2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building

[tbm3fan]

On Saturday when leaving the Hornet in Alameda at the corner of West Atlantic and Webster there was this gray haired man standing on one of the corners holding a large sign. A first in 26 years. Ok so, not Jesus Saves, or the The Lord is Coming, or Eat at Joe's, but Man Creates Order. Hmm, what exactly does he mean because there are obviously pros and cons from today's vantage point...

[TopHatter]

On Saturday when leaving the Hornet in Alameda at the corner of West Atlantic and Webster there was this gray haired man standing on one of the corners holding a large sign. A first in 26 years. Ok so, not Jesus Saves, or the The Lord is Coming, or Eat at Joe's, but Man Creates Order. Hmm, what exactly does he mean because there are obviously pros and cons from today's vantage point...

Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all—the policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.

[statquo]

I tend to believe that the shine has come off the whole 'stolen election' lie for a notable % of conservative right wing voters. They may have voted for Trump in 2020 and at least initially believed his lies but as time passed and no evidence showed up they 'moved on'. Unfortunately that doesn't mean they wouldn't vote for him again if he turned out to be the parties candidate in 2024, just that they more or less 'tune out' continuing claims about the stolen election conspiracy. Which takes some impressive mental gymnastics BTW but it does mean such claims won't have much traction with them next year.

I don’t think so at all. Why else would they be calling his prosecution “political prosecution”? They still believe it. In fact if anything the last two years has only hardened that belief as the long dick of the law comes to serve justice. This is where the conspiracy theory crowd has overlapped into mainstream Republican politics.

These people believe we live in an equivalent system of Russia or third world dictatorship where the establishment/elites holds down the population, promotes group think through the ‘mainstream media’ propaganda, indoctrinates youth at the post secondary and secondary education levels, enforces tyranny through medical mandates and political opponents are silenced, locked up and disappear. They genuinely believe this and these are the terms they use. This is what this complete distrust in the system is baked in.

Shit they call it the Biden regime as if it’s Saddam’s regime or the Iranian regime.

[Monash]

I don’t think so at all. Why else would they be calling his prosecution “political prosecution”? They still believe it. In fact if anything the last two years has only hardened that belief as the long dick of the law comes to serve justice. This is where the conspiracy theory crowd has overlapped into mainstream Republican politics.

These people believe we live in an equivalent system of Russia or third world dictatorship where the establishment/elites holds down the population, promotes group think through the ‘mainstream media’ propaganda, indoctrinates youth at the post secondary and secondary education levels, enforces tyranny through medical mandates and political opponents are silenced, locked up and disappear. They genuinely believe this and these are the terms they use. This is what this complete distrust in the system is baked in.

Shit they call it the Biden regime as if it’s Saddam’s regime or the Iranian regime.

Current and would be conservative politicians stick to the Trump 'play book' because not doing so would see them ostracized by his very vocal and influential base. They therefore have a very good reason to keep either actively pushing the stolen election as an issue or at a minimum publicly acquiescing to those in the Republican base that do believe it's true even when they don't personally believe the election was stolen. Its just more baggage on the cart they've tied themselves to in order to try and get elected.

My comment related to those conservative voters who backed Trump in 2020 because he was the Republican nominee and they disliked Biden (lets face it not a hard ask) but who were and are not dyed in the wool Trumpists. Amy in the that group might have bought into the big lie at because in their minds the claim, at least initially was plausible/possible. Some of them might even have wanted it to be true. The difference between the two groups however is time. As time went by with each new legal defeat and failed inquiry the group I'm talking about simply had less 'buy in' to the idea. Think of it like football fanatics who saw their favorite team thrashed in an important game. They may believe their team was 'robbed' by bad referee calls but basically after a few more games they stop talking about it and move on. For true Trumpists however the stolen election is a central tenant of their 'faith' and its something they will never give up on. That's the difference I'm talking about

[statquo]

Think of it like football fanatics who saw their favorite team thrashed in an important game. They may believe their team was 'robbed' by bad referee calls but basically after a few more games they stop talking about it and move on. For true Trumpists however the stolen election is a central tenant of their 'faith' and its something they will never give up on. That's the difference I'm talking about

Except they don’t think the ref ‘robbed’ them with a bad call. They think the ref rigged the game in the other teams favour. And the ref couldn’t have done it without the league in on it too. The hardcore fans will be outraged. The casuals will hear it too, and even if they don’t fully buy it, now there’s scepticism and distrust where there wasn’t before. I mean as recently as August 70% of Republicans think Biden’s election win was illegitimate. If the shine has come off of it, over two-thirds of Republicans can still see themselves in the reflection.

That’s the worldview of the monolith of Republican voters. It’s a belief.

[TopHatter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Hill reached out to the DOJ for further comment.
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[TopHatter]

Brother of Capitol officer who died after Jan. 6 riot blasts Republicans and Trump in letter

The brother of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died shortly after defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has sent a scathing letter to Republican leaders, accusing the party of choosing "lies and deceit over truth" more than two years after a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

"Instead of being a wake up call for our nation to reflect on what unites us as a country, the Insurrection simply widened the divide we have among our people. It has become a war cry for the Republican Party to tear down anything or anyone that challenges their views on any subject," Craig Sicknick wrote in the letter obtained by ABC News.

Sicknick said his family continues to be deeply affected by the death of his brother, Brian, who was brutally attacked by rioters, video shows. The 42-year-old military veteran, who worked for the Capitol for 12 years, died a day later after suffering two strokes.


A U.S. Capitol Police Officer holds a program for the ceremony memorializing Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, 42, as he lies in honor in the Rotunda of the Capitol, Feb. 3, 2021, in Washington.

A D.C. medical examiner ruled Officer Sicknick died of "natural" causes. According to the medical examiner, a stroke is specifically what caused Sicknick's "natural" death, but the events of Jan. 6 may have contributed.

Some Republicans have pushed back on the Capitol Police's classification of Officer Sicknick's death as a line-of-duty death. Craig Sicknick addressed this in the letter, but didn't mention any of those Republicans by name.

"His death was due in large part to the actions of Mr. Trump and his misguided cultists who, on that fateful day, attacked the United States Capitol with the full intent of doing serious harm to Members of Congress, even many Republicans unless they threw out over two centuries of precedent and illegally overturned an election," Craig Sicknick stated.

The letter, addressed to all members of the Republican Party, was sent directly to congressional leadership: Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It calls out what he says are repeated attempts to downplay the insurrection on Jan. 6.

Trump's actions on Jan. 6 led to a slew of resignations within his own administration and prompted bipartisan outrage.


Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), far right, speaks during the Congressional ceremony memorializing U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, 42, as he lies in honor in the Rotunda of the Capitol, Feb. 3, 2021, in Washington.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, McCarthy said former President Donald Trump "bears responsibility" for what happened. Weeks later, McCarthy visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and posed for a picture together. McConnell rebuked Trump, insisting he provoked the mob on Jan. 6. However, McConnell did not vote to find the former president guilty of inciting the insurrection during the Senate impeachment trial.

"Many people in leadership positions in the Republican Party dutifully supported Trump in his efforts, whether actively, or, more often, passively by not calling out criminal behavior. This is in spite of their own lives being threatened during the Insurrection," Sicknick wrote.

"Some actually called Trump out on it, for a moment, before traveling to Mar-a-Lago and then suddenly had a change of heart. (Sound familiar Mr. McCarthy?) Funny how such things work in the swamp that Trump claimed he would drain, but actually deepened substantially," Sicknick added.

Representatives for McCarthy and McConnell did not return ABC News' request for comment.

In August, Trump was indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The sweeping indictment alleges Trump undertook a targeted "criminal scheme," knowingly fueling lies to block the nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election in order to stay in power. Despite multiple federal investigations, the former president has remained a dominant force in the party as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Trump has denied doing anything wrong, has entered a not guilty plea and has said the charges are politically motivated.

"How much evidence does one need before making a decision that it is well past time to move on from Trump and his lackeys and move the party past this very dark time? The 60+ failed legal challenges to the election results, many in courts run by Trump appointees, wasn't enough evidence? How does a party go from being one of overall integrity to one that, for all appearances, should meet under a big top circus tent instead of in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol Building," Sicknick wrote.

In 2021, Officer Sicknick's mother lobbied Republicans to establish a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack. The effort was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

Months later, Officer Sicknick was awarded posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal for giving his life to protect the Capitol on Jan. 6 -- an effort a number of House Republicans voted against.


President Joe Biden embraces Gladys Sicknick, the mother of late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, as she accepts a Presidential Citizens Medal on behalf of her late son during a ceremony at the White House, Jan. 6, 2023, in Washington.

At the ceremony, Sicknick's family refused to shake the hands of Republican leaders McConnell and McCarthy.


Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) holds out his hand for a handshake with Charles Sicknick, the father of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, at the U.S. Capitol, Dec. 6, 2022, in Washington.

"The party claims it is pro law enforcement, but the actions of its leadership speak far louder than the false words they spew. The same party claims to maintain a higher moral ground than their opposition, but continuously shows that they are not capable of taking the high road," Sicknick wrote in the letter.

He ended the letter with a warning about a party that continues to support Trump.

"Continued worship of a seriously flawed narcissist who has called for the suspension of parts of the Constitution, at least when it suits him, will lead us to a very dark place for our nation, a place from which we may not recover."

Thirty-two months after the mob laid siege to the U.S. Capitol assaulting roughly 140 officers, more than 1,106 defendants have been charged.
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The letter in full:

[TopHatter]

‘Zip Tie Guy’ and His Mom Get Prison Time Despite Pleas for Mercy

A mother-son duo convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 among a violent mob bent on reversing Donald Trump’s unsuccessful re-election bid were sentenced on Friday to a combined 7.25 years in federal prison.

Registered nurse Lisa Marie Eisenhart, 59, will serve 2.5 years behind bars after being found guilty in April of conspiracy to commit obstruction and obstruction of an official proceeding, both felonies, and five related misdemeanors. Her son, a 32-year-old sometime bartender Eric Gavelek Munchel, will be incarcerated for four years and nine months on five felony charges—two of them weapons-related—and three misdemeanors.

Eisenhart, who lives in Georgia, had expressed worries that prison time would mean an effective end to her career in healthcare, according to a sentencing memo filed Aug. 31 by her defense attorney. And Munchel, a newlywed living in Tennessee, has expressed concern that a long sentence would make it harder for him to provide for the baby he and his wife are expecting, his defense team said in a separate filing. (Lawyers representing Munchel and Eisenhart didn’t respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment on Friday.)

Munchel became known as “Zip-Tie Guy” after a photo of him cavorting about the Senate chamber in a tactical vest emblazoned with the “Punisher” logo, holding a fistful of flexible plastic handcuffs he stole from a utility closet in the Capitol, went viral. In the complaint charging the pair, prosecutors also included a snapshot of Eisenhart on Capitol grounds, wearing a tactical vest of her own, and a MAGA hat. Munchel carried a Taser on his hip while inside the Capitol, which prosecutors said clearly indicated his willingness to fight.

Munchel’s attorneys pleaded with the court for leniency, arguing in a sentencing memo that their client was at the Capitol to protest peacefully, and that outfitting himself from head-to-toe in military-style “tactical attire… [was] evidence of nothing, save a certain fashion taste.” Further, they claimed Munchel only brought a Taser because he was “convinced that ANTIFA would be present to incite violence”—a far-right fever dream that was fabricated by the MAGA crowd. Beyond that, the defense said Munchel “has demonstrated his commitment to putting this era of his life behind him by committing to a relationship and fathering a child.”

Far from being there for “peaceful” purposes, prosecutors said in their sentencing memo, Munchel’s getup “intentionally communicated to anyone looking at [him] that he was prepared for violence.” Further, as laid out in charging documents, he was heard pushing his way into the Capitol while shouting such slogans as, “We ain’t playing fucking nice no goddamn more,” and “We’re fucking ready to fuck shit up.”

As for his supportive family relationships, prosecutors said, this “should give the Court concern, not comfort.” He participated in the riot alongside his mom, a GiveSendGo fundraising appeal apparently written by his wife simply “minimizes and excuses his conduct,” and the two “appear more likely to reinforce the beliefs and behaviors that led Munchel to commit his crimes than to help rehabilitate him.” Taken together with Munchel’s past arrests for battery and low-level drug crimes, it all underscored the need for a hefty sentence, the government argued.

In certain instances, it was hard to put the figurative toothpaste back in the tube. After the Capitol riot but prior to her arrest, Eisenhart gave an interview to The Times of London, in which she said, “This country was founded on revolution... I’d rather die as a 57-year-old woman than live under oppression. I’d rather die and would rather fight.”

A felony conviction for Eisenhart—her first ever, according to her lawyers—is “almost certain to jeopardize her 30-year nursing certification and livelihood,” her sentencing memo said. But, prosecutors argued, “Despite a relatively clean record and steady employment in a valued profession, Eisenhart decided to throw it all away on January 6, 2021 in spectacular fashion, attacking her own government to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power,” it said. “Eisenhart’s behavior on January 6 weighs in favor of incarceration.”

The pair’s conduct on Jan. 6 “was the epitome of disrespect for the law,” according to prosecutors.

“With the 2024 presidential election approaching, a rematch on the horizon, and many loud voices in the media and online continuing to sow discord and distrust, the potential for a repeat of January 6 looms ominously,” they wrote in their sentencing memo. “The Court must sentence Munchel and Eisenhart in a manner sufficient to deter them specifically, and others generally, from going down that road again.”

The sentence handed down to Munchel by U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth was exactly in line with what prosecutors were seeking. Eisenhart’s sentence is significantly shorter than the three years and 10 months the prosecution asked for.
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[TopHatter]

'Gas Hat' Jan. 6 rioter who first breached Capitol tunnel entrance arrested by FBI

WASHINGTON — The man who federal authorities say set off a brutal battle with police at the lower west tunnel of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested Friday, nearly two years after he was identified by online sleuths.

Gregory Mijares was identified by online "Sedition Hunters" in 2021. An FBI affidavit said the bureau received a tip in October 2021, and then interviewed Mijares in March 2023.

Mijares was arrested in Crown Point, Indiana, on Friday, according to court records, and charged with felony civil disorder along with two misdemeanor charges.


A man in a gas mask faces off with police on Jan. 6 2021 at the U.S. Capitol.

Video footage shows Mijares was the first rioter to enter the Capitol through the lower west terrace doors on Jan. 6, 2021. The lower west terrace was the site of some of the worst violence at the Capitol that day. Several police officers sustained major injuries, and rioter Rosanne Boyland died amid the chaos.

Mijares earned the nickname "Gas Hat" because footage showed him wearing his gas mask like a hat during part of the battle inside the tunnel.


A man in a gas mask faces off with police on Jan. 6 2021 at the U.S. Capitol.

A FBI affidavit states Mijares told the bureau he rented a car in Indiana, drove to D.C. with a friend, and stayed at an Airbnb in Virginia. Mijares, they said, "admitted to entering Capitol grounds, wearing a gas mask, seeing law enforcement launch tear gas into the crowd, and getting into altercations with police officers both outside and inside the Tunnel."

The FBI said Mijares "held up his middle finger at officers" before he opened a door that had been broken by rioters, and then confronted police before he "began to physically fight officers."

Online sleuths were able to identify Mijares with the help of a photo posted by a journalist that shows him posing near the Capitol after the attack when he was not wearing his mask.

The FBI has arrested more than 1,100 people in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol. More than 600 have been sentenced, including more than 370 defendants to periods of incarceration and more than 120 to periods of home detention.

"The Department of Justice’s resolve to hold accountable those who committed crimes on January 6, 2021, has not, and will not, wane," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement this week.
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[TopHatter]

Conservative activist’s son found guilty of bashing window, leading mob in Jan. 6 riot

The son of a notable conservative activist was found guilty of 10 felonies for his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot, which includes bashing a Capitol Building window, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Leo Bren Bozell IV was found guilty of assaulting a police officer, destruction of government property, obstructing a preceding and other crimes. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors allege Bozell led rioters up the stairs of the Capitol Building, bashed a window, entered the Capitol and made his way to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office and later led a mob to the Senate floor.

His father is Brent Bozell III, who founded Media Research Center, Parents Television Council and other conservative media organizations.

Bozell was identified via online tips to the FBI, and was arrested in February 2021. Investigators said witnesses recognized his sweatshirt — emblazoned with the insignia of his children’s rural Pennsylvania private school where he was a basketball coach.

Prosecutors claimed that the defendant also helped organize the “Stop the Steal” rally in front of the Capitol which preceded the riot. In a pretrial filing, prosecutors said he was “a major contributor to the chaos, the destruction, and the obstruction at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

His attorneys denied that he took part in any violence or assisted in taking over police lines during the riot.

“In fact, video evidence will show that Mr. Bozell assisted in some small way law enforcement officers that he thought could be helped by his assistance,” attorney William Shipley wrote in a filing. “[Bozell] was — for the most part — simply lost and wandering from place-to-place observing events as they transpired.”

More than 1,100 people have been arrested in relation to the Jan. 6 riots, including nearly 400 on charges of assaulting a police officer, the Justice Department said.

The longest sentence — 22 years — for a Jan. 6 defendant so far was handed down to former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio earlier this week. Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes are tied with the second longest sentences — 18 years — for their role in the insurrection.
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[TopHatter]

Active-duty Marine gets probation and community service for storming Capitol with 2 unit members


In this image from U.S. Capitol Police video, released and annotated by the Justice Department in the Statement of Facts supporting an arrest warrant, Joshua Abate, circled in green, Micah Coomer, circled in red, and Dodge Dale Hellonen, circled in blue, appear inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Hellonen, one of three active-duty Marines who stormed the U.S. Capitol together, has been sentenced to probation instead of prison time. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes also on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, ordered Hellonen to perform 279 hours of community service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of three active-duty Marines who stormed the U.S. Capitol together was sentenced on Monday to probation and 279 hours of community service — one hour for every Marine who was killed or wounded fighting in the Civil War.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she can't fathom why Dodge Hellonen violated his oath to protect the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” — and risked his career — by joining the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

“I really urge you to think about why it happened so you can address it and ensure it never happens again,” Reyes said.

Dodge Hellonen, now 24, was the first of the three Marines to be punished for participating in the Capitol siege. Reyes also is scheduled to sentence co-defendants Micah Coomer on Tuesday and Joshua Abate on Wednesday.

The three Marines — friends from the same unit — drove together from a military post in Virginia to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, when then-President Donald Trump spoke at his “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. They joined the crowd that stormed the Capitol after Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Before imposing Hellonen's sentence, Reyes described how Marines fought and died in some of the fiercest battles in American history. She recited the number of casualties from some of the bloodiest wars.

Prosecutors recommended short terms of incarceration — 30 days for Coomer and 21 days for Hellonen and Abate — along with 60 hours of community service.

A prosecutor wrote in a court filing that their military service, while laudable, makes their conduct “all the more troubling.”

Reyes said she agreed with prosecutors that Hellonen’s status as an active-duty Marine does not weigh in favor of a more lenient sentence. But she ultimately decided to spare him from a prison term, sentencing him to four years of probation.

Reyes said it “carried a great deal of weight” to learn that Hellonen maintained a positive attitude and stellar work ethic when he was effectively demoted after the Jan. 6 attack. He went from working as a signals analyst to a job that few Marines want, inventorying military gear.

“The only person who can give you a second chance is yourself,” she told him.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and I’ll carry this with me for the rest of my life,” Hellonen told the judge.

Hellonen, Coomer and Abate pleaded guilty earlier this year to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of six months behind bars. Hundreds of Capitol rioters have pleaded guilty to the same charge, which is akin to trespassing.

Hellonen was carrying a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag when they entered the Capitol through a door that other rioters had breached about seven minutes earlier.

After walking to the Rotunda, they placed a red “Make America Great Again” hat on a statute and took photos of it. They remained inside the Capitol for nearly an hour, joining other rioters in chanting “Stop the Steal!” and “Four More Years!”

None of them is accused of engaging in any violence or destruction on Jan. 6. But prosecutors said none of them has expressed sincere remorse for their crimes.

Coomer bragged on social media about taking part in “history," called for a “fresh start” and said he was “waiting for the boogaloo," a slang term for a second civil war in the U.S.

Coomer’s statement that he was “hoping for a second civil war to topple what he viewed as a ‘corrupt’ government was deeply ominous, given that his military training and access to military weapons would make him a particularly effective participant in such a war against the government,” the prosecutor wrote.

More than 600 people have been sentenced for Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 100 of them have served in the U.S. military. according to an Associated Press review of court records. Only a few were active-duty military or law enforcement personnel on Jan. 6.

On Jan. 18, 2023, law enforcement officers arrested Coomer at a military office in Oceanside, California; Abate at his home in Fort Meade, Maryland; and Hellonen at his residence in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

As of Friday, all three Marines were still on active-duty status, according to the Marine Corps. But all three could be separated from the Marine Corps “on less than honorable conditions,” prosecutors said.

Hellonen received separation paperwork in July, while Coomer awaited a decision last Friday on his possible separation, according to prosecutors. They said Abate was still enlisted in the Marine Corps as of Sept. 1.

“Under other circumstances, that service would be incredibly laudable,” a prosecutor, Madison Mumma, told the judge. “At best, it shouldn't be credited at all.”

Hellonen, a Michigan native, was stationed at the military base in Quantico, Virginia, on Jan. 6. He worked at the Marine Corps Information Operations Center as a signals intelligence analyst and was promoted to the rank of sergeant in August 2021, said his attorney, Halerie Costello.

Hellonen moved to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in February 2022 and was waiting to be deployed when he was arrested, according to Costello. Hellonen knows he shouldn't have entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, Costello wrote in a sentencing memo.
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Mind. Blown.

[TopHatter]

I watched the newly-public security camera footage from January 6. I saw things I hadn't seen before — including eerie scenes of lawmakers fleeing for their safety on one of the darkest days in American history.


Rioters inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

• House Republicans have begun to make January 6 security camera footage publicly available.
• I signed up for a 3-hour appointment, where I watched the footage in an obscure conference room.
• I watched as lawmakers fled for safety — and banded together — while rioters besieged the Capitol.

More than two-and-a-half years after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, House Republicans have begun to make security camera footage from the days surrounding the riot more widely available.

There's been plenty of controversy — and distortions of the events of that day — in the meantime.

When Democrats controlled the House, they resisted releasing the entirety of the footage, arguing that doing so would be compromising to the security of the US Capitol complex. Even so, certain clips have made their way into documentaries about that day and played a prominent role in the public hearings staged by the January 6 committee last year.

When Republicans retook the chamber, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to the footage — resulting in the broadcast of a distorted narrative of the day's events that angered even fellow Republicans.

But now, the Committee on House Administration has opened up access to the footage more broadly, allowing reporters, certain non-profit groups, January 6 defendants, and those who were injured during the riot to view the footage.

I decided to take them up on it. Here's how it went, and what I saw.

Showing up to view the footage
As a reporter, I was able to sign up for a 3-hour time slot, and can theoretically continue to do so once per week. I emailed the committee staff last Monday, and was able to quickly set up an 11 am appointment just days later.

On Friday, I met committee staff in the lobby of O'Neill House Office Building, a lesser-known part of the Capitol complex where the January 6 committee held depositions with witnesses.


Roger Stone in front of the O’Neill House Office Building, where the January 6 security camera footage can be viewed, in December 2021.

The staff led me up to a conference room on the 4th floor, where three desktop computers — each set up to allow for browsing the footage — were lined up against a back wall.

I was required to leave any electronics, including my cell phone, by the door in order to prevent me from recording or photographing any of the footage.

A staff member from the committee was on hand the entire time to answer questions and monitor the terminals, where one other reporter was also viewing footage and taking notes.

How the viewing works
When I sat down at the terminal, a large map of the Capitol Complex filled the screen — one fairly similar to the below map from the US Capitol Police, but in black and white.

Scattered across the map were blue circles indicating the locations of a cluster of security cameras. Upon zooming in, each camera was marked by a small camera lens icon.


Demonstration map of the US Capitol Complex. United States Capitol Police

Once I'd identified a camera I wanted to look at, I could drag the lens icon into another window, where I was able to view any moment between January 5 and January 7, 2021. Some of the timelines accompanying each clip included orange markers, denoting moments that previous viewers — including January 6 committee staff — had sought to highlight.

Through a drop-down menu, I could also view maps of the interior areas of the complex — including each floor of the Capitol and the surrounding office buildings, as well as the pedestrian tunnels and subway tracks that connect them — that were similarly overlaid with camera lens icon

Given that we've already seen so much footage of the rioters on the outside of the building, I chose to focus on the inside, looking particularly how lawmakers responded to the impending threat.

The House Administration Committee is also allowing news outlets to request clips from specific cameras, and will make them publicly available via an online "reading room" sometime soon.

What I saw on the House side
I began by looking at the pedestrian tunnel that connects the Capitol to Cannon House Office Building — an area that I frequently stake out during session days when I'm hoping to talk to certain House members.

Focusing around the 2 pm hour — when rioters halted Electoral College certification proceedings in the House — I saw a steady stream of activity in the tunnel.

Democratic Rep. Cori Bush and her chief of staff could be seen walking away from the Capitol at 2:07 pm, less than 15 minutes before the House went into recess. Bush later recounted in February 2021 that she "just felt the need" to walk out during the House proceedings, before the chamber was breached.

Nine minutes later, I saw police forcibly leading a man — possibly a rioter — down the tunnel and away from the Capitol. I saw a throng of police officers heading into the Capitol at 2:33 pm, just as the situation outside the House chamber was beginning to deteriorate.

Upstairs, I focused on a lone security camera in front of the House chamber. At 2:27 pm, a group of rioters began to assemble in the hallway leading into the chamber, where House members and reporters typically do television hits, and the rioters were initially met with what appeared to be just one police officer.

The crowd continued to swell and gradually grew more visibly restive and agitated, and even as more officers arrived for backup, it clearly wasn't enough: at 2:36 pm, the rioters overwhelmed the cops and surged forward towards the door of the House chamber.

I looked at cameras in the subway tunnel connecting the Capitol to Rayburn House Office Building, which appeared to be the tunnel that most House members used to evacuate. On another security camera in Longworth House Office Building, I watched lawmakers of both parties gathering near the secure location where they sheltered for the duration of the riot.

I then skipped to later in the day, where I saw lawmakers begin to return to the chamber after 8 pm.

In the Cannon Tunnel, I saw Rep. Steny Hoyer — then the House Majority Leader — leading a large procession of roughly 25 staffers back into the Capitol at 8:04 pm.

Lawmakers began to trickle back in the minutes thereafter, where I saw then-Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican, making his way towards the Capitol right next to Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat.

Here's what I saw on the Senate side
On the Senate side, I focused on the security cameras outside the back of the chamber, where senators — and then-Vice President Mike Pence — were led away as the threat from rioters became clearer.

Pence left the chamber down the East back stairway at 2:26 pm, roughly 4 minutes before everybody else was led down the West stairway on the other side.

It was at this moment that the fear of that day came through, even on the silent footage that I was viewing. Officers on the West stairway had set up a barricade using some chairs and benches, and one officer in particular could be seen visibly swaying back and forth, pacing around, as the minutes elapsed.

The Senate is generally known as the more collegial chamber, and it showed.

As senators headed down the stairway in a single-file fashion, they seemed to be leaning on one another, physically, as they made their escape.

Down in the basement below the Capitol, I watched as Republican Sen. John Boozman helped Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein make her way towards the senators' secure location in Hart Senate Office Building, with one arm held firmly against her back. Over in Hart, Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan could be seen locking arms as they made their way to safety.

Other random sightings I jotted down in my notebook included: a reporter apparently interviewing Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer, a go-to quote source for Capitol reporters, as the evacuation took place; Republican then-Sen. Jim Inhofe milling around in the tunnel towards Hart, on the phone and appearing confused, as officers seemingly encouraged him to keep moving; Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse seemingly being the last senator to make it out of the Capitol, minutes after everyone else.

What I didn't — or couldn't — see
Three hours isn't nearly enough time to look at all of the footage.

There are also plenty of areas in the complex where no footage was available, apparently due to lack of camera coverage. That includes the area behind the House chamber where rioter Ashli Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer, as well as the upper floors of most office buildings.

Nonetheless, there's certainly more that one could look at, including the controversial tour group that Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk led the day before the riot, how cameras on Capitol grounds captured the advance of the crowd, and more of lawmakers returning to their chambers on the evening of the 6th.

All in all, though, I found the experience to be eerie.

I started covering Capitol Hill several months after the riot took place, and most of what I know about that day is based on news reports, documentaries, and the January 6 committee hearings.

The unfiltered footage, however, was another stark reminder of the darkness of that day.

I saw not just the lawmakers I cover, but also reporters that I work with, running for safety in the buildings where I now work. The COVID-19 pandemic was still raging at the time of the riot, and seeing everyone walking around in masks — as well as several who pointedly did not — brought back some of the peculiarities of that point in time.

But I'm glad I did it, and overall, I'm glad that the footage is being distributed more broadly. If anything, it's a reminder of what that day was really like, and how those inside the Capitol actually experienced it.
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Amazing how a bunch of "Karens" could force the legislative body of the world's foremost superpower to go fleeing for their lives....

[TopHatter]

Infowars host Owen Shroyer gets 2 months behind bars in Capitol riot case


Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Infowars host Owen Shroyer was sentenced on Tuesday to two months behind bars for joining the mob's riot at the U.S. Capitol, which prosecutors said he “helped create” by spewing violent rhetoric and spreading baseless claims of election fraud to hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Shroyer hosts a daily show called “The War Room With Owen Shroyer” for the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Prosecutors said Shroyer used his online platform — and later a megaphone outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — to amplify lies that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump, who was the Republican incumbent.

Shroyer didn’t enter the Capitol, but he led a march to the building and led rioters in chants near the top of the building’s steps. He's among only a few people charged in the riot who neither went inside the building nor were accused of engaging in violence or destruction.

He pleaded guilty in June to illegally entering a restricted area — a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of one year behind bars.

Shroyer didn't need to set foot inside the Capitol because many of his followers did, prosecutors argued. They said Shroyer spread election disinformation and “thinly veiled calls to violence” on Jan. 6 to Infowars viewers in the weeks leading up to the attack.

“Shroyer helped create January 6,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Prosecutors had sought four months behind bars for Shroyer, 34, of Austin, Texas.

In December 2019, Shroyer was arrested in Washington after he disrupted a House Judiciary Committee hearing for then-President Trump's impeachment proceedings. He later agreed to stay away from Capitol grounds, a condition of a deal resolving that case.

In the weeks before the Capitol riot, Shroyer “stoked the flames of a potential disruption of the (Jan. 6) certification vote by streaming disinformation about alleged voter fraud and a stolen election” on his show, prosecutors wrote. In November 2020, he warned that “it’s not going to be a million peaceful marchers in D.C.” if Joe Biden, a Democrat, became president.

An Infowars video promoting “the big D.C. marches on the 5th and 6th of January” ended with a graphic of Shroyer and others in front of the Capitol. A day before the Capitol riot, Shroyer called in to a live Infowars broadcast and internet program and said, “Everybody knows this election was stolen.”

Shroyer, who has worked at Infowars since 2016, said in an affidavit that he accompanied Jones and his security detail to Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.

“I walked with Mr. Jones up several steps and stood near him as he addressed the crowd from a bullhorn urging them to leave the area and behave peacefully,” Shroyer said.

Jones hasn’t been charged with any Jan. 6-related crimes.

Outside the Capitol, Shroyer stood in front of a crowd with a megaphone and yelled, “The Democrats are posing as communists, but we know what they really are: they’re just tyrants, they’re tyrants. And so today, on January 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!” Shroyer also led hundreds of rioters in chants of “USA!” and “1776!”

After Jan. 6, Shroyer used his show to promote conspiracy theories about the riot, trying to shift the blame to left-wing “antifa” activists and even the FBI, prosecutors said. After his arrest, Shroyer raised nearly $250,000 through an online campaign described as his defense fund.

Defense attorney Norm Pattis has said Shroyer attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally as a journalist who intended to cover the event for his Infowars show. Pattis has repeatedly accused prosecutors of trampling on Shroyer’s free speech rights

“Mr. Shroyer, and every person capable of speaking in the United States, has a right to utter the speech Mr. Shroyer used. That the Government would suggest otherwise is a frightening commentary on our times,” Pattis wrote in a court filing on Sunday.

Prosecutors said the First Amendment doesn’t protect the conduct for which Shroyer was charged. Shroyer and others “stoked the fires of discontent” about driving a mob of individuals to descend on Washington, D.C., on January 6th.

“Shroyer cannot light a fire near a can of gasoline, and then express concern or disbelief when it explodes,” they wrote.

Shroyer is one of two Infowars employees arrested on Capitol riot charges. Samuel Montoya, who worked as a video editor for Jones’ website, was sentenced in April to four months of home detention. Montoya entered the Capitol and captured footage of a police officer fatally shooting a rioter, Ashli Babbitt.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 650 of them have pleaded guilty. More than 600 have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.
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So wait, Owen Shroyer is actually antifa??

[TopHatter]

A Time for Consequences
Trump and his supporters fought the law and the law, it seems, is winning.


Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys (L) and Joe Biggs (R) gather outside of Harry's bar during a protest on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC.

AT HIS SENTENCING HEARING on September 5, Enrique Tarrio, the onetime leader of the Proud Boys, pleaded with the judge for leniency. “Please show me mercy,” he said, adding, “I ask you that you not take my forties from me.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by then-President Donald Trump, proceeded to grant this request, in a monkey’s paw sort of way. He sentenced the 39-year-old Tarrio to 22 years in federal prison. That means he won’t just lose his forties but his fifties, too.

Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted in May of seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Judge Kelly issued his sentence from the same courthouse where the former president and 18 others will go on trial on federal charges that they conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It is one of four criminal cases pending against Trump and various co-defendants.

Can’t you just feel it? Amid all the justified concern about the erosion of the rule of law, the folks who broke the law as part of Trump’s scheme to steal an election are evidently being held to account. Soon, the rule of law may even catch up with Trump himself.

As of last Wednesday, according to the Department of Justice’s weekly tally, 623 federal defendants have been convicted of and sentenced for crimes related to January 6th; 378 of these have included periods of incarceration. In all, the government says, 1,146 people have been arrested and charged for their actions that day.

These metrics are growing all the time. On Friday, a federal judge convicted Leo Brent Bozell IV of multiple felony counts for storming the Capitol, bashing in a window, facilitating other rioters, and chasing a police officer. Bozell is the son of L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist who founded the Media Research Center and Parents Television Council, and grandson of L. Brent Bozell Jr., a prominent conservative writer. Bozell IV will be sentenced in January. And on Monday, Dodge Hellonen, 24, one of three active-duty Marines who took part in the attack, was sentenced to 279 hours of community service—one for each Marine who was killed or wounded during the Civil War.

Tarrio, who was not at the January 6th insurrection, has received the stiffest sentence so far, but others have come close. In May, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, 58, snared an 18-year sentence. One of Tarrio’s Proud Boy co-defendants, Ethan Nordean, 32, matched that September 1, a day after two other co-defendants, Joe Biggs, 39, and Zachary Rehl, 38, netted sentences of 17 and 15 years, respectively.

In a joint sentencing memo, Biggs and Rehl blamed the Capitol attack on Trump, saying they were heeding his calls to action that day, which “should yield some measure of mitigation.” It may have. Prosecutors had sought sentences of 33 years for Biggs and 30 for Rehl. Judge Kelly seemed a bit apologetic that he couldn’t do any better than to shave these in half. “You did spray that officer, and then you lied about it,” he told Rehl. “Those are what we call in the law bad facts.” Biggs apologized “for my rhetoric,” something Trump has never done, saying he was “sick and tired of left versus right” and that the only group he wanted to be a part of is his daughter’s PTA. He’ll have to attend remotely from prison, if that is allowed.

Tarrio, at his sentencing, called the events of January 6th a “national embarrassment” and insisted, “I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal”—words somewhat at variance with the messages he sent to supporters during the January 6th attack, instructing them to “Do what must be done” and “Do it again.”

As he was led out of the courtroom in his orange jumpsuit, Tarrio thrust up his hand while making a “V” sign. His fourth co-defendant, Dominic Pezzola, who was not convicted of seditious conspiracy but drew a ten-year prison term for being the guy who used a repurposed police riot shield to smash a Capitol window, showed similar spunk at his September 1 sentencing. As he was exiting the courtroom, after telling the judge “I stand before you today as a changed and humble man,” Pezzola raised his fist into the air and shouted, “Trump won!”

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JANUARY 6TH IS NOT THE ONLY ARENA in which Trump’s hapless stormtroopers are being met by a hot blast of justice. This is also happening to those who turn Trump’s lies about the 2020 election into a license to threaten election workers.

Since its creation in June 2021, a unit of the U.S. Justice Department called the Election Threats Task Force has brought criminal charges in more than a dozen cases involving threats against election workers. These include several recent cases that plumb the depths of depravity embraced by members of Trump’s election-denying fan base.

On August 31, the Justice Department secured guilty pleas from two defendants charged with making threats. Chad Christopher Stark, 55, of Texas, had posted a message on Craigslist on January 5, 2021, saying it was time to “put a bullet” in one official and warning others: “We will find you oathbreakers and we’re going to pay your family [a] visit your mom your dad your brothers and sisters your children your wife . . . we’re going to make examples of traitors to our country . . . death to you and all you communist friends.”

The other guilty plea was entered by Joshua Russell, 44, of Ohio, who in August 2022 left a voicemail for an election official with the Arizona secretary of state’s office that concluded “America’s coming for you, and you will pay with your life, you communist [expletive] traitor [expletive].”

On August 28, Mark A. Rissi, 64, of Iowa, was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for leaving threatening voicemails in late 2021. One, to an election official in Maricopa County, Arizona, said in part:

“When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie [expletive], you’ll remember that you lied on the [expletive] Bible, you piece of [expletive]. You’re gonna die, you piece of [expletive],” and so on. The other, to that state’s then-attorney general, advised: “Do your job . . . or you will hang with those [expletive] in the end. We will see to it. Torches and pitchforks. That’s your future, [expletive]. Do your job.”

Earlier in the month, the Election Threats Task Force saw a trifecta of good news: Frederick Francis Goltz, 52, of Texas was sentenced to three and a half years for posts on far-right social media platforms suggesting a “mass shooting of poll workers” and threatening two officials in Maricopa County, Arizona. James Clark, 38, of Massachusetts pleaded guilty to sending a bomb threat to Arizona’s secretary of state in February 2021. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 26 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. And Georgia resident Jessica Diane Higginbotham, 35, drew an eighteen-month prison sentence followed by two years of supervised release for sending a December 2022 text message to an employee of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, “to let you know that I am coming by either tonight or in the morning to set a bomb up. So I can blow all the Democrats up.”

And there’s more to come: Solomon Peńa, 40, a 2022 Republican candidate for the New Mexico House of Representatives, was indicted on May 31 of this year for allegedly organizing a series of shootings at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators over a month-long period that began in early December of last year. Peńa faces the prospect of sixty years or more in prison; he and two others, according to the Department of Justice, “are charged with conspiracy, interference with federally protected activities, and several firearms offenses, including the use of a machine gun.”

The Justice Department and its agencies are proud of these prosecutions. “Defending the rights of Americans, particularly the right to vote, is a fundamental part of the FBI’s mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a press statement. “The FBI will fiercely protect election officials from threats of violence and intimidation, and in doing so, protect the fidelity of U.S. elections.”

Added Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a recent release:
.

A functioning democracy requires that the public servants who administer our elections are able to do their jobs without fearing for their lives. The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute those who target election officials and election workers as part of our broader efforts to safeguard the right to vote and to defend our democracy.

When Republicans declaim against the weaponization of the federal government, this is often what they are actually standing against—holding hoodlums accountable for bad behavior inspired by Trump.

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ELSEWHERE, SIGNS OF CHICKENS COMING HOME to roost are abundant. Peter Navarro, Trump’s former trade adviser, was convicted last week on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee looking into the January 6th attack. He promises to appeal, as has Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was convicted last year on two contempt counts. Both are circling their respective porcelain drains.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer and fellow election fabulist, is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal indictment for trying to overturn the election results. He did not escape being indicted, along with Trump and 17 others, for his role in seeking to subvert Georgia’s 2020 election results. And, in late August, he was found liable for defaming two of that state’s election workers. The costs of his legal defense and “significant” punitive damages will likely drive him into financial as well as moral bankruptcy.

In the Georgia case, a state judge has denied a motion from fake-elector-scheme architect Kenneth Chesebro to be tried separately from another defendant who also requested a speedy trial, although the judge did express some skepticism about the practicality of trying all nineteen together. Meanwhile, a federal judge refused to allow Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, to move his case from state to federal court.

In the Washington, D.C. case, an effort by Trump’s lawyers to push the trial back to 2026 was aggressively rebuffed by a district court judge, who set a trial date of March 4. And in Trump’s federal prosecution in Florida for hoarding classified documents, it just came to light that a former information technology director at Mar-a-Lago has entered into a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that will likely include testifying against the former president when the case goes to trial.

Trump’s defenses are cracking, his vulnerability has deepened. The evidence of his guilt in the crimes for which he’s been charged are seemingly as solid as that which led to lengthy prison terms for Tarrio, Rhodes, and their brethren. And Trump’s attempts to threaten and coerce election officials into breaking the law to overturn the will of the voters are at least as serious as those for which his shock troops are being locked up.

Could it be that the most lawless of presidents will, like many of those around him, be brought down by, of all things, the rule of law? That’s beginning to look like a real possibility.
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[TopHatter]

'The Donald' forum user gets more than 6 years in prison for battling officers at Capitol riot

WASHINGTON — A Trump supporter who engaged in a battle with law enforcement officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and then bragged about his conduct on the pro-Trump forum "The Donald," was sentenced Wednesday to 6˝ years in federal prison.

Jose Padilla was sentenced to 78 months by U.S. District Judge John Bates, who convicted Padilla, 43, a disabled Army veteran, on 10 counts at a bench trial in May.

Federal prosecutors sought just over 14 years in prison, which would have been among the 10 longest sentences given to Jan. 6 rioters.

Padilla will get credit for time served in pretrial custody. He was arrested in early 2021.

"On January 6th, Padilla actively fought against the very United States he previously swore to protect, and fought to undermine the Constitution that he previously swore to defend," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, pointing to Padilla's military background.

In the memo, prosecutors said that Padilla bragged online that he "wanted to overthrow American democracy, in violation of his oath to defend the Constitution," and that he "spent three hours on the West Front [of the Capitol] breaking through police lines, rallying other rioters to join him, and relentlessly berating police." They also said he lied under oath about why he hurled a flagpole at an officer's head.


Jose Padilla at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Video from Jan. 6 showed Padilla tried to rally other rioters, calling those who didn't push against the police line "cowards." He later complained online about other Jan. 6 participants, saying they were “pathetic little LARPers" — live action role players — who "only pretend" to be patriots.

Many of Padilla's online comments were made on "The Donald" forum, which frequently features violent rhetoric about former President Donald Trump's perceived enemies.

"We were actually trying to take back our Republic and attacking the Seat of Power," Padilla said. “We were attempting to restore the Republic by dissolving the legislature and convening a constitutional convention of the people.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Brasher argued Wednesday that Padilla “not only viewed January 6th [as] necessary, but as a beginning." Personal responsibility “is the cornerstone of a justice society,” and Padilla showed none, Brasher said.

Padilla’s defense attorney, Michael Cronkright, said his client was “somewhat of a loner” until he “foolishly” engaged with like-minded people online related to the 2020 election.

Cronkright on Wednesday brought up Padilla’s family situation, as did Padilla himself, indicating that his family is in deep poverty and that his continued incarceration would create significant problems for the family.

“This is going to be more of hardship on his family than it is on him,” Cronkright said.

The defense cited Padilla's family situation in asking for “substantial” home confinement, in addition to time already served.


Jose Padilla at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Padilla, standing before Bates, the judge, gave an emotional apology before his sentencing.

“I want to apologize to the officers,” he said. “My actions that day were not in keeping with my character.”

Padilla said he “regrets” any harm he caused. “I can only ask for your forgiveness,” he said.

Padilla went on to say that for a few months after Jan. 6, he was not as remorseful as he is now, referring to social media posts that called for violence. “Remorse is rarely immediate, sir,” he told Bates.

Bates called Padilla’s remarks a “genuine expression” of remorse. “But it’s awfully late in the game," he said before he gave a sentence well below the guidelines range.
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This guy has gotta be "antifa". No True Trump Supporter would do such a thing....