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2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building
I would have gone with "quite literally anything with alcohol in order of how quickly you could find it".
I worked out a while ago that some people simply cannot be engaged, so I generally don't bother with them. You must have more patience than me.....or maybe more alcohol.
Take it from me. I have much less alcohol than you right now.
This image from police body-worn camera video, and contained and annotated in the Justice Department's sentencing memorandum, shows Kenneth Bonawitz colliding with two officer at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Bonawitz, who assaulted at least six police officers during a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol, has been sentenced to five years in prison.
A Florida man described by prosecutors as one of the most violent rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison, court records show.
Kenneth Bonawitz, a member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group's Miami chapter, assaulted at least six police officers as he stormed the Capitol with a mob of Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. He grabbed one of the officers in a chokehold and injured another so severely that the officer had to retire, according to federal prosecutors.
Bonawitz, 58, of Pompano Beach, Florida, carried an eight-inch knife in a sheath on his hip. Police seized the knife from him in between his barrage of attacks on officers.
“His violent, and repeated, assaults on multiple officers are among the worst attacks that occurred that day,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McCauley wrote in a court filing.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb sentenced Bonawitz to a five-year term of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, according to court records.
The Justice Department recommended a prison sentence of five years and 11 months for Bonawitz, who was arrested last January. He pleaded guilty in August to three felonies — one count of civil disorder and two counts of assaulting police.
Bonawitz took an overnight bus to Washington, D.C., chartered for Trump supporters to attend his “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.
Bonawitz was one of the first rioters to enter the Upper West Plaza once the crowd overran a police line on the north side. He jumped off a stage built for President Joe Biden’s inauguration and tackled two Capitol police officers. One of them, Sgt. Federico Ruiz, suffered serious injuries to his neck, shoulder, knees and back.
"I thought there was a strong chance I could die right there," Ruiz wrote in a letter addressed to the judge.
Ruiz, who retired last month, said the injuries inflicted by Bonawitz prematurely ended his law-enforcement career.
"Bonawitz has given me a life sentence of physical pain and discomfort, bodily injury and emotional insecurity as a direct result of his assault on me," he wrote.
After police confiscated his knife and released him, Bonawitz assaulted four more officers in the span of seven seconds. He placed one of the officers in a headlock and lifted her off the ground, choking her.
“Bonawitz’s attacks did not stop until (police) officers pushed him back into the crowd for a second time and deployed chemical agent to his face,” the prosecutor wrote.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the siege. Over 1,200 defendants have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with nearly 500 receiving a term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates have been arrested on Jan. 6 charges. A jury convicted former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and three lieutenants of seditious conspiracy charges for a failed plot to forcibly stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden after the 2020 election.
Bonawitz isn't accused of coordinating his actions on Jan. 6 with other Proud Boys. But he "fully embraced and embodied their anti-government, extremist ideology when he assaulted six law enforcement officers who stood between a mob and the democratic process,” the prosecutor wrote.
Bonawitz's lawyers didn't publicly file a sentencing memo before Wednesday's hearing. One of his attorneys didn't immediately respond to emails and a phone call seeking comment.
___________
“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.”
McKellop retired from the Army on Aug. 12, 2010, at then-Fort Bragg after serving more than 20 years, including nine years with the Special Forces, his military records show.
According to the second superseding grand jury indictment, McKellop is charged with:
10 counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.
Two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of civil disorder.
One count of entering and remaining on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of engaging in physical violence within the Capitol grounds.
He pleaded not guilty to all counts. McKellop’s Dec. 11 trial date was rescheduled for May after he requested new legal representation.
Video surveillance shows Special Forces veteran Jeffrey McKellop allegely assault an officer with a flag pole during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington D.C.
Changes in attorneys
Federal prosecutors filed a Dec. 12 motion requesting a status conference on the case following a Nov. 22 court approval of McKellop’s request to terminate Phillip Linder and James Bright as his attorneys.
“They will be the seventh and eighth lawyers the defendant has rejected,” a Nov. 13 prosecution motion states.
Court record shows that McKellop is now represented by attorneys Michael Lawlor and Adam Demetrious.
Psychiatric evaluation
An April 3 court order required a psychological evaluation of McKellop after finding “that the defendant Jeffrey McKellop is mentally incompetent” following a hearing and a “preponderance of evidence.”
In March, the judge denied McKellop's request to waive a jury trial pending the outcome of his competency evaluation.
Court records show that McKellop was transferred to Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth on April 28 to undergo a competency evaluation with the exam findings due by June 27. The results of that evaluation were not available, and an Aug. 21 order laid out a schedule for trial preparations.
Defense
McKellop has previously filed a series of motions seeking to have the case dismissed.
In a September 2022 motion, he argued that President Joe Biden “has intentionally and irreparably poisoned the entire nation as a jury pool,” citing comments Biden made about the riots during a Sept. 1, 2022, address.
During his remarks, the president said Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again supporters view the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 “not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.”
McKellop also sought to move his trial out of Washington D.C. claiming in a March 2022 motion that he would not receive a fair trial and impartial jury there because about “93% of voters in Washington voted against Donald Trump” and that media coverage was unfair toward the Jan. 6 events and related arrests.
In reply to the government’s opposition to the dismissal, McKellop further referenced Biden’s Jan. 1, 2022, speech, arguing that “the president’s poisoning of the jury pool has obstructed the conduct of an impartial trial.
McKellop has also argued for pretrial release, claiming that in the summer of 2021, his cell was searched and that federal agents took 70 documents of McKellop’s notes about his case.
“The repeated measures by which the jail staff has prevented Defendant’s access to his own discovery have precluded his replicating the seized notes,” a December 2022 motion stated. “These measures have not only rendered impossible any reasonable semblance of assisting in the preparation of his trial defense ...”
In a Dec. 8, 2022 motion, federal prosecutors said that jail staff confiscated McKellop’s hard drive and returned it to him and that documents were seized in 2022 tied to a computer fraud investigation and would be returned.
Photos issued by the FBI show that retired Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey McKellop, a former 3rd Special Forces Group soldier, attended the Jan. 6 riot in Washington D.C. Attorneys for McKellop question whether he is depicted in some of the photos.
Accusations
McKellop is accused of entering the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, with flagpoles, a helmet, tactical vest, protective eyewear and gas mask and remaining in the area 90 minutes after police told the crowd to leave.
The government alleges that McKellop threw objects at officers three times before pressing toward the police line and scaffolding near the southwest area of the Capitol. There, he is accused of trying to grab a can of riot-control spray from a lieutenant’s hand, throwing a bottle at a line of officers, grabbing another officer, striking a sergeant and assaulting another officer by shoving her to the side.
Photos issued by the FBI show that retired Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey McKellop, a former 3rd Special Forces Group soldier, attended the Jan. 6 riot in Washington D.C. Attorneys for McKellop question whether he is depicted in some of the photos.
At one point, McKellop reportedly appeared to assist an officer who fell to the ground, then allegedly struck a captain in the face, causing lacerations and scarring, and allegedly threw a flagpole "as though it were a spear" at the captain.
McKellop also allegedly attacked from behind another officer attempting to contain rioters and threw another object at officers, the government said.
McKellop said he was unarmed and did not intend on rioting when he and a friend traveled to Washington, D.C., to the Jan. 6 rally with held by then-President Donald Trump.
In a letter included in the record, the friend who accompanied McKellop, Scott Steiert, said McKellop was concerned that “anti-Trumpers” would attack him for his political views.
Steiert said McKellop brought his body armor with him as a defense against “any attack possibly from anti-Trumpers.”
In a Feb. 27, 2023, motion, U.S. attorneys sought to prohibit McKellop from being able to knowledge of Capital surveillance camera locations, information provided to his attorneys for trail preparation, because it would compromise security concerns.
Prosecutors said the bulk of video evidence comes from body cameras worn by police or videos taken by members of the crowd.
U.S. attorneys also sought to prohibit McKellop from being able to argue that law enforcement permitted defendants to enter the Capitol.
Citing a prior case that argued former President Trump gave defendants permission to enter the Capitol, prosecutors said that no president or members of law enforcement can use their authority to “allow individuals to enter the Capitol building during a violent riot,” especially when there were “obvious police barricades, police lines, and police orders restricting entry at the Capitol.”
_________
“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.”
McKellop retired from the Army on Aug. 12, 2010, at then-Fort Bragg after serving more than 20 years, including nine years with the Special Forces, his military records show.
According to the second superseding grand jury indictment, McKellop is charged with:
10 counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.
Two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of civil disorder.
One count of entering and remaining on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
One count of engaging in physical violence within the Capitol grounds.
He pleaded not guilty to all counts. McKellop’s Dec. 11 trial date was rescheduled for May after he requested new legal representation..........
In a September 2022 motion, he argued that President Joe Biden “has intentionally and irreparably poisoned the entire nation as a jury pool,” citing comments Biden made about the riots during a Sept. 1, 2022, address.
_________
I'm happy to be on his jury. Always ready to help uphold the 6th Amendment.
This image from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department’s statement of facts, supporting the arrest warrant for Edward Richmond Jr., at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Richmond, a former U.S. Army soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a handcuffed cowherd in Iraq, has been arrested on charges that he attacked police officers with a baton during the U.S. Capitol riot.
A former U.S. Army soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a handcuffed civilian in Iraq was arrested Monday on charges that he attacked police officers with a baton during the U.S. Capitol riot three years ago.
Edward Richmond Jr., 40, of Geismar, Louisiana, was wearing a helmet, shoulder pads, goggles and a Louisiana state flag patch on his chest when he assaulted police in a tunnel outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Richmond was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday on charges including civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police with a dangerous weapon.
Richmond’s Louisiana-based attorney, John McLindon, said he hadn’t seen the charging documents and therefore couldn’t immediately comment on the case.
Richmond was 20 when an Army court-martial panel convicted him of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to three years in prison for killing the handcuffed Iraqi civilian near Taal Al Jai in February 2004. Richmond also received a dishonorable discharge from the Army.
Richmond initially was charged with unpremeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But the panel of five officers and five enlisted soldiers reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter.
The Army said Richmond shot Muhamad Husain Kadir, a cow herder, in the back of the head from about six feet away after the man stumbled. Richmond testified that he didn’t know Kadir was handcuffed and believed the Iraqi man was going to harm a fellow soldier.
During the Jan. 6 riot, body camera footage captured Richmond repeatedly assaulting police officers with a black baton in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, the FBI said. Police struggled for hours to stop the mob of Donald Trump supporters from entering the Capitol through the same tunnel entrance.
A witness helped the FBI identify Richmond as somebody who had traveled to Washington, D.C., with several other people to serve as a “security team” for the witness for rallies planned for Jan. 6, according to the agent’s affidavit.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with nearly 500 receiving a term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
______
“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.”
This image from police body-worn camera video, and contained in the Justice Department's sentencing memorandum, shows Marc Bru, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Bru, who stormed the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members, has been sentenced to six years in prison.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members was sentenced on Wednesday to six years in prison after he berated and insulted the judge who punished him.
Marc Bru repeatedly interrupted Chief Judge James Boasberg before he handed down the sentence, calling him a “clown” and a “fraud" presiding over a “kangaroo court." The judge warned Bru that he could be kicked out of the courtroom if he continued to disrupt the proceedings.
“You can give me 100 years and I'd do it all over again,” said Bru, who was handcuffed and shackled.
“That's the definition of no remorse in my book,” the judge said.
Prosecutors described Bru as one of the least remorseful rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They say Bru planned for an armed insurrection — a “January 6 2.0” attack — to take over the government in Portland, Oregon, several weeks after the deadly riot in Washington, D.C.
“He wanted a repeat of January 6, only he implied this time would be more violent,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing ahead of his sentencing.
Bru has been representing himself with an attorney on standby. He has spewed anti-government rhetoric that appears to be inspired by the sovereign citizen movement. At the start of the hearing, Bru demanded that the judge and a prosecutor turn over five years of their financial records.
The judge gave him a 10-minute break to confer with his standby lawyer before the hearing resumed with more interruptions.
“I don't accept any of your terms and conditions,” Bru said. “You're a clown and not a judge.”
Prosecutors had warned the court that Bru intended to disrupt his sentencing. On Tuesday, he called in to a nightly vigil outside the jail where he and other rioters are being held. He told supporters of the detained Jan. 6 defendants that he would “try to put on a good show” at his sentencing.
Boasberg convicted Bru of seven charges, including two felonies, after hearing trial testimony without a jury in October.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of seven years and three months for Bru, a resident of Washington state.
“Bru appears to have envisioned and been planning for a true armed insurrection, and from his post-conviction comments, he appears only to have become further radicalized and angry since then,” they wrote.
Bru absconded before his trial, skipped two court hearings and "defiantly boasted via Twitter that the government would have to come get him if it wanted him.”
“Approximately a month later, it did,” prosecutors added.
Bru represented himself at his bench trial but didn't present a defense. Instead, he repeatedly proclaimed that he refused to “consent” to the trial and “showed nothing but contempt for the Court and the government,” prosecutors wrote.
Bru flew from Portland, Oregon to Washington a day before then-President Donald Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. Before Trump's speech, he joined dozens of other Proud Boys in marching to the Capitol and was one of the first rioters to breach a restricted area near Peace Circle.
Bru grabbed a barricade and shoved it against police officers. He later joined other rioters inside the Capitol and entered the Senate gallery, where he flashed a hand gesture associated with the Proud Boys as he posed for selfie photos. He spent roughly 13 minutes inside the building.
Several weeks after the riot, Bru exchanged text messages with a friend about buying gas masks in bulk. He also texted a Proud Boys recruit and indicated that he wanted to “repeat the violence and lawlessness of January 6 in Portland in order to take over the local government,” prosecutors said.
“In fact, those text messages indicate that Bru’s chief takeaway from January 6 is that it was not violent enough or not sufficiently dedicated to overthrowing the government,” prosecutors wrote. “In other words, in the aftermath of January 6, Bru was plotting an armed insurrection, not feeling remorseful.”
The FBI initially arrested Bru in March 2021 in Vancouver, Washington. After his pretrial release, Bru was charged with separate drunken driving-related offenses in Idaho and Montana.
In July, Bru was secretly living in Montana when a drunken driver hit his car. Police officers who responded to the collision arrested Bru on a warrant stemming from his failure to appear in court before trial. He has “continued to spew disinformation” from jail since his re-arrest and trial, prosecutors said.
“If anything, he appears to be growing more defiant and radicalized,” they wrote.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving some term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
__________
“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.”
Peter Navarro, a onetime adviser to former President Trump, was sentenced Thursday to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Navarro was convicted in September on two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the probe and another for skipping his deposition.
Prosecutors argued Thursday that Navarro showed “utter disregard” for the House committee’s probe and “utter contempt for the rule of law.” They asked the judge to impose a six-month prison term.
“The committee was investigating an attack on the very foundation of our democracy,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb said. “There could be no more serious investigation undertaken by Congress.”
The same sentence was recommended for Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser who was also convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year.
A federal judge sentenced Bannon to four months in prison, the same term Navarro received. However, he has not yet served that time because the judge said he could remain free pending appeal. In November, Bannon’s attorney argued before a federal appeals court that he should not have to serve jail time because he was merely following legal advice.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said he would decide whether Navarro’s sentence will be deferred after his counsel submits its arguments in writing.
The Justice Department also forcefully denied that the prosecution was influenced by politics — something Navarro has suggested in court filings and public remarks. Mehta chided Navarro and his counsel Thursday for blaming politics.
“It’s unfortunate that the statements mislead. They mislead,” Mehta said. “Nancy Pelosi is not responsible for this prosecution; Joe Biden isn’t responsible for the prosecution. It’s those kinds of statements from someone who knows better … that contributes to why our politics are so divisive.”
“Punishing Dr. Navarro won’t fix or change that,” Navarro attorney Stanley Woodward later said of the political climate.
Like at trial, Navarro’s counsel argued Thursday that the ex-Trump adviser believed he should not comply with the House committee’s subpoena due to executive privilege.
“When I received that congressional subpoena … I had an honest belief that the privilege had been invoked,” Navarro told Mehta in brief remarks, made against his counsel’s advice.
Navarro’s lawyers previously claimed in court filings that his defense was “hamstrung” by the “open question” of whether a president can direct his subordinates not to testify before Congress.
Mehta barred defense attorneys from using executive privilege as a defense, after finding that the Trump adviser’s counsel failed to prove Trump invoked said privilege. Navarro’s lawyers and government prosecutors tiptoed around the issue during his September trial.
After his conviction last year, Navarro told reporters he expects his case to reach the Supreme Court due to the questions it raises about executive privilege for high-ranking White House staff.
Woodward said Thursday that the district court is “but a pitstop in our journey to understand executive privilege,” reaffirming their intention to appeal.
“I am willing to go to prison to settle this issue,” Navarro said in September.
_________
Wish granted, asshole.
“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.”
WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump supporter who "blind-side tackled" a U.S. Capitol Police officer from behind on Jan. 6 and flipped him over a ledge was sentenced to more than six years in prison Tuesday.
Ralph Celentano, a New York man who thought Trump was the greatest president in American history, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly called Celentano's conduct "disgraceful" and that there was no excuse for it, calling the attack on the officer "a truly cowardly and despicable thing to do."
Celentano was arrested in 2022 and convicted at trial last year. Court evidence shows that he believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election, writing on social media that "crooked poll workers need to be hauled before judges" before heading to the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington on Jan. 6, and then heading to the Capitol.
Ralph Celentano at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“While admittedly ‘amped up’ from the rally, Celentano marched over a mile to the Capitol Building gripping his Trump flag, folding chairs strapped to his backpack, which bore a patch that read, ‘Kill Them All and Let God Sort it Out,’” prosecutors wrote.
While at Peace Circle, Celentano said in a video that rioters should "occupy the Capitol, it's our building," and then joined the mob confronting officers, calling them "pathetic pieces of s---," prosecutors said. Celentano then pushed officers and used their riot shields against them.
Eventually, Celentano shoved U.S. Capitol Police Officer Kenrick Ellis over a banister. Ellis, who served in the military in Iraq, testified that he thought during the fighting outside the Capitol that was how it “was going to end” for him, and feared that he would never see his five-year-old son again.
Ralph Celentano uses their riot shields against police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Ellis spoke during the sentencing hearing, saying Celentano had “football tackled” him from behind and that he had no opportunity to defend himself.
“I believed that was how my life was going to end that day,” Ellis said.
“You’re not a patriot,” Ellis told Celentano. “You’re a coward.”
"Nope antifa and Blm didnt take the Capitol we the people did," Celentano wrote on the defunct right-wing social media platform, Parler.
About 1,250 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, including several who were arrested this week. About 900 people have been convicted. Online sleuths had identified hundreds of additional rioters who have not yet been arrested by the FBI.
_________
“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.”
Joseph R. Fisher was arrested by the FBI on March 30 on felony and misdemeanor charges, including assaulting a law enforcement officer. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 1.
The FBI took Fisher, who was 52 at the time, safely into custody at his home. He has been free on personal recognizance since his arraignment.
He is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with a long list of offenses.
The charges include the felony offenses of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, the misdemeanor offenses of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, acts of physical violence on the Capitol grounds or building and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
The plea was not unexpected, as his attorney filed a notice with the court in December saying he intended to do so.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 24, according to the court records.
The FBI provided stills of who they claim is Plymouth resident Joseph Fisher inside the Capitol Building during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots.
According to the FBI, Fisher entered the Capitol Building at approximately 2:24 p.m. the day of the riots via the Senate Wing Door on the North side of the Capitol.
Fisher was in the Capitol Visitor Center’s Orientation Lobby about 15 minutes later, where an altercation began between a Capitol police officer and other rioters.
As an officer pursued a rioter who had deployed pepper spray, Fisher pushed a chair into the officer, according to the FBI. Fisher then engaged in a physical altercation with the officer. Shortly afterwards, he exited the building.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, according to the Justice Department.
_________
Must be another one of those "antifa" types that Cult45 has been blathering on and on about.
“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.”
WASHINGTON — A Pennsylvania man who marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6 with a giant flag portraying former President Donald Trump as "Rambo" and then led the violent breach of the police line was convicted on several felony charges Friday.
Ryan Samsel, one of the first instigators of the Capitol riot, was convicted of assaulting Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards as well as felony counts of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. He remains in custody.
U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb — who oversaw the bench trial of Samsel and co-defendants James Tate Grant, Paul Russell Johnson, Stephen Chase Randolph and Jason Benjamin Blythe last year — convicted all the defendants of at least two felonies each.
She also found them not guilty on three misdemeanor offenses, reasoning that prosecutors had not proven that the five men were aware at the time that a Secret Service protectee — in this case, then-Vice President Mike Pence — was in the Capitol building.
Video from Jan. 6 showed Samsel speaking with Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs — who is serving a 17-year prison sentence after his seditious conspiracy conviction in March — at Peace Circle near the Capitol. Moments later, Samsel proceeded to the police line, took off his jean jacket, flipped his "Make America Great Again" hat backwards, and began ripping down the bike racks that were used to form a line of defense. In doing so, Edwards went sailing backwards and struck her head on a banister, briefly knocking her unconscious.
“The lights were on,” Edwards said, describing her mental state after she hit her head on the metal handrail, “but no one was home."
Samsel and Grant have been held in custody, and the government sought to lock up the three other defendants after their convictions, noting that federal guidelinesstipulate that individuals convicted of violent crimes “shall” be taken into custody after their convictions, absent exceptional circumstances.
The judge allowed the other three defendants, who had not been detained, to leave the courthouse on Friday, and asked prosecutors and defense attorneys to write legal briefs laying out what should happen to them until their sentencing hearing in June.
Video from Jan. 6 also showed that Ray Epps — a Trump supporter who faced threats after he became the target of conspiracy theories spread on far-right media outlets and Fox News — spoke with Samsel, with Epps whispering in his ear just before Samsel set off the attack on the police line. Both Epps and Samsel, in separate interviews with the FBI, indicated that Epps told Samsel to calm down, and that the police at the Capitol had been doing their job that day, but Samsel has since backtracked as he's characterized himself as a "political prisoner" in interviews with a far-right media outlet.
Randolph's arrest in 2021 came after the FBI ran his photo through a facial recognition program and turned up a hit on his girlfriend's Instagram page. Two undercover special agents were then sent to his place of employment and got him to talk about his involvement in the attack.
It was one of the few times that the FBI has acknowledged using facial recognition software. Publicly available facial recognition websites are a tool frequently used by online "sedition hunters" who have aided the FBI in hundreds of cases against Capitol rioters.
More than 1,250 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the Justice Department has secured about 900 convictions on charges ranging from unlawful picketing to seditious conspiracy.
“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.”
Rioters are seen at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Judges overseeing the cases against the rioters are using their platform to try to combat distortions about the attack that have been promoted by Donald Trump and his allies. Judges appointed by presidents from both political parties have described the riot as an affront to democracy and admonished defendants for casting themselves as the victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth condemned the depiction by Trump and Republican allies of Jan. 6 defendants as “political prisoners” and “hostages." Lamberth also denounced attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the justice system for punishing rioters who broke the law when they invaded the Capitol.
“In my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream,” Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, wrote in a recent ruling. The judge added he “fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country."
As Trump floats potential pardons for rioters if he returns to the White House, judges overseeing the more than 1,200 Jan. 6 criminal cases in Washington's federal court are using their platform to try to set the record straight concerning distortions about an attack that was broadcast live on television. A growing number of defendants appear to be embracing rhetoric spread by Trump, giving defiant speeches in court, repeating his false election claims and portraying themselves as patriots.
During a recent court hearing, Proud Boys member Marc Bru repeatedly insulted and interrupted the judge, who ultimately sentenced him to six years in prison. “You can give me 100 years and I’d do it all over again,” Bru said.
At least two other rioters shouted “Trump won!” in court after receiving their punishment.
Some people charged in the riot are pinning their hopes on a Trump victory in November.
Rachel Marie Powell, a Pennsylvania woman who was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for smashing a Capitol window, told a CNN reporter that the 2024 presidential election is “like life or death” for her. She said she believes she will get out of prison if Trump is elected.
The rhetoric resonates with the strangers who donate money to Jan. 6 defendant's online campaigns, but it isn’t earning them any sympathy from the judges. Judges appointed by presidents from both political parties have described the riot as an affront to democracy and they repeatedly have admonished defendants for not showing true remorse or casting themselves as victims.
Over more than three years, judges have watched hours of video showing members of the mob violently shoving past overwhelmed officers, shattering windows, attacking police with things such as flagpoles and pepper spray and threatening violence against lawmakers. In court hearings, officers have described being beaten, threatened and scared for their lives as they tried to defend the Capitol.
Before sentencing a Kentucky man, who already had a long criminal record, to 14 years in prison for attacking police with pepper spray and a chair, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta admonished the man for propagating “the lie that what's happening here in Washington, D.C., is unfair and unjust.”
“You are not a political prisoner," Mehta, who was nominated by President Barack Obama told Peter Schwartz. "You’re not Alexei Navalny,” the judge said referring to the imprisoned Russian opposition leader. “You're not somebody who is standing up against injustice, who's fighting against an autocratic regime. ... You're somebody who decided to take the day into his own hands, much in the same way that you have used your hands against others for much of your life.”
Lamberth’s scathing remarks came in the case of James Little, a North Carolina man who was not accused of any violence or destruction during the riot and pleaded guilty only to a misdemeanor offense. Lamberth didn’t name the people responsible for what the judge called “shameless” attempts to rewrite history. But Trump has closely aligned himself with rioters during his presidential campaign. He has described them as “hostages,” called for their release from jail and pledged to pardon a large portion of them if he wins the White House in November.
Roughly 750 people charged with federal crimes in the riot have pleaded guilty and more than 100 others have been convicted at trial. Many rioters were charged only with misdemeanor offenses akin to trespassing while others face serious felonies such as assault or seditious conspiracy. Of those who have been sentenced, roughly two-thirds have received some time behind bars, with terms ranging from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Lamberth had originally sentenced Little in 2022 to 60 days behind bars, followed by three years of probation. But Washington’s federal appeals court sided with Little on appeal, ruling he could not be sentenced to both prison time and probation. When Little’s case returned to Lamberth’s court, the judge resentenced him to 150 days — with credit for time already served in jail and on probation — citing the man’s claims of persecution and efforts to downplay the Jan. 6 attack.
“Little cannot bring himself to admit that he did the wrong thing, although he came close today,” Judge Lamberth wrote. “So it is up to the court to tell the public the truth: Mr. Little’s actions, and the actions of others who broke the law on Jan. 6, were wrong. The court does not expect its remarks to fully stem the tide of falsehoods. But I hope a little truth will go a long way.”
An attorney for Little declined to comment on Lamberth's remarks.
In other cases, judges have said their sentence must send a message when rioters have promoted the notion that they are being unfairly prosecuted for their political views. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper told Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the Arkansas man who propped his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in a widely circulated photo, that he seemed to enjoy the notoriety of becoming one of the faces of the Jan. 6 attack.
“You have made yourself one of the faces of J6 not just through that photo but using your platform and your notoriety to peddle the misconception that you and other J6ers are somehow political prisoners who are being persecuted for your beliefs as opposed to your conduct on Jan. 6,” Cooper, an Obama appointee, told Barnett before sentencing him to more than four years in prison.
“So to all those folks that follow Bigo, they need to know that the actions of Jan. 6 cannot be repeated without some serious repercussions," the judge said.
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"It wasn't a REAL insurrection!"
“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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