2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building

[Monash]

Maybe American politics would work better if every election was a fight to the death in a cage like the one from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. 'Two politicians enter, one politician leaves'. And to the victor goes the spoils, sorry seat. It's televised of course and as they enter stripped to the waist (ladies can have boob armor) Tina Turner's sound track from the movie blares out! And the best part? All you lose is one dead politician. Do you guys think the idea would have any traction in the US and if so who do I write to in the US to propose it?

[TopHatter]

Maybe American politics would work better if every election was a fight to the death like in a cage like the one from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. 'Two politicians enter, one politician leaves'. And to the victor goes the spoils, sorry seat. It's televised of course and as they enter stripped to the waist (ladies can have boob armor) Tina Turner's sound track from the movie blares out! And the best part? All you lose is one dead politician. Do you guys think the idea would have any traction in the US and if so who do I write to in the US to propose it?

That could work...

[Red Team]

Who do I write to in the US to propose it?

Maury Povich might come out of retirement for an election cycle or two.

[TopHatter]

Proud Boys leader: Trump caused Jan. 6 attack



Former Proud Boys national chair Enrique Tarrio — the man prosecutors have portrayed as the ringleader of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — told jurors Tuesday that he’s merely a scapegoat for the real culprit: Donald Trump.

“It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your amazing and beautiful city,” said Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, during closing arguments in a seditious conspiracy trial stemming from the Jan. 6 attack.

Hassan leaned heavily into the role Trump played in ginning up the crowd at his rally the morning of Jan. 6, just minutes before rioters began breaching police barricades at the Capitol. Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” just 36 minutes before the first wave of the mob charged at police, Hassan noted.

"It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power,” Hassan said.

Trump has loomed in the background of Tarrio’s trial, the most significant to emerge from the Jan. 6 assault on Congress. He’s charged alongside four other Proud Boys leaders — Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — with orchestrating a violent effort to derail the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden.

Prosecutors say the leaders, loyal to Trump and fearful of the Proud Boys’ survival in a post-Trump America, devised plans to keep Trump in office. And throughout the four-month trial, the Justice Department repeatedly emphasized how Tarrio and the Proud Boys keyed off and drew energy from Trump’s own bid to subvert the 2020 election. The group’s plan went into overdrive, prosecutors said, after Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020 tweet calling on supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 to challenge the election results.

In tandem with their effort to support Trump, the Proud Boys also soured on their once close relationship with law enforcement, prosecutors say, becoming enraged at cops — particularly in Washington — after they failed to apprehend a man who stabbed four Proud Boys outside a bar on Dec. 12, 2020. That anger at police carried over into the Proud Boys’ posture toward law enforcement on Jan. 6, they say.

Hassan, though, said it was Trump pulling the strings and driving events ahead of Jan. 6 — not Tarrio. He noted that Trump contributed to a surge in Proud Boys recruitment after invoking the group — and urging members to “stand back and stand by” during a televised debate against Biden in September 2020. That membership boom harmed the group’s vetting and led to undisciplined members provoking unconstrained violence and street clashes in Washington in November and December 2020.

That led Tarrio to form a new Proud Boys chapter — dubbed the “Ministry of Self Defense” — to select Proud Boys who could be trusted to follow rules and obey orders. That chapter, which grew to hundreds nationwide, became the core of the group that Tarrio helped assemble in Washington on Jan. 6.

Prosecutors say the Ministry of Self Defense — or MOSD — was really a “fighting force” that Tarrio mobilized to attack the seat of government in service of keeping Trump in power. Hundreds of members joined Proud Boys leaders in Washington and were prominent parts of the crowd that breached the barricades in the first wave of the riot. In numerous cases, Proud Boys in this group were among those who helped topple barricades or tussled with police in ways that helped clear a path for the riot to advance closer to the Capitol.

But Hassan emphasized that Tarrio’s role in the entire sequence of events was tenuous. He was arrested in Washington on Jan. 4, 2021, for burning a Black Lives Matter flag after the Dec. 12, 2020 pro-Trump march. After he was released from police custody, he was ordered to leave Washington and went to a hotel in Baltimore, from where he observed the events of Jan. 6.

Prosecutors say Tarrio made public comments and social media posts that encouraged his men as they entered the Capitol, at one point saying “Don’t fucking leave,” as rioters occupied the Capitol. These comments, prosecutors say, prove the real purpose of the Proud Boys’ presence. As their handpicked members helped overwhelm police — and even after Pezzola used a stolen police riot shield to smash a Senate window and ignite the breach of the building — Tarrio and the other leaders never rebuked them or urged them to pull back.

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio told a group of national Proud Boys leaders in a private chat after the attack. “We did this.”

Hassan spent much of his closing argument urging jurors not to convict Tarrio because they disliked him. Tarrio was brash, said offensive things and often acted like an “entertainer,” Hassan said.

“Do not let your dislike for Henry Enrique Tarrio affect your judgment in that jury room,” Hassan said.
________

This isn't an "either/or" situation. Trump was the stochastic instigator. The Proud Boys and the rest of Trump's Deranged Supporters did the actual dirty work.

[tbm3fan]

This isn't an "either/or" situation. Trump was the stochastic instigator. The Proud Boys and the rest of Trump's Deranged Supporters did the actual dirty work.

Right up there with other Capos like Capone, Madonna, Luciano, Lansky, Gambino, Costello, Gotti, and a few others.

However, none of that absolves Tarrio in the end.

[TopHatter]

Proud Boys leader, awaiting Jan. 6 sedition verdict, assails Justice Department
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — awaiting a verdict on charges he conspired to violently prevent Joe Biden’s presidency — lashed out at the Justice Department and Democrats on Tuesday, accusing them of “weaponizing” government institutions and seeking to “manipulate the 2024 election.”

Tarrio, speaking to supporters and journalists by phone from a jail in Alexandria, Va., avoided commentary on most of the specifics of his four-month trial, which heads to jury deliberations Wednesday morning. He acknowledged that speaking too pointedly about the trial might be detrimental even though the jury has been ordered to avoid media coverage of the case.

But Tarrio used his appearance — his first public comments since his arrest and detention 13 months ago — to eagerly embrace far-right critiques of the Justice Department’s pursuit of Jan. 6 perpetrators, accusing prosecutors of “overcharging” defendants and criminalizing pro-Trump speech. He assailed the seditious conspiracy case against him and four other Proud Boys as a part of an effort to silence figures on the right.

“I’m the next stepping stone,” Tarrio said in the call, which was broadcast to a freewheeling Twitter Space organized by the Gateway Pundit, a far-right media outlet known for promoting conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 and the government.

Tarrio’s attorneys used their closing arguments in court Tuesday morning to lay blame for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack at the feet of Donald Trump, who they say bore the ultimate responsibility for riling up supporters and aiming them at Congress. Tarrio praised his legal team but declined to elaborate on their contention.

But his lawyers’ claim stands at odds with many of Tarrio’s far-right supporters who have, with no evidence, characterized Jan. 6 as a government setup fueled by undercover agents, or the result of left-wing agitators.

Tarrio also used the call to praise congressional Republicans — including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan by name — for pursuing investigations about the “weaponization” of government. He said Jordan should call some Jan. 6 defendants to testify about their experiences.

Tarrio’s decision to speak publicly came two weeks after he opted against taking the stand in the trial. He elaborated on that decision in Tuesday’s call, saying he wanted to avoid a grilling from prosecutors about statements he’s made over the years.

“What’s happening is, in these cross examinations, they're bringing things in from years past — things from 2015, 2016, 2017 is fair game,” Tarrio said. “It has nothing to do with January 6th. We were afraid they were going to use old statements, muddy up the waters.”

Prosecutors have charged Tarrio and four allies with acting as the “tip of the spear” of the mob that overran the Capitol, assembling a group of hundreds of Proud Boys to form a “fighting force” on Jan. 6. Those men surged across police barricades and stoked the crowd’s anger at decisive moments in the melee. One of them — Dominic Pezzola — ignited the breach of the Capitol itself when he smashed a Senate window with a riot shield.

Tarrio wasn’t present on Jan. 6 — he had been ordered to stay away from Washington due to an arrest for a separate charge two days earlier — but prosecutors say he stayed in contact with other Proud Boys leaders from a hotel in Baltimore and later celebrated their role in the attack.

Tarrio spoke to supporters and journalists for more than an hour Tuesday, calling into the Twitter broadcast from the cell phone of a friend, Bobby Pickles. He claimed he’s treated as a greater security risk in the Alexandria jail than the Lockerbie bomber, who is housed in the same facility, and he lamented being held in his cell for 23 hours a day.

Although two of Tarrio’s codefendants — Pezzola and Zachary Rehl — took the stand last week, Tarrio opted against testifying. But in Tuesday’s call, he echoed the arguments defense lawyers made about the Proud Boys, describing their often violent or vulgar language in group chats as “locker room” banter.

“It’s simple fun,” he said.

Tarrio also insisted that he never opened or saw a document titled “1776 Returns” that prosecutors featured in the case. The document, sent to Tarrio by a girlfriend a week before Jan. 6, outlines a plan to storm government buildings in order to protest the election results. Defense attorneys in the case argued that there was no evidence Tarrio ever opened the document, though an FBI agent called by prosecutors noted that Tarrio’s Google searches at that time referenced “The Winter Palace,” an analogy to the Russian Revolution that was referenced in 1776 Returns. Tarrio also referred to “The Winter Palace” on the night of Jan. 6 in text messages with Proud Boy Jeremy Bertino.

Tarrio also used the call to emphasize that he believes the jury in his case can be “fair.” Although many of his allies have been sharply critical of the judge in his case, Tim Kelly, Tarrio described any conflicts with him as simple disagreements over legal issues and said he respects the court’s decisions.

Tarrio also said he and his codefendants “are in a good place.”

“We’re very positive,” he said. “We haven’t given up on each other."
________

Just "locker room banter"....now where have I heard that shit before....

[Albany Rifles]

Just "locker room banter"....now where have I heard that shit before....

Having been in locker rooms on and off for 50+ years locker room talk is often misogynistic, homophobic and degrading...we don't have to accept it in public spaces.

[TopHatter]

Florida man gets prison term for role in attack on Capitol


Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to four years and two months in federal prison for attacking police officers during the insurrection and storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Christian Matthew Manley, 27, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in the District of Columbia, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in November to assaulting, resisting and impeding law enforcement while using a dangerous weapon.

According to court documents, Manley joined with others in objecting to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump. A mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying election results for Biden over Trump, a Republican, authorities have said. Five people died in the violence.

According to the criminal complaint, Manley was captured on video outside the Capitol wearing a flak jacket and armed with bear spray, a collapsible police baton and handcuffs. Video shows Manley spraying bear spray at U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers as they defended an entrance from rioters.

Manley threw the empty bear spray container at officers, then sprayed a second cannister at officers before throwing it at them, prosecutors said. A short time later, Manley accepted a metal rod from another rioter and threw it at the officers, investigators said. They added that Manley also wedged his body against a wall in a tunnel and used force to push the security door against officers defending the Capitol.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for alleged crimes related to the Capitol breach, officials said. More than 320 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
________

Good job guys, keep stacking 'em up.

[Albany Rifles]

On a report on NPR last night they did a story on the Proud Boys trial..The charges and prosecution mirrored very much the case against the Oath Keepers.

Oh, and the DOJ is not done with charging people.

The number kind of surprised...but I wholly support the actions being taken.

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/11722...d-boys-members

Jurors deliberates in seditious conspiracy trial against Proud Boys members



April 26, 20234:23 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered



After months of hearing evidence in the seditious conspiracy trial against members of the Proud Boys, jurors have begun their deliberations in the landmark case.
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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Jury deliberations are underway in the case against Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the Proud Boys group. The landmark seditious conspiracy trial has focused on the defendants' actions before and after the siege on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been covering the case in federal court here in Washington and joins us now. Hey, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hey, Melissa.
BLOCK: This case has been going on for months. It started back in December this week. How did prosecutors sum up their case?
JOHNSON: Yeah, prosecutors say these Proud Boys were thirsting for violence - that Enrique Tarrio and the other four defendants saw themselves as kind of a fighting force for then-President Donald Trump and that they entered into an agreement to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election by any means necessary, including force. The DOJ reminded jurors about the defendants' own words in chat messages and videos and podcasts, including a message from Tarrio himself after the storming of the Capitol that said, quote, "make no mistake, we did this."
BLOCK: So that's the prosecution's summation. What about lawyers for the defendant, Enrique Tarrio?
JOHNSON: Yeah, his lawyer, Nayib Hassan, pointed out that Tarrio was actually in Baltimore on January 6 because he'd been arrested for other charges and had been banished from D.C. by a judge. Tarrio's lawyer says this case is really all about one person, and that's Donald Trump. He told the jury, it's Trump's words, Trump's anger, Trump's motivations that caused what happened on January 6, and Trump telling the crowd to fight like hell that day caused what happened next. Tarrio's lawyer says prosecutors are using Tarrio as a scapegoat because they can't or don't want to bring charges against the former president, Trump.
BLOCK: Well, now the case is in the hands of the jury. They began deliberations this morning, and it sounds like they have a ton of evidence and testimony to weigh.
JOHNSON: So much evidence, so much testimony - half a million chat messages, testimony from FBI agents and police officers who were on the front lines on January 6. Two of the defendants took the witness stand, too - kind of a risky move. One is Zach Rehl, who led the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys. The other is Dominic Pezzola. You may remember him because he famously broke a window in the Capitol using a police shield he grabbed that day. And this is a seditious conspiracy case - one of the most important to come from January 6. In a similar trial last year involving the Oath Keepers group, that jury took more than a week to reach a verdict.
BLOCK: OK. And as you say, it's one of the most serious cases stemming from that uprising. Will you expect a lot more to come from the Justice Department?
JOHNSON: Absolutely. The U.S. attorney here in Washington has told the court to expect possibly a thousand more cases against rioters who broke the law on January 6. That's about double the number of cases we have now, and that's going to keep prosecutors and defense lawyers and judges busy for years to come.
BLOCK: OK. And separately, what about the role of former President Donald Trump and his inner circle? Where does that part of the investigation stand?
JOHNSON: Yeah, sure. Here in this federal courthouse, down the block from the Capitol, the grand juries have been really active. Things are happening behind closed doors, but we have some clues. They've heard testimony from lawyers in the Trump White House, people close to the former vice president. Mike Pence himself was subpoenaed. Special counsel Jack Smith is leading that investigation. No public charges there yet.
BLOCK: OK. NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thanks so much.
JOHNSON: My pleasure.

[TopHatter]

Pence Appears Before Grand Jury on Trump’s Efforts to Retain Power
The former vice president is a key witness to former President Donald Trump’s attempts to block congressional certification of Joseph Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Former Vice President Mike Pence appeared on Thursday before the grand jury hearing evidence about former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election, a person briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Pence’s appearance behind closed doors at the Federal District Court in Washington came after he was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury earlier this year. Mr. Pence is considered a key witness, given the pressure campaign that Mr. Trump engaged in to try to convince him to play a critical role in blocking or delaying congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.

Mr. Pence, now a potential rival to Mr. Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, rebuffed Mr. Trump’s demands in January 2021 that he use his ceremonial role overseeing the certification of the Electoral College results to derail the final step in affirming Mr. Biden’s victory.

Mr. Pence’s advisers had discussions with Justice Department officials last year about providing testimony in their criminal investigation into whether Mr. Trump and a number of his allies broke federal law in trying to keep Mr. Trump in power. But the talks broke down, leading prosecutors to seek a subpoena for Mr. Pence’s testimony.

Both Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump tried to fight the subpoena, with the former vice president claiming it violated the “speech or debate” clause of the Constitution given his role as president of the Senate on Jan. 6, 2021, and Mr. Trump claiming their discussions were covered by executive privilege.

Mr. Trump’s efforts to prevent testimony based on executive privilege claims were rebuffed by the courts. Mr. Pence partially won in his effort to forestall or limit his testimony; the chief judge overseeing the grand jury ruled that he would not have to discuss matters connected to his role as president of the Senate on Jan. 6, but that he would have to testify to any potential criminality by Mr. Trump.

Mr. Pence’s unwillingness to go along with Mr. Trump’s plan to block or delay certification of the electoral outcome, infuriated Mr. Trump, who assailed his vice president privately and publicly on Jan. 6.

Mr. Pence subsequently became a target of the pro-Trump mob that swamped the Capitol building that day, with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” as they moved through the complex. Someone brought a fake gallows that stood outside the building.

It is not clear what testimony Mr. Pence provided on Thursday. But prosecutors are surely interested in Mr. Pence’s accounts of his interactions with Mr. Trump and Trump advisers including John Eastman, a lawyer who promoted the idea that they could use the congressional certification process on Jan. 6 to give Mr. Trump a chance to remain in office.

That plan relied on Mr. Pence using his role as president of the Senate to hold up the process. But Mr. Pence’s top lawyer and outside advisers concluded that the vice president did not have the legal authority to do so.

Mr. Pence described some of his conversations with Mr. Trump in his memoir, “So Help Me God.”

Mr. Pence described in the book how Mr. Trump worked with Mr. Eastman to pressure him into doing something that the vice president was clear that he could not and would not do. He wrote that on the morning of Jan. 6, Mr. Trump used a phone to try to bludgeon him again.

“You’ll go down as a wimp,” the president told the vice president. “If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago!”

Some of Mr. Pence’s aides have already appeared before the grand jury, which is investigating various matters related to the attack on the Capitol, efforts to use the levers of government to keep Mr. Trump in power, and a plan for so-called “fake” Trump electors to be available if there were objections in Congress on Jan. 6 to the results in a number of swing states won by Mr. Biden.
________

That's about as high up on the food chain as it's possible for Jack Smith to go....

[Monash]

His memoir would probably have been more accurately called 'God Help Me' given he had to spend 4 years working alongside Trump.

[TopHatter]

Former Fox News producer’s lawyer says Jan. 6 special counsel interested in tapes

A lawyer for a former Fox News producer now suing the network says the special counsel investigating former President Trump is interested in tapes she says she has of conversations inside the network around the time of the 2020 election.

Gerry Filippatos, an attorney for Abby Grossberg, told CNN that he has given special counsel Jack Smith a spreadsheet detailing some 90 audiotapes Grossberg has as Smith investigates efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Grossberg, who was fired earlier this year by Fox News and is suing the network alleging a hostile work environment, this week shared some of her audio recordings with MSNBC, including one that shows Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) explaining to Fox host Maria Bartiromo how Republicans could delay the certification of President Biden’s victory.

Fox last week agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by the company in connection with false claims promoted by Trump and his allies that the network aired.

“Abby Grossberg’s allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless and she had no bearing on the settlement,” Fox said in a statement Tuesday. “We will vigorously defend Fox against all of her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.”
________

Tick tock...tick tock...

[Albany Rifles]

His memoir would probably have been more accurately called 'God Help Me' given he had to spend 4 years working alongside Trump.

He brought that shit on himself...zero pity.

[Monash]

He brought that shit on himself...zero pity.

Perhaps a tad unfair after all someone had to do the job, it says so in the Constitution.

[Bigfella]

He brought that shit on himself...zero pity.

He was already an amoral piece of shit dressed up in the costume of 'Christian piety'.

Remember that this is the guy who, as governor of Indiana, tried to pass a law forcing any woman who wanted to have an abortion to have a foot long probe shoved inside her. If anyone can describe to me a circumstance where you can shove a foot long probe inside a mentally competent person against their will and it isn't rape then have at it. Until then lets call it what it is - state mandated rape.

I give Pence credit for at least being committed enough to American democracy not to help Trump overthrow it, but in a great many ways I find Pence much more objectionable than Trump. He dresses up his evil in the clothes of civility & piety and makes it 'respectable' while Trump is what he appears to be. Pence is a lot closer to the model for what GOP legislators are currently doing in Congress & state legislatures than Trump. He is much more the antecedent for someone like De Santis & his legal authoritarianism, for example, than Trump (though Pence isn't bright enough to have invented any of this, just practiced it). Such people don't look to smash democracy with mobs, they look to unpick it quietly through gerrymanders, voter supporession, packing courts, legislation & legal loopholes. More effective & harder to combat.

This is why Pence was chosen, to lend his image of somer, pious respectability to a demagogue. He knew what he was doing and why. Sadly he will never be adequately punished for what he did.