2020 Election Fallout 14: Arrests And The Big Lie

[GreyhoundFan]

This is appalling, but not surprising. Check out the email address on the threats.

 

[Ozlsn]

7 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

This is appalling, but not surprising. Check out the email address on the threats.

 

They need to start following up on and prosecuting this shit too. Harassment should be treated like stalking charges. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Johnson says this shit with a straight face.

 

[SPHASH]

Would be a shame if this went viral.

 

[Ozlsn]

Anyone with a prior conviction for any violent offence should automatically be remanded in custody for the Jan 6th charges.

[GreyhoundFan]

Why do I not believe Dmitri Rohrabacher (R-Russia) when he claims he stayed outside? "Former congressman Dana Rohrabacher says he protested outside the Capitol on Jan. 6"

Quote

Former congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said Monday that he was among the crowds outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but claimed that he was there to protest the election and did not join others in storming the building.

Rohrabacher acknowledged his presence outside the Capitol in an interview with a Maine newspaper. Over the weekend, social media users began circulating photos that appeared to show the former congressman and an associate standing among the pro-Trump crowd.

“I marched to protest, and I thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated, and I wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand,” Rohrabacher, 73, said in the interview with the Portland Press Herald. “But I was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.”

Rohrabacher could not immediately be reached for comment Monday night.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and dozens of court challenges seeking to overturn President Biden’s victory failed.

Nearly 140 police officers were assaulted during the insurrection, authorities said, facing some rioters armed with ax handles, bats, metal batons, wooden poles, hockey sticks and other weapons.

The House last month passed legislation that would form an independent commission to investigate the attack. But the measure failed to advance in the Senate, with nearly all Republicans in the chamber banding together in opposition.

During his time as a member of Congress, Rohrabacher earned a reputation as among the most vocal defenders of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. In June 2016, then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) asserted in a private conversation with other Republican leaders: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.”

Rohrabacher served in Congress for 30 years. After losing reelection in 2018, he moved to Maine and has been active in the cannabis industry. He and his wife, Rhonda, have also taken steps toward becoming active in local politics in their new hometown of York.

According to the Portland Press Herald, videos of the Jan. 6 riot show the former congressman was nearly 500 feet inside the restricted zone surrounding the Capitol, but there are no signs that he tried to enter the building.

In the interview with the newspaper, Rohrabacher also promoted a false narrative about the storming of the Capitol, claiming without evidence that “leftist provocateurs” led the charge.

“By going into the building, they gave the left the ability to direct the discussion of what was going on in a way that was harmful to the things we believe in,” Rohrabacher said.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has made similar false claims about the identities of those who stormed the Capitol. Federal officials have said there is no substantial evidence of left-wing provocation or that anti-fascist activists posed as Trump supporters during the riot.

 

[fraurosena]

This (very long) thread is a must read. Oversight committee is researching the events that lead up to the insurrection. The results so far are, although not unexpected, quite astounding.

Unrolled version here.

[GreyhoundFan]

I despise Gosar almost as much as his family does: "Paul Gosar demands name of Capitol officer who killed rioter Ashli Babbitt, saying she was ‘executed’"

Quote

In a hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) abruptly turned his questions for FBI Director Christopher A. Wray toward the Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who tried to leap through a window during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Gosar demanded to know why the FBI hasn’t disclosed the name of the officer, who was cleared of wrongdoing by prosecutors in April.

“It’s disturbing,” Gosar told Wray, while claiming that Babbitt was “executed.” “The Capitol Police officer that did that shooting appeared to be hiding, lying in wait and then gave no warning before killing her.”

His comments, which came the same day that he joined 20 other House Republicans in voting against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to the officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6, have gone viral on social media and drawn swift rebukes from critics and some colleagues who accused him of downplaying the severity of the insurrection.

“On January 6, as the violent mob advanced on the House chamber, I was standing near [Rep. Gosar] and helped him open his gas mask,” tweeted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who lost her House leadership position last month over her attempts to hold former president Donald Trump accountable for the insurrection. “The Capitol Police led us to safety.”

Before the insurrection, Gosar actively promoted Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud. After lawsuits challenging the 2020 presidential election results failed to advance, Gosar in December amplified falsehoods that 20,000 ballots had been changed in favor of Joe Biden.

On Jan. 6, he was among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election results. Some Democrats also urged an investigation into Gosar’s role in inciting the insurrection. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called on the House Ethics Committee to probe how deeply involved Gosar and two of his colleagues were planning rallies that day. The committee, in a letter last week, declined to investigate.

Gosar’s vote on Tuesday and his comments during the House committee hearing only added to the congressman’s record of sympathizing with the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to interfere with the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential win.

In House hearings since the insurrection, Gosar has previously criticized the Capitol Police officer who killed Babbitt. Video from the scene shows the officer shot Babbitt as she tried to climb through one of the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby, as other rioters smashed windows.

Federal prosecutors in April cleared the officer of wrongdoing, saying that the shooting was reasonable, as the officer was acting in self-defense or in defense of members of Congress. Moreover, an attorney for the officer said they identified themselves as other officers warned rioters not to breach the doors.

During a hearing in May, Gosar demanded that acting U.S. attorney general Jeffrey Rosen identify the officer, asking, “Who executed Ashli Babbitt?”

Rosen replied that did he not want to get into “the specific facts of investigations.”

On Tuesday, Gosar continued a similar questioning to Wray. The Arizona congressman asked the FBI director if he knew the identity of the officer who shot Babbitt.

Wray said he did not know. Gosar then asked if Wray knew that she was unarmed. Wray responded that he could not weigh in on the facts of the case, as it was not investigated by the FBI.

Gosar also asked why the officer has not yet been named, “when police officers around the country are routinely identified after a shooting.”

Wray said he could not comment on the case, as the FBI has not been directly involved in it. But The Post reported that while D.C. police officers are required by law to release the names of officers involved in serious use of force, the law does not apply to Capitol Police officers.

Lawyers representing the officer are not disclosing his name because he has “faced death threats,” The Post reported.

Gosar on Tuesday suggested that the shooting was not justified. “Do you approve of lethal force against unarmed citizens, particularly a 110-pound woman, with no warning, no use of nonlethal force prior and while lying in wait”? Gosar asked Wray.

Wray said he was not going to “answer a hypothetical.” But Gosar argued “that’s actually what had happened.”

The 21 GOP lawmakers who voted against awarding the police officers with Congressional Gold Medals likewise sought to soften the events of the day. Some said they objected to use of the words “temple of democracy” and “insurrection” in the resolution.

“I wouldn’t call it an insurrection,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), according to Politico.

Other Republicans were aghast. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) declared, “How you can vote no to this is beyond me.”

“Then again, denying an insurrection is as well,” Kinzinger, a vocal Trump critic, said in a tweet. “To the brave Capitol (and DC metro PD) thank you. To the 21: they will continue to defend your right to vote no anyway.”

Um, she wasn't executed. She was an active participant in the violent mob who was breaking the law and refused to stand down when instructed to do so.

[47of74]

I hope the judge tells him to fuck himself. 

Quote

An attorney for 60-year-old Richard Barnett, the man photographed while allegedly invading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office on January 6, is asking a federal judge to extend his travel restriction in order to attend a car show.

The Gravette, Arkansas native had previously been denied bond and was jailed for four months on eight federal charges stemming from the U.S. Capitol riot. Barnett was photographed allegedly stealing Pelosi's mail and placing his feet on her desk as other pro-Trump supporters ransacked the office. Barnett's attorneys are now asking that he receive more freedom to travel in order to attend the 63rd Annual Petit Jean Show and Swap Meet in Arkansas.

After his initial arrest on January 28, federal prosecutors say Barnett called himself a nationalist and was prepared for a violent death. He also apparently attempted to dispose of clothing, a cell phone and guns before investigators arrived at his Arkansas home.

During a Tuesday hearing, Barnett's lawyer requested that his client's home detention travel radius be extended from 50 miles to between 200 and 250 miles so he can attend the car show on Petit Jean Mountain in Morrilton, Arkansas, this week. Northwest Arkansas' local 40/29 TV station reported Tuesday that the lawyer argued Barnett needs to travel for work so he can pay bills and provide for his family.

 

[apple1]

Having read the threads by @fraurosena and @GreyhoundFan a couple of posts above this, I can only think that in addition to some guideposts laid down by the founders of this nation -- one big reason that we still have our democracy is the unrelenting stupidity of the Trump train. My eyes glaze over just trying to read about it.

[GreyhoundFan]

@apple1 -- Take a look at this dangerous and truly stupid person: "A man who bragged about chugging wine at the Capitol riot is campaigning for office. He learned mid-interview he's running for the wrong seat."

Quote

A man who was charged after bragging that he had guzzled wine during the Capitol riot is now running for office — but appears to have accidentally joined the wrong race.

Jason Riddle of New Hampshire was arrested in February after he told NBC10 Boston that he joined rioters on January 6 as they stormed the Capitol.

He is accused of illegally entering a restricted building, theft of government property, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint.

He has now decided to enter politics and run for state representative, he said Sunday, with the intention of unseating the Democrat Ann Kuster in the 2022 midterms, the channel reported.

Kuster, however, is not a state representative but rather a member of the US Congress.

"I thought Ann was a state representative?" he said, when the reporter Katherine Underwood corrected him.

"No," Underwood said. "So, a state representative is in the State House in Concord."

"Yeah, that's what Ann is," Riddle said.

When Underwood informed him that Kuster actually worked out of Washington, DC, Riddle said: "Well, I guess I've got to run against that then."

But Riddle is barred from entering Washington while his case is pending, the network reported.

He also talked to the network about what running a political campaign was like while going through the court case.

He said he thought the notoriety from the court proceedings could only help him politically, saying: "In the long run, if you're running for office, I guess attention is good — attention I think will help me."

The fact that he joined the Capitol riot tells voters "I'm going to show up," he said. "I'm going to actually keep my promises and make some changes," he continued.

In January, Riddle told the network he hadn't been able to believe that former President Donald Trump had lost the 2020 election.

He said that he traveled to Washington and that when he saw people storming the Capitol he got swept up in the excitement and went in because he "just had to see it."

Once inside, he said, he raided the liquor cabinet of a member of Congress, "chugged it, and got out of there."

 

[apple1]

@GreyhoundFan Clearly, being dangerous and being stupid at the same time is entirely possible. Unfortunately.

[GreyhoundFan]

Repugs being extra repugnant, trying to derail a House hearing about the insurrection:

 

[fraurosena]

54 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Repugs being extra repugnant, trying to derail a House hearing about the insurrection:

 

They are absolutely petrified the truth will come out.

[GreyhoundFan]

The Repugs and Faux are now trying to say that the FBI caused and coordinated the insurrection:

[GreyhoundFan]

Clyde is a disgusting individual: "GOP congressman refuses to shake hands with D.C. police officer who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6"

Quote

Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), who voted against awarding police officers the Congressional Gold Medal for their bravery in protecting the U.S. Capitol against violent, pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, refused to shake hands with D.C. police officer Michael Fanone on Wednesday.

Fanone was beaten unconscious after he voluntarily rushed to the Capitol to help defend it from those who breached the building. He suffered a concussion and a mild heart attack. In the months since, Fanone has been one of the leading voices pushing back against Republicans who have sought to downplay the severity of what happened Jan. 6.

Fanone, joined by Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, returned to the Capitol on Wednesday, the day after 21 House Republicans voted against the Gold Medal resolution, in an effort to meet them and tell his story.

He said he recognized Clyde at an elevator and that he and Dunn hopped in with the congressman.

“I simply extended my hand and said, “How are you doing today, Congressman.’ I knew immediately he recognized me by the way he reacted. He completely froze. He just stared at me,” Fanone said in an interview.

Fanone said Clyde did not motion to shake his hand in return.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, you’re not going to shake my hand?’ ” Fanone said he told Clyde.

He said Clyde answered, “I don’t know who you are.”

Fanone said he responded, “’I’m sorry, sir, my name is Michael Fanone. I’m a D.C. police officer and I fought to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6.” He said he described being stunned repeatedly in the back of the neck and beaten unconscious, stripped of his badge and radio.

“His response was nothing,” Fanone said. “He turned away from me, pulled out his cellphone and started thumbing through the apps.” Fanone said Clyde turned on the camera app but did not point the phone in his direction. Fanone said he believes Clyde was trying to record audio of the encounter.

“After that, I just simply stood there,” Fanone said.

He said Clyde bolted when the doors opened.

Fanone shared his encounter with Clyde with Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who both tweeted about it.

“#BREAKING Officer Fanone just ran into @Rep_Clyde at Capitol (he’s the “Jan 6 was a typical tour” guy). Fanone introduced himself as “someone who fought to defend the Capitol” and put out his hand. Clyde refused to shake it. To honor Trump, @HouseGOP will dishonor the police,” Swalwell tweeted.

“I just called Officer Fanone and confirmed this story,” Kinzinger tweeted. “This is really incredible. Also relayed an interaction he had with another members Chief of Staff that was really incredibly bad and disrespectful.”

Clyde’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Clyde, in addition to voting against the Gold Medal honor, said at a hearing last month on the Jan. 6 attack that the images from the day look like a “normal tourist visit.”

Fanone did not meet any other representatives, and he said staff members were all cordial and polite, though he did confirm a run-in with James Braid, chief of staff for Rep. Matthew M. Rosendale (R-Mont.).

Rosendale was also among the 21 Republicans who voted against the Gold Medal.

Fanone said Braid “was super confrontational” and demanded his badge number, even after he said he provided his email address and telephone number. Fanone is on leave and is not on duty. Dunn had just gotten off duty and was still wearing his uniform.

Fanone said the chief of staff “really got aggressive with Harry.”

Fanone said he told the chief of staff, “I’m simply here to schedule a meeting with the congressman to discuss my experience on Jan. 6.”

Rosendale’s spokesman, Harry Fones, confirmed that Fanone stopped by the office and met with Braid, but said it wasn’t an adversarial exchange.

“Two men came into our office, unannounced, one dressed in plainclothes and one in uniform including a firearm. Our chief politely asked if they were on duty and for their names as well as badge number, since we had individuals that had now entered our office, unannounced with a firearm and dressed as an officer,” Fones said.

Fones said they wouldn’t give their badge numbers, but Fanone, who was in plainclothes, gave his name and email address. Fones said Braid told them they could meet with the congressman soon.

“Our office intends to follow up on that promise if they reach out,” Fones said.

Kinzinger, who has been among the most outspoken in his party against efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results and in speaking against those who have refused to back an independent commission to investigate the insurrection, said it’s a terrible blow to law enforcement officers who risked their lives that day not to feel supported by some of the men and women they protected.

“Every now and again I think we have to be at the bottom of how low we can get,” Kinzinger said. “You don’t have to admit you should have voted for [the Gold Medal] by shaking a guy’s hand. The presence of these heroes can make some people uncomfortable.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm surprised they didn't take the data to the MyPillow factory:

[Cartmann99]

 

[Howl]

On 6/15/2021 at 7:14 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Why do I not believe Dmitri Rohrabacher (R-Russia) when he claims he stayed outside? "Former congressman Dana Rohrabacher says he protested outside the Capitol on Jan. 6"

Oh. My. Gawd.  It's the insurrectionist's version of "I never inhaled." 

[fraurosena]

 

[WiseGirl]

I think so too

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"In sentencing regretful Capitol protester, federal judge rebukes Republicans"

Quote

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth castigated Republican lawmakers on Wednesday for downplaying the violence of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, saying in handing down the first sentence to a charged defendant that those who break the law must pay a penalty.

“I’m especially troubled by the accounts of some members of Congress that January 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol,” he said. “I don’t know what planet they were on. . . . This was not a peaceful demonstration. It was not an accident that it turned violent; it was intended to halt the very functioning of our government.”

The 49-year-old Indiana woman before him, who had just pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of demonstrating inside the Capitol, did not disagree.

Although the day after the riot Anna Morgan-Lloyd described Jan. 6 as “the most exciting day of my life,” in court she expressed regret and contrition.

“I went there to support . . . President Trump peacefully,” she said. “I’m ashamed that it became a savage display of violence that day. . . . It was never my intent to be a part of something that’s so disgraceful to our American people and so disgraceful to our country. I just want to apologize.”

Lamberth credited Morgan-Lloyd for her early cooperation and admission of guilt, expressing frustration with both defendants and observers who argue that the riot was merely a political protest. He sentenced her to three years of probation.

Referring to the words of Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), who last month suggested that many inside the Capitol following the pro-Trump mob’s attack on the building looked like they were on a “normal tourist visit,” the judge said that video introduced in court “will show the attempts of some congressmen to rewrite history . . . is utter nonsense.”

Referring to Morgan-Lloyd’s own statement, he noted, “You saw it for yourself and you were horrified.”

The judge also took time to dismiss “conspiracy theories” about FBI informants and address claims that the Capitol defendants are being treated more harshly than Black Lives Matter protesters. He said he couldn’t speak to what happens in state courts, but that Attorney General Merrick Garland has “promised the law will be applied equally . . . whatever the complexion of the demonstrator is.”

He noted that Martin Luther King Jr., although he was never violent, prepared to go to jail when he protested against violence.

“Some of my defendants in some of these other cases think there’s no consequence to this, and there is a consequence,” Lamberth said. “I don’t want to create the impression that probation is the automatic outcome here, because it’s not going to be.”

Lamberth is a respected figure in the federal judiciary who was previously the presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and served a second term chairing a judiciary panel on inter-circuit assignments. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, he is a former federal and U.S. Army prosecutor who is known to be a tough sentencer.

He warned Morgan-Lloyd that if she violates her terms of release in any way, she will go to jail — in his court, “probation comes once in a lifetime.” She must also perform 40 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.

Her defense attorney H. Heather Shaner went to great lengths to show that Morgan-Lloyd deserved leniency. She had her client read books and watch movies about discrimination and share her thoughts with the judge.

“I’ve lived a sheltered life and truly haven’t experienced life the way many have,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “At first it didn’t dawn on me, but later I realized that if every person like me, who wasn’t violent, was removed from that crowd, the ones who were violent may have lost the nerve to do what they did.”

In court, Shaner said Morgan-Lloyd now subscribes to the History Channel and, without prompting, had watched a recent documentary about the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa.

“I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote in one report. “People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.”

Prosecutors did not ask for incarceration, noting that Morgan-Lloyd already spent an “eye-opening” two days in jail.

“To be clear, what the Defendant initially described as ‘the most exciting day of [her] life’ was, in fact, a tragic day for our nation — a day of riotous violence, collective destruction, and criminal conduct by a frenzied and lawless mob,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Rothstein said in court. “However . . . [Morgan-Lloyd’s] seeming prior bravado . . . appears to have been tempered by a realization of the consequences of her actions.”

Rothstein called probation appropriate because Morgan-Lloyd had no known ties to extremist groups, did not plan to enter the Capitol, stayed inside one hallway for only about 10 minutes and did not commit any violence or destruction while there. She also cooperated with law enforcement and quickly accepted responsibility, the prosecutor said.

A former waitress and General Electric employee whose job was moved offshore, Morgan-Lloyd was born in rural Indiana and married her teenage crush when both were adults and he was going through a difficult divorce, defense attorney Shaner said.

Morgan-Lloyd said in court papers that she graduated from community college, worked for a medical device maker, is a mother to two stepdaughters and helps care for five grandchildren.

Raised a Democrat, she supported Trump for president beginning in 2016.

“My husband and I both found it hard to believe because we didn’t like him at all before. But he was standing up for what we believe in. We couldn’t argue with it,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “We felt that when [Democrats] worked against him they worked against me, my family and my community.”

She said she and her friends came to Washington to “show that a lot of American people support Trump,” and that she did not intend to do more than walk to the Capitol.

“When a 74 year old woman, we met that day, went up, we followed to keep her safe. I made the decision to go up and I’m responsible for that. No one made me go, I wasn’t forced. When she entered the building, we went in to find her. Once again I could have chosen to stay outside,” she wrote.

The government sentencing recommendation of 36 months of probation is greater than a 12-month term of supervision that would follow a maximum six-month prison term for someone convicted of parading, picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol. Most first-time misdemeanor offenders do not receive prison time.

Prosecutors have been offering first-time offenders charged only with misdemeanors at the Capitol — roughly half the total — the option of pleading guilty to a single count, paying $500 in restitution and meeting with investigators.

Two defendants have pleaded guilty to more serious felony offenses. Jon Ryan Schaffer, 53, described in court documents as a founding member of the Oath Keepers, is cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of trimming a roughly four-year recommended prison term for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and trespassing in the Capitol while armed.

Tampa crane operator Paul Allard Hodgkins, 38, faces a 15- to 21-month recommended sentencing range after pleading guilty to felony obstruction of Congress.

Lamberth’s remarks were reinforced by other judges Wednesday, including U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a 2017 Trump appointee.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Somebody absconded with the Precioussssss:

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Ozlsn]

7 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Well she's an idiot then isn't she. I look forward to her next charge that lands her in jail.