High school student who sat in Pence’s chair during Capitol riot is sentenced to 1 year in prison

WASHINGTON (AP) — A high school student who stormed the U.S. Capitol, assaulted a police officer and sat in a Senate floor chair reserved for the vice president was sentenced on Wednesday to one year in prison.

Georgia resident Bruno Joseph Cua was 18 when he attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, making him one of the youngest people charged in the riot.

Before learning his sentence, Cua apologized for his actions and told U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss that he is ashamed of his role in a mob’s “attack on democracy.”

“Everything that day was just one terrible decision after another,” said Cua, now 21.

Moss sentenced Cua to a prison term of one year and one day followed by three years of supervised release. The judge convicted Cua of felony charges after a trial earlier this year.

Moss told Cua that he was prepared to give him a longer prison sentence before he heard his statement in court on Wednesday. The judge said he believes Cua is truly remorseful.

“It’s a tragic case for the country. It’s a tragic case for you and your family,” the judge told him. “There are no winners in any of this.”

More than 1,000 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes. Cua is one of at least six Capitol riot defendants born in 2002, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.

Cua’s attorneys cited his youth as grounds for leniency. His actions on Jan. 6 “reflect his immaturity at the time and the effects that the crowd had on such a young person,” defense attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Around the time of the riot, Cua was finishing online coursework to graduate from high school. Prosecutors said Cua’s age is “only slightly” a mitigating factor in his favor.

“Americans who reach the age of 18 are entrusted with several important responsibilities and duties including voting, joining the military, signing a contract, and serving on a jury. In this way, the law recognizes that an 18-year-old is capable of making mature decisions,” they wrote in a court filing.

Justice Department prosecutor Kaitlin Klamann said at least five Capitol riot defendants were younger than Cua on Jan. 6. Two of the five have resolved their cases and avoided prison terms. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offenses and were sentenced to probation.

Cua planned his attack weeks in advance, brought weapons to the Capitol, tried to terrorize congressional staffers and was repeatedly aggressive toward police, prosecutors said.

They added, “Cua played a unique and prominent role on January 6, opening the Senate Chamber to the rioters, escalating confrontations, and leading other rioters into and through the Capitol.”

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Cua. His lawyers asked the judge to sentence him to time served: the 40 days he spent in jail after his February 2021 arrest.

Cua said he was “scarred to my core” by his jail time. Another inmate assaulted Cua while he was jailed in Oklahoma, according to one of his lawyers.

“I did something stupid to land myself there, but it was traumatizing,” Cua said.

Other young rioters have received prison terms. In March, for example, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Aiden Bilyard to three years and four months of incarceration. Bilyard, of Cary, North Carolina, also was 18 when he stormed the Capitol, pepper sprayed a line of police officers and used a bat to break into a Capitol conference room.

Cua and his parents drove from their home in Milton, Georgia, to Washington D.C., arriving a day before then-President Donald Trump spoke at his “Stop the Steal” rally. The Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Cua was armed with pepper spray and a metal baton — weapons given to him by his father — when rioters breached police lines on the west side of the Capitol, according to prosecutors. After climbing scaffolding, Cua entered the building through the Upper West Terrace doors and and walked down a hallway toward the Senate.

“As Cua walked down the hallway, he tried to open every single office door he passed by pulling on doorknobs, pounding on the doors with his fist, and kicking the doors,” prosecutors wrote.

They said Cua intended to intimidate staffers who were behind the doors as he yelled, “Hey! Where are the swamp rats hiding?”

Cua went to the third floor, where he shoved a Capitol police officer who was trying to lock doors to the Senate gallery. After the officer retreated, Cua entered the gallery, shouting “This is our house! This is our country!” Jumping onto the Senate floor, he sat in the chair for then-Vice President Mike Pence, leaned back and propped his feet up on a desk.

Then he opened a door, allowing dozens of other rioters onto the Senate floor. Before leaving, Cua rifled through desks belonging to Senators Charles Grassley, John Thune and Dianne Feinstein.

Moss decided the case against Cua without a jury in February, convicting him of obstructing the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding and assaulting a federal officer. The judge handed down the verdict after a “stipulated bench trial,” a proceeding in which Cua didn’t contest the facts supporting his convictions. He waived his right to a jury trial.

Prosecutors asked Moss to impose a $23,485 fine, which equals the amount of money raised by an online fundraising campaign called “Bruno Cua: An American’s Future at Stake.” The website said the funds will be used for Cua’s “many expenses in his pursuit of his freedom.”

https://apnews.com/article/bruno-cu...8x3Jxzd_S42YO-J4w_OiI95v74f6QJ0Ko5ri4cfE

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley pleads guilty to Jan. 6 crime

Kelley ran for governor in Michigan last year but lost in the Republican primary.

WASHINGTON — Former Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley pleaded guilty to a federal crime on Thursday in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kelley pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining on restricted grounds, admitting that he "rushed past U.S. Capitol police officers and started climbing the northwest scaffolding" and then "climbed onto an architectural feature next to the North West stairs and began gesturing to the crowd below by waving his hand towards the stairs leading up to the U.S. Capitol building." He also "used his hands to support another rioter who was pulling a metal bike rack onto the scaffolding," a plea agreement document said.

Kelley ran for governor in Michigan in 2022 as a Republican, He was arrested last June, before the Republican primary, and was, for a time, leading in the polls. Kelley ultimately lost the primary to Republican Tudor Dixon, who lost the general election to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

Judge Christopher R. Cooper accepted Kelley's plea deal and set his sentencing for Oct. 17 at 2 p.m.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...S7tLRwG229-R-vwpxkYexFH5u9WlU3sWShzM2JFY

FBI arrests vet who used cane to break into Capitol after arriving on mobility scooter

William Bierbrodt allegedly smashed a window open with his cane and helped let the pro-Trump mob inside. His brother, a fellow military veteran, is accused of assaulting an officer.

WASHINGTON — Two brothers, both military veterans, were arrested by the FBI this week and charged with federal felonies after online sleuths identified them as rioters who had broken into the Capitol and squared off with police during the Jan. 6 attack.

The Justice Department alleges that one of the brothers, William Bierbrodt, is the man who had been dubbed #CrowbarBeardGuy because he used what looked like a crowbar to smash a window and break open a door near the Senate parliamentarian's office. Online investigators later realized he had used a cane.

Video from Jan. 6, 2021, appears to show Bierbrodt missing part of his right foot and using a knee scooter to ascend a ramp at the Capitol before he smashes the window with a cane and goes inside, at times using the wall for support as he confronts police. Court documents said Bierbrodt had a foot injury and "a scooter to assist in mobility."

Joseph Bierbrodt followed his brother and shoved a man who appeared to be a security officer up against a wall before he confronted officers farther inside the building, other video from that day appears to show. Video also appears to show both men were pepper-sprayed and soon went outside the building to recover but remained at the Capitol for hours and confronted officers on the other side of the building as night fell.

William “Marty” Bierbrodt and Joseph “Eric” Bierbrodt were identified by members of a community known as “Sedition Hunters,” who have aided in the arrests of hundreds of Capitol rioters who have been charged and have identified hundreds more who have not yet been arrested.

Online sleuths shared their information about the Bierbrodts with NBC News on the condition that it not be used until the two brothers were arrested. Online court records showed Joseph was arrested in Illinois and William in Florida.

William Bierbrodt faces charges of obstruction of a law enforcement officer during civil disorder, along with a number of misdemeanors. Joseph Bierbrodt, who appears to push a man resembling a Capitol security officer against the wall, faces charges of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and assault on a federal officer.



oseph Bierbrodt, as a member of the Illinois Army National Guard, received an award for “leadership, patriotism and selfless devotion” in 2018 after he escorted the daughter of an Army sergeant who died in training the previous year to a father-daughter dance. News of the escort got national media attention at the time, including from NBC’s "TODAY" show.

A Parler account under William Bierbrodt’s name and featuring his image posted violent rhetoric in the lead-up to Jan. 6, including a comment that said that “all the Obama cronies should be taken tied to a stack and shot in the head.”

Public defenders for the two brothers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

About 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and hundreds more have been identified to the FBI but not yet arrested.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...ile8XJHTYyZ8FAtZ1M5patPPFZ-KsDh3APXSj0JM

He probably lost his disability check too.

People are getting arrested still, and most are getting convicted. At the same time, idiots/liars like DeSantis and some of the other MAGA's out there are trying to tell us, hey, it wasn't an insurrection. Just a protest gone a little wrong.


It's like they want us to think our eyes and ears lied to us. Gees

Jan. 6 defendant who stole beaten police officer's badge and radio sentenced to more than 4 years in prison

A Buffalo man who admitted forcibly removing the badge and radio of a beaten Washington, D.C., police officer during the U.S. Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to 50 months in prison.

A federal judge said Thomas Sibick stripped D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone of "everything that badge represented" during the Capitol riot. Judge Amy Berman Jackson called the badge a "symbol of (Fanone's) service to the city and his country."

Fanone spoke at Sibick's sentencing hearing Friday, urging Jackson to sentence Sibick to a prison term.

"Ignore Mr. Sibick's pleas for remorse. On Jan. 6, … he gave me none," Fanone said. "He's a coward and a liar."

Fanone, who retired 11 months after the assault on the Capitol, was dragged, beaten and electroshocked by rioters on Jan. 6. He also talked about the police radio that Sibick had taken from him.

"My radio is my lifeline. It was all I had in those moments to call for help," Fanone told Jackson. "It was taken to be used as a trophy."

Sibick had asked for leniency, citing the impact of a prescription drug he was taking on the day of the Capitol riot. His defense attorney told Jackson that Sibick had argued that he was trying to help Fanone when he approached the injured officer amid the attack.

But Judge Jackson criticized Sibick's claim "of helping" and said Sibick wasn't "simply swept up or "caught up" in the crowd on Jan. 6. Sibick, she said, had "bought in 100%" while he was part of the mob.

In his guilty plea, Sibick acknowledged burying the police badge in his backyard. The $5,500 police radio was never recovered, according to plea agreement filings.

While he spoke to the judge and asked for leniency, Sibick turned to face Fanone four times.

"Please forgive me. Please," he said, addressing Fanone. And he praised Fanone's efforts and service on Jan. 6.

"That's bravery. That's duty," Sibick said. "That's the man I aspire to be."

Fanone left the courtroom before the the sentencing hearing ended.

Sibick served seven months in pretrial detention in the Washington, D.C., jail with other Jan. 6 defendants. He told the judge the Jan. 6 wing had an aura of "authoritarianism."

"I was criticized and belittled for seeming weak," he said. "And for not subscribing to ideologies." Sibick told Jackson that others in the Jan. 6 wing of the jail were seeking "fame, fortune and notoriety."

Sibick pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting and impeding a police officer in March. Jackson said the removal of Fanone's radio by Sibick was "forcible" and said Sibick's participation in the Capitol attack "was a choice."

According to a Justice Department report, nearly 600 of the more than 1,000 US Capitol riot defendants have pleaded guilty.

The Justice Department had sought a sentence of nearly six years in prison for Sibick.

In addition to the 50-month prison sentence, Jackson ordered Sibick to pay $2,000 to help pay for the damage to the Capitol complex.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jan-6-...entenced-to-more-than-4-years-in-prison/

Number of people charged in Jan. 6 rioting surpasses 1,100

The number of people charged for their connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol surpassed 1,100 earlier this week, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced.

The DOJ announced that as of Aug. 6, more than 1,106 defendants were charged in nearly all 50 states and Washington, D.C., for actions they took during insurrection.

The announcement noted that 372 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and employees, including 112 people who were charged with using a dangerous or deadly weapon or causing serious injury to an officer.

Around 140 officers were assaulted that day, according to the DOJ. Eleven individuals were also arrested in connection with assaulting a member of the media or destroying their equipment.

In addition, about 967 individuals were charged with entering or remaining in a restricted area on federal property, including 104 who entered with a dangerous weapon. The DOJ said that about 64 people were charged with destruction of government property, and 51 with stealing it.

More than 310 individuals were also charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so.” Forty-two defendants were charged with either conspiracy to disrupt a congressional proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder or to injure an officer.

About 632 individuals have pleaded guilty in connection with their actions, while 110 have been found guilty at contested trials, the data shows.

https://thehill.com/policy/national...AGXEU_l9hEDfdWo_GjYwBuHfnKdjGrycjYTrtR3I

Man bro, I’m mad the Qanon shaman didn’t keep the same energy from the time he was arrested til the time he got out.

Accepting plea deals, then get out and claim you shouldn’t had accepted it is weak stuff.

Imma need these right wingers to show some follow through.

They lie and say whatever they need to say to a judge in court to lessen their sentence. Then afterwords they start telling the truth again. At least their version of the truth.

FBI arrests Jan. 6 rioter who confessed to assaulting an officer in front of courthouse

Ronald Alfred Bryan, 70, was one of the first individuals who charged the police line on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6, authorities said.

WASHINGTON — The FBI has arrested a Jan. 6 defendant who said he assaulted an officer on video while standing in front of a Washington courthouse on the day of the riot.

Ronald Alfred Bryan, 70, was arrested on Wednesday and he made his initial court appearance in Louisiana, according to the Justice Department. He had been No. 418 on the FBI's Capitol Violence website, wanted for assault on a federal officer.

Bryan faces several charges, including obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, theft of government property and assault on a federal officer.

On Jan. 6, 2021, while standing in front of the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse — the same building where he was charged — Bryan "showed bruises on his body and continued to brag about his theft of the police shield and assaults on [U.S. Capitol Police] officers," a FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit.

“I was one of the first ones up," Bryan said in a video. "I run through the front line, got a shield on the way through. When they got me down and started beating on me, I got a baton. It took about a half dozen of them to get the stuff away from me.”

Authorities said that Bryan used a wooden pallet as he charged up the stairs, then placed it near the feet of Christopher Alberts, another Jan. 6 rioter who was armed with a concealed gun and was sentenced last month to seven years in federal prison.

Bryan then "forcibly took" a plastic shield "and then charged forward, toward the officers, using the shield offensively in an attempt to breach the police line," the FBI said.

While wearing a sweatshirt that read "Bring Enough Gun" and a baseball bat emblazoned with the words "Vietnam Veteran," Bryan later bragged about his assault on USCP officers and theft of the police shield, on the grounds of the Capitol and in front of the courthouse, according to footage that was shared on the internet and cited by the FBI.

"We ganged up, on the left side of the steps where the white tarps were. I started cutting the tarps off," he said in one video. “I stole a baton. I stole a shield. [I] knocked two of them to the ground, took six of them to get me off of them... y’all go get you some!”

About 1,100 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, with more than 300 having been sentenced to periods of incarceration. Earlier this week, authorities arrested a Connecticut man who is the Republican nominee for mayor in his hometown of Derby.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...eoXczo6GbaKWcfsdLxzEWXcGC8zko-5_S05Pv0IE

Man who attacked officers with flagpole on Jan. 6 sentenced to 4 years in prison

A Florida man who attacked police officers with a flagpole during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol has been sentenced to four years in prison, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

Michael Perkins, 40, in March was found guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, civil disorder and lesser charges.

According to the federal prosecutors, Perkins attended the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the riots and joined a group of people who rushed the Capitol. While attempting to break a police line, he hit multiple U.S. Capitol Police officers in the head with a flagpole, prosecutors say.

Perkins was sentenced alongside a co-defendant, Joshua Doolin. Doolin was convicted of civil disorder, trespassing and theft of government property. He received a 1 1/2 year sentence.

Doolin stole a Capitol Police riot shield and used it to break into the Capitol, prosecutors said.

The pair was charged with two other Capitol riot defendants. Perkins and Doolin were arrested in an FBI raid with one of them, while the fourth — Jonathan Pollock — remains at large. A private investigator tracking Pollock said he has cut off contact with family and acquaintances and is on the run from police.

Doolin plans to appeal his sentencing, an attorney told The Associated Press. Perkins did not respond to an AP request for comment.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol, the DOJ said. More than 350 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...wYr5hR2g-L2ZvGo-e5Ucx31kIa0QSWTfPNhtMiKk

A Jan. 6 defendant scheduled to be sentenced on Friday is now missing

An arrest warrant has been issued for Christopher Worrell, a Florida Proud Boy convicted on seven counts stemming from his actions during the Jan. 6 riot.

WASHINGTON — Christopher Worrell, a Florida Proud Boy convicted on seven counts stemming from his actions during the Jan. 6 riot, was scheduled to be sentenced today in Washington, D.C, federal court but is now missing, according to a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

“We are interested in any information the public may have about his whereabouts,” spokeswoman Patricia Hartman told NBC News.

A lawyer for Worrell declined to comment.

Court records show that Worrell’s sentencing hearing, originally scheduled for Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET, has been indefinitely postponed. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an order making public the existence of an arrest warrant for Worrell. That order was not publicly docketed until Friday.

Judge Lamberth convicted Worrell on all seven charges he was facing following a five-day bench trial in May. Those charges included obstruction of an official proceeding, assaulting officers and engaging in violence on Capitol grounds.

“The evidence demonstrates that Mr. Worrell traveled to Washington, D.C., for the purpose of ensuring that the Electoral College Certification of President Biden failed,” Lamberth said in a written version of his ruling against Worrell.

“The evidence shows that he then furthered that goal, by both joining the mob and then by spraying the officers,” Lamberth continued, referring to Worrell’s use of a “pepper gel” spray against police during the riot.

Prosecutors are seeking a 14-year prison sentence for Worrell, citing his refusal to take responsibility, his lack of remorse and lies that he told while under oath. Worrell’s co-defendant Daniel Scott, another Florida Proud Boy, was sentenced to five years in prison last month.

Worrell had been initially detained pre-trial following his arrest in March 2021. However, Lamberth ordered Worrell released to home detention in November 2021 after finding that DC jail officials had failed to provide Worrell with adequate treatment for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a broken hand that may have required surgery.

As part of his conditions of release, Worrell surrendered his passport and was subject to GPS monitoring.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...gk6cohdkudQyU9gaxbMD1vx0zFuUmSaOmn6f2nBY

When he’s eventually caught and sentenced, he’ll still only get a slap on the wrist compared to what he deserves.

It may be just me, but I think they all got a slap on the wrist. These folks all deserve a bunch more.

Especially the ex military folks that were there. They pledged an oath to serve and protect the constitution. They should all be charged with treason.

I guess hanging traitors is out of fashion.

Hanging traitorous MAGA Goper’s is out of fashion. Hanging peaceful protesters, liberals, and LBGTQ community is all the rage.

Not according to those that wanted to hang mike pence. They clearly believe that it's OK to hang a traitor. So why shouldn't we do the same?

Baltimore man who "pushed police line" at Jan. 6 riot sentenced

A Baltimore man who "pushed a police line" and grabbed a law enforcement officer's shield during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Tuesday to 15 months in prison, the Department of Justice announced.

Driving the news: Narayana Rheiner, 42, "pulled the riot shield out of the officer's hands, causing the officer to fall down several stairs onto the ground," per a DOJ statement.

Rheiner joined other rioters in the Capitol's Rotunda area, yelling at officers and attempting to gain access to a hallway that was blocked by officers before eventually leaving the Capitol building through a broken window at about 2:57 pm, according to a statement of facts.

"The police deployed chemical irritants against the rioters. The defendant yelled at the police, 'You know how many times I've been sprayed today? That s--t ain't nothing!' and 'Why don't you just go home!' While other rioters continued to yell at the police officers, the defendant stood in close proximity to the officers, and said 'We're not backing up!'"

— Excerpt from statement of facts

The big picture: Rheiner pleaded guilty in November to the felony charge of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder.

The Maryland man must also serve 36 months of supervised release and pay $2,000 in restitution.

He's among over 1,100 people who've been arrested in connection with the insurrection — including more than 350 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/23/ba...CQNELGIiS8Ft3eWz3x-ML0cH8E0zzUPk9hMaOZK0

FBI arrests Jan. 6 rioter they say assaulted officers with a speaker, a shoe and a lamp

Curtis Logan Tate was first interviewed by the FBI just days after the attack, but insisted he disapproved of "destroying s---, breaking s---."

WASHINGTON — The FBI has arrested a Jan. 6 rioter who attacked police officers using a variety of items including a metal baton, a floor lamp and a shoe, according to court records.

Curtis Logan Tate, known to online "Sedition Hunters" as #ShinyCircleTattoo because of a distinct tattoo on his hand, was arrested in North Carolina on Thursday. He faces several charges, including a felony charge of assaulting federal officers while using a deadly or dangerous weapon and a felony count of assaulting law enforcement during a civil disorder. The other items he allegedly used in the attack were a speaker box and a broken table leg.

An affidavit details an interview FBI special agents conducted with Tate at his residence just days after the riot, on Jan. 13, 2021. The FBI said Tate insisted he had not committed any acts of violence, saying he did not agree with "destroying s---, breaking s---, [or] destroying our historic house."

In spite of his claims to the FBI, images of Tate were added to the FBI's Capitol Violence webpage, which the bureau has used to ask members of the public to identify individuals who assaulted police officers.

After Tate's interview, the affidavit said, the bureau "obtained additional evidence, including additional online tips, facial recognition analysis, videos and images from open-source queries, as well as interviews of officer victims, which collectively demonstrate that TATE assaulted several law enforcement officers, destroyed property, and interfered with federal law enforcement officers during a civil disorder on January 6."

Federal authorities also cited a USA Today story from March featuring an interview with Tate, in which he was identified as one of more than 100 people on the FBI's website who had been identified but not yet arrested. "I've never, ever once hurt, or put my hands on an officer," Tate claimed, while acknowledging that he was the person featured on the FBI's website.

About 1,100 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and online sleuths have identified hundreds of additional rioters who have not yet been arrested.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...fAmcLuD4lfcGXlUCznz-ADmEUvvvjHCssZ6oq0Tw

I don't have his prisoner number yet.

Proud Boy Joe Biggs receives 17 years in Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy case

The former Infowars correspondent, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy, “served as an instigator and leader" during the Capitol attack, federal prosecutors said.

WASHINGTON — Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy who the government says "served as an instigator and leader" during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison on Thursday.

It is among the longest sentences in Capitol riot cases. The record is the 18-year sentence given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, also convicted of seditious conspiracy, after prosecutors sought 25 years in federal prison in his case.

The government sought 33 years for Biggs, an Army veteran who sustained a head injury in Iraq and then served as a correspondent for the conspiracy website Infowars. Prosecutors argued that he was a “vocal leader and influential proponent of the group’s shift toward political violence” and used his “outsized public profile” and his military experience as he “led a revolt against the government in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly handed down Biggs' sentence. He ruled earlier in Thursday's hearing that Biggs’ tearing down of a fence that stood between police and rioters qualified him for a terrorism sentencing enhancement sought by prosecutors. Destroying the fence was a “deliberate, meaningful step” that contributed to the disruption of the electoral vote count occurring in the Capitol, Kelly said.

Biggs was convicted in May of seditious conspiracy; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to prevent officers of the U.S. from discharging their duties; interference with law enforcement during civil disorder; and destruction of government property.

Biggs went to trial alongside Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. All five were convicted of felonies, and all but Pezzola were convicted of seditious conspiracy. The other Proud Boys will also be sentenced in the coming days: Rehl on Thursday afternoon, Pezzola and Nordean on Friday and Tarrio on Tuesday.

“January 6th will be a day in infamy,” Biggs said in a selfie video he recorded outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Norm Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, said in closing arguments at trial that the Proud Boys' "commander-in-chief" — former President Donald Trump — "sold them a lie," referring to the lies about the 2020 presidential election.

Before his sentence was handed down Thursday said he was sorry and that he knew he "messed up" on Jan. 6.

“I apologize for my rhetoric,” Biggs said, adding he used it as a way to deal with what was going on with his family after his daughter was molested by a member of their family. “I’m so sorry. ... I’m not a terrorist, I don’t have hate in my heart.”

Biggs grew emotional as he talked about his daughter, swearing on her life that he intended Jan. 6 to be his last event with the Proud Boys.

“I’m done with it. I’m sick and tired of left versus right,” Biggs said. The only group he wants to be affiliated with, he said, is his daughter’s PTA.

During the government’s presentation earlier in the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough stressed the seriousness of the Proud Boys’ actions on Jan. 6, calling them “among the most serious crimes that this court will consider.”

“There’s a reason why we will hold our collective breath as we approach future elections,” McCullough said. “We never gave it a second thought before Jan. 6.”

After Jan. 6 Americans will think twice about bringing children to polling places or attending events like an inauguration, which was what the Proud Boys intended, McCullough said.

Biggs’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, conceded that his client had committed some crimes on Jan. 6 but said those crimes had been “overstated.”

The actions of the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 were “quintessential pollical behavior” up until the riot turned violent, Pattis said, arguing that prosecutors had used his client’s political speech as evidence of criminal intent.

“We have to be careful to count speech for what it is and not what it might do,” he said.

“To treat these men as terrorists would be, in my view, the functional equivalent as the destruction of Waco,” Pattis said.

Despite applying the terrorism enhancement to Biggs, Kelly agreed that enhancement “overstates” Biggs’ conduct.

“It’s not my job to label you a terrorist and my sentence today won’t do that, no matter what it is,” he told Biggs before delivering the sentence.

“What happened on Jan. 6 harmed an important American custom that helps support the rule of law and the Constitution,” he said. “That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power which is among the most precious things that we had as Americans. Notice I said had. We don’t have it anymore."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...jan-6-seditious-conspiracy-ca-rcna102597

Another slap on the wrist. I guarantee if this was BLM or a left wing conspirator. He’d be charged with a capitol crime and get a death sentence conviction.

And another guarantee….As long as these judges fail to callout these traitorous villains and throw the book at a few of them, it’s going to happen again.

I'm sure you do see it that way.

I’m sure many of us do. Why is it the party of law and order only convicts the opposition?

So are you saying that Republican judges and Republican prosecutors only try and convict Democrats? Dear Lord man. In many states the maximum penalty for second degree murder is 25 years. When you sound no different than the other side in wishing to exact your pound of flesh I think it shows that the mentality isn't all that different between the two extremes.

My statement was a bit in jest. I’m not going back and forth with you. I’m just not good with giving known domestic terrorists a slap on the wrist. Are you? Im just betting if the shoe was on the other foot it would be slammed down hard.

And they both cried in court after sentencing. Too bad so sad

Proud Boys leaders sentenced to a combined 32 years for Jan. 6 riot
Updated August 31, 20234:35 PM ET
By

Jaclyn Diaz


Proud Boys members including Zachary Rehl, left, Ethan Nordean, center, and Joseph Biggs, walk toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Two former leaders of the Proud Boys, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, were sentenced to 17 years and 15 years respectively in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes committed during the riot more than two years ago.

Biggs is a former military service member who helped lead efforts by the Proud Boys to take over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rehl, also a former military service member, was a leader of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly also sentenced Biggs to three years of supervised release and a ban on any interactions with organizations that advocate violence against the government.

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In his sentencing of Rehl, Kelly said he, Biggs and others participated in "a national disgrace" that contributed to the ruin of America's tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.

The sentence is far below the 33 year sentence for Biggs and the 30 years for Rehl sought by prosecutors.

Both penalties are also below the most severe sentence of 18 years given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in his separate seditious conspiracy conviction for his actions during Jan. 6.

Back in May, Biggs and Rehl were convicted alongside former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and other fellow Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean. A fourth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but found guilty of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and robbery involving government property.

Prosecutors wanted to apply a "terrorism enhancement," which leads to longer prison terms.

Judge Kelly chose to apply that enhancement to one of Biggs' and Rehl's charges regarding their role in the destruction of a fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol building which, once gone, no longer kept the mob back from law enforcement protecting the building.

But Kelly said he believed Biggs and Rehl had no intention of killing anyone and had no motivation to incite mass casualties.

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Kelly said in both hearings that he was "not trying to minimize the violence" that happened that day, but that he had to compare the sentences of other Jan. 6 defendants in other cases to avoid large disparities.

"There was a great deal of violence that day, no doubt," Kelly said. "It is a miracle there wasn't a greater loss of life."

As the first of the five co-defendants in the Proud Boys' Jan. 6 case to be sentenced, Biggs' and Rehl's punishments indicate what penalties the other three members they were convicted with could be facing.

Pezzolla will be sentenced Friday.

The sentencing hearings for Tarrio and Nordean, originally scheduled for Wednesday, were delayed after Kelly fell ill.

Nordean's hearing is rescheduled also for Friday with Pezzola and Tarrio's for Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Jury convicts Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys on seditious conspiracy charge
LAW
Jury convicts Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys on seditious conspiracy charge
Biggs says he was 'seduced' by mob on Jan. 6
Before being sentenced, Biggs begged for forgiveness and leniency. He downplayed his role in the Jan. 6 riots and said that day was set to be the last event he planned to do with the Proud Boys as he had plans to step back from the organization.

"I was seduced by the crowd," Biggs said of the mob in front of the U.S. Capitol. "Curiosity got the better of me and I will regret that for the rest of my life."

Biggs cried as he begged Kelly to allow him an opportunity to be present for his young daughter who he said was molested by a family member and is now in the care of his mother.

"I am not a terrorist," he said. "I know I have to be punished, but at least give me the opportunity to take my daughter to school one day."

Rehl in an emotional speech says he is 'done peddling lies'

Proud Boys member Zachary Rehl walks toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
During his trial, Rehl painted himself as a family man. He has repeatedly denied assaulting officers, even as he was confronted with video of him spraying law enforcement officers with chemicals.


When he addressed the court, Rehl was emotional throughout his speech.

Rehl said he lost military benefits and professional licenses he's worked for.

And he promised he was done with politics.

"I'm done with all of it," he said. "I'm done with peddling lies for other people that don't care about me."

He continued, "I'm sorry for everything that happened. January 6 was a despicable day. I did things I regret. I made my family suffer because of it."

I don't know on what planet 17 years is a slap on the wrist.

Policemen were killed on this planet that day. 17 years is a slap on the wrist for a leader of an attempted coup. These violent traitors will be out of their cells soon to do the same flipping thing all over again. They need to prosecute them in an extreme manner to deter future attempts to overthrow our democracy. It’s called making an example out of them. Their sentence was less than half what prosecutors were asking. Slap on the wrist.

Read my sig line.

Then find and try the people who are responsible for killing those police officers. That is not what these people were charged or convicted of.

And I do find something odd. Those who believe in responsible gun laws make it plain that the forefathers couldn't see into the future of what guns would become. The constitution has been revised 27 times because of flaws that were found not to be right. I'm not saying they weren't smart men in their times. But I'm not one who is going to point out the many contradictions to help my arguments on one hand and then used flawed logic to support something which is flawed on the other hand.

There has not been a criminal execution in Washington D.C. since 1957 and the death penalty has been abolished in Washington D.C since 1981.

What you are proposing is a crime while quoting the words of a slave owner.

Not for what they did, but because they got caught. These people are the weakest of our species. Basically mutants.

I respectfully disagree with you on this one. We’ve literally seen the slapping of the wrists to all of these traitorous bastards. Including their leaders. May as well just pardon them all right now. Pfft.

So that's how you see a 17 year sentence. I try to use at least somewhat a measure of today's standards. As I said before, in many states the maximum sentence for second degree murder is 25 years. Now maybe you think that too is a slap on the wrist but I did know a man who passed away some years ago who served 18 years in prison. And let me tell you, he in no way considered that a slap on the wrist. He went in at 28 years old and got out at 46. He missed his daughter growing up, her graduation, her wedding. He missed the funeral of both his parents.

Maybe you should reach out to someone who has served such a sentence before you jump to such a conclusion.

Proud Boy who smashed Capitol window with police shield on Jan. 6 sentenced to 10 years

Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola, who smashed a Capitol window with a police shield during the Jan. 6 riot, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

Pezzola was one of five members of the far-right extremist group to stand trial for seditious conspiracy over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The 46-year-old, who joined the Proud Boys shortly before the riot, was the only member acquitted on the seditious conspiracy charge.

However, Pezzola was convicted on several other serious charges, including assaulting, resisting or impeding a police officer, robbery of government property, and destruction of government property.

“The reality is you were the one who did it,” U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said during Pezzola’s sentencing hearing Friday, according to CNN. “You were the one who smashed that window in and let people begin to stream into the Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers.”

“You were really, in some ways, the tip of the spear,” the judge added.

Pezzola offered his apologies Friday to the police officer he assaulted at the Capitol, as well as his own family, and he sobbed as his youngest daughter urged the judge to “give him some mercy,” according to CNN.

However, as he left the courtroom, Pezzola also raised his fist and yelled, “Trump won.”

His co-defendants Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl were sentenced Thursday to 17 years and 15 years in prison, respectively.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...eOrUMvRS8L9gFLMDpf1tE4q6CxQ9vAXh7KcSVHYQ

There were deaths.. That to me makes them on the low side.

Lock this loser up a few more years. He’s obviously learned nothing.

We used to hang traitors. All I’ll say.

So you think people that weren't charged with murder should pay for that crime?

People used to own slaves as well.

Another slap on the wrist. We’ll need to deal with these mutants again in the future. Mark it down.

You sound like the right wing conspiracy guy that thinks Hunter Biden should hang.

Not at all.. What I am saying is that there is reason and cause to think the sentences could have been stiffer.

you might try remembering that Slaves learned skills that served them well in life after Slavery ended. (should be in purple)

According to the MAGA crowd, We still do that


They have their heads up the dark place, but thats apparently what they think...

And that's exactly what those on the right say about crime in general. That people aren't getting stiff enough sentences. You see, it's a matter of people on both sides that pick and choose which crimes and criminals should be treated harsher based on their own personal beliefs. Sure they could be treated harsher. But then I believe that same thing holds true for rapists. There are many times I see the punishment for crimes committed that are so light it makes me say WTF. And while you could make the argument that the sentences could have been harsher, they certainly weren't some slap on the wrist.

I honestly could care less about those on the right. It's just my opinion that the sentences weren't stiff enough in some cases.

Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in prison for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for orchestrating a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 election, capping the case with the stiffest punishment that has been handed down yet for the U.S. Capitol attack.

Tarrio, 39, pleaded for leniency before the judge imposed the prison term topping the 18-year sentences given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and one-time Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean for seditious conspiracy and other convictions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

Tarrio, who led the neofacist group as it became a force in mainstream Republican circles, lowered his head after the sentence was imposed, then squared his shoulders. He raised his hand and made a “V” gesture with his fingers as he was led out of the courtroom in orange jail garb.

His sentencing comes as the Justice Department prepares to put Trump on trial at the same courthouse in Washington on charges that the then-president illegally schemed to cling to power that he knew had been stripped away by voters.

Rising to speak before the sentence was handed down, Tarrio called Jan. 6 a “national embarrassment,” and apologized to the police officers who defended the Capitol and the lawmakers who fled in fear. His voice cracked as he said he let down his family and vowed that he is done with politics.

“I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal,” Tarrio said. “Please show me mercy,” he said, adding, “I ask you that you not take my 40s from me.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, said Tarrio was motivated by “revolutionary zeal” to lead the conspiracy that resulted in “200 men, amped up for battle, encircling the Capitol.” Noting that Tarrio had not previously shown any remorse publicly for his crimes, the judge said a stiff punishment was necessary to deter future political violence.

“It can’t happen again. It can’t happen again,” the judge repeated.

Tarrio and three lieutenants were convicted in May of seditious conspiracy and other crimes after a months-long trial that served as a vivid reminder of the violent chaos fueled by Trump’s lies about the election that helped inspire right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Prosecutors had sought 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, describing him as the ringleader of a plot to use violence to shatter the cornerstone of American democracy and overturn the election victory by Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, the Republican incumbent.

Prosecutor Conor Mulroe told the judge that the Proud Boys came dangerously close to succeeding in their plot — and noted that “it didn’t take rifles or explosives.”

“There was a very real possibility we were going to wake up on Jan. 7 in a full-blown constitutional crisis,” Mulroe said, with “300 million Americans having no idea who the next president would be or how it would be decided.”

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington, D.C, when Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters, who smashed windows, beat police officers and poured into the House and Senate chambers as lawmakers met to certify Biden’s victory. But prosecutors say the Miami resident organized and led the Proud Boys’ assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.

Tarrio’s lawyers denied the Proud Boys had any plan to attack the Capitol or stop the certification of Biden’s victory. They argued that prosecutors used Tarrio as a scapegoat for Trump, who spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 and urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Tarrio’s younger sister, fiancé and mother tearfully urged the judge to show mercy before the sentence was imposed. Tarrio took off his glasses and wiped his eyes as he listened to his mother speak.

The defense asked for no more than 15 years in prison, arguing that their client should not be punished as harshly as the Oath Keepers’ Rhodes, who was present on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.

Defense attorney Nayib Hassan told reporters after the hearing that they will appeal.

Tarrio’s lawyers described him as a “keyboard ninja,” who was prone to “talk trash,” but had no intentions of overthrowing the government. The Proud Boys’ only plans that day were to protest the election and confront left-wing antifa activists, attorney Sabino Jauregui told the judge.

“My client is no terrorist,” Jauregui said. “My client is a misguided patriot.”

Tarrio had been arrested two days before the Capitol riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, and he had complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest.

The judge agreed with prosecutors that the Proud Boys’ crimes could be punished as “terrorism” — increasing the recommended sentence under federal guidelines. But he ultimately sentenced the Proud Boys to shorter prison terms than those sought by prosecutors.

The backbone of the government’s case was hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to Jan. 6 that prosecutors say showed how the extremists saw themselves as revolutionaries and celebrated the Capitol attack, which sent lawmakers running into hiding.

The judge pointed to Tarrio’s messages cheering on the Capitol attack and the Proud Boys’ role in it.

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in one message. “We did this.” In another post as the Proud Boys swarmed the Capitol, Tarrio commanded: “Do what must be done.” In a Proud Boys encrypted group chat later that day someone asked what they should do next. Tarrio responded, “Do it again.”

He is the final Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy to receive his punishment. Three fellow Proud Boys found guilty by a Washington jury of the rarely used sedition charge were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 18 years.

The Justice Department is appealing the 18-year prison sentence of Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case, as well as the sentences of other members of his antigovernment militia group that were lighter than what prosecutors had sought. Prosecutors had requested 25 years in prison for Rhodes.

https://apnews.com/article/enrique-...tencing-da60222b3e1e54902db2bbbb219dc3fb

Political prisoners.

Mandella was a political prisoner.

I wasn't sure but now I am. You have lost your ever loving mind. But then there's a lot of that going around.

This may affect a few other people running for office and would probably need the scotus to look at

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/06/jud...wboys-for-trump-founder-from-office.html

Judge calls Jan. 6 an ‘insurrection,’ bars ‘Cowboys for Trump’ founder from office
PUBLISHED TUE, SEP 6 20221:55 PM EDTUPDATED TUE, SEP 6 20228:56 PM EDT
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Kevin Breuninger
@KEVINWILLIAMB

A judge in New Mexico declared Tuesday that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was an “insurrection” as he ruled that Otero County Commissioner and “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin must be removed from office for participating in the attack.

Griffin is barred for life from holding any federal or state office — including his current role as county commissioner, from which he will be ousted “effective immediately,” Judge Francis Mathew ruled.

Griffin became “constitutionally disqualified” from those positions as of Jan. 6, 2021, the judge concluded.

On that day, a violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, forcing lawmakers to flee their chambers and disrupting the transfer of power to President Joe Biden. Griffin was convicted in March on a misdemeanor charge of breaching restricted Capitol grounds.

The riot and the planning and incitement that led up to it “constituted an ‘insurrection’” under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Mathew wrote in the ruling in New Mexico’s 1st Judicial District Court.

The ruling marked the first time that any court found that the Capitol riot met the definition of an insurrection, according to the nonprofit government watchdog group CREW, which represented the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit to disqualify Griffin.

“This decision makes clear that any current or former public officials who took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and then participated in the January 6th insurrection can and will be removed and barred from government service for their actions,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in a press release.

Griffin told CNN later Tuesday that he had been ordered to clean out his desk.

“I’m shocked, just shocked,” Griffin told CNN. “I really did not feel like the state was going to move on me in such a way. I don’t know where I go from here.”

Mathew’s ruling also marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified a public official under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, according to CREW.

That section, known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding civil or military office at the federal or state level of the United States if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”


Griffin did not enter the Capitol building itself or commit violence during the Jan. 6 riot, but he nevertheless engaged in it and his actions “aided the insurrection,” Mathew ruled.

“By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr. Griffin contributed to delaying Congress’ election-certification proceedings,” the judge wrote. Griffin’s presence “contributed to law enforcement being overwhelmed,” and he also “incited, encouraged, and helped normalize the violence” during the riot, Mathew ruled.

In addition, the judge dismissed as “meritless” the arguments put forward by Griffin, who represented himself in the case.

Griffin’s attempts to “sanitize his actions are without merit and contrary to the evidence produced by the Plaintiffs, bearing in mind that he produced no evidence himself in his own defense,” Mathew wrote.

His arguments in court were “not credible and amounted to nothing more than attempting to put lipstick on a pig,” the judge added.

Griffin was arrested less than two weeks after the Capitol riot. He was convicted in March and sentenced on June 17 to two weeks’ time served in jail, along with a $3,000 fine and community service.

Griffin, a Republican and a vocal supporter of Trump, has echoed the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election results were compromised by widespread fraud.

He and the two other GOP members who make up the Otero County Commission refused to certify its most recent primary election results, reportedly citing conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines. The commission eventually voted 2 to 1 to certify the primary results, with Griffin voting “no.”

In 2019, Griffin created Cowboys for Trump, a group that put on pro-Trump horseback-riding parades.

Bookbinder called Tuesday’s ruling “a historic win for accountability for the January 6th insurrection and the efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in the United States.”

“Protecting American democracy means ensuring those who violate their oaths to the Constitution are held responsible,” he said.

The comparison is gross… and that’s putting it gracefully.

Take them all out of office! Block them from office and lock them up if you can! Traitors to the man, all of them. Oh happy day!

Now there is some bat crap crazy MAGA nuggets of rationality for ya… Wrong Peen.

Jan. 6 defendant who used bear spray at Capitol sentenced

A California man was sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, during which he sprayed police officers with bear spay.

Sean Michael McHugh, 36, of Auburn, Calif., was found guilty on two felony counts of obstruction and assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement officers.

His sentence also includes three years of supervised release after his prison term, a $5,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution.

According to a news release from the Justice Department, McHugh was part of the initial breach of the Capitol grounds. He sprayed a line of Capitol police officers who were guarding a barricade, causing them to lose ground in the initial breach as hundreds of supporters of then-President Trump rushed the area. He used a megaphone to encourage other rioters to similarly attack officers who were trying to secure the area.

Before heading to Washington, McHugh told people he planned to go to the Capitol to “fight” and “storm Congress” to stop the certification of President Biden’s election in the 2020 presidential race, according to the Justice Department.

He later posted on Facebook, “We stormed them and we took Congress.”

Nearly 1,200 people have been arrested in the Capitol attack.

https://thehill.com/homenews/419379...vTRfHS8DyL8WrahyKqncxDTeboZBJVE9brpv2G7I

Of course we will see more BS about how criminals who are held accountable for their crimes in the justice system are political prisoners. All coming from a political party who used to claim they stood for personal accountability.

Virginia man charged in Jan. 6 attack on DC police officer Fanone

A Virginia man was arrested earlier this week and charged in connection with the assault of former Washington, D.C., police officer Michael Fanone during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Lewis Wayne Snoots, 59, of Louisa, Va., is facing felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and civil disorder, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

According to court documents, surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot show Snoots entering a doorway leading into the U.S. Capitol wearing what looks like a gas mask. He was seen with a group of rioters attempting to breach the police line in the tunnel, the DOJ said.

Snoots is observed in the footage pressing against a Capitol police officer’s riot shield and later passing Capitol police riot shields over his head to the mob of rioters, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ said Albuquerque Head, a defendant already convicted in the assault, then dragged Fanone away from the tunnel while Snoots continued to grab Fanone by the upper back.

“Snoots used both of his hands to physically restrain Officer Fanone while other rioters assaulted him,” a statement from DOJ said.

Prosecutors said Snoots appeared to grab Fanone’s right hand and pulled his right arm away from his body, “which appeared to significantly hinder and impair Office Fanone’s ability to defend himself against the continuous assaults.”

Snoots could be heard on video saying, “I’m fed up with it, everybody is fed up with it. They have tear gassed our ass off of the Capitol steps, but it’s not over. What they don’t understand is it’s just starting. Every political a—— up in that place is now going to have a target on their back everywhere they go,” according to the DOJ.

Snoots also faces a slew of misdemeanor charges, including knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds.

Months after the Jan. 6 riot, Fanone testified before the House Jan. 6 committee and railed against former President Trump and other elected officials who he claimed downplayed the riot’s severity.

Fanone has been vocal on the personal impact of the riot, writing in a CNN op-ed last year, “The assault irrevocably changed my life.”

Fanone said he suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury that ultimately required him to resign from the police force. He said he was also later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Snoots is one of multiple defendants to be charged in Fanone’s assault, including Head, who received 7.5 years in prison after pleading guilty.

In July, 37-year-old Thomas Sibick was sentenced to just over four years in prison after he assaulted Fanone and stole his badge and radio.

Another man, Daniel Rodriguez, was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for assaulting Fanone with a taser.

Kyle Young, 38, also pleaded guilty to assaulting Fanone and received 86 months in prison.

In the months since the Jan. 6 riot, more than 1,106 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Capitol breach.

The Hill reached out to the DOJ for further comment.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...QLI406xoVazuZwBSGi2OWvQwjUrgTgwSc1Dm_nBE

Capitol riot looked more like 'normal tourist visit' - Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga.

‘Zip-tie guy’ and his mother sentenced to prison for January 6 crimes

A mother-and-son duo who carried zip ties as they searched for lawmakers after breaching the US Capitol were sentenced to federal prison for several felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with the riots.

Eric Munchel, 32, dubbed “zip-tie guy” on social media, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release on 8 September. His mother Lisa Marie Eisenhart, 59, was sentenced to more than two years in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. They each have been ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

They were convicted earlier this year on obstruction and conspiracy charges, and Munchel – who was armed with a Taser – was additionally found guilty of disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and unauthorised possession of a deadly or dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds.

Photos and videos captured Munchel carrying plastic zip tie-style handcuffs they allegedly stole from inside a closet at the Capitol. “Zip ties! I need to get me some of them mother*******,” Munchel can be heard in video footage.

As they made their way into the Senate Gallery, with Munchel shouting “I want that f****** gavel,” the pair wondered aloud where the “traitors” and “cowards” who evacuated the chamber had gone. The US Department of Justice said the pair were looking for “potential hostages”.

Munchel’s cell phone, mounted to the outside of his tactical vest, recorded a nearly hour-long video of his approach and his time inside the Capitol, which prosecutors used as evidence against them.

“We’re going straight to federal prison if we go in there with weapons,” Eisenhart told Munchel, according to court records.

Eisenhart – who wore a Donald Trump-supporting “Keep America Great Again” beanie – and her son had “prepared for violence” on 6 January 2021, and “projected their willingness to engage in it” as lawmakers convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election that Mr Trump lost, according to prosecutors.

They also “openly declared to a reporter that their intent in storming and entering the Capitol was to intimidate Congress,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

“What is America for?” Eisenhart told a reporter with The Times of London on 7 January 2021. “I’d rather die as a 57-year-old woman than live under oppression. I’d rather die and would rather fight.”

“With the 2024 presidential election approaching, a rematch on the horizon, and many loud voices in the media and online continuing to sow discord and distrust, the potential for a repeat of January 6 looms ominously,” prosecutors wrote.

The sentences imposed by US District Court Judge Royce C Lamberth came days after five members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys gang were handed down some of the longest prison terms to date among the hundreds of people charged in connection to the attack.

Now-former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison after a jury found him and three other members of the group guilty of seditious conspiracy, among a number of other crimes connected to their planning and actions on January 6. The sentence is the longest yet among Capitol riot defendants.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested and charged for crimes related to the assault on Congress.

https://news.yahoo.com/zip-tie-guy-mother-sentenced-143551606.html

The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Lock’em up. Throw away the key.

Momma's Don't let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Proud Boys.

Just my opinion, but these two got off light.

They all are. Setting a precedent for the rest that follow as well. They aren’t going to make an example out of any of these traitors.

'I did the right thing,' Jan. 6 rioter says before being sentenced to 2½ years in prison

At her sentencing hearing, Yvonne St Cyr did not express regret or accept any responsibility for her actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 defendant who claimed she believed she had the right to climb over broken glass to enter the Capitol was sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge John Bates sentenced Yvonne St Cyr — who at her trial in March was found guilty of two felony counts of civil disorder, as well as several misdemeanors — to 30 months behinds bars, 36 months of supervised release and $2,000 restitution to the Architect of the Capitol.

After her trial, St Cyr had said in a Facebook livestream that she wasn't sure the case would ever move to sentencing because "the truth" would come out before then.

“Their s---'s gonna blow up!" she said. "So just keep watching Tucker, keep spreading the truth, keep talking about the corruption, keep sharing, and we will bring the system doooooowwwwn.”

Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, which St Cyr referred to, has since been canceled. Tucker, a conservative commentator known for promoting conspiracy theories and disinformation, then launched a new version of his show on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

At her sentencing hearing Wednesday, St Cyr's attorney, Nicole Owens, said her client was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because of a “misguided sense of duty.” After attorneys for both parties spoke, St Cyr was given the opportunity to speak.

St Cyr, who served in the military, told the court repeatedly that she took an oath to defend the Constitution. She also repeated her claim that the last presidential election was stolen. Owens had defended her client's claim, telling the court: "It's not some fringe belief."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Schesnol said St Cyr “is a person who does what she wants, without care to rule, authority or the law.”

“I’ve been on a spiritual journey,” St Cyr said. Then she launched into a bizarre 45-minute rant — until the judge cut her off with a stern warning to wrap up — on a series of topics, including her beliefs about the air we breathe, her spiritual being, radio frequencies, her difficult upbringing and a woman she watched being arrested on a playground during the Covid pandemic.

In sharing a prepared version of her remarks online, St Cyr acknowledged that her comments were "a little over all the place and a little messy, kind of like life."

She also talked about her actions during the Capitol riot. She didn’t express regret or accept any responsibility for her actions that day, and she indicated that she wasn’t concerned about the prospect of serving jail time.

“The spirit has assured me that isn’t going to happen,” she said.

Even if she were to end up in federal custody, she said, “prison will give me plenty of time to write a book.”

St Cyr mentioned Donald Trump once at her sentencing hearing. She accused the judge of hating the former president because he's not "part of the system."

“I did the right thing,” St Cyr said about her actions on Jan. 6. “I know it sounds delusional.”

In a Facebook livestream after her sentencing, St Cyr also said she hadn’t filed taxes since 2019, and she encouraged her followers not to pay their taxes.

"Keep your damn money," she said. "Stop giving it away."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...ays-sentenced-25-years-prison-rcna104934

It sounds as though she is definitely following the wrong spirit.

Trump has sharp exchange with NBC's Kristen Welker after she asked if he watched the January 6 riot unfold on TV in the White House dining room
John L. Dorman
Sun, September 17, 2023 at 11:26 AM EDT·3 min read


Trump had a sharp exchange with NBC's Kristen Welker when pressed about his response on January 6.

"I'm not going to tell you anything," he said on Sunday. "I behaved so well. I did such a good job."

The ex-president has been criticized for his response to the riot hours after it first began.

Former President Donald Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday, pushed back when asked about the timeline of his activities during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

While speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump told host Kristen Welker he wouldn't comment on his activities during the earliest stages of the attack, when he was accused by former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham of "gleefully watching" the riot on television and and "hitting rewind" to view the mayhem.

Welker first questioned Trump about his whereabouts after he spoke at the "Stop the Steal" rally at the Ellipse, filled with pro-Trump loyalists incensed over the results of the 2020 election, which saw now-President Joe Biden defeat the then-incumbent president.

"Tell me how you watched this all unfold," Welker asked the former president. "Were you in the dining room watching TV?"

Trump responded: "I'm not going to tell you. I'll tell people later, at an appropriate time."

Welker then asked: "What did you do when the Capitol was under attack, though?"

Trump replied: "Did you see the statements I made in the Oval Office and just outside of the Oval Office?"

After Welker replied that she was aware of his remarks from January 6, Trump spoke of the video that he released later that day asking people to leave the Capitol and respect law enforcement.

"This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people," he said in his message at the time, falsely claiming that the 2020 results were illegitimate. "We have to have peace. So go home. We love you; you're very special."

During the Sunday interview, Trump elaborated on the message, calling it a "beautiful statement."

Welker responded: "That was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, three hours after the attack started. I want to know who you called on that day."

Trump declined to answer and shifted responsibility for security to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, whom he sought to blame for the outbreak of the riot.

After Welker asked if Trump called military or law enforcement when the Capitol was first attacked, Trump again pushed back.

"I'm not going to tell you anything," he said. "Let me put it this way. I behaved so well. I did such a good job."

When pressed by Welker again, he then stated that he assumed Pelosi had the situation under control.

"Frankly, just so you understand, I assumed that she took care of it," he said.

Trump has been widely criticized by Democrats and several members of his own party — including GOP presidential contender and former ally Chris Christie — for his response on January 6, arguing that he should have pushed back more forcefully against the riot immediately after it started.

Read the original article on Business Insider

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sharp-exchange-nbcs-kristen-152627420.html



Seems to me there are only two options:

1, he was watching it which means he was aware of what was going on and did nothing for 3 hours, which makes him complicit or
2, he didn't know what was going on which makes him completely incompetent

Whats wrong with right now? I mean, the answer shouldn't change should it.

It shouldn’t but it will. There is footage of him watching the riot on tv while the rest of the occupants in the dining room were in party mode. He did squat. And points at Pelosi? Lol what a pos.

You act as if you actually expect him to answer that question in the future

I"m aware of those videos and that's what makes me wonder why not answer the question. The entire world knows,, It's his arrogance that let's him actually believe that he's pulling one over on folks. Well, perhaps he is when it comes to the MAGA crowd.

See the above post and you'll understand that there is no reason for him not too.. SO yeah, I expect him to answer,.

But when has he ever done anything he said he would do

Since the primary crime was B and E, and the result was deaths, perhaps they should pay the same price.

You're being ridiculous. According to that logic every person who entered the capital that day should be charged with murder. This is my problem with extremism.

Capitol rioter who attacked AP photographer and police officers is sentenced to 5 years in prison

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who attacked an Associated Press photographer and threw a flagpole and smoke grenade at police officers guarding the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison.

Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared himself for battle” on Jan. 6 by injecting steroids and arming himself with a four-foot wooden club disguised as a flagpole, prosecutors said.

“He began taking steroids in the weeks leading up to January 6, so that he would be ‘jacked’ and ready because, he said, someone needed to ‘hang for treason’ and the battle might come down to hand-to-hand combat,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

A prosecutor showed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg videos of Milstreed’s attacks outside the Capitol. Milstreed told the judge that it was painful to watch his violent acts and hear his combative language that day.

“I know what I did that day was very wrong,” he said.

The judge said he believes Milstreed is remorseful.

“On the other side of the ledger, it’s very serious conduct,” Boasberg added.

Capitol Police Officer Devan Gowdy suffered a concussion when Milstreed hurled his wooden club at a line of officers.

“January 6th is a day that will be burned into my brain and my nightmares for the rest of my life,” Gowdy told the judge. “The effects of this domestic terrorist attack will never leave me.”

Gowdy told Milstreed that he “will always be looked at as a domestic terrorist and traitor” for his actions on Jan. 6.

“That brings me some peace,” added Gowdy, who has since left the police department.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of six years and six months for Milstreed, a machinist who has worked at oil and gas facilities.

In a letter addressed to the judge before sentencing, Milstreed said he understands the “wrongfulness” of his actions on Jan. 6 and has learned from his “mistakes.”

“I realize if one has concerns or grievances with the government, there are peaceful and appropriate ways to express them,” he wrote.

Milstreed was arrested in May 2022 in Colorado, where he had been working. He pleaded guilty in April to assault charges and possessing an unregistered firearm.

A cache of weapons and ammunition found at Milstreed’s Maryland home included an unregistered AR-15 rifle. In his Colorado hotel room, investigators found 94 vials of what appeared to be illegal steroids.

Angry about the 2020 presidential election results, Milstreed spewed violent, threatening rhetoric on social media in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. In late December, he emailed a Maryland chapter of the Proud Boys to inquire about joining the far-right extremist group.

On the morning of Jan. 6, he took a train into Washington, then attended then-President Donald Trump ‘s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House and then followed the crowd of Trump supporters to the Capitol.

Milstreed was “front and center” as rioters and police fought for control of the Capitol’s West Plaza, prosecutors said. He tossed his wooden club at a police line and struck the helmet of an officer who later was treated for a concussion.

A video captured Milstreed retrieving a smoke grenade from the crowd of rioters and throwing it back at police across a barricade.

Milstreed then joined other rioters in attacking an AP photographer on the Upper West Plaza. He grabbed the photographer’s backpack and yanked him down some steps.

“After the photographer stumbled to the bottom of the stairs, Milstreed shoved him and advanced toward him in a threatening fashion,” prosecutors wrote.

Milstreed used Facebook to update his friends on the riot in real time.

“Man I’ve never seen anything like this. I feel so alive.” he wrote to one friend, sharing photos of blood on a floor outside the Capitol.

He told another Facebook friend that it “felt good” to punch the photographer, whose assault was captured on video by another AP photographer.

Other rioters have been charged with attacking the same photographer. One of them — Alan Byerly, 55, of Pennsylvania — was sentenced last October to two years and 10 months in prison.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. Over 650 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them getting a term of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the riot.

https://apnews.com/article/rodney-m...A_Wf8G-1wRp0r5RWsYqKw6P_Hnzg38WpTxD3NZ4s

Yet another "trump patriot" who has been unfairly targeted by the DOJ.

They just keep thinking that what Trump tells them is true and the rest of the world says, NO,, It's not.

What would you do? Bring them all together in a circle smirk and sing Kumbaya? Centrist… PFFT… Traitors used to be hung in this country.

Only a liberal extremist thinks everyone who entered the capital that day deserves a life sentence in prison.

Only a centrist maga-nazi sympathizer thinks they don’t deserve it. That BS name calling goes both ways Jr.

They do deserve that or worse!

You must have missed the fact that I'm not your Junior. lmao You seemed to remember that when you pointed out that I'm a boomer and you're not. I do find it odd that you are in fact on the outer fringe of the left in your idealism yet when someone points that out to you, you seem offended by it. It looks like you want to have it both ways. I won't call you any actual names. I'll leave that to you. I'll leave the communist comments to others. As much as you may hate to admit it or wish to claim someone is calling you names, in terms of liberal ideology you are certainly on the extreme side. If that's who you are going to be, at least man up and own it.

Ok, ancient one… that better? FFS, you’ll pick a fight over anything on here. And turn on your boys in a heartbeat. Friends like that, who needs enemies… And I’d say you are out of touch with the left from center out. Nobody wants to play kumbaya with the fascists. And my views are rapidly becoming mainstream.

When the public sees reactions as extreme as yours, that's why democrats are having such a hard time getting the independent vote these days. You know, the people who actually decide elections? About one third of voters are Dems. About one third are GOP and the other third are independent. When they see such extremist rhetoric it causes them to wonder if people such as yourself are actually any better than trump supporters. "KILL, KILL, KILL!" That sounds exactly like the extremist remarks you rail against. I guess for you that all depends where such remarks come from and not the disgusting content of such remarks.

And people like you live in the past were there were decent people on both sides. Wake up and look around. Half the right wants all out civil war, not to get along and work it out. And their leaders keep them worked up wanting to destroy people like you and I. But hey, we should be totally irrational and just overlook all that so you can feel good about not amplifying the hate that’s oozing out across the world from the MAGA right…

Where I come from, you cut the cancer out.

In case you missed it, extremists in both directions are not "my boys". I don't play follow the leader. So you think what it means to be a "friend" is to blindly agree with people without question? Without your own POV even when you disagree? That's the same thing Vers thought because we met and had lunch together. He thought that suddenly I would play follow the leader. It didn't work for him and it won't work for you. I'll agree with you about what we agree on and disagree with you on what we disagree on. I have respect for many on here who disagree with me. I don't label everyone who doesn't kiss my ass all the time as my enemy. I actually have a sense of sympathy for those that do.

A lot of my friends are republicans. They aren't trumpians but they are republicans. Branch out a little bit. There's a great big world out there. Become a part of it.

No bro, what I think is that you have nothing more important to do than to come on here and look for any tidbit that you can latch onto to pick a fight with somebody every damn day. You fight with these guys 100 times more than anybody else on the left. And us extremist as you label us, just see the world for what it has become, not what you wish it still was…

First you say this....


And in the next breath admit that it's only half of them. Or are you saying the half that doesn't want a civil war aren't "decent people" too?



I'm wondering if you really look at things in anything close to an unbiased manner at any point in time? I'll use the budget as an example. It's a very small portion of lawmakers that are using extremist ideology in an attempt not to pass a spending plan. I'm not a fan of the MAGA right. I have never stood up for nor supported the MAGA right. But claiming everyone who entered the capital that day is responsible for or should be sentenced as if they committed murder or treason just sounds nuts to most people. Most people who are NOT MAGA.

We should all do what I've advocated we should do. Arm ourselves and be prepared. I've always felt that way whether it was to be prepared for any enemy attack foreign or domestic.

I understand what you're saying. In part I agree with you in terms of MAGA. The only problem that you aren't considering is that if you go full nuts on them, you will only help to reinforce what they have claimed all along. What I don't want to do is act in manner that will make their ranks grow faster than poring water on a Gremlin. And what you are advocating would accomplish exactly that. Sometimes strategy is smarter than a flame thrower.

That's the best tactic you can take at this point when you can't really do anything other than attack the messenger. You think people should form their klans and follow along blindly or something is wrong with them. Well you do you. And there's a lot of that going around these days. That's why when you won't align with extremists on either side you find yourself disagreeing with a lot of people on both sides. That's your real issue here. I don't fall in line.

See, I stopped arguing or even giving a damn what you say like 3 posts ago. Yet here you are trying your best to continue arguing. I think it may be an actual addiction for you now. Sorry you can’t see it.

But to your point of not making their ranks grow; it’s been harsh criticism and being ostracized that’s separated the decent republicans from the MAGA people and shrunk their ranks. If we even remotely act like what they are doing or have done is acceptable, or some how not as bad as it is, then they win. Do you want that? Do you want to compromise and find the middle ground between a free democracy and an authoritarian fascist regime? If so, who is the extremist radical again? This ideology has to be stomped out like a colony of fire ants in your britches. Nothing good will come from even letting one tiny piece of that ideology survive. FFS, even if Trump vanished tomorrow never to be seen or heard from again, we’ll still be generations reprogramming all the hate he has created. I don’t get any man that wants to cozy up to that. And you have never heard me say all republicans are bad. Never. I don’t care about the non-trump supporters on the right or center, they are mostly just decent folk with differing beliefs. But all things MAGA must go and the sooner the better. IMO.

And until Trump is not the overwhelming choice of the right, I’ll be treating them all, those willing to vote for him, like MAGA Traitors, because support that man makes you one IMO.

Yet here you are continuing. It sounds like you are a heroin addict accusing someone else of being a junkie.

No, don’t mistake me telling you how I see it as trying to argue with you. You’re calling me extremist and don’t even remotely understand how I feel on most of it. I like a bunch of the guys on the right here, but I don’t want to buddy up to them if they support or are willing to vote for Trump or MAGA. That actually makes them my political and personal beliefs enemies. I won’t hate them if they are sucked in, but I won’t sugarcoat how I feel either. If they support him in anyway, I want nothing to do with them.

You do understand what I'm talking about is both you and Daman's "extremist views" on the sentencing you are both claiming should be carried out for "everyone who entered the capital on Jan. 6th", right?

Not only would all Republicans disagree with you, but the vast majority of Independent voters as well as many Democrats. In terms of the idea of either all of them either being sentenced to life in prison or the firing squad, that idea isn't popular and isn't getting any more popular. So yes, as it pertains to the topic and subject at hand, that is an extremist view.

I never said anything about all who entered. I said we used to hang traitors. And I think your views on how to deal with those who threaten America and her democracy are weak af. So roll that up and kumbaya with it while you hide at home with your guns waiting for truble to come to your door. I prefer the go into the streets and take them out method of dealing with them.

And I get that many of those people were duped. They shouldn’t be treated harshly. But Trump and company should have met harsh justice at least a year ago or sooner, IMHO. You know, the traitors who wanted to take YOUR country from you and turn it into New Gilead with a twist of PUTINesque fascism. Oh, but lets make sure we treat them fairly…

Treating them fairly would be ending them quickly in my book.

Oh and lest we forget, if those insurrectionists had been BLM, they would have met justice that day with their lives.

Yeah, 10-22 year sentences are "weak af". Sometimes I wonder if you even hear yourself. BTW- I'm not "hiding with my guns". I carry one.

"I prefer the go into the streets and take them out method of dealing with them.". Let me know when you actually do this instead of spouting off about it on a message board. I'll wait. And when you do you will appear to be exactly like the very people you profess to hate who attempted to do the same thing.

Compared to forfeiting their lives, yes, weak af. But I get where your coming from, you don’t even call them traitors, you don’t have military justice values, and you don’t believe being a traitor is a crime worthy of a death penalty. Got it. Call me old fashion. Hell I’d settle for just having them exiled never to return. But 10 years for trying to end our democracy? I’ve seen 10 years handed out over weed distribution, that’s a harmless victimless offense in 99% of cases. Traitors being jailed should face 25 to life at minimum IMO. Under a fascist Trumpian regime, they would kill us for just being dems.

American criminal court is not military court. They are not being court marshalled in a military court and are not a part of our military. I'm glad that you think you know better than a judges and prosecutors know in terms of sentencing guidelines according to what they've been charged with.

So they all got sweetheart deals like Hunter Biden did? You are sounding just like.......... well you know.

I never said it was, I said a military justice mindset. Being a traitor is among the worst things you can be in the military. And during wartime, it’s punishable by death. We were in a war at the time when J6 occurred. And I never said I know better. I spoke how I feel about it, get that? Or is speaking your mind/opinion against the centrist code?

Did I miss something? What sweetheart deal did Hunter Biden get for gods given right to cheat on taxes, snort coke, and own a gun?

It's the exact same thing Republicans were saying before the judge refused the plea deal proposed by the prosecutor. And Hunter wasn't facing 10-22 years. Now OCD is acting like 10-22 year sentences is some kind of slap on the wrist. Eerily familiar in their tone.

No I didn’t. I said we used to hang traitors. That is what got your panties in a twist. Get it right.

FYI - I’m good with the 20 year sentences, if were not going to truly hold them to account. But I bet Trump who created the whole mess won’t get 20 years. And if anyone is a traitor, it’s him.

You have railed that they are traitors and should be sentenced as such. You claim 10-22 year sentences are light. People used to own slaves too.

They are light compared to what it should have been for an attempted coup. But like I said in the other thread, I’m done with your petty ass attack, kick rocks.

Let’s just say we ain’t talking apples to apple here.

You know…Coke, taxes and a gun that was never used in a crime. …vs…. A violent vicious armed attack on our nations capitol where people were killed. Threatening our democracy. Big differences here.

If I'm extreme, they so much be the framers of the constitution


Because you think it's extreme, doesn't make it so.

To come to such a conclusion one must look at the opinion of average people with no party affiliation or loyalty to one tribe or the other. But then not everyone is willing to do that.

Do you mean the same founders who owned slaves, thought only male, white property owners should vote and the same men whose words on guns you wish to dispute? I see you have chosen the "pick and choose" method of framing the founders of the constitution.

Pit is a radical extremist centrist bro. Everything has to be the way he thinks it should be at all times or he is triggered.

I'm sorry that it bothers you to find out I don't belong to "your tribe". That understanding not all the political problems in this country are caused by one side or the other. Only you are triggered. Someone who claims they don't care what I'm posting about it and to kick rocks but just can't seem to stop themselves from continuing on. You see, I didn't even respond to you and you still can't help yourself.

I'm sorry you can't or refuse to see yourself as the flip side of the coin to right wing extremists. I'm pretty sure most people on this board do. You see, just think about it. You despise right wing extremists. You despise moderates. Right wing extremists despise left wing extremists and moderates. That's the very definition of the other side of the coin. What you have done is isolate yourself with extreme left wing ideology yet can't seem to see you're on the far left extreme. You have placed yourself in quite the conundrum without even realizing it. You still can't come to grips that when you exclude yourself from everyone but "your tribe" you'll never win anything. For someone who abhores isolationism, you are doing it yourself.

hopefully if you insist on continuing you can come up with something more substantial than this type of brainless babbling. You sound like trump......

Yes! Do we follow their lead today? Yes we do, so try as you might to discredit them (and I don't like the slave owner stuff either) but they are overall, regarded as the founding fathers of America as we know it.

Life was different then. They didn't live by the sensibilities that we live by today.. Thinking was 1000 different..

To argue that following the constitution is a good thing then turn around and disagree because of this means you aren't thinking things over completely

Of course, that's JMO

Lkmao@u

Your are so full of yourself it’s pathetic. You think your cornball centrist views are America’s views and people like me ruin your little fantasy world Kumbayaland. Yet hardly anyone agrees with you, that’s evident here every damn day.

Yeah, 10 to 22 year sentences is Kumbaya. Do you even hear yourself?

Let me tell you what the forefathers couldn't do. They couldn't see into the future. That's why some of the things they said and were included in the constitution doesn't make sense today. What I don't do is try to claim that they could see into the future about some things but could see into the future about other things. The constitution has been amended 27 times as a result.


Yet that's exactly what you're doing. You're showing that they had no power to see into the future and then claiming that they would call what we saw in Jan. 6th as treason. And I think you're making a reach of epic proportions which there's no way could be proven in a court of law. According to your claim, treason would be trying to "overthrow the government". I didn't see anything that would meet that threshold on Jan. 6th. I did however see a group try to stop the peaceful transition of power. They weren't "armed to the teeth" trying to take over power. They weren't storming the capital with AK-47's.

If you wish to look at legal precedent as your guide or how this has been handled in our nation's history you need look no further than the Civil War. While Jefferson Davis and 37 others were first charged with treason, President Andrew Johnson pardoned them all and they never even went to trial. There's no way you can compare Jan. 6th to the civil war and history has already spoken.

Oh for cryin out loud. Are you suggesting that back in the day, they wrote that traitors should be hanged they were wrong? Or are you saying that slavery was wrong.

Make up your mind

I explained it in a way a six year old could understand it. I'm saying that people find it convenient to say the founding fathers were out of touch on issues they disagree with them on and then turn around and point to how wise they were on issues they do agree with them on. I pointed out that if anyone was guilty of treason it was the Confederates who actually had their own government and military who attacked America and started a war killing over 110,000 American troops and wounded over 275,00. Even then treason was not used to convict them. That's called a case of precedent.

The people who were the driving force behind Jan. 6th have been given sentences ranging from 10 to 22 years in prison. I believe those who do not think that is sufficient are more concerned about exacting their pound of flesh than are concerned about justice.

Not really responding directly to you, but the whole idea of traitors.

The forefathers were essentially traitors to England. I'm not sure how the forefathers would see the events of January 6th. They may see traitors, but I'm not entirely sure which side of the lines they would see themselves on. They might see the current government as traitors to the ideals that they tried to establish. The forefathers were rebels that overthrew colonial control in armed rebellion. They could very well see more of themselves in the protestors than the Washington elite.

At the same time, the forefathers didn't overthrow England in an attempt to enthrone a new "King"/Trump.

They'd probably be disgusted with both sides.

But which side tried to overthrow our democracy?

No, it’s not BOTH sides, it’s MAGA dolts. The forefathers might not like what we’ve become, almost assuredly so, but they could distinguish between politicians and traitors. Trump is the latter and would have been executed or exiled back then.

And I feel the need to give the stink eye to ANYONE who defends the J6 insurrection and attempted coup. Traitors breed more traitors, that’s why you deal with them harshly.

I disagree with you do to motive. In no way do I think the founding fathers would approve of spreading lies and conspiracies to undermine an election and use that as motivation to interfere with and overturn a fair and free election.

Jan. 6 fugitive who assaulted officers was captured by the FBI after returning home

Christopher Worrell, a Florida Proud Boy, was added to the FBI Wanted list after he fled just ahead of his scheduled sentencing last month. He was convicted in May.

WASHINGTON — A Florida Proud Boy convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers with pepper gel spray was captured by the FBI on Thursday night after he went on the lam just ahead of his scheduled sentencing last month.

Christopher Worrell was arrested "when he attempted to covertly return to his home" in Naples, Florida, the FBI's Tampa Field Office said in a statement.

"FBI agents quickly surrounded and then entered the residence. They discovered the 52-year-old unconscious and immediately provided medical attention," the statement said. Worrell remains at an area hospital, the FBI said.

Night-vision goggles, $4,000 in cash and survivalist gear were found inside Worrell's residence, according to the FBI, which thanked the Collier County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance with the arrest.

Worrell had been convicted on seven counts at a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in May. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of 14 years in federal prison, which would be among the longest sentences given to a Jan. 6 defendant to date. The longest sentence so far was given to former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who received 22 years in federal prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Worrell, prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo, arrived in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 "ready for battle, wearing body armor, and carrying pepper gel spray and a large radio" and then "spewed vitriol for half an hour at the overwhelmed officers restraining the mob" before assaulting officers with pepper spray.

"When confronted with this conduct at trial, Worrell showed no remorse. Instead, though under oath, he spun falsehood after incredible falsehood in an effort to deflect responsibility and cast himself as a hero intervening to protect the police. He told these lies without shame," prosecutors wrote. "Worrell’s dishonesty on the stand was only one of many instances where he has apparently lied to benefit himself or to escape responsibility for his own misconduct."

An attorney for Worrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...s-captured-fbi-returning-home-rcna118102

When all the choices are bad, it's not really much of a democracy.

Is trying to set police stations (government buildings) on fire really that different from doing similar to a (government) building in the capital?

I see bad cops and bad politicians in much the same light. Yet, I'm not saying to threaten either. I'm saying we should replace them with better.

Those that resort to violence should be "punished" regardless of who that violence is against. (Punished may not be the best word, though definitely stopped/corrected, and the reason for said violence should be examined and, if needed, addressed.)

At the same time, I understand how crappy governance has often led to armed insurrection. It's a thorny problem. Do you want to "punish" the American Revolutionaries for their rebellion against England? Should we describe them as traitors?

While we have a "democracy," I believe that it is a far cry from what those that fought to make it possible envisioned. And it's even further from what it potentially could and should be.

I don't see you making a relative comparison. The revolutionary war was due to not having a government they chose to vote for or select in order to represent them. Today it seems that the problem is people don't like losing an election because they don't like who was elected to represent them. Those two things are not comparable. And while I certainly agree that anyone using violence in the circumstances you posted deserve to be convicted and sentenced under the law, yes, trying to overthrow an election is far different than, and a direct threat to our election process and the peaceful transfer of power. While the other certainly was not. While both were wrong and deserved to be prosecuted, trying to make these things sound similar really doesn't fly.

But do we really have a choice in who we ultimately get to vote for? Or are we simply presented with choices pulled from modern day "royalty?" Is it an actual democracy or a sham democracy? Most citizens don't have the financial backing/personal wherewithal to effectively run a nationwide campaign. Instead of marrying into royal families you have to join (effectively) "royal" parties to have a chance to "rule."

Is it a perfect analogy? No, but perfection is generally unreachable.

Clearly, I don't think replacing one "Party boy" with another is a good solution.

"Election process and peaceful transfer of power" are lipstick on a pig at this point. The power isn't leaving the parties/"modern royal families."

While the targets were different, the methods ("the actions") were similar, and thus provoked my tangential thoughts.

We're just never going to see eye to eye on this. You speak about how "perfection is generally unreachable" and then continue on to show how our election process is not perfect. I think a lack of perfection applies in both instances but it seems you propose to pick and choose in terms of where imperfection should be considered as justified.

I think we agree in many regards here. Almost on everything. Right up until it comes for trying to make the comparison to the king of England to our current political system.

Former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy in training found guilty after assaulting downed officer during Jan. 6 riot

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A former Williamson County sheriff’s deputy in training has been found guilty of five felony charges related to his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to the Department of Justice.

The DOJ said Ronald Colton McAbee, 29, of Unionville, was convicted for assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

In late September, McAbee pleaded guilty to a separate felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer and a misdemeanor charge for an act of physical violence.

He will be sentenced on Feb. 29, 2024.

The following excerpt is from the DOJ regarding the evidence and happenings in McAbee’s charges and trial:

“According to the government’s evidence, on Jan. 6, 2021, officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to the U.S. Capitol building to assist the U.S. Capitol Police in maintaining the security of the Capitol from ongoing riots. At approximately 4:20 p.m., MPD officers made their way to an interior tunnel of the Capitol building. Here, they assumed a post in an Archway that provided access to the building’s Lower West Terrace.

As the officers arrived, hundreds of individuals gathered outside the Archway, some throwing and/or swinging various makeshift weapons at the group of officers. At about 4:27 p.m., an MPD officer positioned toward the opening of the Archway was knocked to the ground, kicked, and stripped of his baton. During this incident, McAbee was positioned on the south side of the Archway and was able to observe the assault.

After the officer was knocked to the ground, McAbee stepped into the Archway, grabbed the officer’s leg, and pulled him further towards the crowd. When a second MPD officer stepped off the police line to assist the downed officer, McAbee stood up, yelled at the officer who had stepped out to assist, and then swung his arms and hands towards the officer’s head and torso. McAbee made contact with the officer and was wearing reinforced knuckle gloves at the time of the assault.

McAbee then returned his attention to the downed officer and lifted him by the torso and shoulders. As a result, McAbee and the officer slid down a set of steps, with McAbee falling on top of the officer. The two landed in the crowd, where McAbee lay on top of the officer while other rioters assailed the officer for over 20 seconds before the officer was finally able to get up and work his way back to the Archway. The officer sustained physical injuries, including a head laceration, concussion, elbow injury, bruising, and bodily abrasions. The officer was transported to the hospital and treated for his injuries.

McAbee was arrested on Aug. 17, 2021, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington, Memphis, and Knoxville Field Offices, which identified McAbee as BOLO (Be on the Lookout) #134 on its seeking information photos. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.”

https://www.wsmv.com/2023/10/11/for...ulting-downed-officer-during-jan-6-riot/

Feds seek 8 years for 'Bullhorn Lady' who smashed a Capitol window during Jan. 6 attack

Rachel Powell, a mother of eight and grandmother of six, is holding onto hope that Donald Trump is re-elected and pardons her.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are seeking eight years in federal prison for a Pennsylvania mother of eight who conducted "surveillance" on a lawmaker's home a few weeks before she smashed a window with an ice ax and a giant cardboard tube during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Rachel Powell, who was 40 when she took part in the 2021 attack, was found guilty in July of nine charges, including felony counts of interfering with officers performing their duties and obstruction of an official proceeding. A sentencing hearing for Powell, now a grandmother of six, is set for Oct. 17.

Powell was identified by online “Sedition Hunters,” was named and interviewed for a piece in The New Yorker that ran a few weeks after Jan. 6, and was arrested in early February 2021. She has been on home confinement since September 2022 after violating her prior conditions of pretrial release, including by visiting a brewery with her 71-year-old employer/boyfriend.

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, prosecutors said, Powell developed an "obsession with keeping former President Trump in power," and talked about how she had "conducted surveillance at a female legislator’s home." Powell joined "caravan" protests in Washington in November 2020, where she said she walked around "with a little beater bar all weekend and wasp spray and knives in my bag."

On Jan. 6, before she smashed the Capitol window, prosecutors said, Powell was on the front lines as the mob overwhelmed police.

“Come on up, people, don’t be shy!” she yelled in one video, as she pushed against police barricades with her body. Powell, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, had shown an "utter lack of remorse" for her conduct, which she bragged about online.

“IT WAS F--KING WAR TO GET IN. IF YOU WERE NOT HERE THEN STFU," Powell wrote the day after the attack. She said rioters "weren't f--king welcomed in" and that there was “lots of security" that "had to retreat into the building and fight back because patriots were relentless.”

Police, she said, "didn’t open the gates. The people trampled them. It was war.”

Since the Capitol attack, Powell has changed her tune, prosecutors noted, writing that she "has tried to portray herself as a victim and tried to shift the narrative from 'war' to 'police brutality.'"

But video of her actions Jan. 6, prosecutors said, left little doubt about her intentions, even if Powell now claimed — as she did in one recent interview — that she only broke the window "so that people had somewhere to go.”

A key video that went viral after the attack showed Powell using a bullhorn to organize rioters to "take the building," advising them on the layout of the suite of offices they'd entered as others plotted how to advance further into the Capitol.

"People should probably coordinate together if you're going to take the building," Powell declared, in the tone of a flustered school trip chaperone trying to corral a group of teens. Powell, her attorney claimed in a defense sentencing memo, is "remorseful for her outrageous conduct that day." Powell was "susceptible to manipulation," Nicholas D. Smith wrote, because of a brutally harsh upbringing that "was like something from Oliver Twist." Her impoverished parents "routinely engaged in violent altercations in front of the small child," Powell's mom was an alcoholic and drug addict and Powell was sexually abused beginning at age 12, he wrote. Powell has been diagnosed with "posttraumatic stress disorder; paranoid, schizoid and negativistic personality traits; and major depressive disorder," he added.

Just before the verdict was returned in her case, Powell's partner/employer Joseph Jenkins, Jr., brought three of her children to a fundraiser for Jan. 6 defendants at Trump’s property in New Jersey, where the former president posed for photos, signed a copy of his book and gave one of her children a “Make America Great Again” hat, which he wore to court for his mother’s verdict.

“Trump said he’ll be pardoning as soon as he’s in,” Powell wrote in a post on X.

Jenkins, in a letter of support, maintained his belief that the 2020 election was stolen, pointing the judge to the conspiracy film "2000 Mules."

"According to most Trump voters, the election results in Pennsylvania, where Rachel lives, appeared to be fraudulent. Trump had, and still has, huge support in our state," he wrote. "Books have been written, documentaries aired, lawsuits filed, and investigations remain pending."

Several of Powell's supporters also downplayed her conduct in letters to the court.

"If there were ever a person I know who would be brave enough to help bring order during chaos," one supporter wrote, "it would be Rachel."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...BJ-b2dDRgqkwOG3PQ0Hk_CvE1ivlGjh7b-27tJE0

Wow, is she really dumb enough to assume that Trump would actually pardon her if he gets elected? Yikes

LOL. That’s all she has. And 8 years …Pffft. She’ll probably get less than half that or an ankle bracelet like all the other traitors. Many will be released before the next election, so hardly any left to pardon anyways.

“Powell has been diagnosed with "posttraumatic stress disorder; paranoid, schizoid and negativistic personality traits; and major depressive disorder," he added.”


This is mentally what it takes to be a donny voter.

...Fixed it....

It may not be what it takes, but those would be/are understandable byproducts of picking from the choices presented. Some people just present more extreme symptoms.

Yeah let’s see a Grandmother vs Donnie the morally bankrupt rapist. And Mmm, who did we choose?

Sadly if you don't support the lesser of the two evils the worse of the two evils will take over. We've seen how that movie turns out before.

You actually need two evils to support the lesser of the two.

We already have that. Thinking a man who will be 81 when and if he's sworn into his second term is the best the democrats have to offer is sad and inaccurate to put it mildly. I won't even bother breaking down the other choice.

Saying the lesser of the two evils doesn't necessarily mean the people involved are evil. Phrases have meanings that sometimes aren't literal but figurative. This happens to be one of those times. Maybe you simply didn't understand that........

From the Oxford.

the lesser evil

the less harmful or unpleasant of two bad choices or possibilities.

Thank you for clarifying your statement. I won’t clarify mine, I think you know exactly what I meant. And getting old isn’t even a close harmful equivalent here.

It isn't an equivalent and I never suggested it was. It is however well beyond the average life expectancy which doesn't bode well for voting for a person you expect to be president over the next four years. I consider that option to be an unpleasant choice which falls within the definition.

Yet we have McConnell freezing like a dear in headlights on live Tv every now and then and we hear crickets about his fitness to serve. What has Biden shown you that he isn’t fit?

You don’t hear crickets about him…

You’re doing it again…

I have heard calls for term limits because of him and Feinstein because neither were fit to serve.

Once again you're trying to bring up a point I never made in the first place. Do I really need to recap that for you?

1. The odds are that an 81 year old man will not live another 4 years to fulfill his term in office. He is well past the average life expectancy already.

2. I don't believe that he is the best candidate democrats have to offer.

Now if you could stay on topic and stop throwing out accusations about points I never made in the first place that would be nice as well as a change of pace.

Once again, who said it was? I certainly said and feel that Biden is the better choice between the two. What part of that escapes you?

I think his diversion to McConnell there is a better example of what I was trying to footstomp in the other thread.

I do as well. This was about the poor choices we have been left with between the two of them. And somehow mental stability was brought up out of left flied when I had never even mentioned that aspect. Weird.

. Anyone can go at anytime bro. You nor anyone can say what the odds are. As Americans we have a right to work as long as we are alive and able. And unlike a few people younger than Biden on the hill, Biden is still alive and able. He beat trump at his own game and he’ll beat him again. That’s all I care about at this point. There isn’t another democrat candidate that has done that. And actually I didn’t mention mental stability here. I used McConnel as an example as what the GOP allows to continue with their own, pointing their fingers at the dems like you are now when things are similar. And you know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m done with you right now. I got to simmer on this s.

I can. Compared to a 60year old, 6.5x higher starting the term and more than 10x higher before he would finish.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html#fn1

You know what they say about stats right? They’re for losers like the GOPers and trump.

And dead people. Stats are for dead people too.

Statistics also say people that can't complete sentences, fall up stairs, turn into a human Roomba after every press conference, and can't contain the loose-canon in the family crime syndicate -- should probably not be president.

That’s so hollow…ween of you.

The average life expectancy wasn't created by Republicans. It is what it is. The odds are what they are. Trying to deny that wreaks of desperation.

The average life expectancy for a male in the U.S. is around 77. It is what it is no matter how hard you try to dance around it.

Dance around this. Biden isn’t an average Joe.

We are all average Joe's. Some just have themselves convinced they're not.

But if one were to look at the physical shape of both Trump and Biden, Joe is in much better shape and there isn't much difference in their ages. I believe neither of them have a 50/50 chance of living out their presidency if elected.

Both parties should be expected to do better than this.

You are being desperately obtuse at this point, bro.

So you're saying he's a below-average Joe?

He beat trump at his own game. Hell, even the most deplorable or moderate republican can’t do that. Lol

Legislation-wise, best POTUS of my lifetime.

I want some of what you're smoking.

So you are twelve!

I was thinking died on the table, but was resuscitated, so he started the count over.

That looks like you acknowledging that Biden is better than trump and Obama
But saying not as good as George W Bush

Former Michigan gubernatorial hopeful sentenced to 60 days in prison for role in Capitol riot

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/17/poli...CEYJXz8IZqlLTW-VrgtyIF_daXiR9WTQC7UsWudQ

So Trump’s latest rant… “We’re being railroaded!”

If that dumbass was being railroaded, he’d be behind bars already and disqualified from running. If anything, they have been overly fair to his punk ass.

Well, the headlines hadn't been about him for a day or two so he probably needed some attention.

That's the only positive I can see out of this Speaker of the House debacle. Trump's ego driven desperation and obsession for needing attention is not being met. You know that must be killing him.

And that gag order.

Bigger deal is gym jordan is an election denier, will lead to a govt shutdown and would never certify the '24 election if the outcome was like 2020

Jan. 6 rioter who wielded 2x4 wooden plank in Capitol sentenced to nearly 3 years in prison

Jacob Travis Clark of Colorado was seen in video footage holding the plank moments before a U.S. Capitol Police officer was struck with it, the Justice Department said.

A Colorado man who allegedly hit a police officer with a 2x4 wooden plank during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in prison.

Jacob Travis Clark of Colorado Springs was sentenced to 33 months in prison, followed by 12 months of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a news release.

Clark had requested nine months in prison and a period of supervised release, according to a sentencing memo written by his lawyer that said Clark “regretted his actions by January 7th.”

During a bench trial in Washington, D.C., this year, Clark was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, a felony, as well as five misdemeanor counts related to his conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

According to court documents, Clark drove to Washington, D.C., a day before the riot and attended former President Donald Trump's rally at the Ellipse, sending a text to his father that read: “It’s a trump thing I’m here for the riots when they say he isn’t the winner lol.”

Clark spent roughly 40 minutes inside the Capitol and was seen in video footage holding a 2x4 wooden plank moments before a U.S. Capitol Police officer was struck with it, the Justice Department said.

He also joined a crowd of rioters who threatened law enforcement, later texting images of the breach saying, “I helped break down the door." He also wrote, “I was the first one in the chamber,” according to court documents.

An attorney for Clark did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.

More than 1,100 people have been charged for crimes related to the Capitol riot, according to the Justice Department.

Last month, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison on a seditious conspiracy charge. It was the longest Jan. 6 sentence yet, exceeding the 18 years for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was also found guilty of seditious conspiracy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...QuTjvpXcxopXyh56laeCAP2FIeWyCuAnGzJVIaPY

Wait, they aren’t all getting decades in prison like all the MAGA gopers are proclaiming?

Nope. Mainly only those who have been convicted of very serious crimes such as seditious conspiracy. But then they know that already no matter how many tantrums they throw claiming otherwise.

Trump State Department appointee sentenced to nearly 6 years for role in Jan. 6 attack

The State Department appointee was involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

A former Trump administration State Department appointee was sentenced Friday to nearly six years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Frederico "Freddie" Klein was convicted of eight felonies including six assaults, civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. Prosecutors said he "waged a relentless siege on police officers" as he attempted to enter the Capitol with a large mob of rioters.

"Your actions on Jan. 6 were shocking and egregious," Judge Trevor McFadden told the Trump administration appointee before handing down his sentence of five years and 10 months behind bars.

Dressed in a dark suit and red-patterned tie, Klein waived his right to address the court himself.

His defense attorney, Stanley Woodward said a significantly lower sentence was warranted.

"No one person caused the events of Jan. 6," Woodward said, while acknowledging the infamy of the day.

Woodward argued that prosecutors were going after his client too aggressively because of his status as a former political appointee. Judge McFadden's sentence was ultimately well below the 10 years the government sought.

Klein was accused of using a stolen police riot shield to jam open an entryway to the Capitol building and push back officers.

Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell was one of the several officers who said they were assaulted by Klein and the mob of rioters.

"I went from protecting the Capitol building to fighting for my survival," Gonell told the court.

Gonell said he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of Jan. 6, and that Klein's actions contributed to the end of his law enforcement career.

Klein will serve two years of supervised release following his prison term.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...Ro_352TVByYxKVeW5AA0F2yYcEo89W_7EwXjdyrE

But as we all know, trump claims he only hires the "best people", right? I guess the bigger question should be the right people to do what?

I would have handed out much harsher sentences for all these traitors. IMO anyone involved in the attacks on cops should get 10yrs minimum, up to 20 yrs total. The insurrectionists that sauntered inside the capitol building during the aftermath (after the violent breach) doing little to no harm should bbe the only ones getting a slap on the wrist.

Just curious. You mean anyone that attacks cops or just those that did on January 6th?

Nice way of presenting a whatabout. Lol

Anyway..I’m pretty sure most violent attacks on any cops would be getting stiffer penalties than what most of these violent insurrections are getting.

Asking someone's opinion is not, as you say, "presenting a whatabout".

Nice way of making absolutely no sense and then doing the very thing you accused me of. You're a special kind of special.

Coming from a man that claims someone only has a commercial grade fork lift to raise 50 pounds of razor wire?

Everything I do is special. And nice way of deflecting your whatabout into a personal attack.

Lol Biden’s forklift.

What?? You need help.

Nah, just a shirt. No forklift needed.

i mean if you're going to go off the rails questioning someone else being special, don't pretend you won't get some backlash. Best as I can tell you're no Sherlock Holmes.

Take that shirt/jacket through that wire Pit, we’ll just call you Nick, Slice, Dice, or Shred from now on…

People do it all the time, dawg. He's got a vid to prove it. Actually, the BP has been cutting the wire because Mexico is running out of blankets.

You mean they are cutting it and don't need a forklift? Finally a word of honesty from you.

Goalpost shift #38

When all else fails make the goal post claim. That's what happens when facts are not your friend.

There are those for whom facts are never friendly.

And now for something completely different.....

Tennessee man admits to conspiring with Jan. 6 defendant to kill FBI agents

Austin Carter said that he plotted with Edward Kelley, who is awaiting trial on Jan. 6 charges, to kill as many as 37 people. Kelley has pleaded not guilty to murder conspiracy charges.

WASHINGTON — An associate of a Jan. 6 defendant pleaded guilty this week to charges that the two men plotted “to murder employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Austin Carter, who was a 26-year-old security officer and a member of the Army Reserves at the time of his arrest in December 2022, admitted in a plea agreement that he “unlawfully and knowingly combined, conspired, and agreed with his co-defendant,” Edward Kelley, to kill FBI personnel.

Carter admitted that he provided a cooperating witness “with a list of FBI employees that CARTER received from KELLEY” on or about Dec. 13, 2022, and that Carter instructed the cooperating witness “to memorize the FBI employees identified on the list and then burn the list.” Kelley and Carter “discussed plans to attack the FBI Field Office in Knoxville, Tennessee” and that the purpose of the conspiracy was “to retaliate against government conduct,” Carter admitted.

A court filing from December said that the list Kelley provided included about 37 names of law enforcement personnel who worked on Kelley’s Jan. 6 case, and identified which officers were present when Kelley was arrested.

Kelley, an anti-abortion activist, was initially arrested in May 2022 after he was identified as one of the first rioters to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6. Video from the Jan. 6 riot shows a man identified as Kelley using a piece of wood to breach a window, jumping through the window, and then kicking open a fire escape, allowing other rioters to stream inside the Capitol.

Kelley and Carter were arrested in connection with the alleged murder plot last December.

A jury trial for Kelley in the federal murder conspiracy case is scheduled for January, while a status conference in his Jan. 6 case is set for December.

Carter and prosecutors agreed this week that “a sentence not greater than 120 months in prison is the appropriate disposition of this case.” A detention memo from after Carter's arrest noted that he “worked for four different security companies and is a member of the Army Reserves, where he received advanced training.”

About 1,200 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and an additional 1,000 suspects have been identified but not yet charged. The statute of limitations on most of the crimes committed on Jan. 6 expires in a bit over two years, in early 2026.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...n-6-defendant-kill-fbi-agents-rcna124683

Fire up old sparky for these two scumbags.

Anti Abortion people kinda crack me up a little. Don't want the unborn killed but will kill to prevent it.

Jan. 6 suspect who fled police used chemical spray on officers at Capitol, prosecutors say

Gregory Yetman was the subject of a dayslong manhunt in New Jersey last week.

Jan. 6 defendant Gregory Yetman, who turned himself in to authorities Friday after a major police manhunt in New Jersey, allegedly deployed chemical spray at officers during the riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to charging documents unsealed Monday by the Justice Department.

Yetman's arrest affidavit reveals investigators had been looking into his actions at the Capitol dating back to a week and a half after Jan. 6, 2021 -- when the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division received information that he had admitted to being at the riot in a series of Facebook posts.

FBI agents interviewed him on Jan. 22, 2021, when he denied being part of any violence and stated anyone who entered the building or assaulted officers "should be prosecuted," according to the affidavit.

However, prosecutors say they later gathered information that Yetman was among the scores of rioters who engaged in assaults against police -- specifically using an MK-46H chemical spray canister against a line of officers trying to protect the building, the affidavit says.

Prosecutors include numerous photos they say show Yetman's movements outside of the building leading up to him allegedly deploying the spray at officers on the West Front of the Capitol. They say Yetman picked up the canister just seconds after another rioter had set it down on the ground and walked away from it.

They allege Yetman sprayed officers for "approximately 12-14 seconds" as they were trying to fend off repeated assaults by other members of the pro-Donald Trump mob.

Yetman has not entered a plea to the charges and doesn't have an attorney listed for him yet, according to court records.

He is due in federal court in Newark on Monday.

Yetman, 47, is charged with several offenses from the Capitol insurrection, some felonies, including assaulting officers; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; and act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for Yetman on Nov. 6, and officials were looking for him in the area of Helmetta, a borough in Middlesex County, law enforcement officials said last week.

He surrendered to police in Monroe Township on Friday, officials said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/jan-6-sus...7kduMNIEYrxOr07zi2GuC5Uf_DDngOzpvwCU3x_Q

Probably just another thing some people would place in the "Nobody cares" category.

That should be a wrap. But with Trump and his Circus, you just never know. Some (I'll not mention names) have been warning folks about Trump for Years, Hopefully this will get a few of those that still follow him to back off. I have my doubts.

I think we all know it won't change a damned thing.

One can hope....

You know what is funny about this. When Sydney Powell flipped last month, she said that she was a lawyer for trump and they had many conversations around Jan 2021 time frame. trump came out last month and said that Sydney Powell never represented him.

I would think that it would be noted by prosecutors that trump said Powell was never his lawyer-because if she was never his lawyer, then everything they spoke about is fair game-there is no attorney client privilege.

That would be 100% correct. His mouth has been his undoing all along.

That probably doesn't make a difference.. She's giving it all up anyway....... Or at least shes supposed to be doing that.

Hard to believe trump can find anyone to represent him short of a public defender. He’s screwed over or fired just about every lawyer he’s ever had and there has been a lot.

I'm guessing that every lawyer he has right now has agreed to represent him IF they are paid in Advance.. But that doesn't answer for those that are stupid enough to commit criminal offenses on his behalf. I'm not sure how they can justify that.

Some attorney's probably think that all of the spotlight and attention will make them famous and in the end help further their careers. As we can see, there are plenty of trumpians who now, and given their actions currently, will probably in the future have a dire need for an attorney. That's a lot of future business and they want on that list.

Ohio man sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for attacks on police during Capitol riot

An Ohio man who repeatedly attacked police officers as he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to nearly five years in prison.

Kenneth Joseph Owen Thomas has acted as a “one-man misinformation machine” since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, using his social media platforms to spread false narratives about the attack, according to federal prosecutors. They say Thomas produces more than 20 hours of Jan. 6-related online content every week.

“The primary message Thomas attempts to convey throughout all of his appearances is ‘Jan 6th was a Setup,’ words that are emblazoned front and center on the landing page for the website and ‘brand’ he created after his arrest,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich sentenced Thomas, 41, of East Liverpool, Ohio, to four years and 10 months of incarceration, according to online court records. The judge also ordered him to pay a $20,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors recommended a prison term of nine years and one month and sought a fine of $77,607. Thomas, they say, has raised at least that much money in online forums, including a website called, “Help Joseph Thomas Let Freedom Sing.”

Thomas was arrested in Huntsville, Alabama, in May 2021. In June 2023, a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Thomas of assault charges and other offenses. Jurors also acquitted him of two counts, including obstruction of a congressional proceeding, and deadlocked on two other counts.

Thomas’ attorneys said he is “brutally aware of the seriousness of his conduct” on Jan. 6 and takes “full and complete responsibility for his actions.”

“None of the officers contacted by Mr. Thomas on Jan. 6 reported any physical pain or injuries attributed to Mr. Thomas. In fact at least one of the officers openly admitted under oath in open court that he didn’t even remember Mr. Thomas at all,” the defense lawyers wrote.

More than 100 police officers were injured at the Capitol, where the mob temporarily stopped Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump.

Thomas attended Trump’s Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House with his wife and daughter, but he left them behind as he marched to the Capitol.

Thomas physically and verbally attacked police lines and urged other rioters to “hold the line” with him, prosecutors said. He also repeatedly shouted at police to ”stand down” and joined a chant calling them “traitors.”

Police body camera video captured Thomas charging at a line of officers in riot gear, shoving an officer who pushed him back down a set of steps.

“Undeterred by having been repulsed once, Thomas again pumped his arms and charged full speed up the steps a second time,” prosecutors wrote.

Video shows him pushing another officer’s chest. Over the next hour, he continued to harass and push back against officers who were trying to clear the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace, prosecutors said.

A police officer who testified at Thomas’ trial said rioters turned their backs on police, linked arms and collectively pushed against the line of officers.

“When we were trying to push, I remember just being pressed so hard it felt like my lungs caving in. It felt like they couldn’t expand. I couldn’t breathe,” the officer said, according to prosecutors.

Thomas appeared to be streaming live video while attacking police, according to prosecutors.

“Despite Thomas’ persistent efforts to minimize and, in fact to valorize, his conduct, he was a key figure in a violent riot and assaulted numerous police officers,” prosecutors wrote.

Thomas served in the U.S. Navy but was dismissed after getting punished three times for misconduct. He also has a criminal record that includes convictions for domestic battery and burglary, according to prosecutors.

Approximately 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury or judge after a trial. Over 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

https://apnews.com/article/kenneth-...tencing-e5d50f43dc1c7af2dd2df62cf579fee6

Trump now has another name to add to the pardon list. I guess that whole "we support law enforcement" thing is a sham too because I don't see any of them here outraged about any of this.

5 years for a repeat violent offender with a dishonorable discharge. Pffft. Our justice system is weak on repeat violent criminals.

Our system is weak on domestic terrorism.

I'm sure FATE will be coming along soon to talk about how anyone who assaults a cop should go to jail. He doesn't have a problem doing that when it comes to cities ran by democrats.

Didn't he just get sentenced to 5 years in prison?

I just posted about two thugs that beat the dog$hit out of a cop and got released without bail.

Is it really that hard to see the difference??

It’s called an agenda Pit. When your daily agenda is to spend the majority of your day going hard after anything that anyone posts if your are not 1001% down with every character in said posts. Yep, you get down in that agenda pit and get stuck like it’s an addiction. It might be adic something, but not addiction. Hell, I could stop, so anyone can.

You just posted the most accurate description ever penned -- about Pit himself -- and then attributed that m.o. to me.

All because Pit wet his pants over a post where a cop got his clock cleaned by thugs... and then tried to compare them getting no bail to someone else getting five years in prison! In the words of Rish -- this place is bonkers!

I responded to you and your response to him explaining Pit’s agenda, I mean agenda pits!

I'm confused.

I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking to you. Now, who did I describe?

Absolutely.

Ah, gotcha. My apologies. I thought "It’s called an agenda Pit." was just missing a comma.

And absolutely indeed, rounding up my order from the Holland Seed Bank. OH-HIO!

Perfect example of how screwed up our country is over individual rights and societal safety. Hell, getting in a car and driving- what percentage of our population is high on MJ, alcohol, prescription pills, other recreation high pills, and the elderly who can't see, hear, or react anymore but have the right to drive. Beware pulling out of the driveway. How do you fix that?

Let's eat, Grandma
Let's eat Grandma

Commas save lives

Don't get in the car and drive?

"With great power comes great responsibility".

Lmao.

I wanted to post that but couldn't think of the saying.

I understand that you are. You see, I actually agreed with you in the thread where you said everyone who assaults the police should go to jail. I actually stated that the justice system failed in that instance. Of course you made that into how I peed my pants over it. Which is hilarious. You seemed quite emphatic about your stand and I don't blame you. Yet this thread dates back to July and I don't think it's even the first thread about all of the police officers that were attacked on Jan. 6th. Yet you have remained silent the entire time. Because that's what you do. Rather than take the same stand here, you post memes about someone smoking weed.

It's obvious who is peeing themselves here. It would be the one here throwing a tantrum because he still can't come to this thread and talk about how despicable it is for people to assault the police. And it's not because you think it's any less despicable. It's because of who they are.

Imperial Chancellor Pit has spoken.

"You will post in the threads I tell you to post in!!"

(read: kiss my @$$)

No, you have decided to pick and choose. I just decided to point that out. You may wish to check yourself. It might be time you need changing.

"'Murica -- where you can still make choices."

That depends on where you live. I mean in some states you don't have the choices to see a drag show. There's a lot of books you can't find in a library. There are a lot more such examples. There's even a state that mandates children be taught slaves benefited from slavery and parents can't opt out of their children being taught that. So the choices we get to make in Murica are getting fewer and fewer all of the time.

The choices people make explain a lot about them. You have choices and I have the choice to comment about them. It seems we are both exercising our rights as we see fit.

Cool story. At least I can still choose which threads I post in on a message board without too much wrath... most of the time.

Mike Johnson to release 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday announced the public release of more than 40,000 hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021.

Why it matters: The move meets a key demand of the Republicans' right flank as conservatives simmer at Johnson for passing a stopgap spending bill along bipartisan lines.

What they're saying: "Today, we will begin immediately posting video on a public website and move as quickly as possible to add to the website nearly all of the footage, more than 40,000 hours," Johnson said.

Johnson said the decision will "provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials."
Private citizens' faces will be blurred to "avoid any persons from being targeted for retaliation," Johnson said.

The details: Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), the chair of the House Administration Committee's oversight subcommittee, which oversees the footage, said the footage will be available on a page on the panel's website.

After the initial tranche of around 90 hours of footage, the panel "will continue to populate the viewing room with additional footage for public view," Loudermilk said in a statement.
Johnson's office said the remaining footage will be posted in waves over the next several months.

Zoom in: The committee said members of the public will be able to make appointments to view the footage on terminals, with priority given to lawmakers, Jan. 6 defendants and their lawyers, Jan. 6 victims, American news outlets and non-profits in that order.

Johnson said that around 5% of the available footage is being withheld because it "may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture."

Jan. 6 defendants and victims can request access to the withheld footage if it was not made available by prosecutors, contains exculpatory evidence and will be used in their legal cases but not shared publicly.

The other side: The top Democrat on the House Administration Committee blasted the release.

"While the name on the door to the Speaker's suite has changed, the office's mission to undermine the Capitol Police and politicize Capitol security continues unabated," Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
Morelle called it "unconscionable" to allow "virtually unfettered access" to the footage "over the strenuous objections of the security professionals within the Capitol Police[.]"

https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/mi...9ybIUGAlmzxDe8-oTcggENPC-sZoLBlVb43RaVEE

Now we'll get to see the other 39,995 hours and 55 minutes of the footage Tucker Carlson didn't want us to see.

You certainly can. And the choices you make and refuse to make in that department speaks volumes. But don't worry. It isn't specific to you. There's a lot more that refuse to speak out against people they support no matter what they do. Even people who have 91 criminal counts against them. Rather than comment on that they think it's important to throw out how some rando thinks the traffic laws don't apply to her.

Mother and son who aided in theft of Pelosi's laptop on Jan. 6 are sentenced

Online “Sedition Hunters” identified the mother-son duo after the FBI mistakenly raided the Alaska home of a woman it mistook for Maryann Mooney-Rondon.

WASHINGTON — A mother and son who aided in the theft of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's laptop — whom online sleuths identified after the FBI mistakenly raided the home of another Donald Trump supporter in Alaska — were sentenced Wednesday.

Maryann Mooney-Rondon and her son, Rafael Rondon, were arrested in October 2021 after they were identified by online "Sedition Hunters" who have aided in hundreds of cases against Capitol rioters.

Before their identification, online sleuths had dubbed the pair “AirheadLady” and “AirheadBoy” because they emerged from the Capitol wearing stolen emergency escape hoods, which the duo subsequently admitted stealing.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb sentenced Rondon to 18 months of home incarceration and Mooney-Rondon to 12 months of home incarceration. She described the sentence as “jail but at home” and said they would be confined to home 24/7. Both will be on probation for five years.

Cobb said that it was a “difficult” case and that neither of the defendants were criminal masterminds. “I’m not suggesting that you two are stupid or idiots,” she said, but she said they engaged in “juvenile” behavior.

This is how a judge tells you that you're a stupid idiot without saying you're a stupid idoit.

“I just think that they were acting very stupidly,” Cobb said. “No offense.” She said she was giving them a “significant break.”

Rafael Rondon was previously sentenced to 14 months of incarceration after he pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to possession of an unregistered firearm after the FBI found an unregistered sawed-off shotgun when it searched the Rondons' home.

Rafael Rondon admitted to the FBI that on Jan. 6, 2021, he helped a man who was trying to rip cords out of Pelosi's laptop, which she used for Zoom meetings.

"I assisted him a little bit," Rafael Rondon said, "and that was probably stupid of me." He later told the FBI that he wished he had taken a photo of a rioter on the Senate dais, because "that s--- was f---ing hilarious."

Before his sentencing, Rafael Rondon said that he would “never” engage in that type of behavior and that he was acting very immaturely. “I made a stupid mistake,” he said. “I realize that.”

Mooney-Rondon, who owns a medical billing company, admitted that she helped a man who took the laptop, giving him gloves so he would not leave fingerprints behind. The scene was captured in one of the many videos fellow rioters recorded on their smartphones. The man who took the laptop has not been arrested.

Mooney-Rondon said she had “a very bad lapse of judgment" on Jan. 6. "I’m a very — generally — measured, calculated person. I think things through. How the heck that happened, I really don’t have a clue," she said.

Ahead of her sentencing Wednesday, Mooney-Rondon called herself “a humbled woman” and asked the court for mercy.

“I was the adult in the room, and I failed,” she said. “I have brought embarrassment to my family.”

“If we had to do it all over, we would have just stayed home and watched from the safety of our living room,” she continued.

But when she finished her prepared statement and the judge asked her to explain what she was thinking when she decided to aid in the theft of Pelosi’s laptop, Mooney-Rondon pivoted, saying she thought Jan. 6 photos and videos had been “cherry-picked” and suggesting that the man who stole Pelosi’s laptop was part of a broader scheme and that he was working with others who were similarly dressed. She was she was “scared” and went along with the laptop theft because it was the “easiest thing to do.”

The government had sought 51 months in prison for Rafael Rondon and 46 months in prison for Maryann Mooney-Rondon.

Online sleuths identified the pair after the FBI raided the Alaska home of a woman it mistakenly thought was Mooney-Rondon. That woman, Marilyn Hueper, was on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6 with her husband but does not appear to have entered the building. Neither of the Huepers has been charged.

A sleuth who helped identify the Rondons using facial recognition, in an interview for the book “Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System,” called the FBI’s raid of the Alaska home “an embarrassing f---up” and said they initially “didn’t believe the FBI could mess up that badly.” The sleuths were able to identify the duo in about a half-hour, confirming the facial recognition hit with the help of Mooney-Rondon’s Facebook page, which featured images of her wearing the same items of jewelry she wore to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...GOMaFace7dVKZkEOYx5MPnmc878Rsu0WqjmA6WcE

Bro the Qanon Shaman is running for congress!!!

Yeah I saw that. Or at least he has filed the paperwork to run. It would be interesting to see a list of those who contribute to his campaign.

Is he in Gosar's district? In that case, it might be a wash if he wins...

This is why we need a law that says if your convicted of a felony, you can't hold public office. Appointed or elected.. Not even Dog Catcher!

Federal Appeals Court ruled this morning that former president trump does not have civil immunity

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/01/politics/trump-presidential-immunity-january-6-lawsuits/index.html

Former President Donald Trump can be sued in civil lawsuits related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot in a long-awaited, consequential decision from the federal appeals court in Washington, DC.

The decision will have significant implications for several cases against Trump in the Washington, DC, federal court related to the 2020 election. The decision arises out of lawsuits brought by Capitol Police officers and Democrats in Congress.

The opinion, written by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, states that not everything a president does or says while in office is protected from liability.



The president “does not spend every minute of every day exercising official responsibilities,” the opinion said. “And when he acts outside the functions of his office, he does not continue to enjoy immunity. … When he acts in an unofficial, private capacity, he is subject to civil suits like any private citizen.”

The decision to allow the January 6 lawsuits against Trump to proceed was unanimous among the three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Greg Katsas concurred with the decision, and Judge Judith Rogers concurred in part. Trump will still be able to seek additional appeals on the issue, if he chooses.

But at this time, the decision allows three lawsuits against Trump from Capitol Police officers and members of Congress who are seeking recovery from emotional distress and physical injury from the attack to move forward, and at least a half dozen other lawsuits against Trump may be able to emerge from dormancy too. The complaints largely rely on a federal law prohibiting individuals from conspiring to prevent someone from holding federal office.

The appeals court’s decision may also shape how judges look at arguments of immunity that Trump is making in his federal criminal case around the 2020 election, though the ruling on Friday only applies to civil cases.

Two of the lawsuits were brought by Democratic House members, while a third was filed by Capitol Police officers.

The lawmakers allege that they were threatened by Trump and others as part of a conspiracy to stop the congressional session that would certify the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021, according to the complaints. They argue that Trump should bear responsibility for directing the assaults.

Trump moved to dismiss the lawsuits against him on several grounds, including presidential immunity, which the DC District Court rejected, saying that the former president’s actions in the lead-up to the riot at the US Capitol riot were all an effort to remain in office and not official functions of his presidency.

The district court did find that Trump was protected by presidential immunity from the claim that he failed to stop to the riot, saying that he would be acting in his official presidential powers in that instance.

The appeals court opinion on Friday distinguished between campaign speech a president seeking reelection might make and official actions of the presidency.

Trump had argued in court he was immune for anything he said while president, but the court found that is not the case – specifying that the January 6 Trump rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol is potentially part of his campaign.

Trump still will be able to contest the facts of the case as the lawsuits move forward. The appeals court said Trump also may be able to make more arguments around immunity before the January 6 lawsuits move into extensive evidence-gathering phases.

The court’s decision on Friday “is flexible enough to accommodate rare cases where even speech made during a campaign event may be official,” Katsas wrote in his concurring opinion. “And it is cautious, in leaving open both the question whether the [Trump January 6] speech at issue is entitled to immunity and, if not, whether the First Amendment nonetheless protects it.”

The opinion stated a president running for a second term was acting “as office-seeker, not office-holder” when he was campaigning, such as by attending a private political fundraiser, hiring and firing campaign staff and while speaking in political advertisements and reelection campaign rallies.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s reelection campaign, responded to the opinion on Friday by calling it “limited, narrow and procedural.”

“The facts fully show that on January 6 President Trump was acting on behalf of the American people, carrying out his duties as President of the United States,” Cheung said in a statement provided to CNN.

Lawyers for injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic members of Congress who are suing Trump cheered the decision on Friday, after it had the lawsuits on hold for a year.

“This is the right result and an important step forward in holding former President Trump accountable for the insurrection on January 6,” Matt Kaiser, lawyer for Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said on Friday.

“Today’s ruling makes clear that those who endanger our democracy and the lives of those sworn to defend it will be held to account,” attorney Patrick Malone said in a statement following the opinion’s release on Friday. “Our clients look forward to pursuing their claims in court.”

“We’re moving one step closer to justice, one step closer to accountability, and one step closer to healing some of the wounds suffered by [Officers] James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby,” said Kristy Parker, counsel at Protect Democracy. “As this case shows, our constitutional order does not grant former President Donald J. Trump immunity for his attempt to subvert our democracy.”

Meaning when trump is elected president again he will simply use tax payer dollars to pay off all the law suits and lawyers.

Special council filed today in Jan 6 case; link to filing at the end

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...counsel-trump-2020-election-case-motive/

Special counsel outlines bid to show Trump motive, knowledge of plan to stay in power
BY REBECCA BEITSCH - 12/05/23 1:52 PM ET
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Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team outlined the evidence it has collected against former President Trump on Tuesday, walking through information it says will showcase his motive and knowledge of a plan to block the transfer of power.

The breakdown comes in a request to introduce evidence of events both before and after the conspiracy outlined in Trump’s indictment, an effort to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge” and plans related to his efforts to stay in power.


The 9-page filing shows prosecutors plan to showcase an array of Trump comments dating as far back as 2012, when he sought to cast into doubt the legitimacy of elections whose results he did not favor.

That includes the multiple instances when Trump refused to commit to accept the results of either the 2016 or 2020 election.

Prosecutors also plan to show evidence gathered about other Trump associates, including the encouraging of riots at a Detroit vote-counting center and the targeting of a Republican National Committee attorney who countered Trump’s claims of fraud.

“The Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent,” the filing says of a campaign employee who sought to mobilize riots at the TCF Center after President Biden took the lead in vote counts.

“Thereafter, Trump made repeated false claims regarding election activities at the TCF Center, when in truth his agent was seeking to cause a riot to disrupt the count.”

But much of the filing indicates prosecutors plan to bring in an array of Trump comments they argue show a longstanding refusal to accept election results and instead undermine the process, something they say all show “his motive, intent, and plan to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election results and illegitimately retain power.”


The bid to tap into the universe of statements Trump has made about elections and Jan. 6 must still be approved by Judge Tanya Chutkan. But it shows prosecutors see a wealth of information both from Trump’s longstanding complaints about elections – and his fear of conceding loss – to even more recent statements expressing sympathy for rioters and efforts to ignite harassment of those he sees as a threat.

The filing points to false claims Trump made in 2012 of voting machines switching votes, as well as 2016 comments there was widespread voter fraud in the election in which he was running.

“The defendant’s false claims about the 2012 and 2016 elections are admissible because they demonstrate the defendant’s common plan of falsely blaming fraud for election results he does not like,” prosecutors wrote.


Prosecutors argue his comments about plans to “keep you in suspense” about whether he would accept the 2016 results amount to the same.

“The Government will offer proof of this refusal as intrinsic evidence of the defendant’s criminal conspiracies because it shows his plan to remain in power at any cost—even in the face of potential violence,” prosecutors wrote.

The filing also delves into Trump’s more recent actions, arguing he has consistently made remarks that encourage violence, everything ranging from telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” to making disparaging comments about individuals he knows will be threatened and harassed by his supporters.


Such evidence is needed to “establish the defendant and his co-conspirators’ plan of silencing, and intent to silence, those who spoke out against the defendant’s false election fraud claims” – comments that “could foreseeably lead to threats, harassment, and violence; and the defendant’s repeated choice to attack individuals with full knowledge of this effect.”

Finally, the filing points to Trump’s “steadfast support and endorsement of rioters” who stormed the Capitol after his speech on Jan. 6.

Those comments, prosecutors argue, show Trump’s “motive and intent on January 6—that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification.”

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148.176.0.pdf

Johnson said that they are taking the painstaking effort to blur the faces of people inside the capital so "there isn't retribution by the DOJ". Many have been quick to note today that this action would be ripe for Obstruction charges

New York candidate running to replace Santos convicted over Jan. 6

A New York man hoping to replace expelled former Rep. George Santos has been convicted over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The big picture: Philip Sean Grillo, 49, of Queens, was found guilty Tuesday after testifying that he had "no idea" Congress met inside the Capitol building despite admitting that he's running for election to the U.S. House to represent New York's 3rd Congressional District, per a DOJ statement.

Driving the news: Former Queens Republican district leader Grillo was accused of being part of a mob that breached the Capitol via a broken window while carrying a megaphone, according to a court filing.

Prosecutors said he pushed past three Capitol Police officers guarding the Rotunda's exterior entryway doors, allowing more rioters into the building.
They alleged Grillo recorded himself on his cell phone saying: "We f**king did it, baby! ... We stormed the Capitol. We shut it down!"

By the numbers: In the 35 months since the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,230 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Capitol breach.

What's next: Grillo, who was convicted of five charges, including felony obstruction of an official proceeding, will be sentenced at a later date.

https://www.axios.com/2023/12/07/ri...Xrr-RH4C6m3SUXXug_RwCp98AhDOt2kouAdiHw3c

Insurrectionist for Congress!

"Man Running for Congress Testifies He Has No Idea Congress Meets in the Only Place Congress Meets After Attempting to Stop Congress From Meeting There"

Well sure, insurrectionists already occupy numerous seats. Sooner or later the people will have to demand a thorough investigation (most probably mostly done by now) into all of the J6 participants and the invocation of the 14th amendment disqualification clause to remove them all, thereby disqualifying Trump and cronies from ever holding office again. Treat them like the traitors in the south after the civil war. They should be ousted from any and all government positions, never allowed to hold office again.

A Jan. 6 rioter praised Vivek Ramaswamy at his sentencing for suggesting riot was an ‘inside job’

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former California police chief convicted of a conspiracy charge in the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Thursday to more than 11 years in prison after giving a speech that praised Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s suggestion the Jan. 6, 2021, attack could have been an “inside job.”

Alan Hostetter, who prosecutors say carried a hatchet in his backpack on Jan. 6, spun conspiracy theories as he spoke to a judge at his sentencing hearing, falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and referring to the riot as a “false flag” operation.

Only eight other Jan. 6 defendants have received a longer term so far. His is the third-longest Jan. 6 sentence among those who were not charged with seditious conspiracy.

Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur running his first political campaign, has drawn attention in the GOP field with his rapid-fire, wide-ranging speeches in which he often discusses things he says are “truths.”

In suggesting that federal agents were behind Jan. 6 during a GOP debate Wednesday, Ramaswamy promoted a conspiracy theory embraced by many on the far right who have argued Trump supporters were framed. There is no evidence to back up those claims, and FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the “notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Hostetter, who defended himself at his bench trial with help from a standby attorney, said Ramaswamy’s mention shows ideas like his are “no longer fringe theories.”

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said Hostetter’s conviction wasn’t about his beliefs, but rather for crossing police lines being part of the riot that interrupted Congress as they certified the 2020 election. He handed down a 135-month sentence, close to the more than 12-year sentence prosecutors had requested.

Prosecutor Anthony Mariano pointed to posts Hostetter had made before Jan. 6, including one about putting “the fear of God into members of Congress.”

“This is not a case that’s just about words … this man took actions based on those words,” he said, detailing knives and other gear Hostetter also brought to Washington.

A defense attorney advising him, Karren Kenney, argued that Hostetter didn’t push against police lines or enter the Capitol building. Hostetter also maintained that he didn’t bring his hatchet to the Capitol.

Hostetter was convicted in July of four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and entering a restricted area with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Hostetter had previously served as police chief in La Habra, California, near Los Angeles, but had moved on to teaching yoga when he founded a nonprofit called the American Phoenix Project in the spring of 2020. He used the tax-exempt organization to oppose COVID-19 restrictions and to advocate for violence against political opponents after the 2020 presidential election.

Hostetter was arrested in June 2021 along with five other men. Their indictment linked four of Hostetter’s co-defendants to the Three Percenters wing of the militia movement. Their name refers to the myth that only 3% of Americans fought against the British in the Revolutionary War.

Hostetter said he doesn’t have any connection to the Three Percenters movement and accused prosecutors of falsely portraying him as “a caricature of some radical terrorist.”

Approximately 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Roughly 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from three days to 22 years.

https://apnews.com/article/january-...ude2R5yW6vODBSuI_UFE7CPsBNUG6CcsYrIzJiVA

"Alan Hostetter, who prosecutors say carried a hatchet in his backpack on Jan. 6, spun conspiracy theories as he spoke to a judge at his sentencing hearing, falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and referring to the riot as a “false flag” operation."

So what's this Hostetter guy is saying is that he actually supports Biden and he wanted Trump to look like he's at fault for the J6 riots. Do I have that right?

J/c

Daman

Completely logical while utterly non-sensical and blatantly obvious that this is what it should mean… But MAGA GOPers aren’t logical in any way, so remove logical, retain non-sensical and it’s obvious he’s just another MAGA idiot going to jail for Trump.

Trump can blame Biden, the left, the DOJ, Judges, Prosecutors, Court Staff, polka dots on tranny panties or anything he wants… But Donald J Trump sent those rioters to jail.

Trump Legal Defense Fund’s Biggest Expense Was Mar-a-Lago
December 12, 2023in News, Politics
Trump Legal Defense Fund’s Biggest Expense Was Mar-a-Lago

A legal defense fund for Donald Trump appears to have placed its spending priorities in a strange place: Mar-a-Lago.

New tax filings show Trump’s legal defense fund raising about $1.6 million over the last six months and spending less than $30,000. But more notable than how little the legal defense group has spent is what they didn’t spend it on—namely, legal services—as well as what they paid for: a party at Mar-a-Lago.


The group—a political nonprofit called the “Patriot Legal Defense Fund”—was created by Trump campaign officials in July to help pay down the beleaguered former president’s snowballing court costs.

While the fund can accept unlimited donations from both individuals and corporations, its first periodic financial report, submitted to the Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday, indicates a phlegmatic start, with only about $1.6 million in receipts. (Trump’s 2024 campaign had raised about $56.7 million as of Sept. 30.) Even more alarming from the group is that the majority of that money—$1 million—came from a single contribution, given by a donor couple whose previous association with QAnon conspiracy theory forced the campaign to cancel a fundraiser ahead of the 2020 election.

The fund says its purpose is to “raise money and pay for or help defray legal expenses related to defending against legal actions arising from an individual or group’s participation in the political process.” But none of its expenses appear related to that mission.

In fact, the Patriot Legal Defense Fund spent just $28,578 over the last six months, with Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club getting $18,136 for “banquet hall” fees in late November. The second biggest payout went to Trump political adviser Michael Glassner, who runs the fund and received $2,500 for “consulting,” paid through his public affairs firm C&M Transcontinental.

A representative for the fund did not immediately reply to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.

It’s unclear why the fund reported no legal expenses. Trump has been hemorrhaging cash for years due to ever-mounting legal fees, and that pressure has only increased after the PLDF launched in July.

Since then, Trump has added new cases in D.C. federal court and Fulton County, Georgia—both involving charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. And while Trump has famously tapped political donors to cover legal costs for co-defendants and witnesses wrapped up in his alleged crime wave, many others, from Rudy Giuliani to Jenna Ellis, have expressed consternation at being jilted, and some have resorted to crowd-funding. This summer, Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, helped cover nearly $1 million in costs for an expert witness who worked on Trump’s behalf in his $250 million New York civil fraud lawsuit, NBC News reported.

But the fund appears to have dealt with some potential legal matters of its own, regarding an apparent imposter scam. In September, The Daily Beast reported that the fund had denounced a fake website—patriotlegaldefensefund.com—which had see-sawed between being virulently anti-Trump and virulently pro-Trump, before settling on the pro-Trump message and selling mugshot merchandise.

It’s unclear how much the fake site may have cut into the real group’s fundraising. But in recent weeks, the homepage has gone through major changes, scrubbing all mention of Trump’s legal defense and removing the merch in favor of a burst of campaign talking points with links to Trump’s 2024 website.

The real fund’s million dollar donor was a foundation, called the “Caryn L. Hildenbrand Living Trust,” which made its donation on Nov. 6, listing a California address. Court records show that the trust belongs to Caryn and Michael Borland, whose ardent support for QAnon led the Trump campaign to cancel an October 2020 fundraiser that the Borlands were holding for then Vice President Mike Pence, the Associated Press reported at the time.

The utterly nonsensical QAnon conspiracy theory embraces a universe of baseless claims, including allegations that Democrats are engaged in satanic child rape and innumerable fruitless predictions regarding the “deep state” and Trump’s political future.

In 2020, the Borlands contributed $1 million to Trump’s 2020 re-election efforts, but the campaign canceled their fundraiser after reports that the Borlands had prominently displayed and shared a number of QAnon memes and posts.

Another top contributor to the fund—Lauren Pizza of New Jersey—is married to a major Trump donor and hydroxychloroquine distributor. Pizza, whose 2014 memoir noted that “Donald Trump sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me at Mar-a-Lago,” gave $200,000 on Sept. 25.

Other top donors include Beverly Hills real estate outfit Probity International ($125,000), Southern Trust Capital LLC of Huntsville, Alabama ($100,000), and New Jersey accountant Dominic Caglioti ($50,000).

Cleveland Funeral Home, of Cleveland, Mississippi, also contributed $34,000.

https://dnyuz.com/2023/12/12/trump-legal-defense-funds-biggest-expense-was-mar-a-lago/

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/13/...fice-fake-electors-recordings/index.html

Grifters gonna grift.

I want all these sleaze-balls locked up.

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

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.

These days just knowing a little and basic math is enough.

Rudy got hammered for $148 million in the two black female pole workers defamation case. Lying sack of crap deserves to lose everything and some.

a pole worker and a poll worker are 2 different things.

smh, you got me… And yes I knew better.

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.

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.

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'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nced-Capitol-riot-waving-tambourine.html

Former Proud Boys leader sentenced in Jan. 6 case

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.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...-NoBk0YWjBqfdwoOSEgqN9te0AaFECVY92A1Azb4

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.

Trump campaign lawyer ‘freaked out’ about missing elector ballots, Chesebro says

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.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics/recordings-trump-team-fake-elector-ballots/index.html

Just a question, isn't sending Fake or Fraudulent material through the Mail illegal? Just wondering

Everything about it was illegal, the moment they tried to pretend Trump won. If you or I had done the stuff Trump did, we’d be under the jail by now.

Lol “working with people you don’t know.” Dude literally didn’t know trump? That’s a crime in itself. Go to jail.

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.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-...olice-officers-civil-suit-appeals-court/

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."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ntencing-gets-10-years-prison-rcna132414

Another insurrectionist bites the dust. I wonder when the leader of this mob will be served his justice?

10 years pfft. Doesn’t matter they’ll probably all be pardoned soon.

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.



https://www.yahoo.com/gma/special-counsel-probe-uncovers-details-130200050.html

witch hunt!

Actually I believe Twitter holds some responsibility to the American public for allowing this lying POS on their platform to begin with.

Iowa campaign trail recap: Trump calls Jan. 6 rioters serving prison terms 'hostages'

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.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/live-blog/election-2024-live-updates-rcna132639

Murica! Freedumb!

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.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/jan-6-fug...ziJ9AlPWNoOY0sM1ykoEgTwwH8h9aKtLnfy45aU0

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.

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.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-claim-immunity-reaches-appeals-130137278.html


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.

j/c:

Ray Epps, a target of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories, gets a year of probation for his Capitol riot role

https://news.yahoo.com/ray-epps-target-jan-6-164800399.html

I guess he wasn't an undercover FBI agent after all. Who knew?

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.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-warns-bedlam-jan-6-180958397.html

He will do everything, anything to keep his ass out of jail. There is no limit.

GOP senators slap down Trump on Jan. 6 ‘hostages’

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.

“I did not issue blanket pardons,” he said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate..._qtWlEMnxd0NZTiLdQZjWkvYD0bKv2y5LZd944vE

A Death wish. He tried to have his last VP hung.

A Proud Boys member who wielded an axe handle during the Capitol riot gets over 4 years in prison

https://apnews.com/article/william-...ol-riot-7a4e4613a1e72b51459b7c72af511500

What a relief I bet he's feeling right now. Now he's sure he'll be out by the 2028 election so if he feels he needs to do it again he can be there.

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.

https://thehill.com/homenews/441505...HQM0yYB7qp0smZTF3bilOwcJhqPLRVaqXjFiuTPY

Murica! Freedumb!

More Jan 6 hostages, held by Biden, for trump to rescue.

They're just waiting on their Savior in Chief. No, that's not right. It's supposed to be Commander in Chief, right?

I think you mean Prince of Darkness, Father of Lies, Lord of the Flies

Fryer of fries, wearer of ties, bearer of demise?

King of lies.

No silly. THIS is the Prince of Darness! And sadly even he makes more sense than the top two candidates running for president.

I used to own one of these.

Oh the irony! Considering the other choices he may very well have gotten my vote in 2024. Sadly he was born in Great Britain so he doesn't legally qualify. Even though the top front runners qualify from a legal standpoint, when one stops to think about it for a minute they're not actually qualified either.

Biden is more than qualified. Quit putting Biden on the maga trump level.

The lesser of two evils isn't something I plan to boast about. I've made it pretty clear that between the two of them I think Biden is the obvious choice. Which is very bad testimony indeed. But let's not pretend that Biden is the best the dems have to offer. If he is we're all SOL. I've said this a few times and it's pretty much the way I see it. I hope you're old enough to remember or have seen the original Batman TV series....

Just because you may think Albert is too old to properly care for the bat cave doesn't mean you should turn the bat cave over to The Joker.

Well, there's a place for him somewhere in this mess...

You just reminded me of another SNL skit where Tom Petty acted as Bob Dylan's interpreter.

This isn't the one but it gives you an idea.

I would pay good money to see a conversation between the two of them.

I'm not sure which would be more entertaining: a conversation between the two of them or Trump and a mirror. It would be like watching a sociopathic, uber-narcissistic version of Stuart Smalley.

Other situations that would be disastrous:

Matt Gaetz chaperoning a high school mixer.

Bob Menendez attending a benefit for the restoration of the Great Pyramids.

Ron DeSantis co-branded Jimmy Choo high heels.

Nancy Pelosi beginning a book club where you have pitch reading a book without having read anything in it.

You just painted a portrait I will never be mentally able to unsee. Does that include him having a private jet waiting at the airport?

Ha, no he'll drive there. Has to reassure he doesn't cross state lines this time.

Yet you can only point to his age. As ifthat in its self lowers him down to nearly trump level madness.

It's not his age. It's how his age has effected him. I've watched politics and kept up with it for decades. This isn't the same Joe Biden from decades ago. This isn't even the same Joe Biden that was Vice President under Obama. You are making accusations that I have said things I certainly never said. But look at a speech from when Biden was vice president and then look at one now then tell me it's even close to the same thing. My mother in law just passed away about a year ago. She was 85. Talking to her was enjoyable. The woman was very sharp minded. I would never question her qualifications for a job she was qualified to do. But you keep acting like it's nothing more than ageism. Why are you acting like Joe Biden is such a great candidate?

Lol. Are you sure Trump would enjoy that? I mean, no audience??

The rest of that is pure gold.

You guys kill me. If the choice is Biden vs. Trump in 24, if Biden is the ONLY one on the ballot that is legally allowed to be POTUS, there is no choice. Trump will never be allowed to be POTUS again.

I don't disagree with you that he should be disqualified from the ballot. The issue is he won't be. And while I admire your determination I don't believe you are dealing with reality. Hopefully the American people find his actions, misdeeds and words as making him unable to be president, but make no mistake about it that if he wins the election he will be the president again.

Interesting article for everyone that has Trump guilty of insurrection: https://www.creators.com/read/larry-elder/01/24/biden-media-insurrection-big-lie

I doubt many will read it, but, facts matter, right?

Facts do matter. But when you include some facts while omitting others you can write an opinion piece in a manner that delivers the message you wish it to send. This was written by Larry Elder who is a right leaning conservative political commentator and talk radio host. Because you know, facts matter.

"We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," he said.

Supporting the rewriting of history again? You do know 99% of US saw it unfold on live tv. Violent insurrection caused by the big lies of trump. And I’m guessing a lot of these judges and prosecutors are right leaning due to the light sentences they’re given.

Read it. And for those who know it was an insurrection, as determined by the courts, Trump is found having planned and incited a ‘riotous mob’ to march on the Capitol of our nation, the seat of our democracy. This is beyond heinous, trying to down play a traitorous POTUS, even for a guy like you, arch. Trump IS AN INSURRECTION LEADER and INSURRECTIONIST… but I digress, the SCOTUS will rule soon and eyes will open.

FYI - Larry Elder is a whack-job. You’ll be a smarter person for not reading his BS.

They need to do whatever they have to in order to help them sleep better at night.

I read it. 16 paragraphs to say that the FBI found scant evidence that January 6th was coordinated.

Here is a link to the Colorado Supreme Courts ruling that explains why they think this was an insurrection.
A little bit longer but I challenge you to read it.

https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2023/12/23SA300.pdf

lol, no way he reads and responds. No way. Lmao.

Good luck with that.

Where was he found guilty?

So, a liberal court found him "guilty'?

Civil court findings are not guilty verdicts but rather determinations by the law. And I know you are trying to get to the ticky-tacky weeds of a guilty verdict, but fortunately we don’t need that standard to disqualify him. And those good justices did the work, gave Trump his chance to testify, and FOUND him to be involved in and responsible for the January 6th insurrection. And if you ever return to the realm of reality from your trip to Trumplandia, you might see it too. His alt facts don’t matter to the law. Your hopes for a dictator don’t matter to the law. All that matters is that DJT has disqualified himself from participating in democrachy.

But, YOU are one that has posted repeatedly he was found guilty of insurrection.

So you posted an opinion piece from a right wing political commentator and act like that means something? You do realize you are doing nothing but repeating the trump company line, right? You claim that lawyers and judges with years of legal experience can't possibly be fair according to who appointed them or which party they belong to? Only people that would lack that quality themselves think others lack that same quality. You have decided to ignore everything they have said and every legal point made because you think they're so bias that nothing else matters. Were you a student of Trump University?

But then you never read that court decision in the first place did you? So you have no idea what their decision was based on.

I may have been, but then somebody explained it to me just like I explained it to you. Now you have all the facts.

Also, there is no wiggle room in the 14th amendment. The SCOTUS must disqualify him or the grand experiment ends, period. And man, wait until you see what ANTIFA has planned if the conservative SCOTUS says Trump is qualified…

So you post opinion pieces all the time, claiming it as fact. The "news" anymore is nothing but opinion.

And? You were wrong. Again.

"This, of course, does not stop the media — only 3.4% of American journalists are registered Republicans — from routinely calling Jan. 6 an "insurrection."

Prove that wrong.

Really, when was I wrong? Trump has proven to be the POS I’ve said he was and you’ve proven to be his dupe. Fascist? Check Criminal? Check LOSER? Check… everything I’ve said has come to pass except the punishment. But in fake reality that’s a win for you so… otay buckwheat.

Here is Section 3 of the 14 Amendment
No where does it say found guilty in a court of law of
Actually says you don't need to have even been involved in the insurrection
All you have to do is give aid or comfort to those that did

Seems to me that promising those that are in jail for their actions on January 6 is offering comfort to
Disagree?


Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Other Rights

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.


https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/section-3/

You've had trump convicted of so many crimes over the last, what, 9 years? What a joke.

Good point. The audience is a series of more mirrors angled so it is an audience made up entirely of him.

And you've decided he's innocent apparently? Trumps BS line about this is all Bidens witch hunt is THE dumbest thing I've ever heard... That's saying something because for the last 9 years all we've heard is dumb stuff from Trump.

There was INDEED an Insurrection. Not doubt about it. It was NOT a peaceful demonstration. NOT even close. And there is no doubt that Trump was the leader. He caused it, he demanded it, he asked for it and he got it.

You don't have to believe me, just get on line and watch the videos. It's all right there. I watched it as it unfolded. Trump and his minions can't LIE to me. I saw it with my own eyes. Trump caused that. He should NEVER be allowed to be elected to be even a DOG CATCHER.

He's guilty of that crime.. NO DOUBT. The evidence is clear.

So all this "WOE is He" Crap won't fly.

Trump is GUILTY!

And your post ^ just makes it clear.

Convicted of nothing, other than the mass media hating him.

Give me a better choice to vote for. I will.

Open your eyes,, Tell me that Jan 6 wasn't an insurrection? Tell me that. Then explain how he wasn't the evil whack job behind it.

When you see it with your own eyes, there is no need for a conviction in court.

A man is right in front of you, holding a gun, you see him shoot someone. You saw it, do you need to see him convicted to know he pulled the trigger?

So, Yeah, I believe he's guilty...

He hasn’t been to court yet to be convicted. He claims he’s innocent but wants complete immunity from any crime he’s committed while president. Why does he need immunity if he’s innocent? 90+ indictments and he’ll be convicted eventually then maybe pardon himself. It’s only matter of time. It’s the reason he’s running. To save himself. Not US. A monkey is a better choice than trump.

Let me explain the difference here. You claim that "news anymore is nothing but opinion". But the news is the news. The things I quote that trump said, he said. The convictions and sentences of the Jan.6th mob are news, not opinion. The sickening quites of politicians I post are true, not opinion. Just because it doesn't fit into your little box doesn't mean it isn't news. It means you've found an excuse to dismiss it. Now you are certainly correct when it comes to people that have opinion and talk shows on news channels. Like the Rachel Maddow's and Sean Hannity's of the world. They are most certainly not news. Which is exactly what you did here.

Laurence Elder is an American conservative political commentator and talk radio host. He had a radio talk show until April of 2022. His very job was to cater his message to conservatives. That is his career. To mold and include messages his audiences would follow and not being impartial. He is by his own job description exactly what you describe.

By contrast, a judge goes into the law profession. They must go to law school. And to make it to a state supreme court they have work themselves up the ladder of the court system. Their job by description is to adjudicate the law.

Somehow you have decided that a conservative mouthpiece has more credibility than people have dedicated their life to the study and application of the law because they are "liberals". You have made the decision that because the very talking heads you listen to claim they are liberals means they are not qualified to do their jobs properly.

Instead you call a conservative talking head the beacon of truth.

Show your source.

It was a SAFE BET, any fool could see he was a ridiculous petty man child criminal. WELL, MAYBE NOT ANY…

Arch’s new stuck on stupid talking point…. Was he found guilty? You can’t make this crap up.

Face it arch, your golden boy, is a turd sandwich wrapped in racist fascist fantasy of ‘alt facts’ and dictatorial dreams of grandeur. And he has been found to be an insurrectionist leader by LAW! Remember when the law meant something to GOPers? Obviously, one of us was wrong about him, and the 91 indictments as of now, say it wasn’t me.

With him currently facing 91 criminal counts it would seem as though the odds are "yugerly" in your favor of being right.

I think the joke would be, especially at this point in time under the current conditions, that you will be the one who ends up being wrong here.

Seems trumps dementia is getting worse
Can you imagine the right's outrage had biden said this?


Trump confuses Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi when talking about Jan. 6
Megan Lebowitz and Jake Traylor
Updated Sat, January 20, 2024 at 1:07 PM EST·3 min read
447


Former President Donald Trump appeared to mistakenly refer to GOP rival Nikki Haley instead of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when discussing the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Friday night.

The mix-up came during Trump's remarks to a crowd of supporters in Concord, where he spoke for more than 90 minutes and repeatedly bashed Haley, who served in his administration as an ambassador to the United Nations and has never been a member of Congress.

“Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it, because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people,” Trump said.


Click link for the rest of the artricle
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-confuses-nikki-haley-nancy-065045460.html

Rumor has it neither one of them is his type. That may help explain it. He forgets those women. Just ask E. Jean Carroll who was in a picture with trump who said he had never seen her before in his life and when shown the picture mistook her for his wife. It happens all the time!

Fox News

Nikki Haley suggests Trump may not be ‘mentally fit’ to be president after he seems to confuse her with Pelosi

Brie Stimson
Sat, January 20, 2024 at 3:49 PM EST·3 min read

Former South Carolina Gov. and Republican candidate for president Nikki Haley on Saturday suggested that former President Trump may not be "mentally fit" after he seemed to confuse her with ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., while discussing the Jan. 6 riot.

"Last night Trump is at a rally and he’s going on and on, mentioning me multiple times as to why I didn’t take security during the Capitol riots. Why I didn’t handle Jan. 6 better. I wasn’t even in D.C. on Jan. 6. I wasn’t in office then," Haley told supporters at a rally in Keene, New Hampshire, in anticipation of the state's first-in-the-nation presidential primary Tuesday.

She continued, "They’re saying he got confused, that he was talking about something else, he’s talking about Nancy Pelosi. He mentioned me multiple times in that scenario."

She said she didn’t want to say anything "derogatory" about Trump, "but when you’re dealing with the pressures of the presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this. We can’t," she added, referring to suggestions that President Biden isn’t mentally fit.

While speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, Friday evening, Trump told his crowd, "By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley. Do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it?"

Haley and Trump have stepped up their attacks on each other ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
"All of it, because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security," he mistakenly said about Jan. 6. "We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people."

Biden’s campaign was quick to post the clip on it’s X, formerly Twitter, "rapid response channel, with the caption: "Haley reacts to Trump’s delusional and confused rant last night where he suggested that she was Speaker of the House on January 6: He got confused. I question if he’s mentally fit."

With three days left until the Republican primary in New Hampshire, Haley and Trump have stepped up attacks against each other.

Haley finished a narrow third to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Iowa, but has surged past him in polling for the Granite State, although Trump maintains a double-digit lead in most polls.

Haley, 52, has repeatedly presented herself as a younger, fresher alternative to Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, and said there should be a mental fitness test for anyone holding office who is over 75.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nikki-haley-suggests-trump-may-204959458.html

It’s beyond the twilight zone that trump has a lead in anything but the number of crimes he’s committed. And Goper’s here with fingers in their ears going Lalalalalalal.

Peter Navarro sentenced to 4 months in jail

Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced on Thursday to four months behind bars.

He was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges, after former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who also got a four-month sentence but is free pending appeal.

Navarro was found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House Jan. 6 committee. He served as a White House trade adviser under then-President Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has vowed to appeal the verdict, saying he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. A judge barred him from making that argument at trial, however, finding that he didn’t show Trump had actually invoked it.

Navarro said in court before his sentencing Thursday that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack had led him to believe that it accepted his invocation of executive privilege. “Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch,” he told the judge.

The judge told Navarro that it took “chutzpah” for him to assert that he accepted responsibility for his actions while also suggesting that his prosecution was politically motivated. “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution,” the judge said. “These are circumstances of your own making.

Navarro’s lawyers had advised him not to address the judge, but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express disappointment in him. Responding to a question about why he didn’t initially seek a lawyer’s counsel, he told the judge, “I didn’t know what to do, sir.”

The judge is allowing Navarro’s defense to submit a written brief on the question of allowing him to remain free pending appeal.

Justice Department prosecutors said Navarro tried to “hide behind claims of privilege” even before he knew what the committee wanted, showing a “disdain” for the committee that should warrant a longer sentence. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to six months behind bars and impose a $200,000 fine.

Defense attorneys said Trump did claim executive privilege, putting Navarro in an “untenable position,” and they asked for a sentence of probation and a $100 fine.

Bannon, who also made executive-privilege arguments, was convicted of two counts.

Navarro’s sentencing comes after a judge rejected his bid for a new trial. His attorneys had argued that jurors may have been improperly influenced by political protesters outside the courthouse when they took a break from deliberations. Shortly after their break, the jurors found Navarro guilty of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress.

But U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Navarro didn’t show that the eight-minute break had any effect on the September verdict. He found no protest was underway and no one approached the jurors — they interacted only with each other and the court officer assigned to accompany them.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-white-house-official-convicted-051926695.html


___

Follow the AP's coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection at

Four months is not enough for his lying big mouth.

Giuliani, Meadows, and Eastman need prison time for their obvious corruption.

They can join Manafort. Prison suits will fit them all like they were tailor made.

Small potatoes. There is only one that needs to be put down.

Reagan-appointed judge warns GOP's 'preposterous' claims about Jan. 6 could pose threat
Judge Royce Lamberth says he's "shocked" that "meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream" as some Republican politicians defend Jan. 6 rioters.

Jan. 25, 2024, 5:17 PM EST
By Ryan J. Reilly


WASHINGTON — A Republican-appointed federal judge who has served on the bench for 37 years slammed prominent politicians for their "preposterous" claims about how the courts have handled Jan. 6 cases and their attempts to "rewrite history" about the U.S. Capitol attack, saying such rhetoric could foreshadow future far-right violence.

Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, appointed to the bench by former President Ronald Reagan in 1987, said at a resentencing hearing Thursday that he is "shocked" at how prominent political figures have talked about the convicted criminals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling the politicians' remarks "preposterous" and warning that such rhetoric "could presage further danger to our country."

While Lamberth did not refer to the politicians by name, he used quotations from Reps. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga. (who said rioters behaved "in an orderly fashion" like tourists), Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. (who called Jan. 6 inmates "political prisoners"), and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. (who, echoing former President Donald Trump, called Jan. 6 criminals "hostages"). In 2022, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution referring to the events of Jan. 6 as "legitimate political discourse."

"The Court is accustomed to defendants who refuse to accept that they did anything wrong. But in my thirty-seven years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream," Lamberth said, according to his prepared remarks.

"I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness,” Lamberth continued before he issued a stark warning: "The Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country."

Lamberth, a former Judge Advocate General Corps captain who served in Vietnam, said he could not "condone the shameless attempts" to misrepresent what happened on Jan. 6. The court, he said, "cannot condone the notion that those who broke the law on January 6 did nothing wrong, or that those duly convicted with all the safeguards of the United States Constitution, including a right to trial by jury in felony cases, are political prisoners or hostages."

Lamberth then made an effort to "set the record straight, based on what I’ve learned presiding over many January 6 prosecutions, hearing from dozens of witnesses, watching hundreds of hours of video footage, and reading thousands of pages of evidence."

"On January 6, 2021, a mob of people invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, using force to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power mandated by the Constitution and our republican heritage," he said. "The rioters interfered with a necessary step in the constitutional process, disrupted the lawful transfer of power, and thus jeopardized the American constitutional order. ... This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism."

Lamberth went on to say that it was "a matter of right and wrong" and that it fell to judges to say the actions of those who broke the law on Jan. 6 were wrong.

"The Court does not expect its remarks to fully stem the tide of falsehoods. But I hope a little truth will go a long way," he said.

More than 1,250 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the Justice Department. More than 700 defendants have entered voluntary guilty pleas, meaning they appeared before judges and admitted under penalty of perjury that they had, in fact, engaged in criminal activity on Jan. 6, according to the Justice Department.

Just this week, Edward Richmond Jr. of Louisiana, who was previously convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing an Iraqi civilian while deployed overseas, was arrested and charged with assaulting law enforcement officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Richmond, federal authorities say, used a baton to assault law enforcement officers battling rioters at the lower west tunnel, where some of the most extreme violence of the day took place. Richmond will plead not guilty, said his attorney, John McLindon.

A day after Richmond's arrest, federal authorities on Tuesday arrested Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez, whom online sleuths identified as the man who was photographed and recorded using chemical spray to assault law enforcement officers at the west tunnel on Jan. 6, according to the FBI. It is unclear whether Oliva-Lopez has entered a plea.



https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...erous-claims-jan-6-pose-threa-rcna135754

Are you pretending to believe they care about the law? Just read the immigration thread. All they care about is doing what "they think is right". Saying and promoting the things they "feel". They have no concern about following the law or saying things to incite further division and violence. That's actually what they want.

Proud Boys member sentenced to prison on Jan. 6 charges after insulting judge

Proud Boys member Marc Bru has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges related to storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 after he insulted the judge who punished him.

Bru repeatedly interrupted Chief Judge James Boasberg, calling him a “clown” and a “fraud” presiding over a “kangaroo court.” Boasberg warned him that he could be kicked out of the courtroom if he continued, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

“You can give me 100 years and I’d do it all over again,” said Bru, who was handcuffed and shackled. Boasberg determined Bru had no remorse.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement that Bru, a resident of Vancouver, Washington, was also fined $7,946 and owes $2,000 in restitution.

Bru, a member of the far-right Proud Boys militia group from Washington state, was found guilty in October of felonies related to the insurrection, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and multiple misdemeanors for participating in the riots and entering the Capitol building.

Prosecutors described Bru as one of the least remorseful rioters who participated in the insurrection. Bru planned for a “January 6 2.0” attack to take over the government in Portland, Ore., just weeks after the riot in Washington, D.C., the AP reported.

“He wanted a repeat of January 6, only he implied this time would be more violent,” prosecutors said.

The DOJ said Bru charged the makeshift barricades police officers made with a bicycle rack and used his body weight to push against it. Bru did not attend the “Stop the Steal” rally hosted by former President Trump, authorities said, adding that he joined other rioters inside the Capitol and entered the Senate gallery and in total, spent about 13 minutes inside.

Bru had failed to appear at two court hearings since June. He represented himself in court and had an attorney on standby, the AP reported.

Prosecutors recommended Bru be sentenced to seven years and three months in prison.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with crimes related to storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. About 900 have pleaded guilty, and more than 750 have been sentenced, with two-thirds receiving imprisonment, data compiled by the AP found.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4427105-proud-boys-member-sentenced-prison-jan-6/

Murica! Freedumb!

Jan. 6 rioter who flipped officer over ledge gets more than 6 years in prison

A rioter who flipped a law enforcement officer over a ledge during the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol was sentenced to more than six years in prison Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

New York resident Ralph Celentano, 56, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison. District Judge Timothy Kelly said Celentano’s actions Jan. 6 were “disgraceful” and the attack on the officer was “a truly cowardly and despicable thing to do,” NBC News reported.

Celentano was arrested in 2022 in connection to his role in the Capitol riots and was found guilty last year of multiple misdemeanor and felony charges, including assaulting law enforcement officers. According to the prosecutors, Celentano made his way to the front of the rioters gathered at the Lower West Terrace, where he engaged in several altercations with law enforcement officers during the Capitol riot.

According to court documents, Celentano and other rioters successfully breached the police line. He then spotted a Capitol Police officer with his back turned near a raised platform, and hit the officer in a “football style tackle,” according to the documents. The documents said the officer then flipped over the ledge and fell onto the officers below him.

The government had asked for Celentano to be sentenced to 135 months in prison, three years supervised release, a $2,000 restitution and a $300 special assessment, according to a sentencing memorandum last year.

“Celentano’s conduct on January 6, 2021 demonstrates a violent character and disrespect for law enforcement, which weighs in favor of a lengthy term of incarceration,” the sentencing memo states.

https://thehill.com/policy/national...9JQYwQOw-YR5b_rZnr1Nl6lToZPWAGm44nDvHDy4

Colorado man sentenced to prison for assaulting police officers during Jan. 6 riot

A Colorado man was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Why it matters: Even more than three years later, the Capitol riot continues to be a lightning rod for both Republicans and Democrats as the effort to prosecute participants in the insurrection churns on.

State of play: Jonathan David Grace, 49, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines, the Department of Justice announced in a press release Tuesday.

Grace will also need to pay $2,000 in restitution.
After being arrested last March, Grace pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge back in October for his actions during the riot.

According to the Justice Department, Grace was part of a mob that confronted police officers in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. Grace remained in the tunnel "fighting police officers" for almost an hour, per the press release.

The big picture: To date, more than 1,265 people across all 50 states have been charged in connection to the insurrection, per the press release.

Among them, more than 440 people have been charged with "assaulting or impeding law enforcement."

At least 23 people with Colorado ties have been arrested and charged with roughly 100 federal crimes for their roles in the attack, making the state one of the top for those indicted.

Recently, Colorado's Supreme Court made the unprecedented move of barring Trump from the state's primary ballots in the 2024 election. Trump has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/30/ja...Jzcq7COHNYi8MG8GckcU9GYRs8edF3qlXpvuPY_Y

The federal government has just taken another hostage.

Vet who killed Iraqi civilian ordered to jail on Capitol riot charges

A military veteran who shot and killed a handcuffed civilian in Iraq nearly 20 years ago was ordered jailed Tuesday on charges that he used a metal baton to assault police officers during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Chief Judge James Boasberg agreed with prosecutors that Edward Richmond Jr., 40, of Geismar, Louisiana, is a danger to the community. Richmond initially was released after his Jan. 22 arrest.

FBI agents found an AR-15 assault rifle in Richmond’s closet when they searched his Louisiana home. Richmond is prohibited from possessing firearms after his 2004 manslaughter conviction for fatally shooting an Iraqi cow herder in the head while serving in the U.S. Army.

“The government is concerned that, under growing pressure, he may snap again,” a prosecutor wrote in a court filing.

The judge described Richmond’s conduct at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as “pretty troubling to me.”

The prosecutor said Richmond was trying to live “off the grid” with untraceable income before his arrest on charges including civil disorder and assaulting police with a dangerous weapon. But the judge said he didn’t view Richmond as a flight risk, as prosecutors argued.

Last Wednesday, a federal magistrate judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ordered Richmond’s release from custody. Prosecutors persuaded Boasberg to overrule the magistrate’s decision.

The judge ordered Richmond to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service next Monday. Richmond is the sole caregiver for his 16-year-old son. The judge agreed to give Richmond time to make arrangements for his son’s care while he is in jail.

“I know it’s important to you. It’s important to me also,” the judge told Richmond, who appeared remotely with his Louisiana-based attorney, John McLindon.

McLindon said prosecutors are relying on “antiquated incidents” in Richmond’s life to argue that he is a danger to the community.

“There is not one shred of evidence that in the last three years he has engaged in any type of violence or crimes. He has simply worked and raised his son,” the defense attorney wrote.

Richmond was 20 when an Army court-martial panel convicted him of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to three years of military confinement for killing Muhamad Husain Kadir in February 2004. Richmond also was dishonorably discharged from the Army.

The Army said Richmond shot Kadir in the back of the head from about six feet away after the man stumbled. Richmond testified that he didn’t know Kadir was handcuffed and believed the Iraqi man was going to harm a fellow soldier.

Richmond initially was charged with unpremeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But the panel of five officers and five enlisted soldiers reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter.

Richmond was dressed in tactical gear when he attacked police outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.

Body camera footage captured Richmond repeatedly assaulting police officers with a black baton in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, the FBI said. Police struggled for hours to stop a mob of Donald Trump supporters from entering the Capitol through the same tunnel entrance.

“January 6 was not a one-time, innocent mistake, but rather one example of a pattern of dangerous behavior; of responding to tense situations with violence,” wrote the prosecutor, Victoria Sheets.

Sheets said the rifle found in Richmond’s home was registered to his ex-wife. Prosecutors plan to charge Richmond with a crime in connection with the gun, Sheets said.

“He knows he’s not supposed to have this weapon,” she told the judge. “He knows what those weapons can do.”

A witness helped the FBI identify Richmond as somebody who had traveled to Washington with several other people to serve as a “security team” for the witness for rallies planned for Jan. 6, the affidavit says.

Over 100 police officers were injured during the riot. More than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol attack.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/...DRy6lVJhkKf2euEhjISvQuhH9M_bkp-G7mqPWb_U

And the federal government's hostage count continues to rise. But never fear, trump will save you!

How in the hell did he get out of jail to begin with? Dude shot a man in cold blood.

It must have been those liberal Army court martial judges.

Must be the same liberal court martial judges that have been going easy on all their sexual predators.

Exactly.

I'm not a part of this conversation, nor do I plan to be.

I simply quoted this slice from the article to remind us all what happened that day. Reading these two sentences brought back a flood of images, and the dead feeling I had inside as I watched it all go down in real time. We had just come home from a meeting with our estate planner, turned on the television... and saw this abomination. Two offspring, raised by The Greatest Generation, watching the Capitol building their fathers risked life and limb to protect and defend in WWII, being sacked by angry, misled people who were born on this soil, just like you & me.

These people did this vile thing to My Nation's Capitol.
And they did it in front of us all.

Time/memory has a way of sanding down the edges of things that once had sharp, well-defined corners. Occasionally, we need reminders- so we don't forget how stark, primal and visceral the moment actually was. Americans died on that day. On the site of the heart of our democracy.

12/7/41.
9/11/2001.
1/6/2021.

These three dates represent to me, the most brazen attacks upon US soil since the Civil War.
Only one of these attacks came from within the US community.

They are not 'persecuted patriots.'
They are not 'political prisoners.'
They are criminals who attacked our country with a strategic goal.


That's all.
Never forget.

[img]https://www.usnews.com/object/image...ime=1610738571337&size=responsive970[/img]


We now return you to your regularly-scheduled broadcast.




*name redacted from original article quote, because seditious conspiracy is the same, under any name. I had to look long and hard to find a 'Capitol noose photo' that didn't feature partisan campaign flags from that day. Short version: I did my best to make this about the state of America on that day. Truth: democracy is never far from threats like this- from any and all angles.

It will not be forgotten nor will it end until "all" those involved are held accountable to the laws of this land."

No person is above the law.

But they’re pAtRiOtS.

This thread has never really been a conversation Clem. Just posts showing what actually happened that day and the crimes they committed. The reason it has never become a conversation is because it's been avoided and ignored. As if sticking their fingers in their collective ears and going la, la, la changes what happened. As if ignoring it changes that trump did everything he could to overthrow an election. As if he didn't sit there for hours watching it while doing nothing. They don't wish to address any of that and as such it's never been and probably never will be a conversation on this board.

FBI arrests Jan. 6 rioter IDed with help of facial recognition and a throwback Eagles hat

A Facebook photo from a family visit to a pumpkin patch helped confirm the New Jersey man's identification by online sleuths.

WASHINGTON — The FBI this week arrested a New Jersey man who wore a throwback Philadelphia Eagles beanie to the Jan. 6 riot after online "sedition hunters" identified him with the help of facial recognition and Facebook photos from a 2020 family trip to a pumpkin patch.

Lee Giobbie, 40, a financial adviser from Eastampton, was arrested Tuesday and charged with several federal crimes, including felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. Giobbie, federal authorities alleged, yelled "move the gates!" over a bullhorn before the barricades on the east side of the Capitol were breached on Jan. 6, 2021. He was later recorded at the front of the mob yelling "push, push, push, push!” as it broke through another police line and then helped breach the Capitol, pushing through the east doors leading into the rotunda, authorities said.

"We need something to break the door down!" Giobbie said, according to the FBI, which said open-source video also shows Giobbie pushing against a police shield during the chaos.

Giobbie, authorities said, was "one of the first rioters to enter" and "aggressively pushed his way through the Rotunda Door as police were actively trying to defend it." Inside the Capitol, Giobbie was briefly detained by an officer, and he ultimately left the Capitol through a door on the west side of the building, according to the FBI and open-source evidence gathered by online sleuths.

Online sleuths identified Giobbie in 2022 and reported him to the FBI that year, and they reported additional information about him last year. They turned up a 2020 family photo from a trip to a pumpkin patch, posted a few months before Jan. 6, in which Giobbie was wearing the same Philadelphia Eagles beanie the FBI said he wore on Jan. 6.

An FBI affidavit, citing help from confidential human sources, also featured an image that compared a small mole or freckle on Giobbie's right cheek that appeared in both Giobbie's professional work portrait and high-quality images of Giobbie taken on Jan. 6. Small facial markings can help confirm matches produced by facial recognition, a tool that has proven very useful to the online sleuths who have aided the FBI in cases against hundreds of Capitol rioters, who have identified hundreds of additional rioters like Giobbie.

Hope Lefeber, an attorney for Giobbie, told NBC News that Giobbie was made aware that he was under investigation several months ago and confirmed that it did appear that Giobbie "was inside the Capitol building." Giobbie, she said, was not arrested at his home, and his home was not searched, but agents served a search warrant for his phone.

Lefeber said she had communicated to the government that Giobbie would have voluntarily surrendered and said that sending agents out to arrest him was a waste of government time.

"This man has not engaged in any subversive activities, has not been destructive in any way, has not done a damn thing since Jan. 6," Lefeber said. "Now we'll have to resolve this and see where this goes."

The Eagles used the version of their logo featured on Giobbie's hat from the late 1980s until 1996, when the modern Eagles logo was introduced. The throwback logo, used when the Eagles wore kelly green jerseys rather than their current midnight green color, has proven immensely popular among Eagles fans like Giobbie, who, according to social media posts, also roots for the New Jersey Devils.

The Eagles set off a merchandising bonanza when they reintroduced their old-school logo and kelly green jersey before the 2023 season, which ended with their loss Jan. 15 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Eagles players wore the throwback uniforms during their games against the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills this season. Fanatics, the ubiquitous sportswear manufacturer, had trouble stocking the throwback version of legendary Eagles center Jason Kelce's jersey, which have been listed for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

The Eagles certainly were not the only sports team whose gear was spotted on Capitol rioters. A former Boston K-9 officer who has been charged in the attack, for example, wore "a beanie with the logos of several Boston sports teams" to the Capitol on Jan. 6, two charged rioters wore Washington Capitols jerseys, another convicted rioter wore a New York Yankees hat, a charged Georgia man wore a Georgia Bulldogs hat, a Michigan man who pleaded guilty wore a Michigan sweatshirt, and a charged "internet pornography personality" was known to online sleuths as #RightWingRedWing because of his Detroit Red Wings gear.

The FBI has arrested about 1,250 people in connection with the Capitol attack, and about 900 have pleaded guilty. Online "sedition hunters" know the names of hundreds of additional rioters who have not been arrested.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...ition-philadelphia-eagles-hat-rcna136589

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

I don't know that there's anything great about it but you did get the color right.

"As former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, Horn very early on became a "Never Trump" campaigner, working with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project to oppose his candidacy. She said the events of Jan. 6, 2020 and the 91 charges pending against him indicate he's not worthy of being president again.

"I will not vote for Trump and I will not vote for a Republican unwilling to denounce Trump," said Horn, 59. "He is a grotesque, narcissistic, emotionally ill criminal who has already made it clear he is willing to toss aside the Constitution and incite an insurrection. That goes completely against everything I used to believe the Republican Party was about."

A Republican who I can relate to.

Pennsylvania man seen as Jan. 6 instigator convicted on multiple counts

Ryan Samsel, one of the individuals who prosecutors accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted Friday on multiple felony counts, along with four co-defendants.

Samsel was one of the first people to confront the police on Jan. 6 outside the Capitol, with prosecutors saying he was part of a group that breached a restricted perimeter on the Capitol grounds and “paved the way” for other rioters to storm the area.

Prosecutors said Samsel and the four co-defendants “ignited a fire that burned for over four hours at the Capitol,” The New York Times reported.

Federal charges were filed against Samsel a month after the riot, with prosecutors alleging he attacked a Capitol Police Officer, Caroline Edwards, who suffered a concussion.

He was found guilty Friday of assaulting Edwards, and convicted on felony counts of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Samsel, along with co-defendants James Tate Grant, Paul Russell Johnson, Stephen Chase Randolph and Jason Benjamin Blythe, were all found guilty of civil disorder, the DOJ said in a release.

The DOJ said Randolph, like Samsel, was found guilty of assaulting Edwards, while the three others convicted Friday were found guilty of assaulting another officer, among other charges.

The individuals were found not guilty on three misdemeanor charges and said they were not aware that former Vice President Mike Pence, who was protected by the Secret Service, was in the building, NBC News reported. However, they were found guilty of one misdemeanor charge for committing an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds, the DOJ said.

Video circulated showing Samsel speaking with Proud Boy member Joe Biggs, who is sentenced to 17 years in prison, near the Capitol before Samsel began taking down bike racks used as a line of defense for police officers. Edwards then fell backwards, hitting her head.

Samsel is being held in custody and sentencing for him and the codefendants will be June 13.

The DOJ said nearly 900 people have been convicted of crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, with 149 people convicted of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers or employees.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...0G9atkobvzjxbWAMNsVhJiHfFHwbtVzGHU1Qgipk

It was just another tour day at the Capitol building per the GOP narrative. You know, because everyday of regular tours ends up with about 900 felony charges against tourists.

You missed their company line......

I think I have figured out why Eve is so drawn to MMA.........

FBI used MMA fight poster to identify Jan. 6 rioter from Tennessee

WASHINGTON (WATE) — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty to a felony charge earlier this month for his action during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Devin McNulty, 28, of Loudon pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers on Feb. 1 in Washington D.C.

He initially faced charges including an act of physical violence in a Capitol building and engaging in physical violence, and civil disorder. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 28.

According to court documents, the FBI first learned about McNulty through an anonymous tip. Agents were able to identify him by comparing photos and videos from the Capitol to a poster advertising a Knoxville mixed-martial arts fight McNulty competed in.

Investigators identified his cell phone number and used call logs and data from Snapchat to track his whereabouts from Knoxville on Jan. 5 to Washington D.C. the next day.

McNulty was seen on various videos shared on social media from the Capitol grounds, including at the west front of the Capitol building and scaling the retaining wall to reach the Upper West Terrace.

ther footage appears to show him pushing directly against a police officer’s riot shield. An officer interviewed following the riot said he attempted to gain control of their shields, forcing them to exert increasingly more effort to counteract him. The officer described their interaction with McNulty as “aggressive” and “persistent.”

search warrant for Google accounts linked to McNulty showed searches for “flights from TYS to Washington on Jan 6, 2021, returning Jan 8, 2021.” TYS is the airport code for McGhee Tyson Airport. Other search terms included “charges against rioters,” “What we know about the people arrested after the Capitol riots” and “how to mass delete Gmail emails.”

He was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia on June 13, 2023.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...TAFh5rlPZ1Tu-NFhgWg2qvY82rT3ym69NeLylX5E

McNutty.

And they worry about our educational leaders being woke? Maybe they should be more concerned about them being criminal extremists.

Man who assaulted officers with hockey stick on Jan. 6 sentenced to prison

A Michigan man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for assaulting law enforcement officers with a hockey stick during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Michael Joseph Foy, 32, to 40 months in prison and two years of supervised release for actions he took during the Capitol attack. He was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers for those actions last year in a stipulated bench trial.

Court documents show Foy traveled from Wixom, Mich., to the nation’s capital to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia. He attended wearing an American flag around his shoulders and carried a “Trump 2020” flag that was attached to a hockey stick.

The press release stated Foy pushed his way through a mob of protesters to the entrance of the Lower West Terrace tunnel of the Capitol building, where he picked up a sharp metal pole and “threw it over the head of rioters into the body of a police officer.”

The pole knocked the officer into the archway and Foy proceeded to use his hockey stick to attack the police, according to the release. Video footage showed Foy swinging his hockey stick and hitting officers at least 11 times within 16 seconds, including an officer who was already injured on the ground and another who was knocked backward.

Court documents say that Foy swung his hockey stick over his head and downward at police officers as if he were chopping wood with an ax. Body-worn camera, taken from a police officer prone on the ground, shows Foy swinging down onto the officer’s exposed body. Court documents say Foy attacked an officer in the face, head, neck, and body area, and not in self-defense.

The press release said he shouted “let’s go” to other rioters after assaulting multiple officers with the hockey stick. He then proceeded to climb through the shattered window, bringing his hockey stick with him.

The attorney’s office noted that more than 1,313 individuals have been charged with crimes related to the riot at the Capitol since Jan. 6, 2021.

https://thehill.com/policy/national...tuNyX6greWpZmFIeS8irNIcDM8bWiBA900tcbVJw

We’d get 40 months for any kind of resistance of arrest, let alone assaulting officers or blocking congressional work. I don’t get these light ass sentences for traitors.

Was he antifa or BLM?

So, if the FBI and DOJ don't like what you're reporting about, they'll just toss you in the Gulag... three years later?

"Show up in shorts and sandals"... so we can get you into your jumpsuit and ankle irons easier.

Heil!



Press Freedom Challenged: DOJ Orders Journalist Steve Baker to Face FBI Over Jan 6 Coverage

Quadri Adejumo
28 Feb 2024 12:53 EST
Follow Us

In an unprecedented move, Steve Baker, a journalist for Blaze Media, has been compelled by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to surrender to the FBI, sparking a widespread debate over press freedoms. Baker, known for his investigative reporting on the January 6th Capitol riot, faces misdemeanor charges under a sealed arrest warrant, a decision that has ignited concerns regarding journalists' rights and government overreach. Blaze Media's Editor-in-Chief, Matthew Peterson, condemned the government's actions, framing them as a direct assault on the First Amendment.

Unveiling the Charges
The specifics of the charges against Baker remain under wraps until the warrant is served; however, his legal team has been informed of their misdemeanor nature. Despite this, the requirement for Baker to physically surrender, potentially in an orange jumpsuit, rather than simply appearing in court, has raised eyebrows and fueled speculation about the DOJ's intentions. Critics argue this approach is designed to intimidate and silence journalists who challenge prevailing narratives, particularly regarding contentious events like the Capitol riot.

Broader Implications for Journalism
This case does not exist in isolation. Across the media landscape, journalists like Catherine Herridge, who was recently dismissed from CBS News amid her investigative work, face increasing scrutiny and pressure from government entities. The actions against Baker and others have been interpreted as part of a larger pattern of attempting to control the media narrative and penalize those who diverge from government-endorsed viewpoints. The potential for a chilling effect on investigative journalism is significant, with concerns that this could deter reporters from pursuing stories that may draw government ire.

The Fight for Press Freedom
The backlash against the DOJ's decision has been swift and fierce, with commentators from across the political spectrum defending Baker's right to report freely. The case has rekindled debates about the balance between national security and press freedom, and the extent to which the government can go in policing journalism. As Baker prepares to face the charges, the spotlight on this case serves as a critical moment for press freedom advocates to rally in defense of the First Amendment and the essential role of a free press in a democratic society.

The ramifications of Baker's case extend beyond the individual to the very principles upon which the United States was founded. As the situation unfolds, it serves as a pivotal juncture for reflecting on the values of free speech, the press's role in holding power to account, and the lengths to which government should be allowed to challenge these foundations. The outcome of this case may well set a precedent for how journalists are treated in the future, making it a watershed moment for press freedom in America.

https://bnnbreaking.com/politics/pr...ve-baker-to-face-fbi-over-jan-6-coverage

I didn't know about Baker, but I did know about Herridge and definitely disagree with the pressure to reveal her sources. I do think it's important to err on the side of the press being able to reveal information without repercussions.

Without knowing too much substantively when it comes to Baker, my first thought is to wait and see what the charges actually are and/or what he did. If it was something along the lines of The Morning Show where he came into footage involving suspects and either deleted or altered it, which would impact an ongoing investigation, then that's a problem and I get it. However, given the fact that these are only misdemeanor charges, I remain skeptical and concerned that he would have to surrender prior to appearing in court.

I guess bottom line is wait and see what charges are revealed, but there is enough smoke there that it deserves a whole lot of scrutiny up until that happens, and obviously there should be ramifications in the event it does end up in overreach.

From your own source.....


And this is what passes as news to you? You don't know what the charges are. Nothing but potentially in a jump suit? And all of this is nothing but speculation about the GOP's intentions.

You may wish to wait until there's some "There, there."

Tend to agree... let's see how this plays out, but it's still crazy.

I knew nothing and stumbled across this by accident last night. To be completely honest, I follow this stuff probably less than anyone. Only so much room in my brain and I left "J6" by the wayside a while ago. Had the "Baker" sidebar on Twitter, and thought "I'll see what Mayfield is up to"... instead there's tweet after tweet about this b.s.

This will probably be homogenized by light charges and swept under the rug. Regardless, it's pretty troublesome that a journalist is told to turn himself in and wear shorts and sandals -- without even being told the charges -- just the magic words "January 6th".

That IS NOT America.

Sorry for posting this so quickly then, Pit.

I really need to start running this stuff past you before I post.

What time would you like me to turn myself in?

I understand how it would bother you when someone points out your article is based on pure speculation before an indictment is even issued. It is what it is. Something you should have seen from the beginning.

It seems you're confused on how a message board works.

It's not speculation that he was told to surrender himself, and to wear shorts and sandals, and he was given no charges.

I'm sorry you think that is normal and acceptable.

But everything about what the charges are, what it pertains to and why is purely speculation. You have times when you seem so smart. Then there comes BS like this.

* Refs, please delete my comment, Pit doesn't like that we don't know the charges yet.

Aw. You think that making assertions without any context means something. It's terrible that I set off your insecurities. Take speculating as well as potentially out and see what you have left. A nothing burger. But some people are more easily influenced by those things than others. It's why the Biden impeachment hearings continue.

Says the guy that starts a brand new thread every time Trump sneezes. 🤣

He is the GOP shoe in to be the nominee. And if you took Sleepy Joe out of your vocabulary you wouldn't have much to post. But I do understand why you would consider the things he does to be like sneezing. Silly little things like telling congress what bills to pass, trying to overturn an election, refusing to comply with a subpoena. Yeah, just like sneezing.

Hmmmm, he works for The Blaze. Imagine that............

Musician and libertarian writer who works for 'The Blaze' arrested on Jan. 6 charges

Steve Baker, who led a David Bowie tribute band and started working for Glenn Beck's website in 2023, said he "100%" approved of the Capitol attack, the FBI said.

WASHINGTON — The former lead singer of a David Bowie tribute band who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, licensed his footage to media outlets, and now works as a writer for Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" website has been arrested on misdemeanor Capitol attack charges after turning himself into federal authorities in Texas.

Steve Baker, a musician and libertarian writer who was a frequent presence at the federal courthouse in Washington during the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial and other Jan. 6 cases, faces the same four standard misdemeanors as many lower-level Capitol riot defendants.

A copy of a FBI affidavit, provided to NBC News by defense attorney William Shipley, indicates that federal prosecutors will focus on comments from Baker that show he was sympathetic to the mob, including when he referred to Nancy Pelosi as a "b----" after talking about the mob raiding the former House speaker's office, and a comment in which he said he regretted that he didn't steal government property during the attack.

“Look out your windows bitches, look what’s coming," Baker allegedly said as he recorded himself approaching the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"They got Pelosi's office and, you know, it couldn't happen to a better deserving b----," Baker said in a video after the attack, according to the FBI affidavit.

"The only thing I regret is that I didn’t, like, steal their computers because God knows what I could’ve found on their computers if I’d done that," Baker said, according to the affidavit.

“Do I approve of what happened today?" Baker said in another interview on Jan. 6, according to the FBI filing. "I approve 100%."

Video footage previously posted by Baker shows him approaching two officers inside the Capitol and asking them if they were going to use their weapons on protesters. “You gonna use that thing on us?” Baker asked one officer. “Are you really going to use that on us?” Baker asked another. He later asked the same question of two other officers in the aftermath of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, video showed.

After witnessing first responders trying to save the life of Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter shot as she jumped through a broken window leading into the Speaker's Lobby, Baker said he "may have just seen the true first shot in this war," the FBI affidavit said.

Baker has friendly relationships with reporters who have covered Jan. 6 cases and was in the media room during trials at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, where his own case will now unfold. A reporter for NBC News met Baker at the courthouse back in August, when Baker dropped off materials in response to a grand jury subpoena he received for the videos he recorded on Jan. 6. Recently, Baker had been working closely with House Republicans, and gained access to thousands of hours of Jan. 6 surveillance footage.

Baker was accompanied by a camera crew from The Blaze when he surrendered on Friday morning, and he broadcasted live from outside the courthouse after he was released. Baker quickly received support from former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

In a phone interview after his arrest, Baker called the process "humiliating," but said that law enforcement officers he dealt with were friendly and cordial. Baker said he had no regrets about the language he used on Jan. 6, and that some of his comments, like those during his discussions with his friend over drinks on the night of the riot, were taken out of context.

"With the 'couldn't happen to a nicer b----' comment... when the FBI asks me why I said that I said, 'Because it wasn't McConnell's office.' I said, 'If it had been McConnell's office, I would've said it couldn't have happened to a more deserving bastard.' And then I followed that up by saying, 'What part of me being a libertarian do you not understand? I don't like either side,'" Baker said.

Baker has a court date set in Washington, but said that he wasn’t sure how he will proceed from here.

“My gut instinct is to take it all the way to trial, but obviously we have to wait and see who the judge is,” Baker said. "One of the primary axioms of classic liberalism, libertarianism, is that if there's no victim, there's no crime. And what's happening to a lot of people, is that their words are being criminalized."

Baker explained in a podcast after Jan. 6 that, as a full-time musician he “found himself suddenly unemployed” in 2020 after the Covid lockdowns, and so decided to “ramp up” a project he’d started a decade earlier: An online community known as “The Pragmatic Libertarian,” which he later rebranded as “The Pragmatic Constitutionalist.”

Two days before Jan. 6, Baker wrote he was headed to Washington not because he thought "a crowd of any size is going to force government into a real investigation of the election results, but because the 'powers that be' on all sides of the political equation need to see WE THE PEOPLE in force, letting them know that WE ARE WATCHING."

"WE are not going to lay down to any level of tyranny — whether it come from the right or the left, the Democrats or the GOP," Baker wrote, adding that he was "hoping to document on video anything 'special' that might happen, and perhaps get a few interviews from a variety of voices."

In a post after Jan. 6, he wrote that he'd "confess to being truly inspired at the sight of so many patriots about to make what would surely be a powerful visual statement to the oath-breaking criminals who — at that very moment — were debating the certification of the Electoral votes."

In that post-Jan. 6 podcast, Baker said it was "no secret" that he was not a Trump fan back in 2016, thinking that neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton were good candidates. He said he did vote for Trump in 2020, and endorsed him, first because "the Bolshevik Democratic Party machine is now a fully-realized, openly neo-Marxist organization" and because of his "wishful thinking that Trump — for all his faults, (and maybe because of them), would finally be exposing and bringing down the Deep State."

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in the more than three years since the Capitol attack, and prosecutors have secured more than 900 convictions. Sentences have ranged from short terms of probation for the type of misdemeanor charges Baker is facing, to 22 years in federal prison for Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys on his seditious conspiracy conviction.

Other Jan. 6 defendants have tried to avoid convictions by pointing to their media ties, but Baker is the first who was working for an established media company at the time of his arrest. He was not associated with a news publication three years ago on Jan. 6, when the alleged misdemeanor took place.

A former commentator for The Blaze, Elijah Schaffer, had posted on social media during the riot that he was inside Pelosi’s office and "with the thousands of revolutionaries who have stormed” the Capitol. Video released in another Jan. 6 case shows Schaffer saying that he was part of a group "occupying" Pelosi's office. Unlike Baker, Schaffer was wearing an official Capitol press credential, and has not been charged.

Another Jan. 6 defendant, Stephen Horn, was convicted on four misdemeanor counts at trial after presenting himself as an independent journalist.

“His journalism started when he needed an excuse for his criminal liability,” a federal prosecutor told jurors in that case, according to The Washington Post. Prosecutors sought 10 months in federal prison in Horn's case, but a judge sentenced Horn to one year of probation and a $2,000 fine.

John Sullivan, an "anti-establishment" activist who prosecutors say went to the Capitol with the "goal of inciting the crowd," was convicted at trial after being found guilty of a variety of charges, including felonies. Sullivan too tried to present himself as a journalist, and news outlets (including NBC News) had licensed his footage after the attack. But jurors found him guilty after prosecutors presented evidence that he encouraged the mob and claimed to be armed with a knife.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...kNvxyhuVGjSwbgjMufui5rarGY2fu-ms5Tw5-IsI

These idiots are still trying to label the crimes they committed as some Patriotic act.

If not the press, freedom of speech is in jeopardy.

Did you not bother the read what he was charged with? Very much the same charges many, many of the Jan. 6th rioters were charged with. And none of it had anything to do with "what he said".

But yes, not only is free speech under attack, but censorship now seems to be quite fashionable as well. Only it's not who you're suggesting it is.

Seems strange that they shackle and chain him for misdemeanor charges.

Also seems strange that they wouldn't even tell his attorneys the charges until after he "turns himself in or else".

Most of all, it seems really strange that they wait three years to charge him.


Seems we have hundreds if not thousands working on this... not including the internet sleuths employed in scouring the thousands of hours of footage. We've appropriated $1.9 billion to "addressing the insurrection". Three years later??

I bet there a bunch of conspiracy theorists that think this may be retaliation for Steve's two major stories greatly embarrassing to the DOJ. Nah, no way.

Obviously you haven't been keeping up On this very thread you can see that arrests on Jan. 6th keep happening all the time. That isn't at all unusual. And nothing about his one sided rhetoric has embarrassed the DOJ other than those who are dumb enough to believe the crap that the Glenn Beck propaganda machine called The Blaze produces. If they actually gave a damn what people like that wrote they wouldn't have arrested him to begin with.

My work is done here.

It's about time. The crimes he committed are listed in the indictment. You think they didn't know that dumb asses on the internet would try to turn arresting him into something nefarious before they arrested him? But people believe that BS anyway.



Da gobment is out to get people like me!

Jan. 6 rioter accused of being first to enter Capitol convicted for obstruction

Michael Sparks, the man accused of being the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been convicted on charges that he interfered with police and obstructed Congress from certifying the election results.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C. convicted Sparks, 46, a Kentucky resident, on all six charges he faced, including two felonies. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly is set to sentence him on July 9, The Associated Press reported.

On the day of the Capitol riot, Sparks jumped through a broken window just after another rioter smashed it open. Inside the Capitol, he joined other people in chasing a police officer up a flight of stairs.

A prosecutor for the Department of Justice said during his trial that Sparks was the “tip of the spear,” and he entered the building less than a minute before senators evacuated the chamber to escape.

Sparks’ defense attorney, Scott Wendelsdorf, conceded that Sparks is guilty of four misdemeanor counts, including trespassing and disorderly conduct, but pushed back on the felony charges — civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.

After attending the “Stop the Steal” rally, Sparks, wearing a tactical vest, made his way to the front of the mob. He jumped in the Capitol window after other rioters told him not to, and a U.S. Capitol Police officer pepper sprayed him in the face.

Wendelsdorf said Sparks left the Capitol when he realized former Vice President Mike Pence would not overturn the results of the election on behalf of former President Trump.

Sparks was arrested after a tipster recognized him the day after the riots. Sparks reportedly had said he was attending a pro-Trump rally in Washington and said, “this time we are going to shut it down.”

A day after the riot, Sparks texted his mother that he would “go again given the opportunity.” The DOJ argued that he showed no remorse. By the time he went back to Kentucky, photos circulated online identifying him. Sparks called the local police department and offered to turn himself in, prosecutors said.

He was arrested on Jan. 19, 2021, and he was indicted on Feb. 5, 2021, followed by a superseding indictment in November of the same year.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...bmTlViXoqL6Rb7QXRHn3nNG3DizQRZDJ4Br8EJk4

Thanks for making things so easy...

You do realize the criminal charges against him have nothing to do with an anything he said, correct? You also realize the things he said do show motivation and intent, correct. Thanks for showing you will try and make anything, even defending criminal activity somehow seem legitimate. Soon you will be calling them all hostages just like trump.

Jan. 6 rioter nicknamed 'shield grampy' admits assaulting officers at the Capitol

Anthony Mastanduno was ordered held without bond after he pleaded guilty to nine counts, admitting he repeatedly assaulted officers at the lower west tunnel on Jan. 6.

WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter online sleuths nicknamed "Shield Grampy" has admitted that he used a stolen police shield during the brutal battle at the lower west tunnel of the U.S. Capitol and assaulted officers with a flagpole-like object and a baton.

Anthony Mastanduno pleaded guilty to nine counts Wednesday and was ordered taken into custody by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who set his sentencing for June 27. Mastanduno, 61, was arrested in August, with an FBI affidavit noting that online "sedition hunters" had given him his nickname "due to his age and his use of a stolen police shield to assault MPD [Washington police] officers at the entrance to the tunnel."

Mastanduno previously lived in Farmingdale, New York, and now lives in North Carolina.

According to an agreed-upon court filing, he "was wearing a red baseball cap with a patch on the bill and 'Trump 2020 Keep America Great!' embroidered in white thread, a camouflage jacket, and a backpack" on Jan. 6, 2021, and also, at times, "donned large, clear goggles with a blast elastic strap." He entered the Capitol about four minutes after it was first breached by a massive pack of rioters led by Michael Sparks, who jumped through a window smashed in by Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola.

Mastanduno admitted he "was at the front of a line of rioters who overwhelmed police officers in the Crypt" and then joined the mob outside the Capitol by the lower west terrace, where some of the most brutal violence of the day took place. Mastanduno admitted that he "picked up and threw a blue, flagpole-like object into the mouth of the tunnel, as if throwing a javelin or spear toward the line of outnumbered police officers who were defending the Capitol against the mass of rioters."

Minutes later, Mastanduno admitted, he "obtained a police shield that had been stolen from the officers, which he used to push against the same line of officers at the mouth of the tunnel. While he pushed, he also utilized a telescoping baton, which can be worn on one’s hip and which expands in length, to strike at officers multiple times."

"Shield Grampy" pleaded guilty one day after another rioter, given the nickname "Conan O'Riot" because of his resemblance to former late night host Conan O'Brien, pleaded guilty to one charge.

More than 1,300 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and more than 950 defendants have been convicted. Nearly 500 defendants have been sentenced to periods of incarceration, including a record-setting 22-year sentence for Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio.

Mastanduno's plea also came the day Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2024, just over three years after he said there was "no question" that Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for provoking the Jan. 6 attack.

"The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," McConnell said after the Jan. 6 attack, calling Trump's conduct "disgraceful," though he voted to acquit him in his insurrection impeachment trial.

Social media posts the FBI cited in Mastanduno's case indicate that he deeply believed Trump's lies about the 2020 presidential election.

“I hated Obama and hated his politics but still considered him my president because he won honestly," Mastanduno wrote. “My Trump flag [will] fly high and proud in my front yard till 1/20/2025.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...rmdXERkev_PvVJvgds8sRxKZC_GdV8BgbEwdqBEQ

Murica! Freedumb! And trump is still telling that lie.