Putting violent criminals back on the street

 Trump's gonna need his <s>brown</s> orange shirts.

Oath Keeper sentences too lenient?

The DOJ filed notice to appeal the seditious conspiracy sentences to be more in line with what prosecutors asked for.  Allison Gill has an analysis of that decision here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Well!

He'll have lots of time to think about what he's done.

He's lucky.  The feds asked for 25 years.

Thread starts here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 05:49 pm:  Meggs sentenced.

Seditious conspiracy convictions

Trump and his minions may think the January 6 insurrectionists are patriots, but a jury has convicted four Proud Boys of the serious crime of seditious conspiracy.

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys group, has been convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Three of his co-defendants, including top lieutenants of the group, were also convicted, while one defendant was acquitted of the charge.

[...]

In a partial verdict announced Thursday morning, top Proud Boys lieutenants Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs were also convicted of seditious conspiracy, along with up-and-coming Proud Boys member Zachary Rehl, Politico reported. That afternoon, jurors acquitted Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member who was seen on video violently smashing a stolen riot shield into a window of the Capitol building, of the charge.

[...]

Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs, and Rehl were also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct Congress.

[...]

Pezzola was convicted of robbery for stealing a riot shield from a U.S. Capitol Police officer, but all five men were acquitted of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

  Law & Crime

I bet the Capitol police have a quarrel with that.

The verdict, coming after nearly four months of testimony and six days of jury deliberations, marks a significant win for the government, whose wide-ranging prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters has already resulted in multiple seditious conspiracy convictions, including four guilty pleas and six jury verdicts against leaders and members of the far-right antigovernment Oath Keepers militia group.

One of those guilty pleas came from high-ranking Proud Boys member Jeremy Bertino, who testified for the government at the trial. Bertino told jurors that members of the group had an understanding and an agreement that they would do whatever was necessary to keep Trump in power.

And they'll all be asking for pardons if Trump gets back in the oval.

Opening arguments from prosecutors reminded jurors of Trump’s “stand back and stand by” edict to the Proud Boys — issued during a September 2020 presidential debate — and said that the extremist group was prepared to engage in violence in order disrupt the peaceful transition of presidential power and keep Trump in office.

“These men did not stand back,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said in opening arguments. “They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilized.”

Well, no. They stood back and stood by until Trump called them to the Capital on January 6, for which he should be on trial, too.

Attorneys for the defendants also argued that Trump — who earlier that day told his supporters at the so-called “Stop the Steal rally” to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” — was the real culprit.

One of them anyway.

“It was Donald Trump’s words,” said Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, during closing arguments, according to Politico. “It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th."

100%.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 05/05/2023:  This was my reaction to the one not convicted (but I'm not sure I would have voted against it).

Oh, I'm sure he's on Jack Smith's list.

Approaching the top of the coup

[A letter to the DC federal court from the US attorney in Washington] , which was reviewed by Bloomberg News, was sent late last year to the chief judge [of the DC federal court hearing January 6 cases.]

[...]

The Oct. 28 letter from US Attorney Matthew Graves to Chief Judge Beryl Howell, which came as the department neared its 900th arrest, estimated an additional 700 to 1,200 defendants. That could roughly double the number of cases filed so far – with this month marking the 1,000th arrest.

  Yahoo

Reports have trickled out, and the major media haven't made much of it, which obscures the fact that it's a very large number of arrests in the coup attemtpt.

The more than 1,000 people already charged have clogged the court’s docket over the past two years. And prosecutors continue to bring new cases as Special Counsel Jack Smith pursues a separate probe into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to undermine the 2020 election results.

[...]

[Graves] wrote that he didn’t know how many of the new cases would involve misdemeanor versus felony charges, but he expected a higher percentage of felonies.

[...]

Howell’s term as chief judge ends this week, when Judge James Boasberg will step into the role.

[...]

More than 500 people have pleaded guilty and more than 50 have been convicted at trial, according to the US attorney’s office. High-profile wins for the government include convictions in the seditious conspiracy case against members of the Oath Keepers extremist group.

[...]

Graves’s estimate squares with previous comments by government lawyers in court that between 2,000 to 2,500 people went into the Capitol. NBC News recently reported that online sleuths have put the number of potential defendants – people accused of going inside, assaulting police or destroying property – closer to 3,000.

I wonder if that's the most tourists on one day the capitol has ever had.

UPDATE 05:40 pm:  This guts me.

Against stiff odds, they didn't.

UPDATE 06:10 pm:

Guilty

Oath Keeper sings

A member of the far-right Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty to his role in trying to disrupt the transition of presidential power broke down on the stand Monday as he testified against his former allies.

“I’m really sorry for what I did,” said Graydon Young of Florida.

[...]

He is one of the prosecutors’ key witnesses in the seditious conspiracy trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell.

  Politico

I'm guessing he'll get kicked out of the club - at the least.

Halting twice to choke back sobs, Young said he pleaded guilty because he had committed crimes, and that in order “to repent and be forgiven, you have to confess. Completely and wholly.”

“I won’t do anything like that ever again,” he said. “It’s really embarrassing.”

Because it's embarrassing?

Young’s testimony was the second time a member of the group who pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy took the stand against his former colleagues. Jason Dolan, another Florida Oath Keeper, testified earlier in the month.

How's he doing?

Dolan and Young both described struggles amid the Covid pandemic, combined with a deluge of pro-Trump media that fueled their beliefs that the 2020 election had been stolen. Young described an unhealthy diet of Facebook and YouTube content that he said left him “ginned up” about the election results. He withdrew from his family and became consumed by national politics, which led him to join the Oath Keepers in the weeks after Election Day 2020. His sister, Laura Steele, a fellow Oath Keeper, is awaiting trial for her part in the alleged obstruction conspiracy.

Young recalled first meeting some members of the group when he joined a security detail for Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser and ally of Trump, in December 2020.

Young described feeling deflated as Jan. 6 approached, that the anger of the Oath Keepers wouldn’t be enough to overturn the 2020 election, and he raised those concerns in Signal chat groups that included other Florida Oath Keepers and Rhodes, the national leader of the group. But he said Rhodes “re-galvanized” him by suggesting he might have a direct line of contact with Trump and urging the group to take a stand in Washington.

[...]

“It was exhilarating. I felt like I was going to be an important or an integral part of what was happening.”

Young recalled talking with Harrelson and other Oath Keepers about the “apparent equipment the police had on.”

“They had on plastic armor covering, we talked about how effective or ineffective that would be against weapons, firearms,” Young said.

At this point, Young said he and his sister began feeling concerned about the group’s intentions and their potential legal exposure. The two of them left for Steele’s house in North Carolina, where they burned their gear, he said.

“My sister and I were solidly in freakout mode and scared,” he said, adding, “That’s when the embarrassment about the whole thing kicked in … I’m going to have to tell my mom.”

What a brave little soldier.

Young also agreed that as part of his plea negotiations with the government, he hopes to receive a relatively lenient sentence in exchange for his cooperation.

I'm sure. What would law enforcement do without rats jumping ship?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Deleted from SS end...what about Oath Keepers?

“Following the (Oath Keepers) trial, the committee reached out to the Secret Service and a verbal briefing as provided to staff, which was specific to the comments made at trial,” said Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “Today, the committee has followed up with a formal inquiry for records regarding that and January 6, which we will provide.”

[...]

[T]he agency said an agent from its protective intelligence division had “numerous” contacts with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and other group members prior to Trump rallies in fall 2020, but that they were all part of common practice to inform the group of security protocols to follow.

[...]

The Secret Service found that multiple members of the organization, not just Rhodes, spoke to an agent in the protective intelligence division ahead of Trump rallies, the most recent conversation coming before a Dec. 12, 2020, rally.

  NBC

"Which we will provide." Perhaps they have those with the agency contact. But what about the messages that were erased from agents' phones?

Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi, now an NBC News analyst, said, “It’s common, prior to events, for law enforcement to talk to potential protest groups, or with groups acting in some security role. But regular contact with a militia type group like Oath Keepers, especially if treating them as a legitimate security partner, raises lots of concerns.”

That, too.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Closer and closer

John Zimmerman, who appeared before a jury at the seditious conspiracy trial of five Oath Keeper members including the organization’s founder Stewart Rhodes, said that he witnessed a phone call between the group’s leader and someone he thought belonged to the Secret Service in September 2020. Zimmerman also said that Rhodes told him he had been in contact with the agency.

  The Hill

That would explain why agents wiped their phones.

Another Oath Keepers member has testified that Rhodes attempted to make contact with Trump following the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The organization founder spoke with someone over the phone at that time, although it is unclear who was on the other end.

[...]

Oath Keepers lawyer Kellye SoRelle was in contact with former White House aide Andrew Giuliani the same month that Trump lost reelection.

Zimmerman said that he and others broke with the Oath Keepers organization because of controversial tactics Rhodes tried to use during a trip in November.

“He thought that we should dress up as elderly or be like a single parent pushing a baby carriage with some weapons in the baby carriage,” Zimmerman said of Rhodes’ alleged plan to lure members of ANTIFA or Black Lives Matter to attack the Oath Keepers, according to NBC.

Rhodes allegedly wanted the progressive organizations to attack his own group to create a reason for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would have authorized the then-president to deploy military forces to suppress violence.

[...]

“We are aware that individuals from the Oath Keepers have contacted us in the past to make inquiries,” the Secret Service told NBC.

“It is not uncommon for various organizations to contact us concerning security restrictions and activities that are permissible in proximity to our protected sites.”

Sure.

And...what about that contact with Andrew Giuliani? What was that?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial continues

Tuesday's hearing time change

UPDATE:

If they're going to put him on television, I'm guessing they're going to be getting him to bolster their picture that Trump was responsible in large part for the insurrection.

Upcoming hearing

A federal judge noted in February that there’s no evidence former President Donald Trump ever met or plotted with a Proud Boy or an Oath Keeper. But some conspiracies, he added, can be “tacit.”

The Jan. 6 select committee’s next hearing is expected to delve deeply into that relationship, exploring all the subtle signaling between Trump’s orbit and the seamy underworld of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers that prosecutors and congressional investigators have been probing.

[...]

“Our investigation shows that there was a tremendous convergence of interests between the domestic violent extremist groups and the broader MAGA movement,” [Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)], who will lead next week’s hearing, told Nightly in an interview. “This hearing will be the moment when one sees both the convergence of efforts at a political coup with the insurrectionary mob violence. We see how these two streams of activity become one.”

[...]

Tuesday’s hearing is of intense interest to the Justice Department, which is preparing to try sprawling seditious conspiracy cases against the leadership of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The department already agreed to delay the Proud Boys trial from August until December, citing potential “prejudice” created by the public hearings, as well as the likelihood that the select committee publicly dumps 1,000 witness transcripts into the public domain in September.

  Politico

I wonder if we'll see any clips of Proud Boys or Oath Keeper testimony. It would be interesting, to say the least, if they actually had one or more of them there for live testimony.

I'm more interested in the July 14 hearing, which I'm assuming will involve Pat Cipollone's testimony.

UPDATE:

Here comes another one

Looks like those guilty pleas and cooperation agreements are proving fruitful.

Jan 6 committee "requesting" cooperation from Trump admin members

So, apparently they assumed they were breaking laws.  I suppose they could argue that they thought anyone who stole the election would prosecute innocent people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Someone tell Mr. Brooks that he can be subpoenaed if he prefers and be charged with contempt of Congress when  he refuses to appear.

Oh yeah, there's not much to worry about there.  

Good news and bad news

The good news is another Oath Keeper pled guilty on seditious conspiracy charges. The bad news is another Oath Keeper pled guilty on seditious conspiracy charges.

A second member of the Oath Keepers facing a seditious conspiracy charge for his role in the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol pleaded guilty Friday and is preparing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Brian Ulrich, one of 11 Oath Keepers facing the gravest charges to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction of Congress’ electoral vote-counting session. He follows Joshua James, an Oath Keeper who provided personal security to Roger Stone, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy last month.

  Politico

I'm glad they're getting these assholes to admit and cooperate, but I'm afraid what's going to happen in the end is that the Oath Keepers are going to get all the blame, and once they're prosecuted, the administration and congressional criminals involved will be off the hook.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh my

Can we get a list of the conspirees?

More on the Oath Keepers story

In a memo seeking the pretrial detention of Oath Keeper Ed Vallejo — one of 11 members of the group charged last week with seditious conspiracy to violently prevent Joe Biden from taking office — prosecutors provided new details about the weapons stockpile Oath Keepers had assembled at a Comfort Inn in nearby Arlington, Va.

Three “quick reaction force” teams set up at the hotel, prepared to ferry weapons into Washington to support the effort to prevent Congress from finalizing Biden’s victory. But the cache became “unnecessary,” prosecutors said, because the Oath Keepers at the Capitol — using the force of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the building — were able to get inside without additional support.

[...]

Among them, prosecutors say, were “at least three luggage carts’ worth of gun boxes, rifle cases, and suitcases filled with ammunition.”

“A second QRF team from North Carolina consisted of four men who kept their rifles ready to go in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot,” according to the Justice Department. “Later, Vallejo and other members of the Arizona QRF team wheeled in bags and large bins of weapons, ammunition, and essential supplies to last 30 days.”

[...]

[P]rosecutors say the Oath Keepers were prepared for a long-haul fight, one that stretched past Jan. 6 to the inauguration. Messages exchanged by Vallejo and others suggested the group cased the Capitol on Jan. 7 and discussed plans to continue working against the transfer of power up through Biden’s inauguration.

  Politico

Vellejo appeared before Magistrate Judge John Boyle in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on Thursday to make the case that he should be granted bond.

Vallejo’s attorney told Boyle her client was a 63-year-old man with asthma who has been free without incident for the past year before a federal grand jury indicted him earlier this month.

[...]

Boyle said he took the defense’s arguments about Vallejo’s medical situation seriously, but that he saw no evidence of remorse from Vallejo at any point between the Capitol riot and the hearing. He also said he believed Vallejo only stayed in Virginia because he never got the call.

“I think if Mr. Rhodes had given that order, you would have complied,” Boyle said.

Boyle said he didn’t see Vallejo as a flight risk, and that he had considered GPS monitoring, but decided it wasn’t sufficient for Vallejo.

“I don’t think anybody – at your age of 63, with such strong beliefs as you have – can stop you from acting on them one way or another,” he said.

With that, Boyle ordered Vallejo held in custody while he awaits trial. He will be transported to the D.C. Jail, where the majority of other January 6 defendants in pretrial detention, including other Oath Keepers, are being held.

  WUSA9

The actual stolen election

And got away with it assisted by the Supreme Court, which keeps telling us they don't get involved in political issues.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Seditious conspiracy charges

More coup lawsuits attempting to hold Trump accountable

Three civil lawsuits from lawmakers and Capitol Police officers that seek to hold Donald Trump and his closest advisers accountable for the US Capitol riot are moving forward after months of inaction.

Judge Amit Mehta of the DC District Court has set oral arguments on whether the cases -- which are separate from the congressional or criminal investigations -- should be dismissed for January 10.

[...]

In one complaint that Mehta will consider, former House impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell sued Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, claiming their speeches on January 6 incited the riot and inflicted emotional distress on members of Congress.

[...]

In another, two US Capitol Police officers sued Trump, claiming he directed his followers to assault them.

In the third lawsuit, Rep. Bennie Thompson and other lawmakers accused Trump and Rudy Giuliani of conspiring with the far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to incite the January 6 insurrection. Thompson withdrew from the lawsuit when he became part of the House Select Committee investigating January 6.

  CNN

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.