2020 Election Fallout 14: Arrests And The Big Lie

[GreyhoundFan]

Tweedle Creepy and Tweedle Crazy are on the loose:

 

[Cartmann99]

 It's shameful that she's having to do this.

 

[Alisamer]

Quote

Putting politics aside, wouldn’t they want to know the truth of what happened on January 6?

They know. That's what they're afraid of. Republicans know it was their people, their base, their more radical voters who attacked on Jan. 6. They are afraid of the fallout, afraid of the truth, and afraid of their own people. The Rs in congress know they wouldn't have fared well if they hadn't manage to barricade out the MAGA mob. If they'll chant "Hang Mike Pence" they'll go after lesser targets as well. And some of those people didn't even vote! Would they even recognize half the Republicans in congress on sight? 

If they support the commission they might get caught up in their own misdeeds, and they'll anger the loonies with weapons that might come after them... and might lose votes. 

They'd rather look like slimeballs than potentially set themselves up for punishment for being slimeballs. 

[Dandruff]

5 hours ago, Alisamer said:

They'd rather look like slimeballs than potentially set themselves up for punishment for being slimeballs.

I think they're also trusting that the public, in general (excluding loonies), has a much shorter memory than some of their political cronies who will never let go of a grudge.

[Cartmann99]

 

[Ozlsn]

6 hours ago, Dandruff said:

I think they're also trusting that the public, in general (excluding loonies), has a much shorter memory than some of their political cronies who will never let go of a grudge.

If they support the commission they'll be targeted by Trump, and most of them don't have guts to do that. 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

Spoiler

 

[Becky]

18 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

He has to leave home for appointments with his lawyer and spends 11 hours doing so? If I was supervising this douchecanoe I would require the lawyer to make a house call.  
Also - I am sure there is a joke somewhere in here about “spinelessness” but I am too angry about this crap to try and find it.  

[WiseGirl]

Yes. Do it.

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Ozlsn]

So now that everyone knows he's a poseur...

 

[WiseGirl]

I wasn't sure where to put this but is so true and alarming. 

 

[fraurosena]

6 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

I wasn't sure where to put this but is so true and alarming. 

 

There are many things that Americans believe about themselves (generally speaking) that are far from fact in reality. "A shining beacon upon the hill" America is not, and it never has been -- I mean, one of your revered founding fathers disagreed with another founding father so badly that he shot and killed him, and despite that was allowed to remain in office as vice president and never faced justice for it... what kind of example is that? 

America is not the world's best democracy; in fact the situation now is a far cry from what a true democracy is. As long as the minority party has the country in a stranglehold and can do whatever they wish with voter suppression, gerrymandering and fraud, there is no democracy in America. And the rest of the world decidedly does not look up to America, no matter how hard Americans pretend that it does.

This current hard swing towards authoritarianism and fascism is neither sudden nor unexpected. America has been slowly moving in that direction from its very inception. It's time that reality sinks in, before it's too late to do something about it.

[47of74]

All probably Trump University Law School graduates. 

[GreyhoundFan]

This scum needs to be kept off the streets.

 

The rest of the thread is under the spoiler:

Spoiler

 

 

[Ozlsn]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

What a charming person. /s "She once sang at Carnegie Hall. Now she’s charged with attacking police with a flagpole in the Capitol riots."

Quote

When Audrey Ann Southard took the stage at Carnegie Hall in 2012, she belted out an opera aria for a crowd inside the famed New York venue.

When she stormed into the U.S. Capitol in January, the FBI said, her audience was the police officers defending the building from a horde of Trump supporters.

“Tell Pelosi we’re coming for that b----,” video shows her screaming at officers, according to court documents. “There’s a hundred thousand of us, what’s it going to be?”

Southard later used a flagpole to shove a sergeant backward until he slammed his head into a statue, the FBI said, all while agitating the crowd behind her to “push in here” as they sought to disrupt Congress as it certified President Biden’s victory.

Southard, a 52-year-old who the Tampa Bay Times reported works as a private music instructor in Florida, was charged this week with numerous counts connected to the deadly insurrection, including assaulting a federal employee. Her attorney did not immediately return a message from The Washington Post early on Friday.

  

As with many of the hundreds now charged with participating in the attack on the Capitol, Southard’s own social media posts documenting her participation in the riots were key to the federal charges, the FBI said in court documents.

The California native grew up loving opera, the Times reported, but her dreams of pursuing a musical career were put on hold as she raised a family. By her mid-40s, she was living in Tampa, teaching and occasionally performing in community theater productions.

But her hopes of stardom were unexpectedly resurrected in 2012, when she traveled to Sicily for the Ibla Grand Prize Bellini International Vocal Competition, which brings contestants from around the globe to perform for a panel of judges. Southard took home the top prize that year, the Times reported, winning a showcase performance at Carnegie Hall.

“She has a magnificent voice that is capable of doing many things,” Joseph Tomaselli, her vocal coach, told the Times at the time.

In the years since her Carnegie showcase, though, Southard became more known for strident political activism than singing. An FBI task force officer assigned to the agency’s Tampa office said in court documents that Southard was familiar to the agency due to her “protesting activities” in Florida.

In early January, she traveled to Washington with several others from the Tampa area after raising money online for the trip, the Times reported. Southard posted on social media about her trip, the FBI said, writing “Going to DC tomorrow … Patriot’s vs Traitors.” Her group stayed in Williamsburg before heading to the Capitol early on Jan. 6, the FBI said.

In one video that appears to feature Southard before the riots, she posed with the Capitol looming behind her. “Standing in front of the Capitol building, ready to take it as soon as we get enough people up here,” she said. “It’s going to be fun.”

Once inside, the FBI said, Southard joined a mob pushing through a hallway connecting the Capitol’s Statuary Hall with the House of Representatives. There, they met a small group of police sent to “hold or delay the rioters,” the FBI said.

As the rioters swelled into the hundreds, Southard took up a leading role at the front of the mob. A police sergeant identified her to the FBI as one of two main “agitators” in the group. Video captured by John Earle Sullivan — who posted online as Jayden X and has since been charged in the riot — appears to show Southard yelling obscenities, gesturing angrily at police, and urging rioters to push past the officers.

“You ready, you ready?” she allegedly asked an officer blocking the way, later adding, “Last friend, last bullet. What’s it going to be?”

At some point, according to the video and the FBI, she picked up a flagpole and held it against the chest of a sergeant in the hallway. When one man in the crowd pleaded for peace, she appeared to respond in the video, “Bulls---! They’re going to feel us!”

As the crowd surged, Southard allegedly used the pole to shove the sergeant backward through a set of doors leading into the House until he slammed into a marble statue of Marquis de Lafayette, smacking his head on the base. The sergeant “felt like he was being trampled during the ordeal,” the FBI said.

In Sullivan’s extended video, Southard disappears from view as the rioters bottleneck in one hallway and then attempt to break through windows in another. Moments later, Sullivan filmed as an officer shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran.

In addition to the video evidence, Southard’s cellphone also placed her inside the Capitol during the insurrection, the FBI said.

Southard appeared in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Wednesday, according to court records, and was released after posting a $50,000 bond.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Maybe one should cover up huge tattoos that are easily identified before committing sedition: "A massive belly tattoo helped investigators identify alleged Capitol rioter, feds say"

Quote

Authorities investigating the U.S. Capitol riot had zeroed in on the man in the white T-shirt and dark jacket. Videos and photos showed him hitting officers in the building, according to court records, and two tipsters had reported him to the FBI.

To make sure they had the right person, investigators dug deeper. They unearthed a nearly decade-old booking photo showing a distinctive tattoo on the man’s stomach: “King James” written in a semicircle Old English font.

The same tattoo was visible in body-camera footage from the Jan. 6 attack, investigators said, flashing into view when the man lifted his shirt to wipe his face.

James Burton McGrew was arrested in Glendale, Ariz., last week on several charges, including acts of physical violence on Capitol grounds and assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer. He made his first court appearance Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, records show.

An attorney representing McGrew did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and McGrew could not be reached. Records show he was in custody this week and had a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon.

In the months since the riot, authorities have used a broad and often creative mix of investigative tools to identify suspects in the sea of Trump supporters who tried to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory in the November election. Many of the 400-plus cases prosecutors have filed to date have been built on evidence that stretches beyond security footage or information from witnesses and tipsters.

In one recent case, investigators said they obtained location data from a former Utah police officer’s cellphone to support allegations that he was in the Capitol on the afternoon of the riot. They said they also had text messages, photographs, surveillance footage and information from tipsters placing him there. In another case, investigators said they identified a man from Pennsylvania through posts on his wife’s Facebook page, a driver’s license photo, live-stream footage and an Instagram picture.

The level of detail in those filings, as well as the complaint against McGrew, reflects the extraordinarily high stakes surrounding the Capitol riot investigation, according to Lenese Herbert, a former federal prosecutor in Washington. Prosecutors are facing immense pressure not only to bring successful cases, but also to silence false claims about the attack on American democracy, she said.

“They’re preparing for war. They want these cases as airtight as possible,” Herbert told The Washington Post. “They’re going to plop a huge, heavy folder on the desk and say, ‘This is what we have.’ ”

Prosecutors also want to avoid any possibility of naming the wrong suspects, Herbert added.

“One potential problem is identification. There were so many people, it was so wild,” she said. “They’re taking that off the table. They’re saying, ‘You’re going to have to find another defense, because misidentification won’t be it.’ ”

McGrew’s case started with a pair of tips to the FBI, according to court documents. The first came in the day after the riot. The person said McGrew had talked about going to Washington to “protest” the “stolen vote,” according to a criminal complaint signed by a Joint Terrorism Task Force officer. The tipster also allegedly said McGrew had shown an “employee” a video of him inside the Capitol.

The second tip came in on Feb. 26, when a person reported to the FBI’s threat hotline that McGrew had assaulted Capitol Police officers, according to the complaint. About a week later, the caller allegedly gave investigators pictures showing McGrew in the building.

Footage from body cameras worn by D.C. police officers showed McGrew screaming at law enforcement, according to the complaint. “We’re coming in here, whether you like it or not,” he allegedly yelled. “Fight with us, not against us.”

Other clips showed McGrew pushing and striking officers as they tried to control a crowd in the rotunda, investigators said. When one officer told McGrew to leave, McGrew allegedly shouted back: “You leave. You leave. This is our house.”

In screenshots included in court filings, McGrew could be seen in what investigators said was the Capitol Rotunda. In one frame, a text tattoo is visible on his stomach. Investigators said it matched a 2012 booking photo for McGrew, which was included in the filing. Officials did not say where the booking photo was taken or what led to McGrew’s arrest at the time.

In addition to the physical violence and assault charges, McGrew faces counts of obstruction of an official proceeding, entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. He could receive up to eight years in prison if convicted of assault.

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 a distinctive tattoo on the man’s stomach: “King James” written in a semicircle Old English font.

Do you think he realizes that King James I was a closet gay and King James II was a closet catholic until he was deposed? 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by fraurosena
ETA that I'm not bashing gays, but implying he probably does

[Xan]

I'm not sure where to put this but I guess this thread might work.  There's a family in Roselle Park, NJ with anti-Biden posters on their fence.  They're currently about to be fined because the posters have profanity and the house is close to an elementary school.  The homeowners are claiming they have freedom of speech but local ordinances prohibit profanity.

Photo:

Spoiler

Link to article:

Spoiler

https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/union/news/profanity-laced-anti-biden-flags-cause-controversy-in-nj-town/810139/

Here's the kicker.  Their last name is "Dick".  Honest to God.  Dick.  They are a family of Dicks.

[47of74]

Aww poor baby

Quote

DES MOINES  — A Des Moines man pictured prominently with a QAnon shirt ahead of a crowd of insurgents inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack asked a judge on Monday to release him from jail, saying "he feels deceived, recognizing that he bought into a pack of lies.”

Douglas Jensen, in a document filed by his attorney, said he believed he was a “true patriot” for going to Washington at the urging of President Donald Trump. He said his intention was to only observe.

Jensen's claims he is “a victim of numerous conspiracy theories that were being fed to him over the internet by a number of very clever people, who were uniquely equipped with slight, if any, moral or social consciousness.”

Jensen's attorney Christopher Davis said in the document that Jensen was not part of any mob and simply went to Washington to watch. Davis acknowledged Jensen was in front of a crowd but argued he did that “for the now disclosed silly reason” to show his QAnon shirt to get it recognized.

Fuck him. 

[fraurosena]

Wait for it…

Edited June 8, 2021 by fraurosena

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s election fraud claims propelled them to the Capitol on Jan. 6. His ongoing comments are keeping them in jail."

Quote

Many of those charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol have blamed former president Donald Trump for their actions, saying he riled them with his claims of election fraud and his promises to join them in fighting it.

Now, Trump’s continued refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election is helping to keep some of those supporters behind bars.

“The steady drumbeat that inspired defendant to take up arms has not faded away; six months later, the canard that the election was stolen is being repeated daily on major news outlets and from the corridors of power in state and federal government, not to mention the near-daily fulminations of the former President,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote recently in denying bond to a Colorado man. The man is accused of driving to Washington with two firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition after threatening to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D).

Although Trump has been blocked from major social media platforms and recently shut down his own blog, he is still monitoring and promoting false claims of election fraud. Citing Trump’s ongoing comments, federal judges have shared fears that those defendants accused of the worst violence or threats of violence that day remain a danger to public safety.

“Unfortunately,” said Judge Amit Mehta in detaining a man accused of throwing a hatchet and a desk during the riot, the “political dynamics that gave way to January 6th have not faded.”

In keeping a Trump supporter and felon in jail in Michigan pending trial, Jackson highlighted a message in which the man said he was in D.C. on Jan. 6 because “Trump’s the only big shot I trust right now.”

The man has been charged with obstructing a congressional proceeding and related crimes, and his “promise to take action in the future cannot be dismissed as an unlikely occurrence given that his singular source of information . . . continues to propagate the lie that inspired the attack on a near daily basis,” Jackson wrote.

At least half a dozen defendants detained on riot-related charges have been released in recent weeks in part by arguing that the insurrection was a singular event that could not be re-created. That argument was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which found that the dangerousness of any individual defendant had to be considered in light of the fact that “the specific circumstances of January 6” created “a unique opportunity to obstruct democracy.”

Judge John D. Bates on April 12 agreed to release a former State Department employee who joined the mob pushing back against police in a tunnel under the Capitol, saying that “the specific concerns in the wake of the January 6 events over future protests and violent attacks on the government . . . have dissipated to some degree.” He noted that despite concerns, there was no attempt to attack President Biden on his Inauguration Day or to seize the government on March 4, the day some conspiratorial supporters believed Trump would retake office.

“The threat to public safety must be continuing and prospective,” Bates wrote.

Trump said through attorneys in a recent civil court filing that he bears no responsibility for the events of Jan. 6. Letting a lawsuit brought by Democratic members of Congress to go forward, they wrote, “would essentially hold politicians vicariously liable for the actions of their supporters, substantially chilling critically important political speech.”

The former president has remained fixated on Republican-led efforts to put him back in office. Republicans in Arizona and Georgia have gotten permission to inspect ballots, and Trump supporters in other states are pushing similar “audits.” Republican state legislators nationwide have also introduced bills echoing Trump’s false fraud claims as justification for new voting restrictions. Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have been directly encouraging some of those lawmakers.

“The Court is not convinced that dissatisfaction and concern about the legitimacy of the election results has dissipated for all Americans,” Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote in an April 20 ruling denying bond for a man accused of beating a police officer with a crutch and dragging him into the crowd. “Former President Donald J. Trump continues to make forceful public comments about the ‘stolen election,’ chastising individuals who did not reject the supposedly illegitimate results that put the current administration in place.”

Sullivan cited a statement Trump released on Easter, wishing a happy holiday to “the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election,” along with reporting on a speech the former president gave to donors criticizing other Republicans for not keeping him in power.

The judge raised the same comments in denying bond to physicist Jeffrey Sabol, who, according to court records, dragged an officer down the steps and used a baton to hold him down. In court, Sabol’s attorney argued that his client now realizes that he was “lied to” about the election. But given Trump’s recent comments, “There is ample reason to believe that fight is not finished for Mr. Sabol and others like him, making the threat of further violence present, concrete, and continuing,” the judge wrote.

He is not the only one behind bars despite repudiating Trump.

“I’ve got some of my good friends and myself facing jail time cuz we followed this guy’s lead and never questioned it,” Ethan Nordean wrote on the encrypted messaging service Telegram on Inauguration Day, according to prosecutors. “We are now and always have been on our own.”

Nordean’s attorneys argued that the message is evidence that he is no longer interested in political protest. But prosecutors argued, and a judge agreed, that the message showed that Nordean was a leader in the Capitol attack and could marshal fellow members of the far-right Proud Boys group in the future.

“Even if the election has passed,” Judge Timothy J. Kelly said at a hearing in April, “all of politics has not.”

Joseph Hurley, who represents a Capitol defendant out on bond, said it is fair for judges to weigh Trump’s words in detention decisions — “to the extent that there has not been a complete denial of the lack of reasoning and stupidity that led them to be involved.”

He said Anthony Antonio, his client, was “no longer infected” by belief in the former president. Although at the beginning of the riot Antonio taunted police and proclaimed that it was “1776 all over again,” by the end, Hurley said, he was pleading with others to be peaceful and now considers Trump “a liar.”

But, Hurley said, when “Trump keeps beating that drum, he keeps firing them up . . . the burden is on them to convince the judge” that they aren’t listening.

Richard Wilson, a professor at the University of Connecticut who studies international speech crimes, disagrees. He said the onus is on the courts to carefully consider over time whether the danger has passed.

“If there’s a continued risk that’s a high level of risk, and it’s imminent, and there is continued incitement by leading individuals from in around the Trump administration,” he said, caution makes sense. “But I think the power and influence is waning all the time. . . . Donald Trump might be out there for a very long time, and people can’t be detained indefinitely.”

 

[Ozlsn]

Frankly I think anyone charged with a violent crime e.g assault, or who turned up with a weapon should remain in custody. If they were unarmed trespassers, OK, bail is a possibility. But anyone who was armed or violent should be regarded as a potential threat anyway.