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  • Former Olympic swimmer Klete Keller to be sentenced for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6

    WASHINGTON — A two-time Olympic gold medalist who stormed the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack is set to be sentenced on Friday afternoon.

    Klete Keller was arrested in January 2021, and pleaded guilty in September 2021 to a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. His sentencing was deferred because of his cooperation.

    More than two years after his guilty plea, prosecutors have asked for a sentence of 10 months in federal prison, saying that while Keller's actions were "unconscionable," that he provided extensive cooperation with the government and deserves a sentence below the guidelines range.

    "Klete Derik Keller once wore the American flag as an Olympian," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. "On January 6, 2021, he threw that flag in a trash can."

    But, they wrote, for "nearly three years, Keller has cooperated with the government’s investigation into the attack on the Capitol—repeatedly meeting with the government to describe everyone around him and everything that happened leading up to and on Jan. 6. He has provided substantial assistance and has expressed remorse for his crimes."

    Keller chanted “F--k Nancy Pelosi!” and “F--k Chuck Schumer!” while inside the building, and "repeatedly resisted officers’ attempts to remove him from the building, at one point jerking his elbow away," according to prosecutors. Afterwards, he threw his U.S.A. jacket away and destroyed his cell phone.

    What Keller did, prosecutors wrote, "will forever be a stain on this country’s narrative, and it continues to impact our ability to credibly lead by example as a democratic republic." As a former Olympian, they added, Keller "was in a unique position to know better."

    U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon will sentence Keller at a hearing in Washington that is set to begin at 4 p.m. on Friday.



    Keller is 6’6” and over 250 pounds, and had an "imposing physical presence" when he joined the mob, prosecutors said. He ripped his elbow away as officers tried to clear the mob from the Capitol rotunda, prosecutors said.

    “Take it easy!” he yelled. “Why do we have to leave?”

    In a letter to the court, Keller apologized for his actions, saying he made "bad choices on that terrible day" and was going through a lot in his personal life. He said he knew he should not have entered the Capitol, but thought of it as an act of civil disobedience.

    "I shouted out obnoxious, hostile slogans at law enforcement officers who were doing their job to protect Congress," Keller wrote. "When I got back to the hotel, I felt sick after seeing myself in the news footage. I saw the same clip on the flight back to Colorado. It pained me to see such terrible chaos, damage, and harm."

    “I apologize to the Capitol police officers, legislators, staffers, and other government personnel who were in the Capitol doing their jobs,” he wrote. “I apologize to the voters and citizens of our great country, and I regret that my actions disrupted and tarnished the democratic process. I am sorry about all the harm, damage, and pointless violence done on that awful day. To everyone I disappointed when I broke the law, I apologize.”

    More than 1,200 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, and more than 400 have been sentenced to various periods of incarceration.
    __________

    Still believes in the orange god emperor though...
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

    Comment


    • Mother and son linked to Pelosi Jan. 6 laptop theft sentenced


      A mother and son who aided in the theft of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) laptop when they participated in the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were sentenced Wednesday.

      Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 57, was sentenced to five years of probation, with the first 12 months to be served in home incarceration. She must also pay $3,657.51 in restitution, a fine of $7,500 and perform 350 hours of community service.

      Her son, Rafael Rondon, 25, was sentenced to five years of probation, with the first 18 months to be served in home incarceration. He must pay $2,000 in restitution and perform 350 hours of community service. His sentence is to be served consecutive to a separate one in New York for possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun that he was convicted of seizing with several other firearms.


      The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the mother-son pair attended the rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, marched to the Capitol and then entered the grounds illegally. They entered the Capitol at about 2:23 p.m. through the Senate Wing door, the DOJ said.

      They then went to the Speaker’s office suite, where they assisted a man in stealing Pelosi’s laptop, per the department.

      “Rondon later admitted that he helped the unidentified male disconnect cables from the laptop and put the device into a backpack,” the DOJ said in its sentencing memorandum.

      “Mooney-Rondon later admitted that she assisted in the theft by providing the unidentified male with her gloves so he would not leave fingerprints on the laptop,” the department said.

      The two then went to the Senate Gallery and stole escape hoods intended to protect senators and staff from chemical attacks, according to the DOJ.

      “Rondon and Mooney-Rondon donned the escape hoods and exited the Capitol Building, where they remained on the East Stairs with hundreds of other rioters,” the DOJ wrote.

      The mother and son are among more than 1,200 individuals who have been charged in connection with breaching the Capitol building, including 400 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
      _________

      Ridiculous how lightly these cultists are getting off
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

      Comment


      • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
        Mother and son linked to Pelosi Jan. 6 laptop theft sentenced


        A mother and son who aided in the theft of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) laptop when they participated in the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were sentenced Wednesday.

        Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 57, was sentenced to five years of probation, with the first 12 months to be served in home incarceration. She must also pay $3,657.51 in restitution, a fine of $7,500 and perform 350 hours of community service.

        Her son, Rafael Rondon, 25, was sentenced to five years of probation, with the first 18 months to be served in home incarceration. He must pay $2,000 in restitution and perform 350 hours of community service. His sentence is to be served consecutive to a separate one in New York for possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun that he was convicted of seizing with several other firearms.


        The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the mother-son pair attended the rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, marched to the Capitol and then entered the grounds illegally. They entered the Capitol at about 2:23 p.m. through the Senate Wing door, the DOJ said.

        They then went to the Speaker’s office suite, where they assisted a man in stealing Pelosi’s laptop, per the department.

        “Rondon later admitted that he helped the unidentified male disconnect cables from the laptop and put the device into a backpack,” the DOJ said in its sentencing memorandum.

        “Mooney-Rondon later admitted that she assisted in the theft by providing the unidentified male with her gloves so he would not leave fingerprints on the laptop,” the department said.

        The two then went to the Senate Gallery and stole escape hoods intended to protect senators and staff from chemical attacks, according to the DOJ.

        “Rondon and Mooney-Rondon donned the escape hoods and exited the Capitol Building, where they remained on the East Stairs with hundreds of other rioters,” the DOJ wrote.

        The mother and son are among more than 1,200 individuals who have been charged in connection with breaching the Capitol building, including 400 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
        _________

        Ridiculous how lightly these cultists are getting off
        Don't think that's quite the case TH.

        Without access to the full statement of facts and relying only on your post what we have is two people who trespassed on federal property and assisted a third party in the theft of a laptop. They've both already been ordered to pay way, way more in fines and restitution that the laptop would be worth and they weren't even the beneficiaries of the theft! On top of that the sentence would have reflected the pairs prior criminal history which could be minimal to non-existent. There's also no element of violence or injury to persons in the charges they faced and they seem to have co-operated with authorities and admitted to their actions. Depending on how early after their arrest that co-operation started they would have got discounts for that. Finally home detention is way cheaper for the taxpayer than 12-18 months in a cell!

        All those factors taken together? I think the sentence was probably reasonable. The other issue of course is that exceptionally heavy sentences just open the door to appeals and while some of the 'true believers' have and will appeal no matter what sentence they get so far most of them seem to have listened to their lawyers. Plus of course demonstrably heavy sentences for all concerned would only inflame Trumpists further and add to the 'matyr' syndrome they like to label themselves with.
        Last edited by Monash; 02 Dec 23,, 23:01.
        If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

        Comment


        • Originally posted by Monash View Post

          Don't think that's quite the case TH.

          Without access to the full statement of facts and relying only on your post what we have is two people who trespassed on federal property and assisted a third party in the theft of a laptop. They've both already been ordered to pay way, way more in fines and restitution that the laptop would be worth and they weren't even the beneficiaries of the theft! On top of that the sentence would have reflected the pairs prior criminal history which could be minimal to non-existent. There's also no element of violence or injury to persons in the charges they faced and they seem to have co-operated with authorities and admitted to their actions. Depending on how early after their arrest that co-operation started they would have got discounts for that. Finally home detention is way cheaper for the taxpayer than 12-18 months in a cell!

          All those factors taken together? I think the sentence was probably reasonable. The other issue of course is that exceptionally heavy sentences just open the door to appeals and while some of the 'true believers' have and will appeal no matter what sentence they get so far most of them seem to have listened to their lawyers. Plus of course demonstrably heavy sentences for all concerned would only inflame Trumpists further and add to the 'matyr' syndrome they like to label themselves with.
          I can certainly agree with the woman getting probation, but the son had weapons charges as well (not in relation J6 though).

          I don't doubt that exceptionally heavy sentences can backfire but man oh man the overall average has been extraordinarily light, given what was trying to be accomplished that day.
          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

          Comment


          • Ex-police chief who brought hatchet to Capitol on Jan. 6 gets 11 years

            A former California police chief who brought a hatchet to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for his role in the siege.

            Alan Hostetter, who spewed conspiracy theories during his trial and again at his sentencing hearing Thursday, was found guilty of multiple felony charges, including conspiracy, in July.

            The Justice Department said Hostetter drove from his home state of California to Washington, D.C., before Jan. 6 instead of flying "so that he could load his car with weapons." Federal prosecutors said he met up with others on the morning of the attack and brought "tactical gear, a helmet, hatchets, knives, stun batons, pepper spray, and other gear for himself and others." He attended the rally at the White House Ellipse before walking to the Capitol, carrying a hatchet in his backpack, according to prosecutors.

            He joined a group who pushed through a line of police officers guarding a lower terrace on the west side of the Capitol. Once on the upper level, Hostetter shouted, "The people have taken back their house. Hundreds of thousands of patriots showed up today to take back their government!"

            In arguments Thursday, a Justice Department attorney recounted Hostetter's actions and said he was "a terrorist" on Jan. 6. The prosecutor cited Hostetter's comments in the days before the attack, in which he allegedly said, "Choke that city off. Fill it with patriots." He urged others to "put the fear of God into members of Congress."


            Alan Hostetter speaks during a pro-Trump rally in Santa Ana, California, on Monday, Nov. 9, 2020.

            In a nearly hour-long statement asking for leniency, Hostetter claimed the 2020 election was "stolen" and unfurled a series of other baseless theories, including an assertion that Jan. 6 was a "false flag" operation orchestrated by the federal government. He alleged there were "crisis actors" amid the mob, claiming "hundreds, if not thousands" of people were part of an intentional "set-up" by the government meant to ensnare protestors.

            Hostetter also referenced presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who referred to Jan. 6 as an "inside job" at the Republican debate in Alabama on Wednesday. Hostetter said the comment is an indication that his beliefs are no longer "fringe" theories.

            Judge Royce Lamberth, who found Hostetter guilty earlier this year, proceeded to hand down one of the longest sentences issued in any of the roughly 1,200 cases related to Jan. 6 that have been brought to date. In sentencing Hostetter to 135 months in prison, Lamberth said, "The First Amendment doesn't give anybody the right to obstruct, impede or carry weapons into restricted areas."

            During his lengthy statement in court, Hostetter also referred to Ashli Babbitt, a member of the riotous mob who was fatally shot by police as she was climbing through a window just outside the House chamber, near trapped members of Congress. Hostetter said he doesn't believe Babbitt was actually killed and that the reports of her death are part of a "psyop."

            Babbitt's mother was in the court watching Hostetter's hearing at the time. She told CBS News she was gravely offended by Hostetter's words, but disagrees with the length of the sentence issued, calling it excessive.

            Hostetter will report to federal prison in early January, around the three-year mark of the Capitol siege. He said he will appeal his conviction.
            ________
            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

            Comment


            • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
              Ex-police chief who brought hatchet to Capitol on Jan. 6 gets 11 years

              A former California police chief who brought a hatchet to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for his role in the siege.

              Alan Hostetter, who spewed conspiracy theories during his trial and again at his sentencing hearing Thursday, was found guilty of multiple felony charges, including conspiracy, in July.

              The Justice Department said Hostetter drove from his home state of California to Washington, D.C., before Jan. 6 instead of flying "so that he could load his car with weapons." Federal prosecutors said he met up with others on the morning of the attack and brought "tactical gear, a helmet, hatchets, knives, stun batons, pepper spray, and other gear for himself and others." He attended the rally at the White House Ellipse before walking to the Capitol, carrying a hatchet in his backpack, according to prosecutors.

              He joined a group who pushed through a line of police officers guarding a lower terrace on the west side of the Capitol. Once on the upper level, Hostetter shouted, "The people have taken back their house. Hundreds of thousands of patriots showed up today to take back their government!"

              In arguments Thursday, a Justice Department attorney recounted Hostetter's actions and said he was "a terrorist" on Jan. 6. The prosecutor cited Hostetter's comments in the days before the attack, in which he allegedly said, "Choke that city off. Fill it with patriots." He urged others to "put the fear of God into members of Congress."


              Alan Hostetter speaks during a pro-Trump rally in Santa Ana, California, on Monday, Nov. 9, 2020.

              In a nearly hour-long statement asking for leniency, Hostetter claimed the 2020 election was "stolen" and unfurled a series of other baseless theories, including an assertion that Jan. 6 was a "false flag" operation orchestrated by the federal government. He alleged there were "crisis actors" amid the mob, claiming "hundreds, if not thousands" of people were part of an intentional "set-up" by the government meant to ensnare protestors.

              Hostetter also referenced presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who referred to Jan. 6 as an "inside job" at the Republican debate in Alabama on Wednesday. Hostetter said the comment is an indication that his beliefs are no longer "fringe" theories.

              Judge Royce Lamberth, who found Hostetter guilty earlier this year, proceeded to hand down one of the longest sentences issued in any of the roughly 1,200 cases related to Jan. 6 that have been brought to date. In sentencing Hostetter to 135 months in prison, Lamberth said, "The First Amendment doesn't give anybody the right to obstruct, impede or carry weapons into restricted areas."

              During his lengthy statement in court, Hostetter also referred to Ashli Babbitt, a member of the riotous mob who was fatally shot by police as she was climbing through a window just outside the House chamber, near trapped members of Congress. Hostetter said he doesn't believe Babbitt was actually killed and that the reports of her death are part of a "psyop."

              Babbitt's mother was in the court watching Hostetter's hearing at the time. She told CBS News she was gravely offended by Hostetter's words, but disagrees with the length of the sentence issued, calling it excessive.

              Hostetter will report to federal prison in early January, around the three-year mark of the Capitol siege. He said he will appeal his conviction.
              ________
              __________________________________________________ ___________

              Hopefully he could spend his 135 months under the care of Nurse Ratched...

              Comment


              • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post

                __________________________________________________ ___________

                Hopefully he could spend his 135 months under the care of Nurse Ratched...
                He's certainly gonna learn the real definition of "inside job" that's for damn sure.
                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                Comment


                • ‘Scaffold Commander’ and the Manufacture of Delusion
                  Trump’s lawyers are probing the theory that progressive journalist John Nichols helped instigate the January 6th attack.


                  Trump supporters clash with police and security forces, climbing scaffolding as they try to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021.

                  YOU THINK YOU KNOW a guy. And then, this.

                  In a discovery motion filed November 15, attorneys for former President Donald Trump formally asked the U.S. government to produce “all documents regarding Ray Epps, the ‘scaffold commander,’ John Nichols, or any similar persons who encouraged or participated in any illegal activities on January 6th.” The filing was made in the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith against Trump for conspiring with others to steal the 2020 election.

                  Nichols, a journalist in Madison, Wisconsin, is the associate editor of the local Capital Times newspaper, a national affairs correspondent for the Nation magazine, and a regular contributor to The Progressive, where I, for several years, was his editor. He is the author or coauthor of more than a dozen books; most recently, he worked with Senator Bernie Sanders on a book called It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. He is someone I have known for four decades and consider a friend.

                  It turns out he is suspected of being one of the key figures in the assault on the U.S. Capitol that took place nearly three years ago. Online sleuths have identified Nichols as possibly being the so-called Scaffold Commander, who conspiracists believe was a government plant. They also believe this about Trump supporter and January 6th participant Epps (who’s suing Fox News over this assertion, which he insists is false, simply because there is no evidence to support it) and an additional cypher known as “Fence Cutter Bulwark.”

                  In a video posted on social media on December 1, the Scaffold Commander can be seen atop a platform that had been erected for Joe Biden’s impending inauguration, bullhorn in hand, urging the crowd on. “Don’t just stand there. Move forward. Move forward. Help somebody over the wall,” the Commander commands. “Come on, cowboy. Let’s go, cowboy.” And then, later on the same tape, “We’re in. Come on! We’ve got to fill up the Capitol! Come on! Come now! Come now, we need help. We’re going to fill up the Capitol! They got in. Come on!”

                  There is also a video, posted December 1, that purports to show the Scaffold Commander earlier that day. He can be seen, back of his head only, shouting through a chain-link fence bearing an “Area Closed” sign, taunting the Capitol Police officers lined up on the other side. “You going to stop it?” he demands at one point. “We see you pacing. Are you thinking about it?”

                  Right away, it’s clear that there is something wrong with this picture. The man in this video has on a white facial mask, presumably to ward off COVID-19, pulled down to his chin. As one poster promptly questioned, “Why would any patriot wear that?” To reduce the risk of catching a deadly virus? That would be nuts.

                  At another point, the man said to be the Scaffold Commander-to-be also yells something that ends in the word “commie,” followed by this dire warning: “They’ll tell you how much you can eat and where you can live! And where you can go!”

                  None of this sounds to me like something my friend John would say. He’s much more articulate than that. But who knows? If he were trying to pass himself off as just an ordinary rioter, he would have to pretend to be a whole lot dumber. How smart is that?

                  ON JANUARY 7, 2023, ALMOST EXACTLY two years after the Capitol assault, commentator Glenn Beck aired an episode of his eponymous podcast titled, “What Are the Feds Hiding in Jan. 6 ‘Investigation’?” His guest was Darren Beattie, a conspiracy theorist who runs the right-wing website Revolver News.

                  In early 2022, Beattie was forced to resign from a federal commission that oversees Holocaust memorials abroad because of his assertions that FBI agents instigated the Capitol attack. He wore this rebuke, which the Anti-Defamation League had sought, as a badge of honor, posting the resignation-demand letter on social media with the gleeful message, “Better than a Pulitzer.”

                  Beattie’s advocacy also earned him praise from former President Trump, who credited his former speechwriter with having “exposed so much of the Fake News’[s] false narrative about January 6th.”

                  In the podcast, Beattie zeroed in on the mystery of the Scaffold Commander, explaining how he was “pre-positioned” to play a key role in what some on the right have come to call a “fedsurrection.”

                  “I would say this is the person who is more egregious than anybody else, other than perhaps Ray Epps, [and] he hasn’t even been identified,” Beattie told Beck and his audience. “He’s not on any of the most wanted lists. He’s not wanted to any degree, as far as I’m aware, by the government, by the Department of Justice. And nobody knows his name. He’s simply referred to as the Scaffold Commander.” Beattie continued:
                  .
                  I don’t want to get into all of my methods and tricks, but I pulled out all the stops—all the stops—to identify this guy including, you know, cutting-edge facial recognition stuff, the whole deal. [Pregnant pause] Nothing. He could have been wearing some type of prosthetic. It’s just, it’s very weird. I would love to know who this guy is. It’s one of the really key mysteries of the whole thing. I suspect, if he’s, if his identity is actually uncovered, it’s going to be one of the biggest scandals in the country. I’ve dedicated a lot of resources to doing so. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to identify him.


                  More recently, on September 5, 2023, Beattie appeared on Jack Posobiec’s show on a far-right news network. The episode was purportedly watched 2.8 million times. Posobiec is a former naval intelligence author and current conspiracy theorist. Beattie said both the Fence Cutter Bulwark and Scaffold Commander “played absolutely critical roles” in the events of January 6th. He says the government presumably has better technology and that, “If they wanted to, they could find out who these two people are.” But, he adds ruefully, “for whatever reason, people with resources don’t want to find out who these people are.”


                  That’s frustrating, he says, because “All they need to do is to be identified, and it’s game over for the regime—the January 6th, fedsurrection hoax is proven definitively to be a lie, forevermore.”

                  CURIOUSLY, BEATTIE MADE THESE COMMENTS about his tireless search for the identity of the Scaffold Commander after others on the right had identified Nichols as the potential culprit. The definitive article on this ran in a publication called the Liberty Daily on November 2, 2022. Here’s a snapshot:


                  The author, a largely unknown-known right-wing commentator named J.D. Rucker, says the Liberty Daily received a tip about the striking similarity between Nichols and the Scaffold Commander. At first, he was skeptical. “Why would the Deep State, Nancy Pelosi, or whoever orchestrated all of this use a well-known journalist who writes for the leftwing publication, The Nation?” he wondered. “Why not get an average Joe who nobody knew?”

                  Excellent question. Rucker goes on to answer it:
                  .
                  Then, I watched a video of Nichols juicing up a crowd at a Bernie Sanders rally and I realized the guy is very talented. He has a gift for rallying people and getting them to do what he wants. That’s when I realized he might have been the PERFECT person to man the bullhorn and coordinate the “insurrection.”


                  The article, which was soon posted to numerous right-wing forums and online comment boards, included a headshot comparison. John Nichols is pictured at least once, on the right, in a photo Rucker explains is ten years old. He picked it because it was at the right angle. Also aiding the comparison is the fact that someone has photoshopped Nichols’s face onto a reverse image of the Scaffold Commander headwear.


                  The article links to a 11-minute report by Rucker that points out the similarities between the two faces, feature by feature. He then compares their voices, going back and forth between clips of the Scaffold Commander bellowing into his bullhorn and Nichols giving a speech at a Bernie Sanders for president rally. (They sound nothing alike.) Rucker repeatedly urges his audience to make up its own mind:
                  .
                  I dunno, it’s up to you guys. Again, I’m just asking the questions here. I’m not accusing John Nichols of being there January 6, acting to antagonize the crowd to try and get as many people to go into the Capitol building as possible on behalf of the FBI, the Deep State, the left-wing agenda, Nancy Pelosi, Capitol Police or anybody else. I’m not making that accusation. I’m just sayin’—just sayin’—there seems to be similarities.


                  Indeed, there are. But these similarities do not seem to have resonated with Beattie, the Scaffold Commander hunter-in-chief, who, as noted, did not even mention Nichols in the interviews that aired January 7, 2023, and September 5, 2023. A search for the name John Nichols on the Revolver News website also yields no results.

                  Perhaps the envisioned scenario—that a prominent left-wing journalist traveled to Washington, D.C., on January 6th at the behest of the Deep State or Nancy Pelosi or whoever, shouted warnings about the government telling people how much they can eat, climbed a scaffold, brandished a bullhorn, and deployed the oratorical skills he honed giving speeches at rallies for Bernie Sanders, exhorting the otherwise peaceful crowd to attack the Capitol, all while half-wearing a COVID-19 mask—is seen as being just too far-fetched for a serious investigator like Beattie.

                  What’s for sure is that it was not too far-fetched for Trump’s lawyers to file their discovery request.

                  THE WASHINGTON POST, in an article that ran last week, pegged this request as an example of how Trump, through his lawyers, “has been pressing the Justice Department for information on far-right claims often elevated in his speeches, on his social media feeds and by his conservative allies in Congress—further blurring the line between his campaign and his court battles.” It noted that Trump’s legal defense team has also asked for any information the government might have on “informants, cooperators [and] undercover agents” who were “involved in the assistance, planning, or encouragement” of what happened that day.

                  Special Counsel Smith, in response, said the government has no documents along these lines that it has not already provided. He also argued that Trump (“the defendant”) cannot claim that the actions of others absolve him of responsibility, just as, in other January 6 cases, “the defendant’s actions did not absolve any individual rioter of responsibility for that rioter’s actions—even if the rioter took them at the defendant’s direction.”

                  The quest to positively identify the Scaffold Commander and Fence Cutter Bulwark might have been aided by the release of more than 40,000 hours of internal security video ordered by House Speaker Mike Johnson, fulfilling a promise he made to far-right members of his party. But Johnson has announced his plan to blur the faces of the riot participants so they don’t end up being “charged by the DOJ” just because they are committing crimes.

                  Nichols, for his part, told the Post he was in Madison that day watching the riot coverage on TV and live-blogging about it on the Nation’s website. He also wrote a 900-word column about it published that same day under the headline “Impeach Trump Immediately.” In a piece last week in the Nation about his star turn in the alleged role of “an agent provocateur who climbed a scaffold outside the Capitol,” Nichols said he filed his story by mid-afternoon.

                  Could Nichols have generated all this copy and still managed to drop by Washington, D.C., 700 miles away for a quickie pivotal fedsurrection appearance? No one who knows what a gifted and prolific writer he is would doubt it.

                  But here is where this whole idea of Nichols being the Scaffold Commander starts to strain credulity. John is a lifelong proponent of peace and nonviolence. He is the kind of patriot who actually stands up for the nation’s ideals. He would never help lead an assault on American democracy because American democracy is something he knows as much about as anyone and cherishes more than most.

                  Given all this, perhaps it’s possible, even likely, that the Scaffold Commander to whom John Nichols bears a striking resemblance in a doctored photo is not John Nichols.

                  Perhaps the ongoing efforts to give this speculation credence is a sign that Trump’s lawyers, like the former president himself, are completely bereft of scruples and committed to the perpetuation of madness.

                  Perhaps the real blame for the events of January 6th rests not with imaginary government agents but with the person who summoned his followers to Washington, then directed them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

                  Or is that just crazy talk?
                  _______________

                  "I’m just asking the questions here"....aka JAQing off...
                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

                    "I’m just asking the questions here"....aka JAQing off...
                    "Some people are saying..."
                    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                    Mark Twain

                    Comment


                    • Man whose attorney said he had ‘Foxmania’ pleads guilty to Jan. 6 felony



                      A 29-year-old Delaware man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge related to his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, when he entered the building, physically fought with officers for hours and refused to leave until he was sprayed with a chemical irritant.

                      Anthony Alexander Antonio pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, and U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a sentencing hearing for Aug. 23.

                      In a hearing shortly after Antonio’s April 2021 arrest in Wilmington, Del., his attorney said Antonio “became hooked with what I call ‘Foxitus’ or ‘Foxmania’ and became interested in the political aspect and started believing what was being fed to him.”

                      Fox News has been widely criticized for amplifying former President Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. In April, the network agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems, which said it aired false information about its software that was being promoted by Trump and his allies.

                      In a press release Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) laid out its extensive evidence against Antonio.

                      The DOJ said he was seen wearing a black tactical bulletproof vest with the words “Three Percenters,” referring to the far-right anti-government militia group. He was on the defensive lines, facing police officers across a metal fencing barrier by 1:22 p.m., when he yelled at police, “You want war? We got war. 1776 all over again.”

                      As the mob then pushed through, officers retreated and the mob followed. The press release said Antonio was confronting police officers in the lower west tunnel as rioters attempted to enter the Capitol building. During the confrontation, he held a stolen police shield and passed it along.

                      About two hours later, the DOJ said, rioters dragged a Metropolitan Police Department officer down a set of stairs, and Antonio “sprayed water and threw his water bottle in the direction of the officer who was being dragged by other rioters.”

                      Antonio reportedly told one police officer during a pause in the fighting that, “I’ll be honest, this isn’t against you personally. This is against our country.”

                      “Patriots! Everybody listen up! We’ve made it this far,” he said at one point into a bullhorn, addressing the riot. “We are holding the line. We are not moving until we get our way. This is a peaceful protest now. This is a peaceful protest now and always has been. Remember this is our Capitol; this is our house, these are our steps. If we have to sit here all night, we will. Do not bum rush us, we are trying to work with them.”

                      Antonio joined a group pushing against officers in the tunnel by about 4 p.m. and took a gas mask belonging to a police officer. While inside the tunnel, the DOJ said, “Antonio forcefully pushed and grappled with police officers and refused to leave until sprayed with a chemical irritant.”

                      He then entered the Capitol through a broken window.

                      At one point, before he entered the building, he saw an officer wearing a body camera. Asked who would see the footage, the officer told him the police department would, and Antonio leaned forward into the camera and said, “We will not back down.”

                      The press release quoted from an interview Antonio conducted later, while still on Capitol grounds, on Jan. 6.

                      “Yes, yes, we penetrated the Capitol building. There was three officers that were trying to work with us, when I had the megaphone. The other officers told them to shut up, mow us down, and they all sprayed us. They lifted up my gas mask and sprayed me in the face, beating us in the head with batons. So, we knew we couldn’t get through the doors,” he said, according to the release.

                      “So, we broke the window, got into the room, at that point … it was all over my hair, my face, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, so I, we had to come up with a plan,” he continued. “We barricaded the door, broke everything, so we have something to use against ’em. While we were in there, trying to come up with a plan, I was useless, I was useless, so I left.”

                      Antonio’s attorney, Joseph Hurley, said during a 2021 hearing that Antonio believed he was following Trump’s orders to march on the Capitol and thought he was participating in a patriotic movement.

                      In an interview on CNN after he was charged, Antonio said he, “Shouldn’t have been there that day, [I] shouldn’t have been involved on those Capitol steps.” He also acknowledged that “[w]hat happened that day should not have happened … we should not attack law enforcement; we should not attack our American government.”

                      Antonio is among the more than 1,230 people charged with crimes connected to the breach of the Capitol.
                      ________

                      Classic case of TDS right there, courtesy of the Party of Personal Responsibility
                      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                      Comment


                      • Proud Boy Who Threw Rock At Capitol Doors On Jan. 6 Sentenced To 5 Years

                        A Florida Proud Boy who claimed he was trying to help police on Jan. 6, 2021, by throwing a rock at the Capitol doors was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday.

                        Anthony Sargent, 47, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a felony charge of civil disorder and six misdemeanor charges including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building and disorderly conduct.

                        The day of the Capitol attack, Sargent could be seen on video repeatedly throwing a rock at the Capitol doors and encouraging others to attack the building. Sargent also “physically separated a law enforcement officer” from a rioter and “prevented the officer from apprehending the rioter,” according to the Justice Department.


                        Investigators discovered Anthony Sargent's affiliation with the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys through a HuffPost video, charging documents show.

                        Law enforcement eventually identified Sargent through videos, his cell phone data, social media history and tattoos on his knuckles. Investigators also discovered Sargent’s affiliation with the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys through a HuffPost video, charging documents show.

                        During his sentencing, Sargent attempted to downplay his role in the violence, telling U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich that he was trying to help police officers when he repeatedly threw a rock at the Capitol doors. Friedrich called the claim “laughable.”

                        “To say he broke glass to get inside [the Capitol] to help people ... I’m not buying that story at all,” Friedrich said, according to a reporter in the courtroom.

                        Though prosecutors had asked for a 46-month sentence for Sargent, Friedrich raised the sentence to 60 months.

                        Sargent joins a growing list of Proud Boys who have been sentenced for their role in the attack.
                        __________

                        "Though prosecutors had asked for a 46-month sentence for Sargent, U.S. District Judge Friedrich raised the sentence to 60 months."

                        Nice reversal from the usual sentencing.
                        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                        Comment


                        • 'Militia enthusiast' gets over 4 years in prison for attacking police with baton during Jan. 6 riot


                          Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Matthew Thomas Krol, 65, of Linden, Michigan, described by prosecutors as a self-professed militia leader, was sentenced on Friday to more than four years in prison for attacking law enforcement officers with a stolen police baton during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Krol assaulted at least three officers, injuring one of them, with the baton that he took from police.

                          WASHINGTON (AP) — A Michigan man described by prosecutors as a self-professed militia leader was sentenced on Friday to more than four years in prison for attacking law enforcement officers with a stolen police baton during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

                          Matthew Thomas Krol, 65, of Linden, Michigan, assaulted at least three officers, injuring one of them, with the baton that he took from police. A prosecutor said Krol was one of the worst instigators of violence that ultimately forced officers to retreat from the mob of rioters who stormed the Capitol’s West Plaza.

                          Videos captured Krol’s attacks on officers, including Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. Krol swung the stolen police baton at Gonell and struck his outstretched right hand, leaving it bloody and swollen.

                          Krol apologized to Gonell, who was in the courtroom, before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to four years and three months in prison. He'll get credit for the time he has spent in jail since his February 2022 arrest.

                          “I don't expect you to accept my apology, but I hope one day you do,” Krol told the former officer, who left the department a year ago.

                          Gonell urged the judge to hold Krol “accountable” for his actions on Jan. 6.

                          “The course of my life was changed that day, and he was part of the mob that ensured I'd lose my career,” Gonell said.

                          Krol is a self-proclaimed executive officer of the Genesee County Volunteer Militia in Michigan, according to prosecutors. They say he told FBI agents that he is a “militia enthusiast."

                          Krol also associated with three members of the Wolverine Watchmen paramilitary group — Adam Fox, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar — who were convicted last year of supporting a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, prosecutors said.

                          Krol isn't accused of any involvement in the plot, but the FBI found Facebook messages that he privately exchanged with militia group leaders in Michigan. One of them was Fox, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a federal jury convicted him and another man of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer.

                          During a June 2020 online chat with Fox and another user, Krol said he was “willing to kill or die for Liberty.”

                          “I spoke on the Michigan Capitol steps last fall that I would rather apprehend Tyrants at the Capital, hang them on those beautiful oak tress (than) kill citizens in a civil war,” he wrote.

                          Defense attorney Michael Cronkright said Krol merely made “several hyperbolic and inflammatory statements that he now regrets.” He wasn't a close associate of the Wolverine Watchmen and knew nothing about a kidnapping plot, the lawyer said.

                          “The government uses the phrase that Mr. Krol was ‘an associate of members’ to allude to a greater connection than exists,” Cronkright wrote.

                          After his arrest on Capitol riot charges, Krol told FBI agents that his communications with Fox involved a “hypothetical.”

                          But prosecutors say Krol “expressed his willingness to engage in mob violence to achieve his political objectives” before he joined the mob's Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

                          “In Facebook messages, Krol evoked the use of violence against politicians and open hostility toward (Whitmer), in addition to sharing pictures of himself carrying weaponry,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Tessman wrote in a court filing.

                          Krol pleaded guilty to an assault charge in August. Prosecutors recommended sentencing him to a prison term of six years and six months.

                          Nine months after the riot, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers interviewed Krol as he returned from Mexico. Krol accused them of stopping him at the border only because he was a supporter of former President Donald Trump, and he referred to the Jan. 6 riot as a peaceful protest.

                          “During the same interview, Krol proclaimed that he was more patriotic than any of the officers who were questioning him,” Tessman wrote.

                          Cronkright said Krol has dedicated decades of his life to missionary and disaster relief work, including in Haiti, India, Thailand and Guatemala. Krol's attacks on police at the Capitol lasted less than a minute, the lawyer said.

                          "That minute, or even that hour, doesn’t define Matthew Krol even if it demonstrates his worst behavior on January 6, 2021. Mr. Krol will offer no excuse for that behavior," Cronkright wrote.

                          More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.
                          ________

                          Still waiting for "antifa" to start getting arrested for Jan 6

                          Also, Krol's words are a reminder that the rickety scaffolding that Trump's insurrectionists erected at the Capitol was an unambiguous statement of intent, not unlike burning a cross in someone's yard, and not necessary for actually hanging people.

                          Any lamp post or "beautiful oak tree" would've been more than sufficient to do the job.
                          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                          Comment


                          • Jan. 6 officer: Republicans would "keep us from protecting the Capitol" if Trump tries another coup



                            On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump and his agents attempted a coup. Central to Trump’s coup attempt was an assault by his MAGA followers on the Capitol, where the goal was to stop the certification of the election and to keep him in power. As revealed by direct witnesses and as shown by his behavior and statements, Trump wanted to lead a march on the Capitol like a conquering dictator. After an hours-long battle, Trump’s MAGA followers succeeded in overrunning the Capitol. Five police officers would die as a result of this terrorist attack. 138 others were injured. In many ways, Jan. 6 was a trial run and proof of concept for a future coup attempt by the neofascists and their allies here in America.

                            These are the plain facts.

                            In her book ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism," Hannah Arendt warned:
                            .
                            The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth, and truth be defamed as lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world - and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end - is being destroyed.

                            To that point, Trump, the MAGA people, the Republican fascists, and his other propagandists and agents are actively rewriting the events of Jan. 6 (and American history more broadly) as part of their Big Lie about the 2020 Election. For example, Speaker Mike Johnson has ordered that the faces of Trump’s Jan. 6 MAGA attack force be blurred in video surveillance footage as a way of protecting them from being prosecuted for their crimes by the Department of Justice.

                            Capitol Hill police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 from Trump’s MAGA attack force. He is a firsthand witness to history and will carry the physical and emotional trauma and scars from that day with him for the rest of his life. A Dominican immigrant, former U.S. Army soldier, and Iraq War veteran, Gonell has been a Capitol Hill police officer for the past 17 years and was one of four police officers who testified before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. He’s been recently featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, NPR, CBS Mornings, NBC News, Fox-TV, MSNBC, The Daily Beast, The Hill, and Rolling Stone.

                            Sgt. Gonell’s new book (with co-author Susan Shapiro) is American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy.

                            In this conversation, Gonell shares what it is like to see the very same Republicans in Congress whose lives he and the other Capitol Police protected on Jan. 6 now betray them by supporting Trump and his coup attempt. Gonell explains his disgust at seeing the Jan. 6 terrorists being feted as “heroes” and “patriots” and “political prisoners” by Trump and the other neofascists — and to know that he and his fellow Capitol police would be in great danger if Trump were to return to power in 2025. At the end of this conversation, Gonell implores Trump’s followers to understand that the ex-president is a selfish and dangerous man who does not care anything about them and only values power and his own ego.

                            This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length:

                            How are you feeling given all that happened on Jan. 6 and your journey so far?

                            I'm doing okay considering the circumstances of everything that I have gone through and everything that has happened since January 6. I have made a lot of strides in terms of treatment for my injuries, both physical and mental. But it's ongoing for me because I am still involved with investigations, trial cases, going to court to give my victim statements and to testify as well.

                            How is your personal trauma connected to the trauma that Jan. 6 and the Age of Trump caused, and is continuing to cause, the country and the American people?

                            There is a not small part of the American public, the Republicans and Trump supporters almost mostly, who say that nothing bad happened that day on Jan. 6. And some of them who admit Jan. 6 was real will say that it wasn't as bad as I and the other officers who were there say it was. That we are lying, and my injuries are not as severe as I say they are. But some of the same people who are saying those ridiculous things are the very same people who I risked my life for on that day at the Capitol. How can you reconcile that? I risked my life to protect you and then you turn around and say, "well, these were my friends. These were my supporters. It's okay. We condone the violence on Jan. 6 because of that."

                            This all involves a type of physical, mental, emotional — and moral injury.

                            I did my job that day. I kept my oath. When the Republicans I protected that day reject what happened or minimize it or make excuses they are saying that my sacrifices were not necessary. That puts a heavy weight on you. Jan. 6 was a type of Pearl Harbor event. I expect the country and those Republican members of Congress to comport themselves like we as a nation responded after 9-11 or Pearl Harbor: we should be rallying against a common enemy. Instead of rallying around the officers and supporting them, these Republicans and other Trump supporters are defending the indefensible.

                            Some of the same Republicans who were running for their lives on Jan. 6, who me and the other Capitol Police were risking our lives to defend, are now saying that the Jan. 6 mob are "political prisoners" or "peaceful protesters" and should be released. These Republicans claim to support the police and the rule of law, but they are demanding that the same people who assaulted me should be freed. The so-called "pro-law enforcement" people on the right say we are crybabies or call us other names when we point out the hypocrisy. Don't claim to support the police or "back the blue" if you want to protect the people on Jan. 6 who were attacking us and trying to keep Trump in power.

                            How do you think the Republicans who were there on Jan. 6 (and more broadly who still have the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy) are reconciling their lies about that day?

                            I don't know. Why don't I know? Because they've never spoken to me. So, I don't know what their thoughts are, other than what I hear them say on TV and in public more generally. But I do know how they felt that day on Jan. 6 and in the days afterward.

                            Those Republicans knew that Trump was responsible for putting their lives at risk. They know that Trump put our democracy and our standing in the world as a nation at risk. They know Trump wants to be a dictator. He is outright saying it directly now. Trump is not going to be a dictator just a day as he is claiming. Trump wants to be a dictator forever. What is there to stop him?

                            Now those Republicans are defending Trump's threats of being a dictator, by saying that he is just joking. Was Trump joking on Jan. 6 about "stop the steal"? Was Trump joking when he sent his followers to attack the Capitol and go after them? Those Republicans were running for their lives. They are more afraid of being voted out of office than they are telling the truth about Jan. 6 and Trump. By comparison, I was willing to lose my life in order to protect those Republicans in Congress. Frankly, if another Jan. 6 took place, I would not trust these Republicans to not betray me and the other police. Would the Republicans keep us from protecting the Capitol from Trump's followers? Yes. Perhaps even restrain us and hold us down? Yes, I believe they would.

                            It is important to confront lies with the truth and the facts — even when the lies and malign distortions are so obvious and ridiculous. What would you say to the average Fox News viewer or other person who lives in TrumpWorld and the MAGAverse who actually believes that Jan. 6 was not violent? Or that you and the other police who were there are exaggerating?

                            Nothing happened to who? The members of Congress who were running for their lives? The members of Congress and their families and staff who were hiding, trying to get to refuge? I can show them pictures of my bloodied and bruised body. I got hit by someone who stole a police baton. I can show them evidence of that.

                            I'll show you my pictures and videos. I can show them my medical bills for my mental therapy and physical therapy. I have three years of evidence. For those who want us to forget Jan. 6 and just move on well they should tell Donald Trump to just move on because he is campaigning right now on his Big Lies about the 2020 Election.

                            Speaker Johnson and the other Republican fascists and Trump supplicants are literally rewriting history as we speak. They are now blurring the faces of Trump's MAGA attack force in the video footage of Jan. 6 in order to protect them from prosecution.

                            These are the same people who claim to be the party of the rule of law. It is ridiculous. Speaker of the House Johnson, one of the leaders of the Republicans and third in line to the presidency, then goes on to say that they are going to blur out the images of the faces of the people inside the Capitol, that breached the Capitol, because he doesn't want them to be prosecuted and arrested. If Johnson or any of his Republican colleagues would have gotten hurt on January 6, then they would have a different perspective on what the rule of law is, and how Trump's mob deserves to be punished. They are trying to whitewash and rewrite history.

                            What of the lie that Trump's MAGA attack force was "peaceful" and that they were let into the Capitol on Jan. 6 by the police, which supposedly means that no crimes were committed?

                            There were barriers and fences with signage telling people to keep out. There were police telling the mob to stay away. Police were blocking them with bike ranks and other barriers. Trump's people breached the Capitol. They didn't care about the signs. They cut down the fences. They removed the bike racks. They remove the barriers. They disregarded the lawful commands of officers, including myself. Trump's mob assaulted police officers in order to get as far as they did inside of the Capitol. The Capitol was on lockdown for the transfer of power. The Capitol was also restricted and closed to the public due to COVID-19 protocols that were in place around the country. Some of these people and their defenders say things such as, "they were given permission because nobody arrested them." That is illogical and ridiculous too. There were not enough police officers to stop everyone. If a person did not receive direct explicit permission to be in the Capitol that day they were trespassing. It is that simple.

                            And if you got into the Capitol building through a window you are the equivalent of a thief or vandal breaking into a building you don't belong in. There are other members of Trump's mob on Jan. 6 that say things like "well, we were peaceful!". They are still breaking the law because they are interfering with police business and the law. There is also the excuse and defense that if we were really breaking the law on Jan. 6 the police would have shot us. Would that have mattered at all? Each officer was outnumbered more than 50 to 1. How many rounds do we have in our guns without reloading? Not close to enough. That crowd did not go through security. They were armed. Shooting them would not have worked.

                            Do you believe that the reaction by the police to Trump's followers on Jan. 6 would have been different if they were Black and brown or Muslims?

                            I believe the reaction would have been the same. In my case, I did have the thought of using lethal force, especially when they were trying to pull me into the mob. I wasn't afraid to use lethal force and any repercussions from that. I was in the right and my use of lethal force would have been justified. I was certain of that. I decided to try to use my free hand to escape, to get that person to let me go. Luckily, a fellow officer showed up to help free me from the mob. If I could not have gotten away from the mob I would have transitioned to lethal force. The officers there had the opportunity and justification to use lethal force, but we collectively chose not to. It would have been justified.

                            In the end, we decided that it would have made things worse because none of those people have been screened for weapons. I also believe that the mob outside was waiting for us to shoot first. We showed lots of restraint on Jan. 6. If we had fired, the mob would have escalated to shooting back and even worse. We now know that Trump and his allies had plans to declare martial law, to invoke the Insurrection Act. If we had used lethal force on Jan. 6 that would have played right into Trump's hands and matters would have been even worse.

                            Trump has declared the Jan. 6 terrorists and other criminals to be "heroes" and "political prisoners." He is basically saying that he is going to pardon them when/if he returns to power. Trump has also endorsed prosecuting the Capitol police who defended the country on Jan. 6. How are you processing this?

                            I did what I was supposed to do on Jan. 6. I did my job that day. I protected the Capitol. I protected my colleagues. And I did it without thinking about who I was doing it for. I protected everyone in that Capitol regardless of their party affiliation or anything else. Think about it in terms of the metaphor of a loose bullet. Once you fire a gun you cannot guarantee where the bullet is going to go and what or who it is going to hit. The bullet doesn't care whether you are Republican, Democrat, independent, gay, straight, religious or not. The bullet doesn't care about your views on abortion or gun laws. Trump's mob was the bullet. That mob was trying to kill everyone inside the Capitol on Jan. 6.

                            If some of the Republicans had died that day from the mob and that attack, it would have had a profound impact on how they view the events of Jan. 6. It would radically change their views about patriotism, Trump, politics, and many other things including facts and reality and the Big Lie about the 2020 Election.

                            How do you think January 6 will be remembered given how Trump and his agents in the Republican Party are literally rewriting the history of that day to fit their twisted and evil vision?

                            It is Jan. 6 denialism. It is erasing and rewriting history to serve a lie.

                            There is that famous poem about the Holocaust, which reads something like first they came for this group and then they came for that group. I didn't say anything. Then at the end they come for you and there is one to protect you. At the end, if you deny what Trump is, and what he is trying to do as a dictator, then you will have no one to blame but yourself when Trump and his MAGA followers come after you. Trump is not a cult leader in my opinion. His followers know exactly what they are doing and why they support him with all of his threats of revenge and retribution.

                            For you, what does it mean to be a patriot?

                            I did my job on Jan. 6. I don't look at what I did as something that was patriotic. I was doing what my job requires me to do. Some people take that oath to heart, other people do not. When I joined the military, I bought into the American values and principles, and no one is above the law. Everybody's held responsible for the action; everybody is treated equally. Of course, that is an ideal. My record as a police officer and a member of the military speaks for itself. I would treat Trump supporters or Hillary Clinton supporters the same way. The same goes for Black Lives Matter, Antifa, or any group. I would and have consistently done my job fairly as a Capitol police officer.

                            The hypocrisy here by the Republicans and other Trump followers is obvious and gross: if I did the same things I did on Jan. 6 and the mob consisted of Black Lives Matter or Antifa they would support me and declare me a hero, backing me 100 percent. But Trump's mob are their people. Republican supporters and voters, so they see events the opposite way.

                            I can sleep soundly. My conscience is clear. I will tell Trump's supporters this about duty and responsibility: I am more likely to go inside of a burning building to rescue you than the former president, a dictator wannabe who you support. Trump would pretend to not even know you and then throw some more gasoline on the building to finish you off. Trump isn't your champion. If Trump takes over and wants to put me in jail for doing my job on Jan. 6, then they know where to find me.
                            _________
                            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                            Comment


                            • Former Marco Rubio Intern Accused of Storming Capitol on January 6
                              Barbara Balmaseda has been charged with a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding during the Capitol riot.


                              Barbara Balmaseda FBI arrest warrant exhibit

                              Authorities have unsealed an arrest warrant for Barbara Balmaseda, a former Florida International University student and South Florida GOP strategist accused of storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

                              Barbara "Barby" Balmaseda — a 23-year-old from Miami Lakes with ties to high-profile Republican politicians in Florida and beyond — was arrested and charged with corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding, knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building, and engaging in disorderly conduct in a Capitol building with the intent to impede a session of Congress on January 6, 2021.

                              Balmaseda was arrested on December 14 in Miami Lakes.

                              "U.S. Capitol Police closed-circuit television captured Balmaseda entering the Capitol building via the Senate Wing door at approximately 2:16 p.m., just four minutes after rioters initially breached the building," the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges.

                              "When Balmaseda entered the building, broken glass was scattered on the ground, and an alarm blared near the doorway," the DOJ says. "After entering the Capitol, Balmaseda made her way toward the Crypt and pushed her way to the front of a crowd of rioters who were confronting a police line."

                              As previously reported by New Times (see "Did Marco Rubio's Former Intern Storm the Capitol?"), Balmaseda interned for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio between 2018 and 2019, worked as an organizer on Gov. Ron DeSantis' 2018 campaign, and served as campaign manager for Ileana Garcia's controversial 2020 Florida Senate race.

                              Balmaseda was also previously listed as director at-large on the website of Miami Young Republicans and served as regional director for Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends, a self-described free-market climate advocacy campaign.

                              Her attorney, Aubrey Webb, tells New Times that a task force of FBI, U.S. Marshals, and Miami-Dade Police swarmed in to execute her arrest last week.

                              "When the FBI contacted us over a year ago, I told them that she will voluntarily surrender if they ever want to arrest her. We are also disappointed that it took almost three years for DOJ to decide to charge her," Webb says. "She has no criminal history, and the government has not charged her with any violence or destruction of property."

                              The FBI affidavit states that in the time leading up to the riot, Balmaseda created and frequented a Telegram group chat which included at least ten participants, including Gabriel Garcia and other Miami-area members of the far-right Proud Boys. Balmaseda, who at one point renamed the group chat "Barby’s Security :)" and "Barby’s Security Detail," sent roughly 900 messages to the group between November 2020 and January 2021.

                              On November 6, 2020, as the presidential race inched toward a conclusion, Balmaseda allegedly texted in the chat: “Y’all think Biden’s gonna steal this election?”

                              Three days later, after Garcia wrote in the group chat, "We are in La Carreta ready to fuck shit up again," Balmaseda responded, "I’ll get the popcorn ready to watch y’all fuck shit up," alongside a laughing emoji, according to the affidavit

                              Barbara Balmaseda is a 23-year-old Republican strategist who was once listed as director at-large of the Miami Young Republicans group.


                              The DOJ alleges that Balmaseda texted back and forth with Garcia and other members of the Proud Boys, expressing her belief that the 2020 election was stolen, while making note of the certification process scheduled to take place on January 6.

                              On the morning of January 6, Balmaseda was photographed in the Black Lives Matter plaza wearing a black leather jacket with a shearling collar and a red "KEEP AMERICA GREAT" hat alongside Garcia, the affidavit states.

                              According to the affidavit, she was later near a mob of rioters on the west front of the Capitol grounds and was seen on video climbing on equipment staged in preparation for the presidential inauguration. Once she entered the Capitol with Garcia, she moved deeper into the building as rioters confronted and pushed back police lines.

                              "At approximately 3:11 p.m., law enforcement officers received additional support in the Rotunda and were able to corral rioters, Balmaseda included, towards the nearest exit, the Rotunda doors," the DOJ says.

                              Just after midnight, she sent a meme to Garcia showing a Cheeto substituting as a door lock, with the caption: “the Capitol today.”

                              Webb says Balmaseda was charged with one felony under U.S.C. 1512 for obstructing an official proceeding, as well as four misdemeanors.

                              "She is relieved this process will finally move toward a final resolution. Her arrest was a waste of law enforcement resources," he says.


                              The Department of Justice says Barbara Balmaseda was caught on camera pushing deeper into the Capitol as rioters confronted police and pushed back law enforcement lines.

                              Webb notes that the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the case of January 6 defendant Joseph Fischer, which could decide whether the felony obstruction provision under which Balmaseda and many other Capitol riot defendants have been charged only applies in circumstances of evidence-tampering. Fischer secured dismissal of a felony count against him on those grounds, though a federal appeals court reversed, writing that the provision applies to "all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding."

                              In the months following the insurrection, online sleuths, including the group Sedition Hunters, zeroed in on Balmaseda –– whom they dubbed "#PinkGaiterPBG." She appeared to have been photographed inside the Capitol sporting a baseball cap with an American flag and a black-and-pink gaiter, and later alongside Garcia and Ethan Nordean, both of whom have been convicted of felonies in connection with the insurrection.

                              A former Vice City Proud Boy, who was at the Capitol on January 6 and spoke on the condition that he not be named for fear of retaliation, previously told New Times that Balmaseda was there with Garcia. "Barby was there," he said.
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                              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                              • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                                Leading Proud Boys member pleads guilty to U.S. Capitol riot charges

                                WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leader of the far-right Proud Boys pleaded guilty on Friday to charges related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, a victory for prosecutors that could bolster their cases against members of the group.

                                Charles Donohoe, the leader of the group's North Carolina chapter at the time of the Capitol attack, entered the guilty plea during court hearing on Friday in the District of Columbia.

                                Donohoe admitted to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and assaulting and impeding police officers.

                                Under U.S. sentencing guidelines, Donohoe faces a likely sentence of around six years in prison, with credit for time already served. He will be sentenced at a later court hearing.

                                Donohoe agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they prepare for trial against other Proud Boys defendants. Donohoe, 34, was arrested in March 2021. He has been in custody since last year.

                                Former President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the seat of Congress that day in a bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

                                Donohoe and other Proud Boys were videotaped leading a crowd toward the Capitol during the riot.

                                "Mr. Donohoe is charged with interfering in the nation's peaceful transfer of power," U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said during a court hearing in June, adding that the charges are "gravely serious matters that favor detention."
                                ___________

                                “Donohoe believed that storming the Capitol would achieve the group’s goal of stopping the government from carrying out the transfer of presidential power,” the DOJ wrote in a statement following his guilty plea on Friday. “Donohoe understood from discussions that the Proud Boys would pursue their objective through the use of force and violence.”

                                bUt iT wAsNt a rEaL iNsUrReCtIoN!


                                Ex-Proud Boys leader is sentenced to over 3 years in prison for Capitol riot plot


                                Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. A former leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group has been sentenced to more than three years behind bars for joining a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol nearly three years ago. Charles Donohoe was the second Proud Boy to plead guilty to conspiring with other group members to obstruct the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

                                WASHINGTON (AP) — A former leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Tuesday to more than three years behind bars for joining a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol nearly three years ago.

                                Charles Donohoe was the second Proud Boy to plead guilty to conspiring with other group members to obstruct the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory. His sentence could be a bellwether for other Proud Boys conspirators who agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

                                Donohoe, 35, of Kernersville, North Carolina, apologized to his family, the law-enforcement officers who guarded the Capitol on Jan. 6, and “America as a whole” for his actions on Jan. 6.

                                “I knew what I was doing was illegal from the very moment those barricades got knocked down,” he said.

                                U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced him to three years and four months in prison. Donohoe could be eligible for release in a month or two because he gets credit for the jail time he already has served since his March 2021 arrest.

                                The judge said Donohoe seems to be doing everything in his power to make amends for his crimes.

                                “I think you've got all the ingredients here to put this behind you,” Kelly said.

                                Donohoe was president of a local Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina. He was a lieutenant of former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison — the longest prison term so far in a Capitol riot case.

                                In May, a jury convicted Tarrio and three other former Proud Boys leaders of seditious conspiracy charges for plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Biden.

                                Donohoe agreed to cooperate with federal authorities when he pleaded guilty in April 2020 to two felony counts: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding police. But he wasn't called to testify at the trial of Tarrio and other Proud Boys earlier this year.

                                Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence ranging from 35 to 43 months for Donohoe. Sentencing guidelines recommended a prison term ranging from 70 to 87 months.

                                "Donohoe and his co-conspirators organized and led a small army as they launched an attack on the heart of our democracy. They took these actions because they did not like the outcome of the election," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

                                A New York man, Matthew Greene, was the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy. Greene's sentencing hearing hasn't been scheduled yet.

                                Donohoe acted as the “eyes and ears of the group on the ground” in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, Justice Department prosecutor Jason McCullough told the judge. But prosecutors argued that Donohoe deserves credit for his early acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with the investigation.

                                On the morning of Jan. 6, Donohoe marched with over 100 members of the Proud Boys to the Capitol. He didn't enter the Capitol, but he threw two water bottles at officers confronting the mob outside the building.

                                Donohoe, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served two deployments in Iraq, has “eagerly divorced himself” from the Proud Boys, said defense attorney Ira Knight.

                                “It took Charlie time to understand the nature of his wrong,” Knight said.

                                More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 have been sentenced.

                                A case unsealed on Monday charges a local political activist from Florida with storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6 with a Proud Boys member. Barbara Balmaseda, 23, of Miami Lakes, Florida, was arrested in her hometown last Thursday on charges including obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct.

                                A Fox News journalist who interviewed Balmaseda in 2021 identified her as director-at-large of Miami Young Republicans. Her attorney, Nayib Hassan, claims the case against Balmaseda is politically motivated and asserted that her arrest was a “waste of law enforcement resources.”

                                “She is relieved this process will finally move toward a final resolution,” Hassan said in a statement.
                                _______
                                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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