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re: CAPITOL Riot: Bannon Gets Jail-6 Risks & Subpoena For TRUMP
Guy Reffitt: Capitol Rioter Turned in By Son Gets 87 Months in Prison
Militia member Guy Reffitt gets longest jail term so far for Capitol riot A Texas man who joined the US Capitol riot armed with a holstered pistol and threatened his own children to keep quiet about his role has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. BBC News 2 AUG 2022 https://media.nbcdfw.com/2022/02/Guy...esize=1200,675 Son Testifies Against Father, Guy Reffitt, Charged With Storming U.S. Capitol https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...628687_cry.jpg Reffitt cried when his son testified against him during his trial Guy Reffitt, 49, was found guilty in March on five felony counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding and interfering with police in a riot. His sentence is the longest imposed on any of the US Capitol rioters. Nearly 900 people have been charged in the 6 January 2021 raid on Congress. Reffitt did not actually enter the Capitol with the horde of Trump supporters who breached the complex as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden's win in the November 2020 presidential election. He retreated after an officer pepper sprayed him in the face, but video evidence showed Reffitt egging on the crowd and leading other rioters up a set of stairs outside the building. The Capitol riot trial that tore a family apart Multiple videos Reffitt took on and after 6 January, in which he discussed planning and bragged about participating in the riot, were used in evidence against him. Issuing a prison sentence of 87 months on Monday, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich said Reffitt's actions and statements were "frightening claims that border on delusional". An oil-field worker and recruiter for the far-right Three Percenters militia, Reffitt is said to have driven from Texas to Washington DC and led fellow Three Percenters up the main staircase to the Capitol building. According to court papers, he had told fellow members of the militia that he planned to drag US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, "with her head hitting every step on the way down". Reffitt was reported to the FBI by his son, Jackson, 18 at the time, who told investigators his father had threatened him. "He said 'if you turn me in, you're a traitor," the younger Reffitt said at his father's trial earlier this year. "'And traitors get shot'". The sentence Judge Friedrich handed down was slightly below what is recommended by federal guidelines. She also declined to apply a domestic terrorism enhancement - the first requested in a US Capitol riot case. The Texan wore an orange prison jumpsuit at the Washington DC courthouse and listened carefully as the judge credited supportive statements from Reffitt's family for the lower sentence. He rubbed his hand across his forehead and had a wisp of a smile, says the BBC's Tara McKelvey, who attended the hearing. Our reporter says Reffitt's sentence shows that government prosecutors may have a harder time than expected in securing the length of custodial terms they believe US Capitol rioters deserve. Prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison term, arguing Reffitt was "in a class all by himself" among Capitol riot defendants, and other rioters were "looking to him as their leader". But defence lawyers had argued the attack would have happened with or without him and noted he had no criminal history. Having declined to testify at trial, Reffitt apologised in a brief statement before his sentencing, saying he had "an issue with just rambling and saying stupid [expletive]". His family, including his wife, sat in the court's third row, and his daughter Peyton spoke on his behalf. "He says a lot of things he doesn't mean. His mental health is an issue," she said, visibly emotional. She added: "My father's name wasn't on the flags everyone was carrying that day. "It was another man's name," she added in an apparent reference to former US President Donald Trump. His wife Nicole Reffitt told reporters the trial shows that "corrupt, evil politicians here in this city" are trying to undermine US civil liberties. "This isn't just about Guy Wesley Reffitt. This isn't about just January 6th. This is about our liberties being stomped on," she argued. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Bannon Gets Jail-6 Risks & Subpoena For TRUMP
Hitler Moustache Capitol Rioter Sentenced to Four Years
A former US Army reservist and alleged Nazi sympathiser has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in last year's Capitol riots. BBC News 23 SEP 2022. https://tse3.explicit.bing.net/th?id...jw&pid=Api&P=0 Prosecutors said Timothy Hale-Cusanelli sported a Hitler-style moustache at work Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, was a Navy contractor who held a government security clearance when he joined the storming of Congress in January 2021. A jury convicted him in May on five counts, including a felony charge for obstruction of an official proceeding. More than 900 people have been charged over their involvement in the attack. Hale-Cusanelli, who was the seventh riot defendant to go on trial, is among a handful of accused who were on active duty in the military when he joined other Trump supporters in raiding Congress as it met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors said he openly espoused white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies, even sporting an Adolf Hitler-style moustache at work, and hoped for a second US civil war. They added that, over the course of an internal Navy probe into Hale-Cusanelli, 34 of his colleagues said he held "extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women". One naval officer who was interviewed claimed to recall Hale-Cusanelli saying in an apparent reference to the Holocaust: "Hitler should have finished the job." The accused took the stand in his own defence at trial, claiming that he "didn't know there was an actual building that was called the 'Capitol'". "I feel like an idiot," he added. But lawyers for the government said he was lying, pointing to conversations Hale-Cusanelli had had with his roommate in the days after the attack, in which he described breaching the complex as "exhilarating". "Hale-Cusanelli is, at best, extremely tolerant of violence and death," prosecutors said. "What Hale-Cusanelli was doing on January 6 was not activism, it was the preamble to his civil war." The defendant's case was spotlighted at a Trump rally earlier this month, at which his adoptive aunt Cynthia Hughes - who raises money on behalf of riot defendants - spoke. In a letter to support Hale-Cusanelli's defence, Ms Hughes wrote that he was not a violent person and does not have "a racist bone in his body". At Thursday's sentencing, Judge Trevor McFadden slammed the defendant's testimony as a "risible lie" and an "obvious attempt" to avoid accountability. Judge McFadden - a Trump appointee - added that Hale-Cusanelli's "racist and anti-Semitic motivation" had set him apart from other rioters. Another 6 January defendant, Stephen Ayres, also learned his fate on Thursday. Ayres, an ex-Trump supporter who testified this summer before the congressional committee investigating the attack, will serve 24 months on probation |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Bannon Gets Jail-6 Risks & Subpoena For TRUMP
Jan. 6 Committee Postpones Hearing Because of Hurricane Ian
The storm made landfall in Florida Wednesday afternoon. ABC 1 OCT 2022 https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politic...n_16x9_992.jpg An image of former President Donald Trump was displayed during the third hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol in the Cannon House Office The House Jan. 6 committee scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed because of Hurricane Ian. --The storm is expected to make landfall in Florida at about the same time as the hearing was to take place. "In light of Hurricane Ian bearing down on parts of Florida, we have decided to postpone tomorrow's proceedings," Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. 'We're praying for the safety of all those in the storm's path. The Select Committee's investigation goes forward and we will soon announce a date for the postponed proceedings." The committee was set to reconvene Wednesday after a two-month hiatus for a midday hearing. But the rapid advancement of Hurricane Ian is now dominating airwaves, with the storm currently a Category 3 hurricane and expected to grow stronger. Thompson previously told reporters that the committee would be airing "substantial footage" and "significant witness testimony" but didn't give any more details on what the public can expect to see or what the focus of the hearing would be. Lawmakers held eight televised hearings from June to July detailing what they described as former President Donald Trump's "sophisticated" efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, which they said led to the events that took place on Jan. 6, 2021. The hearings, two of which were held in prime-time, were produced to capture the public's attention more than a year and half after the riot. At the last hearing on July 21, the committee focused on the 187 minutes that passed between Trump's speech at the Ellipse and his taped statement later that afternoon telling rioters to leave the Capitol. Using testimony from former White House officials, the committee said Trump resisted pressure to act as he watched the violence unfold on television. "Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said. "He chose not to act." Since then, the committee has requested information from several people with ties to election denialism and Trump, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to a voluntary interview with the committee, her attorney confirmed last week. There's also the looming question of whether the committee will call former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before it wraps up the investigation. Cheney told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that she hopes Pence will speak with lawmakers. The former vice president said he'd consider testifying if asked, but then implied that there could be constitutional constraints to any potential appearance. Cheney also told Karl that she expects transcripts, records and other materials gathered by the committee over the course of its probe to be made public. Wednesday's hearing was anticipated to be the last before the committee releases a final report of its findings and recommendations by the end of the year. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Bannon Gets Jail-6 Risks & Subpoena For TRUMP
CAPITOL Riot: JAN 6 HEARINGS 13 Oct 2022
LIVE: Jan. 6 hearing to reveal new evidence, focus on Trump’s state of mind during riot — 10/13/22 BBC News 13 Oct 2022 The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is set to take a broader look Thursday at the plot to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The committee’s ninth public hearing could be its last investigative presentation in the ongoing probe. The hearing comes less than four weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The panel is investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, where a joint session of Congress had convened to confirm Biden’s electoral victory over Trump. The rioters fought through lines of police officers and entered the building, forcing lawmakers to flee their chambers for safety. A committee aide said Thursday’s hearing will examine events that took place before, during and after the riot itself, with a particular focus on Trump’s state of mind and his level of involvement with the scheme to challenge the election results, NBC News reported. The nine-member panel will seek to contextualize those plans, while providing new information and witness testimony, the aide said. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Bannon Gets Jail-6 Risks & Subpoena For TRUMP
US Capitol Riot Committee Votes to Order TRUMP to Testify
TRUMP Reacts to Committee's Unanimous Vote to Subpoena Him TRUMP solicits cash right after the January 6 committee votes to subpoena him and tells supporters he's fighting for their 'heritage' - Another BIG CON BBC NEWS 14 Oct 2022 https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.R...Eq&pid=Api&P=0 A panel of US lawmakers has voted to subpoena Donald Trump, meaning he would be legally compelled to testify to Congress about the 2021 Capitol attack. The House January 6 committee voted unanimously to compel the former president to appear. “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player,” said Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair. Ms Cheney added: “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers.” TRUMP Solicits Cash https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/4J...a43e6cd5c9e8dd Trump made a fundraising ask just after the House's January 6 committee wrapped its 9th hearing. The ex-president told his supporters he's fighting for their "heritage" and praised the "MAGA movement." Former President Donald Trump emailed out a fundraising ask just minutes after the House January 6 committee wrapped its 9th day of hearings, during which committee members laid out a damning case against Trump as the central instigator of the deadly Capitol riot. Capitalizing on his "MAGA movement" being in the news, the ex-president told his supporters he's fighting for their "heritage." "Our MAGA movement is, by far, the greatest political movement in the history of our Country, because I am fighting for YOU, YOUR home, YOUR heritage, and YOUR freedom," Trump wrote in the fundraising email. After filling out a survey with questions such as "Are you concerned about the Radical Left's effect on this country?", Trump prompts supporters to donate at least $45 to the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, which is composed of two of his post-presidential political committees: Save America and Make America Great Again PAC. Trump, who has openly flirted with a another presidential run in 2024 but hasn't yet formally registered a presidential campaign committee, is using his PACs to fund a variety of expenses, from staging rallies to paying staffers to covering legal bills. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Oath Keepers GUILTY of Sedition & Implicate TRUMP
Steve Bannon Sentencing: Jail Term Shows January 6 Risks For TRUMP
Steve Bannon: Ex-Trump adviser sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress Despite the jeers of "fascist traitor!", Steve Bannon looked relaxed as he arrived at a Washington, DC federal courthouse on Friday, clutching a copy of the Financial Times and commenting on "the global elites". BBC News 21 OCT 2022. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...-632408944.jpg Before stepping inside, Bannon told a small group of journalists, live streamers, supporters, and critics that the "illegitimate regime, their judgement day is on 8th November, when the Biden administration ends". It was the kind of language that got Bannon in trouble in the first place. Ahead of the January 6, 2021 attack which Trump supporters launched on the Capitol, he had told listeners on his right-wing podcast that "all hell would break loose" that day. After the 2020 election, Bannon was one of a gaggle of Trump allies who sought ways to overturn the results in favour of Mr Trump, who lost by several million votes but claimed victory regardless. He pushed election conspiracy theories on his War Room show, and encouraged listeners to get involved in efforts to question or overturn the results. He then defied a congressional subpoena when the House committee investigating the January 6 riot demanded he comply with its inquiry, which Bannon had dubbed "a clown show." The committee referred the case to the Justice Department, and the former top Trump adviser was found guilty of contempt of Congress earlier this year. Now US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, has sentenced him to serve four months in jail and to pay a $6,500 fine after noting he'd shown "no remorse for his actions". Bannon jailed for four months Trump gets formal summons to testify The sentence was a far cry from the six-month jail term and $200,000 fine that prosecutors had requested, but its symbolism is perhaps more significant. The sentence strikes at the heart of Mr Trump's orbit and represents one of the most high-profile punishments yet handed down to his backers, several of whom have faced federal investigations. The outcome of a case like Bannon's could point to unfavourable outcomes for Mr Trump, and other top lieutenants, in the coming months and years. It's especially important because the January 6 committee has now directly issued a subpoena to Mr Trump, demanding extensive documents and correspondence from the weeks leading up to the Capitol attack, and from the day itself. Mr Trump is not expected to comply. The move could set off another legal skirmish for the former president - though it's one that could be quickly resolved should the Republican Party take over the House of Representatives after the midterm elections on 8 November. 'Why does Steve Bannon get his own system of justice?' After the sentencing, Bannon said that he respected the judge and would appeal the sentence. But despite the court's admonishments, he then referred to the Biden administration as "illegitimate" and called for the US attorney general to be impeached. Some of Bannon's detractors did not feel the punishment went far enough. "If any of the rest of us were subpoenaed by Congress and refused to appear, we'd be thrown in jail," tweeted Tristain Snell, a former prosecutor in the New York attorney general's office. "Why does Steve Bannon get his own system of justice?" Bannon's woes are just one aspect of the multi-pronged legal battles faced by Trumpworld. Though the Republican Party remains almost uniformly deferential to Mr Trump, federal, state, and local prosecutors have launched multiple investigations into his actions, ranging in scope from fraud to election tampering to inappropriate handling of classified documents. Nor is this Steve Bannon's only case - New York prosecutors have charged him with fraud and money laundering for his role with an organisation that sought to build a wall on the US southern border. That case carries "far more risk" for Bannon, said Miriam Baer, vice dean of Brooklyn Law School. Bannon, a former investment banker who briefly dabbled in Hollywood, first gained notoriety in conservative circles by running the right-wing website Breitbart News. He supported populist ideas and found a vehicle for them in 2016, when Mr Trump ran for president. To Trump supporters and allies, Bannon is one of the key defenders and promoters of the former president's "Maga" [Make America Great Again] ideology. For detractors, he is one of Mr Trump's worst enablers. As chief strategist in the White House, he pushed for some of the most controversial policies, most notably a 2017 ban on travellers from several Muslim-majority countries that triggered accusations of Islamophobia from Mr Trump's critics. He also urged the president to take a more aggressive stance towards China. A 2022 article in The Atlantic dubbed him the "American Rasputin." Though he left the White House in 2017 after a turbulent run, Bannon has remained influential in right wing politics. He has continued to promote Mr Trump and his politics on his podcast, which Bannon at one point claimed had racked up 29 million downloads, according to ProPublica. The show also features right-wing celebrities like Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The legal risk did not appear to deter Mr Bannon from using his characteristic hyperbole. This included threatening to go "medieval" on prosecutors who charged him. Prosecutors cited his threats as they argued for a jail term, noting: "Through his public platforms, the Defendant has used hyperbolic and sometimes violent rhetoric to disparage the Committee's investigation, personally attack the Committee's members, and ridicule the criminal justice system." The prosecution cited Bannon's bombastic threats while appealing for him to face a jail sentence Donald Trump has repeatedly decried investigations into him and his associates as a partisan witch hunt designed to persecute conservatives, including when addressing supporters on the campaign trail. Among some of Mr Trump's backers, Bannon's sentence will likely be treated as evidence that the federal bureaucracy has unfairly dogged the former president. If his appeal against the jail sentence does not succeed, a stint inside could silence Bannon temporarily. But it remains to be seen whether a different version will emerge from this process. On Friday, the presiding judge said he hoped Bannon's punishment would at least have a cautionary effect on his imitators. "Others must be deterred," Judge Nichols said, "from committing similar crimes". Donald Trump appointed Steve Bannon as his campaign CEO in August 2016 and, following his victory, handed him a key White House role |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Oath Keepers GUILTY of Sedition & Implicate TRUMP
TRUMP Legal Team Responds to Subpoena From January 6 Committee
23 Oct 2022 CNN Former President Donald Trump’s legal team responded to the subpoena from January 6 select committee. CNN political correspondent Sara Murray reports. Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger join Wolf Blitzer to discuss. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: Oath Keepers GUILTY of Sedition & Implicate TRUMP
Most Aggressive Subpoena 'I've Ever Seen': Honig on TRUMP Subpoena
BBC News 25 Oct 2022 The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol announced that the panel has officially subpoenaed former President Donald Trump. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Oath Keepers: Two Members of Far-Right Militia GUILTY of US Sedition BBC
Leaders Just Implicated TRUMP In Their Sedition Legal Defense The leader of a far-right militia has been found guilty of plotting to stop US President Joe Biden from taking office after the 2020 election. BBC 30 NOV 2022 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...281000x563.jpg A jury found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of the rare charge of seditious conspiracy following a two-month trial. He plotted an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Mr Biden, prosecutors said. Four more were on trial with him related to the 2021 Capitol riots. Three of the group - Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson - went inside the building during the attack. Meggs was also found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday. Both Rhodes and Meggs now face a maximum 20-year sentence on the charges. Harrelson, Watkins and a fifth member, Thomas Caldwell - were found not guilty of seditious conspiracy. All five of the group members were found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding. Rhodes, who prosecutors say acted as a "battlefield general" during the riots, was also found guilty of tampering with documents or proceedings. He was acquitted of two other conspiracy counts. The verdict comes after three full days of jury deliberation. Speaking outside the courthouse following the verdict, lawyers for Rhodes said they were not pleased with the outcome, but that it isn't a clear-cut victory for the prosecution either. "It's a mixed bag," said lawyer Edward Tarpley, adding he is grateful the jury found the defendants not guilty on some counts. They intend to appeal the convictions. This was the first conviction of seditious conspiracy in the US since 1995, when 10 Islamist militants were convicted for trying to plant bombs at New York City landmarks. The Civil War-era charge was first enacted to stop residents of southern states from fighting against the US government. In order to be convicted of seditious conspiracy, prosecutors must prove that two or more people conspired to "overthrow, put down or to destroy by force" the US government, or that they planned to use force to oppose US authority. Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and a former US Department of Justice lawyer, said the conviction of Rhodes is significant because it shows that a seditious conspiracy charge is "a viable and legal path for punishing the most serious anti-democratic conduct" in the country. He added the mixed verdict proves that juries are able to apply the conviction responsibly. The verdict is also a confidence boost for the justice department, Mr Rozenshtein said, in their quest to prosecute more people in relation to the Capitol riots. Supporters of then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to thwart certification of Joe Biden's White House election victory. So far around 900 people in nearly all 50 states have been arrested for taking part in the riot. Another famous storming of the US Capitol also led to successful seditious conspiracy convictions. In 1954, four nationalists from the US island territory of Puerto Rico fired shots onto the floor of the House of Representatives, wounding several lawmakers. The attackers, as well as more than a dozen other members of the group, were found guilty of sedition. During the Oath Keepers trial, the court heard the defendants stashed dozens of weapons in a hotel room in Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington DC, and planned to bring them into the city in the event of mass civil disorder. Defence lawyers argued that the fact the weapons were never used - or even brought into the city - bolstered their argument that the Oath Keepers were on a purely defensive mission, intending to protect protesters and keep the peace inside and outside the Capitol. The jury also heard that Rhodes was taking phone calls and messages outside the Capitol while the riots were ongoing. Some messages seen by the court show Rhodes telling his followers to "rise up in insurrection". The Oath Keepers were founded by Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer. Over the past decade, members have shown up at a number of protests and armed standoffs across the country. Among the defendants, two, Meggs and Harrelson, are from Florida, Watkins is from Ohio and Caldwell is from Virginia. Rhodes is from Texas. More Oath Keepers members, along with members of another far-right group, the Proud Boys, will go on trial on seditious conspiracy charges later this year. |
CAPITOL Riot: How Oath Keepers Began-Leaders' Family TALK of Yrs of ABUSE
How I Escaped My Father's Militia
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...ver_976-nc.png The son of Stewart Rhodes spent years planning to escape along with the rest of his family. How did he rebuild his life outside of the militia world? https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/c...4_x5c0ufta.png The time had come. It was a dreary February day in 2018. Dakota had it all planned out. His mother and five younger siblings were in the truck - some of them crouched out of sight on the floor. They'd bundled into it as much as they could and made up an excuse - ostensibly they were heading to the trash dump just off the main highway, slick with black ice and crusted snow. But just as they started to pull away, Dakota's father burst out the door of their remote cabin in the mountains of northwest Montana. Dakota and his mother Tasha stiffened. The leader of the Oath Keepers militia had dominated their lives until that moment. Tasha and Stewart had been married for nearly 25 years, and she was familiar with his manic periods. He'd been up all night on a tear - working out, listening to music, practising Filipino stick fighting, pacing the floor. It was a pattern of manic activity, Dakota said, that was familiar throughout years of emotional abuse and heightened paranoia. Would he now stop them from fleeing? Had he noticed his favourite gun was missing? Would he question why John-Boy, the family dog, was along for the ride to the dump? Dakota gripped the wheel while Tasha looked down at her daughters, hidden under the windows, their eyes opened wide. "Hey," Rhodes growled. "Pick up some steak on your way back." Dakota and Tasha murmured assent, and drove off towards the highway without a backwards glance. Militiaman's Son https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/c...300_rhodes.jpg With his beard and eye patch, Stewart Rhodes is one of the most recognisable faces of America's anti-government militia movement. Since September, Rhodes and four members of the Oath Keepers, a militia group he founded in 2009, have been on trial in Washington for their roles in the 6 January Capitol riot. They were charged with seditious conspiracy - in this case, attempting to stop the certification of the 2020 election and the inauguration of Joe Biden - a crime that carries a maximum sentence 20 years in prison. On the other side of the country, Dakota and Tasha, were closely watching the trial. Dakota grew up "absolutely believing" in his father's view of the world - what he described as a "vision of a shadowy, malicious communist conspiracy seeking to institute a New World Order… aiming to seize total power and institute a one world government that would intentionally sow chaos". It took until his teenage years for his faith in the coming government-backed apocalypse to be shaken, and until his early adulthood to finally escape. Early Memories Things were not always that bleak. Dakota Adams - he and his mother now use her maiden name - spent much of his earliest years not in the backwoods of Montana, but in the middle of America's east coast power centres. His parents had met and married in the 1990s, and he was their eldest child. Dakota lived his first years in the suburbs of Washington, DC where Rhodes was once an aide for libertarian congressman Ron Paul. When Dakota was about four or five years old, the family moved to Connecticut after Rhodes was accepted to Yale Law School. Dakota recalled living on Chapel Street in New Haven and "having a set of neighbours that was so diverse that my street looked like the set of Sesame Street". "I thought that that was just how the entire world was," he said. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...07_us2-976.jpg Stewart Rhodes with son Dakota He remembers the local pizza place and bagel shop, and playing with the children of graduate students from all around the country and the world, speaking the common language of Star Wars fandom. "That was the one time I had a fairly normal childhood," he said. "It was the one time I had real friends and real social interaction." Yet even then, according to Tasha, Rhodes displayed strange bouts of paranoia - the seeds of doubt that would later fuel his anti-government mission. When they met, Rhodes was not particularly political, Tasha said, but was always devising strategies to avoid imagined enemies. For example, for something as mundane as when he was checking the oil in his car, he would make Tasha stand guard "to make sure that no-one slammed the hood on his head," she said. Dakota also recalled some dark memories. He remembered when he was around four years old waking his father up from a nap, only to have Rhodes jump up and pull out a folding knife. "He would jokingly play it off as some kind of ultra manly animalistic caveman brain being activated before he was fully awake," Dakota said. "I've never heard of anything like that before or since." Birth of the Oath Keepers After graduating from Yale in 2004, Rhodes moved his family to various states in the American West while he worked as a lawyer. Over the course of these moves, his paranoia and anti-government sensibilities hardened. The couple had five more children as the family ping-ponged across Arizona, Nevada and Montana. None attended a formal school. Some did not even have birth certificates. In April 2009, the family was living in Nevada when Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers. According to Tasha, the group was born of an all-night writing session during one of Rhodes's manic spells. Tasha remembered trying to soothe one of her children as her husband blasted heavy metal music, and kept her from leaving the room. He bashed out a foundational manifesto: "Declaration of Orders We Will Not Obey." "I'm trying to get this poor baby to sleep, and he kept saying, 'Wait, wait till you see what I wrote,'" Tasha recalled. Dakota with mother Tasha https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...us5_976-nc.png The militia movement has long been a feature on the fringes of American life. Militia members have a range of views but are generally concerned with the power of the US federal government, clampdowns on individual freedom and gun ownership - concerns that sometimes tip over into outright paranoia. In 2021, there were 92 militia groups active across 30 different states according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit that tracks extremist groups. Rhodes - who once served as an Army paratrooper - founded Oath Keepers with the goal of recruiting military veterans, police officers and other first responders, as he imagined calling up legions of trained people who could fight against government tyranny. His founding document began with a quote from George Washington and included some of the greatest hits of the militia world. "We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people," Rhodes wrote. There were warnings against blockades of American cities, detention camps and "the absurdly totalitarian claimed powers" of the president. The document went viral in militia circles and would eventually push Rhodes into a series of conflicts with law enforcement. But his wife didn't stand in his way. "He kept saying the reason why he loses his temper, the reason why he's violent is because he hadn't found his path in life," Tasha said. "So part of me thought, well, maybe this will help fix whatever it is that's wrong with him." https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/c...55818e6660.jpg Stewart Rhodes in woods Image source, Rhodes family At first, Rhodes did appear to find his calling. In April 2009, Oath Keepers launched with an event in Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. Rhodes began travelling around the country to drum up support. He appeared on conservative YouTube channels, the Alex Jones radio show, and even popped up on mainstream TV networks. His family became an integral part of the militia project. Family life became Oath Keepers life. Tasha would welcome members into their home; Dakota would answer militia emails and, when he was older, drive his father to and from Oath Keepers events. But during long stretches when Rhodes was on the road, the rest of his family felt like life was closing in on them. "We were so insular and isolated that the date and time and what day of the week it was, or what year it was, had very little bearing on our internal lives," Dakota said. Today, Dakota lives in a one-room apartment down a country road outside a small Montana town, not far from the family home he escaped. Now 25, he wears his dark blond hair to his shoulders - a contrast to the mostly close-cropped haircuts of his childhood photos. He has a considered, precise way of speaking that occasionally tips over with emotion when talking intensely about his family. He wants to tell his story accurately, so much so that he apologises when he struggles to recall exact dates amid the clear threads of his otherwise sharp memory. Reflecting on his childhood now, he said he realised that the family had become "accessories to the Stewart Rhodes brand". His father had "made his family the centre point of this cult of personality that he wanted to build for himself," Dakota said. "And this reality that he wanted to spin into existence, in which he would be a major saviour figure in American history." As Rhodes's eldest son, he said he felt a tremendous pressure to maintain the family facade. He was expected to take up stereotypically manly pursuits that could serve militia purposes. They included a grab bag of survivalist skills, shooting practice, martial arts training and home-school history lessons that focused mostly on the American Revolution and the battle of Thermopylae. Like many sons, Dakota longed for his father's approval, which was slow in coming. "From early childhood on, there was a sort of a layer of adoration towards my father that slowly eroded away over the years," he said. "I saw myself as nothing but an enormous failure to my family that could never live up to Stewart's standards." Uncomfortable Memories Kalispell, Montana, is a small but growing city that serves as a gateway to nearby Glacier National Park. Standing outside one of the family's previous homes, a modest dun-coloured house opposite a row of trailers, it's clear the place brought up uncomfortable memories for Dakota, who had spent his early teenage years there. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...94_us4-976.jpg Dakota and Montana Scenery He recounted one incident in particular, sometime around 2012. A beloved pet dog named Yeti was in ill health and eventually died inside the house. "Stewart was busy with [Oath Keepers] conference calls and emailing people and he put off taking my dog to be cremated," he said. It took three days for Rhodes to finally take the dog away. He joked about the smell of the carcass and teased his teenage son about his emotional attachment to the animal. Dakota was furious. "I was struggling with the impulse to jump out and circle around to the driver's side door and yank my father out of the car to beat him in traffic," he said. Throughout hours of interviews, in tweets and in posts on their blogs, Dakota and Tasha recounted numerous similar incidents of verbal abuse and neglect. A few stood out - like the time Dakota described Stewart choking one of his sisters on the family's front porch. "Until I was an adult man," he said, "I lived absolutely under the thumb of an emotional terrorist." Through his legal team, Rhodes declined to comment for this story. Heading to the Mountains The small city of Kalispell was not remote enough for Rhodes. In the early 2010s, the family moved to a cabin hours to the north, in a small community in the mountains populated by like-minded militia members, preppers, and other people who usually prefer to be left alone. As a young man, Dakota spent one summer digging escape tunnels on the property, preparing for what his father believed was an inevitable government assault on the family compound. Out in the countryside, miles from the connections he'd made in town, Dakota's favoured hobbies - martial arts and the Boy Scouts - fell by the wayside. Isolated and struggling, he slunk into a depressive state. He spent more and more time online, on extreme websites and forums such as 4chan, and described himself at the time as a "neckbeard" - a slang term meaning, to put it politely, a basement-dwelling computer nerd who neglects personal grooming. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/c...57bebde07e.jpg Rhodes in Missouri Throughout that time, spurred on by Rhodes, Oath Keepers were expanding their reach. Armed members patrolled Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015, on the one-year anniversary of protests after teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer. In the mid-2010s they were at the scene of standoffs between anti-government activists and law enforcement at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. But even as the militia grew, Rhodes's family struggled for money. The militia charged annual membership fees of $30, which later increased to $50, according to evidence in the criminal trial. Funds were supplemented by donations. While a membership list leaked last year included 38,000 names, including some elected politicians and law enforcement officials, how many paid dues or for what length is unclear. Several people on the list who the BBC spoke to never paid anything. Rhodes has not filed tax returns since he founded Oath Keepers, according to evidence presented at his trial. The money that did come in was poorly managed by Rhodes, his family said. Expenses - survival gear, ammunition and travel costs - racked up. While Rhodes would regale the family with stories of fancy meals on the road and militia training sessions, his wife and children frequently subsisted on bags of oatmeal and slices of dried fruit. Amid all this, in Dakota's mind, his nagging doubts about the movement led by his father crystallised further. "I started to see Stewart for who he really was, and I didn't believe in the end anymore. I didn't believe in the apocalypse," he said. Time and again, his father's predictions of imminent social collapse and sweeping government crackdowns had failed to come true. That told him something. The end was not nigh. "That meant that there was potentially something of my own future that I could still salvage," he said. "And it meant that I had to get my family away from Stewart." Fighting Fires But How? Dakota had no money, no formal education and a very small social circle. He took some steps in the right direction - he learned how to drive, and worked to pass his GED - the equivalent of a high school diploma. But the real transformation came after a random encounter at a petrol station while driving his father back from an Oath Keepers meeting. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/c...gasstation.jpg A chance encounter at a nearby petrol station set off a chain of events that changed Dakota's life A clerk there told him about the local volunteer fire department. Dakota agreed to come along to the next meeting. It turned into the break that he needed. Joining the fire department exposed Dakota to a new set of values that initially seemed to mirror what he heard at home: lessons about civic responsibility and preparedness. But at the fire station, people weren't talking about ancient battles, stockpiling guns and food, and raging against the government. They were getting out and helping people. The experience expanded his social connections and led to paid jobs miles away from home, fighting wildfires as far away as California. His controlling father allowed him to leave home to fight fires, he said, because it fit the macho ideals he had for his eldest son. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...97_us3-976.jpg Dakota in Firefighter Gear Over all that time, he felt increasingly ready to leave, and as he moved into his 20s, Dakota realised that his siblings had been longing to escape even longer than he had. "I was the last child to maintain any kind of loyalty or belief in Stewart's narrative," he said. An initial plan developed. One after the other, the older children would move out of the family home, and help the remaining siblings escape. "We were effectively going to daisy chain each other away," Dakota said. A few late night conversations with his mother made him realise Tasha also wanted to leave. Then came a lightning bolt. The Escape The Gibralter Ridge Fire devastated thousands of acres in the nearby Kootenai National Forest. It began with a lightning strike in August 2017, and Dakota was one of the firefighters enlisted to fight the blaze. He spent the summer and early fall battling the flames. It earned him enough money to buy his own truck, the first vehicle the family had that wasn't in his father's name. "We were able to leave the house independently, instead of Stewart maintaining his strict control over our transportation," he said. They had strategised for two years but their hand was forced, Dakota said, by the family's perilous financial situation. Being evicted from their woodland home was becoming an increasingly likely prospect. "We were going to have to go through the worst case scenario of not having enough money to live and being homeless, with Stewart still in tow, if we did not pull the trigger," he said. Tasha filed legal papers for divorce. The night before they escaped, on that grim day in February 2018, Rhodes and Tasha went for a drink at the bar at the nearby crossroads. The bartender kept looking her way, she recalled, because she kept crying. "Stewart never noticed," she said. The family fled the next day. Years in Prison It hasn't been easy. The family still lives in Montana. Tasha, Dakota, and his siblings have had to adjust to life outside of the militia movement, getting embedded in the more normal routines of work, school and community life. Dakota found a house for rent, and later his own small space. In between several jobs and firefighting, he supports his family in a way, he says, that Rhodes never did. Nowadays, he is studying subjects both new (art) and familiar (American politics) at a local community college. Tasha still has not been granted a divorce, more than four and a half years after applying for one. And still the ghosts of Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers continue to linger. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...04_us6-976.jpg Stewart Rhodes with inset of Donald Trump Like many other political movements in America, the militia world was transformed by Donald Trump's first run for president in 2015. Rhodes and his Oath Keepers turned from staunch government opponents into imagined protectors of the Trump movement. And after the 2020 election, the Oath Keepers geared up for conflict, stockpiling weapons and amping up the rhetoric, according to testimony presented in court. When Dakota and Tasha tuned into news coverage on 6 Jan 2021, they didn't need to see Rhodes's face to know that he was there. The giveaway was the "stack" - a formation of Oath Keepers in a line, their hands on the shoulders of the militia members in front of them, barging their way inside the Capitol. Dakota had witnessed his father turn from a Trump sceptic into a full-throated supporter after the 2016 election. In the lead up to the 2020 election, Rhodes envisioned his militia as a last line of defence protecting the Trump movement. In court he testified that he was waiting for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 200-year-old law which allows the president to call on armed forces and the National Guard to keep order. In Rhodes' reading of that scenario, Oath Keepers would become almost a private Trump army. "I knew that Stewart was really hitching his wagon to Trump and was going to have to bet it all on Trump retaining power, whether he won the election or not," Dakota said. But now, Rhodes and one of his co-defendants, Kelly Meggs, face up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of the most serious charges to date stemming from the Capitol riot. Three other Oath Keepers were found not guilty of the seditious conspiracy charge but were convicted on lesser charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/c...taportrait.jpg Dakota Portrait Years after escaping his father's home, Dakota's anger is still palpable. So is his relief. "I'm going to be able to breathe a little bit easier," he said. His political path has diverged from his father's. Prior to the midterm elections he volunteered for local Democratic Party politicians. And in 2020, Dakota was back in Kalispell, joining more than 1,000 protesters in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Armed militia members were there too. One of them got in Dakota's face- covered at the time due to Covid restrictions. When he lowered the bandana around his mouth, the man was stunned. "He very quickly realised that I was Stewart's son and was completely shocked to see me on the other side of the protest line." His apartment today has pictures of wildlife scenes on the walls and a microwave and hotplate in the corner. His dog Mocha looked on as he pulled out his body armour and rifles. Dakota admitted that he was out of practice when it comes to shooting and only dons his body armour when reporters ask to see it. He prefers to spend his down time studying, drawing, and writing. He has a blog and recounted his own journey in a long essay for the progressive website Raw Story. These days the rifles don't get much use. They bring back unpleasant memories of Rhodes and Oath Keepers training events. Still, Dakota holds on to his guns - just in case. "I have no confidence in the United States resisting a growing fascist movement," he said. After their escape, the Rhodes children had occasional meetings with their father. But those gradually went by the wayside. Since the start of the Covid pandemic, he's had sporadic text messages from his father, Dakota said. He hasn't replied to a single one. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
January 6 Committee Considers Criminal Referrals For at Least 4 Others Besides TRUMP
BBC News 11 DEC 2022. https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...q=60&m=2&f=jpg CNN’s Sara Murray reports that four individuals are facing possible criminal referrals by the January 6 committee in addition to former President Donald Trump. CNN’s panel of experts, including CNN’s Jake Tapper, Kasie Hunt, and Audie Cornish, break down the implications. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Capitol Riot: Committee to Seek CRIMINAL Charges For Trump
The congressional inquiry into last year's Capitol riot will reportedly recommend three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. BBC News 17 DEC 2022. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1294918266.jpg The House of Representatives select committee will seek an unprecedented charge of insurrection against a former US president, according to US media. The panel is expected to publish its final report next week. Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to stop Joe Biden's certification as president. The justice department - which is already investigating Mr Trump's role in the unrest - is not obliged to consider referrals from any congressional panel. Mr Trump denies wrongdoing. On Friday his spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: "The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country's history." The select committee is scheduled to hold its final meeting on Monday when any charging recommendations would be unveiled. As well as insurrection, according to various outlets, the panel will suggest Mr Trump be charged with obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The nine panellists are expected to approve the final eight-chapter report, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses, and submit it to the Department of Justice (DoJ). The full report will be made public on Wednesday, said chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is helming the select committee. California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, another member of the panel, told CNN on Friday that the lawmakers have "been very careful in crafting these [charging] recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we've uncovered". The House select committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help subvert his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the Capitol riot in a last-ditch bid to remain in power. The DoJ is already investigating the then-Republican president's actions surrounding the riot. Seven days after the raid on Congress, the House impeached Mr Trump for a second time on the grounds of incitement of insurrection. Trump, who is the only president to ever be impeached twice, was cleared by the US Senate. Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former war crimes prosecutor to decide whether Mr Trump should be prosecuted. Jack Smith is tasked with determining if the 2024 presidential candidate should be put on trial for mishandling classified files that were recovered during an FBI search of Mr Trump's Florida estate in August, or for encouraging the violent mob on 6 January 2021. MORE |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
US Capitol Riot Committee Recommends Criminal Charges Against Donald Trump
BBC News 20 DEC 2022. The committee of lawmakers investigating the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol building has recommended criminal charges against former president Donald Trump and his allies. While it will be up to the Department of Justice and Attorney General to decide whether to prosecute, it is a decisive end to one of the most extensive and aggressive congressional probes in memory. The House January 6 committee released a lengthy summary of its final report, including findings that Mr Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 Presidential election result. Made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, the committee alleged four criminal offences by Mr Trump, in both the run-up to the 2021 riot, and during the insurrection itself. The charges recommended by the panel are conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to make a false statement and aiding an insurrection. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
What New Transcripts on Jan. 6 May Reveal About TRUMPs' Mindset
BBC News 29 DEC 2022. Paula Reid reports on new transcripts that reveal how Donald Trump approached the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, including pushing for pardons for those around him. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) weighs in on the details with Wolf Blitzer. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
President Joe Biden Awards Medals to January 6th Heroes
BBC News 8 JAN 2023 President Joe Biden on Friday marked the second anniversary of the U.S. Capitol attack with an award ceremony for those who battled to defend America's democracy against attackers he said were "fuelled by lies" about the 2020 presidential election. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Proud Boys Face Seditious Conspiracy Trial For Capitol Riot
The defendants include Proud Boys national leader at the time, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio. BBC News.11 JAN 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1230094432.jpg Five members of the far-right Proud Boys group will go on trial this week charged with seditious conspiracy in the latest case involving alleged ringleaders of the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...245668_pb2.jpg Proud Boys, many wearing orange hats, along with other rioters outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 In addition to seditious conspiracy, the five have been charged with eight other crimes including obstructing law enforcement and destruction of government property. If convicted, the Proud Boys will be looking at significant time in prison. The seditious conspiracy charge alone carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Who is on Trial and Why? Alongside Mr Tarrio, who was at the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and became the group's leader the following year, the Proud Boys on trial are: Ethan Nordean, 31, of Washington state, who goes by the alias "Rufio Panman". Mr Nordean was active in street protests and brawls with anti-fascist activists in the Pacific Northwest. In video from 6 January, he's seen leading members of the group around the Capitol Joe Biggs, 38, of Florida. Mr Biggs is a US Army veteran and former broadcaster for Alex Jones's Infowars. He was pictured next to Mr Nordean throughout the riot Zachary Rehl, 37, a former US Marine and the leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Proud Boys Dominic Pezzola, 44, of Rochester in New York state. Prosecutors say Mr Pezzola, also a former US Marine, was one of the first people to reach one of the entrances to the Capitol, where he took a riot shield off a police officer and smashed a window https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...6_joebiggs.jpg Joe Biggs (l) and Enrique Tarrio at a rally in Portland in September 2020 Prosecutors say Proud Boys repeatedly posted a number of violent threats online, for instance in November 2020, Mr Tarrio wrote on a post by Joe Biden: "YOU need to remember the American people are at war with YOU. No TRUMP…No peace. No quarter." Others posted about civil war, firing squads and "traitors". In late December 2020, the Proud Boys leaders created a new chapter which they referred to as the "Ministry of Self Defense". Government prosecutors say the group then began planning for violence in earnest. Proud Boys gathered near the Washington Monument on the morning of the riot before making their way to the Capitol. More than 100 members of the group were present that day, and dozens have subsequently been arrested. Lawyers for the defendants are expected to argue that the group was poorly organised and that there was no preconceived plan to storm the building. They've also noted in a pre-trial motion that Mr Tarrio was in touch with police before 6 January and informed law enforcement of the group's plans for the day. Jury selection for the trial began before Christmas but has been relatively slow as many potential jurors have expressed negative views of the group. Opening statements in the trial are set to begin later this week. Who are Proud Boys? The Proud Boys were founded in New York City in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of Vice who left the media company to embark on a career as a right-wing commentator and podcaster. They describe themselves as an all-male drinking club with bizarre initiation rituals, or a "pro-Western fraternal organisation". But they are better known for their frequent brawls with left-wing anti-fascist activists in cities across the US. In a 2019 BBC documentary, Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon, boasted about arrests and street fighting. They later came to widespread fame after a presidential debate in September 2020. During a discussion about extremism, Joe Biden mentioned the organisation. Donald Trump responded by saying: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by." While they have a number of non-white members and Mr Tarrio himself has Afro-Cuban heritage, they are designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which notes that their "actions belie their disavowals of bigotry" and that members "regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists". How is this trial different from the Oath Keepers case? In November last year the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, and head of the group's Florida chapter, Kelly Meggs, were convicted of seditious conspiracy - the most serious charges levelled against the more than 900 people who have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. Unlike his co-defendants, Mr Tarrio was not in Washington during the riot. He faced charges after burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was stolen from a Washington church and was also charged with violating weapons laws. He was arrested on 4 January 2021, and when he was bailed he was ordered by the judge to leave Washington and ended up watching events from a hotel room in nearby Baltimore. Although both Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were staunch supporters of Donald Trump, documents released by a congressional committee investigating the riot showed a sharp rift between the two groups over allegations of racism. Oath Keepers agreed to provide security for an event organised by Proud Boys in Portland - one of the hotbeds of the group's activities - in 2019. But Rhodes pulled his group out of the event when he found out about an invited speaker who allegedly held white nationalist views. Mr Tarrio was angry at the move, and he told congressional investigators: "I didn't like Stewart Rhodes. I still don't like Stewart Rhodes." While the Oath Keepers have mostly stopped functioning since the Capitol riot, Proud Boys have continued to remain active, including holding protests at drag shows and supporting anti-abortion activists. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...245664_pb1.jpg Proud Boys have continued to hold events and protests since January 2021 What is Seditious Conspiracy? Under US law, seditious conspiracy is defined as a plot to overthrow the government or use force "to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States". It's a rarely used law that dates from the Civil War, and the Oath Keepers case was the first successful prosecution for seditious conspiracy since 1995. Three other members of that militia were acquitted of the charge during last year's trial. Seditious conspiracy is less serious than treason, which is the only crime specifically spelled out in the US Constitution and requires a high standard of proof - the testimony of at least two witnesses in open court or a confession. Treason can also be punishable by the death penalty. Two Proud Boys, Charles Donohoe and Jeremy Bertino, have already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and may be called as witnesses at the trial. Voluminous evidence in the form of messages, videos and social media posts, along with a long list of potential witnesses, means that the trial is likely to last at least six weeks. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Oath Keepers Guilty of Sedition in Capitol Riot Trial
US jury convicts man pictured with feet on Pelosi’s desk during Capitol attack BBC 24 JAN 2023 https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Fl...771a6957bac7a4 Four members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group were found guilty Monday of sedition for taking part in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. A jury convicted Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo of conspiring against the US government when they sought to block Congress's certification of Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. In a separate Washington courtroom Monday, meanwhile, Richard Barnett, the man famously photographed on January 6 with his feet on a desk in House speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, was convicted of disrupting Congress and other crimes. The convictions brought to around 530 the number of people who have been found guilty or pleaded guilty for taking part in what prosecutors have called an insurrection to keep Trump in the White House after his election loss. More than 950 people have been arrested for taking part, most on lesser charges of illegally entering the Capitol or causing property damage. But more than 280 have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers and 50 with serious conspiracy crimes. Monday's verdicts came two months after the conviction of two January 6 Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy. It is extremely rare for prosecutors to press this charge, and conviction can bring up to 20 years in prison. The verdicts appeared to increase the chance for a similar ruling in the ongoing trial of another far-right group, the Proud Boys, for their roles in the attacks. The success of federal prosecutors in obtaining convictions for sedition among the January 6 rioters could raise the stakes for Trump and his advisors in the Justice Department's investigation into whether they plotted or fomented the Capitol attack. Barnett, 62, was not accused of conspiring against the government. He became one of the faces of the January 6 attack for the pictures of him leaning back in a chair and propping his boots on the desk in the office of Democrat Pelosi, the most powerful politician in Congress at the time. He was convicted on eight counts including obstructing Congress's certification of the election, illegally entering the Capitol and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon, the latter referring to an electric stun weapon disguised as a walking stick. But while in Pelosi's office he wrote a crude message to her and then took with him an envelop she had signed. After he left the room he told media that he had bled on the desk. "I put a quarter on her desk even though she ain't f...ing worth it," he said, according to a court filing. "And I left her a note on her desk that says 'Nancy, Bigo was here, you Bitch,'" he said, using his nickname. Barnett, described in court filings as a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory alleging a global liberal plot to kidnap children, had defended his actions as an exercise of his constitutional right to protest. He faces in total up to 47 years in prison. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
‘You Can BLAME Him’: TRUMP Shifts Responsibility For January 6 on Pence
Pence Declines to Support Trump if He’s 2024 Nominee: ‘I’m Confident We’ll Have Better Choices’ :clapper::clapper::clapper: Ex-president’s remarks come after his former vice-president said that history will hold Trump accountable for the violence BBC 14 MAR 2023 https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.6...D4&pid=Api&P=0 TRUMP on Monday responded to Mike Pence’s contention that history will hold him accountable for the January 6 attack on Congress, saying the deadly attack was his former vice-president’s fault. “Had he sent the votes back to the legislatures, they wouldn’t have had a problem with January 6, so in many ways you can blame him for January 6,” Trump told reporters on a flight to Iowa for a campaign appearance. He was referring to his attempt to have Pence, in his role as Senate president, refuse to certify election results in battleground states, on grounds of supposed electoral fraud, thereby overturning Trump’s conclusive defeat by Joe Biden. Trump added: “Had he sent them back to Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona … I believe, number one, you would have had a different outcome. But I also believe you wouldn’t have had ‘January 6’ as we call it.” Nine deaths have been linked to the attack on Congress, including law enforcement suicides. The riot happened after Trump told supporters to “fight like hell”. More than a thousand rioters have been arrested, hundreds charged and many convicted, some with seditious conspiracy. Others remain wanted. Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted when enough Senate Republicans remained loyal. Last year, the House January 6 committee made four criminal referrals of Trump to the Department of Justice. Its investigation continues. The January 6 committee outlined how Pence refused to go along with Trump’s plan to block certification, after advisers told him he did not have the authority to do so. On the plane to Iowa on Monday, Trump falsely claimed again Pence “had the right” to refuse to certify results. Pence was otherwise a doggedly loyal vice-president but he is now preparing his own presidential bid. He addressed Trump’s culpability for the riot on Saturday, in remarks to the Gridiron dinner in Washington. “President Trump was wrong,” he said. “I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.” On January 6, some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” while a makeshift gallows was erected outside. Pence was spirited to safety by his Secret Service detail, whose fears amid the chaos were highlighted by the January 6 committee. “What happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence said on Saturday, adding: “For as long as I live, I will never, ever diminish the injuries sustained, the lives lost, or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day.” Pence has however resisted a subpoena for testimony in the justice department investigation. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Judge Orders Meadows, Other Top TRUMP Aides MUST Testify to Jan. 6 Grand Jury
BBC 25 MAR 2023 https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/q7...c4eb06508eba41 A federal judge has ordered several former Donald Trump aides, including Mark Meadows, to testify before a grand jury as part of the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, rejecting the former president’s claims of executive privilege, multiple sources confirmed |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Judge Orders Meadows, Other Top TRUMP Aides MUST Testify to Jan. 6 Grand Jury
BBC 25 MAR 2023 https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/q7...c4eb06508eba41 A federal judge has ordered several former Donald Trump aides, including Mark Meadows, to testify before a grand jury as part of the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, rejecting the former president’s claims of executive privilege, multiple sources confirmed |
Re: CAPITOL Riot: WACO TRUMP at Rally: 'I'm The Most Innocent Man in American History
TRUMP: 'I'm The Most Innocent Man in American History'
Trump Says He’s ‘The Most Innocent Man in the History of Our Country’ at Lie-Filled Waco Rally TRUMP Rally Falls on DARK WACO 30th Anniversary Next Month TRUMP, Facing Potential Indictment, Holds Defiant WACO Rally- There Will Be Death & Destruction If I'm Arrested BBC 26 MAR 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...191000x563.jpg 'God, Guns and Trump': Thousands turn out for Texas rally Donald Trump held the first campaign rally for his 2024 presidential campaign on Saturday, held at the Waco Regional Airport in Texas, making a dramatic entrance with a flyover to the tune of Top Gun single “Danger Zone” as hundreds of his MAGA followers in attendance cheered. Meanwhile, “Christian Worship Artist” Vanessa Horabuena took the stage, splashing paint onto a black canvas to quickly turn Rorshach-like splashes of orange, yellows and neutrals into a serious, side-faced profile portrait of Trump with an American flag in the background. The event also featured the track “Justice for All” featuring Donald J. Trump and the J6 Prison Choir. During the rally — attended by endorsers that included Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, Ted Nugent, and several Texas politicians, including Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick — Trump revisited his favorite MAGA rallying cry hit lists: falsely blaming immigrants, the media, the Democrats, a stolen election, and more for the demise of America, where he purports to be the cure. Trump’s return to his favorite mega-rally ways comes as he faces a number of legal challenges. A possible indictment looms in New York over him paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels hush money over their alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election. (Trump has reacted as predicted with warnings of “death and destruction” and calls for protests over the impending charges.) In Georgia, a grand jury is investigating whether he and some of his cohorts meddled in the state’s 2020 presidential election. And then there’s the criminal investigation from special counsel Jack Smith who was appointed by the Justice Department to independently investigate Trump’s campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his role in the bloody events of Jan. 6. Trump addressed his current legal woes, claiming between the release of his tax returns and other documents that have been provided for the investigations against him, he’s blameless. “And yet after going over 11 million pages of documents, I built a great company — they’ve got nothing, they’ve got nothing,” he claimed. “And my tax returns on top of it, and they’re a big return. It probably makes me the most innocent man in the history of our country.” LIES LIES AND MORE LIES.... Trump went on to claim he has been done so dirty in the investigations into his alleged conduct that people quit in solidarity — another lie of many he told during the rally. “They even had numerous prosecutors who resigned because I was being treated unfairly,” Trump claimed. “That made me feel so good when I heard that. Think of it. People actually in a Democrat area, Democrat office, they resigned. Did you know that they resigned?” he asked (The answer is no, because it is not true). “A lot of them resigned the office because they said, ‘You can’t treat a man like this. He didn’t do anything wrong.’” During the two hours of his rally, there were numerous fibs, from him blaming once again immigrants for pretty much all societal woes to calling Democrats “arsonists” and the country’s “biggest threat.” And then there was his oft-repeated lie: that the 2016 election was rigged. “We won in 2016. We won by much more in 2020, but it was rigged,” he claimed. “You know, in 2020, I got the most votes of any sitting president in history.” https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Xf...a5f9bbdfed56e5 Trump: There Will Be Death & Destruction If I'm Arrested |
re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy
Judge Rules That Pence MUST Testify About TRUMP Conversations Before Federal Grand Jury
WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - A federal judge has ruled that former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a source familiar with the ruling said on Tuesday. BBC 1 APR 2023 https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images....FCKD7RP6J4.jpg U.S. former Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks, in part addressing his opposition to a grand jury subpoena for testimony about efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection loss, to the Coolidge Presidential Foundation conference at the Library of Congress in Washington, U.S. February 16, 2023. In a ruling that remains under seal, the judge also said that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6, the source said, adding that Pence can still appeal the ruling. The appeal option is being evaluated, the source said. The source, confirming reports by CNN and NBC, said the judge's decision compels Trump's former vice president, and potential challenger for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, to appear before the Federal Grand Jury but shields him from testifying about Jan. 6, 2021, itself. |
Re: CAPITOL Riot: LEADER Tarrio & Three Other Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspira
Four Proud Boys GUILTY of Seditious Conspiracy Over US Capitol riot..:clapper::clapper::clapper:
Four members of the far-right Proud Boys, including former leader Enrique Tarrio, have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their role in the US Capitol riot. BBC News 4 MAY 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1230094432.jpg Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, the former national leader of the Proud Boys The jury was unable to come to a decision on two charges against a fifth co-defendant. The verdicts came after a trial lasting nearly four months. The seditious conspiracy charge alone carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. All five defendants were convicted on a range of lesser charges stemming from their activities on 6 January, 2021. Who are the defendants? The group's leader at the time of the riot, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, was at the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and became the leader of the Proud Boys the following year. He's a Cuban-American from Miami, a former Florida director of Latinos for Trump - and off the back of his notoriety made a brief run for Congress in 2020. Unlike his co-defendants, Tarrio was not in Washington DC during the riot. He faced charges after burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was stolen from a Washington church and was also charged with violating weapons laws. He was arrested two days before the riot, and ordered by a judge to leave the city. He ended up watching events from a hotel room in nearby Baltimore. The other co-defendants were: Ethan Nordean, 31, of Washington state, who goes by the alias "Rufio Panman". Nordean was active in street protests and brawls with anti-fascist activists in the Pacific Northwest. In video from 6 January, he was seen leading members of the group around the Capitol Joe Biggs, 38, of Florida. Biggs is a US Army veteran and former broadcaster for Alex Jones's Infowars. He was pictured next to Nordean throughout the riot Zachary Rehl, 37, a former US Marine and leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Proud Boys Dominic Pezzola, 44, of Rochester in New York state. Pezzola, also a former US Marine, was one of the first people to reach one of the entrances to the Capitol, where he took a riot shield off a police officer and smashed a window. The jury could not reach a decision on charges of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding against Pezzola Proud Boys gathered near the Washington Monument on the morning of the riot before making their way to the Capitol. More than 100 members of the group were present that day, and dozens have subsequently been arrested. In court, prosecutors introduced a large volume of text messages, social media posts and videos to prove that the group's actions amounted to a co-ordinated plot to try to stop the certification of the 2020 election result. The Proud Boys repeatedly posted a number of violent threats online. For instance, in November 2020, Tarrio wrote on a post by Joe Biden: "YOU need to remember the American people are at war with YOU. No Trump…No peace. No quarter." Others posted about civil war, firing squads and "traitors". The trial took more than twice as long as expected and was delayed by slow jury selection, motions for mistrial by defence lawyers, numerous arguments over witnesses and evidence, and concerns about possible juror intimidation. Lawyers for the defendants argued that the group was poorly organised, mostly non-violent, and that there was no preconceived plan to storm the building. They also noted that Tarrio, a long-time police informant, was in touch with Washington police before 6 January and informed an officer of the group's plans for the day. In closing arguments their lawyers placed the blame on Donald Trump, saying they merely followed his suggestion to show up in Washington DC on 6 January. "'Be there, it's going to be wild,' the commander-in-chief said. And so they did," said Norm Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, referencing one of Mr Trump's tweets. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...245668_pb2.jpg Proud Boys, many wearing orange hats, along with other rioters outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 Who are Proud Boys? The Proud Boys were founded in New York City in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of Vice who left the media company to embark on a career as a right-wing commentator and podcaster. They describe themselves as an all-male drinking club, or a "pro-Western fraternal organisation". But they became better known for their frequent brawls with left-wing anti-fascist activists in cities across the US. In a 2019 BBC documentary, Proud Boys based in Portland, Oregon, boasted about arrests and street fighting. They achieved mainstream fame after a presidential debate in September 2020. During a discussion about extremism, Joe Biden mentioned the organisation. Donald Trump responded by saying: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by." Video of the debate was aired in court, and defence lawyers unsuccessfully attempted to subpoena Mr Trump in an apparent attempt to argue the defendants were following presidential orders on 6 January, 2021. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...245664_pb1.jpg Proud Boys have continued to hold events and protests since January 2021 What is Seditious Conspiracy? Under US law, seditious conspiracy is defined as a plot to overthrow the government or use force "to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States". It is a rarely used law that dates from the US Civil War. Last year two leaders of the Oath Keepers - one of the other major organised groups present at the Capitol riot - were convicted in the first successful prosecution for seditious conspiracy since 1995. Three other members of that militia were acquitted of the charge during last year's trial. Seditious conspiracy is less serious than treason, which is the only crime specifically spelled out in the US Constitution and requires a high standard of proof - the testimony of at least two witnesses in open court or a confession. Treason can also be punishable by the death penalty. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: MORE Proud Boys Sentenced-Dominic Pezzola 10yrs & Ethan Nordean 18yrs
Oath Keepers Leader Stewart Rhodes Sentenced to 18 Years for Capitol Riot
The leader of a far-right militia has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the US Capitol riot. BBC 25 MAY 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...persleader.jpg Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy and other crimes. The sentence is the longest yet given to a Capitol rioter. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years. Meanwhile, Kelly Meggs, the leader of the militia's Florida chapter, was jailed for 12 years. Rhodes remained outside the Capitol, but co-ordinated with Meggs and other members who stormed the building. Rhodes and Meggs were also convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents or proceedings in one of the highest-profile trials related to the riot on 6 January 2021. At a hearing on Thursday, Rhodes showed little remorse, claiming he was a "political prisoner" and insisting that the Oath Keepers were standing in opposition to people "who are destroying our country". Judge Amit Mehta rejected those claims and expressed concern about Rhodes' violent rhetoric, including a threat to hang former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "I dare say, Mr Rhodes, and I've never said this about anyone who I've sentenced: You, sir, present an ongoing threat and peril to this country, to the republic and the very fabric of our democracy," the judge said. "We all now hold our collective breaths with an election approaching," he said. "Will we have another January 6th? That remains to be seen." Rhodes' sentence was the longest handed out so far for the riot, where thousands of supporters of Donald Trump who objected to the result of the 2020 presidential election stormed the US legislature. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years for Rhodes and 21 years for Meggs. Defence lawyers had argued for much lighter sentences of less than three years each. Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. Armed members of the anti-government group showed up at a number of protests and standoffs, and eventually became staunch supporters of Donald Trump. Dozens were present at the riot. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...elly-meggs.jpg Kelly Meggs at a pro-Trump rally held the day before the Capitol riot What Did The Oath Keepers Do on January 6? Rhodes began a campaign to reject the results of the election two days after the November 2020 vote, while ballots were still being counted. He messaged supporters: "We aren't getting through this without a civil war… Prepare your mind, body, spirit." Rhodes and other Oath Keepers then spent thousands of dollars on weapons and equipment and stashed them in a hotel room in nearby Virginia just prior to 6 January 2021. During the riot itself, Rhodes stayed outside the building taking phone calls and messages while other Oath Keepers, including some led by Meggs, stormed the building. Prosecutors said Rhodes acted like a "battlefield general" during the melee. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1295126747.jpg Members of the Oath Keepers pictured just before the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021 Defence lawyers argued that the weapons stash was never used and that the militia was on a purely defensive mission. They plan to appeal the convictions. In interviews with the BBC last year, Rhodes' estranged family said they had suffered years of abuse and neglect while the militia leader organised anti-government activists across the country. Earlier this week his ex-wife Natasha Adams tweeted that a Montana court has granted her a divorce from Rhodes. What is Seditious Conspiracy? Rhodes and Meggs were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a little-used Civil War-era law that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. It's distinct from the crime of treason, which carries a high burden of proof outlined in the US Constitution, and can lead to the death penalty. Three other Oath Keepers who went on trial at the same time were found not guilty of seditious conspiracy but were convicted of lesser charges. Judge Mehta ruled in favour of prosecutors who argued for a stiffer sentence for Rhodes under a so-called "terrorism enhancement". They argued that the Oath Keepers sought to use "intimidation or coercion" against the US government. Four other Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy in January, and four members of the far-right Proud Boys were convicted on the charge earlier this month. Most of the Capitol rioters were not part of an organised group, however. In total, more than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, and more than half have pleaded guilty to crimes including assault, theft, weapons charges, trespassing and obstructing an official proceeding. Around 80 have been found guilty following a trial, according to the US Justice Department. |
re: CAPITOL Riot: MORE Proud Boys Sentenced-Dominic Pezzola 10yrs & Ethan Nordean 18yrs
Justice Department Asks For 30 year Sentences For Proud Boys THUG Leaders Convicted of Sedition
A jury in Washington convicted four of the men in May of seditious conspiracy. BBC 24 AUG 2023 https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/...,w_1280,c_fill Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington. The Justice Department is seeking three-decade prison sentences for the leaders of the Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting and leading the crowd at the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, positioning the men as failed, thuggish political revolutionaries. In a new court filing, prosecutors say Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola “intentionally positioned themselves at the vanguard of political violence in this country” for years and on January 6 sought to “change the course of American history.” Prosecutors seek 33 years in prison for Tarrio and Biggs; 30 years for Rehl; 27 years for Nordean; and 20 years for Pezzola. The Proud Boys leaders are set to be sentenced August 29 by Judge Timothy Kelly of the US District Court in Washington. Tarrio was not on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6 but had stayed in touch with the others expressing his support. The other men were at the front of the crowd, breaking past barriers and the police line and smashing windows to let rioters inside the historic building in the first breaches that eventually led to Congress evacuating and temporarily halting their certification of the 2020 presidential election results. The jury found Pezzola not guilty of seditious conspiracy, and he was not alleged to have a leadership position in the organization. “The defendants understood the stakes, and they embraced their role in bringing about a ‘revolution.’ They unleashed a force on the Capitol that was calculated to exert their political will on elected officials by force and to undo the results of a democratic election. The foot soldiers of the right aimed to keep their leader in power. They failed. They are not heroes; they are criminals,” prosecutors wrote in the new filing. The court filing, in many ways, is the summation of the yearslong effort by the US Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia to prosecute hundreds of rioters who inflicted violence at the US Capitol on January 6. The Proud Boys leaders, the prosecutors argue, are even more responsible for the attack than the leadership of another militia group, the Oath Keepers, who stashed weapons just outside Washington as backup and suited up in military gear to march into the riot. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, received a sentence of 18 years in prison for his role on January 6 following his conviction of seditious conspiracy, the longest sentence so far among any defendant from that day. The Justice Department had asked for Rhodes to receive 25 years. “The conduct of these defendants is more egregious than that of the Oath Keeper defendants and warrants greater sentences,” the prosecutors wrote about the Proud Boys leaders. “It is critical that this court impose significant sentences of incarceration on all the defendants in this case to convey to those who would mobilize such political violence in the future that their actions will have consequences.” |
Re: CAPITOL Riot: MORE Proud Boys Sentenced-Dominic Pezzola 10yrs & Ethan Nordean 18y
Two MORE Proud Boys Sentenced For Roles in Capitol Attack on January 6.
Proud Boys Dominic Pezzola, (10 Years) and Ethan Nordean, (18 Years) Were Handed Two of The Lengthiest Sentences Linked to January 6th. Leader Joe Biggs Was Jailed For 17 Years on Thursday. Zachary Rehl, Former President of The Philadelphia Proud Boys, Received 15 Years. BBC 2 SEP 2023 https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/7l...ad74e92635cdff A federal judge handed down hefty sentences against two members of the Proud Boys for their role in attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021, one who broke open a window to the building and another who took over the leadership role of the group that day. Their sentences, both among the longest yet of the over 1,000 people charged as part of the riot, are emblematic of how judges are working to separate key figures who furthered the violence that day from those who were swept up in the crowd. “If we don’t have the peaceful transfer of power, I don’t know what we have,” District Judge Timothy Kelly said during one of the hearings Friday. “Because that is the reflection of when we go to the ballot box, when we exercise the right to vote. That is the manifestation of that. And so, if we don’t have that, we don’t have anything.” Kelly continued, “that didn’t honor the founders, it was the kind of thing they wrote the constitution to prevent.” The first man to be sentenced Friday, Dominic Pezzola, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Pezzola smashed through a window to the US Capitol with a police riot shield on January 6, allowing the first wave of rioters to storm the building as members of Congress were being evacuated. Pezzola quickly became a symbol of the violence that day. Ethan Nordean, a Proud Boy from Washington State who took over leading the group after longtime Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was arrested on his way to Washington, DC, days before the January 6 riot, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Nordeans’ 18-year prison sentence is tied for the longest handed down in connection with the January 6 insurrection. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. Pezzola https://thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/wp-cont...-in-prison.jpg Images of Pezzola, nicknamed “Spazzolini,” using the police riot shield to first breach the Capitol building quickly became a symbol of the violence that day. “The reality is you were the one who did it,” Kelly said during his sentencing hearing Friday. “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. It is not something I would have ever dreamed I’d see in our country.” “You were really, in some ways, the tip of the spear,” the judge said. Before leaving the courtroom, Pezzola, with a raised fist, shouted, “Trump won!” just minutes after Kelly – who had already left the courtroom – said he hoped Pezzola had turned a corner. Pezzola was the only one of the five Proud Boys defendants not convicted of seditious conspiracy. Pezzola joined the Proud Boys shortly before January 6, according to evidence shown at trial, and was praised by the organization’s leadership for his violent actions at a separate rally weeks before the Capitol riot. The New York native was convicted of multiple other charges including assaulting or resisting a police officer, robbery of a police shield, destruction of government property and obstructing an official proceeding. In the at times rambunctious trial, which spanned several months, prosecutors argued that Pezzola’s co-defendants, leaders of the Proud Boys, pushed lower-level members like Pezzola to be on the front lines of the violence at the Capitol. In a written statement read aloud by prosecutors earlier this week, former Capitol police officer Mark Ode, who was assaulted by Pezzola, recounted being attacked by the mob and feeling like his life was leaving his body. Ode wrote that he was haunted by the memory of being “pinned down by multiple assailants, being pinned down by all of their weight, while simultaneously being choked by the chinstrap of my helmet.” “I felt my life fleeing my body,” Ode wrote, adding that he had “the most vivid visual of my own funeral.” During Friday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutor Erik Kenerson said that “many Americans will approach the ballot box in 2024 with trepidation” and “will go to bed on January 5, 2025 afraid of what might happen the next day. Mark Ode certainly will.” https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.O...=Api&P=0&h=220 Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, DIED After Suffering Injury in Riot Pezzola, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, addressed the court during Friday’s hearing, while his wife, mother, daughter and a friend who served with him in the military sat in the courtroom. “I need to extend my sincere apology to Officer Ode,” Pezzola said, “and if he were here, I would look him in the eyes and apologize for all the grief I caused him.” Pezzola also apologized to his wife and children and the country, adding that “the events of J6 have crumbled the reputation of the nation I served in the Marine corps.” His wife, Lisa, told Kelly how her daughters have suffered through depression and been bullied at school since their father was arrested, saying that it “is very hard as a mother – to not be able to protect them from the outside world.” “In no way am I making excuses for Dominic’s actions that day. As I said on the stand, he was a f**king idiot,” she said through tears. Pezzola’s youngest daughter, Angelina, also spoke to the judge, saying that she was “everything good that my father has done” and that it’s because of him she’s a successful college student. “I hope you give him some mercy so he can see me graduate college, so he can see me get my first home, my first job,” she said as her father sobbed at the defense table. “All I crave is a hug from my father.” Nordean https://politicaliq.com/wp-content/u...an-mugshot.jpg Nordean – who goes by the moniker “Rufio Panman” after a member of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys – rose to prominence within the organization in 2017 after a video of him knocking out an anti-fascist protester with one punch went viral online. On the morning of January 6, Nordean and his co-defendant Joseph Biggs, led a group of approximately 100 Proud Boys towards the Capitol, donning walkie-talkie style radios and leading chants over a bullhorn. Standing before the judge late Friday afternoon, Nordean apologized for his actions during the riot and said that “for a long time I thought of myself merely as an individual, comparing my actions that day to others… but I had to face the sobering truth: I didn’t come to January 6 as an individual, I came as a leader.” “The truth is I did help lead a group of men back to the Capitol,” Nordean said. “I had ample opportunity to deescalate… and I did nothing.’ Defense attorney Nicholas Smith noted repeatedly Friday that Nordean “consumed at least six alcoholic beverages” on his way to the Capitol on January 6 and that his pockets were filled with empty containers. His wife and sister also addressed the judge, pleading for Nordean to be allowed to return home to his daughter. |
re: CAPITOL Riot ~The World & Trial of Enrique Tarrio -Jan 6 Leader
Ex-Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Jailed For 22 Years For Capitol Riot
TRUMPS' Proud Boys former leader has been jailed for 22 years for orchestrating the US Capitol riot, the longest sentence so far for a ringleader of the raid on the seat of American democracy. BBC 6 SEP 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...apitolriot.jpg https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1230094432.jpg Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy, a US Civil War-era charge, and other counts in May... Tarrio, 39, was not in Washington during the riot, but helped organise the far-right group's involvement. More than 1,100 people have been arrested on Capitol riot charges. Before he learned his fate on Tuesday, an emotional Tarrio apologised to police and residents of Washington DC for his role in the 6 January 2021 riot, when supporters of then-US President Donald Trump stormed Congress as lawmakers certified Joe Biden's election victory. "I am extremely ashamed and disappointed that they were caused grief and suffering," he told Washington's federal courthouse. "I will have to live with that shame for the rest of my life." Tarrio, wearing an orange jail uniform, added: "I was my own worst enemy. "My hubris convinced me that I was a victim and targeted unfairly." Acknowledging that Trump had lost the November 2020 presidential election, Tarrio said: "I am not a political zealot. "Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal. "I didn't think it was even possible to change the results of the election." "Please show me mercy," Tarrio asked the judge. "I ask you that you not take my 40s from me." At one point earlier, he could be seen wiping tears from his eyes as his mother asked the judge for leniency. Tarrio was national chairman of the Proud Boys. Founded in New York City in 2016, members of the far-right group have described themselves as an all-male drinking club. They regarded themselves as Mr Trump's foot soldiers and have often been involved in street clashes with far-left anti-fascist activists. Tarrio's lawyer argued in court on Tuesday that his client was a "keyboard ninja" and "misguided patriot" who tended to "talk trash", but had no intention of overthrowing the government. However, US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump nominee, noted that Tarrio had on many previous occasions expressed no remorse for his actions. "Seditious conspiracy is a serious offence," said Judge Kelly. "Mr Tarrio was the ultimate leader of that conspiracy." Tarrio was also found guilty in May of obstruction and conspiracy charges, civil disorder and destruction of government property. Prosecutors had called his actions "a calculated act of terrorism", meriting a sentence of 33 years in prison. The defence wanted no more than 15 years. Not So SMUG Now Tarrio stood silently while the judge handed down the penalty. As he was led from court, Tarrio waved to his family in the public gallery and flashed a peace sign. His lawyers said he plans to appeal. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Tarrio and other Proud Boys had posted threatening messages online, warning of violence and unrest if Mr Trump left office. He was stopped by police two days before the US Capitol riot as he entered Washington DC. The siege of the US Capitol stunned the world Tarrio, who has described himself as Afro-Cuban, was arrested on a warrant charging him with burning a Black Lives Matter banner that had been taken from an African-American church in the city about three weeks earlier. He was also found with a high-capacity ammunition magazine, which is illegal under the city's gun laws. He was released on bail and ordered to leave the nation's capital. On the day of the riot, he was in Baltimore. As Trump supporters laid siege to the congressional complex, Tarrio posted online that he was "enjoying the show". "Do what must be done," he wrote, urging on the rioters. Tuesday's was the last in a series of sentencing hearings for the ringleaders of the US Capitol riot. Until now, the longest sentences were the 18-year terms handed down last week to another Proud Boy, Ethan Nordean, and in May to Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia. Three other Proud Boys received prison sentences last week for their roles in the riot. Former US Marines Dominic Pezzola and Zachary Rehl received 10 and 15 years, respectively. Joe Biggs, a US Army veteran, got 17 years. Trump has promised to pardon most or all of the rioters if he's re-elected president in 2024. A WARNING to TRUMP... The charges against the rioters have varied - from relatively minor crimes like entering a restricted area, to destruction of government property, assault and conspiracy. Around 200 have pleaded guilty to felony charges. The investigation is still ongoing - the FBI is still trying to locate 14 rioters captured on video assaulting police officers or members of the media. |
re: CAPITOL Riot ~The World & Trial of Enrique Tarrio -Jan 6 Leader
Judge Issues Gag Order For TRUMP in Jan. 6 Case
TRUMP has made disparaging remarks about numerous individuals, including prosecutors and witnesses. BBC 16 OCT 2023 https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Hf...8-2587791090fc Former President Donald TRUMPS legal team was present at the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., Monday morning for a hearing over whether Trump would be faced with a gag order in the federal case relating to the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump, however, will not be able to make statements about special counsel Jack Smith or witnesses, saying his campaign does not give him the privilege of conducting a smear campaign. https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/3/...6042616_tp.jpg Included among the targets of Trump’s invective have been the prosecutors (who he called “a team of thugs”), his former attorney general Bill Barr (referred to as a “gutless pig”) and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley (suggested he might deserve to be executed). Trump attorney John Lauro made the case Monday that supporters of the former president threatening or committing violence wasn’t enough to curtail his client’s free speech rights, saying, “Are we going to tell Americans that they can’t speak because some crazed person might do something inappropriate? That would end the First Amendment as we know it.” Lauro also called it “an order of censorship.” Lauro also returned to an argument he has made often, suggesting the trial could be delayed until after the election. Chutkan has floated the possibility of moving up the start date of the trial —currently set to begin on March 4 — in order to avoid a tainted jury pool. Why it matters: If Trump violates the gag order, Chutkan said she would consider “sanctions,” which could range from issuing warnings to the possibility of jailing him. With Trump set to be making numerous campaign appearances in the coming months and his frequent posting to social media, a gag order violation seems certain |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
BBC Our World ~The Trial of Enrique Tarrio 2023
Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced to 22 Years, Harshest Jan. 6 Penalty Yet BBC 22 OCT 2023 https://www.soundhealthandlastingwea...pitol-riot.jpg https://www.alternet.org/media-libra...0%2C6%2C0%2C29 He was the leader of the Proud Boys, a far right group which was at the forefront of the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. So was Tarrio the puppet master behind the assault on US https://images.thewest.com.au/public...mpolicy=wan_v3 Former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison in Sept – the longest sentence yet related to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021 – after his conviction for seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and to keep Donald Trump in the White House. Prosecutors sought 33 years in prison for Tarrio, 39, of Miami. He was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but had organized Proud Boys members who were among the first to breach the historic building and who temporarily prevented Congress from counting Electoral College votes to certify the election. Tarrio argued at the trial he was blamed for riot after TRUMP inflamed the mob. He was in Baltimore the day of the attack and didn't direct anyone to assault police or destroy property, said his lawyers, who proposed a sentence of no more than 15 years. “I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal,” Tarrio said Tuesday. “Please show me mercy,” he added. “I ask you that you not take my 40s from me.” U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly agreed with prosecutors that Tarrio's actions could be punished more harshly as "terrorism," for trying to influence the government through intimidation or coercion, but not at the level of trying to blow up buildings. https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.f...=Api&P=0&h=220 The longest previous sentence went to Stewart Rhodes, former leader of the Oath Keepers, who got 18 years for seditious conspiracy and other crimes. The Justice Department has appealed that sentence and asked for a longer term. TRUMP was indicted Aug. 1 on conspiracy charges related to obstructing Congress, but not inciting the Capitol attack or seditious conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty and has a trial scheduled 4 March 2024. |
Re: CAPITOL Riot ~TRUMPs' Audio Tape-'Secret Service Wouldn’t Let Him Go to Jan 6 Rio
Hear TRUMP Describe What He Wanted to Do on January 6 in Audio Recording
CNN Airs Audio of TRUMP Telling Reporter Secret Service Wouldn’t Let Him Go to the Capitol on Jan. 6: ‘I Would’ve Been Very Well Received’ BBC 17 NOV 2023 https://i0.gmx.at/image/926/33499926...nald-trump.jpg CNN aired new audio of former President Donald Trump telling ABC News that he wanted to go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, where he “would’ve been very well received,” but that the Secret Service would not let him. During an interview with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, dated March 18, 2021 — just over two months after the Capitol riot — Trump said, “If you look at the real size of that crowd, it was never reported correctly. There were— it’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken in front of by far. By far.” After Karl said, “You told them you were going to go up to the Capitol, ” Trump replied: 'I was going to and then Secret Service said you can’t, and then by the time— I would have, and then when I get back, I saw— I wanted to go back. I was thinking about going back during the problem to stop the problem, doing it myself. Secret Service didn’t like that idea too much' And I could have done that, and you know what? I would have been very well received. Don’t forget, the people that went to Washington that day, in my opinion, they went because they thought the election was rigged. That’s why they went.' Trump is under federal indictment and faces four criminal charges in Washington, D.C. over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 4, just one day before Super Tuesday. He has also been indicted in three other jurisdictions. |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
US House Speaker Mike Johnson to Publicly Release 44,000 Hours of Sensitive Jan 6 Footage
House speaker to make good on promise to far-right Republicans including Matt Gaetz and Trump BB C 19 NOV 2023 https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c5977...5&dpr=1&s=none House speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol “This 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,” Johnson said in a statement. The newly elected speaker said the first tranche of security footage, around 90 hours, will be released on a public committee website Friday, with the rest of the 44,000 hours expected to be posted over the next several months. In the meantime, a public viewing room will be set up in the Capitol. For the last several months, the GOP-led House Administration Committee has made the video available by appointment only to members of the media, criminal defendants and a limited number of other people. The video shows some of the fighting up close and gives a bird’s-eye view of the Capitol complex – one that visitors rarely see – as hundreds of president Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building, violently attacking police officers and breaking in through windows and doors. By expanding this access to the general public, Johnson is fulfilling one of the pledges he made last month to the most conservative members of his party, including the representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who orchestrated the ouster of the former speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Both Gaetz and Trump – who is currently running for re-election as he faces federal charges for his role in the January 6 attack – applauded Johnson’s decision. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump congratulated the speaker “for having the courage and fortitude” to release the footage. The move by Johnson will grant the general public a stunning level of access to sensitive and explicit January 6 security footage, which many critics have warned could endanger the safety of staff and Congressmembers in the Capitol complex if it gets into the wrong hands. The hours of footage detail not only the shocking assault rioters made on US Capitol police as they breached the building but also how the rioters accessed the building and the routes lawmakers used to flee to safety. Johnson said Friday that the committee is processing the footage to blur the faces of individuals “to avoid any persons from being targeted for retaliation of any kind”. He added that an estimated 5% of the footage will not be publicly released as it “may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture”. Gripping images and video from the Capitol attack by Trump supporters have been widely circulated by documentarians, news organizations and even the rioters themselves. But until this year, officials held back much of the surveillance video from hundreds of security cameras stationed in and around the Capitol. |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
D.C. Appeals Court Rules TRUMP Doesn't Have Presidential Immunity From Lawsuits Over January 6
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited ruling Friday determining that former President Donald Trump can be sued for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, rejecting his claims of absolute immunity. BBC 2 DEC 2023 https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/asse...uper-tease.jpg The decision, making NEW LAW around the presidency, will have significant implications for several cases against Trump The courts' ruling emphasizes repeatedly that it only focuses on the singular issue of the former president's claim that he should be immune from any civil exposure because he was acting in his official capacity in the days leading up to and on Jan. 6. The decision will now allow members of Congress and officers with the Capitol Police to move forward with a series of lawsuits filed against Trump that are seeking damages for harms they say they suffered as a result of the riot. "The sole issue before us is whether President Trump has demonstrated an entitlement to official-act immunity for his actions leading up to and on January 6 as alleged in the complaints," the court said in its ruling. "We answer no, at least at this stage of the proceedings. When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act." The court notes that while Trump was still in office trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, he actually recognized he was acting in his personal capacity as a presidential candidate when he filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit that was before the Supreme Court. "In arguing that he is entitled to official-act immunity in the cases before us, President Trump does not dispute that he engaged in his alleged actions up to and on January 6 in his capacity as a candidate," they write. "But he thinks that does not matter. Rather, in his view, a President's speech on matters of public concern is invariably an official function, and he was engaged in that function when he spoke at the January 6 rally and in the leadup to that day. We cannot accept that rationale." The court notes, however, that their ruling does not prevent Trump from attempting to raise claims of immunity as the civil lawsuits move forward. Instead, they say that at this stage where Trump has not yet taken a position on the factual allegations leveled against him in each lawsuit, they are rejecting his blanket attempt to claim every action was taken based on his role as the president. The ruling is related solely to the civil lawsuits that were brought against Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, and not special counsel Jack Smiths' federal criminal case that is set for trial in March. |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
Coup Smoking Gun: GOP’s New Speaker ADMITS Plot to Hide TRUMPS Fans' Faces From Prosecutors
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protect rioters from prosecution. The Guardian UK 6 DEC 2023 https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.Z...=Api&P=0&h=180 “We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said at a news conference. The Department of Justice has long had access to the footage and has used it in some of the roughly 1,200 criminal cases against people linked to the riot, when hundreds pushed past police to storm the Capitol. Johnson’s comment is a remarkable statement of sympathy for supporters of then-President Donald Trump who illegally entered a restricted federal building as part of a violent attack on Congress as it met to certify the Electoral College vote before Joe Biden’s inauguration. Though prosecutors already have the video, blurring people’s faces could prevent amateur investigators from sending tips to the FBI. Online sleuths have previously used social media and facial recognition software to help the government track down a number of suspects. In a follow-up statement on Tuesday, a Johnson spokesperson said blurring faces would “prevent all forms of retaliation against private citizens from any non-governmental actors.” Shortly after becoming speaker in October, Johnson announced that Republicans would release thousands of hours of footage from security cameras, fulfilling a pledge he made to the far-right flank of the House GOP conference. The video has previously been available to criminal defendants and reporters by request. Johnson initially said that the footage would allow people to see for themselves what happened that day so that the public would not have “to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials” ― as though Trump supporters had not really ransacked the building as part of an effort to undo his loss in the 2020 election. Conspiracy theorists and some Republican lawmakers have pointed to video snippets as evidence that it was actually the Justice Department that orchestrated the riot. Several lawmakers claimed that video showed a Trump supporter flashing a badge at Capitol Police officers, for instance. The object in the man’s hand turned out to have been a vaping device. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who claimed from the House floor on the day of the attack that it had actually been perpetrated by leftists in disguise, led the push for releasing the footage. Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans “trust the American people to draw their own conclusions” about Jan. 6, but the decision to blur faces suggests Republicans think it would inappropriate for members of the public to use the footage to try to identify suspects. The chair of the subcommittee overseeing the gradual release of the footage said Tuesday that it was important to hide the identities of people who walked into the Capitol after the forward assault of rioters had already smashed through windows and forced open doors. “When these people arrive, they see the doors open and Capitol Police just standing there with people walking in,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told HuffPost. “There’s too many people out there just trying to go after anyone who was here.” |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
US House Speaker Mike Johnson Makes Fatal Mistake With Public Admission
Mike Johnson Didn’t Want Reporters to Hear His Latest Speech. Now We Know Why. MSNBC 9 DEC 2023 https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...62&s=202&d=202 US House Speaker Mike Johnson announced this week he’ll blur the faces of rioters in Jan. 6 footage, saying "We don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ.” His office later noted that the DOJ already has the raw footage. But as MSNBC’s Brian Tyler Cohen argues, Speaker Johnsons' words reveal that the Republican Party is not so much concerned with “law and order” as it is with power. At the Museum of the Bible on Tuesday night, just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson evaded scrutiny by reporters. He was there to receive the American Patriot Award for Christian Honor and Courage at a gala hosted by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a small Christian nationalist nonprofit group based in Conway, Arkansas. While reporters were allowed to watch other portions of the gala, they were not permitted to watch Johnson’s keynote. Or so Johnson thought. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the speaker was “perhaps unaware that the event was being recorded for the NACL Facebook page.” The video is no longer available, but Rolling Stone reports that Johnson thanked the organization for not letting journalists in. “I’ll tell you a secret,” he said, “since media is not here.” God had spoken to him throughout Republicans’ weekslong effort to find a new Speaker, Johnson said. Eventually, God revealed to Johnson that he would be a Moses-like figure leading the GOP and the country through a “Red Sea moment.” Not everything in Johnson’s speech was a divine revelation. “What we’re engaged in right now is a battle between worldviews,” he declared in a short clip an attendee posted on Facebook. “It’s a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” That’s standard Christian nationalist fare, and yet another sign that Johnson believes himself to be at war with the majority of Americans. The attempt to hide these remarks from the public came the same week that Johnson announced that, in releasing security footage of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Republicans would blur out the faces of rioters “because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ.” He is clearly telling Americans that he and his extremist friends want to carry out their assault on our Constitution in secret and without accountability. At the NACL, Johnson knew he had a receptive audience. The group’s founder and president, Jason Rapert, a former Arkansas state senator, recently fretted to a reporter that “with all the troubles facing our country, with Democrats and leftists that are advocating cutting penises off of little boys and breasts off of little girls, we have reached a level of debauchery and immorality that is at biblical proportions.” He has called LGBTQ people a “cult” that promotes “unholiness, unrighteousness and immorality in our nation.” He has expressed hope that in 2024, Americans “will re-elect Jesus to be on the throne here again in our country.” Rapert believes fetuses have constitutional rights, and that abortion is worse than slavery and the Holocaust. As a state senator, he sought to amend the U.S. Constitution to obliterate the rights of LGBTQ people through a statement that marriage “is between a man and a woman.” To most Americans, these views are extreme. In Johnsons’ world, they are unremarkable. They are at the core of the “biblical worldview” that he and Rapert share as the singular lodestar of American government. |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
Republican-Appointed FED Judge Denounces Republican Distortions of Jan. 6 With Outright LIES
FED Judge ANGRY & Shocked by Republican Efforts to Rewrite History of Jan. 6 Attack, Those Who Label Perpetrators Hostages' In a scathing statement, a Reagan appointee quoted statements about the riot that appeared to be from several Republican politicians and called them “preposterous.” The "rhetoric could presage further danger to our country," the judge wrote. ABC 27 JAN 2024 https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024...isable=upscale “In my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream,” Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote A senior judge for the D.C. district court issued a scathing rebuke on Thursday of those he says are trying to "rewrite history" of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, writing he has been "shocked" to see some public figures attempt to label the perpetrators of the violence that day as "hostages." "I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness," senior judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan with nearly 40 years of judicial experience, said in a written ruling Thursday. "I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved 'in an orderly fashion' like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as 'political prisoners' or even, incredibly, 'hostages.' That is all preposterous." "But the Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country," Lamberth added. Republicans Try to Rewrite the History of the January 6th Insurrection: A Closer Look In outtake of speech after Jan. 6 attack, Trump didn’t want to say ‘election is over’ |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
Supreme Court REJECTS Jan. 6 Rioter Couy Griffins' Argument That Worked Just For TRUMP ONLY
Couy Griffin was convicted of trespassing on Jan. 6 and refused to certify primary MSNBBC 19 MAR 2024 https://www.rawstory.com/media-libra...200&height=800 Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin rides his horse on 5th Avenue on May 1, 2020 in New York City. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an argument from a Donald Trump supporter that the justices had accepted from the former president. Couy Griffin, co-founder of "Cowboys for Trump," was disqualified by a New Mexico judge from holding elected office under the U.S. Constitution's insurrection clause following his conviction for taking part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but the Supreme Court turned down his appeal, reported the Associated Press. Griffin received the first disqualification from office in more than a century under Section 3 the 14th Amendment, which was intended to prevent former Confederates from serving in government, following a 2022 trial in state court, and New Mexico's Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal after he missed procedural deadlines. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Colorado ruling that had disqualified Trump under the same provision, ruling that states don't have the authority to keep Trump or other candidates for federal office from appearing on the ballot, but the justices said different rules apply to state or local office. "We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office," the court ruled March 4 in favor of Trump. "But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency." Griffin, a pastor who led a series of cowboy caravans to show support to Trump, had served as Otero County commissioner before his Jan. 6 conviction for entering a restricted area on the Capitol grounds and received a 14-day prison sentence. The Republican former official has argued that he entered the grounds without realizing it was a restricted area and says that he tried to lead the crowd in prayer using a bullhorn but did not engage in violence. Couy Griffin's Appeal DISMISSED by NM Supreme Court |
re: Supreme Court Want to Toss Charges Against TRUMP/Jan 6 Rioters & BAN Protests
Convicted January 6 Felon Wants to Storm The Capitol Again — As An Elected Congressman
Derrick Evans posted on social media a picture of himself in an orange prison jumpsuit and his wife in a police uniform. MSRAW 22 MAR 2024 https://www.rawstory.com/media-libra...7959&width=980 “As a J6 Political Prisoner,” Evans wrote, “this is still my favorite Halloween costume.” https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/...1/1200x800.jpg https://www.rawstory.com/media-libra...200&height=951 In January, he posted a photo of an ID badge and wrote, “Found this today: It's my Prison ID from when they held me hostage as a January 6th Political Prisoner.” Evans, an admitted felon and Donald Trump acolyte, who spent three months in federal prison, now wants to get back to the Capitol — but this time, as an elected lawmaker. Evans is running for the Republican nomination in West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District — an overwhelmingly conservative area where the Republican nominee is all but assured to win. He is running from the right of incumbent Rep. Carol Miller, a Republican who Evans dismissed in a recent social media post as “worse than a RINO,” the political slur for “Republican in name only.” Added Evans: “She is an undocumented Democrat.” https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/1...img.jpg?w=1600 This week, Evans touted an endorsement from presidentially pardoned Trump operative Roger Stone, who said, “Derrick did time in prison and even in solitary confinement for standing with President Trump and protesting Joe Biden's stolen election.” |
CAPITOL Riot: DOJ Crook Talks + TRUMP-Era DOJ MASS Resignations Threat
Lawyers PANIC After Under-Oath Statement by EX-TRUMP DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark
The Significance of TRUMP-Era DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark - DOJ Warned of Mass Resignations If TRUMP Appointed Clark Jeffrey Clark — a senior official at former President Donald Trumps Department of Justice may have committed a major verbal error while testifying under oath at his DISBARMENT Hearing. MSRAW 30 MAR 2024 https://www.klfy.com/wp-content/uplo...&h=1440&crop=1 The Associated Press reported that Clark, who was acting head of the DOJ's civil division in the waning days of the Trump administration, reportedly had inappropriate and unsanctioned contact with Trump behind the backs of his superiors. According to the AP, Clark maintained that there was rampant and widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and urged the DOJ to take action to intervene in various battleground states that Trump lost — like Georgia, where Clark is a co-defendant in the Fulton County RICO case — to void President Joe Biden's victory. Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy, Richard Donoghue, made it clear to Clark that while there may have been a few isolated incidents of fraud scattered across various states, it wasn't nearly enough to make a difference in who won the election. They also learned that Clark had direct contact with Trump, which was a violation of DOJ policy as to who had contact with the White House. Even though Rosen and Donoghue told Clark to cease his contact with Trump, Clark continued to communicate with him in direct violation of DOJ rules. “My first reaction was, and I said it out loud: ‘You violated the White House contacts policy,’” Donoghue testified during Wednesday's hearing. “I was taken aback... I said, ‘Do not violate it again.’” During Clark's disbarment proceedings in Washington, DC this week, the lead investigator questioned him under oath about his time at the DOJ in the aftermath of the 2020 election. While Clark spoke generally about his legal background and experience, he invoked a number of privileges to get around answering most questions. But when Clark invoked attorney-client privilege, he may have gotten himself in even more trouble. "Mr. Clark, you asserted a number of times attorney-client privilege," DC bar committeewoman Patricia Matthews asked. "For whom were you the attorney?" Clark then responded that his client was "President Trump, the head of the executive branch, the sole head, the unitary head of Article Two, the executive branch of the United States government." This prompted Clark's lawyers to interject and urge their client to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself. "I would respectfully request my client to invoke questions about the basis for attorney-client privilege because those answers would be intimidating to them as well,” Clark's attorney, Harry MacDougald, said. "So respectfully, I would ask him to invoke [the Fifth Amendment]." Clark's disbarment proceedings will continue on Thursday. After the proceedings conclude a three-person committee is expected to issue its recommendation to a professional responsibility board as to whether Clark can keep his law license. Meanwhile, at his own disbarment hearing in California, a committee recommended that former Trump attorney John Eastman's law license be revoked in relation to his attempts to help Trump overturn the election. Like Clark, Eastman is also under felony indictment in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' RICO case. READ MORE: Former Trump White House lawyer reveals new details about Trump's 2020 election ploy: report The Significance of Trump-Era DOJ Official Jeffrey Clarks' Raid on His Home DOJ Warned of Mass Resignations If Trump Appointed Jeffrey Clark Jan. 6 hearing examined Trump-era DOJ official Jeffrey Clarks’ role in Capitol riot https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-conte...n04.jpg?w=1298 |
CAPITOL Riot: UNWELCOME TRUMP At Slain Cops' Wake Said 'I Paid His Mortgage'- LIA
'You're a LIAR' TRUMP: TRUMPs' MAGA Said He Paid Off Slain Officers' Mortgage
UNWELCOME TRUMP Attended Wake of Slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller at The Massapequa Funeral Home -'He WAS NOT WELCOME' MSRAW 31 MAR 2024 https://www.rawstory.com/media-libra...200&height=800 Right-wing news outlets and MAGA influencers were quick to jump on rumours that Donald Trump had paid off the mortgage of fallen New York police officer Jonathan Diller, but it appears that's NOT TRUE. According to publicly available information, Diller's mortgage was paid off, but it was by an organization called Tunnel to Towers Foundation. "Tunnel to Towers is honoured to announce a mortgage payoff for the family of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot and killed" the group said. It has nothing to do with Trump "Officer Diller is survived by his loving wife, Stephanie, and their one-year-old son." |
CAPITOL-SLY House Speaker Says Jan 6 Rioters Were Just 'Walking Through The Build
CUNNING Mike Johnson Says 'Jan. 6 Rioters Just Happened to Be Walking Through The Building'
US House Speaker Mike Johnson says people in the halls of Congress during the January 6, 2021 insurrection were “innocent” and just happened to be there, walking about the building.--DUH! MSRAW 3 APR 2024 https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Fers...56566881.0.jpg Some are viewing his remarks as a further push by Republicans to whitewash the attack, which led to an impeachment of Donald Trump and later criminal charges for the ex-president. Because of the COVID pandemic, the U.S. Capitol was largely closed to visitors on January 6, and tours were banned for that day. Democrats had raised concerns after they said they saw some Republican members of Congress leading groups of people around the Capitol in the days before the insurrection. CNN had reported Democrats were “growing concerned about seeing large groups of pro-Trump supporters walking around the Capitol the week around the swearing in of the new Congress leading up to the January 6.” Speaker Johnson told Newsmax on Monday he was fulfilling the “commitment” he made to release to the public all the video Congress has from the January 6 insurrection, and had recently released 13,000 hours of tape — though he had initially tried to blur the faces of the “innocent.” “So I made a commitment immediately after I got the gavel that we would start with this and that originally, we were trying to blur some of the faces to protect the innocent, you know, people who were just there and just happened to be walking through the building,” Johnson told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling. Some critics are comparing Johnson’s remarks to those of Republican members of Congress denying the facts of the insurrection in the days and months after January 6. U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) had called the insurrectionists “peaceful protestors” who were being harassed by the Dept. of Justice. U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) had denied the insurrectionists were Trump supporters. U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) had said, “If you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” “There was no insurrection,” Clyde insisted in May of 2021. “To call it an insurrection is a bold-faced lie.” Bloomberg congressional reporter Steven Dennis, reporting at the time on Clyde’s remarks, had noted: “People died, windows were smashed, they were chanting to hang Mike Pence, 140 police officers were wounded, the House, Senate and VP were rushed into hiding, staff cowered for hours in offices. Clyde suggests it was just an unruly mob with some rioters committing ‘vandalism.'” Others noted the Republican National Committee, under the leadership of then-chair Ronna McDaniel, had called the January 6 insurrection “legitimate political discourse.” Even the Biden campaign picked up on Johnsons’ remarks, responding with video from January 6. U.S. House Speaker moves to protect identities of Jan. 6 rioters House Speaker Johnson wants to blur January 6 footage to protect Capitol rioters Jan. 6 panel releases never-before-seen footage of Trump recording message to Capitol rioters Democrats React To Speaker Mike Johnson Publicly Releasing Jan. 6 Footage https://mediacloud.theweek.com/image...glis-cagle.jpg |
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