Jan 6 Breach of the Capitol: Consequences & Repercussions III

[Whyayeman]

Proud Boys blame Trump as defendants prepare to find out ​

An attorney for Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, said federal prosecutors were trying to make him a "scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and for those in power." A lawyer for Joe Biggs said the defendants came to Washington because their "commander-in-chief" told them it would "be wild," referring to Trump's infamous tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, that called on supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6.

“‘Be there, it’s going to be wild,’ the commander-in-chief said. And so they did,” Norm Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, told jurors, adding that “their commander-in-chief sold them a lie.”

How could he not tell from the start?

This is a playground excuse. 'A big boy made me do it.' Still, better late than never, as my mother used to say.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Former Vice President Pence testifies to federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump and January 6​

Former Vice President Mike Pence testified on Thursday to a federal grand jury investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the actions of then-President Donald Trump and others, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

 

[SimplyMe]

Proud Boys blame Trump as defendants prepare to find out ​

An attorney for Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, said federal prosecutors were trying to make him a "scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and for those in power." A lawyer for Joe Biggs said the defendants came to Washington because their "commander-in-chief" told them it would "be wild," referring to Trump's infamous tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, that called on supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6.

“‘Be there, it’s going to be wild,’ the commander-in-chief said. And so they did,” Norm Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, told jurors, adding that “their commander-in-chief sold them a lie.”

The wording bothers me there, mostly because the lawyer appears to be trying to imply the Proud Boys were part of the Armed Forces of the United States. The "Commander-in-Chief" title for the President is because he is the top commander, the supreme commander, of the US Armed Forces.

If the lawyer can show where President Trump had them sworn in to be some type of US militia member, that would change things -- both in terms of Trump being "their Commander-in-Chief," as well as proving they were acting under Presidential orders. Of course, he can't and he knows that they were never part of the Armed Forces; it could be argued that this officer of the court lied before the court.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Donald Trump embraces Jan. 6 defendant who wants Mike Pence executed​

Micki Larson-Olson, who served months in jail for her actions on Jan. 6, told NBC News that politicians who certified the results of the 2020 election deserve to be be killed for treason.

[There's no reason to believe Trump knows about her or her specific beliefs.]

Micki Larson-Olson, a █████ supporter who said she considers Trump the "real president," was convicted last year of unlawful entry on Capitol grounds. On Thursday night, she met Trump for the first time at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester.

Larson-Olson said she believes that the members of Congress who voted to certify Biden's presidential election should be executed.

Larson-Olson added that she “would like a front seat of Mike Pence being executed" and that he should be the "No. 1" person on her list of those who committed treason.

Larson-Olson said she drove nearly 2,000 miles from Abilene, Texas, to see Trump in New Hampshire on Thursday night.

Larson-Olson was introduced to Trump as a "Jan. 6er," and he signed the backpack that she said she was carrying with her that day and waived [sic] her past security so he could embrace her. “Listen, you just hang in there,” Trump said, calling her a “terrific woman" and kissing her on the cheek. Trump said it was “so bad” what has been done to Jan. 6 “patriots.”

"If I were to imagine what it would be like to hug Jesus Christ — not that I'm saying President Trump is Jesus Christ — but, just, you know, if I was to imagine what it would be like to hug Jesus Christ, that's what it felt like for me," Larson-Olson said. "It was so personal and intimate."

 

[Whyayeman]

"If I were to imagine what it would be like to hug Jesus Christ — not that I'm saying President Trump is Jesus Christ — but, just, you know, if I was to imagine what it would be like to hug Jesus Christ, that's what it felt like for me," Larson-Olson said. "It was so personal and intimate."

Oh dear!

 

[essentialsaltes]

Behind Trump’s musical tribute to some of the most violent Jan. 6 rioters​

Most nights at 9 p.m., defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol flicker the lights in their D.C. jail cells to signal to supporters outside that it’s time to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” together. The recital has become a sacred ritual for a subset of Donald Trump’s movement devoted to heroizing the accused rioters.

The former president is now embracing their cause, lending his voice to a recording of the “J6 Prison Choir” and playing it to start the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. The song, “Justice for All,” features Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance mixed with a rendition of the national anthem.

“Our people love those people,” Trump went on to say at the rally, speaking of those who were jailed. “What’s happening in that prison, it’s a [badplace]. ... These are people that shouldn’t have been there.”

Using physical characteristics and interviews with family members, supporters and attorneys, The Washington Post identified five of the roughly 15 men who are featured in the video. Four of them were charged with assaulting police, using weapons such as a crowbar, sticks and chemical spray, including against Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died the next day.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Former FBI supervisor arrested in connection with Jan. 6 riot​

Jared Wise, formerly assigned to the Washington field office, left the bureau in 2017​

A former supervisory agent for the FBI has been arrested in Oregon after the government alleged he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and confronted police officers outside the building, telling them: “You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. … Shame on you!”

Jared L. Wise, 50, was a special agent and supervisory agent for the FBI from 2004 to 2017, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in D.C. last month.

At least 20 former or current members of law enforcement have been arrested in the Jan. 6 riot. The longest sentence yet imposed in any of the more than 440 cases concluded so far was issued to Thomas Webster, a former New York City police officer who fought with police at the Capitol and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Thomas Robertson, a then-active police officer from Rocky Mount, Va., received more than seven years for his role in the riot.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Verdict reached in Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial​

This story is breaking and will be updated.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Here's my quick partial update of the PB verdict.

The jury still has to 11 (of 46) verdicts to resolve on 4 (of 10) overall charges. All defendants have at least outstanding undecided counts against them. The jury will resume deliberations on the remaining counts shortly.

On the conspiracies, the four leaders (Nordean, Biggs, Tarrio, & Rehl) were found guilty of both seditious conspiracy (count 1) and conspiracy to obstruct Congress (Count 2). The "non-leader" tried with them, Pezzola, (known for smashing the first breach into the Capitol) the jury is undecided on both counts. The jury found all five guilty of conspiracy to interfere with police (count 4).

On Obstruction of an Official Proceeding (count 3) and Civil Disorder (count 5), all are found guilty.

On destruction of federal property, all are found guilty on count 6 (destroying a fence), only Pezzola is found guilty on breaking the window (count 7) the rest, not verdict yet.

On assaulting police (count 9) Pezzola is found guilty, the rest not guilty.

Finally on Robbery of a police shield (count 10) Pezzola is found guilty. (Others were not charged.)

What remains?

Did Pezzola participate in the top two conspiracies (counts 1 & 2)?

Are the defendants liable via conspiracy for acts they didn't physically perform. The other defendants for Pezzola's window smashing (count 7) and all defendants for an assault on an officer by a defendant who is not part of this case (count 8).

For the unresolved count 7, it probably comes down to that action being part of the obstruction/seditious conspiracies (and not interfering with police), so if Pezzola is not part of either of those conspiracies, then his act isn't either, so the other four aren't liable. The count 8 issue is similar, but involves a defendant who was not on trial.

 

[USincognito]

The PB leaders trial is still going on. (Day 55 by some counts.) On the last day of testimony (Wed), the first of two defendants expected to testify on their behalf (sic) Zach Rehl of Philly was on the stand. His laywer stretched out his testimony with an dull list of elements of the various crimes (Did you X?) and other things (incuding minute long shuffles through her note pad "looking" for something) in an apparent attempt to hit the long break (due to a juror scheduling issue) before the start of cross-examination by the prosecution. She finished about an hour before the end of court and then a lawyer for a different PB filled up the rest of the day and crossed over into the morning today.

It's a little harder to tell what is happening today since the Judge in a fit of pique over a leak on Thursday, decided to close the media room and there is no live tweeting today. (The reporters can only use pen+paper, then type it up during breaks.) Thursday there was a sealed hearing (about possible jury intimidation/tampering issues) and the court officials forgot to turn off the feed to the media room (where they can use cell phones and laptops and the internet) and three outlets (incl. CNN) reported on the sealed hearing despite desperate begging to reporters from the defense attorneys to the reports to not report what they heard from the sealed courtroom. (It was not the prosecution begging, most likely, because that would implicate 1st amendment issues.)

So the most important days of the most important (so far) jan 6 trial are going to be less well reported.

This is even more fun reading from the future.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Here's my quick partial update of the PB verdict.

The jury still has to 11 (of 46) verdicts to resolve on 4 (of 10) overall charges. All defendants have at least outstanding undecided counts against them. The jury will resume deliberations on the remaining counts shortly.

On the conspiracies, the four leaders (Nordean, Biggs, Tarrio, & Rehl) were found guilty of both seditious conspiracy (count 1) and conspiracy to obstruct Congress (Count 2). The "non-leader" tried with them, Pezzola, (known for smashing the first breach into the Capitol) the jury is undecided on both counts. The jury found all five guilty of conspiracy to interfere with police (count 4).

On Obstruction of an Official Proceeding (count 3) and Civil Disorder (count 5), all are found guilty.

On destruction of federal property, all are found guilty on count 6 (destroying a fence), only Pezzola is found guilty on breaking the window (count 7) the rest, not verdict yet.

On assaulting police (count 9) Pezzola is found guilty, the rest not guilty.

Finally on Robbery of a police shield (count 10) Pezzola is found guilty. (Others were not charged.)

What remains?

Did Pezzola participate in the top two conspiracies (counts 1 & 2)?

Are the defendants liable via conspiracy for acts they didn't physically perform. The other defendants for Pezzola's window smashing (count 7) and all defendants for an assault on an officer by a defendant who is not part of this case (count 8).

For the unresolved count 7, it probably comes down to that action being part of the obstruction/seditious conspiracies (and not interfering with police), so if Pezzola is not part of either of those conspiracies, then his act isn't either, so the other four aren't liable. The count 8 issue is similar, but involves a defendant who was not on trial.

Small update. The jury deliberated a little more and resolved one more count: On count 1 (seditious conspiracy), they found Pezzola not guilty. For the rest of the counts the Judge declared a mistrial. I doubt the DOJ will retry any of those counts since sentencing doesn't rely much on the "mass" of charges and conduct covered by those counts can still be used to adjust the sentence level of the charges that were found guilty.


As to sentencing, it will be a while before it occurs, but, the similarly charged (and convicted) Oath Keeper defendants will be sentenced in a few weeks. The pre-sentencing memos are due tomorrow (Friday). An important part of a federal sentencing is the "base level" for a particular offense and various adjustments (up or down) [examples -- up: leadership role, injury, official victim; down: acceptance of responsibility] to get a final level for each count and then getting a "guidelines range" based on the individual criminal history.

There are no specific "base level" values for the very rare charge of seditious conspiracy, so it will be interesting to see how they calculate the sentence for this charge and what it might mean for the PBs in a few months.

 

[Hans Blaster]

There are other active trials, so here are a few from this week:

Jose Padilla (of Tennessee, not al Qaeda) was convicted by a judge at a bench trial of 10 counts (8 felonies) including civil disorder, assault, and obstruction of an official proceeding.

'The Donald' forum user convicted of assaulting officers on Jan. 6

He was found not guilty of just one count, which involved the mob’s pushing an enormous “TRUMP 2020: KEEP AMERICA GREAT!” sign against a police line, because Judge Bates found the evidence of Padilla's intent in that incident "ambiguous."

(This is the action that conspiracy theorist "favorite" Ray Epps also participated in.)

Then we have the case of Stewart Parks (also of Tennessee, a bad week for the Volunteer State in J6 court), convicted of the "standard 4" misdemeanors for trespass plus misdemeanor theft (for taking a hand held magnetometer). Not particularly notable, except that the judge admonished him during the reading of the verdict for some rather blatant falsehoods and story crafting during his testimony in his own defense.

Finally, sent to a jury this week, cousins Donnie Wren of Alabama and Tommy Smith of Mississippi charged with assaulting officers. Both were identified by online sleuths.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Man who assaulted officers with folding chair, pepper spray during Capitol riot gets longest sentence yet for a January 6 defendant​

A Pennsylvania man who threw a folding chair at law enforcement and repeatedly used pepper spray on police during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was sentenced Friday to more than 14 years in prison – the longest of any January 6 defendant so far.

Peter Schwartz, 49, was found guilty on 10 charges in December 2022 during a jury trial, including four felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. Schwartz’s prior criminal history of 38 felony convictions dating to 1991 was a significant factor behind his sentence.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Jan. 6 probe expands with fresh subpoenas in multiple states
Recipients of subpoenas include a state party chairman as officials probe deeper into pro-Trump efforts to use invalid electors to thwart Joe Biden’s 2020 victory

One was the home of Brad Carver, a Georgia lawyer who allegedly signed a document claiming to be a Trump elector. The other was the Virginia home of Thomas Lane, who worked on the Trump campaign’s efforts in Arizona and New Mexico.

Former Trump campaign staffer subpoenaed by DOJ is now working for House committee on elections​

The House Administration Committee’s employment roster shows Thomas Lane is earning a $155,000 salary in his role as elections counsel. His LinkedIn page confirms his employment began a few months ago.

Lane also appeared to have attended a meeting where 11 Arizona Republicans falsely declared themselves presidential electors. In a video of that meeting, which was posted by the Arizona Republican Party, a man wearing a Trump campaign jacket with the name “Lane” on it is seen passing out papers for people to sign “certifying themselves Arizona’s ‘duly elected and qualified electors.’”
--
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that last year was stolen. ‘Stolen’ means different things to different people. On one end, it can mean the Chinese, the Russians, uh, hacked machines, or there was an influx of ballots, or fake ballots, whatever,” Lane said in [a different video from 2021] given to POLITICO from the group Documented, a non-partisan investigative watchdog that says it believes “democracy itself is under attack.”

The House Administration Committee is often considered a sleepy backwater that runs the logistics of the House, including doling out parking and office spaces. But it also has broad jurisdiction over elections — from campaign finance law to voting rights and election administration.

--

Lane has never been charged with anything, but still someone to keep an eye on when he's involved with elections at the federal level.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Man who assaulted officers with folding chair, pepper spray during Capitol riot gets longest sentence yet for a January 6 defendant​

A Pennsylvania man who threw a folding chair at law enforcement and repeatedly used pepper spray on police during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was sentenced Friday to more than 14 years in prison – the longest of any January 6 defendant so far.

Peter Schwartz, 49, was found guilty on 10 charges in December 2022 during a jury trial, including four felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. Schwartz’s prior criminal history of 38 felony convictions dating to 1991 was a significant factor behind his sentence.

The previous record holder (a retired NYPD officer) got 10 years, but only had 1 assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon charge (and was sentenced by the same judge). In this case the DOJ wanted 24+ years due to both the severity of the crimes and the length of his rap sheet (over 30 prior convictions). I haven't seen any reporting from inside the sentencing hearing, so I don't know if the judge rejected one of the "level enhancements", went below guidelines, or didn't impose the full impact of the prior convictions on the sentencing table.

He may also been thinking of his next major sentencing task (in a couple weeks) -- the 9 Oath Keepers tried for seditious conspiracy -- and wanted some "headroom" for some to have longer sentences. The DOJ put their sentencing memo requesting 10-25 years for those defendants on the docket around the same time this sentence was being made.

 

[Whyayeman]

more than 14 years in prison

That is heavy. I thought maybe half that. Does this allow for 'time off for good behaviour'?

UK prisoners typically serve nearer half their sentences actually in custody and are released on licence.

 

[Hans Blaster]

That is heavy. I thought maybe half that. Does this allow for 'time off for good behaviour'?

UK prisoners typically serve nearer half their sentences actually in custody and are released on licence.

The US Federal prison system doesn't have a "parole", though like most of the felons he was sentenced to 3 years of "supervision" after release.

As for good behavior, the Federal system has a 15% "discount" (early release at 85% complete) for good behavior, though there seem to be some programs of rehabilitation that allow some "credit" toward time served. He should be in prison for 8-10 more years though. He'll get credit for the 27 months he's already been in custody.

 

[JSRG]

That is heavy. I thought maybe half that. Does this allow for 'time off for good behaviour'?

UK prisoners typically serve nearer half their sentences actually in custody and are released on licence.

Under normal circumstances I think he would have gotten a lot less than that, but was as noted in the article about him, he had 38 prior felony convictions and was even on probation at the time of January 6. That's exactly the kind of record that causes judges to go hard on sentencing.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Prosecutors seek 25 years for Oath Keepers founder Rhodes in Jan. 6 insurrection​

Prosecutors described the Oath Keepers’ actions as “terrorism,” and told the judge that a harsh sentence is critical to deter future political violence.

 

[essentialsaltes]

"Pink Beret" identified by ex-boyfriend.

Jan. 6 rioter in pink beret identified after ex spotted her in a viral FBI tweet​

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me. I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

He sent in a tip to the FBI. On Monday, he said he got a call from the bureau, confirming they were investigating Jenny. By Friday, a law enforcement official confirmed to NBC News that the bureau had identified “Pink Beret” as the clothing designer’s ex, Jennifer Inzuza Vargas, of Los Angeles.

Toward the end of those months [of dating], the designer said, Vargas posted on his Discord that she was reading Hitler’s 1925 manifesto. They got into a discussion about it that revealed more of Vargas’ far-right politics, he said.

“I was just instantly turned off, like, ‘Yo, I don’t think this is going to work out,’” he said. “You’re, like, reading ‘Mein Kampf,’ you think immigrants don’t deserve X, Y, Z.”