2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building

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Double post

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Claims that Jan. 6 rioters are 'political prisoners' endure. Judges want to set the record straight

WASHINGTON -

While sentencing a North Carolina man to prison for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot, a Republican-appointed judge issued a stark warning: Efforts to portray the mob of Donald Trump's supporters as heroes and play down the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, pose a serious threat to the nation.

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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[TopHatter]

Amazon, eBay purchases helped link Proud Boy to Jan. 6 assault on officers, FBI says

WASHINGTON — The FBI arrested yet another Jan. 6 rioter Wednesday, saying eBay and Amazon purchases helped confirm the identity of the New York man who they say assaulted officers with pepper spray during the assault on the Capitol.

Aaron Sauer, 43, who the FBI says was affiliated with the Proud Boys and went by the moniker "Roni," faces at least nine charges, including felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting officers. The Justice Department alleges that Sauer was wearing a bulletproof vest when he assaulted law enforcement officers with pepper spray and helped destroy a black metal fence on the west side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Prosecutors said Sauer traveled to Washington with Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member who smashed a window at the Capitol and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Sauer also traveled with Matthew Greene, a Proud Boys member who pleaded guilty in December 2021 and is cooperating with the government. Sauer, the FBI said, was also seen with William Pepe, a Proud Boy from the Hudson Valley of New York who has also been charged in connection with Jan. 6.

After it interviewed an associate of Sauer’s just four days after the Capitol attack, the FBI searched Sauer's home on Jan. 18, 2021, recovering "a backpack with tactical gear, to include canisters of Sabre Red pepper spray and Frontiersman bear spray; a box of Central New York Proud Boys business cards with the name 'Proud Roni' printed on them; and a black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirt," according to an FBI affidavit.


Aaron Sauer, in black baseball cap and a blue and white face covering, holds pepper spray during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.

To confirm that Sauer was the man seen pepper-spraying officers and destroying property on Jan. 6, the FBI said, it obtained records from eBay and Amazon and matched items that Sauer purchased online with items it says he was wearing on Jan. 6, including a hydration pack he purchased on Dec. 21, 2020, and a hat and an American flag gaiter he purchased on Dec. 20, 2020.


A side by side showing Amazon purchases Aaron Sauer wore at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Both purchases came shortly after former President Donald Trump summoned his supporters to the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 in a tweet: “Be there, will be wild!”

The FBI also seized a Samsung tablet from Sauer, which showed that he searched terms like “congress 1/6” and “where does congress meet” in the days before the Capitol attack.

More than 1,250 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and Justice Department prosecutors have secured more than 900 convictions. More than 490 of those sentenced have been sentenced to periods of incarceration.

Online sleuths have identified hundreds of additional rioters who have not yet been arrested. They include a person who also assaulted officers with pepper spray at the same time as Sauer and whose image is featured in the FBI's affidavit. Online “sedition hunters” have said they identified that man — known as "OldDoubleShot" — around three years ago.
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[TopHatter]

2020 'Lawyers for Trump' volunteer deemed competent to stand trial on Jan. 6 charges

WASHINGTON — A "Lawyers for Trump" volunteer whose election conspiracy theory video was shared by one of former President Donald Trump's sons in 2020 was ordered released from Bureau of Prisons custody last week ahead of her trial on Jan. 6 charges.

Kellye SoRelle, who had served as general counsel for the far-right Oath Keepers, was found incompetent to stand trial over the summer and had reported to a federal prison facility on Nov. 27 to undergo mental health treatment to have her competency restored. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered SoRelle released on Friday evening after a hearing on Thursday in which the government said a federal Bureau of Prisons evaluation found that SoRelle is now competent.

SoRelle had been held at the federal medical center in Fort Worth, Texas, Bureau of Prisons records say.

Horatio Aldredge, an attorney representing SoRelle, challenged whether she is actually competent to stand trial during the hearing last week and asked for their own independent evaluation.


This image released by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol shows Kellye SoRelle, general counsel for the antigovernment group Oath Keepers, during a deposition displayed at a hearing by the committee on July 12, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. SoRelle's trial will be delayed so she can get treatment she needs to be mentally competent to stand trial, a judge decided Friday, June 16, 2023. SoRelle is charged with conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, but experts for the prosecution and defense found she is not competent for a trial that had been set for July.

Judge Mehta said they should "move quickly" on getting the independent evaluation done, and said he was worried that SoRelle might go off her medication, which would lead to a different evaluation of her competency. SoRelle's defense said SoRelle was not on medication.

SoRelle had been in a relationship with Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in his own Jan. 6 trial in 2022 and was sentenced last year to 18 years in prison, one of the longest sentences of any Capitol attack defendant. The government had highlighted their personal relationship at trial, arguing that SoRelle didn't do any legal work for the organization until after the Jan. 6 attack, when she took possession of Rhodes' cell phone and, according to prosecutors, sent messages in his name. A judge ruled their texts were not protected by attorney-client privilege.

SoRelle previously told NBC News that Rhodes wanted her contacts with Trump associates in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack.


Kellye SoRelle, back center, at a Jan. 5 meeting with Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers

After Trump’s election loss, SoRelle was in touch with Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s son about alleged election issues. SoRelle filmed a video of a man in Detroit removing a box from a white van — ballots, she suspected — and placing it in a red wagon. Eric Trump, Donald Trump's son, posted about the video, linking to an article suggesting the video showed some sort of election malfeasance. In fact, the man was a news photographer who was wheeling in media equipment, not ballots.

A follow-up hearing in SoRelle's case was scheduled for March 8 at 2 p.m. She faces four charges: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining on restricted grounds; and obstruction of justice, for allegedly inducing other Oath Keepers to delete their records.
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[Monash]

Man Trump can sure pick legal talent. He's like a loon magnet for the American bar association.

[Albany Rifles]

Man Trump can sure pick legal talent. He's like a loon magnet for American bar association.

It'll help some state bars clean up their rolls!

[TopHatter]

‘Cowboys for Trump’ leader turns to Supreme Court after he was kicked out of office for insurrection



Nearly two years ago, an elected official from New Mexico was convicted on charges for his role in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, then removed from office under a constitutional clause banning anyone who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

The case of Couy Griffin, a now-former Otero County commissioner, is in front of the US Supreme Court, just days after Donald Trump challenged a Colorado court’s decision that disqualified him from 2024 ballots under the same rule.

Justices are scheduled to consider Griffin’s case in a private conference on Friday.

How the justices ultimately decide whether that case moves forward, if at all, could signal their decision in the challenge facing Mr Trump.

Griffin, the founder of the pro-Trump group Cowboys for Trump, was convicted on misdemeanour charges for his role in the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021, when he was captured in video footage calling on then-Vice President Mike Pence to “do the right thing” and reject the 2020 election results that reflected the votes of millions of Americans.

He climbed a toppled fence and another barrier to reach the steps of the Capitol, where he called on the mob to pray.

On 6 September 2022, after a lawsuit and a bench trial in federal court, a judge removed him from office, marking the first time in more than 100 years that a court disqualified a public official and the first time an elected official was removed from office for their role on January 6.

US District Judge Francis Mathew noted the “irony” of Griffin’s attempts to defend his actions and urge the court against “applying the law” despite participating in an “insurrection” with a “mob whose goal, by his own admission, was to set aside the results of a free, fair and lawful election.”

Judge Mathew wrote that Griffin’s attempts “to sanitize his actions are without merit” and “amounted to nothing more than attempting to put lipstick on a pig.”

Griffin and his group spent “months normalizing the violence that may be necessary to keep President Trump in office” and urged supporters to travel to Washington DC to join what he compared to a “war” to keep the defeated president in office, the judge wrote.


Cowboys For Trump founder Couy Griffin.

The 14th Amendment was among a suite of civil rights amendments enacted in the volatile aftermath of the US Civil War. It was intended to grant equal protection under the law to all citizens, including formerly enslaved people, with a broadly written clause aimed at preventing Confederates from returning to a government they were in rebellion against.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment holds that “no person” can hold any office, “civil or military, under the United States”, if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same”.

Judge Mathew ruled that a potential officeholder needs only to have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, as Griffin did when he was elected as a county commissioner, and then broken it by engaging in an insurrection.

The authors of the amendment “did not understand an insurrection to require actual violence; intimidation by numbers sufficed,” he wrote. “The mob that arrived at the Capitol on January 6 was an assemblage of persons who engaged in violence, force, and intimidation by numbers.”

In his latest brief to the Supreme Court, an attorney for Griffin argued that he was “exercising his Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly” on January 6, and his removal from office violates the First Amendment.

“If the decision … is to stand, at least in New Mexico, it is now the crime of insurrection to gather people to pray together for the United States of America on the unmarked restricted grounds of the Capitol building,” according to the filing. “This Court cannot let this stand.”

He also argued that “the bar for engaging in an insurrection is not trespassing on government property.”

“If it were, any sit-in inside or outside of the Capitol could be considered an ‘insurrection,’” according to the filing.

The arguments mirror those supporting the former president, who was rendered ineligible to appear on 2024 ballots by Colorado’s Supreme Court last year.

But a majority of the justices on the nation’s highest court appeared to doubt the authority of individual states to disqualify federal candidates without permission from Congress.

Chief Justice John Roberts said granting states control over candidates for federal election would be “at war” with the Constitution and warned that a decision to disqualify Mr Trump could open up attempts to disqualify candidates “on the other side”.

“In very quick order I would expect … that a goodly number of states will say whoever the Democratic candidate is, you’re off the ballot,” he said. “And it will come down to a handful of states that will determine the presidential election.”

The justices will issue their decision in Trump v Anderson at a later date.

“At this point about everything happening with Trump legally at the top is happening to me here at the bottom. Many things are in tandem. And most greatly compliment each other,” Griffin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Griffin, however, was not a federal officer.

In last week’s hearing, Supreme Court justices frequently turned the discussion to states enforcing federal offices under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which holds that “no person” can hold any office, “civil or military, under the United States”, if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same”.

But justices didn’t appear to have similar concerns about states enforcing that measure against state officials.

“Can states enforce the insurrection clause against their own officeholders, or can they enforce it against federal officials, or can they enforce it against the president?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked last week. “Those are all three different questions in my mind.”

Griffin, meanwhile, has been relying on a crowdfunding website for his legal costs.

“I just figured that Trump, his people at the top, would look down to me… and help me through it,” he told The Daily Beast last month. “But I didn’t get any of that help when I went through my removal deal.”
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You thought wrong, dumbass.

[TopHatter]

Anti-vaccine protester arrested at NYC Burger King now charged with assaulting officers on Jan. 6

WASHINGTON — A Brooklyn man who had been arrested at anti-vaccine protests at a Burger King, an Applebee's and a Cheesecake Factory in New York City was arrested by federal authorities Wednesday and charged with assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Mitchell Bosch, 44, who ran for the New York City Council last year, was identified with the help of online "sedition hunters" who have aided the FBI in hundreds of arrests of suspects in the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Bosch is charge with felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, along with misdemeanor charges.



Bosch, according to an FBI affidavit, "can be seen in multiple instances" on video of the riot "opposing the police advance by pushing directly against the officers, assisting other rioters in pushing against officers, and encouraging other rioters to oppose the police." The government alleges that Bosch yelled "hold the line!" as the mob struggled with officers.

The FBI said that Google records confirmed Bosch's presence at the Capitol and that he posted on Instagram less than two weeks after the Capitol attack suggesting he knew he'd eventually be arrested on Jan. 6 charges.

“Enjoying my last meal before the FBI comes for me," he wrote on Jan. 19, 2021, authorities said.

Investigators interviewed Bosch in August 2021 and say that he "became agitated" when he was asked about his travel to Washington on Jan. 6, saying their efforts "should be on what's going on in Afghanistan, and not what happened in D.C." (The interview took place one day after 13 members of the military were killed during the evacuation of the country.)

Bosch had previously run for the City Council as a Republican, and the New York Post had documented his arrests at a Cheesecake Factory, an Applebee's and a Burger King in December 2021, when he was opposing the city's vaccination mandate. Bosch was also arrested at the Museum of Natural History in January 2022 while protesting vaccination mandates, according to the Post.

“I literally had to urinate inside a bottle inside the Museum of Natural History," Bosch said on social media, according to the Post.

Bosch and his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his latest or past arrests.



There have been a number of arrests of Jan. 6 defendants in recent days. Daniel Hatcher, Nathan Mackie and his brother Brandon Mackie were also charged in a case unsealed Wednesday, and Thomas Method was arrested in Massachusetts. Cameron Clapp, a triple amputee, was arrested in California on Tuesday. More than 1,250 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Online sleuths have identified hundreds more participants who have not been arrested. The statute of limitations expires in just over 22 months, in January 2025.
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[TopHatter]

Man, who ran for Texas House seat in 2022, and wife found guilty on Jan. 6 riot charges


A Texas couple including a man who in 2022 ran a failed campaign for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives have been found guilty of several felony and misdemeanor crimes for their part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

Mark Middleton, 55, and Jalise Middleton, 54, both of Forestburg, Texas, were found guilty by a federal jury of two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; civil disorder; and obstruction of an official proceeding., according to the release. All of those charges were felonies.

Federal investigators determined Mark Middleton and Jalise Middleton took part in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when insurrectionists tried to stop a joint session of Congress working to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

The two were also convicted 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 the Capitol grounds or building, and acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or building, all misdemeanors.

Mark Middleton and Jalise Middleton will be sentenced June 12 by U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, in Washington, D.C., according to the DOJ.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Mark Middleton was among a group of rioters who gathered outside the West Front of the Capitol Building and, around 2:10 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, began struggling with officers, according to the DOJ. Body-camera video showed Mark Middleton push against barricades and a police line with his body. He was heard in the footage yelling at others to get back and shouting expletives as he pushed against the barricades. At one point, the DOJ says, the video shows him grab a police officer’s left wrist and pull that officer toward the crowd.

Authorities said that at the same time Jalise Middleton was seen on bodycam footage repeatedly grabbing and striking with her hand over the barricade at the same officer. When another officer came to help, Jalise Middleton hit that officer as well. The video shows Jalise Middleton and Mark Middleton continue to grapple with and strike the officers and try to pull them into the crowd as flags were thrust toward the officers’ faces.

The two were forced to retreat from the barricades when Washington, D.C., police deployed chemical spray, according to the DOJ. Later on, both would post social media messages bragging about their role in helping to breach the barricades, saying they fought with police and only stopped when the chemical spray was deployed.

Mark Middleton and Jalise Middleton were arrested on April 21, 2021, in Forestburg, Texas, in Montague County about an hour north of Fort Worth, according to the DOJ.

Mark Middleton’s political aspirations
Mark Middleton ran for the District 68 Texas House seat as a Republican in 2022. He ran against three opponents in the Republican primary and garnered the second most votes at 13.47%, according to state election records. The incumbent, David Spiller, ended up getting the party’s nomination with support from 69.81% of voters and was unopposed in the general election.

The primary election saw 30,881 votes cast.

According to the website for Take Texas Back, a political organization that describes itself as a movement to support Republican hopefuls the organization believes will put Texas interests ahead of national ones, Mark Middleton signed a pledge on Jan. 20, 2022, to “place the interests of Texas and Texans before any other nation, state, political party, organization or individual.”

The pledge also says that the signer will support Article 1 Section 2 of the Texas Constitution, which says that Texans “have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolishtheir government in such manner as they may think expedient.”

According to the website, Mark Middleton has a master’s degree in theology and two business degrees. He and Jalise Middleton have three children and three grandchildren and, at the time the information was posted online, lived on a small farm in Cooke County.

Since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, around 1,315 people have been charged across the country for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol Building. Around 470 have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
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Another member of Cult45 goes down hard....

[TopHatter]

Man wanted on Jan. 6 charges arrested with weapons near Barack Obama's Washington home

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man armed with explosive materials and weapons, and wanted for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested Thursday in the Washington neighborhood where former President Barack Obama lives, law enforcement officials said.

Taylor Taranto, 37, was spotted by law enforcement a few blocks from the former president's home and fled, though he was chased by U.S. Secret Service agents. Taranto has an open warrant on charges related to the insurrection, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

They said Taranto also had made social media threats against a public figure. He was found with weapons and materials to create an explosive device, though one had not been built, one of the officials said.

Taranto was a U.S. Navy veteran and a webmaster for the Republican Party in Franklin County, in Washington state, according to the Tri-City Herald newspaper. He told the newspaper in an interview last year that he was volunteering for the Republican Party.

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I wonder what this asswipe has been up to lately....

Jan. 6 inmate who threatened to bomb fed building with van faces new charges

A Tri-Cities man who has been accused of a string of threats against lawmakers, including a former president, has been hit with a slew of new charges.

Taylor Taranto, the armed Tri-Cities man arrested outside of former President Barack Obama’s D.C. home last summer has been indicted on new charges related to the incident, threats to bomb federal buildings and his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.


Taylor Taranto is seen clashing with Capitol police during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in this image included in court documents. Taranto is circled in yellow. David Walls-Kaufman, his codefendant in a lawsuit for wrongful death of MPD Officer Jeffrey Smith is circled in red.

Taranto, 38, of Pasco, has been in the D.C. Metropolitan Jail since last July when he was arrested while allegedly attempting to scout access points to the Obamas’ Kalorama neighborhood home. His arrest came after an alleged series of threats to bomb a federal building and attempts to intimidate lawmakers over the handling of the Jan. 6 Committee.

Federal investigators found multiple weapons in Taranto’s van. Now it appears he’s facing additional charges in connection with those weapons, the threats to use his van as a bomb and his role in the Jan. 6 riots.

New documents filed in D.C. District court Wednesday show Taranto has now been indicted on a total of 16 charges. Some of those charges are “aggravators” or enhancements to an existing charge because Vice President Mike Pence was present. The new charges are part of a superseding indictment, which means they were added as new information came to light.

In all there are five new charges. Three for weapons, one for bomb threats and the last is a felony charge added to his list of Jan. 6 charges.

Federal prosecutors say that Taranto was not the legal registered owner of a semi-automatic 9 mm Scorpion CZ short barrel rifle and was also in possession of an illegal high capacity magazine. He was also charged for illegally carrying the weapon and a pistol without a license.

High capacity magazines were banned in March 2022 in Washington state, and the ban was upheld by a federal appeals court last year. They have been banned in D.C. since 2008.

Taranto was documented traveling between D.C. and the Tri-Cities for various protests for much of the two and a half years following the Jan. 6 riots.


These images from court filings show the firearms federal agents say they found in Taylor Taranto’s van.

He has also been charged with false information and hoaxes for threatening to use his van to blow up a federal building on a livestream in the days before his arrest.

These threats, along with entering elementary school grounds in an alleged attempt to intimidate a member of congress who lived nearby, and threatening to blow up former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, led investigators to ask for a warrant and begin searching for Taranto.

The last new charge is for felony obstruction of an official proceeding. He faces several federal charges related to the riot including: disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building; disruptive conduct related to attempting to stop the certification of electorate votes; and entering and remaining in restricted areas of a Capitol building.

The charges also now have enhancements because Pence was present, according to court documents listing pending counts against Taranto.

Taranto’s attorneys have not yet filed responses to the new charges, but his trial is tentatively scheduled to begin in July.


Taylor Taranto is seen motioning toward scaffolding outside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in this image included in court documents.

‘Mission to hell’
These new charges are the first developments in the case since Taranto was denied bail last year because a judge believed he was a danger to lawmakers.

Taranto allegedly believed he was on a “one-way mission to hell,” and had a “contract” to kill Vice President Kamala Harris, according to court documents obtained by the Herald last September.

While much of the previously reported on threats were included in earlier documents, the September 2023 filings included information about threats that had not yet been made public and were apparently intended to be blacked out but could still be read.

The document noted Taranto’s actions on Jan. 6, his attempts to enter two D.C. area schools to intimidate members of Congress who lived nearby, his threats to blow up a federal building and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his arrest when he tried to get into Obama’s home.

They also included new details of specific threats and calls for violence.

D.C. District Court Judge Carl Nichols wrote that his decision to deny Taranto bail was in part based on information provided by investigators that showed Taranto allegedly exchanging messages on Telegram plotting to kill politicians.

Telegram is a website popular with right-leaning groups that’s meant to be an alternative to Twitter.

Taranto allegedly told another user, who has not been identified, that, “We have to kill everyone who got in my way,” and “I need you to seek vengeance against them.”

The document also alleges that Taranto believed he had a contract to kill Kamala Harris. In May 2023, Taranto allegedly discussed implanting an explosive tooth into the vice president’s mouth. The document says Taranto then stated, “This is the biggest contract I have ever satisfied,” ”We have to kill them all,” “Payout is in the hundreds of millions.”


Taylor Taranto is seen entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in this image included in court documents.

Arrest out Obama’s home

When arguing bail Taranto’s attorneys told the judge that he is suffering from PTSD and complex mental health issues, and needs to be treated. They had asked for him to be released to his wife’s custody in the Tri-Cities and allow him to travel to the Seattle area for mental health treatment.

Taranto is a U.S. Navy veteran and former webmaster for the Franklin County Republican Party. The organization told the Herald that they cut ties with Taranto in 2022 over his increasingly concerning behavior.

Former President Trump said he’s never met the man after photos of Taranto with a cutout of Trump began circulating on social media.

Investigators say Taranto went to Obama’s home after Trump had posted the address on social media.


A photo gallery from a 2018 Franklin County, WA Republican dinner shows Taylor Taranto posing with a cutout of Donald Trump. Facial recognition technology used the photo to identify Taranto as being inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, according to the HuffPost.com.

Taranto had been splitting his time between the Tri-Cities and attending various protests in D.C. Most recently he was seen at the Freedom Corner protest, which is a vigil outside of the D.C. Metropolitan Jail for Jan. 6 defendants. He also had posted videos of himself protesting for the Freedom Convoy before that.

Most of his social media accounts were taken down late last year. Investigators noted that someone had been attempting to delete incriminating videos.

According to the Gateway Pundit, the Freedom Corner group also cut ties with Taranto after he allegedly began saying Ashli Babbitt was a government plant. Court documents show Taranto was present in the Capitol building in a group with Babbitt when she was shot and killed trying to break through a door between rioters and lawmakers. Babbitt’s mother has been a central figure in the Freedom Corner vigil, according to social media reports.

His relationship with other Jan. 6 defendants had apparently deteriorated to the point that his attorneys said Taranto was attacked in the jail after his arrest, because the other defendants believed he was an informant, due to his erratic behavior.

Taranto has a well-documented history of accusing other Jan. 6 figures, like Ray Epps, of being government plants.

After being kicked out of the Freedom Corner, Taranto seems to have began conducting livestreams discussing conspiracy theories and making threats to attack lawmakers.

Investigators said that in early 2023 he began making threats toward lawmakers.

Taranto allegedly threatened to use his van to bomb a National Institute of Standards and Technology building, claimed to have a detonator to set off the bomb, began attempting to harass and intimidate congressman Jaime Raskin, D-Maryland, who oversaw the House Select Committee on Jan. 6.

He also allegedly threatened to blow up former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., because he was unhappy with him for not releasing more videos he believed would exonerate Jan. 6 defendants.

After the threats to bomb the federal building, a warrant for his involvement in the Jan. 6 riots was obtained and federal agents began searching for Taranto. They found him a few days later after he began to livestream from the Kalorama neighborhood where former President Barack Obama lives.

Taranto was making comments about “getting a shot” and trying to find tunnels and access points to the residence, according to investigators.

When law enforcement arrived, Taranto allegedly began to run through a wooded area toward the house. A search of his van found multiple weapons and ammunition, as well as a “Make Space Great Again” hat that appeared to match one he was wearing in surveillance photos from the Capitol and video Taranto of took himself inside the building.

Taranto is also facing a wrongful death civil lawsuit brought by the widow of a D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer who died by suicide just days after being injured in the riot. Taranto is accused of helping another Jan. 6 defendant attack the officer with a weighted metal cane Taranto brought to the Capitol. That defendant, David Walls-Kaufman has already been convicted for his role in the riot.

NBC News Reporter Ryan Reilly spotted Taranto being asked to leave the federal courthouse for being disruptive during Walls-Kaufman’s sentencing last June. That was about three weeks before his arrest.

The civil case was put on hold after the original judge was elevated to a higher court, but was reassigned to a new judge in January and is expected to start moving forward again soon, according to court hearings scheduled for the case.
_____________

[tbm3fan]

Clearly a mental case who needs to be locked away since he is not going to help himself. Too bad he is not the harmless type I usually see at the bottom of Bay Area freeway exits or entrances who hold signs saying "homeless" or the ones under overpasses who pace back and forth all day talking to nobody day after day. No, this is the type that has to have guns with him.

[TopHatter]

Clearly a mental case who needs to be locked away since he is not going to help himself. Too bad he is not the harmless type I usually see at the bottom of Bay Area freeway exits or entrances who hold signs saying "homeless" or the ones under overpasses who pace back and forth all day talking to nobody day after day. No, this is the type that has to have guns with him.

Just on a surface view, what do you think his chances are of being deemed mentally incompetent enough to stand trial?

[tbm3fan]

Just on a surface view, what do you think his chances are of being deemed mentally incompetent enough to stand trial?

I don't think he is a psychopath naturally at all. It seems to me that he is one of many people who have a light hold on reality and can easily be sucked down into a rabbit hole when they are manipulated over time. Shades of The Manchurian Candidate.

When arguing bail Taranto’s attorneys told the judge that he is suffering from PTSD and complex mental health issues, and needs to be treated. They had asked for him to be released to his wife’s custody in the Tri-Cities and allow him to travel to the Seattle area for mental health treatment.

Now according to how his lawyer puts it he should be able to go home to his wife's custody so he can undergo voluntary mental health treatment. So his lawyer implies he is competent enough to do that which means he can stand trail.

My opinion is that once he is home he will then disappear within the week and so much for wife's custody and voluntary treatment. He is so far down that you would have to tie him up and then carry kicking and screaming to his first session, and second session, and third session. He will not start willingly therefore denying you a foothold. I haven't talked to the man but I am leaning towards the incompetent side where he will need to be committed and kept away from all media that has continually reinforced his delusions.

[TopHatter]

I don't think he is a psychopath naturally at all. It seems to me that he is one of many people who have a light hold on reality and can easily be sucked down into a rabbit hole when they are manipulated over time. Shades of The Manchurian Candidate.



Now according to how his lawyer puts it he should be able to go home to his wife's custody so he can undergo voluntary mental health treatment. So his lawyer implies he is competent enough to do that which means he can stand trail.

My opinion is that once he is home he will then disappear within the week and so much for wife's custody and voluntary treatment. He is so far down that you would have to tie him up and then carry kicking and screaming to his first session, and second session, and third session. He will not start willingly therefore denying you a foothold. I haven't talked to the man but I am leaning towards the incompetent side where he will need to be committed and kept away from all media that has continually reinforced his delusions.

Interesting. I know a couple people that fit that to a T "people who have a light hold on reality and can easily be sucked down into a rabbit hole when they are manipulated over time."

[Monash]

Interesting. I know a couple people that fit that to a T "people who have a light hold on reality and can easily be sucked down into a rabbit hole when they are manipulated over time."

I believe their called Trump voters or was it Americans? One of those, I can't remember which.