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The Seventh of January 2021 Afterwards

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  • #16
    U.S. Capitol Police officer cleared of wrongdoing in fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt during Capitol attack

    U.S. Capitol Police officer cleared of wrongdoing in fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt during Capitol attack



    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...46d_story.html
    http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2726#post22726

    A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing for fatally shooting Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to breach a set of doors deep in the Capitol during the January siege, federal prosecutors in D.C. announced Wednesday.

    Authorities determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove Babbitt’s civil rights were violated, and that it was reasonable for the officer to believe he was firing in self-defense or in defense of members of Congress and aides who were fleeing the House chamber. Prosecutors did not identify the officer.

    The killing of the 35-year-old California native became one of the defining moments of the riot, after graphic videos of her shooting spread across social media and were replayed by news outlets.

    Justice Department closes investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt

    Prosecutors notified a representative of Babbitt’s family of its findings Wednesday, the office of acting U.S. attorney Channing Phillips of D.C. said in a statement. The statement said the U.S. attorney’s office and the Justice Department have closed the investigation, “acknowledging the tragic loss of life and offering condolences” to Babbitt’s family.

    Roger Witthoeft, Babbitt’s brother, said he was not happy that prosecutors decided not to charge the officer.

    “In my eyes, everyone should stand before a jury to face justice. That decision shouldn’t be made behind the scenes. I think he should at least stand trial,” Witt*hoeft said.

    “I love my sister and I’ll always remember her as a decent woman and patriot,” he said.

    Trump supporters who gathered to protest the certification of Joe Biden as the next U.S. President describe how they view the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. (Joyce Koh, Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

    Mark E. Schamel, the Capitol Police officer’s attorney, credited his client with showing great restraint.

    “His bravery on January 6 was nothing short of heroic,” Schamel said in a statement. “He stopped the rioters from gaining entry into the Speaker’s Lobby and saved the lives of countless members of Congress and the rioters. His heroism should be no surprise to those who know him.”

    To convict law enforcement officers of civil rights violations, including shootings resulting in death, prosecutors must be able to prove that an officer used “objectively unreasonable” force and “willfully” used more force than he thought was necessary. The high bar of willfulness makes bringing charges against an officer difficult, and Wednesday’s outcome was not unexpected by legal observers under the circumstances.

    Multiple cellphone videos captured the shooting as it unfolded on the afternoon of Jan. 6. Babbitt and a group of other rioters made their way inside the Capitol to barricaded doors leading to the Speaker’s Lobby, which is the hallway outside the House chamber where some lawmakers were sheltering during the siege.

    Videos show the group pummeling the wood-and-glass doors with a helmet, feet and a flagpole. A Capitol Police officer in a suit and a surgical mask is seen standing in a doorway on the far side of the doors with his gun drawn.

    Woman fatally shot as pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol identified as Air Force veteran

    The officer opened fire as Babbitt, who was wearing a Trump flag like a cape, attempted to crawl through one of the broken panes of the Speaker’s Lobby doors, video shows. Babbitt, who was hit in the shoulder, tumbled backward onto the floor.

    The attorney for the officer, a lieutenant, said in a statement that the officer clearly identified himself and ordered rioters not to pass a barricade at the doors of the Speaker’s Lobby before firing. Other officers had also ordered Babbitt to stop and she broke multiple laws in attempting to enter the Speaker’s Lobby, according to the statement.

    A group that included officers, rioters and a Hill staffer rushed to her aid, video shows. Two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation have said that Babbitt was unarmed. She later died.

    Babbitt was one of five people who authorities said died amid the chaos of the Capitol siege, including Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, whose remains lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda in early February.

    In death, Babbitt has become a martyr to many on the far right. Some even fashioned a flag that features a silhouette of a woman in front of a Capitol that is aflame. Below, it reads “Vengeance.”

    Video shows fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol

    Federal prosecutors have charged at least eight people who were in the crowd around Babbitt in the moments before she was shot. They include Christopher Ray Grider, a Texas winery owner who is accused of trying to kick in the Speaker’s Lobby doors; Zachary Jordan Alam, of Pennsylvania, who is accused of smashing the glass pane Babbitt attempted to crawl through; and Chad Barrett Jones, of Kentucky, who is accused of smashing another pane with a wood stick that had a Trump flag attached.

    Authorities had suggested the possibility of bringing felony murder charges against rioters if Babbitt’s death was a foreseeable consequence of felony conduct by others, according to a person familiar with the matter. But they have since ruled out that possibility, given case law that allows such charges only in instances when an accomplice is responsible for a victim’s death, not a law enforcement officer.

    D.C. police are required by law to identify officers involved in serious uses of force within five business days of an incident. They are also required to release video from body cameras of the officers directly involved. The law only applies to D.C. police. Capitol Police are not equipped with body cameras.

    The law firm representing the officer said it was keeping his name confidential because he has faced death threats.

    Witthoeft, Babbitt’s brother, said it was “appalling” that the officer’s name had not been released “in this age when everything is public record.”

    The three-month investigation was conducted by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office’s public corruption and civil rights section. The Justice Department’s civil rights division and the D.C. police internal affairs bureau reviewed social media video footage, statements by witnesses including the shooter and other officers, physical evidence, and autopsy results, prosecutors said.

    Criminal charges against police officers involved in on-duty fatalities are rare in the District. City records show that prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office have never filed criminal charges against a D.C. police officer involved in a fatal on-duty shooting. Such historical data was not available regarding officers from other agencies.

    Babbitt hailed from the San Diego area and became an ardent supporter of QAnon, an extremist ideology that the FBI has deemed a domestic terrorism threat, and a backer of President Donald Trump, her since-deleted Twitter account showed. She often echoed Trump’s baseless claims that November’s presidential election was stolen.

    “Nothing will stop us . . . they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours . . . dark to light!” Babbitt tweeted the day before she died.

    Ashli Babbitt’s journey from capital ‘guardian’ to invader

    Babbitt spent more than a decade in the military, first in the Air Force and then in the Air National Guard, but she had discipline problems and didn’t advance far. Her ex-husband, Timothy McEntee, has said she served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    After leaving the military in 2016, Babbitt started a pool business with family members that struggled financially, and her Twitter account shows she became more interested in online misinformation and conservative causes.

    In one video posted to social media, Babbitt rants loudly about the effects of immigrants on the U.S. economy. In a tweet, she called for then-Vice President Mike Pence to be arrested and charged with treason, presumably for not being supportive enough of Trump’s baseless claims of electoral fraud.

    “She was never afraid to speak her mind,” McEntee told The Washington Post in a January text message.

    Babbitt seemed to derive a sense of mission from the Jan. 6 protest. In the days leading up to it, she retweeted messages from other demonstrators who were traveling to Washington.

    One read: “It will be 1776 all over again . . . only bigger and better.”





    Meercat with tits!!!

    Comment


    • #17
      Armed ‘quick reaction force’ was waiting for order to storm Capitol, Justice Dept. says

      Armed ‘quick reaction force’ was waiting for order to storm Capitol, Justice Dept. says


      https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...6d3_story.html
      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2728#post22728


      As the Capitol was overrun on Jan. 6, armed supporters of President Donald Trump were waiting across the Potomac in Virginia for orders to bring guns into the fray, a prosecutor said Wednesday in federal court.

      The Justice Department has repeatedly highlighted comments from some alleged riot participants who discussed being part of a “quick reaction force” with stashes of weapons. Defendants have dismissed those conversations as bluster. But in a detention hearing for Kenneth Harrelson, accused of conspiring with other members of the Oath Keepers militia group to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Nestler said the government has evidence indicating otherwise.

      “This is not pure conjecture,” Nestler said. In a court filing this week, he noted, prosecutors obtained cellphone and video evidence from the day before the riot showing that Harrelson asked someone about the quick reaction force. He then went to a Comfort Inn in the Ballston area of Arlington for about an hour before driving into D.C., prosecutors said. The day after the riot, surveillance video from the hotel shows him moving “what appears to be at least one rifle case down a hallway and towards the elevator,” according to the court records.

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      Many have argued that President Donald Trump's efforts amounted to an attempted coup on Jan. 6. Was it? And why does that matter? (Monica Rodman, Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)
      In court, Nestler said another Oath Keeper carried what appeared to be a rifle under a sheet out of the hotel on Jan. 7.

      U.S. Capitol Police officer cleared of wrongdoing in fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt during Capitol attack

      “We believe that at least one quick reaction force location was here and that Mr. Harrelson and others had stashed a large amount of weapons there,” Nestler said. “People affiliated with this group were in Ballston, monitoring what was happening at the Capitol and prepared to come into D.C. and ferry these weapons into the ground team that Kenneth Harrelson was running at a moment’s notice, if anyone said the word.”

      Nestler did not detail the number of guns the group is alleged to have stashed.

      Judge Amit Mehta called the evidence among the “most troubling and most disconcerting” he has seen in nearly a dozen cases related to Oath Keepers.

      National Guard members on duty near the Capitol.
      National Guard members on duty near the Capitol. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
      It is “the strongest evidence that the government has presented that there was a quick reaction force outside the District of Columbia, the location of the quick reaction force and that members of this conspiracy provided weapons to this quick reaction force,” he said. Harrelson, he added, “clearly is prepared to have weapons at the ready for violent conduct.”

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      Harrelson was a high-ranking member of the Oath Keepers, prosecutors said, in regular contact with group leader Stewart Rhodes. While members use the jargon and trappings of a paramilitary organization, in practice the group is made up of loosely connected chapters united by a right-wing ideology.

      In conversations after the riot produced in court documents, Harrelson and others argued over the group’s leadership and direction.

      “Look, I WAS THERE. I WAS RIGHT OUSIDE. Patriots stormed in. NotAntifa. And I don’t blame them,” wrote Rhodes, identified as Person Number One in documents.

      “This organization is a huge . . . joke,” someone replied.

      Harrelson, a 41-year-old Army veteran, subsequently apologized to Rhodes in a message on an encrypted chat service for not “step[ping] up to the plate” on Jan. 6.

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      “Not your fault, my fault,” Rhodes said, adding that he should have “held a mandatory meeting” the night before the riot and given out operating orders.

      Harrelson deleted other communications, and Mehta found that Harrelson was “deceptive” in claiming he had left the group.

      Defense attorney Nina Ginsberg argued that the commentary both on and after Jan. 6 indicates a lack of planning.

      Calls, texts by Oath Keepers founder contain ‘substantial evidence’ of Capitol conspiracy, prosecutors allege

      “It’s kind of difficult to imagine how people could have been effectively communicating with each other in the midst of that mob,” she said. “There was no preplanned agreement to overtake the Capitol, to storm the building, to force entry into the building, but that this was something that evolved as it was occurring.”

      She said any inference about plans for armed backup at the Capitol was “speculation.”

      In a court filing last month, the defense attorney for one of Harrelson’s alleged co-conspirators said the quick reaction force was “one person” who is “in his late 60s, obese, and has cardio-pulmonary issues, a bad back, a bum knee, and is need of a hip replacement.”

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      The person described in that filing has not been charged, and there is no evidence that any backup force arrived at the Capitol with weapons on Jan. 6.

      In court filings, prosecutors have quoted Rhodes messaging the group in advance about preparations for “worst-case scenarios,” writing, “We will have several well equipped QRFs outside DC.”

      Rhodes also recommended helmets, hard gloves, eye protection and weapons, according to prosecutors, writing: “Collapsible Batons are a grey area in the law. I bring one. But I’m willing to take that risk because I love em.”

      Rhodes, who has not been charged with any crimes, has denied a plan to enter the Capitol and accused prosecutors of trying to manufacture a conspiracy.

      In interviews, Rhodes has said that the national Oath Keepers organization never did muster a quick reaction force for Jan. 6, and that some members and their associates “went off mission.”

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      Police on Jan. 6 charged only a handful of firearms offenses in Capitol-related cases. Because so few arrests were made on the scene that day, however, investigators say the true number of rioters who were carrying firearms will never be known.

      In charging papers, the FBI and Justice Department allege that many defendants discussed bringing firearms to Washington, as well as not carrying them to the Capitol because of the District’s gun laws.

      Oath Keepers founder, associates exchanged 19 calls from start of Jan. 6 riot through breach, prosecutors allege

      One of those arrested late Jan. 6 for not leaving Capitol grounds was Maryland tow truck driver Christopher Alberts. Police said they stopped him outside the building carrying a loaded black Taurus G2C 9mm handgun on his hip and a loaded, 12-round spare magazine in separate holsters, along with a gas mask, pocket knife and first-aid kit.

      The oldest detained defendant, Lonnie L. Coffman, 70, of Alabama was arrested after returning to his truck parked near the Capitol, where police allegedly found 11 homemade, molotov cocktail-type incendiary devices, a rifle, shotgun, two 9mm pistols, a .22-caliber pistol — all loaded — as well as a crossbow, several machetes, a stun gun and smoke devices. Prosecutors alleged that the 11 jars were made with gasoline and melted plastic foam to produce a dangerous “napalm-like” explosion of sticky, flammable liquid.

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      Other charging and detention documents allege that many defendants discussed leaving weapons in vehicles, parking lots, hotel rooms, bags or with others to ensure quick access.

      New York dating coach Samuel Fisher, also known as Brad Holiday, was arrested after allegedly posting on social media photos of himself at the Capitol and with firearms including a pistol and a rifle.

      “If it kicks off I got a Vest and My Rifle,” he wrote, according to court documents.

      Prosecutors have alleged that Erik Munchel of Nashville stashed weapons in a tactical bag outside the Capitol before bringing a stun gun inside. A search of his home found a legal arsenal of 15 firearms including assault rifles, a sniper rifle and tripod, other types of rifles, shotguns and pistols, a drum-style magazine, and other magazines and ammunition.

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      Searching the home of Karl Dresch of Calumet, Mich., investigators say they found a backpack containing a Hagerstown, Md., gas station receipt, a Metro transit card, radar detector, handheld radio and 160 rounds of ammunition. In his home they found a 12-gauge shotgun, a Glock pistol, a Remington rifle and a Russian-made AK-47-style rifle compatible with the ammunition.

      A Dresch attorney said the weapons were “the type of ordinary firearms that are commonplace in rural households throughout America.” Attorneys for the other defendants have emphasized that they are not accused of weapons-related crimes.

      D.C. police Officer Daniel Hodges said in a January interview that one reason he did not draw his weapon during the riot was that police understood the crowd to be armed.

      “I knew they had guns — we had been seizing guns all day,” he said. “And the only reason I could think of that they weren’t shooting us was they were waiting for us to shoot first.”




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      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
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      • #18
        Trumptard goes to jail 4 yapping shit

        Trump supporter found guilty of threatening to kill members of Congress after Jan. 6 insurrection


        https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...489_story.html
        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2808#post22808
        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2808#post22808

        NEW YORK — Brendan Hunt, a Trump supporter who called for killing members of Congress days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, was found guilty Wednesday of making a death threat against elected officials.

        The jury, which took about three hours to reach its verdict, found that comments Hunt made in a disturbing video posted online two days after the U.S. Capitol riot amounted to a genuine threat to murder lawmakers in Washington. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

        Hundreds of people have been arrested following the Capitol attack. Although Hunt did not participate in the riot, his case is believed to be the first of those charged in connection with it to go to trial. His prosecution in Brooklyn federal court has been seen as a test of how far violent speech can go before it crosses a line into criminality and comes as such politically charged rhetoric on social media has come under increasing scrutiny.

        Hunt, 37, was charged with one count of making a threat to assault and murder a U.S. official. He was arrested Jan. 19, a day before President Biden’s inauguration, after the FBI received a tip about his video, titled “KILL YOUR SENATORS: Slaughter them all.” The clip had been posted on BitChute, a hosting site popular with far-right conservatives, after the deadly riot in Washington.

        The jury concluded that separate menacing social media posts Hunt made in 2020 — including one directed at Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), then the Senate minority leader, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — did not rise to the level of criminality.

        Hunt’s lawyers had argued that the elected officials he targeted were not aware of his comments at the time, and he did not contact their offices or tag the lawmakers’ social media accounts in any of his controversial posts, according to testimony and evidence presented during the trial. While offensive, his lawyers said, Hunt’s comments, which he made from his home in Queens, were constitutionally protected and not legitimate threats.

        “The fact that [the officials] didn’t see any of those posts because he aimed it at them, because he sent it to them, that’s reason to doubt,” Hunt’s attorney Leticia Olivera argued in summations.

        Hunt’s legal team also tried to distance him from those who participated in the riot — a scene of total mayhem as hundreds of supporters of former president Donald Trump, determined to prevent Congress from tallying the electoral college results, brutalized police and stormed into the Capitol. Hunt, by contrast, was a registered Democrat who voted for President Barack Obama before growing dissatisfied with his policies, the defense attorneys said.

        Prosecutors said during the trial that Hunt’s remarks were specific. He offered detailed descriptions of how he wanted to end the lives of the people he claimed were complicit in “stealing” the election from Trump. To support the case, the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn offered evidence that appeared to illustrate Hunt’s deeply rooted racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic beliefs.

        In the Jan. 8 video message that led to his conviction, Hunt called on followers to return to Washington with weapons on Inauguration Day when members of Congress would be reconvened, to “put some bullets in their [expletive] heads.” By then, he was angry with Republican lawmakers, too, for participating in the certification of Biden’s victory, and his threat appeared to address lawmakers in general.

        “They’re going to come after us . . . so we have to kill them first,” he declared in the video, adding that if anyone watching were to give him a gun, “I’ll go there myself and shoot them and kill them.”

        “We have to take out these senators and then replace them with actual patriots,” he added.

        Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Richardson argued in his summation Tuesday that Hunt was clearly serious when he addressed his followers online: “You know they were true threats because of the calm and confident manner in which he conveyed the ‘Kill Your Senators’ video.” Richardson said Hunt’s statements also rang true because of the “graphic and vivid imagery” he invoked “to place people in fear.”

        Hunt took the witness stand in his defense Tuesday, telling the jury he was not to be taken seriously when he talked about gunning down elected officials. In his testimony, he said his comments were in line with “this sort of rhetoric going on at the time” on the Internet.

        Hunt also said he was heavily using marijuana and alcohol while struggling with depression and boredom during the coronavirus pandemic. He told the jury that the video he posted online after the Capitol riot was filmed while he was under the influence.

        U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen had instructed jurors that while “intoxication in itself is not a legal defense to a criminal charge,” evidence of inhibition by drugs or alcohol can be considered to determine “whether he had intent.”

        Prosecutors pressed Hunt about his apparent fixation with Adolf Hitler and Nazism, and evidence showing he used degrading language to describe immigrants.

        In a text message exchange with his father, John Hunt, a former family court judge, the younger man suggested his family relocate to a “red state with a decent white population that upholds the Constitution.” He called New York City a “jungle” in which he could not find “a suitable white pro-American mate” to have children with, and used slurs for Black people, Jews, Asians and Latinos to describe the city’s diverse population, the evidence showed.

        The Fordham University graduate, who had an administrative job in the New York state court system before his arrest, insisted while on the witness stand that he was just trying to get a rise out of his father.

        A 57-year-old Black woman on the jury, who gave her name as Wendy, said the panel was “on the same page” from the beginning of its deliberations. She identified herself as a hospital worker who is of Caribbean descent and said she was “bothered a lot” by Hunt’s racist rhetoric. His testimony, she added, only revealed “more of him — the kind of person he is.”





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        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
        http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

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        • #19
          Capitol Police must make major cultural shift to confront rising threats, inspector general says

          Capitol Police must make major cultural shift to confront rising threats, inspector general says


          https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...f65_story.html
          http://christian-identity.net/forum/...2863#post22863
          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2863#post22863

          Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton told House lawmakers Monday that the agency must begin to think of itself as a “protective agency” if it is to prevent future attacks on Congress like the one pro-Trump rioters carried out Jan. 6.

          Under questioning from Democrats on the House Administration Committee, Bolton recalled how the Capitol Police presence was suddenly depleted during the insurrection when officers scrambled to respond to reports of pipe bombs near the offices of the Democratic and Republican National Committees, just off the U.S. Capitol campus.

          “Invariably, when there’s an incident, police officers swarm. When you’re in protective mode, you have an area of responsibility,” Bolton explained, noting that a better approach for the Capitol Police would have been to establish a perimeter without diverting forces, instead allowing FBI agents or D.C. police to handle the investigative work off campus. Doing so, he estimated, would have doubled the number of units available to protect the Capitol as the crowd of thousands amassed outside.

          “If those pipe bombs were intended to be a diversion, it worked,” Bolton said.

          Capitol Police, taking heat for Jan. 6, challenges Congress to pay for fixes

          Bolton told lawmakers Monday that the force needs additional resources, including a stand-alone countersurveillance unit, to adequately address a growing number of threats to the U.S. Capitol and those who work there. According to the Capitol Police, there has been a 107 percent increase in such threats in 2021 compared to 2020. Bolton said Monday that the force’s caseload has been steadily increasing since 2017.

          He also faulted outdated guidance and seemingly garbled orders for adding to the sense of chaos on Jan. 6 and the agency’s flailing response as rioters forced their way into the building. He said command and control issues are expected to be the focus of his next interim report, which he estimated would be completed in June, but lawmakers pressed him on such questions nonetheless.

          Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) read to Bolton from a Capitol Police timeline, which she said indicated that a group of about 200 members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence, were allowed to roam the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6 while officers were sent to monitor just “three or four” counterdemonstrators. Federal prosecutors have charged several Proud Boys members in connection with the Capitol riot, including those suspected of leading the stampede that overwhelmed police.

          “Who is responsible for deploying department personnel to monitor three or four counterdemonstrators but not the 200 Proud Boys?” Lofgren asked Boltonthe inspector general.

          Trump’s grip on GOP looms as support falters for independent probe of Capitol riot

          Bolton said he had concerns about the discrepancy — and about the veracity of the Capitol Police’s timeline.

          Lofgren also cited the statement a Capitol Police officer recently gave to the force’s Office of Professional Responsibility, to emphasize her point about how the directions given to officers seemed confusing and discordant.

          During a previous hearing with Bolton, Lofgren shared that the officer, who is with the Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit, testified that a Jan. 6 radio order instructed personnel to look not for pro-Trump rioters, but any “anti-pro-Trump” counterdemonstrator “who wants to start a fight.” The Capitol Police objected to Lofgren’s initial characterization of the officer’s statement.

          Lofgren on Monday quoted the officer at greater length, saying: “I convinced myself that perhaps the mission had changed . . . and the threat was not a high-level threat because of the radio call . . . I automatically realized that there was a disconnect or a miscommunication about the event that is occurring.”

          “And that’s the point,” Lofgren concluded, in her own words.

          Inspector general says police order to hold back riot-control weapons compromised Capitol on Jan. 6

          Much responsibility for enabling improvements will fall to lawmakers, whom Capitol Police leaders have directly challenged to put up the funds necessary to pay for the sweeping cultural, training and staffing changes that Bolton and other outside investigators have recommended.

          Congress is expected to pass a supplemental authorization package to pay for some of the recommended upgrades, but the details of such a bill have not been finalized. House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) indicated last week that she intended to ready a Capitol security funding bill for a floor vote this month. The Democratic-led House’s proposal is expected to clock in at about $2 billion, and it is unclear how much Republican support it may have.

          But even with more funding, it is unclear how swiftly any changes will be able to take place. Earlier this year, a task force led by retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré suggested the Capitol Police need to bring on almost 1,000 new officers to meet the demands of protecting the Capitol and a growing caseload of threats against lawmakers. Such a dramatic expansion would likely take many months, if not years, to complete.

          Lawmakers also expressed concern Monday that other agencies will have to step up their efforts to support the Capitol Police.

          Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.), the House Administration Committee’s ranking Republican, pointed out that while threats against Congress are increasing, arrests and prosecutions of suspected perpetrators are not.

          “I’m very troubled by these disproportionate numbers,” he told Bolton.

          The inspector general suggested that remedying that mismatch “may be more of a resource issue for the Department of Justice.”

          Bolton also told Davis that the Capitol Police are opening regional offices in San Francisco and Miami to help protect members in the field, with plans for three other locations yet to be determined. He suggested those regional offices might help encourage federal prosecutors around the country be more aggressive about pursuing people behind threats to members of Congress.



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          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
          http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

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          • #20
            Hundreds of people stormed the Capitol. Most won’t face hefty prison terms, legal experts say.

            Hundreds of people stormed the Capitol. Most won’t face hefty prison terms, legal experts say.

            Nearly half are charged only with misdemeanors, but those accused of assaulting police could face years in prison.

            Spencer S. Hsu
            May 13, 2021 at 10:45 a.m. CDT



            https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...rs-sentencing/
            http://christian-identity.net/forum/...2878#post22878
            http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2878#post22878

            Although there was great national outrage at the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, nearly half of those charged so far in federal court probably will not face any jail time if they are convicted because they are charged only with misdemeanors, a Washington Post analysis shows.

            About 44 percent of those accused in federal court as of Monday — 181 of 411 defendants — are charged solely with low-level crimes, primarily trespassing or disorderly conduct on restricted grounds, which typically don’t result in a jail or prison sentence for first-time offenders. Most of the Jan. 6 defendants have no serious criminal records.

            The riot “looked awful. It was awful,” said Jay Town, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, who is not involved in the cases. “But the criminal penalties associated with most of the offenses will not likely result in lengthy prison terms, especially if these individuals plead guilty and cooperate. And that’s how our system is supposed to work.”

            Those charged with felonies, such as assaulting police or interfering with the electoral college vote count, face heftier sentences. Even so, the frequently cited maximum sentences of 20 years or 10 years simply don’t apply, according to numerous legal experts. Federal sentencing guidelines set a suggested range of months of incarceration for every crime, based in part on a defendant’s criminal history and the severity of the crime, and that range rarely ventures close to the maximum possible term.

            For example, Jon Ryan Schaffer, wearing a tactical vest and carrying bear spray, pushed his way through the mob outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was among the first group of rioters to breach the building, court records state. The surge overwhelmed a small group of Capitol Police officers, but a blast of irritant spray drove Schaffer back outside after nine minutes, his bear spray still in hand.

            The 53-year-old heavy metal guitarist is the first accused rioter to plead guilty — and to publicly agree to cooperate with prosecutors. Schaffer, of Indiana, last month admitted to obstruction of an official proceeding, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence, and entering a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon, which has a 10-year maximum. But his likely sentence: 41 to 51 months, about 3½ to four years, according to his plea agreement.

            Justice Department officials have promised a relentless effort to identify and hold accountable those who stormed the Capitol, but the question of punishment is not a matter left strictly to prosecutors. Instead, complex federal sentencing guidelines, legal precedent and judges’ discretion are decisive.

            As prosecutors race to meet speedy trial deadlines in one of the largest criminal investigations in American history, they also face a giant management challenge: figuring out which of the more than 400 defendants committed the most serious crimes in the hours-long attack, and how to make fair and consistent plea offers to avoid drowning in trials, former prosecutors said.

            “The only way to handle this is to plead a lot of them out,” said Tom Firestone, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New York who has prosecuted organized-crime cases with dozens, but not hundreds, of defendants.

            “There is a worry about public perception,” Firestone said. “If you plead out 200 people to low-penalty crimes, are [prosecutors] going to be accused of letting half the attackers off? That’s something that has to be worried about. But if they try to charge more than that, or try to convict everyone of felonies, the resources are going to be spread thin, and that could lead to acquittals if prosecutors aren’t adequately prepared. So they’ve got a real challenge in terms of managing this volume of cases.”

            Once someone is convicted in federal court, pretrial services officials use sentencing guidelines to calculate a suggested range of months for incarceration, as devised by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, considering the facts of the case and the defendant’s background and cooperation. Judges rarely stray from the guidelines range, though they can, and both sides may argue for adjustments higher or lower.

            The 53-year-old heavy metal guitarist is the first accused rioter to plead guilty — and to publicly agree to cooperate with prosecutors. Schaffer, of Indiana, last month admitted to obstruction of an official proceeding, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence, and entering a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon, which has a 10-year maximum. But his likely sentence: 41 to 51 months, about 3½ to four years, according to his plea agreement.

            Justice Department officials have promised a relentless effort to identify and hold accountable those who stormed the Capitol, but the question of punishment is not a matter left strictly to prosecutors. Instead, complex federal sentencing guidelines, legal precedent and judges’ discretion are decisive.

            As prosecutors race to meet speedy trial deadlines in one of the largest criminal investigations in American history, they also face a giant management challenge: figuring out which of the more than 400 defendants committed the most serious crimes in the hours-long attack, and how to make fair and consistent plea offers to avoid drowning in trials, former prosecutors said.

            “The only way to handle this is to plead a lot of them out,” said Tom Firestone, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New York who has prosecuted organized-crime cases with dozens, but not hundreds, of defendants.

            “There is a worry about public perception,” Firestone said. “If you plead out 200 people to low-penalty crimes, are [prosecutors] going to be accused of letting half the attackers off? That’s something that has to be worried about. But if they try to charge more than that, or try to convict everyone of felonies, the resources are going to be spread thin, and that could lead to acquittals if prosecutors aren’t adequately prepared. So they’ve got a real challenge in terms of managing this volume of cases.”

            Once someone is convicted in federal court, pretrial services officials use sentencing guidelines to calculate a suggested range of months for incarceration, as devised by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, considering the facts of the case and the defendant’s background and cooperation. Judges rarely stray from the guidelines range, though they can, and both sides may argue for adjustments higher or lower.



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            • #21
              ZOGling Whigger Ass-Clown Brags About Being a Trumpster ZOGtard on Insurrection Day, Gets Caged

              ZOGling Whigger Ass-Clown Brags About Being a Trumpster ZOGtard on Insurrection Day, Gets Caged

              He bragged at the dentist’s office about attending the Capitol riot, feds say. A tipster turned him in.



              https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...armus-dentist/
              http://christian-identity.net/forum/...2913#post22913
              http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2913#post22913


              Correction: A previous version of this article identified the person who overheard Daniel Warmus as the dentist’s office as a patient. It’s unclear whether the person was a patient. The error has been corrected.

              Less than a week after the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, someone at a dentist’s office in western New York couldn’t believe what was being said nearby. During a routine checkup on Jan. 12, an individual listened in as an alleged rioter who was getting his teeth cleaned bragged about his breach of the building, according to federal authorities.

              Daniel Warmus, of Alden, N.Y., talked of smoking marijuana inside the Capitol and refusing a police officer’s order to leave the building, and even proudly played a video from Jan. 6, a federal complaint states.

              After an individual “overheard Warmus talking about his experience while at a dentist’s office,” the person, who authorities said wished to remain anonymous, alerted the FBI and passed along Warmus’s phone number and home address. That mundane trip to the dentist’s office led to an investigation that concluded this week with Warmus, 37, in police custody.

              Warmus was arrested Tuesday in Buffalo for his role in the Capitol riot, the Justice Department announced, joining more than 410 people who’ve been arrested since Jan. 6. He’s been charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building without lawful authority and knowingly and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of government business.

              Warmus did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, and it is unclear whether he has an attorney.

              His arrest is the latest in what has become a familiar trend in the past four months of the FBI getting information from just about anyone connected to boastful members of the pro-Trump mob — family members, friends, work colleagues and ex-girlfriends. On May 5, Robert Lee Petrosh was arrested after his mother shared the news of his presence at the Capitol with a friend of hers, which eventually resulted in the FBI’s involvement.

              The Justice Department’s announcement came the same day that Albert Watkins, a lawyer for Jacob Anthony Chansley, often referred to as the “QAnon Shaman,” said his client and many of the other accused Capitol rioters were vulnerable to believing the false claims about election fraud from President Donald Trump. “These are people with brain damage,” Watkins told Talking Points Memo. “These aren’t bad people.”

              Warmus is among more than 30 New Yorkers who have been arrested in connection with the riot, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. He purportedly owns Worm-A-Fix Automotive Repair in nearby Orchard Park, N.Y., business records show. A message left for the business was not immediately returned.

              Warmus, who made the nearly 300-mile journey from western New York apparently in hopes of overturning the election results, was seen wearing a Trump 2020 hat and sweatshirt that read, “CNN is fake news,” and waving a large flag with an expletive directed toward the far-left movement antifa, according to a nine-page statement of facts. Security footage shows that Warmus entered the Capitol at 2:17 p.m. on Jan. 6, authorities say, just minutes after rioters overwhelmed police officers trying to prevent them from entering the building.

              Security images shared by the Justice Department show Warmus entering the Capitol Rotunda and joining the rioters in taking photos and filming video of the scene. An officer is captured on video grabbing Warmus by his backpack before the 37-year-old “pulled away and retreated from the officer,” federal court documents say. Warmus was in the building for 16 minutes before he was seen exiting the building with other rioters at 2:33 p.m., according to authorities.

              At the dentist’s office six days later, the tipster told authorities, Warmus talked about his trip to Washington, claiming to have smoked weed inside the Capitol. Investigators noted that security footage did not show him smoking in or around the building.

              He also allegedly boasted at the dentist’s office about not heeding an officer’s command to exit the Capitol as the mob ran amok.

              “Specifically, the tipster reported that a police officer told Warmus to leave the building, but Warmus refused to leave,” the complaint states.

              The tipster also reported hearing — but not actually seeing — Warmus play a video he took when he was inside the Capitol.

              It is not clear what the relationship is between Warmus and the tipster, authorities said. The FBI noted that the person did not respond to additional questions from authorities after sharing the tip about Warmus.

              Through Verizon phone records obtained via a search warrant, investigators were able to see that Warmus’s cellphone was being used around the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the statement of facts.

              He was to have made his first court appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in western New York, court records show.

              .

              .


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              • #22
                An Old Hen RINO-sore Bellows from Deep in the Swamp

                An Old Hen RINO-sore Bellows from Deep in the Swamp


                https://gab.com/ZOG-Emperor-Drumpf/p...15078475115304
                http://christian-identity.net/forum/...2952#post22952
                http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2952#post22952

                Sen. Murkowski delivers pointed criticism of fellow Republicans, including McConnell -- An Old RINO-sore Bellows from Deep in the Swamp


                Muh Trumptard paleo-proto-possums are chewing on its brain located in its butt. They are little & small & weak but when you have 500,000 of them in her state and all of them are hungry & mean and nothing but hair & hide & bone & teeth being an old irrelevant hen RINO-sore means that they soon will feast on her decaying carcass.


                The Old She-RINOsore is facing a cooling off world in which it no longer is relevant.


                The GenX MAGA-raptors are gathering to pull her down, pore old weak sick dying irrelevant thing. So she hides in her home in the District of Corruption Swamp and bellows with her fellow Demo-swamp Demosores at the cummin' of the Darkness.


                Life is tough. But life is especially tough, impossibly tough when you are old & senile & largely irrelevant & cut off from your base. She might as well retire along with the rest of the RINO-sores like Blunt, Portman, Barr, etc. rather than turn Demosore.


                Her time is nearly up. She is a curiousity from a different age who was surplus from when she began.


                An Old RINO-sore Bellows from Deep in the Swamp.


                Hail Victory !!!


                The ZOG-Emperor Drumpf
                #45 & #47

                https://www.washingtonpost.com/power...6ff_story.html




                Follow Me on Gab:

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                I'll get Banned on Twatter, cum-cum, cum-cum!!!


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                • #23
                  Four more indicted in alleged Jan. 6 Oath Keepers conspiracy to obstruct election vote in Congress

                  Four more indicted in alleged Jan. 6 Oath Keepers conspiracy to obstruct election vote in Congress


                  https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...6ff_story.html
                  http://christian-identity.net/forum/...2961#post22961
                  http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...2961#post22961



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                  • #24
                    Anti-ZOG whigger piglice get fucked too !!!

                    Anti-ZOG whigger piglice get fucked too !!!

                    Chicago officer charged in Jan. 6 riot wore a police sweatshirt to the Capitol, U.S. alleges

                    By Tom Jackman
                    June 11, 2021 at 6:28 p.m. CDT



                    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...ba6_story.html
                    http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3012#post23012
                    http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3013#post23013


                    A Chicago police officer was arrested Friday morning and charged with two misdemeanor counts tied to his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, where he apparently wore a Chicago police sweatshirt and took a selfie inside a senator’s office.

                    Karol J. Chwiesiuk, 29, was charged after FBI agents learned his phone had been inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and then found photos he had sent to a friend along with texts such as “We inside the capitol” and “Knocked out a commie last night,” according to court documents.

                    At a news conference Friday afternoon, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said he was informed by the FBI on June 2 that Chwiesiuk was under investigation and immediately removed his police powers, though the officer wasn’t arrested for another nine days.

                    “The fact that a Chicago police officer has been charged in that attack on American democracy,” Brown said, “makes my blood boil.”

                    Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a number of Chicago civil rights leaders, including Jesse Jackson, appeared at the news conference to denounce the sentiments allegedly expressed by Chwiesiuk, an officer for two years.

                    “You will not be paid by the taxpayers of this community,” Lightfoot said, “to be a hateful member of our community.”

                    An attorney for Chwiesiuk could not be immediately reached.

                    Chwiesiuk is charged with knowingly entering or remaining on restricted grounds without lawful entry, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. He is not accused of attacking police or vandalizing property.

                    Chwiesiuk appears to be at least the 19th current or former member of law enforcement to be arrested in the investigation into Jan. 6. On Thursday, a former police chief in La Habra, Calif., Alan Hostetter, also was arrested.




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                    • #25
                      Letters from a D.C. Jail

                      Letters from a D.C. Jail

                      The rule of law for anyone involved in the events of January 6 has been flipped on its head by the U.S. justice system; defendants are presumed guilty before proven innocent.

                      By Julie Kelly, July 10, 2021



                      https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/10/l...om-a-d-c-jail/
                      http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3016#post23016
                      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3016#post23016


                      This week, five Republican senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding his office’s handling of January 6 protesters. The letter revealed the senators are aware that several Capitol defendants charged with mostly nonviolent crimes are being held in solitary confinement conditions in a D.C. jail used exclusively to house Capitol detainees.

                      Joe Biden’s Justice Department routinely requests—and partisan Beltway federal judges routinely approve—pre-trial detention for Americans arrested for their involvement in the January 6 protest. This includes everyone from an 18-year-old high school senior from Georgia to a 70-year-old Virginia farmer with no criminal record.

                      It is important to emphasize that the accused have languished for months in prison before their trials even have begun. Judges are keeping defendants behind bars largely based on clips selectively produced by the government from a trove of video footage under protective seal and unavailable to defense lawyers and the public—and for the thoughtcrime of doubting the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

                      The rule of law for anyone involved in the events of January 6 has been flipped on its head by the U.S. justice system; defendants are presumed guilty before proven innocent. The right to a speedy trial and the right to participate in one’s own defense are ignored, as are other constitutional protections.

                      Prosecutors insist the alleged crimes committed by Capitol protesters—unlike similar or more egregious crimes committed by leftist protesters last year—are exceptionally heinous because the acts resulted in an “attack on our democracy” and interrupted the official business of the U.S. Congress.

                      The Justice Department and federal judges also continue to lie in court about the number of fatalities from January 6 in order to make the event seem far worse than it actually was. A Senate report issued this week also repeated the falsehood that “seven individuals, including three law enforcement officers, lost their lives.”

                      But federal prosecutors and Beltway judges—many of whom were involved in the nonstop criminal hunt against President Trump and his associates for four years—are wasting no time doling out severe punishment for those who dared to challenge the incoming Biden regime.

                      Take, for example, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the judge who refused to dismiss the case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn even though both parties sought to do so. Sullivan is presiding over a handful of Capitol breach cases. Last month, he denied a request made by Jonathan Mellis, behind bars in the D.C. jail since February awaiting trial, to attend his father’s funeral in Virginia. Mellis faces several charges including allegations he attempted to strike a police officer with a stick. (Again, this is based only on evidence presented by the government. Nothing has been contested in court.)

                      Mellis’ 80-year-old father was a decorated Vietnam War veteran and longtime Defense Department employee. Biden’s Justice Department immediately objected to Mellis’ request for a temporary release. “[T]he defendant’s continued dangerousness to the community and flight risk is too great because, if convicted of some or all of the above-mentioned charges, the defendant will serve a significant amount of time of incarceration.”

                      Judge Sullivan concurred. “Although the Court is sensitive to the news of his father’s death and expresses its condolences, the Court hereby DENIES Motion for Temporary Release.”

                      Mellis continues to suffer in what I call the D.C. Deplorable jail with no end in sight for him or his fellow detainees. “I would like to voice my confusion as to why left-wing rioters are set free and shown mercy while being the source of hundreds of riots last year all over the country, causing billions of dollars in damage, dozens of deaths, yet the right-wing rioters from Jan. 6th are treated in the harshest terms,” Mellis wrote to me in an email this week.


                      "We are charged with every possible offense and held in the DC jail on solitary [sic] confinement and treated inhumanely. For example, a correctional officer from a different pod came to C2B screaming at us late at night on 6/1/21 because we had just sang ‘God Bless America’ [sic] from behind our locked doors like we do every night. Being as we are on lockdown 22 hours a day it’s nice to keep morale up through patriotism. When [name omitted by American Greatness], my next door neighbor, informed the officer that we were just singing ‘God Bless America’ the officer responded by yelling, ‘Fuck America!’

                      After the officer left the pod for several minutes he came back in through the back door with another guard, walked upstairs, and opened [name omitted]’s door to go inside with him. I believe 2 other guards came up the other stairs to stand near [his] door as well, although I could not see them. I live right next door so I listened through the vent to the officer threaten [him], ‘Shut the fuck up or I will beat your ass!’ and, ‘Fuck you!’

                      [He] sounded like he was explaining himself and pointing out how obviously inappropriate the officer’s behavior was. And acknowledging that the officer’s camera was clearly turned off.

                      I am concerned for the safety of myself and my fellow Capitol rioters here in the DC jail. We are locked down all day and threatened with violence regularly. We all know that getting our hands tied together and being beaten is something the DC jail officers have already done to Capitol rioters in this pod.

                      Solitary Confinement and beatings. That is our reality. When will the inhumane treatment end? I just want to let everyone know the reality of how we are treated in this place. Left wing rioters are not even held in jail. Much less subjected to the harsh and inhumane treatment my fellow Capitol rioters and I have survived under so far this year.
                      .

                      Every day, I hear from detainees and their family members about the conditions in the jail. Some predict prison staff are making life miserable in order to provoke an uprising that will be recorded and used as additional propaganda to show the violent tendencies of the so-called insurrectionists. Almost all are first-time offenders.

                      Here are just a few examples. (In order to protect the individual’s safety, American Greatness is concealing identities unless specifically authorized to share.)

                      “We have no fewer than 5 combat vets out of Rec at any one time. The problem is . . . if the other cell block breaks in and starts a massive brawl, WE would get blamed in the media. (Many are concerned guards will allow the general population of D.C. prison to mix with January 6 detainees.) We are white. They are not. We are conservative. They are not. They can do whatever they want. We can not. If they busted in here and caused problems, we would be accused of racism, ‘continued violence,’ and ‘rioting,’ and the usual lies and slander.” (The author of that text is not charged with any violent crimes.)

                      “My son has seen and experienced some very inhumane abuse in that Jail. He has also been denied bond at least twice. While others from that day are already home waiting trial. I don’t know what to do or where to turn. As his Mother I am heartbroken.” (The defendant, a former Marine, is accused of stealing a riot shield and using it to break a window.)

                      “This kid has been in lockup for over 4 months, 23 hours per day. Rapists, murderers, actual criminals are treated better than the way these political prisoners are being treated. [He] has no access to medical, anything fitness-related, proper grooming, or reasonably edible food choices. He sleeps on a cot with a 1-inch-thick mattress. His “rec” time is limited to one hour per day unless the guards have a wild hair up their — then he gets NOTHING!” (The defendant, an Army reservist, is not charged with any violent crime.)

                      “When he first arrived he was put in a cell for 96 hours straight and not allowed out. Then they moved him to the pod [with all the Capitol defendants] and into a roughly five and ten cell for 23 hours a day. He is let out for one hour a day and shackled for that hour. The new guards are very racist and politically prejudiced. Now they don’t let them have the phones too much and they don’t know if they’ll get the tablets. (Inmates share a few electronic tablets and use a common phone to communicate with family and defense counsel.) Some people don’t have family to send them any money for commissary so they can’t buy extra food or personal items.” (The defendant is not charged with any violent crimes.)

                      “All that I’m saying is fact and truth . . . it can be verified by all of the Patriots . . . most of which are like me and committed no violence and ARE HERE WITH MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES. We are the object of ridicule all because of leftist media pushing a false narrative. Its ironic how we are in our Nations Capitol yet being treated as Un-American as one can be treated.”

                      American Greatness will continue to update reports from the jail.

                      On Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray repeatedly assured the House Judiciary Committee his agency has “one standard” of justice for all political protesters.

                      Unless he can point to a prison in the nation’s capital specifically used to house Antifa and Black Lives Matters protesters, something tells me that testimony is not at all accurate.

                      .


                      ==========

                      Itz Fun Being A Witless Meercat!!!

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Not patriots, not political prisoners — U.S. judges slam Capitol riot defendants at sentencing

                        Not patriots, not political prisoners — U.S. judges slam Capitol riot defendants at sentencing


                        https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...4de_story.html
                        http://christian-identity.net/forum/...23273#post2373
                        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3273#post23273


                        A federal judge rejected claims that detained defendants in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach are “political prisoners” or that riot participants acted out of patriotism before sentencing a Michigan man to six months in prison Wednesday.

                        U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington said Karl Dresch, 41, of Calumet, Mich, was held because of his actions, not his political views, and that others who joined the attack on Congress as it met to confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election could face prison time.

                        “He was not a political prisoner,” Jackson said. “We are not here today because he supported former president Trump . . . He was arrested because he was an enthusiastic participant in an effort to subvert and undo the electoral process.”

                        In a deal with prosecutors, Dresch pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of parading, picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol after four other charges were dropped, including a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress.

                        Dresch has been jailed since his arrest Jan. 19, so the sentence is effectively one of time-served, and he will be released.

                        Jackson’s sentencing came days after four right-wing Republican members of Congress — Reps. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Louis Gohmert (R-Tex.), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — showed up at the D.C. jail demanding to inspect the treatment of those detained in connection with Jan. 6, whom some Trump supporters have cast as martyrs.

                        By contrast, in a string of plea and sentencing hearings in the riot cases, federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties condemned such claims. Some have gone further to challenge U.S. prosecutors’ acceptance of misdemeanor plea deals for individuals involved in “terrorizing members of Congress,” forcing the evacuation of lawmakers and violence that authorities have led to several deaths and assaults on nearly 140 police officers.

                        “Does the government, in agreeing to the petty offense in this case, have any concern about deterrence?” Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington asked in accepting such a plea last Thursday.

                        In Dresch’s case, Jackson said he has the right to vote for whomever he wants, “but so does everyone else. Your vote doesn’t count any more than anyone else’s. You don’t get to cancel them out and call for a war because you don’t like the results of the election.”

                        The judge continued, “You called yourself and the others patriots, but that’s not patriotism. Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a single head of state. That’s the tyranny we rejected on July 4th of 1776.”

                        Dresch declined to address the court, and his defense’s sentencing request was not immediately unsealed.

                        Judges at sentencings have been delivering a cold splash of reality to defendants, including some who say they were lied to by Trump or led astray by right-wing commentators or social media. So far, about 30 of more than 550 defendants charged have pleaded guilty, and six have been sentenced. Five of the latter admitted to single misdemeanors involving no violent conduct, and three received probation, including a Northern Virginia couple, Joshua Bustle, 35, and Jessica Bustle, 36, ordered Wednesday to 30 and 60 days of conditional home confinement, respectively.

                        The two others — Dresch and Michael Curzio, 35, of central Florida — have been sentenced to the statutory maximum of six months in prison or time served. Neither was accused of violence on Jan. 6, but each had a criminal record and other factors that U.S. magistrate judges said posed a risk of flight, obstruction or dangerousness warranting pretrial detention.

                        Curzio was the only misdemeanor defendant held pretrial, but had a prior conviction for attempted murder. Dresch had a 2013 felony conviction for eluding police in a 145-mph vehicle chase that spanned two states. And despite a ban on felon possession of weapons, law enforcement searches of his Upper Peninsula home on Jan. 19 turned up a Russian SKS rifle, two shotguns, a Glock pistol and more than 100 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said.

                        Unlike Curzio, Dresch was also charged with “corruptly . . . obstruct[ing]” Congress, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said in Facebook posts Dresch likened events on Jan. 6 beforehand to this country’s declaration of independence from British rule in 1776.

                        Afterward, he posted, “We the people took back our house . . . now those traitors Know who’s really in charge.”

                        In sentencing papers, prosecutors said in a footnote without further explanation that they dropped the felony charge “in an effort to achieve consistency” with other riot cases. Prosecutors maintained that “he knew why he was there — to interfere with the democratic process — and what he sought to achieve — the disruption of the counting of electoral votes,” but noted he was not accused of violence or destruction.

                        Jackson called the misdemeanor plea and sentence just and sufficient, adding that pandemic-related lockdown restrictions made his jail time harsher than it would have been otherwise.

                        Comments by Jackson, Dresch’s judge and a 2011 Barack Obama appointee, were seconded Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, a 1983 Ronald Reagan appointee, who sentenced the Bustles.

                        Hogan said he seriously considered jailing Jessica Bustle because her social media posts calling Jan. 6 participants “patriots” were “so inaccurate, so misguided.”

                        “Patriots are not the ones who attack the operations of Congress” or attempt to stop elected lawmakers in both parties from performing their constitutional duties, Hogan said. “That is revolution, not patriotism.”

                        Hogan noted authorities attributed several deaths to the riot, including responding police officers who have died by suicide.

                        “If you listened to the testimony on the Hill the other day, you understand the tragedy that has occurred in their lives,” Hogan said, adding that holding those responsible may require jail time for most charged defendants.

                        But Hogan noted neither Joshua Bustle, a real estate agent, nor Jessica Bustle, a vaccine critic and stay-at-home mother, acted violently and spent only a few minutes in the Capitol. He also acknowledged defense arguments that the couple has been punished in the court of public opinion, in Joshua Bustle’s business affairs and in their family life. The couple is relocating to South Carolina for a fresh start, their lawyers said. Both Bustles apologized, and a lawyer asserted they had purged social media from their lives.

                        “I’m sorry for my actions. I love our country,” Jessica Bustle said. “I [don’t] condone and do not agree with anybody who is ever violent toward anybody in life.”

                        .

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                        • #27
                          Judas Pence's nigger pig put Ashli Babbit in her grave. She ain't gonna MAGAtard no moar!!!

                          Judas Pence's nigger pig put Ashli Babbit in her grave.

                          She ain't gonna MAGAtard no moar!!!



                          https://gab.com/realdonaldtrump/post...39060432639999
                          http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3296#post23296
                          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3296#post23296

                          I spoke to the wonderful mother and devoted husband of Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun. We know who he is.

                          "Can u say: Judas Pence's nigger pig???"

                          I knew u could."


                          If that happened to the “other side,” there would be riots all over America and yet, there are far more people represented by Ashli, who truly loved America, than there are on the other side. ZOGling whigger AmurriKwans -- the kind who voted for me Da ZOG-Emperor Drumpf as opposed to the barely 60 million who actually voted for Senile Joe and the Nasty Ho Kamel-toe Hairass.

                          The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. But they will, cum-cum, cum-cum !!! There must be justice! Butt there won't, also cum-cum, cum-cum !!!



                          Follow Me on Gab:

                          https://gab.com/ZOG-Emperor-Drumpf

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                          • #28
                            Man claiming to have bomb near U.S. Capitol is in custody after standoff, police say

                            Man claiming to have bomb near U.S. Capitol is in custody after standoff, police say

                            U.S. Capitol Police said a man drove a truck onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress.

                            By Lizzie Johnson, Meagan Flynn, Antonio Olivo and Peter Jamison
                            Today at 7:08 p.m. EDT



                            https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md...y-of-congress/
                            http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3338#post23338
                            http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3338#post23338

                            For the third time in eight months, Washington was brought to a standstill Thursday as the seat of the U.S. government came under the threat of violence, this time from a man who parked a truck near the Capitol, demanded to speak with President Biden about a range of grievances and threatened to destroy two blocks of the nation’s capital with an explosive device.

                            Congressional office buildings and nearby homes were evacuated as authorities negotiated with the man, identified by law enforcement as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of North Carolina. Roseberry surrendered to authorities after about five hours and will face criminal charges, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. No bomb was found in his car, although officials said they did discover materials that could be used to make explosives.

                            Before he was taken into custody, Roseberry delivered a tirade over a Facebook live video in which he assailed Biden and other Democrats, called for a revolt against the federal government and claimed there were other “patriots” waiting in vehicles elsewhere in D.C.

                            “The revolution is on, it’s here, it’s today,” he said in his live stream. “America needs a voice. I’ll give it to them.”

                            Roseberry voiced disgust with Biden’s Afghanistan policy and called on Democratic senators to step down, saying they were "killing America.”

                            The video circulated widely online before social media companies began to remove it. An 81-second excerpt of the live stream was viewed more than 400,000 times on Twitter before the company started cracking down on posts that contained it.

                            Law enforcement officials said Thursday afternoon that they had no indications Roseberry was acting with accomplices. By late afternoon police had reopened roads and allowed people to return to their homes.

                            Congress is not in session this week. But many legislative aides and other government employees were working, and the rushed evacuation evoked memories of the violent storming of the Capitol just over seven months ago by a mob seeking to overturn the electoral defeat of President Donald Trump.

                            In the aftermath of that riot, downtown Washington became in essence a quasi-militarized zone, with barriers erected around the Capitol to protect against further attacks. In April, a Capitol police officer was killed when a man rammed his car into a barricade outside the building. The fortifications were removed just last month.

                            Washington has long been subject to isolated, dramatic threats from American citizens. In 1982 a man was shot by police after he threatened to blow up the Washington Monument unless a ban on nuclear weapons was prioritized. In 2003 a tobacco farmer unhappy with federal policy drove his tractor into a pond on the Mall, threatened to detonate explosives and engaged in a 47-hour standoff with police before surrendering.

                            But since the Capitol was breached on Jan. 6, a different and more severe unease has settled over the nation’s capital, born of a growing sense that political violence — or the threat of it — may now be a recurring aspect of life.

                            “I’ve been on the Hill for six years last month," Jordan Wilson, director of operations and emergency coordinator in the office of Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), said Thursday. "And I can’t tell you how many people have left in the last six, eight, nine months, in both parties, just because these things are hard to go through. And it does beg the question, is it worth it?”

                            With each security alert, it’s Wilson’s job to make sure the staff is safe and accounted for, to lock the doors and identify the nearest evacuation route if that becomes necessary. And with each security alert it grows more emotionally draining, Wilson said. His mom reached out to him while watching the situation unfold on the news, just as she did after Jan. 6.

                            “And again today she asked, why are you still working here?” he said. “That’s a hard question to answer.”

                            Sarah Rose, who lives on the corner of A and Fourth streets in Southeast Washington, came outside after 10 a.m. to find her neighbors walking away from their houses in a crowd. Officers were going door to door asking residents to leave. She retreated with her children to a distant playground as the standoff unfolded.

                            “We were trying to make it normal for the kids," she said. “As much as possible.”

                            Authorities had disclosed little information about Roseberry on Thursday afternoon.

                            Roseberry spoke with his son and his son’s fiancee on Wednesday and did not mention his plans to head to the U.S. Capitol and threaten to detonate a bomb, said Courtney Foster, who said she is engaged to Roseberry’s son and considers Roseberry a father.

                            Roseberry often talked about politics with his family, Foster said, sharing his dislike for Biden’s policies, support for Trump and skepticism about vaccines.

                            “We didn’t know that he was going to do any of this. We didn’t know anything” Foster, 20, of Grover, N.C., said in a telephone interview. “He is just a good old farming country man that has just kind of had enough, I guess, and you know, kind of reached his breaking point."

                            Roseberry’s father, Floyd Roseberry, said his son had experienced mental health problems in the past. He was convicted of larceny multiple times beginning in the late 1980s, according to court records. More recently, he ran an auto-repair business and owned a mobile home park. He had become more religious, sharing the deep Christian beliefs of his new wife, according to his father.

                            “He had gotten on his feet and was doing good,” the elder Roseberry said. “I don’t know what to say. I have to keep praying for him.”

                            In a telephone interview, his ex-wife, Crystal Roseberry, said their 10-year marriage — which ended about a decade ago — had been stormy because of his volatile temper. But she was still shocked when she saw her former husband’s face on social media Thursday.

                            Her phone had been ringing all day, she said, as friends and family expressed similar disbelief.

                            “He’s never done nothing like this before," she said.

                            Two North Carolina State Highway Patrol cars were blocking the road to an address associated with Roseberry in the Grover area on Thursday afternoon. State Trooper Russell Corry said they had been directed to shut down the road while officials cleared the residence as a precautionary measure.

                            The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism and terrorist groups, said Roseberry’s social media was full of pro-Trump material, although Roseberry said in his live stream Thursday he was not motivated by political partisanship.

                            “I’m here for a reason, Joe Biden. I’m here for the American people. And if you want to take me out, take me out. But when the patriots come, your a — is in trouble,” Roseberry says in the video. "So if you blow my truck up man, it’s on you, Joe. I’m ready to die for the cause.”

                            He said he has a wife, whom he had told he was going fishing through Sunday, as well as two children and a grandchild. At one point, he showed piles of coins in the back of the truck and said he threw $3,000 in cash onto a sidewalk.

                            Members of Congress — many of them away in their home districts — expressed a mix of concern and incredulity at yet another threat to their place of business.

                            “Today, once again, the Capitol Police, FBI and other law enforcement dealt with a potential threat to the Capitol Hill community,“ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said. "The immense gratitude of the Congress is with all law enforcement officers who today and all days sacrifice to keep the Capitol Complex and those within it safe.”

                            “I have checked in with my DC-based staff and they are all safely away from the Capitol Complex,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) wrote on Twitter. “I thank Capitol police and first responders for their response and pray everyone remains safe.”

                            Fear and sadness — but not necessarily surprise — were also voiced by those who found themselves near the Capitol as the standoff unfolded.

                            Victoria Cowens and Courtney Mahugu had recently moved to D.C. for their freshman year at Howard University. They were trying to visit the Supreme Court when the bomb threat came through.

                            “It’s disappointing, as a country,” Cowens, of Rochester, N.Y., said.

                            “The fence was just lowered a couple months ago and it felt like progress," said Mahugu, of Kansas. "It makes you fearful to see all these cop cars.”

                            In the chaos, they never made it to the Supreme Court.

                            After Roseberry had been arrested, Rebecca Adeyanju, 35, and her husband, Ken, 40, walked with their two daughters — 5 and 6 months old — toward the Capitol. The family had stopped in D.C. on a family road trip to Texas from their home in Maine. They had just learned of the bomb scare.

                            “It’s all terrible, and it needs to stop,” Rebecca said. “I could say so much, but really it just needs to stop.”

                            “It’s not right,” said Ken Adeyanju, who held their infant daughter. “It’s just insane. I don’t know why this keeps happening.”

                            .

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                            • #29
                              WSJ: Abolish the FBI

                              WSJ: Abolish the FBI

                              How much more do we need to learn about 2016 to realize the agency is a disaster?

                              By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
                              Sept. 21, 2021 6:30 pm ET



                              https://www.wsj.com/articles/abolish...on-11632256384
                              http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3493#post23493
                              http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3493#post23493

                              In ignoring the latest John Durham indictment, most of the media and official Washington are ignoring the elephant between its lines: the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

                              Mr. Durham, the special counsel appointed to investigate the government’s handling of the Russia collusion mess, levels a single criminal charge against Michael Sussmann, then a lawyer for the Democrat-linked firm Perkins Coie. In delivering to the FBI fanciful evidence of Trump-Russia collusion a few weeks before the 2016 election, Mr. Sussmann is alleged to have lied to the FBI’s chief lawyer, James Baker, claiming he was acting on his own behalf and not as a paid agent of the Clinton campaign.

                              Already you might be rolling your eyes. Mr. Durham provides ample reason in his own indictment for why the FBI would have known exactly whom Mr. Sussmann was working for. If Mr. Sussmann didn’t lie at the time, Mr. Baker may have lied since about what transpired between him and Mr. Sussmann. Either way, we are free to suspect the FBI would have found it useful to be protected from inconvenient knowledge about the Clinton campaign’s role. The same FBI then was busy ignoring the political antecedents of the Steele dossier, also financed by Mr. Sussmann’s law firm on behalf of the Clinton campaign, information that the FBI would shortly withhold from a surveillance court in pursuit of a warrant to spy on Trump pilot fish Carter Page.

                              Mr. Durham, in describing the Sept. 19, 2016, meeting with Mr. Baker, suggests that a properly informed FBI might have thought twice before opening an investigation into Mr. Sussmann’s phony story about the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank. This is a way also of saying the FBI might have found it harder to proceed without the political deniability that Mr. Sussmann’s alleged statement provided.

                              At this late date, none of this can be consumed without recognizing that the FBI was already hip-deep in the 2016 election. It began a few weeks earlier with Director James Comey’s insubordinate, improper (according to the Justice Department’s own inspector general) intervention in the Hillary email case. We learned much later that Mr. Comey justified this unprecedented action by referring to secret Russian “intelligence” that his FBI colleagues considered a red herring and possible Russian disinformation. Your eyes should really be rolling now.

                              Mr. Comey thereupon created the preposterous jam for himself when new information surfaced in the Hillary case, which led him to reopen the case shortly before Election Day and likely tipped the race to Mr. Trump. Of course the “new information” turned out to be a nothingburger. Worse, the information had been sitting unnoticed in the FBI’s hands for weeks.

                              These antic actions, along with the subsequent FBI leakfest aimed at undermining the president it just helped to elect, might be written off as a singular consequence of Mr. Comey’s overweened sense of importance.

                              But this doesn’t explain the FBI’s top counterintelligence deputy, Peter Strzok, engaging in compromising political banter on an FBI network while playing a central role in the FBI’s most politically sensitive investigations. It doesn’t explain FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s criminal act of falsifying agency submissions to the surveillance court.

                              Ask yourself: In what way, in anyone’s memory, has the FBI covered itself in glory? The Larry Nassar case, in which it failed to pursue a serial abuser of teenage gymnasts? The Noor Salman case, in which it trumped up a failed prosecution of the innocent and abused wife of the Orlando nightclub shooter? The Hatfill case, in which it attempted to railroad an innocent scientist over the 2001 anthrax attacks?

                              Ironically, Hollywood is now the FBI’s biggest devotee because the agency’s screw-ups are fodder for its best movies. The FBI’s role in the assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton was the subject of “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Its persecution of an innocent security guard in the Atlanta Olympics bombing was the theme of “ Richard Jewell. ” Its cosseting of the criminal psychopath Whitey Bulger was a central pillar of the Johnny Depp film “Black Mass.”

                              The FBI’s last extended run of good publicity, aimed at helping live down the smell of J. Edgar Hoover, came more than 50 years ago thanks to Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and his weekly show on ABC, “The F.B.I.,” which went off the air in 1974.

                              By now, after its performance in the 2016 election, the evidence might seem conclusive that the agency is a failed experiment, however able and dedicated many of its agents.

                              Its culture at the top seems incapable of using the powers entrusted to it with discretion and good judgment or at least without reliable expectation of embarrassment. The agency should be scrapped and something new built to replace it. One possibility is a national investigative corps that would be more directly answerable to the 93 U.S. attorneys who are charged with enforcing federal law in the 50 states.





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                              • #30
                                Among Those Who Marched Into the Capitol on Jan. 6: An F.B.I. Informant

                                Among Those Who Marched Into the Capitol on Jan. 6: An F.B.I. Informant

                                A member of the far-right Proud Boys texted his F.B.I. handler during the assault, but maintained the group had no plan in advance to enter the Capitol and disrupt the election certification.

                                Actually "Insurrection Day" was a ZOG False-Fag Operation that Because of ZOGtards went awry


                                By Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman
                                Sept. 25, 2021



                                https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/25/u...informant.html
                                http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3513#post23513


                                As scores of Proud Boys made their way, chanting and shouting, toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, one member of the far-right group was busy texting a real-time account of the march.

                                The recipient was his F.B.I. handler.

                                In the middle of an unfolding melee that shook a pillar of American democracy — the peaceful transfer of power — the bureau had an informant in the crowd, providing an inside glimpse of the action, according to confidential records obtained by The New York Times. In the informant’s version of events, the Proud Boys, famous for their street fights, were largely following a pro-Trump mob consumed by a herd mentality rather than carrying out any type of preplanned attack.

                                After meeting his fellow Proud Boys at the Washington Monument that morning, the informant described his path to the Capitol grounds where he saw barriers knocked down and Trump supporters streaming into the building, the records show. At one point, his handler appeared not to grasp that the building had been breached, the records show, and asked the informant to keep him in the loop — especially if there was any violence.

                                The use of informants always presents law enforcement officials with difficult judgments about the credibility and completeness of the information they provide. In this case, the records obtained by The Times do not directly address whether the informant was in a good position to know about plans developed for Jan. 6 by the leadership of the Proud Boys, why he was cooperating, whether he could have missed indications of a plot or whether he could have deliberately misled the government.

                                But the records, and information from two people familiar with the matter, suggest that federal law enforcement had a far greater visibility into the assault on the Capitol, even as it was taking place, than was previously known.

                                At the same time, the new information is likely to complicate the government’s efforts to prove the high-profile conspiracy charges it has brought against several members of the Proud Boys.

                                On Jan. 6, and for months after, the records show, the informant, who was affiliated with a Midwest chapter of the Proud Boys, denied that the group intended to use violence that day. In lengthy interviews, the records say, he also denied that the extremist organization planned in advance to storm the Capitol. The informant’s identity was not disclosed in the records.

                                The records describing the informant’s account of Jan. 6 — excerpts from his interviews and communications with the F.B.I. before, during and after the riot — dovetail with assertions made by defense lawyers who have argued that even though several Proud Boys broke into the Capitol, the group did not arrive in Washington with a preset plot to storm the building.

                                They also raise new questions about the performance of the F.B.I. in tracking the threat from far-right groups like the Proud Boys.

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                                The records — provided to The Times on the condition that they not be directly quoted — show the F.B.I. was investigating at least two other participants in the rally on Jan. 6 and asked the informant to make contact with them, suggesting that they might be Proud Boys.

                                Moreover, the records indicate that F.B.I. officials in Washington were alerted in advance of the attack that the informant was traveling to the Capitol with several other Proud Boys.

                                The F.B.I. also had an additional informant with ties to another Proud Boys chapter that took part in the sacking of the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter, raising questions about the quality of the bureau’s informants and what sorts of questions they were being asked by their handlers before Jan. 6.

                                Christopher A. Wray, the bureau’s director, acknowledged to Congress in March that the F.B.I. was studying the quality of the intelligence it had gathered about Jan. 6.

                                “Anytime there’s an attack, especially one that’s this horrific, that strikes right at the heart of our system of government, right at the time the transfer of power is being discussed, you can be darn tootin’ that we are focused very, very hard on how can we get better sources, better information, better analysis so that we can make sure that something like what happened on Jan. 6th never happens again,” he said during the congressional hearing.

                                In a statement, the F.B.I. said that intelligence gathering was central to its mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.

                                “While the F.B.I.’s standard practice is not to discuss its sources and methods, it is important to understand that sources provide valuable information regarding criminal activity and national security matters,” the bureau said.

                                The new information was revealed at a time when misinformation continues to circulate among far-right commentators and websites accusing the F.B.I. of having used informants or agents to stage the attack on Jan. 6. But if anything, the records appear to show that the informant’s F.B.I. handler was slow to grasp the gravity of what was happening that day. And the records show that the informant traveled to Washington at his own volition, not at the request of the F.B.I.

                                The question of whether extremist groups like the Proud Boys conspired in advance of Jan. 6 to organize the worst assault on the Capitol in more than 200 years is one of the most important avenues of inquiry being pursued by the authorities. But the records describing the informant are only one piece of a much larger puzzle that includes other information about the group.

                                The informant, who started working with the F.B.I. in July 2020, appears to have been close to several other members of his Proud Boys chapter, including some who have been charged in the attack. But it is not clear from the records obtained by The Times how well he knew the group’s top leaders or whether he was in the best position to learn about potential plans to storm the Capitol.

                                As more and more Proud Boys have been arrested in connection with the attack, the group has been increasingly plunged into an atmosphere of suspicion about the presence of informants in their ranks.

                                The dark mood started three weeks after the riot when it suddenly emerged that Enrique Tarrio, the group’s leader, had himself worked as an F.B.I. informant well before he joined the Proud Boys.

                                Mr. Tarrio was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6, having been ordered by a local judge to stay away from Washington after his arrest days earlier on charges of illegally possessing ammunition magazines and burning a Black Lives Matter banner after a pro-Trump rally in December. He is currently serving a five-month sentence on the charges.

                                Prosecutors have filed conspiracy charges against 15 members of the Proud Boys in four separate but interlocking cases, and they are some of the most prominent allegations levied in more than 600 cases brought in connection with the Capitol attack.

                                In seeking to prove that the Proud Boys planned the assault in advance then worked together on Jan. 6 to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College vote, prosecutors have claimed in court papers that their leaders raised money to bring people to Washington; gathered equipment like protective vests and multichannel radios; and ordered subordinates to avoid wearing their typical black-and-yellow polo shirts in favor of more ordinary clothes.

                                The F.B.I. has also collected incendiary social media posts and recordings of podcasts in which prominent Proud Boys members embrace a kind of revolutionary zeal after President Donald J. Trump’s loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr., with some suggesting that “traitors” should be shot or that civil war was on the horizon.

                                As part of their investigation, federal agents ultimately obtained thousands of private group chats sent among dozens of Proud Boys on the messaging app Telegram. In one of the chats, written the night before the riot, a Proud Boys leader told his troops to be decentralized and use good judgment, adding, “Cops are the primary threat.”

                                But statements from the informant appear to counter the government’s assertion that the Proud Boys organized for an offensive assault on the Capitol intended to stop the peaceful transition from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden.

                                On the eve of the attack, the records show, the informant said that the group had no plans to engage in violence the next day except to defend itself from potential assaults from leftist activists — a narrative the Proud Boys have often used to excuse their own violent behavior.

                                Then, during an interview in April, the informant again told his handlers that Proud Boys leaders gave explicit orders to maintain a defensive posture on Jan. 6. At another point in the interview, he said that he never heard any discussion that day about stopping the Electoral College process.

                                The records show that, after driving to Washington and checking into an Airbnb in Virginia on Jan. 5, the informant spent most of Jan. 6 with other Proud Boys, including some who have been charged in the attack. While the informant mentioned seeing Proud Boys leaders that day, like Ethan Nordean, who has also been charged, there is no indication that he was directly involved with any Proud Boys in leadership positions.

                                In a detailed account of his activities contained in the records, the informant, who was part of a group chat of other Proud Boys, described meeting up with scores of men from chapters around the country at 10 a.m. on Jan. 6 at the Washington Monument and eventually marching to the Capitol. He said that when he arrived, throngs of people were already streaming past the first barrier outside the building, which, he later learned, was taken down by one of his Proud Boy acquaintances and a young woman with him.

                                The records say that the informant entered the Capitol after debating whether to do so with his compatriots. He then told his handlers, according to the records, that after police officers informed him that someone — possibly the pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt — had been shot inside the building, he left through a window. The records say that he hurt no one and broke nothing.

                                According to the records, the informant first began to tell the F.B.I. what he knew about Jan. 6 in late December after a pro-Trump rally in Washington that month turned violent. He showed his handlers screenshots of an online chat board known to be popular among Trump supporters indicating that some so-called normal conservatives were planning to bring weapons to Washington in January, the records show.

                                But the records contain no indication that the informant was aware of a possible plot by Proud Boys leaders to purposefully instigate those normal Trump supporters — or what members of the group refer to as “normies” — on Jan. 6.

                                According to court papers in one case, a Proud Boys leader from Philadelphia wrote on the group’s Telegram channel on the morning of Jan. 6, “I want to see thousands of normies burn that city to ash today.”

                                Then, after the attack was over, another leader of the chapter summed up his thoughts about the riot on the chat, according to court papers.

                                “That was NOT what I expected to happen today,” he wrote. “All from us showing up and starting some chants and getting the normies all riled up.”

                                .


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