving dishonesty" that "would seriously interfere with the administration of justice."
Clark proposed sending a letter to Georgia’s governor and top state lawmakers in December 2020 falsely asserting the Justice Department had "identified significant concerns" that may have tipped the election in Georgia and other states, according to D.C.’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
The letter urged state lawmakers to convene to investigate purported election irregularities and consider sending a slate of presidential electors for Trump despite Biden’s win in the state.
Justice Department leaders refused to send the letter. Trump backed off plans to name Clark acting attorney general when the leadership of the Justice Department and White House lawyers threatened to resign in protest.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone, Lisa Shumaker, Diane Craft and Cynthia Osterman)
over his effort to enlist the agency in the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a Washington legal panel concluded on Thursday.
Innit crazy. We just accept after all this time trump tried to overturn the election results. That statement is part of an article and i wonder if many even marvel at such a statement of fact anymore? A free and fair election, lost by a significant margin, and he tried to overturn the result .... And for all the harping on about voter fraud the overwhelming PROVEN issues have been Republicans trying to cheat... Maybe i missed something in the last four years?
So much crazy. Hard to believe. I mean set aside jan 6th, there's still so much that is so wrong. Eyeyey.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
You haven't missed anything. For some strange reason something like this that would have in the past caused the vast majority of people's minds to find one unfit to ever hold political office again seems to no longer be a priority. I guess many of the average voters on trump's side have decided that taking power is fine no matter what you have to do in order to achieve it.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
over his effort to enlist the agency in the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a Washington legal panel concluded on Thursday.
Innit crazy. We just accept after all this time trump tried to overturn the election results. That statement is part of an article and i wonder if many even marvel at such a statement of fact anymore? A free and fair election, lost by a significant margin, and he tried to overturn the result .... And for all the harping on about voter fraud the overwhelming PROVEN issues have been Republicans trying to cheat... Maybe i missed something in the last four years?
So much crazy. Hard to believe. I mean set aside jan 6th, there's still so much that is so wrong. Eyeyey.
I don’t know what it is, but the desensitization to all the blatant craziness is something that blows my mind. Facts are disputed or outright ignored.
It’s not like a lot of us are excited about Biden or that he remains the candidate, either. It’s more like “holy hell, how is the other guy even a candidate???????” The fact that he remains a viable candidate is what I just can’t fathom in modern day American politics.
Blue ostriches on crack float on milkshakes between the sidewalk titans of gurglefitz. --YTown
Trump loses bid to halt Jan. 6 lawsuits while he fights criminal charges in the 2020 election case
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers’ request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while the criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out.
It’s the latest legal setback for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, whose trial in a separate criminal case related to hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign began this week with jury selection in New York.
The lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 seek civil damages for harm they say they suffered during the attack, which aimed to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.
Trump has claimed he can’t be sued over the riot that left dozens of police officers injured, arguing that his words during a rally before the storming of the Capitol addressed “matters of public concern” and fell within the scope of absolute presidential immunity.
Washington’s federal appeals court ruled in December that the lawsuits can move forward, rejecting Trump’s sweeping claims that presidential immunity shields him from liability. The court, however, said Trump can continue to fight, as the cases proceed, to try to prove that his actions were taken in his official capacity as president.
In court papers filed last month, Trump’s lawyers told the judge that “basic fairness to criminal defendants” warrants pausing the civil cases until after the 2020 election criminal case is resolved. They argued that allowing the lawsuits to proceed could force Trump to “prematurely telegraph” his defense strategies in the criminal case.
Mehta, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, said the public has an interest in the prompt resolution of the civil lawsuits in addition to the criminal case. And the judge said “appropriate safeguards” can be put in place to allow for the lawsuits to advance without infringing on Trump’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week on Trump’s claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The ruling will determine whether Trump will have to stand trial in the case accusing him of a sprawling conspiracy to stay in power after Americans voted him out of office.
Proud Boys group leader sentenced to over 5 years in prison for attacking police during Capitol riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A far-right extremist group leader was sentenced on Friday to more than five years in prison for repeatedly assaulting police officers with makeshift weapons during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol over three years ago.
Scott Miller, who helped lead a Proud Boys chapter for Maryland and Washington, D.C., coordinated with other group members before they invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to federal prosecutors. Miller, 33, attacked police seven different times with weapons, including a bottle, a stick and poles.
Notes found on Miller’s cellphone indicate that his white supremacist ideology and antisemitic views influenced his decision to storm the Capitol, a prosecutor wrote in a court filing. He expressed his intent to “fight” in order to protect “White America,” the filing says.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington, said an attack like the Jan. 6 insurrection “can happen again” in the U.S.
“Extremism is alive and well in this country,” she said before sentencing Miller to five years and six months behind bars.
Miller apologized for assaulting police at the Capitol. He acknowledged that he embraced extremist ideologies before the Capitol riot, but told the judge that he is “reforming” himself.
“I am not a violent or hateful person despite some of the things you’ve seen,” he told Chutkan.
Investigators found Nazi paraphernalia and memes promoting racially motivated violence when they searched Miller’s Millersville, Maryland, home and his phone. A photo found on Miller’s phone shows him posing and smiling next to a news story describing the drowning of migrants, prosecutors said.
Authorities also found a shirt that Miller wore for Halloween to dress up as Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man, in the summer of 2020. Miller posed for a photo wearing the costume while kneeling on the floor. Chauvin pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.
Chutkan said the extent of Miller’s violent ideology and the racist, antisemitic material stored on his phone left her questioning whether Miller is genuinely remorseful or capable of such a rapid transformation.
“They don’t just arrive there by some random algorithm,” said the judge, who read aloud some of the most hateful messages.
Chutkan has been one of the toughest punishers of Jan. 6 defendants. Miller’s prison sentence is the longest that she has handed down so far in 45 cases, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of five years and 11 months for Miller, who was arrested in December 2022. He pleaded guilty in January to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon.
“Miller’s participation in the riot – a riot that disrupted the peaceful transfer of power – was particularly egregious, given his multiple and repeated violent attacks on police officers and his coordination and planning with other members of the Proud Boys,” Justice Department prosecutor Kaitlin Klamann wrote.
In 2019, Miller was arrested on charges of disrupting a “Drag Queen Story Time” for children at a library in his Maryland hometown, The Baltimore Sun reported. Miller was accused of shouting at a performer and shoving a library board member who tried to intervene.
“While these charges were ultimately dropped, Miller’s actions on this occasion serve as further proof that Miller is willing to use violence to enforce his personal beliefs,” Klamann wrote.
In the days leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, Miller and other Proud Boys members discussed their plans for that day and the possibility of violence, prosecutors said. Miller arrived at the Capitol after the riot erupted, wearing gloves with plastic knuckles, ski goggles and a military-style backpack.
He joined the mob attacking police officers guarding a tunnel leading to an entrance on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where some of the most brutal violence occurred. Picking up a pole, he charged at police and repeatedly struck an officer with it.
After throwing several objects at police, Miller picked up another pole and struck at least two officers several times. He also grabbed a shield from police officers and handed it to other rioters in the crowd outside the Capitol.
Miller is ashamed of his conduct on Jan. 6 and cut ties with the Proud Boys about a month after the riot, defense attorney Elizabeth Mullin said in a court filing.
“He disavows the group and the principles it stands for,” she wrote.
Mullin said there is no evidence that Miller planned to attack police.
“Regrettably, like so many others there that day, he became carried away by the frenzy of the crowd, which had been whipped into a fervor by Mr. Trump and the other rally speakers,” she wrote.
I hope after the American people hand Donald his L-24 this fall, that he and the other insurectionists in our government will finally be charged as the traitorous trash they are. Hang em all, I’ll buy the rope.
I hope after the American people hand Donald his L-24 this fall, that he and the other insurectionists in our government will finally be charged as the traitorous trash they are. Hang em all, I’ll buy the rope.
Are you speaking of the ones in Congress that supported him and his actions and the actions of the rioters? If so, I'm with you.. I'll pitch in on the rope.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
North Carolina man sentenced to six years in prison for attacking police with pole at Capitol
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who became a fugitive after a federal jury convicted him of assaulting police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison.
David Joseph Gietzen, 31, of Sanford, North Carolina, struck a police officer with a pole during a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Gietzen told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols that he didn’t intend to hurt anybody that day. But he didn’t express any regret or remorse for his actions on Jan. 6, when he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in interrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
“I have to make it explicitly known that I believe I did the right thing,” he said before learning his sentence.
The judge said Gietzen made it clear during his trial testimony — and his sentencing hearing — that he clings to his baseless beliefs that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.
“Mr. Gietzen essentially was unapologetic today about his conduct,” Nichols said.
Last August, a jury convicted Gietzen of eight counts, including assault and civil disorder charges. After his trial conviction, Gietzen disregarded a court order to report to prison on Oct. 20, 2023, while awaiting sentencing. He missed several hearings for his case before he was arrested at his mother’s home in North Carolina on Dec. 12, 2023.
“This pattern of flouting rules and laws and doing what he wants, regardless of the consequences, is how Gietzen operates,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Defense attorney Ira Knight said Gietzen apparently remained at his house, “just waiting to be picked up,” and wasn’t on the run from authorities or trying to hide after his conviction.
Prosecutors recommended a prison term of 10 years and one month for Gietzen, who worked as a computer programming engineer after graduating from North Carolina State University in 2017 with bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and electrical engineering.
“Clearly, Gietzen is bright and able to get something done when he puts his mind to it – be it a college degree or assaulting officers as part of in a violent mob,” prosecutors wrote.
Gietzen’s attorneys requested a four-year prison sentence.
“David’s current philosophy is that he no longer wishes to be engaged with the political process,” defense attorneys wrote. “His involvement with politics has concluded and should be an indication to the Court that he is no longer interested in being a threat to the public or political process.”
Gietzen traveled to Washington, D.C., with his brother from their home in North Carolina. He attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before marching to the Capitol.
As the mob of Trump supporters overwhelmed a police line on the Capitol’s West Plaza, Gietzen shoved a police officer, grabbed another officer’s gas mask and struck an officer with a pole.
“And all of Gietzen’s violence was based on a lack of respect for law enforcement and the democratic process — its goal was to get himself and other rioters closer to the building so they could interfere with the certification of the election,” prosecutors wrote.
Gietzen later bragged about participating in the riot in messages to friends and relatives, saying he had “never been prouder to be an American.”
More than 1,350 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
Arizona just dropping indictments on the fake electors and trump inner circle including Rudy, Meadows, Boris Epshteyn and others. Trump is unindicted co conspirator #1
A grand jury in Arizona has handed up an indictment against former President Donald Trump’s allies over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, including the fake electors from that state and several individuals connected to his campaign.
Boris Epshteyn, a former White House aide who remains one of Trump’s closest advisers, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani are among those who have been indicted, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, announced the indictment Wednesday night, focusing on the 11 individuals who acted as pro-Trump electors in the state. The names of several other indicted defendants remain redacted, Mayes said in a statement Wednesday, until those people have been served.
“A state grand jury made up of everyday regular Arizonans, has now handed down felony indictments for all 11 Republican electors as well as several others connected to this scheme,” Mayes said. “These are serious indictments, but this is the first hurdle the state must pass in our constitutional criminal justice system. We intend to prove these crimes were committed beyond a reasonable doubt.”
While Trump is not among those charged in Arizona, the details in the indictment suggest he is “Unindicted Coconspirator 1.”
Trump allies ‘deceived the citizens of Arizona’ after 2020 election, indictment alleges The indictment in Arizona includes nine counts, from conspiracy and forgery to engaging in fraudulent schemes. Because the indictment remains partially redacted, it is unclear what charges Trump allies such as Meadows, Epshteyn and Giuliani face.
“In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as President on November 3, 2020,” the indictment reads. “Unwilling to accept this fact, Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters.”
The scheme, according to the indictment, called for the fake electors to fraudulently vote for Trump, “falsely claiming to be the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States from the State of Arizona.”
“Defendants deceived the citizens of Arizona by falsely claiming that those votes were contingent only on a legal challenge that would change the outcome of the election,” the indictment continues. “In reality, Defendants intended that their false votes for Trump-Pence would encourage Pence to reject the Biden-Harris votes on January 6, 2021, regardless of the outcome of the legal challenge.”
This scheme failed on January 6, 2021, when then-Vice President Mike Pence accepted the electoral votes for Joe Biden, the indictment says.
CNN is reaching out to those charged for comment.
The case adds scrutiny to actions taken on Trump’s behalf after the last election. It also comes as Trump’s legal team will argue before the Supreme Court Thursday that he’s immune from prosecution in the federal election interference case – at the same time Trump is on trial in New York related to hush money paid to cover up an alleged affair before the 2016 election.
The Arizona case is the latest state-level prosecution aimed at schemes to upend Biden’s electoral victory. Prosecutors in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada also have brought criminal charges against some of the people who signed on as fake electors in those states. Investigators in Wisconsin are conducting a similar probe.
A grand jury empaneled in Maricopa County, Arizona, to investigate efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state met this week before Mayes announced the charges.
CNN previously reported that Arizona prosecutors had issued a series of grand jury subpoenas to people connected to Trump’s campaign and several individuals who served as fake electors from that state – a sign the probe was accelerating ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Some of the fake electors who were ultimately charged in Arizona recently appeared before the grand jury and cited their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination, sources familiar with the probe told CNN.
Mayes initially focused her investigation on the 11 fake electors from Arizona and those who helped organize them, but the sources recently told CNN she also was looking into individuals tied to the former president’s national campaign.
“We conducted a thorough and professional investigation over the past 13 months into the fake electoral scheme in our state,” Mayes said Wednesday. “I understand for some of you today didn’t come fast enough. And I know I’ll be criticized by others for conducting this investigation at all. But as I’ve stated before, and will say here again today, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined.”
Several state-level officials from Arizona told the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot that Trump and his allies tried to pressure them to decertify the state’s election results.
The fake electors for Trump convened at the state Republican Party headquarters in Phoenix on December 14, 2020. They broadcast themselves preparing to sign the documents, allegedly provided by a Trump campaign attorney, claiming that they were the legitimate representatives of the state’s electoral votes.
By that time, Trump’s loss in the state – by fewer than 11,000 votes – had already been certified by its Republican governor, affirming that Biden won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election. But in the weeks that followed, some of the fake electors continued to push for Pence to reject the legitimate Democratic slate of electors.
The fake elector scheme and pressure campaign on Pence are focal points of special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Trump.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
“A state grand jury made up of everyday regular Arizonans, has now handed down felony indictments..."
^^^This,^^^ right here... is what keeps any of this from being a 'Deep State political witch hunt.' Ordinary American citizens were sequestered in a room with all the evidence... and decided that the evidence they saw was sufficient to send the case to trial.
