Tag: insurrection

Those who attacked their own nation’s Capitol failed to consider the consequences of doing so. This is part 5.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of Donald Trump supporters staged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. The Guardian reported that people stormed the chambers of the House and Senate while the Electoral College votes were being tallied.

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January 1, 2021: PhillyMag reported: “This South Jersey Woman Helped Lead the Charge Up the Capitol Steps” It was written by Victor Fiorillo.

Given the sheer number of people who turned up for the Capitol riot on January 6th and Washington D.C.’s proximity to Philadelphia, it was only a matter of time before folks from our area were identified in the scads of photos and videos of the day.

First, there was retired Delco firefighter Robert Sanford. Then came former Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Student Andrew Wrigley. And now, we’ve learned that South Jersey activist Stephanie Hazelton (a.k.a. Ayla Wolf) was at the Capitol on that fateful day as well.

If her face seems familiar to you, it’s probably because we first told you about Hazelton back in May, when she was charged with violating one of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s COVID shutdown orders by organizing and gathering outside Atilis Gym on Bellmawr. That’s the South Jersey gym that refused to close its doors to members amid the pandemic — and that has since refused to close its doors to members amid the pandemic — and that has since raised more than $450,000 (!!!) on GoFundMe for its legal defense.

According to videos and social media posts, Hazelton was in Washington, D.C., for the Capitol attack. In one since-deleted Facebook video, Hazelton showed herself in Washington that day. In another post, Hazelton wrote about details of the chartered bus trip from South Jersey to the capital. And two people on Facebook posed about her after the Capitol siege, writing that she had sustained injuries during the insurrection. These posts have since been deleted as well.

Hazelton also pops up in a lengthy video from the Capitol the appears to have been recorded by a far right outlet Just Another Channel and originally published on its Parler page, which has since been removed. The video still appears on YouTube, and Hazelton can be seen helping to lead the charge up the steps of the Capitol, the archway entrance just feet behind her.

In this one segment of the nearly 90-minute video, some Capitol attackers are walking away from the building, apparently suffering from the effects of tear gas, while others thrust forward toward the archway.

“We need more people!” shouts an unknown man. That’ when Hazelton chimes in “Men,” she says, her pink iPhone in her left hand. “We need more men!” She uses her right hand to wave people — well, people with penises — up the steps to join the charge. “Let’s go!” she orders them.

“We need more men,” says Hazelton, who didn’t respond to multiple comments for this story and deleted her Facebook account after we contacted her there. “Keep going. Keep pushing. Men! We need men. Not women.”

A feminist she is not.

In another segment, Hazelton appears to say that she has been inside the Capitol and intends to return to its hallowed halls.

“I gotta go back in,” she tells a man who was offering her water for her irritated eyes.

It’s unclear if Hazelton was ever actually inside the building. What’s also unclear is whether any law enforcement agencies is in pursuit of or even interested in her. (The FBI didn’t respond to a request for information.

The FBI is reportedly investigating some 140,000 images from the day.

October 14, 2022: United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia posted a press release titled: “New Jersey Woman Pleads Guilty To Felony Charges For Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach”

Defendant Encouraged Mob in Confrontations With Officers

A New Jersey woman pleaded guilty today to a felony charge for her actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Her actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

Stephanie Hazelton, 50, of Medford, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder and aiding and abetting.

According to court documents, on Jan. 6, 2021, Hazelton illegally entered the Capitol grounds and joined in multiple confrontations with law enforcement officers. At approximately 2:45 p.m., she approached the west front of the Capitol building and joined a mob there. As she approached, she made various statements encouraging the crowd, including, “Let’s go! Move forward! They cannot stop is all,” and, “This is the battle. This is it. This is the battle.”

Hazelton then approached the Lower West Terrace, which was packed with rioters pushing forward against law enforcement officers who were attempting to prevent the mob from moving through a tunnel and into the Capitol building. From outside the tunnel, she turned towards rioters, and waved them up, encouraging more to move into the area. She moved to the front of the mob, which was pushing against the officers. As others in the crowd assaulted officers, Hazelton remained in the area, yelling, among other things, “We need more men! We need more men! Keep going!”

Hazelton was arrested on Jan. 22, 2021. She is to be sentenced on Feb. 1. 2023. She faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison and potential financial penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Newark Field Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department.

In the 21 months, since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 880 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 270 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

October 14, 2022: Law & Crime posted “New Jersey Woman Who Shouted ‘We Need Men, Not Women!” as Trump Supporters Attacked Cops on Jan. 6 Pleads Guilty to a Felony” It was written by Matt Naham.

A 50-year-old anti-vaxxer and mom from South Jersey pleaded guilty to a felony Friday for her role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Stephanie Hazelton, a Medford resident also known as Ayla Wolf, was arrested on Jan. 22, 2021 and indicted on Nov. 10, 2021 for several charges, but she ultimately pleaded guilty to one felony for interfering with cops during a civil disorder and adding and abetting.

According to the factual stipulation in Hazelton’s plea agreement, the government’s statement of offense in her case is fair and accurate.

That statement of offense says Hazelton urged the pro-Donald Trump mob to “move forward” even as police officers attempted to repel it.

“They’re tear gassing everybody” and “They’re pepper spraying us,” she admitted shouted. “Let’s go! Move forward! They cannot stop us all!”

“We’re storming the Capitol right now!” she added, referring to the moment as “the battle.”

“Hazelton then approached the Lower West Terrace, which was packed with rioters pushing forward against law enforcement officers who were attempting to prevent the mob from moving through a tunnel and into the Capitol building,” the DOJ said in a press release about Hazleton’s actions that afternoon. “From outside the tunnel, she turned towards rioters, and waved them up, encouraging more to move into the area. She moved to the front of the mob, which was pushing against the officers.”

As that assault near the tunnel unfolded, Hazelton showed that more men were needed.

“We need more men! We need more men! Keep going! Keep pushing, men! We need men, not women!” she yelled “We need more helmets! More helmets!”

The day after Jan. 6, Hazelton texted that the “first shot has been fired of the revolution.”

Hazleton’s sentencing is set for Feb. 1, 2023.

The plea agreement shows that there is still some disagreement between prosecutors and the defense on one point: whether a three-point enhancement should apply.

“Your client understands that the Government maintains that, pursuant to U.S.S.G 2A2.4(b)(1)(A), a three-point enhancement applies because the offense involved physical contact,” the agreement said. “Your client agrees to the facts as stated in the Statement of Offense, but reserves the right to challenge the application of U.S.S.G. 2A1(b)(1)(A) solely on the grounds that her offense did not involve physical contact.”

The government laid out what the difference in estimated sentencing guidelines will be of the offense level ends up being an 8 or an 11 [emphasis theirs]

Based on the Estimated Offense Level and the Estimated Criminal History Category set forth above, your client’s offense level is 11, your client’s estimated Sentencing Guidelines range is 8 months to 14 months (the “Estimate Guidelines Range”). If your client’s offense is level 8, your client’s estimated Sentencing Guidelines range is 0 months to 6 months (the “Estimated Guidelines Range”).

In addition, the parties agree that, pursuant to U.S.S.G 5E1.2, should the Court impose a fine, at Guidelines level 11, the estimated applicable fine range is $4,000 to $40,000 and at the Guidelines level 8, the estimated applicable fine range is $2,000 to $20,000. Your client reserves the right to task the Court to impose any applicable fine.

May 31, 2023: Courier Post posted: “Medford woman known as Ayla Wolf to soon hear fate for ‘commander’ role in Capitol riot” It was written by Jim Walsh.

A Medford woman who took part in the Capitol riot left the disturbance with a finger broken by a police officer’s baton, court filings say.

Now, 51-year-old Stephanie Hazelton could face another painful consequence of her actions at the January 2021 insurrection.

A federal prosector wants a judge to sentence Hazelton to 11 months in prison, along with a $10,000 fine.

In a court filing, the prosecutor asserts Hazelton acted “like a commander on the battlefield,” shouting for “more men” and “more helmets” as she urged others to push past police officers guarding the Capitol.

But Hazelton’s attorney argues against prison in a rival sentencing memorandum.

That filing acknowledges Hazelton “shouted words of encouragement to rioters,” but adds she “deeply regrets her conduct and apologizes to the law enforcement offices who struggled in that chaotic scene.”

Stephanie Hazelton seeks lighter sentence for Capitol riot

Hazelton should be sentenced to no more than three months of home detention, two years on probation, and a “significant” fine, said defense attorney Nicholas D. Smith of New York City.

Smith’s filing says Hazelton survived a difficult childhood, including life in a religious commune with no plumbing, electricity, heat or phones.

She now dedicates “virtually all of her time” to two home-schooled sons, ages 11 and 12, with special needs that require the mother’s constant attention, the filing says.

The prosecution’s filing by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Amore acknowledges the family’s challenges.

“But, sadly, crime carries consequences,” writes Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Amore.

He observes Hazelton’s “family circumstances also did not stop of prevent her involvement in the riot in the first place.”

Hazelton, also known as Alya Wolf, became more politically active during the pandemic and attended “medical freedom” rallies in New Jersey, according to letters of support that accompany her memorandum.

She recorded her approach to the Capitol with her cellphone, at one pointy saying, “This is the battle. This is it. This is the battle.”

The prosecution says Hazelton repeatedly went into a Capitol entranceway tunnel where rioters were assaulting police officers in a bid to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.

At one point, Amore’s filing says, Hazelton stood at the front of a mob that used strobe lights to hamper officers’ vision and struck at them with poles and batons.

It contends Hazelton should get the prison term because her presence in the entranceway “contributed to the massive number of rioters who pushed against and assaulted … officers for nearly two hours…”

But her attorney notes Hazelton never entered the Capitol itself, did not make physical contact with officers and did not destroy any property. He also says no direct link connects Hazelton’s words to a specific assault on any officer.

The defense filing says a police officer struck Hazelton with a baton while she was crouching with her hands over her head outside the entranceway.

It says an injury to Hazelton’s finger required reconstructive surgery.

Capitol rioters used strobe lights, batons and poles

The prosecution notes Hazleton wore tactical gloves while accompanying members of the New Jersey Sons of Liberty on the day of the riot. Others in the group wore tactical globes and vests, and carried riot shields.

One day later, the filing says, Hazelton wrote, “The first shot has been fired of the revolution.”

But Hazelton later tried to conceal her actions, saying, “I never came close to going in and I never saw any violence from the people,” according to the prosecution filing.

Hazelton, who was arrested 16 days after the riot, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to a charge of civil disorder and aiding and abetting.

The prosecution also wants Hazelton to pay $2,000 in restitution for damage caused by rioters and to spend 36 months on supervised release.

October 31, 2022: Courier Post posted: “Medford Woman allegedly described the Capitol riot as ‘first shot … of the revolution”. It was written by Jim Walsh.

A Medford woman allegedly urged rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol has admitted guilt to a charge arising from the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Stephane Hazelton said, “This is the battle” as she approached the Capitol during the violent incident in 2021, a court record alleges.

She texted the next day, “The first shot has been fired of the revolution,” according to an account agreed to by both sides of the case.

Hazelton, 50, pleaded guilty on Oct. 14 to a charge of civil disorder and aiding and abetting.

Hazelton, also known as Ayla Wolf, could face a possible prison term of eight to 14 months in prison under a sentencing guideline that would find her offense involved “physical contact.”

She is expected to challenge that guideline before the sentencing judge. If the challenge succeeds, a remaining guideline would recommend a lesser penalty of up to six months in prison, with the possibility of no time in custody, the plea agreement says.

Her attorney, Nicholas Smith of New York City, could not be reached for comment.

June 2, 2023: The Philadelphia Inquirer posted: “Prominent South Jersey anti-vax advocate sentenced to jail for directing rioters in Capitol attack” It was written by Jeremy Roebuck.

A prominent right-wing and anti-vaccine activist from South Jersey will serve 10 days behind bars for her role in some of the most brutal fighting during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors likened Stephanie Hazelton, 51, of Medford — who also goes by Ayla Wolf — to “a commander on the battlefield” as she marshaled rioters toward the tunnel entrance to the Capitol’s west side.

“This is the battle,” she shouted in videos of the melee later posted online. “Let’s go! Move forward! They cannot stop us all!”

That clash for control over the entrance of the Lower West Terrace lasted over two hours, during which rioter repeatedly assaulted, threatened, pushed and beat police trying to keep them at bay.

“Hazelton went to Washington dressed for violence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher D. Amore said in court filings last week. “She came for revolution and participated in an assault on democracy the resulted in death, injury and destruction.”

Hazelton’s sentence makes her the latest New Jersey resident sentenced to incarceration for playing a role in the unprecedented riot, which interrupted the Congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, caused more than $2.8 million in damage and left hundreds of officers injured.

But the punishment — handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates at a hearing in Washington — could have been far worse. Prosecutors urged the judge to send Hazelton to prison for 11 months, at the top end of the suggested federal sentencing guidelines for the lone count of civil disorder to which she pleaded guilty last year.

But Bates — crediting Hazelton’s remote and the fact that she did not enter the Capitol or assault officers herself — ordered her incarcerated for a fraction of that time.

Hazelton’s lawyer, Nicholas D. Smith, described a short sentence as a just outcome for his client, whom he described as a stay-at-home mother who as raise on a religious commune outside of Trenton with no plumbing or electricity.

“She deeply regrets her conduct and apologizes to the law enforcement officers who struggled in that chaotic scene,” the lawyer wrote.

Hazelton — the founder of New Jersey for Medical Freedom, the state chapter of an anti-vaccine network — rose to prominence organizing demonstrations against proposed legislation in the Garden State, including a bill that would have required school children to get the flu shot.

In 2020, she led members of the group who draped signs over New Jersey highway overpasses that read: “COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers are exempt from liability.” And as for the public face for “Reopen New Jersey,” she led rallies that spring that made national headlines.

She was among the protesters who gathered outside Atilis Gym, the Bellmawr facility that defied Gov. Phil Murphy’s shutdown orders and drew attention for her particularly violent rhetoric about fighting a “war for freedom.”

“This war is just as important as our founding fathers,” she said to a crowd at the time. “We are the militia. We are the founding fathers. We are America.”

Prosecutors said Thursday that Hazelton adopted a similarly militaristic tone in the run-up to the Jan 6 attack.

Weeks after the election, she fraudulently boasted on Facebook that she had new from a “friend on the inside” that then-President Donald Trump had won “but the Deep State froze the election and they’re desperately trying to stuff ballots.”

Days before she traveled to Washington to protest the congressional certification of the 2020 vote, she posted again.

“There are police [that] are not on our side, especially in DC,” she wrote “A lot of them wish they were marching with [Black Lives Matter] in that city and hate us. We have to watch our backs.”

Video that later surfaced on social media showed her marching toward the Capitol with members of the New Jersey Sons of Liberty, donning tactical gloves and a black scarf bearing the organization’s skull logo.

She filmed their approach as they reached police lines shouting “I don’t care about their tear gas!”

During the two-hour battle for control of the Capitol’s lower west entrance, prosecutors say Hazelton could be seen in videos entering and exiting the fray again and again as rioters clashed with officers, beating them with poles and sticks and grabbing their police shields.

When she realized the crowd still wasn’t breaching the police lines, she called for reinforcements.

“We need more men,” she shouted while waiving rioter toward the entrance, according to the video of the fracas. “Keep pushing! Men! We need men! Not women!”

In court Thursday, Hazelton claimed she was acting in self-defense after one of the officers hit her with a nightstick and crushed her finger — an injury that later required reconstructive surgery.

She pleaded with Bates to spare her a prison term, given her role as the primary caretaker for her homeschooled 11- and 12-year-old sons while their father is frequently away on business trips.

Prosecutors, however, scoffed at that suggestion.

“Crimes carry consequences,” they said. “That fact cannot be a carte blanche to escape the consequences of criminal conduct … Moreover, her family circumstances did not stop or prevent her involvement in the riot in the first place.”

In addition to her jail term, Hazelton was ordered to serve two years’ probation upon her release and pay $2,000 in restitution.

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January 8, 2021: United States District Court For The District of Columbia – Holding a Criminal Term. – Grand Jury Sworn in on January 8, 2021

COUNT ONE: On or about January 6, 2021, from about 4:10 p.m. to about 4:13 p.m., within the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG committed and attempted to commit an act to obstruct, impede, and interfere with a law enforcement officer lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of his/her duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder, and the civil disorder obstructed, delayed, and adversely affected the conduct and performance of a federally protected function.

(Civil Disorder, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 231(a)(3))

COUNT TWO: On or about January 6, 2021, from about 4:10 p.m. to about 4:13 p.m., within the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere with, an officer of and employee of the Untied States, of any branch of the United States Government (including any member of the uniformed services), and any person assisting such an officer and employee, while such a person was engaged in and on account of the performance of official duties.

(Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1))

COUNT THREE: On or about January 6, 2021, from about 4:44 p.m. to about 4:46 p.m., within the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG committed and attempted to commit an act to obstruct, impede, and interfere with a law enforcement officer lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of his/her official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder, and the civil disorder obstructed, delayed, and adversely affected the conduct and performance of of a federally protected function.

(Civil Disorder, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 231(a)(3))

COUNT FOUR: On or about January 6, 2021, from about 4:44 p.m., to about 4:46 p.m., within the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG, using a deadly or dangerous weapon, that is, a shield, did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate and interfere with, an officer and employee of the Untied States, and any branch of the United States Government (including any member of the uniformed services), and any person assisting such an officer and employee, while such officer or employee was engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties.

(Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers Using a Dangerous Weapon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 111(a)(1) and (b))

COUNT FIVE: On or about January 6, 2021, from about 4:54 p.m., to about 4:57 p.m., within the District of Columbia EDWARD JACOB LANG committed and attempted to commit an act to obstruct, impede, and interfere with a law enforcement officer lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of his/her official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder, and the civil disorder obstructed, delayed, and adversely affected the conduct and performance of a federally protected function.

(Civil Disorder, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 231(a)(3))

COUNT SIX: On or about January 6, 2021, from about 4:54 p.m., to about 4:57 p.m., within the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG, using a deadly or dangerous weapon, that is, a bat, did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere with, an officer and employee of the United States, and of any branch of the United States Government (including any member of the uniformed services), and any person assisting such an officer and employee, while such officer was engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties.

(Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers Using a Dangerous Weapon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 111(a)(1)and(b))

COUNT SEVEN: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia and elsewhere, EDWARD JACOB LANG, attempted to, and did, corruptly obstruct, influence and impede an official proceeding, that is, a proceeding before Congress, by entering and remaining in the United States Capitol without authority and committing an act of civil disorder and engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct and destroying federal property.

(Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1512(c)(2)and 2)

COUNT EIGHT: On or about January 6, 2021, in the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, or otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting, when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions and, during and in relation to the offense, did use and carry a deadly and dangerous weapon, that is, a bat and shield.

(Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds, with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon, in violation of title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(2) and (b)(1)(A))

COUNT NINE: On or about January 6, 2021, in the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG did knowingly, engage in any act of physical violence against any person and property in a restricted building and grounds, that is, posted, cordoned-off, or otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting and, during and in relation to the offense, did use and carry a deadly and dangerous weapon, that is, a bat and shield.

(Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds, with a Deadly or Dangerous weapon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(4)and (b)(1)(A))

COUNT TEN: On or about January 6, 2021, in the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG willfully and knowingly engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct in any of the Capitol Building with the intent to impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress and either House of Congress, and the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before or any deliberation of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress.

(Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building, in violation of Title 40, United States Code, Section 5104(e)(2)(D))

COUNT ELEVEN: On or about January 6, 2021, in the District of Columbia, EDWARD JACOB LANG willfully and knowingly engaged in an act of physical violence within the United States Capitol Grounds and any of the Capitol Building.

(Act of Physical Violence in the Capitol Grounds or Building, in violation of Title 40, United States Code, Section 5104(e)(2)(F))

September 20, 2021: Courthouse News Service posted: “Rioter who hit police with baseball bat loses bid for jail release” It was written by Samantha Hawkins.

Despite the man’s claims of abuse in jail and other issues, a federal judge refused Monday to order the release of a 26-year-old who fought police for over two hours during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

According to video evidence, some of which the upstate New York filmed himself, Edward Jacob Lang hit officers with an aluminum baseball bat and protective shields, and kicked an officer that was on the ground.

Lang has been charged with 13 counts, including several felonies, but his attorney’s say the defendant was a source of help that day to people who were being trampled of beaten by police officers. One individual even credits Lang for saving his life. “There was no intention to actually harm. it was more warning signs, more trying to separate two crowds, more adrenaline,” said Steven Alan Metcalf, Lang’s attorney. “This is about him jumping into a chaotic situation and doing what he can.”

At a hearing Monday in Washington, Lang told U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols that he was locked in his cell for 23 Horus a day during the first few months following his arrest. Lang says he has been physically and mentally abused by guards during the ongoing solitary confinement. He says his rations have been cut in half, he hasn’t been able to exercise his right to worship, and he hasn’t been able to shave, get a haircut, or even use nail clippers.

“I am currently locked in my cell for 18 and a half hours a day with sensory deprivation,” Lang said. “I’m deprive of so many things that I wouldn’t even be in the right mindset to help even if I were able to.”

In addition to jail conditions, Lang and his attorneys argue that it’s extremely difficult to communicate with each other. When his attorney’s visit, Lang talks to them through plexiglass, and everyone on Lang’s side can hear what he says. Lang also refused to get the vaccinate against the novel coronavirus, meaning he would need to quarantine for two weeks if he wanted to meet with his attorneys in a confidential setting face-to-face.

“Each time discovery is disclosed to us, they’ll be a delay in getting it to him,” Metcalf told Nichols.

Metcalf said that he has tried to send Lang two letters and an email containing discovery that were returned to him without reaching Lang. He argues the Lang needs to be released from jail to review dozens of hours of video evidence.

“The video was the first minute I’ve seen myself in 244 days,” Lang told Nichols, referencing a video of himself that was shown in his Monday court hearing. “I haven’t seen anything. It’s horrifying to me because I want to tell my side of the story.”

Nichols noted, however, that Lang’s defense attorneys haven’t even tried to use the jail’s laptops — which have long wait times and limited access. With this in mine, the judge said he isn’t prepared to modify Lang’s confinement conditions.

“How am I supposed to decide if the current policy is unworkable for you if you haven’t tried under the policy?” Nichols asked.

Nichols also said he would be willing to review a motion to modify Lang’s confinement conditions if they find the jail’s laptop policy to be unworkable. Until then, Lang will remain behind bars.

January 13, 2022: Times Union reported “Capitol riot defendant from Newburgh denied appeal for his release” It was written by Cloey Callahan.

Edward Jacob Lang will remain in jail after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Wednesday upheld a lower court judge’s decision to order Lang’s continued detention. The 26-year-old, who is originally from Sullivan County, was arrested in Neewbugh for his participation in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 last year, a riot that led to five deaths, the assault of some 140 police officers, and $1.5 million worth of damage to the Capitol.

The Appellate Court upheld the Sept. 20 decision by Judge Carl J. Nichols, writing: “The evidence proffered by the government shows that, over the course of two and a half hours on January 6, 2021, appellant repeatedly pushed, punched, and kicked at police officers defending the Lower West Terrace entrance to the Capitol building. He also slammed a door against one officer’s head and struck other officers first with a stolen riot shield and later with a metal baseball bat.”

The Appellate Court referenced another Jan. 6 case, United States vs Munchel, in their ruling: “As we explained in Munchel, ‘those who actually assaulted police officers … are in a different category of dangerousness than those who cheered on the violence or entered the Capitol after others cleared the way.”

Lang is awaiting trial after he was indicted on multiple felony charges in connection to the Capitol riot. He is accused of fighting for almost two and a half hours with besieged officers defending a Capitol entrance against the rioters. Photos of Lang in court paper show him swinging an aluminum baseball bat at police while wearing a gas mask and holding a police riot shield that he commandeered.

In August, Lang’s attorneys argued in a 27-page brief that Lang should be released from the Washington, D.C., jail because he poses no public danger or flight risk and has been unable to meet privately with them to prepare his defense. They also claimed the jail staff has unfairly put him in solitary confinement for long periods and abused him.

“Lang’s physical abuse includes being dragged, shoved, denied regular shower access, and getting an entire can of mace in his face, while standing inside of (his) cell with photos and a bible in his hand,” attorneys Martin Tankless and Steven Metcalf wrote.

Prosecutors argued to keep Lang in custody, citing the “overwhelmingly strong” evidence against him, the violence they say he committed and instigated, and his threats on social media after the riot to resort to guns next time.

Near the end of a court conference held by phone and video in the summer, Lang made an emotional plea to the judge about what he said were his “inhumane” jail conditions, saying “I have been stripped of all human dignity.”

Lang is the only suspect still being held in jail at the Hudson Valley residents charged with taking pat in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He is awaiting trial.

December 17, 2023: RiverReporter.com posted: “The Supreme Court agrees to hear case challenging obstruction charge”. It was written by Pamala Chergotis.

Edward (Jacob) Lang’s case took a positive tern last week when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case brought by one of his January 6, co-defendants.

Lang, a former Narrowburg resident and Honesdale High School student, was arrested soon after the attack on the Capitol in 2021, when he lived in Newburgh, NY. He has been in prison ever since. His X (formerly Twitter) profile reads: “Jake Lang Jan 6 Political Prisoner for 1040 days without a trial.”

He is accused of wielding deadly weapons against Capitol police officers, including a bat and a shield. He is also charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, a charge that he and two other defendants — Garret Miller and Joseph Fischer — have challenged.

The Supreme Court on December 13 agreed to hear the case brought by Fischer to dismiss the obstruction charge. The court’s decision, expected by the end of June, will affect not only the three men but former President Trump and hundreds of other January 6 defendants who all face the same charge. The crime carries a maximum of 20 year in prison.

The defendants say the U.S. Justice Department is wrongly charging them under a statute created after the Enron scandal of the early 2000s. The energy company’s accounting firm was charged with obstruction for destroying millions of documents just as the Securities and Exchange Commission was beginning to investigate. The defendants say the statute, part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, is not broad enough to apply to their cases.

The defendants were charged with obstruction for interrupting the joint session of Congress where lawmakers were certifying Electoral College votes.

The FBI made their case with numerous photos and videos posted by Lang and others who were at the Capitol that day. “In the video,” said one FBI agent’s affidavit, said “Lang swung, thrusted, and/or jabbed the bat at law enforcement officers multiple times. In doing so, LANG struck at least the shields the officers held in front of them. As the video progresses, others in the crowd assist in the attack, with some throwing items and one individual spraying the officers with a fire extinguisher.”

Last month, Lang reflected on his time behind bars. He posted on X, “This is my 3rd Thanksgiving away from my family in the basement of Washington DC Jail Gulag — in solitary confinement…

“Look for Christ at your Thanksgiving table this year, and know I am right there with him; me and all the Jan 6ers — pass the gravy! Enjoy & rejoice in your freedom — it isn’t free.

July 16, 2023: Just The News reported: “Jan 6 defendant appeals to Supreme Court in case that could upend hundreds of riot charges”

Jan. 6 defendant Edward Jacob Lang is asking the Supreme Court to hear his challenge against one of the 11 charges he was indicted on — obstruction of an official proceeding — in a case that could upend legal proceedings against hundreds of other defendants indicted on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

The obstruction charge could be levied against “anyone who attends at a public demonstration gone awry,” attorneys for Lang wrote in an appeal to the Supreme Court last week. The proceeding for which the charge was brought refers to the event where Congress certifies the Electoral College votes to confirm the president.

Lang had filed a motion to dismiss the obstruction charge, which carries a 20-year-sentence, before his trial, and the D.C. District court granted this motion. However, an appeals court reversed the lower court’s decision and a motion for rehearing was denied.

Lang’s attorney Norman Pattis told Newsweek that he thinks the Supreme Court could upend the cases of “hundreds of defendants.”

“The government misses and abuse of the federal penal code in the [January 6] case is shocking,” Pattis also said. His client expects to hear this fall whether the Supreme Court will take up the case.

Lang ha been incarcerated for more than 900 days without a trial. he told The Epoch Time that he thinks his appeal could impact the Justice Department’s separate effort to potentially charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction.

“I think the timing of this filing is astronomical,” Lang said. “Donald Trump is the political frontrunner for the Republican Party, and while the other bogus charges might easily go away through a plea deal, the obstruction of Congress charge carries prison time. This would land him in serious hot water with a conviction.”

January 16, 2024: Sullivan County Democrat posted: “Three Years Later”

Exactly three years later, January 6 defendant Edward (Jacob) Lang is still awaiting a trial for over a dozen charges related to his involvement in the assault on the Capitol building in 2021. After multiple pushbacks, his trial date is set for September 9.

This data would set his time awaiting a trial at 3 years and nine months.

Lang, 26, is a longtime resident of Narrowsburg and Honesdale High School graduate, and was arrested in Newburgh, where he was currently living, just 10 days after the raid.

He is the son of Sullivan County businessman, Ned Lang, owner of Lang EnvroVentures in Narrowsburg.

His trial date was moved twice last year. At first, it was switched to May, and then later shifted to October. However, his trial was put on hold once more due to a pending Supreme Court appeal that eyed the possibility of the elimination of one of his 13 federal charges.

One of those charges is that of obstruction of an official proceeding. However, this charge faces a possibility of being dismissed by the Supreme Court as their decision anticipated by June could affect Lang, as well as nearly 300 other January Sixer defendants and former President Donald Trump.

The crime can see the defendant serve a maximum of 20 years in prison, if convicted.

In addition to the obstruction charge, he has been accused of fighting with police for about two hours with his fists, feet, a baseball bat and a shield. Social media saw his presence on the day, with multiple instances of Lang posting photos of himself along with words such as “give me liberty or give me death.”

According to an Associated Press review of court records, at least 152 people have been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding and at least 108 of them have been sentenced. Lang’s time spent in jail for January-6-related charges ranks as one of the lengthiest. However, some who were facing similar charges have since been fully acquitted.

In reports, the defendant noted his actions taken in opposition to Capitol Police were a a means of responding to the violence perpetrated by law enforcement.

Lang, arrested on January 16, 2002, has now been behind bars exactly 1,095 days.

May 8, 2024: Lohud posted: “Rally planned at Brooklyn prison for NY man held since 2021 on Jan. 6 cop-assault charges” It was written by Chris McKenna.

Supporters of Capitol riot defendant Jake Lang plan to rally outside a Brooklyn prison on Wednesday to protest his being held there in solitary confinement and his nearly 40 months behind bars while awaiting trial.

The 28-year-old New Yorker faces serious charges for allegedly battling police for more than two hours in the midst of a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol, including his beating officers with a baseball bat. He has been held primarily in the Washington, D.C., jail since his arrest in January 2021, but he has been moved to other facilities a dozen times and says he was placed in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn around March 1.

The noon rally for the Sullivan County native will be led by his father, Ned Lang of Narrowsburg, and it could be an unusual urban spectacle. At least one horseback rider is expected to take part: Couy Griffin, founder of “Cowboys for Trump” and a former county commissioner from New Mexico who served two weeks in jail for his own Jan. 6 conviction on a trespassing charge.

The younger Lang — referent in court papers by his full name, Edward Jacob Lang — told the USA Today Network in a phone call from prison on Tuesday that he had been kept in solitary confinement since April 9 and leaves his cell only for an hour a day on certain days. He said he has no books, no access to the outside world — other than the phone line for attorney calls that he was using — and leads a “purgatory, sensory-deprivation-like existence.”

Lang, who has given a flood if interviews and conducted his own podcast and other media ventures while locked up, claimed the prison was punishing him for calling a protest during a TV interview with right-wing commentator Lou Dobbs. He said he’s awaiting a disciplinary hearing on a charge of “criminal phone abuse.”

“Basically, they’re trying to stifle my First Amendment,” he told the USA Today Network- New York.

When asked about those claims, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said e couldn’t comment on how particular inmates are being held, but denied any are kept in solitary confinement. He said some are placed in “restrictive housing,” where they are “continuously monitored and reviewed to ensure that continued placement is necessary, including being seen by Medical and Mental Health employees daily.”

“We make every effort to ensure the physical safety and health of the individuals confined to our facilities through a controlled environment that is secure and humane,” spokesman Scott Taylor said.

Lang originally was set to stand trial in January 2023, which was then proposed for October of that year. But his trial is now on hold until this September — at his own behest — to await a Supreme Court ruling on his bid to dismiss one of the 11 charges against him: obstructing an official proceeding. That and a similar challenge brought by another Jan. 6 defendant were argued before the court last month and could be decided by the end of his term in June.

The judge hearing Lang’s case has refused to release him on bail before his trial, citing violent threats that Lang allegedly made after the riot among a litany of reasons to keep him in jail. Lang’s attorney has renewed the request to release him and took a fresh approach in April by filing a writ of habeas corpus as well.

Prosecutors continue to oppose Lang’s release and suggest that he shares blame for his prolonged pretrial detention. In a recent court filing, they pointed out that he insisted on postponing his trial when it was set for last October because of the pending Supreme Court case.

Lang, in Tuesday’s interview, suggested his continued confinement was a “human rights issue” that both Democrats and Republicans should abhor. Only religious conviction has helped him endure his current conditions in the Brooklyn prison, he said.

“Faith has been a shield for me,” he said.

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A one-man army of hate

June 21, 2023: A federal judge sentenced a California man who drove a stun gun into the base of former DC Police Officer Mike Fanone’s neck during the Jan. 6 riot to more than 12 years in prison on Wednesday, calling hime one of the “most serious offenders” from that day.

Daniel Rodriguez, 39, of Panorama City, California, pleaded guilty in February to four felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, tampering with documents and inflicting bodily injury on an offers with a dangerous weapon.

On Wednesday, he appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson for sentencing. Prosecutors asked for 14 years in prison — arguing he brought a group of people to D.C., with weapons on Jan. 6 for what he expected to be a violent conflict. Rodriguez’s public defenders asked for a much lower sentence of six years in prison. Jackson quickly made clear that request wouldn’t hold water.

“Your messages were all blood, war, weapons, hanging,” Jackson said. “You never even anticipated a peaceful gathering.”

Jackson previously sentence two other men in connection with the brutal assault on Fanone, during which he lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack. Albuquerque Cosper Head, the Tennessee construction worker who grabbed Fanone in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel and dragged him into the mob, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

A month later, Kyle Young, an Iowa man who helped restrain Fanone during the assault — and also handed Rodriguez the stun gun he used on Fanone — also received more than seven years in prison.

On Wednesday, Jackson ordered Rodriguez, who repeatedly drove the stun gun into Fanone’s neck while others were holding him down — leaving permeant scars — to serve 151 months, or approximately 12.5 years, in prison. She also ordered him to pay $96,937 in restitution to the DC Police Department to cover Fanone’s hospital bills and medical leave.

“[Rodriguez] was a one-man army of hate, attacking police officers and destroying property,” Jackson said.

Rodriguez gave a lengthy statement before his sentencing Wednesday. He spoke in great detail about his childhood growing up in L.A. and his single mother’s struggle to provide for him, but expressed little if any remorse for his actions on Jan. 6. He mentioned Fanone only once.

“I hope Officer Fanone will be OK one day,” he said. “It sounds like he’s still in a great deal of pain.”

Rodriguez spent more time talking about the community of fellow supporters of former President Donald Trump he met at rallies before and after the 2020 election, and what he expected to find in D.C.

“By the time of Jan 6 I had been to so many protests and rallies I really thought a civil war was coming,” Rodriguez said. “I thought President Trump was going to stay in power and his supporters were going to protect D.C.”

Rodriguez showed little reaction to the lengthy sentence he received — one of the longest handed down yet in a Capitol riot case. Afterwards he smiled and hugged his attorneys and, while being led out of the courtroom by U.S. Marshals, yelled emphatically, “Trump won!”

Fanone, who spoke at the hearing and urged the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for his role in the riot, told reporters outside the courtroom he wasn’t surprised to hear little remorse from Rodriguez.

“I think this is becoming the rule, rather than the exception, of defendant feigning responsibility or acceptance,” he said. “These are zealots.”

He said the sentencing, the third time he’s had to give a victim impact statement in connection with his assault, had little impact on how he feels about Jan. 6.

“I’m still holding out hope that I’ll be reliving a victim impact statement at the conclusion of Donald Trump’s trial,” Fanone said.

‘Not Just a Follower’

After former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, prosecutors said Rodriguez began planning for “revolution” in a Telegram group chat he administered titled “PATRIOTS MAGA Gang.” The group included Rodriguez’s co-defendant Edward Badalian who was convicted in a bench trial in April of felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. Rodriguez used the chat, prosecutors said, to urge others to prepare for violence to keep Trump in power.

“The reason for this violent rhetoric and extensive planning was clear: Rodriguez believed the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen, and those responsible should be in prison or dead,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall wrote in her sentencing memo. “And this mistaken belief gave him the authority, in his mind, to plan an assault on anyone who stood in his way.”

Paschall said Rodriguez’s commitment to the cause was clear in hundreds of messages he wrote in the group, including one on Dec. 14, 2020 — the day the electors meet in all 50 states and cast their votes for president.

“We won’t allow criminals to run this country anymore,” Rodriguez wrote. “1776 Forever! If it’s the last thing some of us ever do.”

In another message, Rodriguez wrote, “Congress can hang. Please let us get these people dear God.”

Rodriguez ultimately traveled to D.C. on Jan. 6 with a group of people he had encouraged to bring weapons — including knives, bear spray, and ax handles. He then made his way to the front lines on the west side of the Capitol where rioters were attacking badly outnumbered police. At the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, Rodriguez showed a long wooden pole at the police line. It was there when Young handed Rodriguez the stun gun and showed him how to use it. A short time later, Rodriguez used the stun gun on Fanone.

“With his electroshock weapon in hand, Rodriguez reached his arm towards the side of Officer Fanone’s neck, landing the device on the side of Officer Fanone’s neck, below the left ear of Officer Fanone’s helmet,” Paschall wrote. “Officer Fanone screamed in pain, and pulled his face away from Rodriguez briefly. Despite Officer Fanone’s efforts to get away, Rodriguez struck again, placing the electroshock weapon on the back of Officer Fanone’s neck, below the ‘M’ of the ‘MPDC’ logo on his helmet. The electrical spark of the weapon rang out … and Officer Fanone screamed again.”

Fanone, who testified before the January 6th Committee that he believed he was going to die during the assault, spoke during Young’s sentencing hearing in September about the assault’s lingering effects on him.

“The assault on me … cost me my career,” Fanone said. “It cause me my faith in law enforcement and many of the institutions I spent two decades of my life serving.”

After the assault on Fanone, and while still in the grounds of the Capitol, Rodriguez wrote to his Telegram group and bragged about what he’d done.

“I did so much f***ing s***rn and got away tell you later,” he wrote, adding “Tazzzzed the f*** out of the blue.”

In their sentencing memo, Rodriguez’s attorney said he had been preyed on by the former president’s “incendiary lies.” Like the rioters, they said, Rodriguez — who grew up without a father, — ‘deeply respected and idolized Trump.”

“He saw the former president as the father he wished he had,” “Rodriguez’s attorneys wrote.

Rodriguez’s attorneys, assistant federal public defenders Rebecca A. Levy, Margaret W. Ambrose, and Katherine Tanaka said Rodriguez found meaning and community in Trump’s MAGA movement that he hadn’t before had in his life. Rodriguez, in fact, “trusted Trump blindly” and admired him so much that he referred to him as “dad” in his social media chats.

“Dad’s big day,” Rodriguez wrote in one message about Jan. 6. “Gotta get ready to save America.”

Rodriguez’s attorneys also quoted Fannie, who wrote in his book, “Hold the Line,” that Rodriguez was “so desperate for a sense of belonging that he became an easy mark for a cult.”

Despite Rodriguez’s attorneys depiction of him, and even Fanone’s own description, on Wednesday, Judge Jackson pushed back against the idea that Rodriguez was somehow “compelled” by Trump’s words. She said he’d made his decisions willingly.

“As you read these messages, you can’t escape this conclusion that Mr. Rodriguez is not just a follower,” she said.

Rodriguez’s 12.5-year sentence places him among the most serious offenders to date from Jan. 6….

June 21, 2023: The Associated Press reported: “Capitol rioter who shocked police officer with stun gun is sentenced to 12 years in prison”

A California man who drove a stun gun into a police officer’s neck during the most violent clashes of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez yelled, “Trump won!” as he was led out of the courtroom where U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the Jan. 6 2021 attack. Only two other Jan. 6 defendants have received longer prison terms so far after hundreds of sentencings for Capitol riot cases.

The judge said Rodriguez, 40, was “a one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property” at the Capitol.

“You showed up in (Washington) D.C. spoiling for a fight,” Jackson said. “You can’t blame what you did once you got there on anyone but yourself.”

Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone’s body camera captured him screaming out in pain after Rodriguez shocked him with a stun gun while he was surrounded by a mob.

Another rioter had dragged Fanone into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where a line of police officers were guarding an entrance to the building. Other rioters began beating Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez pressed the stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him.

Fanone addressed the judge before she imposed the sentence. The former officer described how the Jan. 6 attack prematurely ended his law-enforcement career and turned him into a target for Donald Trump supporters who cling to the lie that Democrats stole the 2020 election from the Republican incumbent.

Fanone left the courtroom in the middle of Rodriguez’s statement to the judge. He didn’t miss an apology from Rodriguez, who had been jailed for more than two years and will get credit for that time already served.

“I’m hopeful that Michael Fanone will be okay some day,” Rodriguez said. “It sounds like he’s in a great deal of pain.”

Fanone left the courtroom because he didn’t care to hear his assailant’ “rambling, incoherent” statement.

“Nothing he could have said to me today would have made any difference whatsoever,” he said.

Prosecutors recommended a 14-year prison sentence for Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty in February to charges including assaulting Fanone. They also sought a fine of nearly $100,000 to offset the cost of Fanone’s medical bills and medical leave.

Fanone’s injuries ultimately ended his career in law enforcement. He has written a book about his Jan. 6 experience and testified in front of a House committee that investigated the insurrection, which disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

“Rodriguez’s criminal conduct on January 6 was the epitome of disrespect for the law; he battled with law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol for hours, nearly costing one officer his life, in order to stop the official proceeding happening inside,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to four felony charges, including conspiracy and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He entered the guilty plea about two weeks before his trial was schedule to start in Washington, D.C.

On Jan. 6, Rodriguez attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally before joining the mob of rioters who attacked police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel.

“Rodriguez made his way to the front of the line of rioters battling the officers, yelling into his bullhorn at the beleaguered line,” prosecutors wrote.

Rodriguez deployed a fire extinguisher at police officers in the tunnel and shoved a wooden pole at the police line before another rioter, Kyle Young, handed him what appeared to be a stun gun, according to prosecutors.

Fanone was at the front of the police line when the rioter, Albuquerque Cosper Head, wrapped his arm around the officers neck and dragged him out onto the terrace steps, then restrained Fanone while other rioters attacked him. Rodriguez shocked Fanone’s neck with the stun gun, below the left ear of his police helmet.

Fanone managed to retreat and collapsed behind the police line before he was taken to hospital.

“Once inside, when officers were able to revive him after 2 minutes and 21 seconds, the first thing Officer Fanone asked was “did we take that back that door?” prosecutors wrote.

Rodriguez entered the building and smashed a window with a wooden pole before leaving the Capitol grounds.

Young was also sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in the officer’s assault. Young grabbed Fanone by the wrist while others yelled, “Kill him!” and “Get his gun!”

During an interview with FBI agents after his March 2021 arrest, Rodriguez said had believed that he was doing the “right thing” on Jan. 6 and that he had been prepared to die to “save the country.” He cried as he spoke to the agents, saying he was “stupid” and ashamed of his actions.

In the days leading up to Jan. 6, Rodriguez spewed violent rhetoric in a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang.”

“There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution,” Rodriguez wrote a day before the riot.

Rodriguez’s attorneys said he idolized Trump, seeing the former president “as the father he wished he had.”

“Mr. Rodriguez trusted Trump blindly and admired Trump so much that he referred to him as ‘dad’ in his social media chats leading up to Jan. 6th, defense attorneys wrote, seeking a prison sentence of five years and five months for their client.

The same judge who sentenced Rodriguez also convicted a co-defendant, Edward Badalian, of three riot-related charges and acquitted him of a fourth after a trial without a jury. Jackson is scheduled to sentence Badalian on July 21.

More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan.6 riot. Over 700 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. And approximately 550 of them have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 18 years.

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Rioter who dragged Officer Fanone into mob sentenced to 7.5 years in prison

October 27, 2022: WUSA9 reported: The Tennessee man who dragged former DC Police Officer Michael Fanone into the mob on Jan. 6 was sentenced Thursday to more than seven years in prison for initiating one of the most violent assaults on law enforcement that day.

Albuquerque Copper Head, a construction worker from Johnson City, Tennessee, pleaded guilty in May to one felony count of assaulting police. Head was one of a number of men charged in the connection with the brutal assault on Fanone — among them his co-defendant Kyle Young, who pleaded guilty ti the same count and was sentenced last month to seven years in prison.

In a sentencing memo filed Wednesday, the Justice Department asked for Head to serve 96 months in prison, which is the maximum allowed by statute. Prosecutors said a longer sentence for Head was unwarranted because of his lengthy criminal history, which includes 45 prior arrests and multiple conviction for domestic violence, and his role in initiating the assault on Fanone. Head also claimed to police after his arrest that he had been trapped in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel by the crowd.

“This claim is flatly contradicted by video evidence depicting his willful and persistent participation in some of the most barbaric violence on January 6,” assistant U.S. attorneys Cara Gardner and Kimberly Paschall wrote in their memo.

According to the memo, Head joined in the mob’s assault on police in the tunnel and used a stolen riot shield to strike toward officers. When he lost control of the shield and rioters were pushed out of the tunnel, Head wrapped his arm around the neck of Fanone — who was on the front line — and yelled “I’ve got on!” as he dragged him into the mob.

“Head continued to restrain Officer Fanone while another rioter applied a taser to the base of the officer’s skull. Head only let go when Officer Fanone reacted with enough force to free himself from Head’s grip,” prosecutors wrote. “Although Head was separated from Officer Fanone in the moments that followed, Head would have been able to hear the sound of the taser being activated again, Officer Fanone’s screams of agony, and the yells from another rioter to “Kill him with his own gun!”

Head forced his way back through the crowd as a group of rioters began to surround the officer to protect him from his attackers. Undeterred, Head reached toward Officer Fanone repeatedly, grabbing the officer and trying to regain control until one of Fanone’s protectors forcibly pushed Head away.”

At the sentencing hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson acknowledged Head’s acceptance of responsibility in the case and the letters she received from his fiancée and sister about how his family, including his young children, have suffered in his absence. She also gave him credit for achieving sobriety seven years ago. But, she rejected the defense’s characterization that Head and Fanone had gotten “entangled” and attorney Nicholas Wallace’s argument that Head wasn’t responsible for the continued attacks on Fanone after he escaped his restraint.

“He was your prey,” Jackson told Head. “He was your trophy.”

Jackson, who also sentenced Head’s co-defendant Young, as one of the most serious cases on her docket and said he was “instrumental” in one of the most violent assaults on police on Jan. 6. She also said there remained an ongoing need to deter others from engaging in the same kind of political violence as Head.

“People need to understand they can’t do this or anything like this again,” she said. “They can’t force their will on the American people when they’ve already spoken at the ballot box. That’s the opposite of democracy That’s tyranny.”

Jackson ordered Head to serve 90 months in prison (7.5 years) to be followed by 36 months of supervised release. He will receive credit for the approximately 18 months he’s spent in pretrial detention since his arrest. Head will also have pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol and an additional amount of restitution to Fanone to be decided at a later date.

Jackson agreed to recommend Head be placed at the federal correctional facility in Butner, North Carolina, so he can be closer to his family in Tennessee. Wallace also asked for Head to be recommended for the Bureau of Prison’s RDAP (Residential Drug Abuse Program), course, although as a convicted violent offender he would not be eligible for a sentence reduction upon completion.

Head’s sentence is one of the longest to date in a Capitol riot case, second only to former NYPD officer Thomas Webster, who was ordered to serve 10 years in prison for assaulting a DC Police officer on Jan. 6.

October 27, 2022: Law & Crime reported: ‘He was your Prey’: Judge deals 7.5-Year Sentence to U.S. Capitol Rioter Who Delivered Officer Michael Fanone by his Neck to a Violent Mob.”

A U.S. Capitol rioter who dragged Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone to a violent horde after pretending to help him will spend the next 7.5 years behind bars, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

“He was your prey,” declared U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson before she pronounced the sentence. “He was your trophy.”

Tennessee resident Albuquererque Cosper Head was one of the defendants charged on a three-person indictment relating to Fanone’s brutal assault, but as noted by the judge, Head served as the catalyst for the attack. Rioters beat, Tasered and robbed Fanone of his radio and his badge. In his congressional testimony, Fanone recounted hearing one shout “Kill him with his own gun!” and trying to quell the mob by shouting “I have kids.”

As recounted by Jackson, Head’s violence on Jan. 6 did not start with Fanone, and he engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” with a line of officers protecting the doors at the Capitol tunnel — a melee described as a “brutal, two-hour Medieval battle.” Throngs of rioters tried to break into the building by attempting push through an “under-manned, exhausted, ad hoc police line,” the judge noted.

Video showed Head using a police shield as a weapon and trying to jockey to the front of the line.

After reaching Fanone, Head could be heard boasting, “Hey, I’ve got one” and was quoting telling him “Hey, I’m going to try to help you out here. You hear me?”

Fanone was heard responding: “Thank you,” seemingly unaware of the group attack that awaited him.

In a 21-page sentencing memo, Head’s attorney, Nicholas Wallace described his client’s interactions with Fanone as getting “entangled” with the officer. The judge bristled at the euphemism.

“C’mon,” Jackson scoffed, comparing entanglement to what happens to the leashes of two dogs. “You cannot minimize what happened by using less objectionable verbs.”

The defense sentencing memo emphasized the entire interaction lasted some 35 seconds, but Jackson countered that the life-changing events for Fanone counted more than the ticks of a clock. Not all of the Jan. 6th rioters were bloodthirsty, but some were, the judge noted.

She added that Head, at that moment, was not drawing distinctions.

Inside the court, and weeping at the pronouncement of the verdict, was Head’s fiancée. She and other loved ones of the defendant poured in letters to the court emphasizing Head’s overcoming addictions — to alcohol, Oxycontin and methamphetamine. Now the father of two daughters, Head became clean after a string of mostly minor offenses and a felony that predated the Jan. 6 attack. As even his defense counsel acknowledged, those crimes added up. Prosecutors counted roughy 45 prior arrests, but his family attested to Head’s seeming transformation — that is, before the attack on the Capitol.

Speaking of his letters of support, the judge noted: “They are raw. They are honest. They are true.”

She quoted a passage from the fiancée’s as saying: “It’s the women who will suffer,” noting the difficulties of raising children with the father in jail.

Yet Jackson countered that she could not overlook the suffering felt by the family of Head’s victim, whom she noted was ironically attacked under a “Blue Lives Matter” flag.

“He was protecting the very essence of democracy,” Jackson said. “He was protecting America.”

Fanone, watching the proceedings in the courtroom, sat at wide attention during the judges address. He spoke in court of his own reflections of that day before the sentence was delivered. He then left the courtroom without comment, putting on dark sunglasses and taking no questions from reporters. He is now a CNN on-air contributor.

October 17, 2022: CNN Politics reported: “Man who pulled officer Fanone into mob during US Capitol attack sentenced to over 7 years”

The man who pulled former Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone into the crowd of violent rioters on January 6, 2021, yelling “I got one!” was sentenced Thursday to 90 months behind bars.

In the lower west terrace tunnel, a small entryway into the Capitol, the mob found police with chemical spray, poles, bats and officers’ own batons and shields against the line of police — including Fanone – protecting the building and those inside.

It was during this battle that a man named Alburqueque Head pulled Fanone away from his fellow officers, wrapping his arm around Fanone’s neck, tearing him into the crowd, according to court documents, which consumed Fanone and beat him unconscious.

“These were some of the darkest acts on one of (our) darkest days,” district Judge Amy Berman Jackson said before handing down the sentence Thursday.

“He was your prey, he was your trophy,” she said of Fanone, adding later that the officer “was protecting American” that day.

Head, of Kingsport, Tennessee, pleaded guilty in May to assaulting a police officer and has been detained since April 2021.

During the hearing, prosecutors played video from Fanone’s body-worn camera on January 6, which showed Head initially tell Fanone, “I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Thank you,” Fanone replied.

Fanone testified during the sentencing that at first he believed Head was trying to help him. Seconds later, however, Head yelled “I got on!” to the mob.

Fanone testified he felt Head “choke me and drag me out into the vicious crowd,” holding onto Fanone as another rioter tased him. The officer suffered a heart attack as rioters beat him and tased him in his neck repeatedly, Fanone said.

“Show Mr. Head the same mercy he showed me on January 6,’ Fanone told the judge Thursday. “None.”

The footage also showed Fanone’s first words when he regained consciousness as officers carried him inside the Capitol. “We took the door back?” he asked fellow officers.

Fanone is now a CNN contributor.

Head chose not to speak during Thursday’s hearing.

“Head appears before this Honorable Court as a 43-year-old seeking redemption and mercy,” his defense attorney, Nicholas Wallace, wrote in a sentencing memorandum, noting that his father had passed away while he was in prison and his mother is in “declining health.”

Head’s attorney also blamed his clients length rap sheet on a former addition to opioids and other drugs, saying that his crimes came to a “screeching halt” after he became sober several years ago.

Head’s fiancé and mother of his two daughters was at the sentencing Thursday and wrote a letter to the judge on Head’s behalf, which Jackson called “raw” and “true.”

Jackson, reading from the letter, noted, “it’s the women who will suffer.”

Fanone told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “Anderson Cooper 360” Thursday that he thought the punishment was appropriate and that Jackson was “thoughtful in her sentencing,” but aded that the long sentences handed to some convicted January 6 defendants may be “inspiring” some Americans to “fight harder and be more violent.”

Asked if he believed the long sentences have “a deterrent effect on potential or future attacks, Fanone said, “I would traditionally say yes, but these are not traditional crimes. These are politically inspired attacks on law enforcement and on our democracy.”

“Unfortunately, you still have individuals, a former president, many of his allies, that continue to expose the same lies that motivated these attacks,” Fanone added. “So while I think that [long sentences] may prevent many Americans from participating in something similar to January 6, I think it’s also inspiring many Americans to fight harder and to be more violent.”

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Those who attacked their own nation’s Capitol failed to consider the consequences of doing so. This is part 5.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of Donald Trump supporters staged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. The Guardian reported that people stormed the chambers of the House and Senate while the Electoral College votes were being tallied.

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January 13, 2022: Department of Justice U.S. Department of Affairs – U.S. Department of Justice posted a press release titled: “Leader of Oath Keepers and 10 Other Individuals Indicted In Federal Court for Seditious Conspiracy and Other Offenses Related to U.S. Capitol Breach.”

Eight Others Facing Charges In Two Related Cases

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment yesterday, which was unsealed today, charging 11 defendants with seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, which disturbed a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

According to court documents, Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, 56, of Granbury, Texas, who is the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers; and Edward Vallejo, 63, of Phoenix, Arizona, are being charged for the first time in connection with events leading up to and including Jan. 6. Rhodes was arrested this morning in Little Elm, Texas, and Vallejo was arrested this morning in Phoenix.

In addition to Rhodes and Vallejo, those named in the indictment include nine previously charged defendants: Thomas Caldwell, 67, of Berryville, Virginia; Joseph Hackett, 51, of Sarasota, Florida; Kenneth Harrelson, 41, of Titusville, Florida; Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama; Kelly Meggs, 52, of Dunnellon, Florida; Roberto Minuta, 37, of Prosper, Texas; David Moerschel, 44, of Punta Gorda, Florida; Brian Ulrich, 44, of Guyton Georgia an Jessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock, Ohio.

In addition to earlier charges filed against them, they now face additional counts for seditious conspiracy and other offenses.

Eight other individuals affiliated with the Oath Keepers, all previously charged in the investigation, remain as defendants in two related cases. The superseding indictment has now effectively been split into three parts: the 11-defendant seditious conspiracy case, a seven-defendant original case, and a third case against one of the previously charged defendants.

In one of the related cases, the original superseding indictment, charges remain pending against James Beeks, 49, of Orlando, Florida; Donovan Crowl, 51, of Cable, Ohio; William Issacs, 22, of Kissimmee, Florida; Connie Meggs, 60, of Dunnellon, Florida; and Laura Steele, 53, of Thomasville, North Carolina. The other case charges Jonathan Walden, 57, of Birmingham, Alabama.

The three indictments collectively charge all 19 defendants with corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. Eighteen of the 19 defendants — the exception is Walden — are charged with seditious conspiracy. Some of the defendants are also facing other related charges.

As alleged in the indictments, the Oath Keepers are a large body but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias. Though the Oath Keepers will accept anyone as members, they explicitly focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement, and first-responder personnel. Members and affiliates of the Oath Keepers were among the individuals and groups who forcibly entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The seditious conspiracy indictment alleges that, following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021.

Beginning in late December 2020, via encrypted and private communications applications, Rhodes and various co-conspirators coordinated and planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the certification of the electoral college vote, the indictment alleges. Rhodes and several co-conspirators made plans to bring weapons to the area to support the operation. The co-conspirators then traveled across the country to Washington. D.C., metropolitan area in early January 2021.

According to the seditious conspiracy indictment, the defendants conspired through a variety of manners and means, including: organizing into teams that were prepared and willing to use force and to transport firearms and ammunition into Washington D.C.; recruiting members and affiliates to participate in the conspiracy; organizing trainings to teach and learn paramilitary combat tactics; bringing and contributing paramilitary gear, weapons and supplies — including knives, batons, camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection and radio equipment — to the Capitol grounds; breaching and attempting to take control of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; continuing to plot, after Jan. 6, 2021, to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power, and using websites, social media, text messaging and encrypted messaging applications to communicate with co-conspirators and others.

On Jan. 6, 2021, a large crowd began to gather outside the Capitol perimeter as the Joint Session of Congress got underway at 1 p.m. Crowd members eventually forced their way through, up and over U.S. Capitol Police barricades and advanced to the building’s exterior façade. 

Shortly after 2 p.m., crowd members forced entry into the Capitol by breaking windows, ramming open doors, and assaulting Capitol police and other law enforcement officers. At about this time, according to the indictment, Rhodes entered the restricted area of the Capitol grounds and directed his followers to meet him at the Capitol.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., as detailed in the indictment, Hackett, Harrelson, Meggs, Moerschel and Watkins, and other Oath Keepers and affiliates — many wearing paramilitary clothing and patches with the Oath Keepers name, logo, and insignia — marched in a “stack” formation up the east steps of the Capitol, joined a mob, and made their way into the Capitol.

Later, another group of Oath Keepers and associates, including James, Minuta, and Ulrich, formed a second “stack” and breached the Capitol grounds, marching from the west side to the east side of the Capitol building and up the east stairs and into the building.

While certain Oath Keepers members and affiliates breached the Capitol grounds and building, others remained stationed just outside of the city in quick reaction force (QRF) teams. According to the indictment, the QRF teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C., in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. The indictment alleges that the teams were coordinated, in part, by Caldwell and Vallejo.

The charge of conspiracy carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Northern District of Texas and the District of Arizona.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with valuable assistance provided by the FBI’s Dallas and Phoenix Field Offices. These charts are the result of significant cooperation between agents and staff across numerous FBI Field Offices, including those in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia, among other locations.

In the one year since Jan. 6, more than 725 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 225 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains on going.

January 23, 2023: Office of Public Affairs U.S. Department of Justice posted a press release: “Four Oath Keepers Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy Related to U.S. Capitol Breach”

Defendants Also Convicted of Related Felony Charges

Four members of the Oath Keepers were found guilty today by a jury in the District of Columbia of seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

According to the evidence at trial, in the months leading up to January 6, these defendants and their co-conspirators plotted to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power., including by amassing an armed “quick reaction force” on the outskirts of the District of Columbia.

The defendants, Roberto Minuta, 38, of Prosper Texas; Joseph Hackett, 52, of Sarasota Florida; David Moerschel, 45, of Punta Gorda, Florida; and Edward Vallejo, 64, of Phoenix, Arizona, — were leaders and associates of the Oath Keepers organization.

In addition to the seditious conspiracy count, all four were found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to prevent Members of Congress from discharging their official duties. Hackett was also found guilty of destruction of evidence.

“Today, the Justice Department secured the conviction of four members of the Oath Keepers for their criminal conduct surrounding the Jan. 6. 2021 attack on the Capitol,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “A jury found all four defendants guilty of seditious conspiracy, as well as conspiracies to obstruct the certification of the electoral college vote and to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties. I am grateful to the prosecutors, agents, and staff for their excellent work on this case.”

“Today’s verdict is an important step in our continued efforts to hold criminally accountable those involved in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “We will continue to investigate those who sought to undermine the workings of American democracy and we will work closely with federal prosecutors to ensure justice is served.”

“For the second time in recent months, a jury has found that a group of Americans entered into a seditious conspiracy against the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “The goal of this conspiracy was to prevent the execution of our laws that govern the peaceful transfer of power — striking at the very heart of our democracy. We are grateful to the thoughtful, deliberative work of this jury who gave weeks of their lives to carefully consider and deliver justice in this case and in doing so reaffirmed our democratic principles.”

Today’s verdict follows the November 29, 2022, seditious conspiracy conviction of Elmer Steward Rhodes III and Kelly Meggs — two leaders of the Oath Keepers. Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell were also convicted of related felony charges in that first trial. All nine defendants were indicted as part of the same conspiracy on Jan. 12, 2022.

Seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct Congress, obstruction of Congress, and destruction of evidence all carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. All charges cary potential financial penalties. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. U.S. District Court Judge Amir Mehta will schedule sentencing hearings at a later date.

According to the government’s evidence, following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, the defendants conspired together and with others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021.

Beginning in late December 2020, via encrypted and private communications applications, the defendants and various co-conspirators coordinated and planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the certification pf tej electoral college vote.

The defendants made plans to bring weapons to the area to support the operation. The co-conspirators then traveled across the country to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in early January 2021, with paramilitary gear and supplies including firearms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, and radio equipment.

The defendants conspired through a variety of manners and means, including: organizing into teams that were prepared and willing to use force and to transport firearms and ammunition into Washington, D.C.; recruiting members and affiliates to participate in the conspiracy, organizing training to teach and learn paramilitary combat tactics; bringing and contributing paramilitary gear, weapons, and supplies — including knives, camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection, and radio equipment — to the Capitol grounds; breaching and attempting to take control of the Capitol grounds and building on Jan. 6, 2021; continuing to plot, after Jan 6, 2021, to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power; and using websites, social media, text messaging and encrypted messaging application to communicate with co-conspirator and others.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and Criminal Division. Valuable assistance was provided by numerous U.S. Attorney’s Office across the country.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department, with significant assistance provided by the FBI’s New York, Dallas, Tampa and Phoenix Field Offices. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the U.S. Secret Service.

In the 24 months since Jan. 6. 2021, more than 950 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including 284 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

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June 28, 2024: NPR reported “Supreme Court says prosecutors improperly charged some Jan. 6 defendants” It was written by Nina Totenberg.

The U.S. Supreme Court limited which defendants accused of taking part in the Jan. 6. Capitol riot can be charged by federal prosecutors for obstructing Congress. The court’s decision also places at least a cloud of doubt about two of the four felony counts in the election subversion indictment of President Trump.

In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court ruled that the government must establish “that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or other things used in a official proceeding.”

Prosecutors used a key criminal statute to prosecute more than 350 of the most violent participants in the riot.

The stature had two parts. The first part makes is a crime to corruptly alter or Destry documents and records related to an official proceeding. The second part makes it a crime to otherwise obstruct or impede an official proceeding — in this case, the congressional counting of electoral college ballots.

Roberts said the statute was limited to documents and evidence destruction, and that the word otherwise was not meant to broaden the meaning of the law into a catchall provision.

Writing for the court majority, Robert said the statute was limited to documents and evidence destruction, and that the word otherwise was not meant otherwise broaden the meaning of the law as a catchall provision.

In a concurring opinion, liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote: Despite “the shocking circumstances involved in this case,” the “Court’s task is to determine what conduct is proscribe by the criminal statue that has been involved as the base for the obstruction charge at issue here.”

Justices Amy Coney Barrett joined Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in dissent.

Justice Barrett — a Trump appointee — joined wrote that the provision in question “is a very broad provision, and admittedly, events like January 6th were not its target. (Who could blame Congress for that failure of imagination?) But statutes often go further than the problem that inspired them, and under the rules of statutory interpretation, we stick to the text anyway. The Court, abandoning that approach, does textual backflips to find some way — any way — to narrow” it.

The case was brought by Joseph Fischer, a former police officer in a township near Harrisburg, Pa., who joined the mob on Jan. 6th, even recording a four-minute cell phone video in which he is heard yelling, “charge,” and is seen in a scrum with police officers.

According to prosecutors, Fischer, in text messages, also threatened violence prior to Jan. 6, including sending a text in which he wrote, “take Democratic Congress to the gallows … can’t vote if they can’t breathe lol.” And when the FBI came to arrest him later, he shouted profanities at the agents and at his own police chief, and he sought to conceal the phone he had used to record events at the Capitol.

The Justice Department maintained that it limited the use of the statute at issue in the case by requiring proof that Fischer and other similarly charged defendants had specifically intended to disrupt the counting of the electoral college ballots and by focusing on elements like a defendant’s preparation for violence, and bringing tactical gear or paramilitary equipment to the Capitol.

At an oral argument Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that prosecutors have brought charges against some 1400 defendants in connection with the riot, but that only 350 of those had been charged under the obstruction statute because of the need to move intent to disrupt the counting of the ballots.

Defendant Fischer’s lawyer, Jeffrey Green, maintained that the reason the government chose to use the statute at all was that it has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Even though nobody has actually gotten such a stiff penalty, he said, for prosecutors it is “a really big cudgel” to use in plea bargaining with defendants.

Friday’s decision has already had consequences. Pending the outcome of Friday’s case, some judges previously allowed a small number of convicted defendants to be released from prison early. Now, a larger number will have to be repentances, retried, or just released.

But while Friday’s decision might intuitively be seen as a devastating blow to prosectors, a deep dive into the data concludes the effects will be “minimal.” NYU law professor Ryan Goodman is the lead author of the study, published by “Just Security,” which relied on NPR’s detailed data base of Jan 6 Capitol riot cases.

Goodman notes that Trump is different from the Capitol rioters because the obstruction charges against him involve efforts to interfere with the electoral college certificate arriving at the desk to be counted on Jan. 6th, and the use of false elector certificates — all of which would seem to fall under the tampering-with-evidence provision of the obstruction statute.

As for the Jan. 6 rioters, the study found that of the 1417 people charged so far in connection with the Jan. 6 invasion, only 346, or 24 per cent, were charged under the obstruction statute. Of that 346, 128 defendants were convicted by a jury of obstruction and another crime, most often another felony, which would still stand.

A different cohort of 48 people pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge, which now goes away. But hovering over all of this pleas is the fact that the plea agreement uniformly included an important caveat: In the event that the conviction were to be “vacated for any reason,” the government reserved the right to prosecute for other alleged crimes that prosecutors had either agreed not to prosecute or agreed to dismiss at sentencing.

Finally the study, found that until Friday, 71 people were still awaiting trial on the obstruction charge, but more than half are also charged with another felony. While those felonies may not have penalties a severe as the obstruction charge, if the defendants are found guilty of those other crimes, the sentencing judge is permitted to consider the conduct charged in the obstruction case in determine the length of the sentence.

The study’s authors, in addition to professor Goodman, are Georgetown law professor Mary McCord, a long-time federal prosecutor who held a variety of top Justice Department jobs, including chief of the criminal division and acting assistant attorney general for national security; and NYU law professor Andrew Weissmann, also a long-time Justice Department prosecutor, who served as chief of the fraud section, counsel for the FBI, and lead prosecutor in the Muller investigation of then President Trump.

Of course Donald Trump, if re-elected, could pardon all the Jan. 6 defendants. He has not committed to doing that yet, though he often refers to Jan. 6 offenders as “hostages” and “patriots.” In his first term he pardoned friends and political allies who were a lot more prominent, including former campaign chiefs Paul Manafort, convicted on corruption charges, and Stephen Bannon, indicted on fraud charges for a build-the-wall fundraising scheme in which he allegedly pocked $1 million.

In addition Trump pardoned his close friend and advisor Roger Stone, indicted on charges of witness tampering, obstruction, and lying to Congress about what he and then-candidate Trump knew about Russian efforts to discredit Hillary Clinton in terms of 2016 presidential campaign; he pardoned former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud and lying to White House officials; He pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; the elder Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 criminal counts of tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign contributions; and Trump also pardoned his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and then withdrew his guilty pleas.

June 28, 2024: The Associated Press reported: “Supreme Court makes it harder to charge Capitol riot defendants with obstruction, charge Trump faces” It was written by Mark Sherman.

The Supreme Court on Friday limited a federal obstruction law that has been used to change hundreds of Capitol riot defenders as well as former President Trump.

The justices ruled 6-3 that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp., must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fall into that category.

The overwhelming majority of the approximately 1,000 people who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to Capitol riot-related federal crimes were not charged with obstruction and will not be affected by the outcome.

Still, the decision is likely to be used as fodder for clam by Trump and his Republican allies that the Justice Department has treated the Capitol riot defendants unfairly.

It is unclear how the court’s decision will affect the case against Trump in Washington, which includes charges other than obstruction. Special counsel Jack Smith has said the charges faced by the former president would not be affected.

Trump’s case is on hold while the Supreme Court considers a separate case in which Trump is claiming immunity from prosecution. A decision is expected on Monday.

Under the ruling issued Friday, dozens of defendants could seek new sentences, ask to withdraw guilty pleas, or have charges dropped. Most defendants convicted of obstruction were also convicted of another felony so their sentence may not be significantly impacted — if at all.

The high court returned the case of former Pennsylvania police office Joseph Fischer to a lower court to determine if Fischer could be charged with obstruction. Fischer has been indicted for his role in disrupting Congress’ certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.

Fischer is among about 350 people who have been charged with obstruction. Some pleaded guilty to — or were convicted of — lesser charges.

Republicans, who have cast the Jan. 6 defendants as victims of political persecution, are certain to seize on the ruling to argue the rioters have been unfairly prosecuted by the Justice Department. Trump has embraced Jan. 6 defendants on the campaign trail, and floated pardons for the rioters if he wins in November.

Trump, speaking at a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, described the decision as a “great thing.”

“Free the J6 hostages now,” he said. “They should free them now for what they’ve gone through. They;e been waiting for this decision for a long time. They’ve been waiting for a long time. And that was a great answer. That is a great thing for people that have been so horribly treated.”

It’s also likely to slow down cases in a court already clogged with Jan. 6 defendants as judges are forced to grapple with how to apply the ruling.

“It’s going to be a big mess,” said Randall Eliason, a professor at George Washington University Law School and former federal prosecutor in Washington.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court’s opinion, joined by conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarance Thomas, and by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former federal defender who also wrote a separate opinion.

Reading the obstruction statue broadly “would also criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists to decades in prison,” Roberts wrote.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett dissented, along with Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Barrett, one of the three justices appointed by Trump, wrote that the law clearly encompasses the events of Jan. 6. “The riot forced Congress to suspend the proceeding, delaying it for several hours,” she wrote.

She said her colleagues in the majority did “textual backflips to find some way — any way – to narrow the reach” of the obstruction law.

Roberts, Jackson, and Barrett made strikingly different word choices in their opinions. While Roberts described the attack as a “breach of the Capitol,” Barrett described the events as a riot and the participants as rioters. Jackson wrote that “an angry mob stormed the United States Capitol.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was disappointed with the decision, which he said “limits an important federal statute,” Still, Garland said the cases against the “vast majority” of people charged in the attack won’t be affected.

“January 6 was an unprecedented attack on the cornerstone of our system of government — the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next,” he said. “We will continue to use all available tools to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy.”

Roughly 170 Capitol Insurrection defendants have been convicted of obstructing or conspiring to obstruct the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, including the leaders of two far-right extremist groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. A number of defendants have had their sentencings delayed until after the justice rule on the matter.

Some rioter have even won early release from prison while the appeal was pending over concerns that they might end up serving longer than they should have if the Supreme Court ruled against the Justice Department.

They include Kevin Seefried, a Delaware man who threatened a Black police officer with a pole attached to a Confederate battle flag as he stormed the Capitol. Seefried was sentences last year to three years behind bars, but a judge recently ordered that he be released one year into his prison term while awaiting the Supreme Courts ruling.

Seventeen of the 18 trial judges who have weighted in have allowed the charge to stand. Among them, U.S. District Judge Dabney Frederich, a Trump appointee, wrote that “statutes often reach beyond the principal evil that animated them.”

But U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, another Trump appointed, dismissed the charge against Fischer and two other defendants, writing that prosecutors went too far. A divided panel of the federal appeals court in Washington reinstate d the charge before the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case.

Alito and Thomas rejected calls that they step aside from the Jan. 6 case because of questions raised about their impartiality.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which has handled Jan. 6 prosecutions, said on one who has been convicted of or charged with obstruction will be completely cleared because of the ruing. Every defendant also has another felony or misdemeanor charges, or both, prosecutors said.

For around 50 people who were convicted, obstruction was the only felony count, prosecutors said. Of those roughly two dozen who are still serving their sentence are most likely to be affected by the ruling.

More than 1,400 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes.

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February 4, 2021: HuffPost posted “Feds Drop The Hammer On The Capitol Insurrectionists” It was written by Ryan J. Reilly.

The insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol last month largely escaped arrest after overwhelming an underprepared police force. When the feds eventually tracked some of them down — starting with those who openly bragged about their conduct on social media — most initially faced low-level misdemeanor charges.

But now, after prosecutors presented their cases to a federal jury, many insurrectionists have been charged with much more serious offenses: felonies that come with the potential of significant time in federal prison.

In addition to criminal complaints, the government has secured federal grand jury indictments against a number of defendants, including conspiracy cases against defendants who allegedly worked together during the attack on the Capitol. A number of U.S. Capitol attack defendants have been indicted on serious charges — nearly a dozen on Wednesday alone.

As the indictments come back, it appears as though felony charge are going to be the norm for many defendants. Their online bragging, disclosures during FBI interviews and searches of their property after arrests are giving prosecutors what they need to secure felony indictments.

One common charge is obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, in violation of Section 1512(c) of the U.S. Code. While 1512 is better known for its witness-tampering provisions, part of the law outlaws corruptly obstructing, influencing or impeding an official proceeding. The official proceeding in question here is the certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.

Take the case of the “selfie cops” who used to be employed as law enforcement officers in Virginia. Jacob Fracker and Thomas Robertson were originally only facing two counts. But a federal grand jury indicted them on four counts on Friday, including a felony charge of obstructing a federal proceeding and aiding and abetting others in impeding a proceeding before Congress “by entering and remaining in the United State’s Capitol without authority and participating in disruptive behavior.”

Jenny Cudd, a florist from Texas, bragged on social media about how rioters broke down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office door and “charged the Capitol.” Cudd said she was proud of her actions. This week — amid a raging coronavirus pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans — she requested permission to take a vacation to Mexico. Because she was only facing misdemeanor charges, a court might have granted such a motion.

But a federal grand jury indicted Cudd on five charges on Wednesday, including the obstruction an official proceeding charge. Now that she’s been indicted on a felony, that Mexico vacation is less likely.

Gina Bisignano, a California woman who stormed the Capitol wearing a Louis Vitton sweater and was caught on video egging on the crowd with a bullhorn, was indicted on seven counts, including the obstructing an official proceeding charge. Grand jurors also added a civil disorder charge against Bisignano under a rarely used law first passed in the 1960s that the Trump administration more recently deployed during protests over the killing of George Floyd.

Patrick McCaughey III, caught on video battling police officers struggling to keep the pro-Trump mob from storming the Capitol, was indicted on nine counts, including a charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Richard Barnett, photographed with his feet up on a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office and bragging about stealing property from her office, was indicted on seven counts, including the felony obstruction of an official proceeding charge.

Stephanie Hazelton, the South Jersey right-wing activist known as “Ayla Wolf,” was indicted on six counts, including felonies for civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.

Edward Jacob Lang was indicted on 11 counts, including felonies for civil disorder, assaulting officers and obstruction of an official proceeding.

Melony Steel-Smith, who bragged that she “stormed the castle” on Facebook and posted images from inside Pelosi’s office, was indicted on five counts, including the felony count of obstructing an official proceeding.

Josiah Colt, an Idaho man who rappelled into the chamber of the Senate — which the incorrectly believed was the House chamber — was indicted on four counts, including the felony obstruction of an official proceeding charge.

The FBI recently launched an upgraded portal featuring images of 200 suspects wanted in connection with the Capitol attack, and the agency is continuing to bring new cases. Ins several Capitol cases, prosecutors have filed “information” against a defendant, which typically indicates that a defendant waived their right to an indictment and plans to seek a plea deal, but may also just mean that prosecutors do not intend to seek any felony charges.

Samuel Camarago, who bragged online that he “got some memorabilia, did it myself” with an image of a piece of metal he apparently stole during the Capitol siege, was pretty confident with how things went when he gave the FBI an interview after the Capitol insurrection.

“Just finished speaking to an FBI agent, I believed I’ve been cleared,” Camargo wrote on Facebook.

Court records posted Thursday indicated that Caramargo was indicted.

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April 14, 2023: The Associated Press reported: “Capitol rioter who crushed officer with shield gets 7 years” It was written by Michael Kunzelman.

A man who used a stolen riot shield to crush a police officer in a doorframe during the U.S. Capitol insurrection was sentenced on Friday to more than seven years in prison for his role in one of the most violent episodes of the Jan. 6 attack.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 15 years and eight months for Patrick McCaughey III, which would have been the longest sentence for a Capitol riot case by more than five years.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced McCaughey to seven years and six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. The judge described McCaughey, 25, as a “poster child of all that was dangerous and appalling about” the Jan. 6, 2021 riot.

“Your actions are some of the most egregious crimes that were committed on that dark day,” the judge told McCaughey.

McCaughey of Ridgefield, Connecticut, expressed shame for joining the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters who “violated” the Capitol.

“I am sorry that I conducted myself less like a citizen and more like an animal that day,” he said.

McCaughey’s 90-month sentence matches the second longest prison sentence so far for a Capitol riot defendant. It’s the same length as the sentence that another judge handed down to Albuquerque Cosper Head, a Tennessee man who dragged Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone into a crowd of rioters.

April 14, 2023: Law & Crime posted: “Man who used stolen riot shield to crush police officer in Capital doorway on Jan. 6. gets years behind bars”

One of the men accused in the brutal attack of a Washington, D.C. police officer who was seen being crushed by the riotous mob at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been sentenced to years behind bars.

Patrick E. McCaughey III, 25, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, was sentenced to 90 months in prison for nine offenses, the Justice Department announced in a press release Friday.

“McCaughey was convicted of seven felony charges: three counts of aiding or abetting or assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers, including one involving a dangerous weapon; one count of obstruction of an official proceeding; one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and one count of engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon,” the press release said.

He was also convicted of two disorderly conduct misdemeanors.

According to prosecutors, McCaughey and his co-defendants, Tristan Chandler Stevens and David Mehaffie had traveled from there homes to Washington D.C., to support then-President Donald Trump, who had spent months falsely stating that the 2020 presidential election was tainted by fraud. As Congress had begun to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win, pro-Trump rioters broke into the Capitol building, forcing lawmakers to either flee the building or shelter in place for hours.

McCaughey, Stevens, and Mehaffie “ultimately broke through the police line after approximately 2:30 p.m., when the line on the West Front failed under siege of the advancing mob,” the DOJ said. They scaled the scaffolding and staircase on the southwest part of the Capitol and converged at the tunnel on the Lower West Terrace, guarded by U.S. Capitol Police Officers and officers from the Metropolitan Police Department.

“Between 2:41 p.m. and 3:19 p.m., the three defendants attempted to break into the building by directing other rioters, participating in heave-hos against the police line, using riot shields stolen from the Capitol Police, and assaulting three specific officers,” The DOJ said.

“Mehaffie hung from an archway and shouted directions from above, and McCaughey and Stevens were key players in the melee below. McCaughey grabbed a riot shield and used it as a weapon.”

Specifically, McCaughey used that stolen riot shield as a weapon against MPD Officer Daniel Hodges, whose struggle against rioters crushing him in a door has become one of the most memorable images to emerge from the riot.

“McCaughey made his way to the front of the mob, where he came face to face with MPD Officer Daniel Hodges,” the government said in its sentencing memorandum. “McCaughey used his riot shield to crush Officer Hodges into the metal doorframe, while yelling at the officer to ‘go home.”

Hodges had testified at trial that he was worried he would lose consciousness. At one point, rioters had ripped Hodges’ gas mask from his face and stole his baton, using it to strike his head.

McCaughey, Stevens, and Mehaffie were convicted in September 2022 after a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee and the first judge to issue acquittals for misdemeanors in the Jan. 6 prosecutions. Stevens and Mehaffie are awaiting sentencing.

McCaughey’s sentence is about half the 15 years requested by prosecutors. He had argues for a sentence of one year. McFadden ordered him to serve three years of supervised release and pay $2,000 in restitution toward the estimated $2.9 million in damage and loss to the Capitol resulting from the riot.

At the sentencing hearing, McFadden told McCaughey that he believed he had lied on the stand, according to a report from local CBS affiliate WUSA9.

“Your actions on Jan 6, and in particular your attack on Officer Hodges, made you a poser child for all that was dangerous and appalling about that day,” McFadden reportedly said.

McCaughey was convicted of three separate counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police, including an enhanced felony charge for using a deadly or dangerous weapon. He was the only defendant not already in pre-trial detention who McFadden “stepped back” — or ordered immediately into custody — following his conviction.

While delivering his verdict, McFadden described in detail the harrowing moment when McCaughey used a riot shield and the force of the mob behind him to pin Hodges in a doorframe while he screamed for help.

McFatten had allowed McCaughey to stay out of custody before sentencing but reportedly ordered him to be reprimanded immediately.

April 14, 2023: WUSA9 reported: ‘Selfless’ Connecticut man who crushed officer in doorframe sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.”

A Connecticut man who crushed a D.C. police officer in a doorframe on Jan. 6, was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison — one of the longest sentences to date in a Capitol riot case.

Patrick McCaughey III, who was convicted in a September bench trial of seven felonies and two misdemeanors, was ordered to serve 90 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden. McCaughey had faces a recommended sentencing guideline of 151-188 months in prison and prosecutors asked him to receive 15 years behind bars. His attorney, Dennis Boyle, requested a significant downward variance to just one year in prison.

McFadden, a former police officer and 2017 nominee of former President Donald Trump, and already sentenced a number of McCaughey’s co-defendants — and he told McCaughey he viewed him as the most serious offender yet.

Last month, McFadden ordered Geoffrey Sills of Mechanicsville, Virginia, to serve four years in prison for robbing and beating an officer with his own baton. Two weeks earlier, he sentenced Tristan Chandler Stevens, who went to trial with McCaughey, to five years in prison for assaulting former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell with a riot shield. David Mehaffie, an Ohio man who was convicted of two felony counts but found not to have engaged in or aided the assault on police was sentenced by McFadden to 14 months in prison.

McCaughey was convicted of three separate counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police, including an enhanced felony charge for using a deadly or dangerous weapon. He was the only defendant not already in pre-trial detention who McFadden “stepped back” or ordered immediately into custody — following his conviction.

While delivering his verdict, McFadden described in detail the harrowing moment when McCaughey used a riot shield and the force of the mob behind him to pin DC Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a doorframe while he screamed for help.

“Officer Hodges’ gut wrenching cries of pain shocked Mr. McCaughey into action,” Judge McFadden said, adding a short time later, “I note that even after he saw Officer Hodges injured, he carried on to battle Officer [Henry] Foulds.”

On Friday, McFadden said he believed McCaughey had lied on the stand and rejected his efforts to downplay his role in the riot.

Hodges testified at trial that he feared he would lose consciousness from the pressure against him and would become a liability for his fellow officers who were attempting to repel the violent mob. In their memo, prosecutors highlighted how McCaughey pinned Hodges for two minutes while he screamed for help.

“In this case, the restraint applied to the victim was neither fleeting nor accidental,” they wrote. “It was concerted, forceful and intended to harm law enforcement generally for defending the tunnel and its entrance.”

McCaughey’s memo struck a decidedly different tone. Over 25 pages, his attorney, Boyle, repeatedly described his 25-year-old client’s “selfless” nature and role as a “pillar in his community” — the affluent Connective town of Ridgefield. McCaughey blamed his father, described variously as a “fervent Trump supporter” and “radical,” for his presence in D.C. His aunt is quoted as remembering him as an “especially kind and thoughtful child.”

Despite claiming he has “fully admitted his role in the riot, McCaughey’s memo only briefly touched upon his actual conduct that day. Hodges’ name only appeared twice in McCaughey’s memo — both times in a footnote arguing his injuries couldn’t be attributed to McCaughey.

In a paragraph beginning on page 22 of 25, McCaughey said his actions were “limited to pushing officers with a riot shield” and were “only impactful due to the force of the protestors who proceeded to push Mr. McCaughey into the line of officers.”

Hodges himself spoke briefly Friday. He laments the loss of the 50 police officers he said he understood had left his department citing Jan. 6, and described McCaughey as the “vanguard of the assault” on the Capitol.

“Of all of the weapons utilized that day, the most offensive one was the mob,” Hodges said.

McCaughey also spoke — striking a different tone than his sentencing memo. In a quiet monotone, he told McFadden he’d acted like a “thug” on Jan. 6 and apologize to the “exhausted, beaten” officers he’d assaulted as part of an “unrelenting mob.” He also apologized to his mother, who was in the courtroom to hear his sentence.

“I’m sorry mother for the anguish I’ve caused and the disappointment I’ve become,” he said. “None of this is your fault.”

McFadden agreed to recommend McCaughey be placed at the low-security prison in Danbury, Connecticut, near where his family is located.

April 14, 2023: The Department of Justice posted “Connecticut Man Sentenced for Felony and Misdemeanor Charges Related To Capitol Breach.”

Defendant Was Among Those Who Joined In Assaults on Officers At Lower West Terrace

A Connecticut man was sentenced today in the District of Columbia on felony and misdemeanor offenses for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Patrick E, McCaughey III, 25, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, was sentenced to 90 months in prison for nine offenses. He was found guilty following the bench trial, on September 13, 2022, along with co-defendants Tristan Chandler Stevens, 26, of Pensacola Florida, and David Mehaffie, 63, of Kettering, Ohio, who are awaiting sentencing.

McCaughey was convicted of seven felony charges: three counts of aiding or abetting or assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers, including one involving a dangerous weapon; one count of obstruction of an official proceeding; one count of interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon. The two misdemeanor charges include: disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building and committing an act of violence in the Capitol Building or grounds.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden ordered 36 months of supervised release and restitution of $2,000.

According to the government’s evidence, on Jan. 6, 2021, McCaughey, Stephens, and Mehaffie all traveled to Washington, D.C., from their respective homes. Each illegally made his way on to the restricted grounds of the U.S. Capitol. McCaughey and Stevens taunted officers at the West Front, and Mehaffie yelled at nearby rioters who were hesitating to illegally cross the other perimeter, “If we can’t fight over this wall, we can’t win the battle!”

The three defendants ultimately broke through the police line after approximately 2:30 p.m., when the line on the West Front failed under the siege of the advancing mob. Each of the defendants scaled the Southwest scaffolding and staircase, to converge together at the tunnel created by the inaugural platform structure on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol Building.

At the Lower West Terrace, officers of the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department guarded the entrance to the door to the Capitol from the mob — including McCaughey, Stevens and Mehaffie — for several hours.

Between 2:41 p.m., and 3:19 p.m., the three defendants attempted to break into the building by directing other rioters, participating in heave-hos against the police line, using riot shields stolen from Captiol Police, and assaulting three specific officers. Mehaffe hung from an archway and shouted direction from above, and McCaughey and Stevens were key players in the melee below. McCaughey grabbed a riot shield and used it as a weapon. Even after officers finally cleared the tunnel area, the three defendants illegally remained on Capitol grounds.

McCaughey was arrested on Jan. 9, 2021, in South Salem, New York.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Officer for the District of Columbia. Valuable assistance was provided by the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Connecticut.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s New Haven, Albany, and Washington D.C. Field Officers. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department. The FBI’s Washington Field Office identified McCaughey as #62, Stevens as #64, and Mehaffie as #86 on its seeking information photos.

In the 27 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

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April 11, 2023: WUSA9 reported “Capitol rioter who dressed like Jack Skellington sentenced to 6 years in prison for assaulting police. It was written by Jordan Fischer.

A Nevada man who attacked multiple police officers while dressed as a character from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday on two felony counts.

Josiah Kenyon, 35, of Winnemucca, Nevada, was ordered to serve 72 months in prison and pay $43,315 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols. Kenyon pleaded guilty in September to two felony counts of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon, including one count with an enhancement for causing bodily injury.

According to a statement of facts in Kenyon’s plea agreement, he first attended former President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 before joining a crowd of thousands of people that marched to the U.S. Capitol Building.

There — while dressed as Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” — Kenyon used his fist and a flagpole to damage a window and also repeatedly assaulted officer inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel by throwing multiple objects, including a large plastic pylon, and then attacking them with a table leg with a protruding nail.

“At approximately 5:01:24 JOSIAH KENYON begins striking officers with what appears to be a table leg,” prosecutors wrote in Kenyon’s statement of facts. “He strikes MPD Officer K.H. in the leg after Officer K.H. falls to the ground. Officer K.H. suffered bodily injury in the form of pain and swelling to his right ankle. JOSHUA KENYON then hits MPD Officer C.L. in the head with the chair leg. Officer C.L. is wearing a helmet and as he is truck, a part of the table leg becomes momentarily lodged in the opening between the top of the officer’s face shield and the helmet.”

Prosecutors asked Nichols to sentence Kenyon to 88 months in prison, or more than seven years behind bars. Kenyon’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Ubong Akpan, asked for a lower sentence of four years. In her memo, she highlighted the unfortunate circumstances of his life – including the long period of time he lived on the streets beginning as a teenager. She also argued by late 2020 he had been “continually bombarded with conspiracy theories” and was propelled to action against what he saw as a corrupt government.

“For Josiah, the corruption he believed he had witnessed, along with the impact it had on dashing his hopes for his family, propelled him to action,” Akpan wrote.

Perhaps most dramatically, Akpan argued by Jan. 6 Kenyon had given up on his life.

“He admitted to trying to raise the violence level, but in the end, he was emotional when talking to the police and stated that his ultimate goal was to get shot, believing that he had failed his family and that they would be better off without him,” she wrote.

On Tuesday, Nichols ordered Kenyon to serve 72 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Kenyon was also ordered to pay more than $43,000 in restitution to one of the officers he attacked.

More than 1,000 people have now been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, including more than 330 people who have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding police. Of those, more than 100 are accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon of or causing serious bodily injury.

April 11, 2023: United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia posted: “Nevada Man Sentenced for Assaulting Officers During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach”

Defendant Threw Objects at Officers, Using Makeshift Weapons, And Damaged Exterior window

A Nevada man was sentenced today for assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Josiah Kenyon, 35, of Winnemucca, Nevada, was sentenced to 72 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $43,315.25 in restitution. Kenyon pleaded guilty to two felonies — assaulting a law enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon resulting in bodily injury — on September 14, 2022, before U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols, in the District of Columbia.

According to the court documents, Kenyon was illegally in the Capitol Building from approximately 2:43 p.m. until 3:18 p.m., near a Senate Wing door and the Crypt. Kenyon was wearing a “Jack Skellington” costume, based on a character from the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” While outside the Capitol Building, he and others damaged an exterior window, causing more than $40,000 in damage. Kenyon first attempted to break the window with a closed fist, and then used a flagpole to hit the window.

Between approximately 4:54 p.m. and 5:04 p.m., Kenyon was outside in the Lower West Terrace area. While there, he used a variety of objects to assault officers in the tunnel leading to the Capitol. He threw a large plastic pylon towards officers, striking one officer’s riot shield. He also struck offices with what appeared to be a table leg. He hit one officer in the leg, causing the officer to fall to the ground; the office suffered pain and swelling to his right ankle. He then hit another officer in the head, with the table leg momentarily lodged between that officer’s helmet and face shield.

Kenyon was arrested on Dec. 1, 2021, in Reno, Nevada.

This case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provide by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.

The case was investigated by the FBI Las Vegas Field Office — Reno Resident Agency, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Kenyon as #94 in its seeking information photos. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI Los Angeles Field Office – West Covina Resident Agency, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, Reno, Nevada, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Metro Transit Police Department, and the U.S. Capitol Police.

In the 27 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the reach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. Thursday investigation is ongoing.

April 11, 2023: Reno Gazette Journal posted: “Winnemucca man sentenced for assaulting officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection”

A Winnemucca man was sentenced six years in prison Tuesday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Josiah Kenyon, 35, threw objects at officers, used makeshift weapons and damaged exterior windows during the Capitol breach, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.

According to court documents, he was dressed in a Jack Skellington costume from the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas” when he and hundreds of others disrupted a joint session of Congress as it counted electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Kenyon illegally entered the Capitol around 3 p.m. near a Senate wing door and was inside for nearly half an hour.

Prior to entering the building, he and a group of others broke a window — Kenyon first attempted to break it with his fist, then used a flagpole to hit the window.

Kenyon used a variety of objects to assault officers while outside the building. He threw a plastic pylon at officers, striking one officer’s riot shield. He also hit officers with what appeared to be a table leg, striking one in the leg and another in the head. The officer hit in the leg fell to the ground and had swelling in his right ankle; when Kenyon struck the officer in the head, the table leg lodged between the officer’s helmet and face shield.

Kenyon was arrested on Dec. 1, 2021 in Reno.

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January 13, 2021: The Associated Press posted: “West Texas flower shop owner charged in Capitol riot” It was written by Jamie Stengle.

A West Texas flower shop owner who posted a video on Facebook bragging about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office being broken into during the U.S. Capitol riot last week, was arrested Wednesday, federal officials said.

The FBI arrested Jenny Cudd and another Midland resident, Eliel Rosa, in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection, said Daryl Fields, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio.

The Midland Reporter-Telegram reports that Cudd and Rosa appeared Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Griffin in Midland. Each is charged with entering a restricted building and disorderly conducts, both misdemeanors. The court set personal recognizance bonds for them.

In the Facebook video, Cudd says, “we did break down … Nancy Pelosi’s office door.”

But Cudd, a former Midland mayoral candidate, said in a video message to the AP that she didn’t personally go into Pelosi’s office or see people break down the door, and that when she said “we” she meant all of the people who were at the Capitol. She said she didn’t do anything violent or destroy any property.

Her attorney, Don Flanary, said the charges reflect that.

“She basically just been charged with being there,” he said.

“We’re pretty confident that the cameras will show she was only in the public portions of the Capitol,” Flanary said.

After the riot at the Capitol, Cudd’s Midland shop, Becky’s Flowers, was flooded with dozens of one-star reviews in which she was called a traitor and domestic terrorist, along with photos of her inside the Capitol.

“I walked through an open door into the Capitol along with several hundred other people,” Cudd said.

The newspaper reports that Cudd has been active in protests in the Midland area against restrictions because of the coronavirus, including mask mandates and business closures.

It was not immediately clear if Rosa had an attorney and a home phone number could not immediately be found for him.

A mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building last week following a rally the president held. Prosecutors have filed dozens of cases so far for a variety of offenses ranging from assaulting police officers, to entering restricted areas of the U.S. Capitol, stealing federal property and threatening lawmakers.

January 13, 2021: MRT reported: “Jenny Cudd faces two charges”

Midland’s Jenny Cudd and Eliel Rosa both face two misdemeanor charges related to their participation in the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6.

The charges, as stated in federal court on Wednesday, are entering and remaining on restricted grounds (a class A misdemeanor) and disorderly conduct (a class B misdemeanor). The FBI arrested Cudd and Rosa Wednesday, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The initial appearance in federal court took place Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Griffin.

The Court set a personal recognizance (or PR) bond for the two. Currently, there are no restrictions although the federal government can set restrictions if they want. Cudd was represented by Don Flanery. She also will be represented by Marina Medrin when in Washington D.C.

Cudd’s next appearance in court is set for Jan. 21 in D.C. She faces up to one year in prison if found guilty of the class A misdemeanor and up to six months in prison if found guilty of the class B misdemeanor.

October 13, 2021: CNN Politics posted: “Texas florist becomes 100th US Capitol rioter to plead guilty. It was written by Marshall Cohen and Hannah Rabinowitz.

A Texas florist became the 100th person to plead guilty in connection with the January 6 insurrection, a landmark moment more than nine months after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Jenny Cudd, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday to entering a restricted building, namely the Capitol. Cudd could face up to one year in jail, through the federal guidelines call for zero to six months. Capitol rioters with similar cases have received probation or a few weeks behind bars.

The facts of her case are routine, but she went viral in February after she asked a judge to attend a four-day work retreat near Cancun, Mexico. District Judge Trevor McFadden approved her request, citing the fact that prosecutors didn’t have any opposition.

Federal prosecutors say Cudd is unrepentant, citing a Facebook video in which she said, “F— yes, I am proud of my actions, I f–ing charged the Capitol today with patriots today. Hell, yes, I am proud of my actions,” according to court records, and a local news interview in which she said: “I would absolutely do it again.”

The Justice Department has used comments like these to push for harsher sentences, and some judges have cited rioters’ defiance in sending them to jail. Sentencing is set for March 11.

In the nine months since January 6, the Justice Department has charged at least 635 people and has secured 100 guilty pleas, according to CNN’s tally. Most of the guilty pleas involve nonviolent rioters like Cudd. But a handful of more serious defendants have also pleaded guilty, including people with ties to far-right extremists groups and people who assaulted the police.

Seventeen people have been sentenced so far, with punishments ranging from probation to eight months in prison. Three of the four defendants sentenced this week have received jail time.

Cudd’s co-defendant, Brazilian national Eliel Rosa, pleaded guilty to a similar charge in July and was sentenced to one year probation. Cudd and Rosa both live in Midland, Texas.

January 14, 2021: Law & Crime posted: “Woman Who Proudly Admitted to Storming Nancy Pelosi’s Office is Charged in D.C. Insurrection.”

A Texas woman who admitted on camera to storming the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been charged for her part in the D.C. insurrection. Federal prosecutors are going after both Jenny Louise Cudd and co-defendant Eliel Rosa.

In an affidavit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation cited Facebook video in which Cudd said she was present for and participated in events at the Capitol Building.

“I was here today on January 6th when the new revolution started at the Capitol,” she said, according to the FBI.

Supporters of President Donald Trump raided the Capitol Building on January 6, after POTUS continued to claim that he actually won the presidential election and that it was being stolen from him. Insurrectionists paused proceedings but did not stop Congress from certifying results for President-Elect Joe Biden.

People notably broke into Pelosi’s office. Perhaps it’s no surprise since she is oft a target of Trump’s bully pulpit. In any case, Cudd placed herself at the speaker’s office.

“We did break down the Nancy Pelosi’s office door and somebody stole her gavel and took a picture sitting in the chair flipping off the camera,” she said in the FBI’s account of her video.

Rosa was identified through a picture he posted to Facebook of him and Cudd, according to authorities. The feds said they interviewed him in Midland, Texas (where Cudd once ran for mayor), and he admitted that he and she both entered the Capitol Building on January 6.

From the FBI:

Cudd has denied wrongdoing.

“I personally didn’t break anything,” she told The Odessa American in a Jan 7. report. “I didn’t break down any doors. I didn’t do anything violent. No one that I saw had any weapons of any sort.”

She insisted she did not break the law but she and Rosa are being charged with entering the Capitol Building and engaging in disruptive behavior to impede government business. From the FBI:

Your affiant submits there is also a probably cause to believe that Jenny Louis Cudd and Eliel Rosa violated 40 U.S.C. 5104(e), which makes it a crime to willfully and knowingly (D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; (E) obstruct or impede passage through or within, the Grounds or any of the Capitol Buildings; and (G) parade, demonstrate, or picket any of the Capitol Buildings.

Cudd attorney Don Flanary told the Midland Reporter-Telegram in a Wednesday report that his client will plead not guilty.

The Department of Justice posted: STATEMENT OF FACTS

NOTE: It is not clear exactly when this information was posted.

Your affiant is a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and have been so employe since January 2004. As a Special Agent with the FBI, I am authorized by law or by a Government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, detention, investigation or prosecution of a violation of Federal criminal laws.

The U.S. Capitol is secured 24 hours a day by U.S. Capitol Police. Restrictions around the U.S. Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by U.S. Capitol Police. Restrictions around the U.S. Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by U.S. Capitol Police.

Only authorized people with appropriate identification are allowed access inside the U.S. Capitol. On January 6, 2021, the exterior plaza of the U.S. Capitol was also closed to members of the public. I am assisting in the investigation and prosecution of events which occurred at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The U.S. Capitol, which is located at First Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., is secured 24 hours a day by U.S. Capitol Police. Restrictions around the U.S. Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by U.S. Capitol Police. Only authorized people with appropriate identification are allowed access inside the U.S. Capitol.

On January 6, 2021, the exterior plaza of the U.S. Capitol was closed to members of the public.

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the United States Congress convened at the United States Capitol, which is located at First Street, SE, in Washington, D.C. During the joint session, elected members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate were meeting in separate chambers of the United States Capitol to certify the vote count of the Electoral College of the 2020 Presidential Election, which had taken place on November 3, 2020.

The joint session began approximately 1:00 p.m. Shortly thereafter, by approximately 1:30 p.m., the House and Senate adjourned to separate chambers to resolve a particular objection. Vice President Mike Pence was present and presiding, first in the joint session, and then in the Senate chamber.

As the proceedings continued in both the House and the Senate, and with Vice President Mike Pence present and presiding over the Senate, a large crowd gathered outside the U.S. Capitol. As noted above, temporary and permanent barricades were in place around the exterior of the U.S. Capitol building and the proceedings underway inside.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., certain individuals in the crowd forced their way through, up, and over the barricades, and officers of the U.S. Capitol Police, and the crowd advanced to the exterior facade of the building. The crowd was not lawfully authorized to enter or remain in the building, and, prior to entering the building, no members of the crows submitted to security screenings or weapons checks by U.S. Capitol Police Officers or other authorized security officials.

At such time, the certification proceedings, still underway and the exterior doors and windows of the U.S. Capitol were locked or otherwise secure. Members of the U.S. Capitol Police attempted to maintain order and keep the crowd from entering the Capitol; however, shortly after 2:00 p.m, individuals in the crowd forced entry into the U.S. Capitol, including by breaking windows and by assaulting members of the U.S. Capitol Police, as others in the crowd encouraged and assisted those acts.

Shortly thereafter, at approximately 2:20 p.m., members of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, including the President of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence, were instructed to — and did — evacuate the chambers. Accordingly, all proceedings of the United States of the United States Congress, including the joint session, were effectively suspended until shortly after 8:00 p.m. the same day.

In light of the dangerous circumstances caused by the unlawful entry to the U.S. Capitol, including the danger posed by the individuals who had entered the U.S. Capitol without any security screening or weapons check, Congressional proceedings could not resume unilaterally after every unauthorized occupant left the U.S. Capitol, and the building had been confirmed secured.

The proceedings resumed at approximately 8:00 pm after the building had been secured. Vice President Pence remained in the United States Capitol from the time he was evacuated from the Senate Chamber until the session resumed.

During national news coverage of the aforementioned events, video footage which appeared to be captured on mobile devices of persons present on the scene depicted evidence of violations of local and federal law, including scores of individuals inside the U.S. Capitol building without authority to be here.

Based on information I have reviewed, I estimate that between approximately 2:36 p.m, and 2:45 p.m., Jenny Louise Cudd, also known as Jenny Haning Cudd on social media platforms, and Eliel Rosa entered the United States Capitol and have observed the following involving Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa:

At approximately 2:35 p.m., Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa, enter the U.S. Capitol via Upper West Terrace Door.

At approximately 2:36 p.m., Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa, are observed inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol from the west side doorway that leads to the Rotunda. They are observed remaining inside the Rotunda until approximately 2:39 p.m. They are further observed taking pictures of the Rotunda and the surrounding area.

At approximately 2:39 p.m., Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa are observed walking the Statuary Hall area of the U.S. Capitol.

At approximately 2:40, p.m., Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa are observed walking the Statuary Hall Connector and moves off camera at approximately 2:42 p.m.

At approximately 2:43 p.m., Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa are observed departing from a large crowd inside the U.S. Capitol in front of the Main Door of the House Chamber and walks east toward the staircase.

Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa are subsequently observed walking past the staircase and is further observed walking past the Upper House Door, going toward the other entrance to the House Chamber.

Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa are observed at approximately 2:54 p.m. at the Upper House Door and further observed departing the U.S. Capitol.

Kenny Cudd and Eliel Rosa were photographed inside the Capitol Building. Jenny Louise Cudd is the female wearing the tan hat in the front of Figure 1 below. Eliel Rosa is behind Cudd and to her left wearing a red hat.

Afterwards, Jenny Louise Cudd streamed a live video, via Facebook, which is a social media platform. From a screenshot of the video (in Figure 2 below), Jenny Louise Cudd appears to be wearing the same clothing she wore while inside the Capitol as depicted in Figure 1 above. Eliel Rosa posted a photo of himself and Jenny Louise Cudd on his Facebook page.

Facebook video that she was at the Willard Hotel, located on 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington D.C. 2004. During the course of the video she made the following comments to confirm the location and date of the video recording.

“I am sitting in front of the Willard Hotel, as I always do when I am in DC protesting,” and “I was here today on January 6th when the new revolution started at the Capitol.”

In addition, your affiant viewed a photograph of an individual matching the clothing of Jenny Cudd taken inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The photograph included the individual matching the description of Jenny Cudd, who was also in the presence of other individuals who unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol. The video was posted on a Facebook account with the name Jenny Haning Cudd.

During the course of the Facebook video, Jenny Cudd made the following statements indicating her admission of entering the U.S. Capitol. “We were on the south lawn listening to the President and before the speech was over we started to head up to the Capitol.” Your affiant has identified this was the location of a speech given by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 6th in Washington, D.C.

Jenny Cudd further stated, “we just pushed, pushed, and pushed, and yelled go and yelled charge. We just pushed and pushed and we got it.” Your affiant has identified this was a reference to the large crowd of individuals who forced their way inside the U.S. Capitol.

Jenny Cudd stated on video “… and we got in. We got to the top of the Capitol and there was a door open and we went inside.” Jenny Cudd also stated in the video, the following indicating her presence inside the U.S. Capitol, “We did break down the Nancy Pelosi’s office door and somebody stole her gavel and took a picture in he chair flipping off the camera.”

Later in the video recording, she further stated her presence inside the U.S. Capitol. “They had to evacuate it before we charged the Capitol.” Jenny Cudd is referring to members of Congress and the U.S. Senate evacuating the House Chambers and the Senate Floor prior to the forced entry of demonstrators. Jenny Cudd also stated the following during the video, “I stood outside of the Capitol and I will send photos of that too.” In addition, she added the following recorded statement, … fuck yes, I am proud of my actions, I fucking charged the Capitol today with patriots today. Hell, yes, I am proud of my actions.”

On January 8, 2021, Jenny Louise Cudd participated in an interview with a local news station in which she describes her actions on January 6, 2021, in Washington D.C., to include her admission of entering the U.S. Capitol on the same date.

Specifically, Jenny Louise Cudd states during her interview, she stated the following, “we walked up the steps and walked inside an open door (referring to the U.S. Capitol).” Jenny Louise Cudd further stated, “we the Patriots did storm the U.S. Capitol.” She added in reference to entering the U.S. Capitol, “Yes I would absolutely do it again.”

On January 8, 2021, Eliel Rosa was interviewed by the FBI in Midland, Texas. During the interview, Eliel Rosa admitted that he and Jenny Louise Cudd had entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Based on the foregoing, your affiant submits that there is a probably cause to believe that Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa violated 18 U.S.C. 1752(a)(1) and (2), which makes it a crime to (1) knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do; and

(2) knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; or attempts or conspires to do so.

For purposes of Section 1752 of Title 18, a “restricted building” includes a posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area of a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service, including the Vice President, is or will be temporarily visiting; or any building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance.

Your affiant submits there is also probably cause to believe that Jenny Louise Cudd and Eliel Rosa violated 40 U.S.C. 5104(e), which make it a crime to willfully and knowingly (D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; (E) obstruct, or impede passage through or within, the Capitol Grounds of any of the Capitol Buildings; and (G) parade, demonstrate, or picket in any of the Capitol Buildings.

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photo of a woman behind bars by Christopher Windus on Unsplash

Those who attacked their own nation’s Capitol failed to consider the consequences for doing so. This is Part 3

On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters staged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. The Guardian reported that people stormed the chambers of the House and Senate while the Electoral College votes were being tallied.

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The Beverly Hills Salon Owner Woman

January 16, 2021: A Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) wrote a Statement of Facts for United States Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui.

Your affiant, Special Agent [redacted] of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”), is assigned to the FBI Washington Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (“JTTF”) tasked with investigating criminal activity pertaining to international and domestic terrorism. As a special agent with the FBI, I am authorized by law or by a Government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, detention, investigation, or prosecution of a violation of Federal criminal laws.

The U.S. Capitol is secured 24 hours a day by U.S. Capitol Police. Restrictions around the U.S. Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by U.S. Capitol Police. Only authorized people with appropriate identification are allowed access inside the U.S. Capitol. On January 6, 2021, the exterior plaza of the U.S. Capitol was also closed to members of the public.

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the United States Congress convened at the United States Capitol, which is located at First Street, SE, in Washington, D.C. During the joint session, elected members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate were meeting in separate chambers of the United States Capitol to certify the vote count of the Electoral College of the 2020 Presidental Election, which had taken place on November 3, 2021. The joint session began at approximately 1:00 p.m. Shortly thereafter, by approximately 1:30 p.m., the House and Senate adjourned to separate chambers to resolve a particular objection. Vice President Mike Pence was present and presiding, first in the joint session, and then in the Senate chamber.

As the proceedings continued in both the House and the Senate, and with Vice President Mike Pence present and presiding over the Senate, a large crowd gathered outside the U.S. Capitol. As noted above, temporary and permanent barricades were in place around the exterior of the U.S. Capitol building, and U.S. Capitol Police were present and attempting to keep the crowd away from the Capitol building and the proceedings underway inside.

At such time, the certification proceedings still underway and the exterior doors and windows of the U.S. Capitol were locked or otherwise secured. Members of the U.S. Capitol Police attempted to maintain order and keep the crowd from entering the Capitol; however, between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., individuals in the crowd forced entry into the U.S. Capitol, including by breaking windows and by assaulting members of the U.S. Capitol Police, as others in the crowd encouraged and assisted those acts.

At such time, the certification proceedings still underway and the exterior doors and windows of the U.S. Capitol were locked or otherwise secured. Members of the U.S. Capitol Police attempted to maintain order and keep the crowd from entering the Capitol; however, between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., individuals in the crowd forced entry into the U.S. Capitol, including by breaking windows and by assaulting members of the U.S. Capitol Police, as others in the crowd encouraged and assisted those acts.

During national news coverage of the aforementioned events, video footage which appeared to be captured on mobile devices of persons present on the scene depicted evidence of violations of local and federal law, including scores of individuals inside the U.S. Capitol building without authority to be there.

Beginning on or around January 10, 2021, the FBI received at least six tips identifying GINA BISIGNANO (“BISIGNANO”) as a participant in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. BISIGNANO was identified because, in a video filmed in the crowd directly in front of the Capitol and viewed by your affiant, BISIGNANO stated her first and last name, her place of residence, and her Instagram account. In a separate video from January 6, BISIGNANO also stated the name of her business while speaking through a bullhorn to the crowd. A California DMV photo obtained by the FBI confirmed her identity.

Video shows BISIGNANO in a crowd of rioters struggling with police officers in a sallyport in an attempt to gain entry to the Capitol. The rioters are seen repeatedly utilizing what appears to be a red aerosol spray on the officers, striking or attempting to strike the officers, and physically pushing the police line in an attempt to gain entry to the Capitol.

In this video a police officer is seen being crushed against a door while a rioter grabs his gas mask. BISIGNANO appears to be in the first few ranks of the tightly-packed rioters and is seen on video struggling with a police officer attempting to expel her and others from the Capitol sallyport. On video, BISIGNANO appears to say to the officer “… you hurt my f—ing leg.” The cropped image below is a still shot from the video, which depicts the top of BISIGNANO’s head and the helmet of a police officer. After being expelled from the Capitol sallyport by police officers, BISIGNANO raises her fist in an apparent gesture of defiance.

In these images, BISIGNANO’s hair, sunglasses, apparel, and makeup match those seen in the video in which BISIGNANO states her name, place of residence, and Instagram account. Specifically, BISIGNANO wears an identifiable Louis Vuitton sweater throughout the riot.

In a separate video, BISIGNANO is seen using a bullhorn just outside the Capitol to exhort other rioters to move into the Capitol. On video, BISIGNANO states “…Gina’s Beverly Hills… Everybody, we need gas masks… we need weapons… we need strong, angry patriots to help our boys. They don’t want to leave. We need protection.” As BISIGNANO is speaking, rioters approximately ten feet to BISIGNANO’s left are physically assaulting police officers preventing entry into the Capitol. Seconds after BISIGNANO states the foregoing, at least one individual begins striking at officers in the police line with what appears to be a baseball bat.

In another video, BISIGNANO is seen feet from police officers as the large crowd of rioters chants “Police stand down.”

In still another video, BISIGNANO is heard speaking into a bullhorn stating “We the people are not going to take it any more. You are not going to take away our [unintelligible]. You are not going to take away our votes. And our freedom, and I thank God for it. This is 1776, and we the people will never give up. We will never let our country go to the globalists. George Soros, you can go to hell.” As BISIGNANO is speaking, other members of the crowd to BISIGNANO’s immediate left assault the police officers by spraying a fire extinguisher at them, by striking their shields with what appear to be batons, and by throwing objects at the police. At the end of the video, the camera pans back to BISIGNANO, clearly showing her.

BISIGNANO physically entered the Capitol in at least two separate locations and encouraged other rioters to enter as well.

In another video, BISIGNANO appears to enter the Capitol through a small square opening that leads to the interior of the Capitol. She addresses other rioters from what appears to be inside the building, stating “…we need Americans. Come on guys. We need patriots! You guys, it’s the way in. We need some people, we need some people.” Another individual is then heard yelling “if you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon.”

A male rioter then addresses BISIGNANO: “he said, that they said, that they are gonna use lethal force” while gesturing towards the interior of the Capitol. The male then says to BISIGNANO “what did you hear?” BISIGNANO replies “I heard that they were, but if we’re Americans, we all need to stick together.” The male says “You heard it?” and BISIGNANO confirms “Yes I did.” In another video, BISIGNANO states in part “they sprayed me in the face” and gestures to the makeup in disarray on her face as apparent proof.

BISIGNANO tweeted her intention to attend the protest. According to publicly-available information, Donald Trump, using Twitter account @realDonaldTrump, tweeted on or about December 19, 2020, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” BISIGNANO appeared to reply to this message: I’ll be there.

[An image from the Statement of Facts shows a screenshot of what BISIGNANO wrote in response to the backlash on her business’s Yelp page on November 11, 2021.]

“I am there to stop the steal no one incites violence against law Enforcement we back the blue and respect law and order ! It’s a crime for you to make statements about me I am pro life pro trump and we back the blue joe Biden is who I was protesting against stop the steal for our American people ! You are a liar!!! This has nothing to do with my work I am a 50 year old woman alone no laws are broken I was let in I have the right to peaceful assembly you are defaming mei am contacting someone about this slander !this is serious”

On January 14, 2021, The Beverly Hills Courier published an article “based on more than two hours of interviews with BISIGNANO,” detailing her activities before and during the riot on January 6, 2021. BISIGNANO confirmed her prescence at the Capitol, stating she felt called upon by President Donald Trump to travel to D.C. to change the outcome of the election, which she believes was stolen. BISIGNANO admitted to traveling to D.C. with at least one other person she knew from a previous rally. BISIGNANO told the news outlet that she filmed herself at the Capitol building, during the time when rioters had stolen police shields and were deploying pepper spray on the officers. BISIGNANO also admitted entering the Capitol building itself through a window, the glass of which had been broken by another rioter.

Your affiant submits there is probable cause to believe that BISIGNANO violated 18 U.S.C. § 231 (a)(3) and § 2 which makes it unlawful to commit or attempt to commit any act to obstruct, impede, or interfere with any fireman or law enforcement officer lawfully engaging in the lawful performance of his official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder which in any way obstructs, delays, or adversely affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce or the conduct or performance of any federally protected function, or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce or procure its commission. For purposes of Section 231 of Title 18, a federally protected function means any function, operation, or action carried out under the laws of the United States, by any department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States or by an officer or employee thereof. This includes the Joint Session of Congress where the Senate and House count Electoral College votes.

Your affiant submits there is also probable cause to believe that BISIGNANO violated 18 U.S.C.§ 1512(c)(2), which makes it unlawful to corruptly obstruct, influence, or impede any official proceeding, or attempt to do so. Congressional proceedings are official proceedings under 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1), (2), and (4) which makes it a crime to (1) knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do; and (2) knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly functions of Government business or official functions, engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within, such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; and (4) knowingly engages in any act of physical violence against any person or property in any restricted building or grounds; or attempts or conspires to do so. For purposes of Section 1752 of Title 18, a “restricted building” includes a posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area of a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service, including the Vice President, is or will be temporarily visiting; or any building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance.

Finally, your affiant submits there is also probable cause to believe that BISIGNANO violated 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(D) which makes it a crime to willfully and knowingly (D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress of either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress of either House of Congress.

According to CBS 9 Los Angeles Gina Bisignano is the owner of Gina’s Eyelashes and Skincare. She (and two others) were arrested for participating in the Capitol riots.

CBS News reported: Three people from Beverly Hills, including a salon owner, have been arrested in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.

Gina Bisignano, 52, was taken into custody by FBI agents at around 7 a.m. Tuesday at her apartment in the 300 block of North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed to CSBLA.

The FBI, with the help of Beverly Hills police, also arrested 37-year-old John Strand and 55-year-old Simone Gold on Monday. Their charges were not immediately available.

All three made their first federal court appearances Tuesday. Bisignano is charged with civil disorder, destruction of government property and aiding and abetting.

She was ordered released on a $170,000 bond and is subject to home detention. A preliminary hearing was set in her case on Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.

A $20,000 bond was set for Strand, but he will remain in custody until a surety is approved. Once released, Strand also will be subject to home detention. Gold was released on a $15,000 bond and is also subject to home detention. Her next court appearance is a virtual hearing with the District of Columbia on Thursday.

“These are serious charges, and they could absolutely rack up in terms of seeing federal prison time,” Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor, to CBSLA.

Bisignano owns Gina’s Eyelashes And Skincare. Last week, Bisignano confirmed to the Beverly Hills Courier that she traveled to Washington, D.C., where she found herself among the mob who stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

In a cell phone video obtained by the Courier, a woman believed to be Bisignano holds a megaphone on a ledge of the Capitol and yells, “Everybody, we need gas masks, we need weapons. We need strong, angry patriots to help our boys, they don’t want to leave. We need protection.”

…The pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 while the House and Senate was meeting to certify the Electoral College results. The rioters entered the House and Senate chambers and broke into several offices. One of the rioters, a woman from San Diego, was shot and killed by Capitol police, and two others died of medical emergencies.

Two Capitol police officers who responded to the breach also died. Officer Brian Sicknick died of injuries he sustained during the attack. Officer Howard Liebengood died of unknown causes while off-duty.

According to CBS News, federal authorities have arrested at least 100 people in the Capitol riot, with charges ranging from curfew violations to felonies related to theft and weapons possession.

January 29, 2021: The United States District Court for the District of Columbia received the finding of a Grand Jury that was sworn in on January 8, 2021. The case was titled: “United States of America v. Gina Bisignano (Defendant).

The Grand Jury charges that:

COUNT ONE: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia and elsewhere, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, attempted to, and did, corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, and did aid and abet others known and unknown to do so, that is, proceeding before Congress, by entering and remaining in the United States Capitol without authority and committing an act of civil disorder and engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct and destroying federal property.

(Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1512(c)(2)and 2)

COUNT TWO: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, committed and attempted to commit an act to obstruct, impede, and interfere with a law enforcement officer, lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of his/her official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder, and the civil disorder obstructed, delayed, and adversely affected the conduct and performance of a federally protected function.

(Civil Disorder, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 231(a)(3)))

COUNT THREE: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, did willfully injure and commit depredation, and did aid and abet others known and unknown to do so, against property of the United States, and of any department and agency thereof, and any property which has been and is being manufactured and constructed for the United States, and any department and agency thereof, that is a window at the U.S. Capitol, causing damage in an amount more than $1,000.

(Destruction of Government Property and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1361 and 2)

COUNT FOUR: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, did unlawfully and knowingly enter and remain in a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting, without lawful authority to do so.

(Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code 1752(a)(1))

COUNT FIVE: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, did knowingly, and with an intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting, when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions.

(Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building Grounds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(2))

COUNT SIX: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, did knowingly, engage in any act of physical violence against any person and property in a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting.

(Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(4))

COUNT SEVEN: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, GINA MICHELLE BISIGNANO, willfully and knowingly engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress and the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before and any deliberation of, a committee of Congress or either Hosue of Congress.

(Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building, in violation of Title 40, United States Code, Section 5104(e)(2)(D))

February 8, 2021: Politico posted: “California salon owner charged in Capitol riot lingers in L.A. jail.” It was written by Josh Gerstein.

A Beverly Hills salon owner charged for her involvement in the Capitol riot apparently fell through the cracks following her arrest in Los Angeles last month and has lingered in jail there for more than two weeks despite a judge’s order that she promptly be moved to Washington for further hearings, a prosecutor said Monday.

Gina Bisignano, 52, was arrested Jan. 19. on charges including interfering with police during civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding in the destruction of government property.

In social media posts and in interviews with media outlets, Bisignano boasted of her role in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Authorities say she entered the building twice and can be seen close to someone who broke a window of the historic building during the mayhem.

“This is 1776, and we the people will never give up. We will never let our country go to the globalists. George Soros, you can go to hell.” Bisignano shouted into a bullhorn as other protesters clashed with police, an FBI agent said in a court filing.

Bisignano appeared in federal court in Los Angeles the same day as her arrest last month. A federal magistrate judge there ordered her pretrial release over the objection of prosecutors and declined to stay the decision to allow an appeal.

Prosecutors quickly appealed and won an order from Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell temporarily blocking the magistrate’s release order and instructing that Bisignano be transported to Washington for a hearing on the government’s appeal seeking to keep her behind bars.

However Bisignano — owner of Gina’s Eyelashes and Skin Care — had already been released. When she returned to the L.A. courthouse the next day, she was arrested.

While Howell’s order called for Bisignano to be moved to Washington “forthwith,” that did not happen.

At a hearing Monday before Washington-based judge assigned to Bisignano’s case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall acknowledged the foul-up.

“We, the Department of Justice, through my counterpart in the Central District of California submitted the chief judge’s order to stay and the transport order to the U.S. Marshals in California on Jan. 20. However, it appears they did not process that request until we reached out to them on Feb. 5 to glean what happened,” Paschall said.

As of Monday, a Bureau of Prisons inmate locator accessible on the web showed Bisignano still being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.

The new judge on the case, Carl Nichols, sounded concerned about the series of events.

“Has she been detained that whole time?” he asked.

Paschall said Bisignano has been in custody since Jan. 20.

Bisignano’s lawyer, Charles Peruto of Philadelphia, asked if his client could be released and allowed to travel to D.C. on her own, rather than go “from bus to bus to bus” in the custody of federal marshals.

Pachall said the government’s preference was that Bisignano remain in custody until the appeal of the magistrate’s release is decided. That is now a matter for Nicolas to take up.

Nichols said he would hold a virtual hearing on the detention and bail issue next Wednesday. Peruto said he would wave Bisignano’s right to attend that hearing. It was not immediately clear whether her transfer across the country will proceed or await the outcome of that session.

Howell has ordered a half dozen Capitol riot defendants transported to Washington while prosecutors appeal a decision to release them. Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, those moves have not always happened quickly.

On Friday, Howell ordered the government to report by Tuesday on the status of a mother and son from Tennessee — Lisa Eisenhart and Eric Munchel — charged in the Capitol riot. Attorney’s complained last week that Eisnehart and Munchel had not yet arrived in Washington for further proceedings in their case.

March 25, 2021: Los Angeles Times posted: “Uncharted waters.’ Judges are banning some Capitol riot suspects from the internet.” It was written by Evan Halper.

Beverly Hills esthetician and eyelash stylist Gina Bisignano was also present on social media that the federal criminal complaint against her practically wrote itself.

The story of a 52-year-old salon owner who charted a dark path if disinformation to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, where she allegedly grabbed a bullhorn and urged rioters to take up weapons, is backed by one social media post after another embedded in the Department of Justice filing.

There is Bisignano in her Louis Vuitton sweater, filmed in front of the Capitol talking about her business and hometown as the riot was getting underway. There she is again, addressing rioters with a rant about globalists, George Soros and stolen votes. And again, calling for weapons and gas masks moments before a rioter attacks an officer with what appears to be a baseball bat.

Now, Bisignano has gone silent online. She is not allowed on the internet. Not because social media platforms banned her, but because a federal judge did. If Bisignano goes online while awaiting trial, she risks being jailed

Judges have long been reluctant to ban anyone from the internet, a restriction that essentially cuts a person off from much of modern society and has been reserved mostly for accused and convicted pedophiles. But as toxic disinformation becomes an increasingly dangerous threat, driving domestic terrorism and violence, the courts are facing vexing new questions around how often and under what circumstances those accused of taking part should be taken offline altogether.

“We are headed into uncharted waters,” said Nina Jankowicz, a fellow at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank, where she studies disinformation. “Given the threats we see continuing and heightened alerts, it is clear that things are not dissipating… That is why judges are making these calls.”

In the case of Bisignano, the ban might have been an easy one of the judge to make. The defendant asked for it. Her lawyer saw it as one of the few bargaining chips the Capitol riot suspect from California had to stay out of jail for now.

“If it weren’t for social media, she wouldn’t even be a defendant,” said Bisignano’s attorney, Charles Peruto. “She knows that is what got her jammed in the first place.”

Yet, attorneys for others accused of taking part in the attack on the Capitol are aggressively fighting the restrictions, and judges are struggling with how far to take them.

Prosecutors have moved to bar at least five defendants in the Capitol insurrection from going on social media platforms or even going online at all, according to a review of court filings by The Times. Those defendants are awaiting trial dates that will be months away as the Justice Department grapples with one of the most complex and all-consuming investigations in its history.

They include John Sullivan, an Utah man accused of obstructing Congress as he allegedly joined the rampage through the Capitol in tactical gear, encouraging rioters to do damage. Over the objections of prosecutors, a federal magistrate judge ruled Sullivan may continue supervised use of Facebook, Twitter, and “encrypted platforms.”

In arguing for the ban, prosecutors pointed to video of Sullivan, threatening police, breaking a window and telling other rioter “We gotta get this s — burned.”

Yet, Sullivan’s attorney, Steve Kierch, argued that the defendant was there as a journalist, claiming he sold some footage to news networks. He accused prosecutors of trying to impede some of his client’s ability “to communicate the way the vast majority of Americans communicate.” The restriction, Kiersh wrote in a court filing, would prevent Sullivan from keeping up with friends and family online, or even checking the news, as media websites, which invite user comments, fall under the umbrella of social media.

Such concerns drove the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017 to strike down a North Carolina law that prohibited convicted sex offenders from using social media platforms. The court found that the ban unconstitutionally put out of reach “what for many are the principal sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge.

“Courts are recognizing that social media is very important to people’s lives in a number of ways,” said Alexis Karteron, director of the Rutgers Constitutional Rights Clinic. In September, the Rutgers clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union persuaded a federal court otherwise block enforcement of a New York law broadly banning social media use by sex offenders.

“There are unquestionably serious rights at stake,” Karteron said.

The Ohio Supreme Court found as much in June, when it threw out a protective order prohibiting a man from posting on social media about his mother and sister. The man had accused each of them of foul play in the deaths of their husband, even as police found no such thing. The state’s highest court ruled 7 to 0 that the prohibition was an unwarranted infringement on his rights to free expression.

“The potential abuse of speech rights in the future cannot justify the blanket prohibition imposed here on … speech before it has been uttered,” the court wrote.

As the courts strain to navigate the implications of cutting people off from social media in a society where it’s use is increasingly an essential function, the surge of criminal behavior driven by disinformation is making the task more challenging.

“There’s some real concerns that people that have social media has led people [to] abnormal conduct … to make poor decisions,” Washington D.C. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said during a late January hearing, as he weighed whether to impose an internet ban in one of the highest-profile cases following the attack on the Capitol. The defendant, 22-year-old Riley Williams, is accused of helping steal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the insurrection.

“I want to do everything I can to make sure that Ms. Williams stays within the conditions of release and doesn’t find herself falling back into something where she can cause herself more problems,” Faruqui said. “But, obviously … it’s a fine line between paternalism and conditions of release.”

At a court hearing, Williams’ attorney said she does not have the laptop, and a search of her house and car by law enforcement did not locate it. The attorney, A.J. Kramer, said a key government informant against Williams, described as a “former romantic partner” in court papers, has a vendetta against her.

Beyond the legal and ethical challenges at issue, Faruqui confronted simple practical ones. After prosecutors warned that Williams might use the internet to destroy evidence such as social media postings and direct others to do the same, he ruled that she must stay off the internet and use only a flip phone to make necessary calls. But then came the question of whether Williams could even watch TV.

A prosecutor at the hearing pointed out that smart TV’s can access the web. The judge noted even some refrigerators are now connected online. A back-and-forth ensued over how Williams might be able to watch television while awaiting trial. It lasted a while. There was chatter about the Netflix app.

The judge finally ruled that Williams could watch television under the supervision of her mother, and that tapping into the device’s web function could send her right back to jail.

The lengthy back-and-forth over all the ways the court’s effort to keep Williams from potential criminal behavior could spill over into isolating her from society altogether underscored the challenges ahead, as more crimes are hatched over social media, and prosecutors move to boot perpetrators offline.

“These bans are not something that should be considered for your average criminal,” said Jankowicz. “But these are not your average cases.”

December 21, 2021: HillReporter.com posted: “One Jan 6th Insurrectionist Indicted While Others Fight Charges and Whine Over Personal Privilege In Court” It was written by Tara Dublin.

Roughly 50 minutes footage that wasn’t included in Alexandra Pelosi’s HBO documentary Pelosi In The House, about her mother, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, has been turned over to the House Administration Committee.

Led by GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, the panel is embarking on a new investigation into the 2021 Capitol insurrection, including looking into the Democratic-led Select Committee’s actions from the last Congress and the security failures from that day.

Loudermilk, a Trump loyalist, has alleged that the former January 6th Committee “withheld” witness transcripts from the public that “undercut some of their most explosive claims” about the insurrection.

Trump loyalists have tried to pin the day’s security failures on Speaker Pelosi, who is depicted in the documentary as furiously angry at Trump for not taking better precautions.

In the newly-released footage, Speaker Pelosi says of Trump: “I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country today,” and that “he’s got to pay a price for that.”

In a conversation with her staff the next morning, Pelosi is shown asking for a list of Trump’s cabinet members so she might call on them to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. She adds that she was going to describe Trump as “a domestic enemy in the White House” in a statement.

“Let’s not mine words about this,” she says.

The Speaker’s anger was tempered by her worry for the safety of those still in the building. Famously, she spoke with Vice President Mike Pence to make sure he was out of harm’s way.

December 27, 2021: Law & Crime posted: “Beverly Hills Beautician who Yelled ‘You Are Not Going to Take Away Our Trumpy Bear’ on Jan. 6 is Now Cooperating with Feds” It was written by Marisa Sarnoff.

The Beverly Hills beautician with a bullhorn who helped rioters breach the Capitol building on Jan. 6 by smashing a window and then climbed through the window herself, is cooperating with the FBI after pleading guilty to multiple criminal charges.

Gina Bisignano, the owner of an eyelash and extension skincare salon, has pleaded guilty to six of the seven charges against her, according to a plea deal filed in August and unsealed last week. She has admitted to charges of obstruction of official proceedings, civil disorder, disorderly conduct, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.

Bisignano was part of the mob of Donald Trump supporters that violently rushed the building from a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace in an attempt to stop the counting of the Electoral College votes and blocking the certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.

Under the plea agreement, Bisignano “shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly” with federal, state, and local investigations into Jan. 6. This may include answering questions, providing sworn written statements, taking polygraphy tests, and “participating in covert law enforcement activities.”

Bisignano also agreed to turn over any evidence of “any and all evidence of crimes” of which she is aware, along with any “contraband and proceeds of such crimes.” She also agreed to be interviewed by law enforcement agents without an attorney present, although if she asks for a lawyer she can have one, and will provide grand jury testimony if the government asks for it.

Bisignano did not plead guilty to a charge of destruction of government property. That charge will presumably be dropped when she is sentenced.

According to the government’s statement of offense, which outlines the facts supporting Bisignano’s guilty plea, Bisignano was “hit with a direct shot of chemical irritants deployed by the retreating officers. However, she was undeterred: “As the mob swelled inside the tunnel and officers were being assaulted, Bisignano climbed on a ledge inside the tunnel, and waived other rioters into the tunnel to assist in the effort to break into the U.S. Capitol building,” the document says.

The statement of offense also says that once Bisignano and other rioters were cleared from the tunnel she searched for — and found — a different way in.

“After her removal from the tunnel, Bisignano spoke with other rioters on the Lower West Terrace about ‘what Pence’s done’ and how to gain entry to the U.S. Capitol building. Bisignano and others were standing in front of a semi-circular window when Bisignano started shouting ‘break the window! Break the window!”

Bisignano herself subsequently climbed on to the ledge of the same windowsill. Bisignano then assisted a second rioter on to the ledge, who immediately began to bang on the glass with a large object. That rioter was pulled off the windowsill, but Bisignano remained. Several minutes later, Bisignano assisted a third rioter up on the windowsill, and that rotor used a fire extinguisher to smash the glass of the window. According to the Office of The Architect of The Capitol, the cost to repair the damaged window was approximately $1500.”

She also used a bullhorn to encourage the rioters, shouting from the windowsill:

• “They will not steal our votes!”
• “Everybody, we need gas masks! We need weapons! We need strong angry patriots to help our boys. They don’t want to leave. We need protection!
• “We the people are not going to take it anymore. You are not going to take away our Trumpy Bear. You are not going to take away our votes!
• “This is 1776! And we the people will never give up. We will never let our country go to the globalists.”

Bisignano pleaded guilty in August of six of the seven charges against her, but the plea was filed under seal. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ordered the plea to be unsealed in a status conference on Jan. 21, after the government filed a motion to unseal. Bisignano’s attorney Charles Peruto said in the hearing that they did not oppose the unsealing of the plea agreement.

The most serious of the charges is the obstruction charge, which carries a technical potential sentence of 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine. Any sentence would more than likely be significantly lesser in severity. This particular charge has been a source of controversy in other Jan. 6 cases, as defendants argued that the Electoral College certification is not an “official proceeding” for purposes of statute, and that a corruption charge under statute is unconstitutionally vague.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, recently rejected most of these arguments, finding that the Electoral College certification is an official proceeding and that the determination whether one was “corruptly” trying to stop the proceeding depends on the facts of each case.

Bisignano did not plead guilty to a charge of destruction of government property, which could have carried a prison sentence of up to 10 years, if the damage was worth more than $1,000.

The language of the plea agreement suggests that Bisignano may still believe that Trump won the 2020 presidential election due to voter fraud, despite this conspiracy theory being repeatedly debunked.

“At the time, Bisignano believed the 2020 Presidential election results were fradulent or stolen,” the plea says. “Bisignano admits that her belief that the Electoral College results wer fradulent is not a legal justification for unlawfully entering the Capitol building and attempting to influence, stop, or delay the Congressional proceeding.”

Although Bisignano apparently has been cooperating with the government since at least August, she has not always been cooperative with court orders, as Nicholas noted in a Dec. 14 minute order after Bisignano failed to appear.

“In light of Defense Counsel’s tardiness and the Defendant’s nonappearance in the Status Conference held earlier today on Dece,ber 14, 2021 at 10:00am, it is ORDERED that the Status Conference is rescheduled for December 21, 2021 at 1:00pm,” Nichols wrote in a minute order. “This is not the first time timely attendance has been a problem in this case. Defense Counsel and Defendant are admonished that additional failures to appear timely will be looked upon even more unfavorably.”

Bisignano is far from the first Jan. 6 defendant to strike a plea deal that involves cooperating with federal authorities. Multiple members of the extremist “Oath Keepers” militia group pleaded guilty in July and agreed to cooperate with investigators, and a member of the far-right “Proud Boys” has also agreed to cooperate as part of a plea deal, perhaps even against other members of the group, according to a New York Times report.

Bisignano’s next status conference is set for March 4, 2022.

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The Anti-Vax Doctor and the Anti-Lockdown Guy

January 8, 2021: The United States District Court for the District of Columbia swore in a Grand Jury for a case called United States of American v. John Herbert Strand and Simone Melissa Gold.

The Grand Jury charges that:

COUNT ONE: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia and elsewhere, JOHN HERBERT STRAND and SIMONE MELISSA GOLD, attempted to, and did, corruptly obstruct, influence and impede an official proceeding, that is a procedure before Congress, by entering and remaining in the United States Capitol without authority and committing an act of civil disorder and engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct.

(Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1512(c)(2)and 2)

COUNT TWO: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, JOHN HERBERT STRAND and SIMONE MELISSA GOLD, did unlawfully and knowingly enter and remain in a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, or otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting, without the lawful authority to do so.

(Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(1))

COUNT THREE: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, JOHN HERBERT STRAND and SIMONE MELISSA GOLD, did knowingly, and with intent to impede had disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disrupting conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, or otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting, when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions.

(Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(2))

COUNT FOUR: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, JOHN HERBERT STRAND and SIMONE MELISSA GOLD, willfully and knowingly engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress and either House of Congress and the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before or any deliberation of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress.

(Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building, in violation of Title 40, United States Code, Section 5104(e)(2)(D))

COUNT FIVE: On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, JOHN HERBERT STRAND and SIMONE MELISSA GOLD, willfully and knowingly paraded, demonstrated, and picketed in any United States Capitol Building.

(Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building, in violation of Title 40, United States Code, Section 5104 (e)(2)(G))

January 13, 2021: an Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant was written by a Special Agent of the FBI. It was written for U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey.

Purpose of Affidavit

This Affidavit is submitted in support of a Criminal Complaint charging JOHN HERBERT STRAND (“STRAND”) and SIMONE MELISSA GOLD (“GOLD”) with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a) and 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2).

I respectfully submit that this Affidavit establishes probably cause to believe that STRAND and GOLD (1) did knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, or did knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or officials functions, engage in disorderly conduct, and

(2) did willfully and knowingly engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or he orderly conduct in that building of any deliberations of either House of Congress.

Specifically, on or about January 6, 2021 STRAND and GOLD traveled to Washington D.C., and knowingly and willfully joined a crowd of individuals who forcibly entered the U.S. Capitol and impeded, disrupted and disturbed the orderly conduct of business by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.

AGENT BACKGROUND

I have been a Special Agent with the FBI since June 2016. I am presently assigned to the Washington Field Office’s International Corruption Squad, where I am responsible for investigating Antitrust, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Kleptocracy violations. I was assigned to the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, where I was responsible for investigating public corruption, fraud against the government, violent crime, narcotics offenses, and a host of other violations of federal law.

Prior to my employment with the FBI, I was a law enforcement officer in the State of Florida for four years, where I investigated crimes relating to fraud, narcotics, violent crimes, and a variety of other criminal acts.

I am one of the agents assigned to an ongoing investigation of riots and civil disorder that occurred on January 6, 2021 in and around the Capitol grounds by the FBI, United States Capitol Police (“USCP”), Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) and other law enforcement agencies. Since I became involved in this investigation on January 6, 2021, I have conducted interviews, reviewed public tips, reviewed available photos and video, and reviewed relevant documents, among other things.

The facts in this affidavit come from my review of the evidence, my personal observations, my training and expertise, and information obtained from other agents and witnesses. Except as explicitly set forth below, I have not distinguished this affidavit between facts of which I have personal knowledge and facts of which I have hearsay knowledge. This affidavit is intended to show simply that there is sufficient probable cause for the request arrest warrant and does not set forth all of my knowledge about this matter.

BACKGROUND

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the United States Congress convened at the United States Capitol, located at First Street Southeast, Washington, District of Columbia. During the joint session, elected members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate met in the United States Capitol to certify the vote count of the Electoral College for the 2020 Presidential Election, which took place on November 3, 2020.

The U.S. Capitol is secured 24 hours a day by security barriers and USCP occupy various posts throughout the grounds. Restriction around the U.S. Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by USCP. USCP officer wore uniforms with clearly marked police patches, insignia, badges, and other law enforcement equipment. Only authorized people with appropriate identification are allowed inside the U.S. Capitol. On January 6, 2021, the exterior plaza of the U.S. Capitol was also closed to members of the public.

The January 6, 2021 joint session began at approximately 1:00 p.m. Shortly thereafter, by approximately 1:30 p.m., the House and Senate adjourned to separate chambers to resolve a particular objection. Vice President Michael R. Pence was present and presiding, first in the joint session, and then in the Senate chamber.

As the proceedings continued in both the House and the Senate, and with Vice President Pence present and presiding over the Senate, a large crowd gathered outside the U.S. Capitol. As noted above, temporary and permanent barricades were in place around the exterior of the U.S. Capitol building and USCP were present, attempting to keep the crowd away from the Capitol building and the proceedings underway inside. As the certification proceedings were underway, the exterior doors and windows of the Capitol were locked or otherwise secured.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., certain individuals in the crowd forced their way through, up, and over the barricades, and past police officers of the USCP, and the crowd advanced to the exterior façade of the building. The crowd was not lawfully authorized to enter or remain in the building and, prior to entering, no members of the crowd submitted to security screenings or weapons checks by the USCP or other authorized security officials.

A short time later, at approximately 2:20 p.m., members of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, including the President of the Senate, Vice President Pence, were instructed to — and did — evacuate the chambers. As such, all proceedings of the United States Congress, including the joint session, was effectively suspended until shortly after 8:00 p.m. the same day.

In light of the dangerous circumstances caused by the unlawful entry to the U.S Capitol, including danger posed by individuals who had entered the U.S. Capitol without any security screening or had left the U.S. Capitol, the building had been confirmed secured. The proceedings resumed at approximately 8:00 pm after the building had been secured. Vice President Pence remained in the United States Capitol from the time he was evacuated from the Senate Chamber until the sessions resumed.

During national news coverage of the aforementioned events, video footage which appeared to be captures on mobile devices of persons present on the scene depicted evidence of violations of local and federal law, including scores of individuals inside the U.S. Capitol building without authority to be there.

STATEMENT OF FACTS SUPPORTING PROBABLE CAUSE

Beginning on or about January 7, 2021, the investigative agencies began receiving tips from the public related to the civil unrest and breach of the Capitol and several identified STRAND and GOLD as being involved. Many of the tips includes photographs of STRAND and GOLD inside of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In another tip, a witness wrote, “An old acquaintance was posting pictures of himself taking over the capital yesterday. He was calling for a revolution on his social media accounts… individual broke into the capital building and is paid to promote propaganda on his website.”

Law enforcement agents retrieved a driver’s license photograph of both STRAND, DOB [redacted] and GOLD, DOB [redacted] both residents of California, and confirmed each were consistent in appearance with the pictures above.

Also on January 7, 2021, Twitter account @TheJohnStrand, believed to be used by STRAND, posted a photograph in which STRAND was seen wearing a black jacket, pink scarf, and dark sunglasses, which appeared to be consistent with the photographs of STRAND and GOLD above. The photograph appeared to be taken on the steps of the Capitol.

The photograph, shown below, also included the caption “I am incredibly proud to be a patriot today, to stand up tall in defense of liberty & the Constitution, to support Trump & #MAGAforever, & to send the message: WE ARE NEVER CONCEDING A STOLEN ELECTION.”

Several media outlets broadcasted coverage of the Capitol breach and recorded videos. In their coverage of the events, CNN posted a video to its website entitled “See stunning video of rioters inside the Capitol”

In the video, timestamped 2:27-2:29 p.m. a man and a woman consistent in appearance and with the above pictures of STRAND and GOLD can be seen walking with a companion through National Statuary Hall, which is located inside the Capitol.

January 6, 2021: a member of the news media posted a video to Twitter entitled: “Statuary Hall being slowly cleared out,” at 2:58 p.m. In the video, a man bearing a resemblance to STRAND can be seen with a recording device. The man was recording a woman, consistent in appearance with GOLD giving a speech to a small gathering of people.

January 7, 2021, at approximately 9:07 a.m, Twitter account @TheJohnStrand reposted a video entitled “Trump Supporter Gets Shot And Murdered The US State Capitol!” The video was posted with the caption “I was there. This is inexcusable.” The tweet was tagged a posted “from Washington, DC” with “Twitter for iPhone.”

A review of several tweets from account holder @TheJohnStrand include the term “Twitter for iPhone.” Based on my training and experience, I understand Twitter account holders who own or possess Apple iPhones can download the Twitter application from the “App Store.” Once the application is loaded to the phone and the user broadcasts a tweet, often it is tagged with the term “Twitter for iPhone.”

An open source search of social media depictions from January 6, 2021, uncovered several videos and photographs of persons consistent in appearance with STRAND and GOLD inside of the Capitol.

Videos posted to the Getty Images database online shows what appears to be STRAND and GOLD in a large crowd attempting to push past multiple officers blocking the entrance to the Capitol, which had visibly broken windows at the time. One of the officers, who had been pinned near the doors to the Capitol, appears to be pulled down by someone in the crowd and lands near STRAND and GOLD were standing.

I conducted an initial review of some of the surveillance footage from surveillance cameras installed inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. During my review, I saw what appears to be STRAND and GOLD (as depicted in the pictures above) enter the Capitol through the Rotunda door and walk through various parts of the building, consistent with their locations as captured in the other various videos described above.

January 8, 2021, agents from the FBI interviewed 1 (“W1”) who identified STRAND as the person on an FBI wanted poster from the Capitol breach. W1 met STRAND approximately ten years ago and had a personal relationship with him. W1 provided a phone number for STRAND, which was consistent with the phone number the investigative agencies believed STRAND uses.

January 12, 2021: The Washington Post published an article titled: ‘I do regret being there’: Simone Gold, noted hydroxychloroquine advocate, was inside the Capitol during the riot”. The article features additional photograph of what appears to be GOLD inside the Capitol giving a speech, as captured in the video described in paragraph 17 above.

“I can certainly speak to the place that I was, and it was most emphatically not a riot,” and “Where I was, was incredibly peaceful.” According to the article, GOLD confirmed that she went inside the Capitol, saying she followed a crowd and assumed that it was legal to do so, further noting that she wa inside for about 20 minutes and regretted being there.

According to the article, GOLD added that she traveled to Washington D.C. to speak at a “Rally for Health Freedom” on the East side of the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. According to the article, GOLD claimed to have attended the rally along with John Strand, who was there to “ensure her safety.”

CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above, I submit there is probable cause to believe that STRAND and GOLD, violated:

18 U.S.C. § l752(a), which makes it a crime to (1) knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do; (2) knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or ground when, such conduct, in fact, impedes of disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; or (3) knowingly, and with the intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, obstruct or impede ingress or egress to or from any restricted building or grounds.

For purposes of Section § l752 of Title 18, a restricted building includes posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area of a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting; or any building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance; and

40 U.S.C. § 5l04(e)(2), which makes it a crime for an individual to or group of individuals to willfully and knowingly (A) enter or remain on the floor if either House of Congress or in any cloakroom or lobby adjacent to that floor, in the Rayburn Room of the House of Representatives, or in the Marble Room of the Senate, unless authorized to do so pursuant to rules adopted, or an authorization given, by that House;

(D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress; (E) obstruct, or impede passage through or within, the Grounds or any of the Capitol Buildings: or (G) parade, demonstrate, or picket in any of the Capitol Buildings.

As such, I respectfully request that the court issue a warrant for STRAND and GOLD. The statements above are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

January 19, 2021: NBC News posted: “Jan. 6 rioter from Beverly Hills has second thoughts on her guilty plea”. It was written by Ryan J. Reilly.

A Beverly Hills cosmetologist who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of the man she calls “Trumpy Bear,” recently told fellow supporters that she only pleaded guilty “to stay out of jail,” that she didn’t read the plea deal she signed, and that she doesn’t think Capitol defendants will get locked away for a long time because former President Donald Trump is “coming back.”

Gina Bisignano is a Trump supporter who wore a Louis Vuitton sweater as she used a bullhorn to call for “strong, angry patriots” in the mob to help fight the police at the Capitol. “We the people are not going to take it anymore!” Bisignano said on the bullhorn. “You are not going to take away our Trumpy Bear! You are not going to take away our votes!”

In the plea deal, she finalized under seal in August, Bisignano admitted that she had videoed herself storming the Capitol and saying she was going to “break into Congress,” encouraged other rioters to “break the window,” and then urged rioters to invade the Capitol through the broken window. Under the plea deal, Bisignano was supposed to cooperate with the government, and could receive credit at sentencing for demonstrating acceptance of responsibility.

But in a recording of a recent voice chat she had with supporters of Jan. 6 defendants, obtained by NBC News, Bisignano didn’t exactly strike a conciliatory tone. Bisignano confirmed that it is her on the recording.

It’s the latest indication that comments from Trump are having an impact on the ongoing prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants, as rioters wonder if he could return to power and spare them the legal consequences for their actions. At a recent rally, Trump told supporters that if he returns to the White House, he will consider pardoning riot participants.

In her chat with supporters, Bisignano said she didn’t know why she did what she did, but that the pro-Trump mob was fueled by “very righteous anger.” Bisignano claimed in the recording that police at the U.S. Capitol “attacked” the mob of Trump supporters. She claimed that police actions — after the mob broke through the barricades and gave a female U.S. Capitol Police officer a concussion — “riled everybody up”. And she suggested that the apology she gave to a judge during her guilty plea wasn’t exactly full-hearted.

“I said, ‘Your Honor, I’m sorry for going into the Capitol,” Bisignano told supporters after her guilty plea. “I said ‘Your Honor, I apologize.” He goes ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ I said ‘You’re welcome’ but I didn’t say what I was sorry for. I’m sorry for being in a federal building and getting in trouble. But I believe what I believe, and everybody knows that.”

Bisignano in the recording called Judge Carl Nichols “a nice judge,” and said that she hoped he’d look favorably upon her cooperation. But she encouraged another Jan. 6 defendant on the call not to take a plea deal, and indicated she had regrets about her own plea.

“If you don’t have to do it, if you could hold it out, don’t do it. I wish I didn’t. Just wait it out, wait it out,” she said. “I wish that I was stronger, because I was so weak when I signed it.”

“If I could do it again,” Bisignano said of signing a plea deal, “I wouldn’t.”

However, when asked by NBC News about her statements, Bisignano said that she did not regret her plea.

“I didn’t say I regret the plea deal,” Bisignano said in an interview. “I think people should take plea deals … own up to what you did and move forward.”

That’s much different from what she said in the call with supporters.

“I was forced to do a plea deal because I was so damn scared for my life, and I don’t even know what I signed, because I couldn’t even get myself out of bed,” she told fellow Trump supporters. “I’m signing this to stay out of jail,” she told her lawyer, who she said she paid $80,000.

“They corner you into a plea deal,” she said. “I can’t spend any more money on an attorney, I can’t go back to prison.”

The plea deal also required Bisignano’s cooperation. That’s how Bisignano found herself testifying before a grand jury about Danny Rodriguez, another rioter from California, who attacked a D.C. Metro police officer with a stun gun.

One thing that Bisignano was insistent about in the voice chat with supporters of Jan. 6 defendants is that she would never turn on her favorite president.

“I’m not squealing on anybody, I don’t blame the president,” she said. “It wasn’t the president’s fault at all.”

Bisignano, video shows, was among the first group of rioters to enter the tunnel on the west side of the Capitol, where some of the most brutal battles took place. Despite being a part of the mob that overran the police line, she insisted that it was officers who were in the wrong first.

“The cops attacked us. I was the first one there in the tunnel, you guys,” she said on the supporter call. But judges and prosecutors, she claimed, “don’t care that somebody bear maced me in the face, they don’t care a cop hit me with a club, it didn’t matter. Their thing is, we weren’t supposed to be there.”

The FBI arrested more than 725 people in connection with the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, and hundreds more arrests are in the works. The total number of individuals who could be charged for either unlawfully entering the Capitol or attacking officers or members of the media outside the building is more than 2,500.

The supporter phone call that took place the same day Trump indicated that he might pardon Jan. 6 defendants if he deemed it necessary. Bisignano, in the phone call with supporters, told another defendant that they couldn’t lock the other defendant away forever. “Trump’s coming back,” she said.

Bisignano told NBC News that she hopes Trump does come back, but isn’t holding out hope for a pardon. “I’m not banking on it,” she said.

Bisignano’s plea deal left open the question of whether she still believed in conspiracy theories about the election.

“At the time, BISIGNANO believed that the 2020 Presidential election results were fraudulent or stolen,” it stated. “BISIGNANO admits that her belief that the Electoral College results were fraudulent is not a legal justification for unlawfully entering the Capitol building and attempting to influence, stop, or delay the Congressional proceeding.”

Bisignano’s call with supporters of Jan. 6 defendants, however, left little doubt where she stands.

“I still know the election was stolen, there’s no doubt.” Bisignano said. “No doubt.”

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January 22, 2021, The Guardian posted: “‘Willful ignorance’: doctor who joined Capitol attack condemned for Covid falsehoods”. It was written by Peter Stone.

A key conservative doctors’ group pushing misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines faces growing fire from medical experts about its woeful scientific grounding, while its leader, Dr. Simone Gold, was charged this week for taking part in the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

The development comes as the US faces warnings about its pandemic death toll, which could hit 500,000 next month, in part because conspiracy theories and baseless skepticism — especially from rightwing groups – have hampered efforts to tackle it.

Gold, who founded America’s Frontline Doctors last spring with help from the Tea Party Patriots organization, was arrested on Monday in Beverly Hills, where she lives, and faces charges of entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct.

Prior to her arrest, a headshot of Gold holding a bullhorn that she used to give a talk inside the Capitol appeared on an FBI flyer headlined “Seeking Information” about suspects in the Capitol attack. The group’s communication director, John Strand, who writes for the conservative Epoch Times and was charged with Gold in the Capitol, was also arrested in Beverly Hills and faces similar charges.

A 55-year-old emergency room physician, Gold did not respond to calls and text messages asking about her role in the attack and why she baselessly calls a Covid-19 vaccine an “experimental biological agent.”

Gold first acknowledged her presence at the Capitol and voiced “regret” to the Washington Post, after a video surfaced of her walking inside the Capitol along with Strand. Gold told the Post that she thought entering the Capitol was legal, and she didn’t witness violence, even though dozens of Capitol police were hurt and five people died.

Last May, Gold’s group gained fast attention as several allied rightwing organizations, including Tea Party Patriots and the FreedomWorks Foundation, began a well-funded publicity drive attacking state lockdowns and downplaying the risks of the pandemic.

Gold and her fledging group attacked policies advocated by top scientists like Dr Anthony Fauci and other national experts on the pandemic, and they promoted misinformation at rallies in Los Angeles and Washington and on rightwing media outlets owned by Salem Radio and Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network.

Gold’s mission has included touting the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, a phoney Covid-19 cure that Donald Trump endorsed which carries serious health risks, and suggesting that the lockdown’s mental health affects were more harmful than the Covid-19 virus.

Last July, Gold delivered her message at a well-publicized rally her group hosted in front of the Supreme Court, which drew about 10 doctors, including two ophthalmologists. Gold, who had been working at two hospitals before the rally, was fired afterwards and quickly tapped the conservative attorney and Trump ally Lin Wood to represent her.

Wood last year called Gold a “truth giver” and is infamous for backing false claims of vast voting fraud and saying the former vice-president Mike Pence should be shot. He did not return calls about Gold’s defense.

Veteran doctors and ex-public health officials were dismayed by Gold’s downplaying established science.

“She and her organization show a willful ignorance of science and the scientific method, as well as a disrespect for accomplished scientific institutions and brilliant scientists,” said Dr Jeffrey Koplan, an epidemiologist and vice president for Global Health and Emory University who used to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of Columbia University’s Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative, added “Simone Gold is a toxic purveyor of misinformation, now actively contributing to rightwing extremist rhetoric that continues to rile up people determined to hang on to the most egregious Donald Trump lies.”

Gold’s rise in the conservative ecosystem and her role attacking mainstream science about the pandemic was underscored by a talk she gave last November at a meeting of he secretive, Christian right Council for National Policy which drew dozens of super wealthy donors and GOP and conservative bigwigs, including Pence and the Tea Party Patriot’s leader, Jenny Beth Martin.

Conservative donors involved with CNP include members of the billionaire DeVos family and the private equity mogul Bill Watson, a key CNP figure.

A GOP fundraiser said CNP meetings were “ideal places to network with high-level conservatives and raise a lot of money.”

Anne Nelson, the author of Shadow Network, about CNP’s influence and origins, added that the group “began cultivating Simone Gold at least as of early 2020, as a medical spokesperson to support the premature reopening of the economy. Their purpose was to benefit the Trump campaign, and counter the advice of leading public health officials.

Gold’s questioning of vaccine safety was underscored the day before the Capitol attack, when she urged a rally near the White House not to take FDA-approved vaccines, labeling them “an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine” and telling the crowd not to let themselves be “coerced.”

Her group took off last spring when she worked closely with Martin of Tea Party Patriots to orchestrate a letter signed by some 800 doctors to Trump urging him to end the “national lockdown” and calling it a “mass casualty” incident causing wide depression.

Last May, Gold told the AP that there was “no scientific basis that the average American should be concerned about Covid-19 – a view that has since been discredited.

Koplan offered a blunt verdict on Gold’s work: “The results of this dismissal of science takes a heavy toll on lives and health.”

March 2022: ArsTechnica posted: “Prominent peddler of COVID misinfo pleads guilty to joining the Capitol riot” It was written by Beth Mole.

Dr. Simone Gold, a prominent anti-vaccine doctor who founded a group notorious for widely peddling COVID-19 misinformation, pleaded guilty on Thursday to joining the insurrectionists who violently attacked the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

Gold is the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFDS) and has spent the pandemic downplaying COVID-19, promoting unproven treatments (such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin), and casting doubt on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

According to her guilty plea, Gold entered a restricted area around the Capitol on January 6, joining part of the mob outside the East Rotunda door. There, she stood directly in front of a law enforcement officer as the officer was assaulted and dragged to the ground, the plea notes.

Shortly after, she entered the rotunda with rioters and began giving a speech against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and government-imposed lockdowns while co-defendent John Strand video-recorded her remarks. Multiple law enforcement officers had to intervene before Gold stopped her speech. Then she and Strand left the area.

In an interview published in The Washington Post on Jan. 12, Gold said that she did regret going into the Capitol because it could distract her from her “advocacy” work but that “it emphatically was not a riot.” She denied seeing any violence. “Where I was, was incredibly peaceful,” she told the Post.

The offense to which she pleaded guilty is a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of six months. Her sentencing is scheduled for June 16. Meanwhile, Strand, the communications director for AFLDS, has pleaded not guilty to charges against him, according to the Associated Press. His trial is scheduled to start July 18.

The AFLDS is among the most prominent groups to spread COVID-19 misinformation amid the pandemic. A September 2021 repot by The Intercept revealed data that AFLDS and partner organization SpeakWithAnMD.com have made at least $6.7 million by offering online COVID-19 consultations that involve writing off-label prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and prescribing other unproven treatments.

A month after that report, Rep. Janes Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and chair of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, announced an investigation into AFLDS. In a letter, Clybrn sent directly to Gold, he wrote:

“I am deeply concerned that AFLDS is profiting from its deliberate spread of misinformation about the coronavirus. AFLDS’s promotion of falsehoods about coronavirus, questionable treatments, and vaccines is dangerous and may be putting American lives at risk and setting back our nation’s efforts to end the pandemic.”

Gold has used her medical credentials to bolster her pandemic falsehoods and misinformation. However, she told the Post last year that she was no longer working as a doctor. She said she had been “promptly fired” from jobs as an emergency room physician for two hospitals after participating in a July 2020 event, in which she and other AFLDS doctors spread COVID-19 misinformation.

The event made headlines for including Stella Immanuel, who has a history of blaming diseases on demons. The event was organized with the support of the Tea Party Patriots group and live-streamed by the conservative media outlet Breitbart, the Post reported.

June 16, 2022: CNN reported “Doctor known for spreading Covid misinformation is sentenced to prison for role in US Capitol attack” It was written by Hannah Rabinowitz.

Dr. Simone Gold, a Beverly Hills woman known for spreading debunked claims about Covid-19 was sentenced on Thursday to 60 days in prison for illegally entering and remaining in the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.

Gold, founder of the group America’s Frontline Doctors, was also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine — the largest fine imposed to date among the almost 200 rioters who have been sentenced.

“Your organization is leaving people with the misimpression that this is a political prosecution or that it’s about free speech,” district Judge Christopher Cooper said as he imposed the sentence, slamming America’s Frontline Doctors fundraising efforts that call January 6 “political prosecution.

Cooper called the fundraising efforts, which have raised more than $400,000, “unseemly” and a “disservice to the true victims that day.”

“It ain’t about free speech,” Cooper added. “January 6 was about a lot of things, but it wasn’t about free speech or Covid vaccinations… the only reason yo are her is where and when and how you chose to express your views.

Gold spoke at the January 5 Stop the Steal rally the day before the riot, telling the crowd that “if you don’t want to take an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine, you must not allow yourself to be coerced!”

The next day, according to prosecutors, she and her co-defendant John Strand joined a group of rioters who pushed past a group of offices attempting to stop the mob from breaching the Capitol. Once inside, Gold spoke through a megaphone to a crowd gathered in Statuary Hall.

Strand has pleaded not guilty.

In 2020, Gold made headlines after appearing in a viral video — which then-President Donald Trump retweeted — that was later removed from numerous social media sites for Covid misinformation.

The video shows Gold and other members of America’s Frontline Doctors, which is known for pushing lies about coronavirus vaccines, standing on the steps of the Supreme Court claiming that masks aren’t necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and prompting hydroxychloroquine as a cure.

Gold has since been blocked by social media platforms like Facebook.

America’s Frontline Doctors told CNN last year that Gold “did not participate in any incident that involved violence or vandalism and has categorically rebuked any such activity,” by others and claimed the organization has recommended other vaccines to patients but that “more study and greater transparency are needed with respect to COVID-19 vaccines.”

A number of alleged rioter have pushed anti-Covid vaccine theories or have refused to be vaccinated. A husband and wife who carried anti-vaccine protest signs into the Capitol were sentenced last August to two years of probation.

Many of the defendants held in the DC jail while they await trial have complained about lack of access to jail facilities because they refuse to be vaccinated, and some judges have hesitated to have defendants who aren’t vaccinated in their courtrooms.

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The Guy Who Shattered A Window To An Office At the Capitol

January 11, 2021: a Special Agent with the United States Capitol Police issued a Statement of Facts by telephone to U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

On January 6, 2021, your affiant, Special Agent [redacted], was on duty and performing my official duties as a Special Agent with the United States Capitol Police (“USCP”). Specifically, I am assigned to the Criminal Investigation Section, tasked with investigating criminal activity in and around the Capitol grounds.

As a Special Agent, I am authorized by law or by a Government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, detention, investigation, or prosecution of a violation of Federal criminal laws. The U.S. Capitol is secured 24 hours a day by U.S. Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by U.S. Capitol Police. Only authorized people with appropriate identification are allowed access inside the U.S. Capitol. On January 6, 2021, the exterior plaza of the U.S. Capitol was also closed to members of the public.

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the United States Congress convened at the United States Capitol, which is located at First Street, SE, in Washington, D.C. During the joint session, elected members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate were meeting in separate chambers of the United States Capitol to certify the vote count of the Electoral College of the 2020 Presidential Election, which had taken place on November 3, 2020. The joint session began at approximately 1:00 p.m. Vice President Mike Pence was present and presiding in the Senate Chamber.

With the joint session underway and with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, a large crowd gathered outside the U.S. Capitol. Temporary and permanent barricades surround the exterior of the U.S. Capitol building, and the proceedings underway inside.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., certain individuals in the crowd forced their way through, up, and over the barricades and officers of the U.S. Capitol Police, and the crowd advanced to the exterior façade of the building. At such time, the joint session was still underway and the exterior doors and windows of the U.S. Capitol were locked or otherwise secured.

Members of the U.S. Capitol Police attempted to maintain order and keep the crowd from entering the Capitol; however, shortly after 2:00 p.m., individuals in the crowd forced entry into the U.S. Capitol, including by breaking windows. Shortly thereafter, at approximately 2:20 p.m., members of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, including the President of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence, were instructed to — and did — evacuate the chambers. Accordingly, the joint session of the United States Congress was effectively suspended until shortly after 8:00 p.m. Vice President Pence remained in the United States Capitol from the time he was evacuated from the Senate Chamber until the sessions resumed.

During national news coverage of the aforementioned events, video footage which appeared to be captured on mobile devices of persons present on the scene depicted evidence of violations of local and federal law, including scores of individuals inside the U.S. Capitol building without authority to be there.

At approximately 2:15 p.m., Capitol Police Officer Fluke, was actively holding a Civil Disturbance Unite (“CDU”) line with other officers with the United States Capitol Police on the outside of the Rotunda Door in the East side on First Street, Southeast. Your affiant has spoken to Officer Fluke about this incident and has also reviewed photos and reports of this incident described herein.

While holding back hundreds of suspects from reaching the door using CDU shields, Officer Fluke looked to the north of the Rotunda steps landing and observed an individual, later identified as Hunter Ehmke (hereinafter “Ehmke”), wearing a dark grey jacket and dark colored pants, standing on a ledge approximately 3 feet off the ground. Officer Fluke, who is familiar with the U.S. Capitol Building from his employment with the Capitol Police, knew that the ledge had access to a multi-pane window over 6 foot in height that leads to interior office of the building.

Officer Fluke observed Ehmke pointing towards the window, followed by looking at the crowd to his south and waving his hand as if to summon others over to his position. Ehmke repeated the series of gestures again. Officer Fluke shouted out, “They’re going to break the window” during this time in hopes to bring attention from fellow officers. Officer Fluke looked east back to focus back on the crowd pushing on the shields and gave orders for the growing crowd to get back.

Officer Fluke turned to look to north again and observed Ehmke with a balled fist, pulling his arm back and twisting his upper body. Ehmke then swung forward striking a pane of the window about shoulder level of Ehmke. Officer Fluke began to run toward Ehmke while continuing to hold his shield in both hands.

As Officer Fluke reached Ehmke, he shouted, “Get away from the window” and pushed the shield forward striking Ehmke in the lower torso and upper leg on Ehmke’s left side in an attempt to push Ehmke away from the window. This disoriented Ehmke, but he remained standing on the ledge.

While using the CDU shield again, Officer Fluke lost grip of the shield and fell to the ground that was covered in shards of glass. While Ehmke lay face-down on the ground, two other officers with the U.S. Capitol Police pulled Ehmke’s arms behind his back and detained him with handcuffs. Officer Fluke stood up and gave orders to the crowd to stay back and set a perimeter.

Officers moved north on the landing to set up a perimeter with CDU shields between a crowd of approximately ten individuals in the immediate area and the two officers, Officer Fluke, and Ehmke. This small perimeter line of officers also blocked possible attempts of breaching the now visibly broken window which, to Officer Fluke’s knowledge, did not show signs of breakage prior to Emhke striking the window. Ehmke was assisted onto his feet.

USCP Officer Mooney obtained Ehmke’s California driver’s license and positively identified him as HUNTER ALLEN EHMKE. You [sic] has spoked to Officer Mooney who reported that Emhke also verbally identified himself. Officer Fluke asked Ehmke if he was injured, and Ehmkle’s denied any injures and there were no injuries visible.

Officer Fluke and Mooney attempted multiple times to go over the radio to advise their situation and seek further instructions. These attempts could not be clearly heard of unable to be broadcasted due to the many other calls of service by USCP officers. As the officers discussed an action plan, the disturbance caused individuals of the crowd facing the Rotunda doors to divert their attention towards the approximately 10 officers in the northwest corner of the landing. Individuals in the throng began to show aggression by pointing fingers and shouting obscenities.

One unidentified individual threatened Officer Fluke and the other officers, stating “you’re not leaving with him”, while pointing in the direction of Officer Fluke and Ehmke. Due to the growing aggression of the large crows that far outnumbered the officers and the exigent circumstances at the time, officers made the decision to allow Ehmke depart under his own power. Officers took photos of Ehmke and the damaged window. Officers advised Ehmke that his actions were criminal and that they would seek a warrant for his arrest. Ehmke was told to immediately leave the Capitol grounds. Officers maintained custody of Ehmke’s driver’s license upon his release.

Based on the foregoing, your affiant submits that there is probably cause to believe that HUNTER EHMKE violated 18 U.S.C. § 1361, which makes it a crime to damage or destroy government property. The window of the United States Capitol that EHMKE broke is property of the United States government. The Architect of the Capitol has estimated that the cost to replace the broken window is $2,821.

Your affiant also submits that there is probably cause to believe that HUNTER EHMKE violated 18 U.S.C. § 1521(c)(2), which makes it a crime to obstruct, influence, or impede any official proceeding, or to attempt to do so.

Your affiant further submits there is also probably cause to believe that HUNTER EHMKE violated 40 U.S.C. §§ 5104(e)(2)(D) and (G), which makes it a crime to willfully and knowingly (D) engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; and (G) parade, demonstrate, or picket in any pf the Capitol Building.

January 14, 2021: CBS 9 Los Angeles posted “Glendora Man Hunter Ehmke Arrested for Shattering Window During Capitol Riot”

A 20-year-old Glendora man has been arrested for breaking a window during the storming of the Capitol building last week.

Hunter Allen Ehmke was taken into custody by Glendora police on Wednesday night. He was transferred into federal custody Thursday morning, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department inmate information page. He is due to appear in a federal courtroom Thursday afternoon.

Ehmke is charged with one count of each of damaging or destroying government property, obstruction of an official proceeding and violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds, per a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

On Jan. 6, as the rioters were attempting to breach the Capitol, Ehmke shattered a window that leads into an office inside the building, the federal complaint reads.

He was detained at the scene by Capitol police. However, as the violence escalated, the two officers who detained him were threatened by a large crowd who vastly outnumbered them, and were forced to let him go.

“As the officers discussed an action plan, the disturbance caused individuals of the crowd facing the Rotunda doors to divert their attention towards the approximately 10 officers in the northwest corner of the landing,” the complaint reads. “Individuals in the throng began to show aggression by pointing fingers and shouting obscenities. One unidentified individual threatened Officer Fluke and the other officers, stating ‘you’re not leaving with him’, while pointing in the direction of Officer Fluke and Ehmke.

Due to the growing aggression of the crowd that far outnumbered the officers and the exigent circumstances at the time, officers made the decision to allow Ehmke depart under his own power.”

The officers seized Ehmke’s California license and also took photos of him and the damaged window.

“Officers advised Ehmke that his actions were criminal and that they would seek a warrant for his arrest,” the complaint reads.

According to CBS News, federal authorities are investigating more than 170 people in the Capitol assault. At least 32 have been charged. Among them is former USC swimmer and two-time Olympic gold medalist Klete Keller, who was reportedly caught on video inside the Capitol Rotunda.

Pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol while the House and Senate was meeting to certify the Electoral College results. The rioters entered the House and Senate chambers and broke into several offices. One of the rioters, a woman, a woman from San Diego, was shot and killed by Capitol police, and two others died of medical emergencies

Two Capitol police officers who responded to the breach also died. Officer Brian Sicknick died of injuries he sustained during the attack. Officer Howard Liebengood died of unknown causes while off-duty.

January 14, 2021: San Gabriel Valley Tribune posted: “Man accused of storming the U.S. Capitol in Jan. 6 riot arrested in Glendora”. It was written by Josh Cain and Ruby Gonzales.

A 20-year old Glendora resident was accused in federal court Thursday of taking part in the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol Building by thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump.

FBI agents arrested Hunter Allen Emhke just before 8 p.m. on Wednesday, while he was eating dinner with his family at his grandfather’s house. By around 4 p.m., Thursday, Ehmke appeared by video in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.

In court documents, a Capitol police special agent said police officers fighting with rioters near the entrance of the Capitol Rotunda during the Jan. 6 attack witnessed Ehmke attempting to break a window with his fist.

One of the officers briefly took Ehmke into custody, but a surging and swearing crowd forced the officers to release him, according to the agent’s statement.

The agent wrote that the crowd pointed fingers and shouted obscenities at the officers, with someone in the crowd shouting, “You’re not leaving with him.”

Ehmke’s arrest was one of dozens the FBI made around the country following the riot, which left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. Among those taken into custody include local government officials, police officers, firefighters, teachers and business owners. The Department of Justice said many of those rioters descended on the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. government to stop a mostly ceremonial vote confirming state-by-state results in the 2020 presidential election won by former Vice President Joe Biden.

Tens of thousands of people attended Trump’s rally the same day and watched others march on the Capitol. At least on Los Angeles Police Department employee attended the rally. A deputy with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department may have taken part on the insurrection, according to Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Ehmke’s appearance Thursday by television monitor occurred in a federal courtroom downtown made sparse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Except for a federal bailiff and several plastic barriers, the room was empty. On the monitor were the judge, multiple U.S. attorneys, a defense attorney, the clerk and Ehmke in a cell.

The judge granted Ehmke’s release after his parents and grandfather signed a bail agreement or $45,000 — they’ll have to pay if he doesn’t show up for his arraignment. In the meantime Ehmke was ordered to wear an ankle monitor and to submit to a search of his home for weapons.

“Yes, your honor,” said Ehmke — with floppy brown hair and wearing a black shirt — to the judge asking him if he understood the terms of his release.

By around 4:30 p.m., Ehmke’s parents had not signed their bail agreement, threatening his ability to leave federal prison that night. His attorney, Adam Olin, said during the hearing he was getting a call from the parents.

“Perhaps they’re lost,” Olin said.

Ehmke has not been charged yet. He’ll face arraignment in Washington, D.C. on Jan 21, the day after Biden’s inauguration.

U.S. prosecutors did not say in court Thursday why they believe Ehmke was at the rally of present for the Capitol attack.

Capitol police officers first arrested Ehmke at around 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 6, according to the agent’s statement.

While holding off the crowd, an officer said he saw Ehmke in a dark gray jacket and dark-colored pants standing on a ledge. The officer told the agent that he knew the window led to some Capitol offices.

The offer said he saw Ehmke pointing toward the window, then looking at the crowd and waving his hand repeatedly as if to summon others over to his position. The officer shouted, “They’re going to break the window.”

That’s when the officer saw Ehmke hit the window with his fist. He ran over and pushed Ehmke with his riot shield. The officer fell and other officers placed handcuffs on Ehmke.

As a group of officers surrounded Ehmke, they in turn were surrounded by a large group of rioters, who demand the officers release Ehmke. Being outnumbered, they did, but took photos of Ehmke and seized his driver’s license.

Ehmke does not have a criminal record in L.A. County, according to court records.

Ehmke’s grandfather is former Glendora councilman Bob Kuhn, who served on the counsel in the early 90’s He also served for years on the Three Valleys water board.

On Thursday, after Ehmke’s bail hearing, Kuhn confirmed that a group of law enforcement authorities — including six FBI agents and two Glendora police officers — arrived at his house to take his grandson into custody.

“We knew this day was coming, I just didn’t think it would happen during dinner,” Kuhn said. “I thought we’d get a letter telling him to report to court.”

Kuhn said Ehmke went to the Trump rally to be part of a peaceful protest. But his grandson later told him he got swept up in the moment as the rally-goers besieged the Capitol. He said his grandson told him he broke a window.

“He’s a very show person. But he’s a very friendly person. He loves to play games and stuff like that,” Kuhn said of his grandson. “Of course, every grandfather says that about his grandson.”

November 21, 2024: WUSA 9 reported: “Court vacates all felony Jan. 6 convictions for mother of ‘zip tie guy’

A federal appeals court vacated all of the felony convictions Wednesday for a Georgia nurse accused of conspiring with her son to disrupt the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.

In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated conviction on two counts of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding for Lisa Eisenhart, 60, was convicted following a stipulated bench trial last year alongside her son, Eric Gavelek Munchel, of Tennessee.

Eisenhard is the last defendant whose conviction on the Enron-era obstruction statute has been vacated following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. In a 6-3 vote, the court’s majority found federal prosecutors had wrongly interpreted the statue as a catch-all for obstructive conduct, rather than as the narrow evidence-related provision Congress had intended.

Investigators said Eisenhart came to D.C. prepared for violence alongside her son, who earned the nickname “zip tie guy” after a photograph of him leaping over seats in the Senate Galley holding law enforcement-style flex cuffs became one of the most iconic images of the riot. The duo was also accused of stashing weapons outside the Capitol before entering the building, although only Munchel was ever charged with weapon offenses.

A day after the riot, Ensenhart told a reporter from the London Times she was ready for further violence if necessary.

“I’d rather die as a 57-year-old woman than live under oppression,” she said. “I’d rather die and would rather fight.”

Eisenhart was sentenced in roughly two-and-a-half years in prison in September 2023, but a federal judge granted her request to stay that sentence a day before she was set to report in January amid ongoing appeals about the obstruction count.

With her only felony convictions now vacated, Eisenhart faces a significantly reduced guideline range. In his decision to stay her report date earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said he would likely sentence her to less than 10 months in prison without her felony convictions. Lamberth said Eisenhart, unlike her son, did not “become a symbol of the fear and uncertainty of January 6.”

Eisenhart will receive credit for approximately two-and-a-half months already spent in jail following her arrest in mid-January 2021. As of Thursday, no sentencing date has yet been set. It remained unclear how anticipated changes in the Justice Department’s posture toward Jan. 6 cases would affect future hearings following president-election Donald Trump’s inauguration next year.

The appeals court decision Wednesday did not affect Munchel, who is currently serving a nearly five-year prison sentence at the medium-security federal correctional institution in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Munchel’s appeal was severed from his mother’s due to additional felony charges for carrying a taser into the Capitol and remains ongoing.

While the D.C. Circuit is likely to eventually vacate Munchel’s convictions on the obstruction and conspiracy counts as well, it may ultimately do little to reduce his sentence. In the same order granting Eisenhart’s prison stay, Lamberth said her son’s sentencing wasn’t likely to change even with a successful appeal on those counts and he would consider an upward variance if necessary.

“The Court cannot predict how it would resolve the parties’ dispute concerning the guidelines range, but it is highly unlikely the Court would reduce the 57-month sentence it imposed to less than ten months,” Lamberth wrote. “A sentence closer to 57 months is much likelier. Even without 1512(c)(2), Mr. Munchel committed multiple serious felonies. And his conduct on January 6, which included entering the Senate Chamber with a taser strapped to his waist and zip-ties-in-hand, with the intention of intimidating members of Congress into delivering the 2020 election to former President Trump, was outrageous.”

According to the Bureau of Prisons, Munchel is currently scheduled to be released from prison in August 2027.

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The Guy Who Made A “Kill List” To Murder FBI Agents

November 20, 2024: Office of Public Affairs U.S. Department of Justice posted: “Federal Jury Convicts Man of Conspiring to Murder FBI Employees”

Edward Kelley, 35, of Maryville, Tennessee was convicted following a three-day trail in the Eastern District of Tennessee of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal officers by threat.

The evidence presented at trial established that Kelley — while awaiting trial for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach — developed a plan to murder law enforcement, including FBI agents and employees. The proof showed that Kelley developed a “kill list” of FBI agents and others who participated in the investigation into his conduct on Jan. 6 and that Kelley distributed this list — along with videos and containing images of certain FBI employees identified on the list — to a co-conspirator as part of his “mission”.

A cooperating defendant, who previously pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy, testified that he and Kelley planned attacks on the Knoxville FBI Field Office using car bombs and incendiary devices appended to drones. He also testified that the conspirators strategized about assassinating FBI employees in their homes and public places such as movie theaters.

At trial, the United States introduced recordings of the defendant calling for the development of a “course of action” related to his plan. In one such recording, the defendant gave the instructions to, among other things, “start it,” “attack,” and “take out their office” in the event of his arrest. Kelley was recorded saying “Every hit has to hurt. Every hit has to hurt.”

Kelley is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey T. Arrowood and Kyle J. Wilson for the Eastern District of Tennessee prosecuted the case, with assistance from Trial Attorney’s Jacob Warren, Tanya Senanayake, and David Smith of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable evidence was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The Knoxville Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is composed of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies investigated the case. The investigation was led by the FBI and involved the assistance of FBI offices from across the country.

November 20, 2024: “Jan 6. rioter is convicted of plotting to murder FBI agents who investigated him” (NBC News)

A Donald Trump supporter who was among the first rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been convicted of plotting to kill FBI agents who investigated him over his crimes at the Capitol.

Edward Kelley, who was convicted this month of assaulting law enforcement officers and other crimes during the Capitol attack, was found guilty on Wednesday on three additional charges: conspiracy to murder employees of the United States; solicitation to commit a crime of violence; and influencing or retaliating against federal officials by threat.

The murder plot trial, which started Monday, took place in Knoxville, Tennessee. NBC News affiliate WBIR in Knoxville reported that the jury convicted Kelley on all three counts after just an hour of deliberation. Kelley will be sentenced in the murder plot case on May 7, one month after he is set to be sentenced on his Capitol case, on April 7.

Kelley’s trial in Knoxville featured testimony from co-defendant Austin Carter, who pleaded guilty in November 2023. Carter told authorities that he and Kelley plotted “to murder employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation” in December 2022, months after Kelley’s arrest on Jan. 6 charges. Kelley provided a list of about 37 member of law enfacement who worked on his Jan. 6 case, prosecutors alleged.

Carter, according to WBIR, told jurors that Kelley thought the country was heading toward civil war and wanted to strike first, initially planning to attack the FBI Knoxville field office before deciding to target individual FBI employees who had worked on his Jan. 6 case.

Christopher Roddy, who worked with Kelley in security and tipped off the FBI, also testified during the trial, as did three FBI special agents who said they saw the list as a threat.

The Justice Department said that evidence presented in the trial showed that Kelley developed a “kill list” of FBI special agents and others who investigated his conduct and the he was recored talking about developing a “course of action” for their “mission,” giving instructions to “start it,” “attack” and “take out their office” if he was arrested again.

“Every hit has to hurt,” Kelley said in the recording, according to the DOJ. “Every hit has to hurt.”

Kelley, an anti-abortion activists, wore a sweatshirt reading TCAPP, standing for “The Church At Planned Parenthood,” when he became the fourth rioter to breach the U.S. Capitol. During his trial in Washington on the Jan. 6 charges, the government made the case that Kelley had ben armed with a weapon when he stormed the Capitol.

While prosecutors illustrated that Kelley was wearing a gun holster that could be concealed on the inside of his pants and showed what they believe to be the “printing” of a gun, they didn’t conclusively prove that allegation, and it was not central to their case.

During the Jan. 6 attack, prosecutors said Kelley’s wife messaged him to ask how things were going, writing that she didn’t believe the “fake news.” Kelley encouraged his wife to download Signal, the encrypted communications app, prosecutors said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that threats against members of the FBI were “reprehensible and dangerous” and would not be tolerated by the bureau.

“While awaiting trial for committing violent acts, Edward Kelley planned and conspired to attack our employees at work and at home for carrying out their duties,” Wray said in a statement. “The FBI will never tolerate violent threats against our workforce or any of our colleagues in law enforcement and will continue our work to ensure they are held accountable.”

Over 1,500 defendants have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, and federal prosecutors have secured the convictions of more than 1,100 Jan. 6 participants. As NBC News has reported, more than 70 rioters on the FBI’s Capitol Violence website have been identified to the bureau by online sleuths but not yet arrested.

The Justice Department is expected to focus on arresting the “most egregious” rioters before Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025, when he’s expected to begin pardoning some undetermined portion of Jan. 6 rioters he’s called “warriors,” “unbelievable patriots,” political prisoners and “hostages.” The Trump-Vance transition team told NBC News that last week the pardons would be done on “a case-by-case basis.”

November 20, 2024: “Convicted Jan. 6 rioter now found guilty of plotting to kill FBI agents” (ABC News)

A convicted Jan. 6 rioter has now been found guilty of plotting to murder FBI agents who were investigating the Capitol insurrection.

Edward Kelley, 35, was convicted Wednesday in the federal case against him in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the Department of Justice.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, and could face a sentence of up to life in prison.

Kelley made a “kill list” of FBI agents who were investigating the Jan. 6 riot, the Department of Justice said in a press release following the conviction.

Prosecutors said he plotted to attack the Knoxville FBI office with “car bombs and incendiary devices appended to drones,” and to assassinate FBI agents “in their homes and in public places like movie theaters.”

The safety of our men and women in law enforcement is of paramount concern,” U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III said Wednesday. “There is simply no room in society for those who would engage in this kind of reprehensible conduct and threaten to assassinate the FBI agents and others who are honorably service to uphold the law, and this office will pursue all such threats against civil servants working for the public good.”

Earlier this month, Kelley was convicted on multiple counts, including assaulting law enforcement, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., said Kelley was identified in photos and videos from the insurrection, and was seen in an “altercation” with a United States Capitol police officer “where he and two other men throw the officer to the ground.”

Kelley was seen in the footage pushing against a metal barricade guarded by police to access the Capitol building. He then used a piece of wood to smash a window, then entered the building through the window, prosecutors said.

While inside the Capitol, Kelley confronted U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, and was also spotted in the Senate Gallery, according to prosecutors.

He is expected to be sentenced in Washington, D.C., federal court on April 7.

November 21, 2024: “Jan 6. Capitol rioter from Tennessee convicted of creating “kill list” in plot to murder FBI agents who investigated him” (CBS News)

A Tennessee man who was arrested for his involvement in the Jan 6., 2021 U.S. Capitol riot was convicted Wednesday of planning to kill federal investigators.

Edward Kelley, 35, was found guilty in Knoxville of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.

Kelly, of Maryville, was one of hundreds of rioters arrested on charges of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol. While awaiting trial, Kelley developed a plan to kill law enforcement, including FBI agents, prosecutors said. He faces up to life in prison at sentencing in May.

Kelley developed a “kill list” of FBI agents and others who participated in the investigation, according to prosecutors. He distributed the list, along with videos containing images of FBI employees, to another person as part of his “mission”. Court records show that a witness provided the list of 37 names to a police department in Tennessee.

A cooperating defendant who has pleaded guilty in the conspiracy testified that he and Kelley planned attacks on the FBI’s Knoxville office using car bombs and incendiary devices attached to drones. The strategized about assassinating FBI employees in their homes and public places such as movie theaters, prosecutors said.

Kelley was recorded saying “every hit has to hurt,” according to evidence presented at trial.

The conviction comes as waves of U.S. Capitol riot defendants are citing Donald Trump’s election in requests to delay their criminal prosecutions because of his public pledge to pardon some of the people convicted of crimes on Jan. 6. 2021.

In court filings, reviewed by CBS News, defense attorneys asked federal judges in Washington D.C. to postpone proceedings in some of the Jan. 6 cases until 2025 when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The filings complicate the Justice Department’s ability to conclude its prosecutions — hundreds of which remain active — before the changeover in power.

November 21, 2024: “Jan. 6 defendant is convicted of conspiring to kill FBI agents investigating Capitol attack” (CNN US)

A Tennessee man found guilty of assaulting a police officer during the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack was convicted in a separate case on Wednesday for conspiring to murder FBI agents involved in the investigation into his role in the assault on the Capitol, according to the Justice Department.

Edward Kelley, 35, was found guilty in US District Court in Tennessee of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation of violent crime and threatening a federal official, the department said in a press release.

Kelley created a “kill list” targeting 37 agents and others involved in the investigation, which he shared with a co-conspirator, Austin Carter, along with videos identifying the agents, according to an affidavit. Carter pleaded guilty in connected with the plot in November 2023.

A cooperating defendant testified about plans to attack the local FBI office in Knoxville, Tennessee — about 180 miles east of Nashville — using car bombs and drones, the press release said. The witness also described discussions about assassinating FBI agents both at home and in public places like movie theaters.

During the trial, prosecutors presented recordings of Kelley instructing his co-conspirators on a “course of action” for the assassination plot, the press release said. In one recording, he urged them to “start it,” “attack,” and “take out their office” if he was arrested.

“If I’m extradited to DC or you don’t hear about my status within 24 or 48 hours… if they are coming to arrest me again, start it,” Kelley said in a recorded call, according to the earlier affidavit. “You guys are taking them out at their office. What you and [Carter] need to do is recruit as many as you can … and you’re going to attack their office.”

“Every hit has to hurt. Every hit has to hurt,” Kelley stated.

Kelley faces a possible life term in prison at sentencing scheduled for May 7.

In May 2022, Kelley faced charges for assaulting a police officer during the Capitol riot.

In November, Kelley was convicted of three felonies and eight misdemeanors for his role in the Capitol breach. Evidence showed him assaulting law enforcement, breaking a Capitol window and entering the building during the riot. Kelley is set to be sentenced on those charges on April 7.

More than 1,561 individuals have been charged in connection with the Capitol breach since that day.

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February 26, 2021: “Revealed: Meet the Trump Fanatic Who Used A Stun Gun On A Cop At the Capitol Insurrection” (HuffPost) It was written by Ryan J. Reilly and Jesselyn Cook.

The man in the red “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” hat seemed to think he was untouchable. He joined the mob as they yelled “HEAVE! HO!” and tried to force his way through a police line into the capitol building. Once inside, he used a pole to ram against a window, trying to shatter it and bring more people into the Capitol.

In the most disturbing footage of all, he was caught on camera appearing to shock D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone with a stun gun. As rioters push Fanone down the stairs and away from other cops, video shows the man in the red cap pressing a small black device against the officer’s neck. Fanone instantly drops to the ground, swallowed by the mob.

The story of Fanone’s battle with Donald Trump supporters trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election went viral soon after their Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Fanone self-deployed to the Capitol that day, hoping to aid his fellow officers in a fight he’d later describe as “some medieval shit.” Fanone recalled a many yelling to other rioters to kill him with his own gun.

“I have kids!” Fanone screamed, wondering if he’d ever see his four daughters again. He was beaten. He described being hit in the neck with a stun gun. he suffered a mild heart attack.

His assailant in the red MAGA hat, who has been at large since the insurrection, is 38-year-old Daniel Joseph Rodriguez from Fontana, California, Huffpost can confirm.

Rodriguez, who goes by “Danny” and “DJ,” is well known among Trump supporters in the Los Angeles area as a superfan of the former president. Multiple news outlets have featured him in their coverage of the local pro-Trump movement in recent years, in articles that included his name and photo. He regularly attended the weekly Trump rallies in Beverly Hills las year. He was recognizable there by his dark-rimmed glasses and the many distinctive pins on his hat, which has a big GOP elephant symbol on the brim.

Videos from the attack on the Capitol, as highlighted by the sleuthing group Deep State Dogs and anti-fascist activists, show a man who’s identical to Rodriguez, wearing the same glasses, hat, pins and sticker. In the clip of him trying to bust out the window, he yells, “Get in here!” Another video shows him picking up furniture and distributing it to fellow rioters, seemingly to use as battering tools.

Two separate anti-fascist activists — as well as a third witness who supported Trump and called himself a former friend of Rodriguez — reviewed footage of the man at the Capitol and told HuffPost they recognize Rodriguez from the California rallies.

The FBI received tips about Rodriguez last month, including one from a man he assaulted on video at a Los Angeles-area rally. But it wasn’t until hours after a HuffPost inquiry to the bureau for this story that the tipster heard from an FBI special agent with questions specifically about a man named “Danny Rodriguez.”

The lack of public law enforcement action against Rodriguez thus far illustrates the tensions that can arise when FBI relies on online sleuths to help them identify the hundreds of suspects in the unprecedented investigation into the Capitol attacks. The FBI wants photos of Capitol insurrectionists to go viral, and has published images of more than 200 suspects. But what happens when online sleuthing communities identify suspect and then see weeks go by without any signs of action?

The extent of the sprawling FBI investigation is difficult to comprehend. There are hundreds of suspects, thousands of hours of video, hundreds of thousands of tips, and millions of pieces of evidence. It’s a logistical nightmare, one the FBI’s bureaucracy isn’t necessarily designed to keep organized.

The cases the feds continue to churn out are a mixed bag. Some reveal serious, well-organized criminal conspiracies, while others are easy misdemeanor cases against suspects who openly bragged about their criminal activity on social media. Some tipsters who called the FBI in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack didn’t hear back from the bureau until February…

…In 2018, Rodriguez was named, photographed and quoted in a local news story about anti-Trump protests during the then-president’s brief visit to Los Angeles…

…Information on Rodriguez’s Facebook page — which features pro-Trump, anti-Muslim, and right-wing memes, as well as posting about the “deep state” and a 2017 YouTube video about how “Pedophiles rule the World” — matches the birth month and year in public records for Rodriguez, as well as locations where he has resided. His Facebook profile also lists a high school, North Canyon High School in Phoenix; the school’s 2022 yearbook includes his name…

…The car linked to Rodriguez, which he was often seen driving at the California rallies, was sold last month. It featured “1776” and “III%” stickers, the latter of which the government has labeled a “radical militia group” and “anti-government patriot movement.” The groups name refers to the myth that only 3% of Americans took up arms against the British government during the Revolution…

June 21, 2023: United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia posted: “California Man Sentenced to Prison for Felony Charges, Including Conspiracy and Assaulting Police Officer During Capitol Breach.”

Defendant Electroshocked Metropolitan Police Department Officer

A California man, who used an electroshock device on a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced today for the assault and other charges. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

Daniel Joseph “DJ” Rodriguez, 40, of Fontana, California, was sentenced to 151 months in prison for conspiracy obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. In addition to the prison terms, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered 36 months of supervised release, restitution of $2,000 to the Architect of the Capitol, and $96,927 to the Metropolitan Police Department for damages to the victim.

According to court documents, in the fall of 2020, Rodriguez was the administrator of a Telegram group chat titled PATRIOTS45MAGA Gang. The group, initially created to bring together supporters of former President Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 Presidential election, because a forum for Rodriguez’s plans for violence against the seat of the federal government. In the group, Rodriguez and his co-conspirator, defendant Edward Badalian, wrote hundreds of messages about war and revolution, about traitors and tyrants.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Rodriguez and his group traveled from California to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on the National Mall. After the rally, Rodriguez made his way to the Ellipse to the Capitol building, illegally traversing the west front of the Capitol grounds and entering the lower west terrace tunnel at approximately 2:46 p.m. A short while later, court documents state that video footage taken from the incident depicts Rodriguez at the first set of double doors of the Capitol building facing the police line and deploying a fire extinguisher at the line of officers present.

Shortly afterward, court documents say that Rodriguez is seen using a long wooden pole and shoving it toward officers in the line. Rodriguez then participated in an unsuccessful coordinated shove against law enforcement officers in the police line in an attempt to gain access to the building.

At approximately 2:52 p.m., Rodriguez is seen waving his arms at the rioters outside the tunnel, encouraging them to push forward toward the police line. It is then, court records say, that fellow rioter Kyle Young tapped Rodriguez on the shoulder and provided him with a small, black, rectangular electroshock weapon. Rodriguez is then observed activating the weapon and lunging at officers in the police line. Rodriguez is then seen leaving the tunnel only to return a short while later.

After Rodriguez returned to the lower west terrace tunnel, court documents state that video footage taken from the scene of the incident depicts one rioter, Albuquerque Head, wrapping his arm around the neck of an MPD officer and dragging the officer out on the steps of the lower west terrace. Rodriguez is then seen making his way toward the officer and, with the electroshock weapon in hand, plunging it into the officer’s neck. As the officer attempted to escape, court records state that Rodriguez struck again, placing the electroshock weapon on the back of the officer’s neck.

Following the assault on the officer, Rodriguez then entered the Capitol building and continued to vandalize offices, ransack rooms, break windows, and steal other items. Before, during, and after the Capitol breach, Rodriguez sent multiple images and text messages to members of the Telegram group, documenting his assault on the Capitol and the MPD officers, as well as his desire to commit violence and destruction.

This case was prosecuted by The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

This case was investigated with the FBI’s Los Angeles and Washington Field Offices, with valuable assistance from the Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. Capitol Police.

In the 29 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly 50 states for crimes retailed to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including nearly 350 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

June 21, 2023: “Jan. 6 rioter who used a stun gun on Office Michael Fanone sentenced to prison” (NPR)

The California man who used a stun gun on Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been sentenced to 12.5 years in prison, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Daniel Joseph “DJ” Rodriguez, 40, of Fontana, Calif, pled guilty to several charges in February. He was officially sentenced to “conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon,” the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said in a statement.

In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered another 36 months of supervised release and for Rodriguez to pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol and $96,927 to the Metropolitan Police Department for damages to Fanone.

In the fall of 2020, Rodriguez was part of a group that started a Telegram chat called PATRIOTS45MAGA Gang, which brought together supporters of then-President Trump. It “became a forum for Rodriguez’s plans for violence against the seat of the federal government,” according to court documents.

Rodriguez and other members of the group traveled from California to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, for a “Stop the Steal” rally on the National Mall. He entered the Capitol and, according to court documents, “video footage taken from the incident depicts Rodriguez at the first set of double doors of the Capitol building facing the police line and deploying a fire extinguisher at the line of officers present.”

He was then seen using a long wooden pole and shoving it toward officers in the line, the documents said.

“After Rodriguez returned to the lower west terrace tunnel, court documents state that the video footage taken form the scene of the incident depicts one rioter, Albuquerque Head, wrapping his arm around the neck of an MPD officer and draging the officer out on to the steps of the lower west terrace,” the statement said. “Rodriguez is then seen making his way toward the officer and, with the electroshock weapon in hand, plunging it into the officer’s neck. As the officer attempted to escape, court records state that Rodriguez struck again, placing the electroshock weapon on the back of the officer’s neck.”

That officer was later identified as Fanone. He served on the Metropolitan Police Department for nearly two decades before resigning nearly a year after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fanone has spoken publicly about what he experienced that day. He was tased repeatedly while the attacking mob threatened to shoot him with his own gun, before pulled to safety. Doctors later told him he suffered a mild heart attack from this experience, he’s said.

After attacking Fanone, Rodriguez entered the Capitol, vandalizing officers, ransacking rooms, breaking windows and stealing items, prosecutors said. During all of this, he continued to update other members of his Telegram group of his assault on Fanone and the other law enforcement officers on the scene that day.

In the 29 months since the Jan. 6 riot, more than 1,000 people have been arrested in nearly 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol; nearly 350 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation is ongoing.

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Capitol Rioter Starts Militia From Inside Prison

January 15, 2021: The United States District Court For The District of Columbia posted “United States Of America v. Edward Jacob Lang defendent

AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AND ARREST WARRANT

I [redacted], Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), being duly sworn, deposes and states under penalty of perjury that the following is true to the best of my information, knowledge and belief.

PURPOSE OF AFFIDAVIT

This Affidavit is submitted in support of a Criminal Complaint charging EDWARD JACOB LANG (“LANG”) with violations of 18 U.S.C. 111(b), 231(a)(3), 1752(a) and 40 U.S.C. 5104(e)(2). Specifically, on or about January 6, 2021, LANG traveled to Washington D.C., and knowingly and willfully joined a crowd of individuals who forcibly entered the grounds of the United States Capitol and impeded, disrupted, and disturbed the orderly conduct of business by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

AGENT BACKGROUND

I have been a Special Agent with the FBI since June 2016. I am presently assigned to the Washington Field Office’s International Corruption Squad, where I am responsible for investigating Antitrust, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Kleptocracy violations.

I was previously assigned to the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, where I was responsible for investigating public corruption, fraud against the government, violent crime, narcotics offenses, and a host of other violations of federal law. Prior to my employment with the FBI, I was a law enforcement officer in the State of Florida for four years, where I investigated crimes relating to fraud, narcotics, violent crimes, and a variety of other criminal acts.

I am one of the agents assigned to an ongoing investigation by the FBI, United States Capitol Police (“USCP”), Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”), and other the United States Capitol grounds. Since I became involved in this investigation on January 6, 2021, I have conducted and reviewed relevant documents, among other things.

The facts in this affidavit come from my review of the evidence, my personal observations, my training and experience, and information obtained from other agents and witnesses. Except as explicit set forth below, I have not distinguished in this affidavit between facts of which I have personal knowledge and facts of which I have hearsay knowledge. This affidavit is intended to show simply that there is sufficient probably cause for the requested arrest warrant and does not set forth all of my knowledge about this matter.

BACKGROUND

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the United States Congress convened at the United States Capitol, located at First Street Southeast, Washington, District of Columbia. During the joint session, elected members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate met in the United States Capitol to certify the vote count of the Electoral College for the 2020 Presidential Election, which took place on November 3, 2020.

The United States Capitol is secured 24 hours a day by security barriers and USCP occupy various posts throughout the grounds. Restrictions around the United States Capitol include permanent and temporary security barriers and posts manned by USCP. USCP officers wore uniforms that with clearly marked police patches, badges, and other law enforcement equipment. Only authorized people with appropriate identification are allowed access inside the United States Capitol. On January 6, 2021, the exterior plaza of the United State Capitol was closed to the members of the public.

The January 6, 2021 joint session began at approximately 1:00 p.m. Shortly thereafter, by approximately 1:30 p.m., the House and Senate adjourned to separate chambers to resolve a particular objection. Vice President Michael R. Pence was present and presiding, first in the joint session, and then in the Senate chamber.

As the proceedings continued in both the House and the Senate, and with Vice President Pence present and presiding over the Senate, a large crowd gathered outside the United States Capitol. As noted above, temporary and permanent barricades were in place around the exterior of the United States building and USCP were present, attempting to keep the crowd away from the Capitol building and the proceedings underway inside. As the certification proceedings were underway, the exterior doors and windows of the Capitol were locked or otherwise secured.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., certain individuals in the crowd forced they way through, up, and over the barricades, past officers of the USCP, and the crowd advanced to the exterior façade of the building. The crowd was not lawfully authorized to enter or remain in the building and, prior to entering the building, no members of the crowd submitted to security screenings or weapons checks by the USCP or other authorized security officials.

A short time later, at approximately 2:20 p.m., members of the United States House of Representative, and United States Senate, including the President of the Senate, Vice President Pence, were instructed to — and did — evacuate the chambers.

As such, all proceedings of the United States Congress, including the joint session, was effectively suspended until shortly after 8:00 p.m. the same day. In light of the dangerous circumstances caused by the unlawful entry to the United States Capitol, including the danger posed by individuals who had entered the United States Capitol without any security screening or weapons check, Congressional proceedings could not resume until every unauthorized occupant had left the United States Capitol, and the building had been confirmed secured.

The proceedings resumed at approximately 8:00 pm after the building had been secured. Vice President Mike Pence remained in the United States Capitol from the time he was evacuated from the Senate Chamber until the sessions resumed.

After the Capitol was breached, USCP requested assistance from MPD and other law enforcement agencies in the area to protect the Capitol, keep more people from entering the Capitol, and expel the crowd that was inside the Captiol. Multiple MPD officers and other law enforcement officers came to assist.

During the news coverage of the aforementioned events, video footage which appeared to be captured on mobile devices of persons present on the scene depicted evidence of violations of local and federal law, including scores of individuals inside the United States Capitol building without authority to be there.

STATEMENT OF FACTS SUPPORTING PROBABLE CAUSE

Beginning on or about January 7, 2021, the investigative agencies began receiving tips from the public related to the civil unrest and breach of the United States Capitol and multiple identified LANG as being involved. The tips included photographs of LANG on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

At least one photograph, shown below, identified Instagram @realjakelang (the “Subject’s Instagram”) as the account used by LANG. The photograph appears to have been posted at some point during or after the attack on the Capitol, and depicts LANG wearing a black jacket with numerous silver pillars and a ribbed pattern on the shoulders, standing on the steps of the Capitol. LANG captioned the photograph, is “1776 has commenced.”

On January 9, 2021, the FBI interviewed witness 1 (“W1”) who identified LANG as a person involved in the riot at the Capitol. W1 met LANG when they were children and has maintained a social media connection with him in excess of ten years. W1 provided photographs and video of LANG actively participating in the attack on the Capitol. W1 identified www.facebook.com/JAKExLANG as the account belonging to LANG, which was consistent with the Facebook account attributed to LANG by investigators.

W1 also provided April 7th as a potential birth month and day for LANG and believed LANG was born in either 1995 or 1996. Law enforcement agents retrieved a driver’s license photograph of LANG, a resident of New York, DOB [redacted] and asked if W1 if IT recognized the person in that photograph. W1 confirmed that the person in the photograph was LANG.

W1 also provided the below photograph of LANG, which was posted to LANG’s Facebook page, and an accompanying video showing him and a large crowd at the lower west terrace door of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Additional photographs provided by W1 from LANG’s Facebook page included more references to LANG’s participation in the attack on the Capitol …

Based on my training and experience, I understand that Instagram account holders can post photographs, videos and temporary stories, among other things. Photographs and videos posted to a user’s account remain displayed indefinitely, unless intentionally deleted by the user of Instagram, while stories automatically vanish after 24 hours.

Between on or around January 6, 2021 and the present, the Subject’s Instagram posted several stories, videos, and pictures depicting the riot that occurred at the Capitol. Some of the depictions are described below in greater detail.

On or about January 7, 2021, LANG posted a photograph on the Subject’s Instagram, which tagged the location as “Capitol Hill” and showed LANG smiling and wearing a blue and white floral-pattered short, which matches the shirt in the still shot from the video referenced above. The caption read: “Pepper spray really does wonders for your complexion #1776.” The photograph, shown below, appeared to be taken on the Capitol grounds and the images in he background are consistent with known images of the Capitol breach.

On or about January 8, 2021, LANG posted a video on the Subject’s Instagram which appeared to be a compilation of multiple videos with the caption “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.” The video depicted the following two moments:

a. The video initially showed LANG in a crowd saying “I ain’t done yet.” LANG wore a black leather jacket with a blue floral-patterned shirt underneath, consistent with the ones depicted and pictured in paragraphs 12, 15, and 19.

b. As the video progressed, another video including in the compilation showed an individual consistent with LANG with a green gas mask on and the same black and blue floral-patterned shirt underneath. LANG appears to film himself directly in front of law enforcement personnel and to be pointing at them.

Screenshots of the stories posted to the Subject’s Instagram were captured and provided to the FBI by witnesses. One of the screenshots, shown below, depicted an entrance to the Capitol guarded by law enforcement officers, who were violently attacked by rioters attempting to gain entry into the Capitol. The story had the words “THIS IS ME” and an icon pointed at the front crowd.

Based on my review of documents, videos, photographs and my conversations with other law enforcement agents, I know the entrance depicted in the photograph above is the lower west terrace door of the Capitol. Several open-source videos and photographs captured the events that transpired at the lower west terrace door. The images show LANG violently engaging with law enforcement officers and they attempted to keep rioters out of the Capitol. Some of the videos and photos reviewed consisted of the following:

a. A recording of the video story (that the screenshot depicted above apparently came from) was posted on Twitter. In the video recording, you can see an individual raising a riot shield over his head as the crowd sheers and then violently slam the shield down on the ground repeatedly near where the officers are visibly lined up. That individual in the black jacket, MPD helmet, and gas mask consistent with LANG in the photos above and is directly below the “This is me” sign added to the video.

b. Multiple high resolution videos uploaded to Getty images also capture the same event and surrounding activity from a different angle. Videos posted to the Getty images database online. shows what appears to be LANG in a large crowd holding a protective shield bearing resemblance to the ones used by law enforcement during the Capitol breach. He raised the shield above his head and thrusted it in the direction of the law enforcement officers.

c. Video posted to Getty images database online shows what appears to be LANG in a crowd, holding a protective shield as other members of the crowd swing bats and batons at officers, as well as throw projectiles at them. LANG went on to retrieve a riot helmet with the letters “MPDC” from the ground and wear it for the duration of the video. The helmet was consistent with the equipment used by officers of MPD protecting the Capitol, for which the abbreviation “MPDC” means Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.

d. Video posted to Getty images database online shows what appears to be LANG in the crows of the lower terrace door, wearing a black jacket and green gas mask, leaving his face exposed, which is consistent with LANG’s photographs above through from a significant distance.

e. Photographs posted to Reuters online picture database show what appears to be LANG carrying the protective shield and engaging with law enforcement.

f. Photographs on Pacific Press Agency similarly show an individual consistent with LANG near the arch as those around him strike at the officers with poles, along with later close up images of his face.

An open source of social media depictions from January 6, 2021, uncovered several videos and photographs at the Capitol during the breach and of LANG. Video posted to a Facebook account shows an individual consistent in appearance with LANG in the front of a crowd outside the lower west terrace for with a dark and red colored baseball bat.

(The individual has the same appearance, jacket, and gas mask from the earlier photos and is in the same position as the other videos and photos, including the video and photos, including the video labeled “This is Me” on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

In the video, LANG swung, thrusted, and/or jabbed the bat a law enforcement officers multiple times. In doing so, LANG struck at least the shields the officers held in front of them. As the video progresses, others in the crowd assist in the attack, with some throwing items and one individual spraying the officers with a fire extinguisher. (This is in addition to the actions in the videos described above where various individuals near LANG repeatedly strike at law enforcement officers with weapons as LANG is in the front with the shield.)

An open-source search of social media depictions from January 6, 2021, also uncovered additional videos and photographs of LANG discussing his thoughts about what would follow the attack on the Capitol. In a video posted by a Twitter account holder, LANG had a conversation with an unidentified female (“UF”), which was streamed on Instagram. The following was an excerpt of the conversation posted online:

UF: “So, what do you think happens next?”

LANG: “Guns … That’s it. One word. The First Amendment didn’t work, we pulled out the Second. We’re all civilized people and we love going to work and praying to God on Sundays and having nice family barbeques … and that was every single person there. No one wants to take this and die for our rights, but dying for our rights is the only option that any person with a logical brain sees right now. This is it.”

On January 14, 2021, LANG posted a story to the Subject’s Instagram. Among other things, he stated: “I want to use this time to say thank you for all the people that have been reaching out, calling me a patriot…” “Been really amazing to have this impact on the community, going to keep on fighting for you guys, we got some big things planned. We are not going to let them take our Constitutional Liberties. Our God-given rights are safe within the hearts of patriots. So we won’t give up. You guys should not give up. Contact me if you want to be a part of the patriot movement.”

CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above, I submit there is probably cause to believe LANG violated:

18 U.S.C. § 111(b), which makes it a crime to forcibly assault or interfere with any person designated in section 1114 of this title 18 while engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties and uses a deadly or dangerous weapon (including a weapon intended to cause death or danger but that fails to do so by reason of a defective component). (Persons designated within section 1114 include any person assisting an officer or employee of the United States in the performance of their duties.)

18 U.S.C. § 231(a)(3), which makes it a crime to commit or attempt to commit any act to obstruct, impede, or interfere with any fireman or law enforcement officers lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of his official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder which in any way or degree obstructs, delays or adversely affects commerce of the movement of any article or commodity in commerce or the conduct of performance of any federally protected function.

(“Civil disorder” means any public disturbance involving acts of violence by assemblages of three or more persons, which causes an immediate danger of or results in damage or injury to the property or person of any other individual. “Federally protected function” means any function, operation, or action carried out, under the United States or by an officer or employee thereof; and such term shall specifically include, but not be limited to, the collection and distribution o the United States mails. 18 U.S.C 18 U.S.C. §232(1).)

18 U.S.C. § l752(a), which makes it a crime to (1) knowingly enter or remain in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do so; (2) knowingly, and with intent to impede, disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct in, or within such proximity to, any restricted building or grounds when, or so that, such conduct, in fact, impedes or disrupts the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions; (3) knowingly, and with the intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, obstruct or impede ingress or egress to or from any restricted building on the grounds; or (4) knowingly engage in any act of physical violence against any person or property in any restricted buildings or grounds; or attempts or conspires to do so.

For purposes of Section 1752 of Title 18, a restricted building includes a posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area of a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting or any building on the grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance; and

40 U.S.C. § 5l04(e)(2), which makes it a crime for an individual or group of individuals to willfully and knowingly (D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the overly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; (E) obstruct, or impede passage through or within, the Grounds or any of the Capitol Buildings; or (F) engage in an act of physical violence in the Grounds or any of the Capitol Buildings.

As such, I respectfully request that the court issue an arrest warrant for LANG. The statements above are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

August 6, 2021: United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia posted: “LANG, Edward Jacob”

Case number: 1:21-cr-53

Location of Arrest: New York

Case Status: Charges: Civil Disorder, Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officer; Assaulting, Resisting or Impeding Certain Officers Using a Dangerous Weapon; Obstruction of an Official Proceeding; Aiding and Abetting; Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds with a Dangerous Weapon; Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building; Act of Physical Violence in the Capitol Grounds or Buildings

June 12, 2024: Edward “Jake” Lang, who has been in jail for nearly 40 months awaiting trial on multiple counts of assaulting law enforcement officers, civil disorder, and obstruction of an official proceeding during the January 6 Capitol riot, has taken to social media to organize a militia.

Lang, who is a well-known Internet personality and self-described “January 6 political prisoner,” was arrested 10 days after the riot and has pleaded not guilty to all 11 criminal counts. He has mainly been held in the nation’s capital, but March he was transferred to a detention center in Brooklyn, New York. He is scheduled to stand trial in September.

While imprisoned, Lang has taken to social media to organize like-minded supporters — most of whom promote conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that Donald Trump won, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In early June, Lang posted on X, formerly Twitter, a call to join a new “national constitutional militia” — North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, or NAPALM. The group’s mission statement reads: “We The People, to Uphold The Constitution: will Protect America from Any Enemy, Foreign or Domestic.” NAPALM says “Jesus Christ is our Commander in Chief” and calls itself “not a fringe/extremist group” but instead “we represent the People of the core of America.”

Since then, NAPALM has started 50 state-specific militia Telegram channels, a popular messaging app. According to a WIRED article, Lang claims the group’s Telegram chats have over 20,000 members. However, this number has been disputed by experts who have reviewed the channels, with some channels having fewer than 200 participants.

The group, chaired by Lang, features QAnon promoter Ann Vandersteel as vice chair, Couy Griffin, leader of the Cowboys for Trump and a former New Mexico county commissioner, and Stew Peters, whole the Anti-Defamation League describes as an “antisemitic conspiracy theorist.”

Regarding the militia’s origin of formation, Lang told WIRED: “There is a tyrannical wave that has hit America that we’ve never seen before. And so it’s time that people get organized in case they escalate to something that basically puts our very lives in danger.”

Amy Cooter, director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism (CTEC) out of Middlebury College, told Newsweek in an email: “We [CTEC] think that Napalm, like many militias, is claiming a larger membership base than they truly have. However, regardless of their real size, Napalm’s emergence is future confirmation that some Americans have not moved on from the fiction of a ‘stolen’ 2020 election and are exploring options to circumvent democratic processes should the upcoming Presidential election not go their way.”

NAPALM’s creation comes when many Republicans have not confirmed whether they will accept the 2024 presidential election results, regardless of who wins. President Joe Biden faces presumptive Republican nominee former President Donald Trump in a 2020 rematch.

In her email statement, Cooter added: “Most militias who identify as “constitutionalist’ typically try to follow the law and reject members with criminal convictions. Many of them were quite upset about January 6th and what it meant for the country. In this case, Napalm is one of several groups using ‘constitutionalist’ to falsely assert the legality of their actions (both past and future); the group’s name was similarly chosen to be appealing, titillating, even, to people who want to envision themselves as warrior-patriots willing to put their own safety on the line for what they believe to be the good of the country.”

Cooter warned: “Identifying which, if any, member of online communities will convert their feelings into action is incredibly difficult, but it’s important to be aware of the potential violence from groups like this while also not assigning them undue agency and power.”

Jonathan Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told Newsweek in an email Wednesday afternoon: “this ‘militia’ much like other anti-government groups like Oath Keepers, twist the constitution in an attempt to suit their anti-democratic goals.

“However, it is crucial to make clear, this is barely a coherent group, and by all accounts Lang is massively overstating the following he has here. This is his latest effort to remain relevant before his trial, where he will almost certainly be found guilty.

In reference to the upcoming 2024 election, Lewis said that “as we saw the coalitional ‘stop the steal’ movement bring together this disparate network of extremists and average Americans under this banner against a common enemy. The threat is the network, not one singular group.”

Travis McAdam, senior research analyst on the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Newsweek on Wednesday: “The militia’s [NAPALM] leaders are not people who engage our democratic processes for change. Instead, they prefer democracy at the end of a gun barrel.

In its bylaws, the organization cites the Second Amendment as granting it the power to assemble and the right to bear arms. It claims membership is open to all “lawful citizens” who are “committed to the defense of liberty.” NAPALM said this may require “regular training exercises to ensure members are proficient in the use of firearms, tactics, and other necessary skills for the defense of liberty.” The organizations emblem features what appears to be a bomb exploding in front of an American flag.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit known for his classification of hate groups and extremist organizations, among other legal advocacy avenues.

McAdam added: “NAPALM may be trying to fill the void at the national level by the decimation of groups like Oath Keepers. Additionally, many NAPALM leaders bring with them existing extremist connections, including with hard right media figures, white nationalists, and sovereign citizens. Unfortunately, this opens a wide net of potential recruits.

“We saw on Jan. 6 the vivid and horrific lengths antigovernment militias and other extremists will go in targeting our country’s democratic process. Given NAPALM’s leadership, it appears the militia is positioning itself to take up the mantle of the insurrection going forward. That should concerns us all.”

According to ProPublica reporting, Lang previously tried to organize a militia in the days following January 6. ProPublica obtained thousands of Lang’s messages, one of which said: “We need each person to go out and fight for new members of this Militia like our lives depend on it.”

Arrested on 1/16/21. Indicted 1/29/21

Initial appearance held 2/9/21 and he pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Status conference set for 9/15/21 at 11 am. Defendant remains committed.

November 19, 2024: Politico posted: Trump-appointed judge opposes ‘blanket pardons’ for Jan. 6 defendants” It was written by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein.

A Trump-appointed judge on Tuesday said it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if the incoming president grants sweeping clemency to most of the defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols leveled his criticism against the prospect of “blanket pardons” or “anything close” during a hearing for a felony defendant facing eight assault charges as a result of his actions during the mob violence.

Nichols’ comments were a surprise from the typically restrained judge and came at the end of a hearing in which he and federal prosecutors grappled at length with the potential impact of Donald Trump’s election on ongoing Jan. 6 cases. He added that “anything close” to blanket clemency would be similarly frustrating.

Nichols’ comments come as Trump threatens to lay waste to the Justice Department’s four-year effort to prosecute the defendants charged with storming the Capitol in his name. Trump repeatedly said during the 2024 campaign that, if elected, he would pardon most Jan. 6 defendants, though he’s left his precise plans vague.

“I would say it will be a large portion of them,” Trump said during a CNN town hall last year.

Federal prosecutors, who have charged more than 1,500 people with crimes connected to the riot, can do little but guess how quickly and sweepingly he will act. And their uncertainty — whom will Trump pardon, when and for what crimes? — has snarled some of the most significant cases that have arising since Jan. 6 attack.

That uncertainty flared most dramatically Tuesday in the case of Jake Lang, who was set to go on trial next month on eight charges of assaulting police officers — including three related to his use of a metal bat.

Lang, a mercurial defendant who has represented himself for much of his case, has been held in pretrial detention for nearly four years, and prosecutors are eager to get the case in front of a jury. But Lang insists clemency from Trump or a reprieve from a Justice Department led by Attorney General-designate Matt Gaetz is a virtual certainty, and he asked Nichols to postpone the case deep into next year.

Nichols reluctantly agreed to Lang’s delay request, saying the decision was based not only on the possibility of a pardon but other complications with the timing of the trial that were tied to arguments made under seal.

Nichols is now the second judge to postpone a Jan. 6 trial based at least in part on the potential for Trump to issue clemency or his attorney general to dismiss charges. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras made a similar call last week. Nichols indicated Tuesday that he had spoken with Contreras and agreed with his broad concerns about hauling in a jury for a trial that could be erased in weeks.

Other federal judges in Washington D.C., have wrestled with the question as well and have largely agreed that proceedings in Jan. 6 cases — guilty pleas, sentencings and short trials — should continue. Judge Dabney Friedrich, another Trump appointee, maintained a Jan. 6 felony trial scheduled for Jan. 13, saying it would be “unimaginable” to rearrange court schedules based on speculation about pardons. And other judges have said it’s not their role to consider what a future executive branch might do.

Nichols, too, emphasized that he would not be postponing any sentencing hearings as a result of Trump’s election. Jury trials, he said, were a more complicated question.

Nichols spent about an hour Tuesday speculating with Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Rochlin about the “probabilities” and “possibilities” of Trump’s potential decisions to upend Jan. 6 cases — and how those hypotheticals should influence Lang’s case.

“We just don’t know what the future has in store,” Rochlin said, emphasizing the Justice Department’s blanket position to stay the course in all Jan. 6 cases and noting that any further actions by a Trump administration are “speculative” at best.

“There is value in letting the public see that evidence and make its own conclusion as to if there has been justice,” Rochlin said. “I think we should proceed under regular order … We are in a bit of an uncertain world.”

Prosecutors had urged Nichols to keep Lang’s trial on track of a Dec. 2 start. They agreed that they could not guarantee the case would ever reach sentencing given Trump’s public posture about Jan. 6 defendants — but they also said Nichols should sidestep the speculation.

“It is possible I could learn to flap my eyelids and fly to the moon,” Rochlin said. She similarly said that there might be a simultaneous tornado and hurricane outside the windowless courtroom — but that likelihood was slim.

Lang, arguing on his own behalf, issued a pointed rejoinder: “There is a tornado and a hurricane outside this building right now and his name is Donald Trump and its sweeping through the Department of Justice.”

Lang used the hearing to make fierce political arguments about Jan. 6 cases. He contended that the Justice Department’s drive to take his case to trial next month demonstrated a “bloodlust” for the Jan. 6 defendants. He argues that D.C. residents, stung by Trump’s election, would seek vengeance on him. And he repeatedly suggested the prosecutors preparing to put him in trial would likely be fired by Trump in just two months.

“I don’t think this is a very helpful line of argument,” Nichols interjected.

When Lang referred to the proceedings as a “Soviet show trial,” Nichols again bristled.

“There’s no Soviet show trial happening in this courtroom,” he said.

November 21, 2024: New York Post reported: “NY man who’s spent 4 years in jail on Capitol riot charges gets trial delay as he angles for Trump pardon”

A New York man who has spent nearly four years behind bars on federal charges tied to the Jan. 6. 2021 Capitol riot got his trial pushed back Tuesday after arguing President-elect Donald Trump could pardon him when he takes office.

Jake Lang, who is the longest serving Jan. 6 defendant awaiting trial after he allegedly swung a baseball bat at law enforcement outside the Capitol during the rampage, notched the legal win when a judge delayed his trial over objections by federal prosecutors.

Lang, helping to represent himself, claimed in legal papers that Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris indicated “a seismic shift in federal policy regarding January 6 defendants.”

The Sullivan County local added there is a “high likelihood of a Presidential Pardon or dismissal of the charges by the incoming administration,” according to the legal paper.

Trump has said numerous times pardons are on the table for offenders charged in connection to the riot.

“It is neither just nor efficient to subject the Defendant to a show trial in front of a prejudiced jury pool under a prosecution marred by political bias,” he argued, requesting a trial date be set after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

He and his lawyer, Steven Metcalf, also cited Trump nominating Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to the attorney general post, though the firebrand ex-congressman dropped his bid for the job on Thursday under a cloud of disturbing allegations.

“There is a tornado and hurricane outside this building right now and his name is Donald Trump,” Lang said in court Tuesday in a response to a prosecutor’s argument, according to WUSA. “And he’s sweeping through the Department of Justice.”

Lang is among a number of January 6 defendants citing Trump’s election and the possible pardons he could dole out in their cases.

His trial was scheduled for Dec. 2 after other delays before it was pushed off again this week.

Lang was initially busted on Jan 16, 2021 for his alleged role in the riot after he posted an image of the mob on social media with the words “THIS IS ME” with a pointing emoji superimposed on it.

He was hit with a slew of charges tied to the violent siege including counts on assaulting law enforcement. Lang is accused of taking a bat to officers during the chaos.

Since his arrest, he’s been detained in a DC prison awaiting trial.

US District Judge Carl Nichols reluctantly put off Lang’s trial not just based on the possible pardon, but other issues with the timing of the court date hashed out over arguments made under seal, Political reported.

Other arguments the defense offered in a bid to delay the trial included other January 6 cases clinching delays and the defendants’s lawyer recovering from surgery, according to court docs.

Prosectors argued that Lang’s claim he could be pardoned by Trump is “purely speculative and does not warrant delay of his trial.”

“With few exceptions, efforts to continue proceedings arising from the events of January 6, 2021 based on hopes of a presidential pardon have failed,” a Department of Justice lawyer wrote while also citing the alleged assault on police officers.

Trump addressed the potential pardons for Jan. 6 defendants multiple times during his campaign to recapture the White House, including staying at a CNN town hall last year, “I would say it will be a large portion of them.”

He told TIME in April he would pardon every defendant before noting, “If somebody was evil and bad, I would look at that differently.”

The feds said they have more than 1,500 defendants have been charged for their roles in the riot.

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