2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building

[TopHatter]

'I did the right thing,' Jan. 6 rioter says before being sentenced to 2˝ years in prison
At her sentencing hearing, Yvonne St Cyr did not express regret or accept any responsibility for her actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 defendant who claimed she believed she had the right to climb over broken glass to enter the Capitol was sentenced to 2˝ years in federal prison Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge John Bates sentenced Yvonne St Cyr — who at her trial in March was found guilty of two felony counts of civil disorder, as well as several misdemeanors — to 30 months behinds bars, 36 months of supervised release and $2,000 restitution to the Architect of the Capitol.

After her trial, St Cyr had said in a Facebook livestream that she wasn't sure the case would ever move to sentencing because "the truth" would come out before then.

“Their s---'s gonna blow up!" she said. "So just keep watching Tucker, keep spreading the truth, keep talking about the corruption, keep sharing, and we will bring the system doooooowwwwn.”

Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, which St Cyr referred to, has since been canceled. Tucker, a conservative commentator known for promoting conspiracy theories and disinformation, then launched a new version of his show on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.


Yvonne St Cyr at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

At her sentencing hearing Wednesday, St Cyr's attorney, Nicole Owens, said her client was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because of a “misguided sense of duty.” After attorneys for both parties spoke, St Cyr was given the opportunity to speak.

St Cyr, who served in the military, told the court repeatedly that she took an oath to defend the Constitution. She also repeated her claim that the last presidential election was stolen. Owens had defended her client's claim, telling the court: "It's not some fringe belief."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Schesnol said St Cyr “is a person who does what she wants, without care to rule, authority or the law.”


Images from Yvonne St Cyr's Facebook account.

“I’ve been on a spiritual journey,” St Cyr said. Then she launched into a bizarre 45-minute rant — until the judge cut her off with a stern warning to wrap up — on a series of topics, including her beliefs about the air we breathe, her spiritual being, radio frequencies, her difficult upbringing and a woman she watched being arrested on a playground during the Covid pandemic.

In sharing a prepared version of her remarks online, St Cyr acknowledged that her comments were "a little over all the place and a little messy, kind of like life."

She also talked about her actions during the Capitol riot. She didn’t express regret or accept any responsibility for her actions that day, and she indicated that she wasn’t concerned about the prospect of serving jail time.

“The spirit has assured me that isn’t going to happen,” she said.

Even if she were to end up in federal custody, she said, “prison will give me plenty of time to write a book.”

St Cyr mentioned Donald Trump once at her sentencing hearing. She accused the judge of hating the former president because he's not "part of the system."

“I did the right thing,” St Cyr said about her actions on Jan. 6. “I know it sounds delusional.”

In a Facebook livestream after her sentencing, St Cyr also said she hadn’t filed taxes since 2019, and she encouraged her followers not to pay their taxes.

"Keep your damn money," she said. "Stop giving it away."
_____________

Think her cheese (bro) may have slipped off her cracker....Fertile ground for Cult45

[tbm3fan]

Think her cheese (bro) may have slipped off her cracker....Fertile ground for Cult45

Oh boy,I do believe she served under Gen. Jack D. Ripper but snuck a sip of fluoridated water.

[tbm3fan]

As to the link with her name:

Supporting Jan. 6 defendants is quickly becoming a major base issue in the Republican Party. This month, former Fox News host Ed Henry, who joined Real America's Voice TV after he was fired over allegations of sexual misconduct, teamed up with former Trump official Kash Patel to promote a recording of the J6 Prison Choir singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" synched up with audio of Trump. The song shot up the iTunes charts. A vinyl is on sale for $99.99. Trump has promoted it on his social media platform, Truth Social, and bragged about how well it's doing.

__________________________________________________ ___

$99.99 for a single! While we have nut cases it does seem we have some, completely sane, who feel tearing things down is worthwhile for their pocketbook.

[TopHatter]

As to the link with her name:

Supporting Jan. 6 defendants is quickly becoming a major base issue in the Republican Party. This month, former Fox News host Ed Henry, who joined Real America's Voice TV after he was fired over allegations of sexual misconduct, teamed up with former Trump official Kash Patel to promote a recording of the J6 Prison Choir singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" synched up with audio of Trump. The song shot up the iTunes charts. A vinyl is on sale for $99.99. Trump has promoted it on his social media platform, Truth Social, and bragged about how well it's doing.

__________________________________________________ ___

$99.99 for a single! While we have nut cases it does seem we have some, completely sane, who feel tearing things down is worthwhile for their pocketbook.

But don't forget: bOtH sIdEs!

[tbm3fan]

But don't forget: bOtH sIdEs!

You mean there is a single I can buy for $99.99? Well, then, spill the beans...

[TopHatter]

A Jan. 6 rioter was convicted and sentenced in secret. No one will say why
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of rioters have been charged, convicted and sentenced for joining the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Unlike their cases, Samuel Lazar's appears to have been resolved in secret — kept under seal with no explanation, even after his release from prison.

Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles, and used chemical spray on officers who were desperately trying to beat back the angry Donald Trump supporters.

There is no public record of a conviction or a sentence in Lazar's court docket.

But the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that the man was released from federal custody this week after completing a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer. Lazar was sentenced in Washington’s federal court on March 17 to 30 months in prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons, but there’s no public record of such a hearing. He had been jailed since July 2021.

Questions about Lazar’s case have been swirling for months, but the details of his conviction and sentence have not been previously reported.

The Justice Department has refused to say why the case remains under wraps, and attorneys for Lazar did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press. The judge overseeing Lazar’s case in May rejected a request from media outlets — including the AP — to release any sealed records that may exist.

The case is raising concerns about transparency in the massive Jan. 6 investigation — the largest in Justice Department history. Court hearings and records — including sentencing hearings and plea agreements — are supposed to be open and available to the public and the press unless there’s a compelling need for secrecy.

Lazar was transferred in July from FCI Fort Dix — a federal lockup in New Jersey — to “community confinement” overseen by the Bureau of Prisons, which means he was either in home confinement or a halfway house, according to a prisons system spokesperson.

A social media post from Lazar's sister that month shows Lazar standing outside waving an American flag with the caption: “Hallelujah Praise God free at last ... #walkingfree.”

Secret plea hearings are not unheard of, though the records are often unsealed ahead of sentencing.

In an unrelated example, the guilty plea by George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia influence investigation, was entered under seal and kept out of view for weeks — until special counsel Robert Mueller disclosed that Papadopoulos had admitted making false statements to the FBI. Subsequent proceedings, including his sentencing hearing, were matters of public record.

George Washington University criminal law professor Randall Eliason, who spent 12 years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, said he couldn't remember any case during his Justice Department tenure in which a sentencing hearing and sentence were placed under seal. Eliason said it's possible that “either there’s some kind of security concern about him personally, or maybe more likely that he’s cooperating in some respect that they don’t want the people he’s cooperating against to know about.”

But many Jan. 6 defendants have cooperation deals with the government, and their cases haven't been resolved in secret. Defendants who agree to cooperate with prosecutors often get their sentencing hearings delayed until they finish cooperating.

“The fact that he also got sentenced, went to prison and is already out, that whole situation is just unusual,” Eliason said.

Lazar is among more than 1,100 defendants charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Outside the Capitol that day, Lazar was carrying a bullhorn and wearing ski googles, a tactical vest with a radio attached and camouflage-style face paint.

Videos captured Lazar approaching police lines outside the Capitol and discharging an orange chemical irritant toward officers, an FBI agent said in a court filing. An officer's body camera showed Lazar retreat down steps after police deployed a chemical at him. Lazar then turned and sprayed two officers, according to the agent.

Lazar shouted profane insults at police through the bullhorn, calling them tyrants and yelling, “Let’s get their guns!" Another video captured Lazar saying, “There’s a time for peace and there’s a time for war.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather in Washington, D.C, ordered Lazar detained pending trial, ruling that he posed a threat to public safety. The magistrate noted that Lazar also had been photographed posing with firearms on a public street during an August 2020 rally.

In January 2022, a new indictment charged Lazar with five counts, including felony offenses. He pleaded not guilty to the charges the following month. In March 2022, prosecutors and Lazar's attorney asked for more time “to negotiate a disposition of the matter short of trial.”

In June 2022, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson canceled a status conference for Lazar's case because he wasn't available to appear by video from jail. That's the last publicly available court filing to address the status of the case.

In April of this year, attorneys for a coalition of news outlets — including the AP — asked the judge to unseal any records related to a change of plea or sentencing hearing for Lazar, noting a March NBC News story — citing an anonymous source — that said Lazar was scheduled to be sentenced in a secret hearing.

"The public docket provides no explanation as to why, despite the strong presumption of transparency in this Circuit, these judicial records are not available to the public," the coalition lawyers wrote.

After Lazar's secret sentencing, his brother told Lancaster Online — which first reported his release from prison in July —- that their mother was “even more confused,” adding “she has no idea if and when he’s coming home, assuming he was actually given a sentence today.”

In May, Judge Jackson denied the news outlets' request after a prosecutor and defense attorney argued against releasing the records, though she said the case law cited by the press coalition “plainly recognizes that there may be circumstances where a need for secrecy can be outweighed by competing significant interests.”

Jackson said there were no “undocketed” records in this or any other case pending before her, adding that "nothing has been sealed in this case without leave of court." But the judge said the news outlets could renew their request, setting a Sept. 29 deadline for its lawyers to file “an updated status report setting forth their position or positions on this matter.”

___

Well that's some weird shit....

[TopHatter]

Donald Trump Finds A Way To Blame Nancy Pelosi For Jan. 6 Insurrection

Donald Trump offered up a strange scapegoat for the Jan. 6 insurrection in a new interview.

The former president accused former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of allowing mobs of violent Trump supporters to overtake the U.S. Capitol by allegedly turning down his offer to activate the National Guard.

Thousands of people descended on Capitol Hill to try and stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, following Trump’s repeated lies about a stolen election.

A bipartisan Senate report released last June connected seven deaths to that day’s violence, and late last year, the House January 6 committee accused Trump of engaging in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Rioters personally targeted Pelosi on Jan. 6. People stalked the halls of Congress chanting, “Nancy! Oh Nancy! We’re looking for you!” Others vandalized her office and wreaked havoc throughout the building.

But Trump ignored those facts while speaking to Kristen Welker during an interview on “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.

In a remarkable effort at rewriting history, Trump claimed that Pelosi could have prevented that day’s chaos and violence if she’d accepted Trump’s offer to use the National Guard ahead of Jan. 6, when he planned to host a “Stop the Steal” rally near the Capitol.

“She turned down 10,000 soldiers,” Trump said, claiming that Pelosi was in charge of security of the Capitol. “If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had January 6th.”

“Capitol police said that he wanted it and Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t accept it,” Trump said. “She’s responsible for January 6th.”

Welker countered that Pelosi says Trump never officially requested her permission to ready the National Guard, although the journalist appeared unable to thoroughly fact-check Trump during their exchange.

The speaker of the House does not control security of the Capitol, nor do they control requests for the National Guard. Those decisions lie instead with the Capitol Police Board, who have offered conflicting accounts of the events prior to and on Jan. 6.

According to an investigation by The New York Times, Pelosi approved a request for reinforcements from House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving at around 1:43 p.m. that day, a full two hours before the Pentagon gave the District of Columbia National Guard commander permission to deploy troops.

While Trump had plenty to say about Pelosi’s alleged mistakes, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination refused to say whether he moved to subdue the attack once it was underway.

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Trump told Welker. “I assumed that [Pelosi] took care of it.”

Pelosi responded to Trump’s claims during an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, telling reporter Jonathan Capehart: “The former occupant of the White House has always been about projection. He knows he’s responsible for that, so he projects it onto others.”
______________

Still peddling this line of blatant bullshit. But the base laps it up anyway.

[Albany Rifles]

Well that's some weird shit....

Has to be for National Security reasons

[TopHatter]

Has to be for National Security reasons

Yeah, has to be....Question is, why? (Rhetorical, of course)

[TopHatter]

Criminal Charge Against Ray Epps Not Dissuading GOP From Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory


Ray Epps faces up to a year in prison for rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but far-right Republicans are clinging to a conspiracy theory that the Arizona man is a federal agent.

Epps, a wedding venue owner and two-time Trump voter, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single charge of disorderly conduct in a restricted federal area. Some republicans say the charge is fishy, suggesting that Epps encouraged other rioters in a supposed entrapment scheme orchestrated by the Department of Justice.

“The American people aren’t buying it, there’s something up there, and the DOJ needs to level with us,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said of the charge against Epps.

The theory that Epps helped start the riot is part of the right-wing lie that Donald Trump bears no responsibility for what happened on Jan. 6. And the fact that Republican lawmakers still cling to their Epps story, even after his guilty plea, suggests that it will never die.

Shortly after the 2021 attack, the FBI posted a picture of Epps on its Capitol violence “most wanted” page, and then took the photo down. A video from Jan. 5 of that year showed Epps saying Trump supporters should go into the Capitol, and a video from Jan. 6 showed him whispering in a rioter’s ear before the man struggled against police.

The fact that Epps was known to the FBI but hadn’t been charged, even though he was on video encouraging his fellow Trump supporters to attack the Capitol, supposedly meant the Justice Department was protecting him, according to right-wing media and several Republicans in Congress.

Now, they say the charge against him only strengthens their suspicions.

“A misdemeanor? For being the only one on camera telling everybody to go into the Capitol for two days?” Massie said.

There are good reasons to doubt that Epps is some kind of government asset. It turned out the FBI removed him from its “most wanted” because he got in touch when he found out they were looking for him. And during a transcribed interview with lawmakers in January 2022, Epps said repeatedly, under penalty of perjury, that he wasn’t connected to any federal or local law enforcement agency. In April, the FBI, which generally refuses to comment on sources or investigations, said in a rare statement that Epps “has never been an FBI source or an FBI employee.”

There were also people other than Epps talking about attacking the Capitol. For instance, the FBI’s field office in Norfolk, Virginia, on Jan. 5 sent a memo highlighting threats from online forums, such as “Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled” — references to Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist movements.

And video from the east front of the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6 shows people talking about attacking the building, as well as somebody repeatedly yelling “storm the Capitol” into a bullhorn.

Epps has lodged a defamation suit against Fox News over a series of reports on former anchor Tucker Carlson’s nightly broadcast accusing him of being a “fed.” He said this deluged his family with death threats and forced him and his wife to flee their home.

Michael Teter, an attorney for Epps in the defamation case, described his Wednesday guilty plea as “powerful evidence of the absurdity of Fox News’s and Tucker Carlson’s lies that sought to turn Ray into a scapegoat for January 6.” If he’d been charged earlier, Teter said, Fox would have called him a hero and a political prisoner.

In his interview with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, Epps identified Massie, as well as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), as the lawmakers who did the most to blow up the fake story about him.

Greene called the misdemeanor charge against Epps outrageous.

“Think about all these people that walked in the Capitol videoing because Ray Epps was out there telling them to go in the Capitol, and they’re sitting in jail,” Greene told HuffPost. “He has to be some sort of contractor, some kind of informant.”

Around 1,150 people have been criminally charged in relation to the Capitol attack, according to the Justice Department, with arrests still to come. So far more than 600 have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences, with 378 sent to prison and around 100 given home confinement. In general in the U.S., people who plead guilty, like Epps did, get lighter sentences than those who go to trial.

Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said the Epps case “looks pretty strange.”

Jordan pointed to just-released testimony from Steven D’Antuono, the former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, that his office wasn’t sure how many FBI informants might have been in the crowd on Jan. 6. D’Antuono said he thought there may have been a “handful” of such informants, but they had come of their own accord and weren’t affiliated with the Washington field office. (Trials have revealed that there were several informants tagging along with members of the Proud Boys street gang; defense attorneys have not claimed the informants manipulated their clients.)

“So if a CHS [confidential human source] was there and then we found out afterwards, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there was malicious, nefarious action by the FBI to put that person there,” D’Antuono said during a transcribed interview in June. “They might have just been there and then told us after the fact that they went.”

D’Antuono also said the FBI used tips from informants connected to other field offices to dissuade people who were known to be violent from traveling to Washington that day ― essentially the opposite of the role that Republicans have ascribed to confidential human sources on Jan. 6.

“There were some people that were planning to travel that we were trying to dissuade from traveling, because we felt that they would’ve been violent here,” D’Antuono said. “We might have used like, you know, police officers or whoever to go talk to the person … and dissuade them from coming here.”

During a hearing in July, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) accused FBI Director Christopher Wray of protecting Epps.

“If you are suggesting that the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources or FBI agents, the answer is no, it was not,” Wray said.

This week, Nehls told HuffPost he still thinks Epps was working with the FBI or another federal agency. He said he believes the Justice Department charged Epps only in response to pressure from himself and other lawmakers.

“If they think that this is going to get me to stop talking about this guy, hell no, it’s not,” Nehls said.
______

The alternative of course is that it was Donald Trump, instead of some nobody, that was responsible for January 6th.

Whatever it takes to protect the cult leader.....

[TopHatter]

US Capitol rioter who attacked photographer sentenced to five years



A man who attacked an Associated Press photographer and threw a flagpole and smoke grenade at police officers guarding the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, was sentenced in a federal court on Friday to five years in prison.

Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared himself for battle” on January 6 by injecting steroids and arming himself with a four-foot wooden club disguised as a flagpole, prosecutors said.

“He began taking steroids in the weeks leading up to January 6, so that he would be ‘jacked’ and ready because, he said, someone needed to ‘hang for treason’ and the battle might come down to hand-to-hand combat,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

A prosecutor showed US district judge James Boasberg videos of Milstreed’s attacks outside the Capitol, as supporters of Donald Trump marched on and later invaded the Capitol in the vain hopes of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election.

“I know what I did that day was very wrong,” he said.

Capitol police officer Devan Gowdy suffered a concussion when Milstreed hurled his wooded club at a line of officers.

“January 6 is a day that will be burned into my brain and my nightmares for the rest of my life,” Gowdy told the judge. “The effects of this domestic terrorist attack will never leave me.”

Gowdy told Milstreed that he “will always be looked at as a domestic terrorist and traitor” for his actions on January 6. The officer has since left the police.

Milstreed was arrested in May 2022 in Colorado and pleaded guilty in April to assault charges and possessing an unregistered firearm.

A cache of weapons and ammunition was found at Milstreed’s Maryland home and in his Colorado hotel room investigators found 94 vials of probably illegal steroids.

Milstreed spewed violent, threatening rhetoric on social media in the weeks before the insurrection.

He attended Trump’s rally near the White House earlier on January 6 and then, with the president urging his supporters to overturn the election result, followed the crowd of supporters of the Republican to the Capitol.

Milstreed was “front and center” as rioters and police clashed outside the Capitol, prosecutors said. He tossed his wooden club at a police line and a video captured him retrieving a smoke grenade from the crowd and throwing it back at police across a barricade.

Milstreed then joined other rioters in attacking an AP photographer, grabbing the photographer’s backpack and yanking him down some steps.

Milstreed used Facebook to update his friends on the riot in real time.

“Man I’ve never seen anything like this. I feel so alive,” he wrote, sharing photos of blood on a floor outside the Capitol, also writing it “felt good” to punch the photographer.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with January 6-related federal crimes.
________

Odd that he didn't blame Ray Epps for his misdeeds...

[TopHatter]

Before Jan. 6, the FBI predicted extremists would be 'very willing to take action' over a 2020 election dispute
An FBI "red cell" report predicted that law enforcement action and a "lack of coordination" between groups would prevent widespread violence in response to a disputed election.


Supporters of President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON — One week before Election Day 2020 and just over two months before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, an internal FBI analysis concluded that domestic violent extremists were “very willing to take action” in response to a disputed election, but that "law enforcement preemption" and the "disorganization" of extremist groups "likely would hinder widespread violence."

The so-called "red cell" report — the type of exercise that became widespread after the federal government's Sept. 11 intelligence failures, and are meant to challenge conventional wisdom and encourage outside-the-box thinking — was titled “Alternative Analysis: Potential Scenarios for Reactions of Domestic Violent Extremists to a Disputed 2020 US Presidential Election.” NBC News obtained a redacted copy of the report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“In response to a disputed election, [Domestic Violent Extremists] are very willing to take action, but their capabilities to do so remain low, largely due to disorganization and law enforcement pressure,” the Oct. 27, 2020, report read, laying out the “most likely” scenario.

The redacted summary of the analysis makes no reference to then-President Donald Trump and was finished just a few weeks after Trump told the far-right Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by“ during a presidential debate with now-President Joe Biden. Several members of the Proud Boys have since been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in organizing and urging on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, with former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio receiving a record-setting sentence of 22 years in federal prison earlier this month.



The Jan. 6 committee and Senate Democrats have been critical of the FBI's lack of foresight and planning ahead of the Capitol attack. Trump’s infamous “will be wild” tweet on Dec. 19 inviting his supporters to Washington, both the committee and federal prosecutors say, was the call to action that caused disorganized extremists to zero in on a date and time: Jan. 6, in the nation’s capital.

The very day Trump sent that tweet, as NBC News reported, a confidential human source told the FBI that the far-right saw Trump’s tweet as a “call to arms” and that there was a “big” threat of violence on Jan. 6.


An FBI report showing the potential for violence following the result of the 2020 election.

The 2020 summary — prepared by the FBI's Intelligence Council, Counterterrorism Division, and Boston Field Office; with contributions from another unnamed FBI entity — found a “less likely” scenario identified in the report was that domestic violent extremists would be “very willing to take action and very capable of carrying out a wide array of violent activity.” Another “less likely” scenario was that domestic violent extremist groups would be "very capable, but they have low willingness to carry out near-term attacks in response to election dispute.” The “least likely” scenario was that domestic violent extremist groups would “have low willingness to take action in response to a disputed election result, and those who are interested lack that capacity to carry out anything beyond" a simple attack.

“The exercise concluded that [domestic violent extremists] capabilities and willingness to take action likely would drive their reactions to a disputed election result, compounded with underlying grievances related to COVID-19 mitigation measures and racial justice tensions,” a summary read. “Under this alternative analysis, law enforcement preemption and lack of coordination between [domestic violent extremists] likely would hinder widespread violence, though [domestic violent extremists] engaging in uncoordinated acts of violence remain a threat.”

A critique of the FBI's Oct. 27, 2020, "red cell" report was prepared by the Jan. 6 committee but never published. It found that the FBI product never considered that a broader right-wing movement could come together and that a mob itself could be a threat. The FBI analysis was anchored by "lone offender bias," and the FBI "missed the forrest for the trees." An NBC News reporter viewed the congressional analysis in the course of reporting out the upcoming book "Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System," which will be published by Public Affairs on Oct. 17. The New York Times first reported on the existence of the "red cell" report and the Jan. 6 committee's unpublished critique.

The Jan. 6 committee largely skimmed over the law enforcement failures ahead of the Capitol attack in its final report, instead putting the focus squarely on former President Trump. But the report did say the threat to the Capitol was "foreseeable," and the top investigator on the committee later said the intelligence available "was pretty specific, and it was enough, in our view, for law enforcement to have done a better job.” An investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that agencies "either didn't follow their established policies or procedures for reviewing the threats, or didn't share critical information with partners responsible for planning security measures." A report from Senate Homeland Security Committee Democrats concluded that federal law enforcement agencies "failed" at "a fundamental level" to "fulfill their mission and connect the public and nonpublic information they received." The Justice Department inspector general is conducting an ongoing investigation that began in January 2021.

The FBI declined to comment on the red cell analysis, but said in a statement that FBI leadership spoke out about the threat of domestic violent extremism well before Jan. 6; that the FBI “warned state, local, and federal partners about the potential for violence at the January 6 events”; and that they mobilized 250 special agents and other personnel to help secure the Capitol.

“While we are constantly evaluating our response to critical incidents — especially after an attack of historic proportion — the FBI took the threat of violence during the events of January 6 seriously and prepared accordingly. The FBI will continue to pursue threats or acts of violence without fear or favor, regardless of the underlying motivation or socio-political goal,” the FBI said in a statement. “Since January 6, 2021, the FBI has continuously reviewed our processes, procedures, and policies in order to assess lessons learned and make improvements in communication and in the collection, analysis, and sharing of information.”

At the time the red cell report was prepared, Trump had telegraphed his plans to dispute the 2020 election results, just as he had in 2016. He’d even summoned Americans to Washington to overturn an election before, in 2012, after Mitt Romney’s election loss, when Trump called for a “revolution” and for election deniers to descend on the nation's capital.

“We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty,” Trump tweeted in 2012. “We should have a revolution in this country,” he wrote.

Trump added that Republicans needed to “fight like hell,” the same phrase he used a little over eight years later, in his Jan. 6, 2021, speech.
________

Um...Ray Epps? Antifa? Nancy Pelosi? Anyone but Trump and his followers? It wasn't a real insurrection?

[TopHatter]

The Conspiracy Theories About Jan. 6 Aren’t Going Anywhere. They’re Morphing.


Ray Epps, pictured in a red Trump hat, became the subject of virulent conspiracy theories about federal involvement in the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, which were then amplified by cynical pundits and politicians.

Had Ray Epps been charged with a crime earlier, it could have saved him a lot of anguish.

One of the more than 1,100 people to face criminal charges over their actions at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Epps waited more than two and a half years before finally being charged, pleading guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly or disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.

For most people, this kind of criminal charge would have come as a blow. But in a statement, Epps’ lawyer described the charges as something of a badge of honor:
.

From the very moment that Ray Epps learned the FBI sought to identify him, Ray cooperated and has taken responsibility for his actions. Today’s hearing and the plea agreement reached with the Department of Justice is further proof of that. It is also powerful evidence of the absurdity of Fox News’s and Tucker Carlson’s lies that sought to turn Ray into a scapegoat for January 6.

The reason for that tone of defiance—or even muted triumph?—is that Epps really has been turned into a scapegoat. Within days of the insurrection, many right-wing supporters of Donald Trump and conspiracy theorists had shifted from blaming antifa to blaming “the feds” for the violence at the Capitol, alleging, in essence, that the riot had been some kind of entrapment setup orchestrated by the government to ensnare Trump supporters. And quickly, Epps emerged as a central villain of that conspiracy theory.

There was never any real reason for him to be singled out: Epps is a die-hard Trump supporter, former Oath Keeper, and election denier who traveled from Arizona to D.C. to show his support for the former president. But all it took was a few internet sleuths looking for signs of something suspicious to instigate a pile-on that ruined Epps’ life.

As pieced together from witness testimony, video evidence, body camera footage, and his statements, given to both reporters and authorities, Epps’ actions in D.C. verged on—but did not tip into—destruction. The night before the riot, he and his son attended a pro-Trump rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza, a short distance from the White House. There, he was seen on video telling people: “Tomorrow we need to go into the Capitol.” As a man in the crowd suspicious of Epps’ motivations chanted, “Fed, fed, fed,” at him; Epps clarified: “peacefully.” (This was, it would seem in retrospect, the conspiracy theory’s germination point.) The next day, videos capture him telling people, “as soon as President Trump is finished speaking, we are going to the Capitol.”

Despite advocating an advance on the Capitol, however, Epps appeared to back off once he got there. Body camera footage showed that he asked police how he could help them, offering to encourage protesters to back off. A witness confirmed Epps’ assertion that he tried to calm other protesters, urging them not to get angry with police. He crossed into restricted grounds but never actually entered the Capitol building itself. He left before the crowd broke into the building. A couple days later, when Epps learned the FBI was looking for him, he called the bureau immediately to speak to agents.

But Epps’ real troubles started almost a year later, in October 2021. That month, a right-wing site called Revolver News published an article claiming, baselessly, that Epps had led a team of undercover federal agents that aimed to instigate the riot. The conspiracy theory blew up. Steve Bannon and then Tucker Carlson latched on to it. Reps. Thomas Massie, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene talked about it. Donald Trump mentioned the theory at one of his rallies ahead of the midterms.

The conspiracy theory relied on intentional misunderstandings and misleadingly edited videos. It was first built on the claims that Epps should have been arrested—and because he hadn’t, the FBI was clearly protecting him. Conspiracy theorists also found it suspicious that a photo of Epps was added and removed from the FBI’s website. And to be sure, there were known FBI informants at the insurrection. But they were there for their own personal interest and not acting on behalf of the government. And those we know of were mostly recruited to help the agency understand antifa, not right-wing groups. There were a few informants among the Proud Boys, we would learn in later trials; they have dismissed the accusation that they were paid to start the riot as ridiculous.

According to the New York Times, which interviewed Epps under the condition that the paper not reveal where he lived, the abuse Epps received was crushing. People showed up at his house and his business; once, he told the Jan. 6 committee, a whole bus load of people pulled up to harass him. He and his wife had to sell their business. Family members disowned them. Death threats drove Epps and his wife from their home. In July of this year, Epps filed a defamation suit against Fox News. It was his attorney for this defamation suit that put out a statement last week related to the new charges. It’s clear that Epps and his attorney see some vindication in them:
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Had Ray been charged earlier, Fox News would have called him a hero and political prisoner. Instead, Fox News spread falsehoods about Ray that have cost him his livelihood and safety. And to this day, Fox News has not retracted the lies or even reported on Ray’s prosecution. Fox News should take a lesson from Ray and accept responsibility for its conduct. If it won’t, we are confident that a civil jury will impose that accountability itself.

But Epps likely doesn’t expect immediate relief: He told the New York Times in July 2022 that he knew people would never be convinced of his innocence.

It’s been more than two and a half years since the Capitol riots, and the wound still feels fresh. Trump has obviously, characteristically, never apologized for his role—and perhaps understandably so, as he was indicted for his part in instigating the violence that day, among other charges. Trump’s supporters maintain the election was stolen from him; for many, the Jan. 6 riots are still seen as an appropriate reaction to a deep state coup.

But it has taken years for all of the charges to come down, and this extended time frame has created ample room for the conspiracy theories that welled up immediately after the attack to metastasize and grow, and for cynical pundits like Tucker Carlson to feed them.

This month alone saw the arrests of the first man to enter the Capitol’s tunnel entrance, the baton-swinging Georgia man known as Commander Camo, a D.C.-area man who wore a gas mask while attacking police, and many more. The Proud Boys’ former leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced this month to 22 years for orchestrating attacks on the Capitol on Jan. 6. (He was not in D.C. during the riot, but he organized the far-right group’s involvement.)

The sheer scope of the story has turned it into political background noise and has made it too large to grasp at the macro level. There’s not one satisfying answer to how it all unfolded and why.

Those who believe that Epps was involved in a conspiracy to ensnare Trump supporters will probably not change their mind now that the Justice Department has charged him with a misdemeanor. In online forums, many angry people just found more fuel for their suspicions, questioning why Epps had such light charges—proof, in their minds, that he worked with the feds.

Online, many have pointed out that Epps, in a text to his nephew the afternoon of the insurrection, boasted that he had helped “orchestrate” the events. He was clearly filmed on the grounds as an active participant. Why wasn’t he subjected to a fraction of the punishment handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader who was sentenced to 22 years in prison despite the fact that he hadn’t been in D.C. on Jan. 6? Or Pam Hemphill, a 69-year-old woman—often described as a grandmother and cancer patient—who was sentenced to two months for entering the Capitol? (Hemphill has asked Trump to stop using her story and said that she is not a victim.)

But these talking points miss out on certain important distinctions between these cases. Epps may have urged people to go into the Capitol, but he did so the night before—meaning it does not meet the legal definition of incitement. (He also told the Jan. 6 committee that he was under the impression that the building would be open to the public.) On Jan. 6, he was only seen telling people to go from Trump’s speech to the Capitol—for, as far as anyone could reasonably assume, politically protected protest on public land. When he said he “orchestrated” things, it’s this movement he seems to be referring to, not the violent events that followed. There is no evidence he incited violence once the crowd arrived at the Capitol. (Other claims that assert he was breaking windows or caught on camera in the Capitol building are based either on misinformation or edited photos and videos.)

And as for the sentencing: Very few people who didn’t go into the Capitol itself were arrested. Those who were charged were more violent. And as for the delay: The Jan. 6 investigation has been enormous and time-consuming. More than 100 people identified as breaking the law that day have still yet to be arrested.

And yet, cynical right-wing Congress members are still pushing the conspiracy theory version of events. In a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, when Attorney General Merrick Garland was grilled by Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie accused the DOJ of indicting Epps to protect Garland:

.
Yesterday you indicted him. Isn’t that a wonderful coincidence? And on a misdemeanor. Meanwhile you’re sending grandmas to prison. You’re putting people away for 20 years for merely filming. Some people weren’t even there. And yet you’ve got the guy on video, he’s saying, ‘Go into the Capitol.’ He’s directing people to the Capitol before [Trump’s] speech ends. He’s at the site of the first breach. You’ve got all the goods on him. Ten videos. And it’s an indictment for a misdemeanor? The American public isn’t buying it.

In some conspiracy theories circulating online about Jan. 6, the DOJ wanted to incite the riot in order to be able to jail Trump supporters, or at least make them look bad. In others, they wanted to cause enough chaos to prevent people from presenting evidence of election fraud. In almost all of them, Epps is working for a federal agency. And Epps’ behavior since then—complaining about the threats to mainstream media and to officials, and suing a conservative news network—has only made him more suspect. Tucker Carlson, speaking on his show on Twitter (now known as X), casually mentioned that Epps was a “hero on the left” and “funded by the Democratic Party.” He wondered aloud why Epps was not in jail, as his guest, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund—who has speculated that multiple federal agents were in the crowd during the insurrection—implied that Epps was a plant.

Epps may be the most famous such scapegoat, but he isn’t the only one. A rabid St. Louis Cardinals fan known as “Rally Runner“—known prior to Jan. 6 for his sports-related antics—was arrested last month by the FBI, but not before another Carlson guest labeled Rally Runner a police officer and “agent provocateur.”

That guest was Joseph McBride, the attorney of other Jan. 6 defendants. He told Carlson that Rally Runner was planted to make Trump supporters look bad. As HuffPost noted, McBride has been open about not caring about the repercussions of his words or the arguments he has made in order to help shape the narrative to help his own clients. “I don’t give a shit about being wrong,” he told HuffPost.

McBride, like Carlson, understands the power of conspiracy theory. And that power, Epps learned, was much worse than anything the DOJ could hit him with.
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[TopHatter]

Capitol rioter who trained for a 'firefight' with paintball gets over four years in prison


Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. A California man whom prosecutors say was fixated on arresting Democratic leaders and training for combat with paintball fights after the 2020 presidential election was sentenced on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, to more than four years in prison for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot. Edward Badalian planned for weeks before he and a friend traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and joined a mob in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors.

A California man whom prosecutors say was fixated on arresting Democratic leaders and training for combat with paintball fights after the 2020 presidential election was sentenced on Tuesday to more than four years in prison for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Edward Badalian planned for weeks before he and a friend traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and joined a mob in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors. They said Badalian organized group paintball sessions to train for a “firefight” and fantasized about meting out “vigilante justice" against politicians he believed to be “traitors.”

“He trained, collected weapons, and traveled across the country for the riot, with the goal of arresting and 'violently removing' politicians he disagreed with,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Badalian, 29, of Panorama City, California, to four years and three months of incarceration, according to a Justice Department news release.

The same judge convicted Badalian of Capitol riot charges in April after hearing trial testimony without a jury. His convictions include a felony count of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding — the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory over Donald Trump.

One of Badalian's travel companions and co-defendants, Daniel Rodriguez, was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for his role in the attack. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to driving a stun gun into the neck of a police officer who was dragged into the crowd and beaten by other rioters.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for Badalian, who has worked as a cabinet assembler.

Badalian created a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang” for he and other Trump supporters leading up the 2020 presidential election. He and Rodriguez used the forum to plan for “a violent revolution in which they personally planned to be at the forefront of a fight to overthrow government leaders they identified as traitors and tyrants,” prosecutors said.

On Dec. 21, 2020, Badalian posted that “we need to violently remove traitors and if they are in key positions rapidly replace them with able bodied Patriots.”

After the election, Badalian repeatedly encouraged others in the group chat to prepare for war by playing paintball, according to prosecutors.

“We need to know how to fight together while under fire,” he posted.

When another Telegram group member asked what he was training for, Badalian replied, “a firefight with armed terrorists.”

"For millions of Americans, paintball is a harmless form of entertainment and recreation. But that’s not how Badalian saw it," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

After Jan. 6, FBI agents questioned Rodriguez about the paintball sessions. He said Badalian was “probably using it as an excuse to go train or get in shape.”

"I tried listening to him and, like, he’d be like, ‘Okay, I’ll cover you. Go.’ And I remember one time I just -- he’s like, go. And then as soon as I put my head up, I got shot in my face. So I’m like, okay. It’s not going to work," Rodriguez told the agents, according to a transcript.

Badalian stayed with Rodriguez and others at an Airbnb home in Arlington, Virginia, on the eve of the riot. On Jan. 6, the group went to Washington for Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. After listening to Trump's speech, Badalian and Rodriguez parted ways as they approached the Capitol and joined the mob's attack.

Badalian entered the Capitol through a broken window. Police forced him out of the building about four minutes later.

On his way back to California, Badalian was interviewed about Jan. 6 under the pseudonym “Turbo” on Infowars, the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Another person on the show accidentally referred to him by his real first name.

Badalian was arrested in Los Angeles in November 2021.

Defense attorney Robert Helfend said Badalian didn't engage in any violence or property destruction during his “4-minute misadventure” inside the Capitol.

“He did not suit up for combat nor did he carry a weapon,” Helfend wrote in a court filing.

Badalian believed Trump's baseless claims about a stolen election. Badalian trusted Trump as a “dominant male” figure after growing up without his father, who moved to Russia when his son was 8 years old, according to his lawyer.

"Having no other trusted and overriding male in his life, Mr. Badalian believed Trump’s lies," Helfend wrote.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. More than 650 have been sentenced, with approximately two-thirds receiving a term of incarceration ranging from three days to 22 years, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

A third defendant charged with Badalian and Rodriguez is a fugitive.
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Hope the LARP jerk-fest was worth it...

[TopHatter]

FBI confirms missing Proud Boy Christopher Worrell in custody


Court documents from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia shows Christopher Worrell spraying pepper spray gel on police officers at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2020. Worrell, missing since mid-August, was arrested Thursday and is in FBI custody.

Christopher John Worrell of Naples, a member of the 'Proud Boys' extremist group, who disappeared days before his sentencing in the U.S. Capitol riot case in August, is now in FBI custody.

Few details were released, but an FBI official confirmed the arrest late Thursday night.

"I can confirm Christopher Worrell is in custody," Andrea Aprea, with the FBI Tampa office, told WGCU. "No further details are available at this time."

Worrell was found guilty in May of multiple charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach. A member of the 'Proud Boys' extremist group, Worrell disappeared days before his sentencing in the case, according to a warrant later made public.


His sentencing was cancelled and is expected to be rescheduled at some point. Prosecutors are seeking more than a decade in prison.

Worrell was found guilty of spraying pepper spray gel on police officers, as part of the mob storming the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to 14 years.

The sentencing was canceled and a bench warrant for his arrest issued under seal, according to court records. The U.S. attorney’s office for Washington D.C. encouraged the public to share any information about his whereabouts.

The FBI confirmed earlier in September that a nationwide search was in effect for Worrell.

Additionally, the main legal representative for Worrell, Attorney William Lee Shipley, Jr. of Kailua, Hawaii, appeared earlier in September on Dan Abrams Live, on the NewsNation cable network, and spoke briefly about Worrell.

Shipley said he had not heard from his client since before he vanished and didn't know if there was an active search for Worrell.
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Apparently they found him at his own home in Naples.

"Did you try his house?"

"No...."

"Maybe...you should?"

Stand back. Stand by. Bend over. You've been tRumped Chris.