[ad_1]
[ad_2]
contributed to this report.
Tag: january 6
-
Five Years On, Democrats May Be Losing the Fight Over January 6
[ad_1]
“You should be put down like a dog, diseased fucking animal you are,” one man says to a police officer, according to video captured by a HuffPost reporter. Another man hurls slurs, calling the officers “fucking r-tards,” “f-ggots,” and the N-word. In another video, the first man tells an officer, “The only solution for animals like you is public execution.”
That man is Edward Jacob Lang, a January 6 rioter who was charged with beating cops with a baseball bat. Having received a pardon from President Donald Trump before he stood trial, Lang is now running for Senate as a Republican. He’s one of a few dozen rioters who descended on Washington this week for the five-year anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol, walking free thanks to sweeping clemency from the president.
“Your day will come and I will be there for it,” Lang told an officer at one point, according to video footage. “Look left and right when you cross the street, motherfucker.”
Nearby, in a packed room in the basement of the Capitol Building, another January 6 rioter sat before a panel of House Democrats convened to mark the grim anniversary of the attack.
“I’m a mother and a grandmother and a cancer survivor and a retired addiction counselor. I am also a convicted criminal for what I did on January the 6th, 2021.” So began the testimony of Pam Hemphill, a woman known as MAGA Granny when she joined the mob that stormed the Capitol five years ago.
The hearing was convened as part of an effort to push back on Trump’s attempts to rewrite the history of the attack. Hemphill spoke alongside former Capitol police officer Winston Pingeon, who described being punched in the face, pepper sprayed, and called a traitor by the rioters. There was a former prosecutor who worked on the cases against the rioters—more than 600 of whom were charged with assaulting or obstructing police officers—and resigned from the Justice Department after Trump offered clemency to those charged over the attack. That included Hemphill, who publicly rejected Trump’s pardon, testifying that she did not deserve to evade justice.
“I had fallen for the president’s lies, just like many of his supporters,” Hemphill said. She became emotional and had to pause as she described the start of the riot. “The police officers were the heroes. They protected the Capitol and everyone inside the Capitol. And even people like me. I was trampled on by the rioters. And if it weren’t for the Capitol Police helping me that day, I might have died.”
She addressed Pingeon directly. “I want the Capitol Police to know how truly grateful I am to them and how deeply sorry I am,” she said, her voice quavering. “I can’t believe people are still disrespecting you and trying to lie about January the 6th.” In the room, Congressman Steve Cohen dabbed tears from his eyes.
[ad_2]
Aidan McLaughlin
Source link -
New White House webpage rewrites history of Jan. 6, 2021, and 2020 election
[ad_1]
A new webpage under the official whitehouse.gov domain, rolled out five years after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, rewrites the history of the attack on the Capitol that took place as Congress was affirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
The website expresses views long promoted by President Trump that the Jan. 6 attack was a “peaceful march,” blames Capitol Police for “escalating tensions,” and repeats Mr. Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
“The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as ‘insurrectionists’ and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government,” the new webpage says.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung posted a link to it on social media and wrote “Want to know the TRUTH? Get all the facts here.” The White House’s official X account also posted a link to it, writing “Now see the REAL Jan. 6 story.”
Thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol that day and breached the building after smashing through windows on the first floor. They vandalized the Capitol, forced the evacuation of lawmakers and their staff and assaulted police officers on site with flagpoles, bear spray and other objects. More than 150 officers were injured. Five police officers who served at the Capitol died in the days and weeks afterward.
One woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by Capitol Police as a crowd tried to enter the House chamber, while three others died amid the chaos.
On the day Mr. Trump was inaugurated for his second term, he pardoned more than 1,500 people who were convicted or charged in the attack, among them, individuals convicted of violent and serious crimes, including assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.
The new webpage puts forth a different view of the president’s clemency, declaring Mr. Trump pardoned “January 6 defendants who were unfairly targeted, overcharged, and used as political examples. They were not protected by the leaders who failed them. They were punished to cover incompetence.”
It’s a version of history that Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, disputed on the Senate floor Tuesday, as he stood by a Jan. 6 plaque commemorating the officers who protected the Capitol and Congress on Jan. 6. “We let bad people go,” he said, noting that some of the pardoned rioters have been arrested again.
The White House webpage claims that when the crowd arrived at the Capitol that day, “Capitol Police aggressively fire tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber munitions into crowds of peaceful protesters, injuring many and deliberately escalating tensions.” It goes on to claim, “Video evidence shows officers inexplicably removing barricades, opening Capitol doors, and even waving attendees inside the building—actions that facilitated entry—while simultaneously deploying violent force against others. These inconsistent and provocative tactics turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos.”
The site does not include accounts by some police officers in congressional testimony that conflict with the White House version. One officer described it as “a war scene.”
The webpage also claims former Vice President Mike Pence could have rejected the electoral votes but chose “not to exercise that power in an act of cowardice and sabotage,” even though the vice president’s role in certifying Biden’s victory was ceremonial. Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, appeared to take issue with the White House characterization, re-posting it on X with the comment, “And I guess yall would have been okay if Kamala had refused to certify the 2024 results?”
Some Capitol rioters chanted outside the chamber “hang Mike Pence” as they attempted to stop the proceedings.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Mr. Trump was impeached by the House for inciting the riot, but he was acquitted by the Senate. He was later indicted by a federal grand jury for attempting to overthrow the election.
Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. He never stood trial on the charges, which were eventually dropped when he returned to office last year.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also targeted on Jan. 6 by rioters, who broke into her office and chanted “Where’s Nancy?” as her staff hid. Her daughter, documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, captured footage of the then-Speaker saying during the riot that she takes “full responsibility” for not being better prepared for security failures.
The new webpage prominently puts the blame on Pelosi for “security lapses” that “invited the chaos [Democrats] later exploited to seize and consolidate power. “
Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, was asked about the website’s claims that the Capitol police response escalated tensions. She told reporters “I disagree with that completely.”
“I was there that day. I was on the floor,” Collins said. “I heard the rioters going past the chamber chanting ‘hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence.’ I saw him being rushed out, they clearly put him in danger. And I thought the Capitol Police were heroic.”
[ad_2]
-
Authorities reveal new details in D.C. pipe bomb plot investigation
[ad_1]
New court filings from the Justice Department reveal more details about what Brian Cole, the man accused of placing two pipe bombs around Washington, D.C., on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, allegedly told investigators. Scott MacFarlane has the latest.
[ad_2]
-
Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he targeted US political parties because they were ‘in charge,’ memo says – WTOP News
[ad_1]
The memo provides the most detailed government account of statements Brian J. Cole Jr. is alleged to have made to investigators and points to evidence that officials say connects him to the act.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol told investigators after his arrest that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that he wanted to target the country’s political parties because they were “in charge,” prosecutors said Sunday.
The allegations were laid out in a Justice Department memo arguing that Brian J. Cole Jr., who was arrested earlier this month on charges of placing pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees, should remain locked up while the case moves forward.
The memo provides the most detailed government account of statements Cole is alleged to have made to investigators and points to evidence, including bomb-making components found at his home after his arrest, that officials say connects him to the act. The homemade bombs did not detonate and were discovered Jan. 6, the afternoon that rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Cole denied to investigators that his actions were connected to Congress or the events of Jan. 6, the memo says. But after initially disputing that he had any involvement in the pipe bombs, prosecutors say, he confessed to placing them outside the RNC and DNC and acknowledged feeling disillusioned by the 2020 election, fed up with both political parties and sympathetic to claims by Trump and some of his allies that the contest had been stolen.
According to the memo, he told agents who interviewed him that if people “feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being — you know, relegated null and void, then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down.”
He said “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse” and that he wanted to do something “to the parties” because “they were in charge,” according to the Justice Department’s memo. Prosecutors say when Cole was asked why he had placed the explosives at the RNC and DNC, he responded, “I really don’t like either party at this point.”
Cole was arrested on the morning of Dec. 4 at his Woodbridge, Virginia, house in what law enforcement officials described as a major breakthrough in their nearly five-year-old investigation. His lawyers will also have an opportunity to state their position on detention ahead of a hearing set for Tuesday in Washington’s federal court.
During a search of Cole’s home and car after his arrest, prosecutors say, investigators found shopping bags of bomb-making components. He at first denied having manufactured or placed the pipe bombs, prosecutors say, and when pressed about his whereabouts on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, initially told investigators he had driven by himself to attend a protest related to the 2020 election.
“I didn’t agree with what people were doing, like just telling half the country that they — that their — that they just need to ignore it. I didn’t think that was a good idea, so I went to the protest,” the memo quotes him as saying.
But over the course of hours of questioning, prosecutors say, Cole acknowledged he went to Washington not for a protest but rather to place the bombs. He stowed the explosives in a shoebox in the back seat of his Nissan Sentra and placed one apiece outside the RNC and DNC headquarters, setting the timer on each for 60 minutes, the memo says.
Neither device exploded, a fact Cole says he was “pretty relieved” about because he planted them at night because he did not want to kill anyone, the memo says.
The fact that the devices did not detonate is due to luck, “not lack of effort,” prosecutors said in arguing that Cole poses a danger to the community and must remain detained pending trial.
“The defendant’s choice of targets risked the lives not only of innocent pedestrians and office workers but also of law enforcement, first responders, and national political leaders who were inside of the respective party headquarters or drove by them on January 6, 2021, including the Vice President-elect and Speaker of the House,” prosecutors wrote.
Copyright
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.[ad_2]
WTOP Staff
Source link -
How racist provocateur Jake Lang tried to manufacture chaos in Dearborn – Detroit Metro Times
[ad_1]
Right-wing provocateur and avowed racist Jake Lang arrived in Dearborn on Tuesday with a bulletproof vest, a Quran he threatened to burn, and a bag of bacon he shoved into people’s faces.
The Florida man also brought a criminal history: The Jan. 6 rioter was charged with repeatedly beating police officers with a baseball bat and riot shield, and a federal judge found that he “remains willing to engage in additional acts of violence.” President Donald Trump pardoned him and the other insurrectionists.
That’s who marched into a peaceful, largely Arab American city and tried to start a fight.
Lang, a Jewish Christian who openly calls himself a racist, came to Dearborn with a small crew of followers and a camera. His goal wasn’t dialogue or protest. It was provocation, panic, and propaganda. And when Muslims and their supporters shouted back after he spent hours taunting them, he plastered social media with videos claiming he’d uncovered a “violent Muslim stronghold.” His livestreams racked up more than 200,000 views in half a day, with many sympathizing with him.
It was a textbook use of DARVO, a manipulation tactic defined as “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.” First, the aggressor provokes and antagonizes. Then he denies wrongdoing, attacks those who push back, and reframes himself as the persecuted victim. Lang executed it step by step.
Lang and his handful of supporters began congregating early in the afternoon, schlepping a banner reading, “Americans Against Islamification” and large, wooden crosses. He mocked the Arabic language. He told Muslims they were “violent, disgusting people,” waved bacon in their faces, and repeatedly used the n-word. He told one group they were “chimping out” and made monkey noises at teenagers.
He threatened to burn a Quran.
He prayed for God to “remove Muslims.”
He declared Dearborn a “Christian country.”
He called white people who supported their neighbors “white traitors.”
He wasn’t hiding who he was. At one point he said outright: “I am a racist because I don’t want other races taking over my country.” He then launched into a white nationalist rant about whites having “conquered” America.
As the march moved toward Dearborn City Hall, Lang ranted that “this is not America,” that Muslims “want us all dead,” and that the city was an “insurgency.” Despite all the taunting, he put on a performance of contrived innocence for the camera, repeatedly insisting he was shocked by how he was being treated.
The media treated the debacle like a debate instead of an ambush, calling the rally “dueling demonstrations” and a “debate over religion.” One headline attempted to summarize the day as putting “focus on the Muslim community,” as if a racist agitator threatening to burn a Quran is a legitimate point of civic discussion.
This is the problem with both-sides framing: It pretends the issue is religious disagreement rather than a violent Jan. 6 defendant traveling to a diverse city to harass residents and film their reactions. Dearborn’s 106,000 residents include Christians, Muslims, and non-religious people. Sharia law has never been practiced there, nor could it be, legally. About half the city’s residents aren’t Muslim. But Lang’s stunt relied on Americans who don’t know that.
The performance worked on many viewers, who appeared convinced they were watching an Islamic uprising.
Among the responses:
“Islam is robbing our country of unity.”
“They are a disgrace.”
“God asks us to stand up and fight against people who are his enemies.”
“Jesus said to the bad people like these ‘You vipers, you son of snakes.’”
This is all a bastardization of Christianity. It’s weaponized faith used as a racial weapon, not unlike American southerners who justified slavery by citing the Bible.
Later, as some young Muslims shouted back after two hours of taunts, insults, and monkey noises, Lang grinned at the camera. This was the moment he came for.
“The Muslim community is looking to drag us back,” he said. “They’re looking to destroy everything that makes America great.”
Outside City Hall as the sky grew dark, white police officers offered Lang’s group a protected space cordoned off by metal barriers. Lang scanned the crowd and said, “If they’re white and dressed normally, they’re allowed in.”
During a public comment period at the council meeting, Lang whined that the white population is “on the decline.”
He told the council and other Muslims, “You will never look like us. You will never eat like us. You won’t build buildings like us. You are nothing. You can build nothing. Just like President Trump’s great American friends have said: You guys are not us and get the fuck out.”
Then he raised his fist and said, “America first, America only, God bless America, Jesus is king.”
In a triumphant tweet afterward, he wrote: “Today we showed THE WORLD just how VIOLENT and disgusting the Muslim Stronghold of Dearborn TRULY IS!! I was assaulted dozens of times by little twig Pedolphile worshipping Muslims.”
Lang’s behavior in Dearborn wasn’t unlike some of the conduct that landed him in federal custody. Prosecutors say he played a front-line role in the Jan. 6 attack, hitting officers with a bat and riot shield. He publicly declared that the Capitol riot was justified and said the “next step” was “guns.”
A federal judge found “overwhelming evidence” that he remains willing to commit violence, yet he continues to cast himself as a political prisoner. And now he’s acting like the victim of a city he visited to antagonize.
Can you imagine if a group of Muslims showed up in a small Christian town to scream racial slurs, taunt teenagers, threaten to burn Bibles, and declare the area “Islam?” You can bet the reaction wouldn’t be peaceful.
Dearborn residents saw what Lang was doing. The cameras saw what he wanted them to see.
And the rest of us should see it for what it is. It was not a protest, not a clash of cultures, but a racist agitator manufacturing chaos to feed his movement and his ego.
Related
[ad_2]
Steve Neavling
Source link -
Trump pardons Jan. 6 defendant who remained in prison on separate firearms charge
[ad_1]
President Trump has issued a second pardon to a January 6 defendant who remained imprisoned on separate gun offenses, leading to his release on Friday.
Dan Wilson was one of the supporters of Mr. Trump who breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Justice Department said in a 2024 news release that Wilson was a militia member who entered the building in a gas mask.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer in May 2024 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
He was pardoned on that charge in January 2025 when Mr. Trump granted clemency for about 1,500 January 6 defendants.
Despite the pardon, Wilson remained incarcerated. Authorities had searched his home in June 2022 as part of their investigation into his presence at the Capitol.
They recovered “numerous firearms and ammunition,” the Justice Department said, which he was forbidden from possessing because of previous felony convictions.
Wilson pled guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and a charge of possession of an unregistered firearm, and was set to remain in prison until 2028.
A White House official told CBS News that Mr. Trump was pardoning Wilson because the home search that led to the discovery of the firearms was part of the investigation into Wilson’s January 6 charges.
Wilson’s pardon, reviewed by CBS News, was dated to Friday. He was released from prison on Friday evening, his lawyer George Pallas told the Associated Press.
“For too long, my client has been held as a political prisoner by a government that criminalized dissent,” Pallas said in a statement to CBS News. “President Trump’s pardon rights this wrong and sends a clear message that peaceful Americans will not be persecuted for their beliefs. Mr. Wilson is innocent, he has always been innocent, and this pardon proves it.”
Jon Cherry / Getty Images
A sprawling legal battle
Wilson’s case became part of a legal debate over whether Mr. Trump’s pardon of January 6-related crimes applied to other offenses discovered in investigations related to those charges. Mr. Trump has downplayed the events of the attack and referred to those jailed in connection with it as “hostages.”
Wilson planned to participate in the riot at the Capitol for weeks, according to the Justice Department’s 2024 news release, and occasionally discussed bringing firearms. He ultimately arrived unarmed.
Throughout the day, he provided information in messaging channels about where people needed support as they worked to enter the Capitol, the Justice Department said. He also spoke to other members of far-right groups, including the Oath Keepers.
The Justice Department initially argued that Trump’s pardons did not extend to Wilson’s gun charges, but later changed its position, saying that it had received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who oversaw Wilson’s case and was nominated by Mr. Trump during his first term, criticized the move and called efforts to extend the pardon to cover offenses discovered in the course of the investigations “extraordinary,” according to the Associated Press.
Mr. Trump also pardoned Suzanne Kaye, a Florida woman who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to shoot FBI agents. Kaye was questioned by FBI agents after saying online that she had been at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to CBS Miami. When contacted by agents, Kaye denied she had been there, but still agreed to speak with them at her home.
In her video, posted to multiple platforms after that conversation but before her interview, Kaye said she would not talk to the FBI without a lawyer and that she would “my second amendment right to shoot your f—— ass if you come here,” according to CBIS Miami. A White House official described Kaye’s comments as “voicing her displeasure with the FBI using curt language,” and said that it was “clearly a case of disfavored First Amendment political speech being prosecuted and an excessive sentence.”
[ad_2]
-
BBC apologizes to Trump over editing of his Jan. 6 speech in documentary
[ad_1]
The BBC has issued an apology to President Trump over editing of a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021, that aired in its documentary “Trump: A Second Chance.” Mr. Trump had threatened to sue the British broadcaster for $1 billion over the program about the Capitol riot, and the BBC noted in a statement Thursday that it “strongly disagree[s]” that there’s a basis for a defamation claim.
BBC lawyers wrote to Mr. Trump’s legal team in response to a letter they received Sunday, the BBC Press Office said. In that letter, lawyers working for Mr. Trump alleged that the Oct. 28, 2024, episode of the network’s “Panorama” documentary program, which was produced by an external production company, sought to mislead viewers by editing together three separate sections of the speech made by Mr. Trump.
“BBC Chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the Corporation are sorry for the edit of the President’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme,” the BBC Press Office said in its statement Thursday. “The BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’ on any BBC platforms.”
“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the press office added.
The White House did not immediately comment on the BBC’s apology. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One Friday night, Mr. Trump said, “We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week.”
The BBC’s response to Mr. Trump’s legal team laid out five main arguments why the organization believes there is no legitimate case against it, BBC News reported. CBS News has not seen the letter sent by the BBC in reply to Mr. Trump’s legal team.
According to BBC News’ report, those arguments include that the episode in question did not air in the U.S.; that it did not cause Mr. Trump harm, as he won the election a week later; and that the edits made were intended to shorten a long speech rather than to mislead. It also said that the clip was not meant to be taken in isolation, and that matters of public concern and political speech are protected under U.S. law.
An expert on international media law told CBS News that the BBC’s response appears to be “careful and considered.”
“President Trump was clearly owed a fulsome apology and he’s had that,” U.K.-based attorney Mark Stephens told CBS News. “I don’t think he was entitled to damages, and so as a consequence, they’ve rightly hung tough on that particular issue. But, of course, this has been a massive PR victory for the president. He can now call the BBC ‘fake news’ … pointing to some credible background for that.”
The letter over the weekend from Mr. Trump’s lawyers claimed that the program “has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm,” and that it was defamatory under Florida law. It outlined demands by Mr. Trump that the BBC retract the documentary, issue an apology and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.”
The letter did not clarify what would be considered appropriate compensation, but it warned that if the BBC failed to comply with Mr. Trump’s demands by Friday at 5 p.m. ET, Mr. Trump would file “legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages.”
Stephens told CBS News that while it would be possible for Mr. Trump to pursue a lawsuit against the BBC in the U.S., “it’s got a number of legal impediments and tripwires.”
First, Stephens said, was that the program which included the clip was not shown in the U.S.
“You can’t be lowered in the estimation of right-thinking people by a program that wasn’t seen by an American audience. So you can’t sue, there’s no jurisdiction to sue, in America,” he said.
He also said that because Mr. Trump is “the president, the ultimate public figure,” criticism of him would likely be protected under the First Amendment.
Even if the case got past those hurdles, which he doubted, Stephens said, “lawyers would be looking at whether or not the sting of this was true. And they can point to all sorts of previous judicial findings which have said that there was some measure of incitement in which the president was involved.”
The head of the BBC and its CEO of news resigned in the wake of the criticism of the broadcaster’s editing of the speech. The BBC said Director-General Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness both announced their resignations on Sunday.
In a letter to staff, Davie said quitting the job after five years “is entirely my decision.”
“Overall, the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility,” Davie said, adding that he was “working through exact timings with the Board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months.”
Turness said that the controversy about the Trump documentary “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love. As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.”
“While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong,” she added.
[ad_2]
-
Fort Worth rep’s pivot to faith panel allies him with Jan. 6 speaker | Opinion
[ad_1]
Rep. Nate Schatzline, standing in front of the White house announces his resignation and partnership with Pastor Paula White-Cain’s National Faith Advisory Board
Nate Schatzline | X
Rep. Nate Schatzline says he’s leaving elected office. Knowing the outgoing representative for Texas House District 93 — which covers North Fort Worth — well enough to have a strong opinion of him in any direction assumes you either pay close attention to legislative politics or his church’s sermons. Each of which is, in its own way, unwise for your health.
While you should be informed about how Schatzline uses his podium in Austin and pulpit in Fort Worth to force us to live like we go to his church, I am sorry if I’ve stripped you of your blissful ignorance. But for Fort Worthians who either enjoy (or at least respect) the right to abortive healthcare, LGBTQ+ expression or easy access to buying books, Schatzline’s departure from the state House may feel like an early Christmas present.
Same for those who want freedom from easily preventable disease. Schatzline honored Mercy Culture Preparatory, a school operated by the church he pastors, for having the lowest measles vaccination rate of any school in Tarrant County, framing its flirtation with exposing children to an easily preventable disease as a triumph for “medical freedom.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if Schatzline’s upcoming job vacancy ensured liberty and justice for us all?
Instead, Schatzline’s next gig is a promotion of personal status and political power.
Schatzline says he is joining the National Faith Advisory Board, a coalition of faith leaders — mostly Christian pastors — allied by their opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, politics they call “family values” and “religious freedom,” unwavering support for Israel and their close relationship to the Trump administration. Schatzline said in an announcement that his job will more or less involve equipping pastors to fight for the company line. As Schatzline transitions into his new role, the Fort Worth lawmaker with a near-nonexistent record of writing Austin bills that actually become Texas law will be a half-degree removed from the American president’s ear.
The NFAB is led by its founder, Pastor Paula White-Cain, a televangelist and Trump appointee to the White House Faith Office. Understanding White-Cain’s ministerial lean and influential profile is crucial to understanding why Schatzline would find common cause.
White spent most of the 21st century dodging financial impropriety scandals — one of them vast enough to draw a Republican-led Senate inquiry — on her way to attaining crossover celebrity. Back in the aughts, White guest appeared as a “life coach” on Tyra Banks’ talk show, counseled superstar athletes Deion Sanders and Darryl Strawberry, and even ministered to Michael Jackson at his Neverland estate while the King of Pop faced a new wave of child sexual abuse allegations. She even became a spiritual confidant for that guy from “The Apprentice.”
President Donald Trump joins Paula White at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington last February. Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA / Fresno Bee file Religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor positions White’s evolving legacy beyond that of an Oprah-like influencer for churchgoers, A-Listers, and aspirational scammers. In Taylor’s book “The Violent Take It By Force,” which examines the growing influence of Christian nationalism, he calls White “the fulcrum” of the fast-growing New Apostolic Reformation, “an epochal shift in American religious politics.”
Pentecostal in origin, the New Apostolic Reformation emphasizes the responsibility of Christians, led by modern leaders and “prophets” believed to have direct, personal access to God’s will and to reign over government and culture in devotion to Christ. The struggle for societal rule is framed as a spiritual war — metaphysical battles between those they see as the people of God and the demonic forces who oppose their values — with material consequences for who should hold power.
You can see shades of that thinking in how the leaders of Mercy Culture, Schatzline’s church, articulate its relationship to Fort Worth. In 2021, The Washington Post reported from a Mercy Culture service in which lead Pastor Landon Schott posted a map of Fort Worth divided into four quadrants, each led by the “high-ranking demonic forces.” Choose your fighter: Greed corroding the west, Competition dominating the east, Rebellion ruling the north, and Lust perverting the south.
Oakhurst’s foul spirit of rebellion continued having its way. Church leadership spent years describing arguments from their neighbors and city officials regarding municipal zoning law as “insane demonic resistance,” then threatened to sue City Council members if they voted against a church project. When you believe, as Pastor Heather Schott told the city’s zoning commission, that God told her to construct exactly 100 residences for sex trafficking survivors on her church property, questioning any detail of a divine directive can easily be dismissed as a Satanic attack.
White employs the same good-versus-evil binaries when exalting President Donald Trump beyond that of a mere ally to her cause and as a God-ordained conduit for His divine will. Any opposition to Trump can be filed away as proof of nothing more than the devil staying busy.
One day after the 2020 election, White, who Trump appointed as a special adviser to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative during his first term, pushed the completely false conspiracy that the election was being stolen from the president’s grasp, urging Christians to “pray that the enemies to [sic] God are quieted and their plans are overturned.” In nightly prayer meetings that followed, White declared that God would, through the power of the crowd’s prayers, “keep the feet of POTUS in his purpose [and] in his position” and defeat the “demonic agenda that has been released over this election.”
Months later, Schatzline’s new boss shared a podium with Trump right before the president ushered her heavenly battle to his earthly realm.
When Trump urged thousands supporters at his “Save America” rally to “fight like Hell” and march to the Capitol — and hundreds of them did exactly that — White delivered a ceremonial prayer asking God for “an assurance of a fair and just election” while also wishing that “every adversary against democracy, against freedom, against life, against liberty, against justice, against peace, against righteousness be overturned right now in the name of Jesus.”
You likely remember that insurrection attempt by its more informal name, “Stop the Steal,” or maybe just the date: Jan. 6, 2021. Or the congressional investigation that identified the numerous ways Trump merited criminal charges for instigating a riot that violently backed his illegal efforts to overturn the election results. White was right there, declaring God’s blessing over the president’s flagrant fabrications. If Pastor Paula were a Texas public school student, she could have glanced at her classroom wall and learned which of the Ten Commandments she had desecrated. (At least No. 9, possibly No. 3.)
For Schatzline, the partnership is already bearing fruit. White was announced as a keynote speaker for his political action committee’s fundraiser in Fort Worth. (At $75 per person, Pastor Nate’s black-tie gala is way cheaper than Pastor Paula’s $1,000 Easter blessing.) And in time, he’ll get a chance at the real prize, something bigger than sermonic trolling or writing bills that don’t get passed.
Influence. God help us all.
[ad_2]
Bradford William Davis
Source link -
Pardoned Capitol rioter charged with threatening to kill Hakeem Jeffries at NYC event this week
[ad_1]
A pardoned Capitol rioter was arrested last weekend for allegedly threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Court documents obtained by CBS News said Christopher Moynihan was arrested Sunday after saying in text messages that he planned to “eliminate” Jeffries when the top House Democrat spoke at an event in New York City on Monday.
Jeffries spoke at the Economic Club of New York on Monday.
According to a court filing by prosecutors in the New York state criminal case, Moynihan wrote, “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live.”
Moynihan also allegedly stated: “Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated, I will kill him for the future,” the filing said.
Moynihan faces a felony charge of making a terroristic threat, according to court filings shared by prosecutors.
Moynihan’s father declined to comment on the case when reached by phone by CBS News on Monday. He said Moynihan has not yet been appointed a defense attorney.
Moynihan is scheduled to make his first court appearance in the case on Thursday in Dutchess County, New York.
Moynihan was pardoned by President Trump nine months ago, along with more than 1,500 other Capitol riot defendants who were granted clemency hours after Mr. Trump returned to the White House.
Moynihan was found guilty in August 2022 of obstructing an official proceeding, and pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced in February 2023 to 21 months in prison.
Prosecutors described Moynihan as being among the first rioters to breach police barricades and enter the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.
Moynihan was also among a smaller group of riot defendants who were on the Senate floor during the siege. Prosecutors argued in Moynihan’s sentencing memorandum: “While inside, Moynihan rifled through a notebook on top of a Senator’s desk, saying ‘There’s gotta be something in here we can f*cking use against these scumbags.’”
Prosecutors said Moynihan “occupied the dais of the Senate, joining other rioters in shouts and chanting,” and didn’t leave the chamber until police made him leave.
Moynihan’s arrest for allegedly threatening Jeffries was made by New York State Police, according to a statement by the agency that was confirmed by a state official. The investigation was initiated by the FBI, according to state police.
A state police statement said Moynihan was arraigned in local court in Clinton, a town in New York’s Hudson Valley region. He was remanded to the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center “in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, a $30,000 bond, or an $80,000 partially secured bond.”
State police declined a request to immediately release a copy of the agency’s incident report or a booking photo.
Moynihan is not the first pardoned Capitol rioter to be arrested on new, separate charges. But he is the first to be charged with making a violent threat against a member of Congress.
Critics of the president’s blanket pardons of Jan. 6 defendants have warned about the risk of recidivism by rioters, many of whom remained defiant and unapologetic about their roles in the attack. The rioters have been defended and lionized publicly as “hostages” by Mr. Trump.
In a March 2025 floor speech, Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of Senate Democratic leadership from Illinois, listed the names of accused rioters who had been arrested again. Durbin cited the case of Matthew Huttle, who was accused of “raising a firearm at police” in early 2025 and “acknowledged he was a January 6th defendant who stormed the Capitol,” according to Durbin. Huttle was fatally shot by police during the traffic stop.
Zachary Alam, who was convicted of eight felonies for his role in the Capitol riot, was arrested weeks after his 2025 presidential pardon for allegedly breaking and entering a home near Richmond, Virginia.
Other Jan. 6 defendants have since been arrested for other alleged criminal infractions that occurred before the siege or in the years between 2021 and the pardon.
The alleged threat against Jeffries is also part of a fast-growing wave of threats against legislators. In a statement last month, Capitol Police said the number of threat investigations in 2025 had already eclipsed 14,000, more than the number of cases in all of 2024.
The Capitol riot injured more than 140 police officers and caused millions of dollars of damage to the Capitol complex. It interrupted the certification of the electoral vote from the 2020 election and triggered the evacuation of Congress, with leadership sent to a secure, secret location.
Some rioters chanted to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence, threatened to kill then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and beat police officers with dozens of makeshift weapons, including bats, sticks, poles, bear spray and beams. Some were accused of carrying guns, knives and handmade weapons.
[ad_2]
-
YouTube To Pay $24.5 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over Trump’s Account Suspension After Jan. 6 Attack – KXL
[ad_1]
(AP) – Google’s YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump brought after the video site suspended his account following the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol following the election that resulted in him leaving the White House for four years.
The settlement of the more than four-year-old case earmarks $22 million for Trump to contribute to the Trust for the National Mall and a construction of a White House ballroom, according to court documents filed Monday. The remaining $2.5 million will be paid to other parties involved in the case, including the writer Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union.
Alphabet, the parent of Google, is the third major technology company to settle a volley of lawsuits that Trump brought for what he alleged had unfairly muzzled him after his first term as president ended in January 2021. He filed similar cases Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Twitter before it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded as X.
Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Trumps’ lawsuit over his 2021 suspension from Facebook and X agreed to settle the lawsuit that Trump brought against Twitter for $10 million. When the lawsuits against Meta. Twitter and YouTube were filed, legal experts predicted Trump had little chance of prevailing.
After buying Twitter for $44.5 billion, Musk later became major contributor to Trump’s successful 2024 campaign that resulted in his re-election and then spent several months leading a cost-cutting effort that purged thousands of workers from the federal government payroll before the two had a bitter falling out. Both Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg were among the tech leaders who lined up behind Trump during his second inauguration in January in a show of solidarity that was widely interpreted as a sign of the industry’s intention to work more closely with the president than during his first administration.
ABC News, meanwhile, agreed to pay $15 million in December toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. And in July, Paramount decided to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit regarding editing at CBS’ storied “60 Minutes” news program.
The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability, the filing says. Google confirmed the settlement but declined to comment beyond it.
Google declined to comment on the reasons for the settlement., but Trump’s YouTube account has been restored since 2023. The settlement is will barely dent Alphabet, which has a market value of nearly $3 trillion — an increase of about $600 billion, or 25%, since Trump’s return to the White House.
The disclosure of the settlement came a week before a scheduled Oct. 6 court hearing to discuss the case with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California.
More about:
[ad_2]
Jordan Vawter
Source link -
Trump crackdown on ‘radical left’ after Charlie Kirk’s death targets Soros, Indivisible despite evid | Fortune
[ad_1]
President Donald Trump is escalating threats to crack down on what he describes as the “radical left” following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, stirring fears that his administration is trying to harness outrage over the killing to suppress political opposition.
Without establishing any link to last week’s shooting, the Republican president and members of his administration have discussed classifying some groups as domestic terrorists, ordering racketeering investigations and revoking tax-exempt status for progressive nonprofits. The White House pointed to Indivisible, a progressive activist network, and the Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, as potential subjects of scrutiny.
Although administration officials insist that their focus is preventing violence, critics see an extension of Trump’s campaign of retribution against his political enemies and an erosion of free speech rights. Any moves to weaken liberal groups could also shift the political landscape ahead of next year’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress and statehouses across the country.
“The radical left has done tremendous damage to the country,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday morning when leaving for a state visit to the United Kingdom. “But we’re fixing it.”
Trump has sometimes made similar threats without following through. But now there’s renewed interest fueled by anger over the killing of Kirk, a conservative activist who was a prominent supporter of Trump and friends with many of his advisers.
More than 100 nonprofit leaders, representing organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Omidyar Network and the MacArthur Foundation, released a joint letter saying “we reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms.”
“Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans,” they wrote.
White House blames ‘terrorist networks’
Authorities said they believe the suspect in Kirk’s assassination acted alone, and they charged him with murder on Tuesday.
However, administration officials have repeatedly made sweeping statements about the need for broader investigations and punishments related to Kirk’s death.
Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed “left-wing radicals” for the shooting and said “they will be held accountable.” Stephen Miller, a top policy adviser, said there was an “organized campaign that led to this assassination.”
Miller’s comments came during a conversation with Vice President JD Vance, who was guest-hosting Kirk’s talk show from his ceremonial office in the White House on Monday.
Miller said he was feeling “focused, righteous anger,” and “we are going to channel all of the anger” as they work to “uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks” by using “every resource we have.”
Vance blamed “crazies on the far left” for saying the White House would “go after constitutionally protected speech.” Instead, he said, “We’re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence.”
Asked for examples, the White House pointed to demonstrations where police officers and federal agents have been injured, as well as the distribution of goggles and face masks during protests over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
There was also a report that Indivisible offered to reimburse people who gathered at Tesla dealerships to oppose Elon Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. Sometimes cars were later vandalized.
Indivisible’s leadership has said “political violence is a cancer on democracy” and said that their own organization has “been threatened by right-wingers all year.”
Nonprofits brace for impact
Trump’s executive actions have rattled nonprofit groups with attempts to limit their work or freeze federal funding, but more aggressive proposals to revoke tax-exempt status never materialized.
Now the mood has darkened as nonprofits recruit lawyers and bolster the security of their offices and staff.
“It’s a heightened atmosphere in the wake of political violence, and organizations who fear they might be unjustly targeted in its wake are making sure that they are ready,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the government watchdog group Public Citizen.
Trump made retribution against political enemies a cornerstone of his comeback campaign, and he’s mobilized the federal government to reshape law firms, universities and other traditionally independent institutions. He also ordered an investigation into ActBlue, an online liberal fundraising platform.
Some nonprofits expect the administration to focus on prominent funders like Soros, a liberal billionaire who has been a conservative target for years, to send a chill through the donor community.
Trump recently said Soros should face a racketeering investigation, though he didn’t make any specific allegations. The Open Society Foundations condemned violence and Kirk’s assassination in a statement and said “it is disgraceful to use this tragedy for political ends to dangerously divide Americans and attack the First Amendment.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, wrote on social media that “the murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence” but “Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said “it is disingenuous and false for Democrats to say administration actions are about political speech.” She said the goal is to “target those committing criminal acts and hold them accountable.”
Republicans back Trump’s calls for investigations
Trump’s concerns about political violence are noticeably partisan. He described people who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as “hostages” and “patriots,” and he pardoned 1,500 of them on his first day back in the Oval Office. He also mocked House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi after an attack on her husband.
When Trump condemned Kirk’s killing in a video message last week, he mentioned several examples of “radical left political violence” but ignored attacks on Democrats.
Asked on Monday about the killing of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman over the summer, Trump said “I’m not familiar” with the case.
“Trump shrugs at right-wing political violence,” said Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of Indivisible, in a newsletter.
Some conservative commentators have cheered on a potential crackdown. Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist with a long record of bigoted comments, said “let’s shut the left down.” She also said that she wants Trump “to be the ‘dictator’ the left thinks he is.”
Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller and a former administration spokeswoman, asked Bondi whether there would be “more law enforcement going after these groups” and “putting cuffs on people.”
“We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech,” Bondi said. “And that’s across the aisle.”
Her comments sparked a backlash from across the political spectrum, since even hate speech is generally considered to be protected under the First Amendment. Bondi was more circumspect on social media on Tuesday morning, saying they would focus on “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence.”
Trump is getting more support from Republicans in Congress. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and others proposed legislation that would enable the Justice Department to use racketeering laws, originally envisioned to combat organized crime, to prosecute violent protesters and the groups that support them.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wants the House to create a special committee to investigate the nonprofit groups, saying “we must follow the money to identify the perpetrators of the coordinated anti-American assaults being carried out against us.”
___
Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.[ad_2]
Chris Megerian, Lisa Mascaro, Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press
Source link -
What we learned from newly unsealed evidence in Trump election case
[ad_1]
What we learned from newly unsealed evidence in Trump election case – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
-
How presidential immunity ruling impacts Trump’s election interference case
[ad_1]
How presidential immunity ruling impacts Trump’s election interference case – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
-
9/15/2024: The Prosecution of January 6th; Danger in the South China Sea; Dua Lipa
[ad_1]
9/15/2024: The Prosecution of January 6th; Danger in the South China Sea; Dua Lipa – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
-
Jan. 6 Capitol riot prosecutions explained | 60 Minutes
[ad_1]
Jan. 6 Capitol riot prosecutions explained | 60 Minutes – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
-
U.S. attorney explains Jan. 6 Capitol riot prosecutions
[ad_1]
More than 1,000 Americans have been convicted in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol. About 350 trials are still pending and the FBI continues its dragnet for suspects. The attack that stopped the count of the presidential vote triggered the largest prosecution in U.S. history. But now, history is being challenged. Former President Donald Trump calls the convicted, “patriots” worthy of pardons. What is the evidence? We begin with the prosecutor in charge. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves told us what drives the prosecution of January 6th.
Matthew Graves: The crime was severe. It was an attack on our democracy. Once you replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation, you’ve lost the democratic process. You’ve lost the rule of law. But it’s also about the victims, the officer victims who were injured that day, and making sure we hold people accountable for the harm that they inflicted on the 140 officers who reported physical injury.
Matthew Graves has worked in the Bush and Biden Justice Departments. Now, as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, he’s won more than 1,000 January 6th convictions and lost only two of the cases at trial.
Scott Pelley: What is the best evidence that you’ve had?
Matthew Graves: The crimes that occurred that day are probably the most recorded crimes in all of our history. You also have the words of the defendants explaining what they were going to do or what they had done.
60 Minutes
Evidence from the trials show many in the mob were determined to stop the count of the electoral vote that would certify Joe Biden’s victory. They were enraged by President Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.
Scott Pelley: You must’ve felt strongly to drive 2,000 miles to Washington.
Jerod Hughes: Yes, sir. I still feel very strongly.
Jerod Hughes came from Montana. He’s a married, 39-year-old construction worker with a daughter and a grievance.
Jerod Hughes: The way this country’s headed, my paycheck– you know, my wife’s disabled, and it’s been hell for us to try to, you know, try to make it with the tens of thousands of dollars of medical bills, you know? And a lot of us see Donald Trump, the outsider, comin’ in and tryin’ to– and tryin’ to help us out, tryin’ to help the little guy out against the big government.
That’s Jerod Hughes at lower right in the khaki cap, among the first inside the Capitol. That’s Hughes, inside, at the door, kicking it out so the mob can rush in.
Jerod Hughes: You guys don’t want this. You don’t f***ing want this! And we are f***ing mad! We are mad!
Jerod Hughes: No matter how I look at it, I share some of the responsibility for everything that happened that day, letting people in, being a part of that mob. I didn’t personally fight any cops or engage with any officers, but I have a lot of family that are police officers. I have a tremendous amount of respect for police, and I did not like seeing them being assaulted.
Scott Pelley: We didn’t see a lot of respect for police in that video.
Jerod Hughes: Well, no. Absolutely. I mean, I’ll hold my hand up and say I was wrong. I should not have been screaming at those cops. It’s not somethin’ I’m proud of.
Others did much worse.
Daniel Hodges: I became trapped. They pinned me against the door frame, and with my arms at my side I couldn’t mount any kind of defense.
Officer Daniel Hodges of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police defended an entrance known as the West Front Tunnel.
60 Minutes
Daniel Hodges: Someone was pinning me with a police shield, and another member of the crowd grabbed my gas mask by the filter in front and just started essentially punching me in the face while holding onto it, and then eventually ripped it off my head-And then he stole my riot baton out of my hands and beat me in the head with it.
Scott Pelley: What were you defending?
Daniel Hodges: Democracy.
Democracy stopped for about six hours. The vote was counted at 3:44 a.m. With two weeks until inauguration day, it was the Trump Justice Department that set the standards for the prosecutions. Decisions were made by “career” prosecutors who work at Justice for years regardless of who the president might be.
Matthew Graves: The career prosecutors quickly realized that you needed guidelines in place, determinations about who was gonna be charged, who wasn’t gonna be charged, and what they would be charged with. That process started in January 7th, 2021, during the prior administration. To this day, we continue to use guidelines that the career prosecutors put in place during the prior administration.
Scott Pelley: And how do they guide you?
Matthew Graves: what we’re generally focusing on, of the thousands of people who you could potentially charge that day, are people who actually entered into the Capitol, people who engaged in violent or destructive behavior, people who illegally carried firearms or other weapons on Capitol grounds, and people who helped others to get into the Capitol building.
Scott Pelley: You’re not charging everyone who was there that day?
Matthew Graves: That is correct. We have turned down hundreds of cases where the FBI is saying, there is evidence here, it’s your determination, prosecutors, whether you think this should be prosecuted.
Scott Pelley: And why would you turn them down?
Matthew Graves: Because they don’t fit within the guidelines that the career prosecutors had been using, or we don’t think that there’s sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves told us that January 6th charges range from, essentially, trespassing, to the most serious, seditious conspiracy.
Matthew Graves: So seditious conspiracy is a Civil-War era statute that deals with basically using force against the government to interfere with the operations of the government.
Fourteen have been convicted of seditious conspiracy. One, a militia leader, got 22 years, the longest sentence of all. All of the trials have been in open court in Washington before judges or juries, the defendant’s choice. but more than 900 — 80% — have pleaded guilty.
Matthew Graves: And we’ve seen defendants in January 6th take full advantage of all the protections afforded under the constitution. To me, that’s the picture of due process.
But “due process” is not the picture painted at Trump rallies, including this last March.
Announcer: “Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages.” “Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light…” “At the twilight’s last gleaming…”
That’s a recording of defendants in jail. Mr. Trump has said that he’s “inclined to pardon many of them.”
Former President Donald Trump (during March 2024 rally): Well, thank you very much and you see the spirit from the hostages and that’s what they are, is hostages, they’ve been treated terribly and very unfairly, and you know that and everybody knows that and we are going to be working on that, soon as, the first day we get into office, we’re going to save our country we are going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots and they were unbelievable patriots and are…
The former president has also revised the history of those who died.
One of his supporters was killed by an officer defending the House chamber. Three other Trump supporters died that day—one drug overdose—two from cardiovascular disease. And a police officer died of a stroke the next day. In the debate, Mr. Trump acknowledged one death, but he said this in August.
Former President Donald Trump (during August news conference:) When you compare them to other things that took place in this country where a lot of people were killed. Nobody was killed on January 6th.
Former President Trump is, himself, a January 6th defendant in a separate prosecution led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Trump was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly conspiring to overturn the election with lies he knew were false -the same myths that stoked rage in Jerod Hughes.
60 Minutes
Scott Pelley: Where were you getting all of this information?
Jerod Hughes: Well, a lot of Fox News, a lot of stuff that I read on the internet. Obviously, Trump himself, you know, saying that the election was stolen.
Fox News paid $787 million to settle a suit that claimed that Fox repeatedly lied about the election and knew it.
Scott Pelley: Were the January 6th protesters duped?
Thomas Griffith: Yes.
Thomas Griffith is a conservative, retired, federal judge who co-authored, “Lost, Not Stolen,” a year-long investigation by conservatives into the 2020 election.
Thomas Griffith: The conclusion of the report was that there’s no evidence that fraud changed the outcome of an election in any precinct in the United States of America.
Scott Pelley: In any precinct?
Thomas Griffith: And all of the evidence, not the speculation, not the conspiracy theories, all the evidence points in one direction. And that is that President Biden won, and President Trump lost.
Judge Griffith was appointed by George W. Bush to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He retired in 2020 after working for years with most of the 29 judges who have heard January 6th cases.
Thomas Griffith: None of these judges is politically biased. These defendants had every chance in the world to defend themselves against these charges. And they didn’t succeed.
Scott Pelley: You seem to be saying that justice was done.
Thomas Griffith: Absolutely, justice was done.
60 Minutes
Justice for Jerod Hughes meant turning himself in and pleading guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding. The Supreme Court struck down that charge in another case. But if Hughes appeals, he’ll face other charges that prosecutors dropped. So, after 20 months in custody, including prison, he’s decided to just wrap up his last days of home detention.
Jerod Hughes: If I come to find out that I was dead wrong on this, that the election was actually legit and Joe Biden got the most votes in presidential history, I would be extremely embarrassed. I would hold my hand up and say, “I was wrong, and I was an idiot.” I don’t believe that though. And whether I was right or wrong, I– I believe what we did was patriotic, because we truly believed that the election was stolen, for a number of reasons. We really believed that.
Though the vote count was delayed, the transfer of power was on time with a new president emerging from that same West Front Tunnel defended by Officer Daniel Hodges.
Daniel Hodges: If these defendants are pardoned, then so much of what they believe or believed on that day will be justified in their heads that if they do it again that they’ll be protected. And it would be just incredibly destructive for the fabric of the country.
Now, the trials, themselves, will be judged by voters who will decide whether the defendants were prosecuted as criminals or choir boys.
Scott Pelley: The allegation is made that the White House is guiding your work.
Matthew Graves: I’ve never met President Biden let alone talked to him which is normal I would add because there are walls for very good reasons between the Department of Justice and the White House so that prosecution can focus on what it should be focused on, whether there are violations of law, and whether those violations of law consistent with the rules that we follow should be federally prosecuted.
Scott Pelley: There are people, maybe millions of people in this country, who are skeptical about what you just said.
Matthew Graves: No one is being prosecuted for their views. They’re being prosecuted for their acts.
Editor’s Note: D.C. Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges spoke in his personal capacity and not on behalf of his employer or the District of Columbia.
Produced by Aaron Weisz. Associate producer, Ian Flickinger. Broadcast associates, Michelle Karim. Edited by Daniel J. Glucksman.
[ad_2]
-
First rioter to enter Capitol during Jan. 6 attack is sentenced to over 4 years in prison
[ad_1]
A Kentucky man who was the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol during a mob’s attack on the building was sentenced on Tuesday to more than four years in prison.A police officer who tried to subdue Michael Sparks with pepper spray described him as a catalyst for the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Senate that day recessed less than one minute after Sparks jumped into the building through a broken window. Sparks then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up flights of stairs.Before learning his sentencing, Sparks told the judge that he still believes the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud and “completely taken from the American public.”“I am remorseful that what transpired that day didn’t help anybody,” Sparks said. “I am remorseful that our country is in the state it’s in.”U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who sentenced Sparks to four years and five months, told him that there was nothing patriotic about his prominent role in what was a “national disgrace.”“I don’t really think you appreciate the full gravity of what happened that day and, quite frankly, the full seriousness of what you did,” the judge said.Federal prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Sparks, a 47-year-old former factory worker from Cecilia, Kentucky.Defense attorney Scott Wendelsdorf asked the judge to sentence Sparks to one year of home detention instead of prison.A jury convicted Sparks of all six charges that he faced, including a felony count of interfering with police during a civil disorder. Sparks didn’t testify at his trial in Washington, D.C.In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, Sparks used social media to promote conspiracy theories about election fraud and advocate for a civil war.“It’s time to drag them out of Congress. It’s tyranny,” he posted on Facebook three days before the riot.Sparks traveled to Washington, D.C, with co-workers from an electronics and components plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.After the rally, Sparks and a friend, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd in marching to the Capitol. Both of them wore tactical vests. Howe was captured on video repeatedly saying, “we’re getting in that building.”Off camera, Sparks added: “All it’s going to take is one person to go. The rest is following,” according to prosecutors. Sparks’ attorney argued that the evidence doesn’t prove that Sparks made that statement.“Of course, both Sparks and Howe were more right than perhaps anyone else knew at the time — it was just a short time later that Sparks made history as the very first person to go inside, and the rest indeed followed,” prosecutors wrote.Dominic Pezzola, a member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group, used a police shield to break a window next to the Senate Wing Door. Capitol Police Sgt. Victor Nichols sprayed Sparks in the face as he hopped through the shattered glass.Nichols testified that Sparks acted “like a green light for everybody behind him, and everyone followed right behind him because it was like it was okay to go into the building.” Nichols also said Sparks’ actions were “the catalyst for the building being completely breached.”Undeterred by pepper spray, Sparks joined other rioters in chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he retreated up the stairs and found backup from other officers near the Senate chamber.“This is our America!” Sparks screamed at police. He left the building about 10 minutes later.Sparks’ attorney downplayed his client’s distinction as the first rioter to enter the building.“While technically true in a time-line sense, he did not lead the crowd into the building or cause the breach through which he and others entered,” Wendelsdorf wrote. “Actually, there were eight different points of access that day separately and independently exploited by the protestors.”But the judge said when and where Sparks entered the Capitol was an important factor in his sentencing.“I think it’s undeniable that the first person” to enter the Capitol “would have an emboldening and encouraging effect on everyone who was at least in your vicinity,” Kelly told Sparks. “To say it wasn’t a material, key point in the mob’s taking of the Capitol, I think, is just ignoring the obvious.”Sparks was arrested in Kentucky less than a month after the riot. Sparks and Howe were charged together in a November 2022 indictment. Howe pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction charges and was sentenced last year to four years and two months in prison.More than 1,400 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 950 riot defendants have been convicted and sentenced. More than 600 of them have received terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
WASHINGTON —A Kentucky man who was the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol during a mob’s attack on the building was sentenced on Tuesday to more than four years in prison.
A police officer who tried to subdue Michael Sparks with pepper spray described him as a catalyst for the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Senate that day recessed less than one minute after Sparks jumped into the building through a broken window. Sparks then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up flights of stairs.
Before learning his sentencing, Sparks told the judge that he still believes the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud and “completely taken from the American public.”
“I am remorseful that what transpired that day didn’t help anybody,” Sparks said. “I am remorseful that our country is in the state it’s in.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who sentenced Sparks to four years and five months, told him that there was nothing patriotic about his prominent role in what was a “national disgrace.”
“I don’t really think you appreciate the full gravity of what happened that day and, quite frankly, the full seriousness of what you did,” the judge said.
Federal prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Sparks, a 47-year-old former factory worker from Cecilia, Kentucky.
Defense attorney Scott Wendelsdorf asked the judge to sentence Sparks to one year of home detention instead of prison.
A jury convicted Sparks of all six charges that he faced, including a felony count of interfering with police during a civil disorder. Sparks didn’t testify at his trial in Washington, D.C.
In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, Sparks used social media to promote conspiracy theories about election fraud and advocate for a civil war.
“It’s time to drag them out of Congress. It’s tyranny,” he posted on Facebook three days before the riot.
Sparks traveled to Washington, D.C, with co-workers from an electronics and components plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.
After the rally, Sparks and a friend, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd in marching to the Capitol. Both of them wore tactical vests. Howe was captured on video repeatedly saying, “we’re getting in that building.”
Off camera, Sparks added: “All it’s going to take is one person to go. The rest is following,” according to prosecutors. Sparks’ attorney argued that the evidence doesn’t prove that Sparks made that statement.
“Of course, both Sparks and Howe were more right than perhaps anyone else knew at the time — it was just a short time later that Sparks made history as the very first person to go inside, and the rest indeed followed,” prosecutors wrote.
Dominic Pezzola, a member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group, used a police shield to break a window next to the Senate Wing Door. Capitol Police Sgt. Victor Nichols sprayed Sparks in the face as he hopped through the shattered glass.
Nichols testified that Sparks acted “like a green light for everybody behind him, and everyone followed right behind him because it was like it was okay to go into the building.” Nichols also said Sparks’ actions were “the catalyst for the building being completely breached.”
Undeterred by pepper spray, Sparks joined other rioters in chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he retreated up the stairs and found backup from other officers near the Senate chamber.
“This is our America!” Sparks screamed at police. He left the building about 10 minutes later.
Sparks’ attorney downplayed his client’s distinction as the first rioter to enter the building.
“While technically true in a time-line sense, he did not lead the crowd into the building or cause the breach through which he and others entered,” Wendelsdorf wrote. “Actually, there were eight different points of access that day separately and independently exploited by the protestors.”
But the judge said when and where Sparks entered the Capitol was an important factor in his sentencing.
“I think it’s undeniable that the first person” to enter the Capitol “would have an emboldening and encouraging effect on everyone who was at least in your vicinity,” Kelly told Sparks. “To say it wasn’t a material, key point in the mob’s taking of the Capitol, I think, is just ignoring the obvious.”
Sparks was arrested in Kentucky less than a month after the riot. Sparks and Howe were charged together in a November 2022 indictment. Howe pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction charges and was sentenced last year to four years and two months in prison.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 950 riot defendants have been convicted and sentenced. More than 600 of them have received terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
[ad_2]
-
We Know Where Jimmy Pesto Sr. Was on January 6
[ad_1]
Jay Johnston.
Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesWe’re sure the Bob’s Burgers character Jimmy Pesto Sr. is always getting asked about where he was on January 6 based on vibes alone, but it’s only his former voice actor who can answer in the affirmative.
June 26, 2024: Bob’s Burgers actorJay Johnston is expected to plead guilty on June 8 for his involvement in the riots on the U.S. Capitol, according to dockets reviewed by NBC News justice reporter Ryan J. Reilly. The expected plea comes a little over a year after Johnston was arrested and charged with felony obstruction of officers and several misdemeanors for entering a tunnel of the Capitol, assisting other rioters, and using a stolen police shield while battling with police. Johnston’s involvement first came to light when the FBI posted a photo of the actor while seeking information about people who participated in the riot in 2021. Online sleuths immediately recognized him as a bit player in Anchorman and Arrested Development. Months later, Johnston was booted from Bob’s Burgers. This is history in the making.
July 8, 2024: Johnston pleaded guilty to interfering with police officers at the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. According to the Associated Press, the “estimated sentencing guidelines” for the Mr. Show alum recommend eight to 14 months of prison time, but he technically faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. An FBI affidavit states that Johnston recorded rioters breaking through police barricades on his cell phone and held a stolen police shield over his head before passing it to other rioters.
In his plea agreement, Johnston wrote, “The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn’t. Though it kind of turned into that. It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic.” He is scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court on October 7.
[ad_2]
Zoe Guy
Source link
