2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building

[Monash]

Real 'patriots' sorry, Americans don't do 'govment' work...

Excuse me?

Says my inner MAGA

[JRT]

{{{Brandon Fellows}}} ..has received a prison sentence of three and a half years. ... Fellows was convicted on one felony count and four misdemeanors relating to his participation in the riot.

He received the maximum sentence, 37 months, but was also given credit for 32 months already served in detention, in custody at federal bureau of prisons detention facilities.

So he will have to serve 5 months incarcerated in federal prison (not 3.5 years), followed by 3 years of supervised release. He repeatedly tried to delay proceedings to extend his time in detention and thereby reduce his time in prison. He stated that he would have preferred to serve the full 37 months in detention.

This being 01 March 2024, it seems that he may be released from federal prison before the end of Summer this year, in time to celebrate Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas and the New Year with his family and friends before cutting off his tracking bracelet and attending various electoral and inaugural events in DC with his orher friends in January 2025.

[Albany Rifles]

Says my inner MAGA

[statquo]

What is it with those in the age range of 30-50. Here's another one above in his 40's.[/LIST]The above is so typical of douche bags like him, You catch my drift bros? Y'all' here with me? It's time to paaarrrty...

Yeah, I sound pretty corny at 70, huh?

"We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'll all be millionaires, movies gods and rockstars. But we don't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off".

- Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) - Fight Club.

[TopHatter]

Musician and libertarian writer who works for 'The Blaze' arrested on Jan. 6 charges

WASHINGTON — The former lead singer of a David Bowie tribute band who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, licensed his footage to media outlets, and now works as a writer for Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" website has been arrested on misdemeanor Capitol attack charges after turning himself into federal authorities in Texas.

Steve Baker, a musician and libertarian writer who was a frequent presence at the federal courthouse in Washington during the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial and other Jan. 6 cases, faces the same four standard misdemeanors as many lower-level Capitol riot defendants.

A copy of a FBI affidavit, provided to NBC News by defense attorney William Shipley, indicates that federal prosecutors will focus on comments from Baker that show he was sympathetic to the mob, including when he referred to Nancy Pelosi as a "b----" after talking about the mob raiding the former House speaker's office, and a comment in which he said he regretted that he didn't steal government property during the attack.


Steve Baker at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Look out your windows bitches, look what’s coming," Baker allegedly said as he recorded himself approaching the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"They got Pelosi's office and, you know, it couldn't happen to a better deserving b----," Baker said in a video after the attack, according to the FBI affidavit.

"The only thing I regret is that I didn’t, like, steal their computers because God knows what I could’ve found on their computers if I’d done that," Baker said, according to the affidavit.

“Do I approve of what happened today?" Baker said in another interview on Jan. 6, according to the FBI filing. "I approve 100%."

Video footage previously posted by Baker shows him approaching two officers inside the Capitol and asking them if they were going to use their weapons on protesters. “You gonna use that thing on us?” Baker asked one officer. “Are you really going to use that on us?” Baker asked another. He later asked the same question of two other officers in the aftermath of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, video showed.

After witnessing first responders trying to save the life of Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter shot as she jumped through a broken window leading into the Speaker's Lobby, Baker said he "may have just seen the true first shot in this war," the FBI affidavit said.


Steve Baker at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Baker has friendly relationships with reporters who have covered Jan. 6 cases and was in the media room during trials at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, where his own case will now unfold. A reporter for NBC News met Baker at the courthouse back in August, when Baker dropped off materials in response to a grand jury subpoena he received for the videos he recorded on Jan. 6. Recently, Baker had been working closely with House Republicans, and gained access to thousands of hours of Jan. 6 surveillance footage.

Baker was accompanied by a camera crew from The Blaze when he surrendered on Friday morning, and he broadcasted live from outside the courthouse after he was released. Baker quickly received support from former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

In a phone interview after his arrest, Baker called the process "humiliating," but said that law enforcement officers he dealt with were friendly and cordial. Baker said he had no regrets about the language he used on Jan. 6, and that some of his comments, like those during his discussions with his friend over drinks on the night of the riot, were taken out of context.

"With the 'couldn't happen to a nicer b----' comment... when the FBI asks me why I said that I said, 'Because it wasn't McConnell's office.' I said, 'If it had been McConnell's office, I would've said it couldn't have happened to a more deserving bastard.' And then I followed that up by saying, 'What part of me being a libertarian do you not understand? I don't like either side,'" Baker said.

Baker has a court date set in Washington, but said that he wasn’t sure how he will proceed from here.

“My gut instinct is to take it all the way to trial, but obviously we have to wait and see who the judge is,” Baker said. "One of the primary axioms of classic liberalism, libertarianism, is that if there's no victim, there's no crime. And what's happening to a lot of people, is that their words are being criminalized."


Steve Baker at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Baker explained in a podcast after Jan. 6 that, as a full-time musician he “found himself suddenly unemployed” in 2020 after the Covid lockdowns, and so decided to “ramp up” a project he’d started a decade earlier: An online community known as “The Pragmatic Libertarian,” which he later rebranded as “The Pragmatic Constitutionalist.”

Two days before Jan. 6, Baker wrote he was headed to Washington not because he thought "a crowd of any size is going to force government into a real investigation of the election results, but because the 'powers that be' on all sides of the political equation need to see WE THE PEOPLE in force, letting them know that WE ARE WATCHING."

"WE are not going to lay down to any level of tyranny — whether it come from the right or the left, the Democrats or the GOP," Baker wrote, adding that he was "hoping to document on video anything 'special' that might happen, and perhaps get a few interviews from a variety of voices."

In a post after Jan. 6, he wrote that he'd "confess to being truly inspired at the sight of so many patriots about to make what would surely be a powerful visual statement to the oath-breaking criminals who — at that very moment — were debating the certification of the Electoral votes."

In that post-Jan. 6 podcast, Baker said it was "no secret" that he was not a Trump fan back in 2016, thinking that neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton were good candidates. He said he did vote for Trump in 2020, and endorsed him, first because "the Bolshevik Democratic Party machine is now a fully-realized, openly neo-Marxist organization" and because of his "wishful thinking that Trump — for all his faults, (and maybe because of them), would finally be exposing and bringing down the Deep State."

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in the more than three years since the Capitol attack, and prosecutors have secured more than 900 convictions. Sentences have ranged from short terms of probation for the type of misdemeanor charges Baker is facing, to 22 years in federal prison for Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys on his seditious conspiracy conviction.

Other Jan. 6 defendants have tried to avoid convictions by pointing to their media ties, but Baker is the first who was working for an established media company at the time of his arrest. He was not associated with a news publication three years ago on Jan. 6, when the alleged misdemeanor took place.


Steve Baker at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A former commentator for The Blaze, Elijah Schaffer, had posted on social media during the riot that he was inside Pelosi’s office and "with the thousands of revolutionaries who have stormed” the Capitol. Video released in another Jan. 6 case shows Schaffer saying that he was part of a group "occupying" Pelosi's office. Unlike Baker, Schaffer was wearing an official Capitol press credential, and has not been charged.

Another Jan. 6 defendant, Stephen Horn, was convicted on four misdemeanor counts at trial after presenting himself as an independent journalist.

“His journalism started when he needed an excuse for his criminal liability,” a federal prosecutor told jurors in that case, according to The Washington Post. Prosecutors sought 10 months in federal prison in Horn's case, but a judge sentenced Horn to one year of probation and a $2,000 fine.

John Sullivan, an "anti-establishment" activist who prosecutors say went to the Capitol with the "goal of inciting the crowd," was convicted at trial after being found guilty of a variety of charges, including felonies. Sullivan too tried to present himself as a journalist, and news outlets (including NBC News) had licensed his footage after the attack. But jurors found him guilty after prosecutors presented evidence that he encouraged the mob and claimed to be armed with a knife.
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[JRT]

"Steve Baker...faces the same four standard misdemeanors as many lower-level Capitol riot defendants."

To me, it is disappointing that these insurrectionists, terrorists, traitors to their country, are not being charged and convicted with at least one felony, and at least 367 days of incarceration in federal prison, to effectively and permanently bar them from ever again being able to lawfully possess any firearm within US jurisdiction, violation of which is punishable by up to ten years in federal prison (no parole in the federal corrections system). It is a relatively simple law with big teeth. And for any of them who are naturalized citizens, who do not have their citizenship protected by the 14th amendment, I would also like to see their US citizenship revoked, see them permanently stripped of US citizenship and deported to their country of origin.

[Albany Rifles]

To me, it is disappointing that these insurrectionists, terrorists, traitors to their country, are not being charged and convicted with at least one felony, and at least 367 days of incarceration in federal prison, to effectively and permanently bar them from ever again being able to lawfully possess any firearm within US jurisdiction, violation of which is punishable by up to ten years in federal prison (no parole in the federal corrections system). It is a relatively simple law with big teeth. And for any of them who are naturalized citizens, who do not have their citizenship protected by the 14th amendment, I would also like to see their US citizenship revoked, see them permanently stripped of US citizenship and deported to their country of origin.

I dont think this is correct. Naturalized is mentioned in the opening sentence of the 14th Amendment. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. I checked 3 different sources and none mentions those who are naturalized citizens not being covered.

[JRT]

I dont think this is correct. Naturalized is mentioned in the opening sentence of the 14th Amendment. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. I checked 3 different sources and none mentions those who are naturalized citizens not being covered.

From what I have read (which isn't much), the process is called "Denaturalization". A naturalized citizen can be involuntarily denaturalized.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/depar...lization-cases

https://www.findlaw.com/immigration/...-revoked-.html

And, this is just my layperson's interpretation, but... I think that the 14th amendment guarantees the right to be a citizen to (almost) anyone born in US jurisdiction (there are exceptions, such as the children of foreign diplomats serving in the US do not automatically gain US citizenship by that birth), but nobody who later (after being born somewhere else) enters the country in possession of a constitutional right to become a naturalized citizen, rather they are granted permission within some legislated process, and perhaps that permission is more easily revoked than a constitutional right. Though also, people can lose some of their constitutional rights, such as convicted felons, drug addicts, and those adjudicated as being insane all lose their constitutional rights to keep and bear arms.

[Albany Rifles]

I agree with if a naturalized is a felon they can lose citizenship...in theory. I don't think that has hit the courts yet for final adjudication.

[TopHatter]

Jan. 6 rioter nicknamed 'shield grampy' admits to assaulting officers at the Capitol
Anthony Mastanduno was ordered held without bond after he pleaded guilty to nine counts, admitting that he repeatedly assaulted officers at the lower west tunnel on Jan. 6.


Anthony Mastanduno at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter nicknamed "Shield Grampy" by online sleuths has admitted that he used a stolen police shield during the brutal battle at the lower west tunnel and assaulted officers with a flagpole-like object and a baton.

Anthony Mastanduno pleaded guilty to nine counts on Wednesday and was ordered taken into custody by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who set his sentencing for June 27. Mastanduno, 61, was arrested in August, with an FBI affidavit noting that online "sedition hunters" had given Mastanduno his nickname "due to his age and his use of a stolen police shield to assault MPD officers at the entrance to the tunnel."

Mastanduno previously lived in Farmingdale, New York, but now lives in North Carolina.

According to an agreed-upon court filing, he "was wearing a red baseball cap with a patch on the bill and 'Trump 2020 Keep America Great!' embroidered in white thread, a camouflage jacket, and a backpack" on Jan. 6 and also, at times, "donned large, clear goggles with a blast elastic strap." He entered the Capitol about four minutes after it was first breached by a massive pack of rioters led by Michael Sparks, who jumped through a window smashed in by Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola.

Mastanduno admitted he "was at the front of a line of rioters who overwhelmed police officers in the Crypt" and then joined the mob outside the Capitol by the lower west terrace, where some of the most brutal violence of the day took place. Mastanduno admitted that he "picked up and threw a blue, flagpole-like object into the mouth of the tunnel, as if throwing a javelin or spear toward the line of outnumbered police officers who were defending the Capitol against the mass of rioters."


Anthony Mastanduno carries a shield at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Minutes later, Mastanduno admitted, he "obtained a police shield that had been stolen from the officers, which he used to push against the same line of officers at the mouth of the tunnel. While he pushed, he also utilized a telescoping baton, which can be worn on one’s hip and which expands in length, to strike at officers multiple times."

The plea from "Shield Grampy" came one day after another rioter given the nickname "Conan O'Riot" because of his resemblance to former late night host Conan O'Brien pleaded guilty to one charge.

More than 1,300 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and more than 950 defendants have been convicted. Nearly 500 defendants have been sentenced to periods of incarceration, including a record-setting 22-year sentence for Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio.

Mastanduno's plea also came the same day that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2024, just over three years after the Senate GOP leader said that there was "no question" that Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for provoking the Jan. 6 attack.

"The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," McConnell said after the Jan. 6 attack, calling Trump's conduct "disgraceful," though he voted to acquit the former president in his insurrection impeachment trial.

Social media posts cited by the FBI in Mastanduno's case indicate that he deeply believed Trump's lies about the 2020 presidential election. “I hated Obama and hated his politics but still considered him my president because he won honestly," Mastanduno wrote. “My Trump flag [will] fly high and proud in my front yard till 1/20/2025.”
_________


"I hated Obama and hated his politics but still considered him my president because he won honestly"

And let me guess, you bet you'd really enjoy having a beer with him too.

[TopHatter]

Indiana man pleads guilty to assaulting police with baton and makeshift weapons during Capitol riot


Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. An Indiana man has pleaded guilty to using a metal baton, a lamp and other makeshift weapons to assault police officers who were protecting the U.S. Capitol from a mob of Donald Trump supporters. Curtis Logan Tate struck at least two officers with the baton that he brought to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tate pleaded guilty on Thursday to felony assault charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Indiana man pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges that he used a metal baton, a lamp and other makeshift weapons to assault police officers who were protecting the U.S. Capitol from a mob of Donald Trump supporters.

Curtis Logan Tate, 32, struck at least two officers with the baton that he brought to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, hitting one in the hand and the other repeatedly on the helmet.

Tate also threw a broken table leg, a floor lamp, a speaker box and a shoe at officers guarding a tunnel entrance on the Capitol's Lower West Terrace. He struck a third officer's arm and damaged a window when he threw the speaker box.

Tate pleaded guilty to three felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police using a deadly or dangerous weapon, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to sentence Tate on July 9. Sentencing guidelines call for Tate to receive a term of imprisonment ranging from five years and three months to six years and six months, although the judge isn't bound by that recommendation.

Tate lived in Jeffersonville, Indiana — near Louisville, Kentucky — when he and a friend traveled to Washington to attend then-President Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6. He posted several videos on Instagram as he stormed the Capitol with other rioters.

Tate was arrested in August 2023 in Wilmington, North Carolina. A federal magistrate judge ordered him to remain jailed until his case is resolved.

In March 2023, USA Today interviewed Tate for a story about Capitol rioters who had been identified by online sleuths but not yet arrested. Tate acknowledged that he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he denied assaulting anyone.

“I would never hurt an officer. I come from a military background, I’m very respectful of our military and police,” he told the newspaper.

A defense attorney who represented Tate at Thursday’s hearing didn’t immediately respond to an email and telephone call seeking comment.

More than 1,300 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 750 of them have pleaded guilty. Nearly 200 more have been convicted after trials decided by a judge or jury. More than 800 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
___________

“I would never hurt an officer. I come from a military background, I’m very respectful of our military and police”

Unless of course your cult leader demanded that you FIGHT LIKE HELL, right?

[TopHatter]

Trump supporter charged with firing a gun during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack

WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump enthusiast who appeared to fire two gunshots at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested by federal authorities on Friday.

NBC News identified John Emanuel Banuelos two years ago as the man in photos and video footage who appeared to be flashing a gun in his waistband as he fought officers on Jan. 6, 2021.

Last month, Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans, who is now running in a Republican House primary in West Virginia, published previously unseen video that appeared to show that Banuelos actually fired his weapon twice outside the Capitol that day. Online "sedition hunters" who have aided the FBI in hundreds of arrests of Capitol rioters — and who first sent Banuelos' name to the FBI in February 2021 — quickly surfaced additional footage that confirmed that Banuelos was the man who appeared to have fired the weapon.

Banuelos, 39, now lives in Summit, Illinois, and he made his first appearance in federal court in Illinois on Friday after his arrest.


John Emanuel Banuelos

Banuelos, as NBC News reported in conjunction with NBC affiliate KSL, was arrested about six months after the Capitol attack, when he fatally stabbed a 19-year-old in a park in Utah on July 4, 2021. Banuelos was not charged in that attack because he claimed self-defense, but he told investigators that he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and had displayed his weapon.

“Man, should I just tell the FBI to come get me or what?" he said in the interview with Salt Lake City police, police records show.

While numerous rioters were armed with guns on Jan. 6, none were known to have actually fired their weapons; Banuelos is the first to be charged with doing so. The shots he allegedly fired outside the Capitol came at 2:34 p.m., which is about 10 minutes before Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot as she breached a window leading into the Speaker's Lobby. That means it was a member of the pro-Trump mob — not law enforcement — that fired the first gunshot of the day.

Charging documents say that Banuelos "can be seen waving the crowd towards him before pulling what appears to be a firearm from his waistband."


John Emanuel Banuelos

The FBI affidavit said that the footage published by Evans, as well as CCTV footage highlighted by NBC News last month, showed Banuelos "raising the gun over his head, and, at approximately 2:34 p.m., firing two shots into the air."

The FBI special agent who signed the affidavit said that based on their training and experience with firearms, Banuelos' "actions and the object he is holding is consistent with an operable firearm." The FBI affidavit also notes the bureau received a tip from someone who personally knew Banuelos in February 2021. The person, who had known Banuelos for numerous years, told the bureau that Banuelos said he was in a Vice video about the Capitol attack.


John Emanuel Banuelos

Last year, according to the FBI, Banuelos posted a video on X that appeared to show him racking a semi-automatic weapon, in response to a post that included an FBI poster featuring his image. Banuelos, in an interview with the FBI, "denied intending to threaten anyone and claimed that many of his posts were done by artificial intelligence" and "stated that any weapons seen in his posts on X were fake and/or done by artificial intelligence."

This week, an Instagram account under Banuelos' name responded to a request for comment from NBC News that was sent last month after the footage of the gunshots emerged. "The only thing I would like to say is that there's a war going on between the truths of God and the lies of this world the flesh and the devil," the account under Banuelos' name wrote. "And my personal mantra that goes like this God first, think twice moved once, to be aware is to be alive!"

More than 1,300 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and more than a dozen people were arrested this week alone. Prosecutors have secured more than 950 convictions, and about 500 people have been sentenced to periods of incarceration ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison.
_________

[TopHatter]

Jan. 6 rioter holding 'stop the steal' sign swung at officers with a Trump flag, FBI says

WASHINGTON — A man arrested on Thursday in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol assaulted law enforcement officers with a Donald Trump flag while holding a "stop the steal" sign, according to an FBI affidavit.

The case, along with several more arrests this week, once again underlines the motivation of the violent pro-Trump mob that attacked officers and tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power, even as Trump supporters continue to spread conspiracy theories baselessly blaming left-wing activists and federal agents.

Lance Ligocki, who had been nicknamed “Full Flag Suit" by online sleuths because of the stars and stripes he wore that day, was arrested in Illinois on Thursday, according to court records. He faces felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers as well as obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, and other misdemeanor charges.

NBC News has reached out to a federal public defender who represented Ligocki during his initial appearance in federal court in Illinois.

Lance Ligocki, dressed in an outfit depicting the U.S. flag, at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ligocki, according to an FBI affidavit, "was observed approaching the Lower West Terrace entryway of the Capitol building and swinging a pole with a 'Trump' flag at law enforcement officers three times while carrying a 'Stop the Steal' sign."

The FBI obtained a search warrant for Ligocki's Facebook account and obtained numerous images and a video confirming his "attendance at and participation in protest events at and near the U.S. Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021, as well as his distinctive apparel from that day."


Lance Ligocki on Jan. 6. 2021

One of the images cited by the FBI shows Ligocki posing at Peace Circle, where rioters first breached the restricted grounds of the U.S Capitol, and another features him posing in front of the inauguration platform.

In messages, according to the FBI, Ligocki described Jan. 6 as "awesome" and said they "did breech the capital," misspelling both "breach" and "Capitol." He also called Trump "a lone Wolf" and then-Vice President Mike Pence "a snake."

“Everyone I seen is ready to fight," Ligocki wrote, according to the FBI. "No one wants to talk anymore. I see a civil war of some sort coming."

At the time of his arrest on Thursday, Ligocki's Facebook page featured a photo of him wearing a comically oversized "Make America Great Again" hat, wearing a Trump shirt, and standing in front of a truck featuring six large Trump flags as well as a flag expressing, in vulgar terms, his disagreement with President Joe Biden. The FBI affidavit features another image from his Facebook page, in which Ligocki is sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle while holding a miniature Trump statue and wearing a hat with "TRUMP" written in black on the underside of the brim of an American flag hat. Ligocki appears to have worn the same hat to the Capitol on Jan. 6.


Lance Ligocki holds a statue while sitting in a car.

Hours after Ligocki's arrest, President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union address that Trump and some of his supporters in Congress wanted to continue to obfuscate what happened on Jan. 6.

“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6," Biden said. "I will not do that. This is a moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies. Here's the simple truth: You can't love your country only when you win."

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, and more than half a dozen arrests took place on Thursday alone.

Donald Moss and James Behymer of Indiana were arrested on felony charges, accused of assaulting officers near the lower west terrace on Jan. 6. Indiana resident Annie Vo, whose son Antony Vo was convicted at trial last year and is set to be sentenced on April 10, was arrested on misdemeanor charges. Richard Staples was arrested in Alaska, with authorities saying he climbed through a broken window on Jan. 6. Ivan Todd, a Florida man, was also arrested on Jan. 6 charges. Charges were also unsealed against Jan. 6 defendants Jennifer Mitchell, John Flanagan, Sarah Flanagan and Jason Griffin, the latter of whom allegedly confessed to the FBI that he recalled being hit by pepper balls and tear gas and hearing law enforcement tell the mob to disperse before he and others breached the Capitol.

David Kuntz, an Indiana militia member who went by the name "Reaper," was also arrested Thursday and charged with the felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding, with federal authorities saying Kuntz was wearing a black tactical vest when he called out "f--- the police!" as rioters stormed into the Capitol. Court documents indicated that Kuntz originally planned to make "a big stand" on inauguration day, telling supporters they were "going fully armed" and that they should "be ready to not go home if something goes down." After Trump's infamous "will be wild" tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, inviting people to Washington for the Electoral College count, Kuntz shifted his focus to Jan. 6.

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, federal authorities in California arrested Kayla Reifschneider, a 27-year-old California woman who accompanied the rioter who drove a stun gun into Officer Michael Fanone's neck on Jan. 6 on their trip to Washington. Reifschneider was in the "PATRIOTS45 MAGA Gang" group along with that rioter, Daniel "D.J" Rodriguez, as well as Ed Badalian, a Jan. 6 rioter who said at his sentencing that he was "frustrated” that officers "did not join us in arresting the traitors" on Jan. 6.

Several Jan. 6 defendants pleaded guilty this week, including rioters nicknamed "Shield Grampy" and “Conan O’Riot." Curtis Tate, a rioter arrested in August, admitted to assaulting officers with a metal baton on Jan. 6, and Marcus Martin admitted to assaulting an officer by pushing his body onto an officer and using his body weight to pin the officer to the ground near his head.

Federal prosecutors have secured more than 950 convictions of Jan. 6 defendants, and about 500 defendants have been sentenced to periods of incarceration that have ranged from just a few days to 22 years in federal prison.
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[TopHatter]

Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro sentenced to 4 months in prison over House Jan. 6 probe

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.


“I am willing to go to prison to settle this issue,” Navarro said in September.
_________

Wish granted, asshole.

Peter Navarro ordered to prison on March 19

Peter Navarro, once an economic adviser to former President Trump, has been ordered to report to a Miami prison March 19 to begin serving a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Navarro, 74, was convicted last year on two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the probe and another for skipping his deposition.

His lawyers wrote in a Sunday court filing that a federal appeals court should temporarily put his sentence on hold while he appeals his conviction. If that effort fails, he could become the first key Trump adviser to serve jail time over efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw Navarro’s trial, declined to allow the Trump ally to stay out of prison while the appellate process plays out.

Navarro’s counsel had argued that the question of executive privilege, which Navarro claimed Trump invoked over any testimony to the House Jan. 6 panel, rises to that threshold.

The judge disagreed, ruling last month that Navarro’s appeal does not raise a “substantial question of law” and therefore doesn’t warrant his release.

Ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon was also convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year and sentenced to four months in prison, but a different judge said he could remain free pending appeal. Bannon argued his case before a federal appeals court in November and still has not served any time.

At trial, prosecutors asserted Navarro showed “utter disregard” for the House committee’s probe and “utter contempt for the rule of law.”

“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.”

Navarro told the judge during his sentencing he had an “honest belief” that executive privilege had been invoked by Trump — a matter Mehta precluded him from using as a defense at trial.

The ex-Trump adviser’s lawyers wrote court filings that Mehta’s decision “hamstrung” Navarro’s defense by leaving open the question of whether a president can direct his subordinates not to testify before Congress.

After his conviction last year, Navarro told reporters his case could reach the Supreme Court due to the questions it raises about executive privilege for high-ranking White House staff.
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[TopHatter]

The hunt for the January 6 DC pipe bomber continues. Could a Congressional hearing unearth new information?


Donald Trump supporters scale the US Capitol scaffolding on 6 January 2021

This week, a US House of Representatives committee will hold a hearing on a three-year unsolved mystery: The 6 January pipe bombs.

During the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021, authorities identified two pipe bombs in Washington DC: one outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) building, the other outside the Republican National Committee (RNC) building.

As of March 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) still has not released a suspect’s name.

Now, the House Administration Committee’s oversight subcommittee will conduct the hearing, titled “Three Years Later: Assessing the Law Enforcement Response to Multiple Pipe Bombs on January 6, 2021,” on 12 March.

The Republican-led subcommittee will call several witnesses, including a former FBI Master Bomb Technician, the CEO of the United States Bomb Technician Association, and a former K-9 Detection Trainer for the Washington, DC transportation authority.

Here’s everything we know so far about the pipe bombs and the lawmakers investigating the response to the incident:

Two pipe bombs may have diverted resources from the Capitol on 6 January
Several months after the 6 January riots, the FBI released footage of a suspect placing one of the pipe bombs outside of the DNC on the evening of 5 January 2021. The FBI suspects the same individual placed the second bomb outside the RNC, located just minutes away.

The bombs were reportedly made with galvanised pipes, a kitchen timer and gunpowder.

Authorities first discovered the explosives just minutes before rioters stormed the Capitol, prompting concerns the bombs were planted as a distraction. The bomb near the RNC headquarters was first spotted by Karlin Younger of Wisconsin, who was walking by the site and noticed the explosive.


Donald Trump supporters scale the US Capitol scaffolding on 6 January 2021

Around the same time, a “suspicious package” — the pipe bomb — had been discovered at the DNC headquarters, prompting an evacuation.

Where does the investigation into the pipe bombs stand?
Now, more than three years later, the FBI has yet to release any information on a suspect. In 2023, authorities raised the reward for information regarding the bombs from $100,000 to $500,000 — in January, they released a statement that the award remains in effect.

“Although these bombs did not detonate, it is important to remember the suspect walked along residential and commercial areas in Capitol Hill just blocks from the U.S. Capitol with viable pipe bombs that could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders,” the FBI said in a statement earlier this year. “Moreover, the suspect may still pose a danger to the public or themselves.”

John Iannarelli, a retired FBI agent, previously told The Independent the footage indicates the suspect went to great lengths to conceal their identity.

“This person also, as evidenced by their planning, went to pretty good lengths to conceal themselves. I mean, it was cold at night, but yet you see other people out and their faces aren’t completely covered. They’re not wearing glasses, sunglasses at nighttime,” he told The Independent.

Last year, conspiracy theories circulated suggesting that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene — a staunch Trump-ally and MAGA-aligned Republican — could be the suspect.


Marjorie Taylor Greene pictured at the State of the Union 2024

Ms Greene — who has spread her fair share of unfounded theories, including the baseless claim that a Jewish space laser caused a California wildfire — called the claims “pathetic.”

“Here is a perfect example of one of many absolutely stupid conspiracy theories about me,” Ms Greene said. “You have to be a completely delusional moron to believe this.”

“Laughable and pathetic,” she continued. “The FBI never followed up on the video footage of the pipe bomber, even though they have the license plate and car identified.”

Mr Iannarelli also said that the lack of an arrest does not indicate this case is a low priority for the FBI.

“Everything that could be done was being done, I’m sure. That includes obtaining surveillance video. It wasn’t uncommon that I would knock on doors looking for people who had cameras that we could pull footage from,” he previously told The Independent. “I’m certain all of that was done at the time.”

Who is leading the hearing on the 6 January pipe bombs?
Representative Barry Loudermilk, a Republican from Georgia, is the chair of the committee and will lead Tuesday’s hearing.

Mr Loudermilk is best known for giving a “not typical” tour of the US Capitol on 5 January 2021, which some lawmakers on the committee investigating the riots said raised “concerns” about the attendees’ “activity and intent.”

These allegations arose after video footage captured the tour group taking photos of “areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.” The Congressman, meanwhile, said the tour attendees were photographing children’s artwork. However, the 6 January committee presented evidence that one of the tour attendees was present for the 6 January riots.

The Georgia Representative later targeted the Democrat-led committee that investigated 6 January, calling for an investigation into the members soon after they released the 5 January tour footage.

Mr Loudermilk made it clear in a statement Tuesday that his goal is to scrutinize the findings of the investigation under Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the last Congress.

“The Subcommittee on Oversight is investigating the security failures of January 6th which House Democrats failed to investigate in the 117th Congress,” a statement from the House Administration Subcomittee on Oversight read. “We are focused on identifying and reviewing the numerous security failures on and leading up to, January 6, 2021, and reviewing the creation, operation, and claims made by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.”
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MTG wouldn't know a pipe bomb from a crack pipe. Those bombs were planted by the Trump's usual militias, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers etc.