Thread: Right-wing domestic terrorists

Originally Posted by Switch

Perhaps a step up from the insightful PH domino meme?

Ah, you want highbrow!?!?!?!

Thank you for the response. It still doesn’t explain why an obviously criminal nut job is indicating that he could run for president again in 2024. Why is it that he, and his supporters might think this is a good idea for the party, or even the country?

Originally Posted by panama hat

Ah, you want highbrow!?!?!?!

The meme demonstrates your disappointment, but maybe a few words of reassurance are needed?

Originally Posted by Switch

It still doesn’t explain why an obviously criminal nut job is indicating that he could run for president again in 2024.

OK,……….a little more.

Federal statute says it is a crime to willfully and intentionally remove official records and that such a crime would disqualify the defendant from “holding any office under the United States.”

But some legal scholars say that statute can’t be used to bar Trump from a 2024 presidential bid. The Constitution’s list of criteria to run for president mentions only age, citizenship and residency — there is no mention of criminal charges or convictions.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

OK,……….a little more.

Federal statute says it is a crime to willfully and intentionally remove official records and that such a crime would disqualify the defendant from “holding any office under the United States.”

But some legal scholars say that statute can’t be used to bar Trump from a 2024 presidential bid. The Constitution’s list of criteria to run for president mentions only age, citizenship and residency — there is no mention of criminal charges or convictions.

So that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment it is then.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

OK,……….a little more.

Federal statute says it is a crime to willfully and intentionally remove official records and that such a crime would disqualify the defendant from “holding any office under the United States.”

But some legal scholars say that statute can’t be used to bar Trump from a 2024 presidential bid. The Constitution’s list of criteria to run for president mentions only age, citizenship and residency — there is no mention of criminal charges or convictions.

Despite his soiled reputation, he can still run for president? Wow. No wonder he has so many supporters.

The elections in a few days will tell if the right wing whackos get supported, but Michael Moore is predicting a Blue Wave. Let's hope he is right.

Originally Posted by thailazer

The elections in a few days will tell if the right wing whackos get supported, but Michael Moore is predicting a Blue Wave. Let's hope he is right.

I think that's wishful thinking.

Originally Posted by Switch

Wow.

It would be difficult to correct

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• Pelosi aide expected to testify in trial of Jan. 6 defendant accused of stealing speaker’s office laptop

A top aide to Nancy Pelosi will be on the witness stand next week in the trial of a Pennsylvania woman charged with storming the speaker’s Capitol suite on Jan. 6, 2021, and stealing a laptop, according to two sources familiar with the Justice Department’s plans.

Jamie Fleet will become the highest-ranking Capitol Hill aide to testify in the more than two dozen trials that have been held stemming from the attack.

It’s the first trial of a defendant — Riley Williams, 23, of Mechanicsburg, Pa. — charged with entering Pelosi’s office, where rioters ransacked drawers, equipment and stole items.
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• Stewart Rhodes Doubles Down on Election Denial in Testimony

Oath Keepers Leader Doubles Down on Election Denial in Seditious Conspiracy Case, Testifies Neither Trump Nor Biden Won ‘Unconstitutional’ Race

Expounding upon his brand of 2020 election denial, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told a federal jury in his long-anticipated testimony on Friday that President Joe Biden didn’t win the presidential race — but Donald Trump didn’t, either.

“I believed that the election was unconstitutional, did not comply with Article II of the Constitution,” Rhodes said, adding that unconstitutional elections are definitionally invalid.

“That would mean that Donald Trump too was not the winner,” Rhodes added.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, most U.S. states changed their election rules to make voting more accessible amid lockdowns and social distancing. Rhodes claims any changes to the rules were invalid, and he criticized the focus on election machines, a target of much pro-Trump suspicion. The theory expounded by Rhodes to a federal jury was roundly rejected by state and federal courts, including in his native Texas.

As he took the witness stand at his historic trial on Friday, Rhodes tried to endear himself to a jury in deep-blue Washington, D.C., where the panel is being asked to decide whether he engaged in a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government or the execution of its laws. He appeared to fight back tears as he reflected upon the Sept. 11th attacks and the suicide rates among U.S. military veterans.

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• Oath Keepers founder says it was ‘stupid’ for members to enter U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes on Monday said it was “stupid” for members of his far-right militia group to enter the U.S. Capitol during the rioting on Jan. 6, 2021, distancing himself from the actions of his supporters on that day and denying that he had a plan to disrupt certification of the 2020 election.

Rhodes took the stand for a second day during a trial in which he and and four other Oath Keepers face seditious conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 attack.

The militia leader, who faces up to 20 years in prison on the rarely used charges, insisted that the “mission” was never to storm Congress and stop certification of the 2020 election.

“There was no plan to enter the building for any purpose,” Rhodes said on the witness stand, according to The Associated Press.

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punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine

• Infowars' Samuel Christopher Montoya Pleads Guilty in Jan. 6

‘We Are in the Capitol, Baby!’: Infowars Video Editor Who Claimed Proximity to Ashli Babbitt Shooting Death Pleads Guilty in Jan. 6 Capitol Breach

A 37-year-old defendant and video editor associated with Infowars, the website owned by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has admitted to illegally entering the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Samuel Christopher Montoya pleaded guilty on Monday to a single count of parading, demonstrating, and picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

At Monday’s hearing before Senior U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, Montoya admitted to entering the Capitol through the Senate Wing Door at approximately 2:18 p.m., minutes after the building was initially breached by Donald Trump supporters angry over their preferred candidate’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The riot forced Congress to temporarily pause its certification of the Electoral College vote and drove lawmakers and staff to either evacuate or shelter in place until the chaos subsided.

Prosecutors say that Montoya recorded a nearly 45-minute long video documenting his time inside the Capitol until he was eventually ushered out by law enforcement officers shortly before 3:00 p.m.

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faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000

• Narayana Rheiner, Sprayed by Police on Jan. 6, Pleads Guilty

‘That Sh*t Ain’t Nothing!’: Maryland Man Who Taunted Police on Jan. 6 After Being Hit with Chemical Spray Pleads Guilty to a Felony

A Maryland man who bragged that police didn’t hit him hard enough with chemical spray during the attack on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 has admitted to taunting police as they tried to control the crowd of rioting Donald Trump supporters that day.

Narayana Rheiner, 41, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder. According to the DOJ, Rheiner faced off against police who were trying to guard the Capitol that day from the horde of Trump supporters angry over Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. Rheiner was among those who eventually breached the building, forcing lawmakers and staff to either evacuate the building or shelter in place.

According to court documents, Rheiner had taken a car from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, intending to protest Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote. By around 2:00 p.m., he was part of a mob that had gathered on the Upper West Plaza of the Capitol building. Minutes later, he made his way to the front of the police line.

From there, he waved other rioters to come forward, yelling at them to “push up” on the line and pushing against the officers himself. Rheiner then grabbed and officer’s riot shield, pulling it out of the officer’s hands. The officer then fell to the ground.

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• Missouri House candidate who has espoused anti-Semitism, racism charged with assault

Steve West, a Kansas City Independent candidate for Missouri House who has repeatedly been denounced by his family and the Missouri Republican Party for espousing bigoted views, has been charged for allegedly assaulting a Gladstone woman by trying to rip a campaign sign out of her hands.

The 68-year-old candidate was charged with third-degree assault, a class E felony, on Wednesday, according to court records.

The Gladstone Police Department’s citation alleges West committed assault on Oct. 25 “by grabbing at her arms and attempting to rip a sign out of her hands, causing her physical injury and distress.”

A court date has been scheduled for Dec. 17.

West will be on the Nov. 8 ballot as an Independent candidate for District 15 against state Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, and Republican Adam Richardson. West filed as an Independent after the Missouri Republican Party rejected his filing fee in February because of his past “vile” statements through a radio show and website on which he regularly spewed an array of bigotry, including homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism.

West made headlines in 2018 after winning his GOP primary when word spread about his radio show where he spread bigoted views. After losing in the 2018 general election, West ran another unsuccessful campaign in 2020.

Before the 2018 election West’s children came forward and publicly urged people not to support their father, whom they described as a “fanatic” who was “racist,” “homophobic” and “doesn’t like Jews.”

https://nordot.app/96139046433033420...22757532812385

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Crazy person

• 'Let Them All Go Now': Trump Calls For Release Of Everyone Arrested In Jan. 6 Riot

Former President Donald Trump has called for releasing everyone arrested for the Jan. 6 insurrection last year at the Capitol.

That would presumably include people like defendant Albuquerque Cosper Head, sentenced last month to 7 1/2 years in prison for assaulting then-Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and dragging him into the mob, where he was viciously beaten, threatened with his weapon and attacked with a stun gun.

“Let them all go now!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Friday, declaring that it was time to “start treating Jan. 6 protesters fairly.”

Trump said in June at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Nashville, Tennessee, that he would “very, very seriously consider” pardoning Jan. 6 defendants if he’s reelected, claiming they had been treated “unfairly.”

“If I become president someday ... I will be looking at them very, very seriously for pardons,” Trump said.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donal...b05f221e7a9335

That last sentence would normally condemn him to well deserved obscurity.

But who knows, with the US electorate as it stands today? ��

^I think his support is fading among the US population

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Possible 50 year sentence

• Suspect indicted on federal charges in attack on Paul Pelosi

The Californian man accused of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, during a break-in at the couple's San Francisco home was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday.

The big picture: David Wayne DePape, 42, of the San Francisco suburb of Richmond, was arrested on Oct. 28 and is accused of breaking into the home and assaulting Paul Pelosi with a hammer.

• Paul Pelosi underwent surgery for a fractured skull and was treated for serious injuries to his right arm and hands following the attack.

Details: DePape is charged with one count of assault on an immediate family member of a U.S. official with the intent to retaliate against the official on account of their performance of official duties.

• He's also charged with one count of attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official on account of the performance of official duties.
• "If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for the assault count and 20 years in prison for the attempted kidnapping count," per a Justice Department statement.
• "The indictment supersedes the federal criminal complaint filed on Oct. 31."

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• Oath Keepers Member Tells Jury That Signal Chats About ‘DC Op: Jan 6’ Were Just ‘Locker Room Talk’

A defense witness for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes told a jury on Tuesday that encrypted chats that prosecutors claim show a seditious conspiracy against the United States were just “locker room talk.”

Throughout the ongoing trial of Rhodes and four other Oath Keepers leaders and members, prosecutors have shown a federal jury numerous encrypted messages from the group’s “DC OP: Jan 6 21” chat room, many of the heated.

After one member reported Congress had been evacuated and lawmakers handed out gas masks, Rhodes replied in one message to that chat room: “Fvck em.”

Playing down such chatter, Oath Keepers member Lee Maddox used a phrase former President Donald Trump used to simmer the political scandal created by the release of his Access Hollywood tape.

“A lot of these guys, it’d be like locker room talk,” Maddox said.

Rhodes’s attorney James Bright continued with the analogy.

“You’d agree that some times locker room talk would go too far?” Bright asked.

“Sure,” Maddox replied.

https://lawandcrime.com/oath-keepers...ker-room-talk/

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• Oath Keepers ‘Ops’ Leader for Jan. 6 Details Relationship to Stewart Rhodes’s No. 2, a Reported FBI Informant

The first time Iraq War veteran Michael Greene encountered the Oath Keepers at a gun show, he remembered looking at them with a wary eye. The members he saw were standing near white supremacists, and Greene is a Black man.

On Wednesday, Greene told a federal jury how the former second-in-command for Stewart Rhodes made him change his mind about the group, enough to make him eventually become its “ops” leader for Jan. 6.

That ex-No. 2 for Rhodes, Greg McWhirter, was reported by the New York Times to have been an FBI informant on the Oath Keepers for months before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. McWhirter, a former deputy sheriff, is also Black.

“I told him I thought they were racist,” Greene said.

“No, man, not at all,” McWhirter replied, according to Greene. “That’s not how it is.”

Branded an anti-government group by extremism watchdogs, the Oath Keepers came into focus during the Jan. 6 Committee’s hearings when their former national spokesman Jason Van Tatenhove described their drifting to the “alt-right,” with “white nationalist” and “straight-up racist” tendencies. Greene sharply denied that in an interview with the liberal Mother Jones magazine, which first unmasked him — and his alter egos Michael Simmons and “Whip” — a little more than a year ago as the group’s operations leader.

Greene also denied that there was an implicit plan to storm the Capitol and block the certification, a plan of action he claimed would go against the group’s military discipline.

“Nothing is implied in the military,” said Greene, who followed up his combat service in Iraq with a stint in the private security company Academi, formerly known as Blackwater. “Everything has a plan in the military.”

During contentious cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler tried to undermine that position. Nestler noted that Greene “sometimes” participated in conferences on the platform GoToMeeting, but Greene said he did so only twice, adding he’s not formally a member of the Oath Keepers.

https://lawandcrime.com/oath-keepers...fbi-informant/

faces the prospect of up to 28 years in prison on the two charges

• Brian Gundersen Convicted of Jan. 6 Felony Charges

‘We Failed But F*** It’: Man Who Posed with Fox Hosts and Went on to Storm the Capitol in the Same Varsity Jacket Convicted of Felony Charges

A 28-year-old from Pennsylvania was found guilty of felony charges on Thursday following a stipulated trial before a federal judge. Brian Gundersen was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers, the Department of Justice announced.

Prosecutors said Gundersen asked on Facebook prior to Jan. 6 whether “anyone else” was “going to DC on the 6th” and that he predicted “we may be able to bum rush the White House.” Gundersen did not, in fact, bum rush the White House (though if he believed he had, he wouldn’t be the only Jan. 6 defendant to make that error).

Gundersen patted fellow pro-Trump rioters on the back as they breached the Parliamentarian door, the DOJ said. The defendant was described in a statement of facts for the stipulated trial as “one of the first rioters” to enter that Capitol through this door. He was aware people were attacking police nearby.

“According to the stipulated facts, on Jan. 6, 2021, Gundersen illegally entered the Capitol grounds, joining a mob of rioters climbing the Northwest Steps. At about 2:30 p.m., he climbed up to a window in the Northwest Courtyard, next to the Senate Wing Door. While there, he shouted at officers inside the Capitol Building,” the DOJ said in a press release. “At about 2:42 p.m., Gundersen joined a mob entering the building; he was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol through the Parliamentarian Door. As rioters engaged in a confrontation with officers, Gundersen waved more into the door.”

Prosecutors noted that Gundersen was neither repentant on the day of nor in the days immediately following Jan. 6.

Gundersen also said that condemning Jan. 6 “patriots” would render him a “spineless pussy.”

The day following, Jan. 8, Gundersen’s incriminating Facebook activity included the following statement: “We all stormed the us capital [sic] and tried to take over the government […] We failed but fuck it.”

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They face a statutory maximum of eight years in prison for assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. Grady Owens also faces a statutory maximum of six months in prison on the misdemeanor charge. The charges also carry potential financial penalties.

• Central Texas father, son plead guilty to Jan. 6 charges

A Central Texas father and son entered guilty pleas for their parts in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Jason Douglas Owens, 50, and his son, Grady Douglas Owens, 22, both of Blanco, Texas, pleaded guilty in Washington D.C. to assaulting, resisting, or impeding a law enforcement officer, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Grady Owens also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in a Capitol grounds or building.

According to court documents, both illegally entered the Capitol grounds and were in the west lawn area around 2 p.m. As a group of officers walked through the crowd the Owens were in, Grady Owens struck an officer with a skateboard, according to the DOJ. A fight erupted between other crowd members and officers after that.

Around the same time, Jason Owens shoved an officer hard enough for the officer’s head to snap back. The Owens then made their way to the east side of the Capitol, joining a crowd that attempted to push their way into the East Rotunda Doors without success. Jason Owens again assaulted another officer near the doors by grabbing his baton and fighting over it, according to the DOJ.

Father and Son Plead Guilty to Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | USAO-DC | Department of Justice

faces up to 20 years in prison for the felony obstruction charge, a combined maximum of 3½ years on the misdemeanor charges, and fines

• Grapevine man Larry Brock convicted of participating in Jan. 6 attack

A Grapevine man was found guilty on a felony and four misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

On Nov. 16, 2022, Larry Brock, 55, of Grapevine, was found guilty on six counts, including one felony. Brock was convicted by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates after a bench trial.

According to court documents, Brock – a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force – was part of the mob that illegally entered the Capitol building after breaching police barriers. He entered the building at about 2:24 p.m. through the Senate Wing doors.

Brock, along with other rioters, continued moving through the building. When he was near the Rotunda doors, he picked up a pair of plastic handcuffs and held onto them while in the building.

At about 2:43 p.m., Brock entered the Senate balcony before moving downstairs and entering the Senate Chamber five minutes later. He wandered around the Chamber for another eight minutes and rifled through papers on Senators' desks.

Evidence submitted by the government in court showed that Brock posted messages on social media in the weeks leading up to the riot, including one on Dec. 27, 2020 in which he declared, "I prefer insurrection at this point," and another on Jan. 5 which stated, "our second American Revolution begins in less than two days."

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• Jessica Watkins Concedes Testimony Has 'Criminal Liability'

Oath Keeper Snaps at Prosecutor in Testy Cross-Examination, Concedes Testimony Invites ‘Criminal Liability’

Growing visibly angry and indignant during her cross-examination, Oath Keepers member Jessica Watkins told a prosecutor that she regrets joining a mob that pushed against law enforcement in a hallway of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. She added on Thursday that she realized that those admissions and apologies would open her up to “criminal liability.”

“I accepted culpability for everything that happened in this hallway because I feel terrible about it in hindsight,” Watkins testified, noting that she previously apologized to police officer Christopher Owens.

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• Jessica Watkins Testifies in Oath Keepers Conspiracy Case

Transgender Oath Keeper Tells Jury Bullying Sent Her ‘AWOL’ from Army, Before ‘Steady Diet’ of Alex Jones Drove Her to the Militia

Surprising a federal judge with her 11th hour decision to testify, transgender Oath Keeper Jessica Watkins told jurors about the bullying and abandonment she faced over her identity. When her secret got out, Watkins said, she was shunned by her parents, went “AWOL” from the Army, and ultimately found a homecoming both with her family and a paramilitary group whose leadership is now on trial for seditious conspiracy.

Watkins received an “other than honorable” discharge form the U.S. Army when the Ohio woman she absented herself without leave to Alaska. She had lived and presented as a man during the time of her service, and she said a member of her unit learned about her identity when he borrowed her laptop.

“I know who you are, faggot,” she recounted the soldier saying, imitating the man pointing his finger.

Jurors saw evidence of Watkins flinging the same anti-gay slur, and she called the language evidence of her self-hatred.

“I think it was lashing out at others the way I’ve been lashed out at,” Watkins said.

Eventually, Watkins said, she came out to her parents.

“I was asked never to come home again,” she reflected.

For her parents, Watkins told the jury, that “never” had an expiration date. She said that she became a firefighter before they welcomed her back home once again.

“It was awkward, very awkward. I hadn’t seen my parents in 13, 14 years. Maybe 15 years. It’d been a while. But they were open. They were accepting. They were warm. It was shocking,” Watkins said, adding that around Christmas time that they even bought her “girly things.”

The path that Watkins said led her to the Oath Keepers — a group with whose leadership and members she is standing trial for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government or the execution of its laws — wound through a “steady diet” of the outlandish broadcasts of Alex Jones, the doyen of right-wing conspiracy mongering.

“That’s probably how I found the Oath Keepers in the first place,” Watkins said. “I watched it five, six hours a day.”

Asked about her participation in the riot, Watkins freely admitted entering the building — a fact never seriously in doubt from the Capitol’s surveillance footage. She said that was a mistake and claimed repeatedly to have been “swept up” in the moment.

“It was very stupid,” Watkins said, comparing the feeling to being part of a stampede in a Black Friday sale.

Watkins also waxed indignant about those who defaced and damaged the building.

“This is my house,” she said. “This is the taxpayers’ house. If you fuck it up, I’m going to fuck you up.”

She testified shortly after her accused co-conspirator Thomas Caldwell, who ended his three-day stint on the witness stand on Wednesday morning. Rhodes addressed the jury before Caldwell, and the two remaining co-defendants — Kenneth Harrelson and Kelly Meggs — have not yet rested their cases.

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• Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell Testifies at Jan. 6 Trial

Older Oath Keepers Member Testifies at Seditious Conspiracy Trial, Tells a Jury ‘Militia’ Just Means ‘Neighbors Helping Neighbors’

Taking the stand in his own defense for the first time on Tuesday, Oath Keepers member Thomas Caldwell denied organizing a group of armed man plotting to ferry heavy weaponry across the Potomac River on Jan. 6, 2021.

Caldwell also offered a homespun definition of what he believes a “militia” means inside the Shenandoah Valley region in Virginia.

Residents there think of it as “neighbors helping neighbors,” Caldwell said.

“A Bit of Creative Writing”

Within this alleged conspiracy, prosecutors say, Caldwell played the unique role of organizing the Oath Keepers’ so-called quick reaction force, or QRF. This group allegedly stashed heavy weapons inside a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Va., in case they needed to ferry those firearms across the Potomac River on Jan. 6.

Asked about encrypted messages speaking of that plan, Caldwell claimed that his reaction was: “Whose stupid freaking idea is this?”

He depicted his own messages referring to “heavy weapons” as the rhetorical flourish of an amateur scribe.

“I’ve gotta own that,” Caldwell said. “I do a bit of creative writing.”

Before the government rested its case, prosecutors showed a jury surveillance footage from the Comfort Inn, which showed Caldwell apparently carting around boxes of firearms on a dolly. Rhodes did not dispute that Oath Keepers members stashed weapons in the hotel during his testimony. FBI witnesses also mapped out how Oath Keepers’ members cell phones pinged with towers from across the country, converging at the hotel.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Manzo confronted the witness with his encrypted messages apparently discussing the QRF.

“Team with heavy weapons standing by, quickly load them and ferry them across the river to our waiting arms,” Caldwell wrote on Jan. 2, 2021, to Shawn Pugh, a man described by the prosecutor as a member of the Three Percenters militia.

The Three Percenters get their name from the erroneous belief that the same fraction of American colonists overthrew the British during the Revolutionary War. Caldwell denied that Pugh belonged to that extremist group, and he claimed that the message was a line from one of his screenplays.

“It’s just poetic justice,” Caldwell said. “I took something out of my screenplay, and I put it out there.”

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• Thomas Caldwell's Wife Testifies at Oath Keepers Trial

Wife of Elderly Oath Keepers Defendant Tells Jury: My Husband Wore ‘Depends’ on Jan. 6, Not Body Armor

Over the course of the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial, attorneys for one of the oldest members from the group to be prosecuted have tried to recast him as an elderly bystander to the Jan. 6-related upheaval.

The wife of that defendant, Thomas Caldwell, colorfully expanded upon that theme on Monday, when she told a jury her husband wasn’t wearing body armor that day — by one definition.

“If you’re talking about ‘Depends,’ that’s what he was wearing,” Sharon Caldwell said, referring to the adult diapers brand.

The Caldwells traveled together to Washington, D.C., where they were both seen sporting an Oath Keepers-banded T-shirt on the National Mall, in photographs entered into evidence by the government.

Sharon Caldwell, however, was not a member, and she testified that she only wearing the merchandise because it was a “free shirt” and allowed to obtain admission into the VIP area. She identified her husband in the courtroom as the “handsome man” sitting at the defense table.

Her husband is one of five people currently standing trial on multiple serious charges, including seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government or the execution of any of its laws by force. Prosecutors say that Thomas Caldwell contributed to that effort in his capacity as a member of the Oath Keepers’ so-called quick reaction force, which assembled and stashed weapons inside a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Va.

Security footage from the hotel chain appears to show Caldwell and his accused co-conspirator Kenneth Harrellson carting boxes of weapons on a dolly.

Sharon Caldwell freely acknowledged that she and her husband collect guns: The FBI found roughly 70 of them stashed in their home, she said. Agents did not seize their weapons at the time, but the court later issued an order barring her husband from having them.

She told a jury that her weapons were all legal, and her husband inherited some of them from his deceased parents.

“It’s just something I like to [do] for my own self-defense, it’s one of those skills that I wanted to have,” she cheerfully told a jury, adding it was also an activity she would do with her husband.

“We’ll go practice, and then, we’ll go bird-watching,” she said.

She denied that her husband had any intent to break the law or overthrow the government on Jan. 6, claiming that he had severe back pain that day from multiple surgeries. One of those, she said, required pinning her husband’s shoulder to keep it in its socket.

On cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis J. Manzo showed footage of the couple on Jan. 6th to undermine that portrait.

In the video, Sharon Caldwell could be heard chanting “Stop the Steal” and saying: “We are marching to the Capitol, and they better do the right thing.”

Pressed by the prosecutor, she acknowledged that she knew the certification of the election had been going on but denied any attempt to stop it.

“I was just having fun,” she said.

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Extra

• Knife-wielding man entered New York Times building

A knife-wielding man walked into the New York Times building in Manhattan on Thursday and demanded to speak to “the politics section,” police said.

The deranged man — who had “a knife in one hand and a stuffed animal in the other” — entered the newspaper’s headquarters on Eighth Avenue between West 41st and 42nd Streets around 12:15 p.m., an NYPD spokesman said.

He then said he wanted to see the Gray Lady’s political reporters, before handing over the knife to security at the building, according to cops.

“There was no fight,” the spokesman said.

The man, who was not identified, was taken to Roosevelt Hospital for evaluation, cops said.

https://us.knews.media/news/knife-wi...imes-building/

Always just deserts reading about these clowns getting long sentences.

^The best is that they will a carry a criminal record with them the rest of their lives

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36 months in prison

• Dustin Thompson Sent to Prison for Jan. 6 Thefts and More

‘You Didn’t Love America That Day’: Federal Judge Sends Jan. 6 Rioter to Prison for Obstruction, Stealing Coat Rack and Bourbon from Capitol

The Ohio man who stole a bottle of bourbon and a coat rack from the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 — and admitted lying in his trial testimony about why he did it — will spend years in prison.

Dustin Thompson, 38, was convicted in April after a three-day jury trial of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, and five misdemeanors, including theft of government property and offenses relating to disorderly conduct and trespassing.

According to prosecutors, Thompson and his co-defendant, Robert Anthony Lyon, 28, went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 after Donald Trump, falsely claiming that Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win was due to voter fraud, instructed his supporters to protest Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.

Thompson and Lyon were on restricted Capitol grounds by around 2:00 p.m., and Thompson was the first to go inside. He went to the Senate Parliamentarian’s office and grabbed a bottle of bourbon before being directed to leave the building by Capitol Police. Thompson later re-entered the building, this time with Lyon, and nicked a coat rack from the same office.

“We need to get the f*** out with this trophy,” Thompson said in a message to Lyon in an apparent reference to the coat rack.

Later that evening, Thompson was stopped by U.S. Capitol Police officers while waiting for an Uber while still on Capitol grounds. Thompson fled — leaving the coat rack behind — while his co-defendant, Lyon, was arrested.

Sullivan, a Bill Clinton appointee, said that far from being discouraged by the blaring alarms and physical altercations going on around him, Thompson celebrated breaching the building.

“When you get in, you’re gleeful, you’re happy,” the judge said. “You’re saying things that [encourage] other people to believe that what they are doing is righteous.”

Sullivan grew particularly irate when he recalled Thompson’s testimony about the coat rack.

“What are you going to do with a coat rack?” the judge asked, rhetorically. “I guess, like you said, it was a trophy. And then you come into this courtroom and you lie. You get on the stand and you lie.”

“You must think that those 12 people sitting over in that jury were fools, to think that you could convince them that you took this coat rack and the reason you took that coat rack was to keep it from being used as a weapon against the cops,” Sullivan said. “How did you think anybody would believe that?”

“I don’t,” Thompson replied, adding that “contributing factors,” such as being laid off and abusing alcohol, led to him joining the riot that day.

Sullivan said that the danger of what happened on Jan. 6 cannot be overstated.

“I’m not unsympathetic to people being radicalized to engage in abhorrent behavior,” the judge said. “We saw it happen in Nazi Germany. A very intelligent, educated population was able to be swayed to participate in atrocities in Nazi Germany by a demagogue.”

“It seems to me that you bought into that same mentality,” Sullivan said to Thompson, later adding: “I find that utterly scary that we still have millions of people in this country who are still buying a lie that’s not based on anything other than someone who’s unhappy because they didn’t get what they want.”

Sullivan also said he didn’t entirely buy Thompson’s post-trial “change of heart,” noting that other Jan. 6 offenders have pleaded guilty to offenses only to publicly say they did so in order to get a lighter sentence.

“I don’t know if you’re running a game on me or not,” the judge said.

Ultimately, Sullivan opted for a sentence considerably lower than what the prosecution had wanted, but he did not hold back his disdain for the actions of the defendant and the hundreds of others who stormed the Capitol.

“Now you say you love America,” the judge said. “You didn’t love America that day.”

Ohio Man Sentenced to 36 Months in Prison for Actions Related to Capitol Breach | USAO-DC | Department of Justice

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• Stewart Rhodes Lawyer: 'Venting' Isn't Seditious Conspiracy

Stewart Rhodes’ Lawyer Blames ‘Media’-Fueled ‘Misconceptions’ for Oath Keepers’ Bad Rap, Tells Jurors ‘Venting’ Isn’t Seditious Conspiracy

More than countering the evidence against his client, an attorney for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes used his closing arguments to address the press coverage that shaped his reputation. He claimed that “media”-fueled “misconceptions” led to the group’s portrayal as “xenophobic,” “racist,” and “misogynist.”

“You’ve seen the diversity of the organization,” his attorney James Lee Bright told the jury, noting that the group’s former second-in-command was Black.

All five of the Oath Keepers defendants currently on trial have been charged with a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government or the execution of its laws by force. Jurors have been instructed that an express or written agreement is not necessary, only a meeting of the minds. Bright claimed that the government has not met that bar.

“Venting is not a meeting of the minds,” Bright said. “Expressing anger and hatred is not a meeting of the minds in this country yet.”

For Bright, the fact that Rhodes never deployed the QRF and sent Thomas Caldwell, a then-65-year-old man with back and shoulder injuries, into the Capitol shows that overthrowing the government wasn’t the goal.

“You’re either the Keystone Cops of insurrectionists, or there was no insurrection,” Bright quipped.

After the summation for Rhodes, an attorney for Oath Keepers Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs told a jury that the prosecution’s case had missed a crucial word: “security.” Attorney Stanley Woodward vowed in his opening statement that the evidence would show that Trump ally Roger Stone invited Meggs to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. He has now made the Oath Keepers’ habit of acting as bodyguards from Trump notables like Stone, Jones, and Michael Flynn a centerpiece of the defense case, as his client’s reason for being on the ground.

Attorneys for Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell, and Watkins will deliver their closing arguments on Monday, followed by the government’s rebuttal.

sentenced on February 22 and, according to prosecutors, could face two to three years in prison

• Jan. 6 rioter who filmed Pelosi laptop theft jailed after jury convicts her on 6 counts

A federal judge on Monday ordered Riley Williams, a 23-year-old right-wing extremist, taken into federal custody after a jury convicted her on six of the eight counts she faced in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.

Williams was found guilty on six counts, but the jury deadlocked on two others, including whether she aided and abetted the theft of a laptop in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Williams, a follower of the "Groyper" movement, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, filming rioters breaking into the building, then encouraged members of the mob up a set of stairs toward House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. She also pushed up against cops and tried to organize other rioters inside the Capitol rotunda.

Williams had faced a total of eight charges: civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, resisting and impeding officers, aiding and abetting theft of government property, and four misdemeanors.

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• Oath Keepers Seditious Conspiracy Case Now in Hands of Jury

‘It Is Right in Front of Your Eyes’: Federal Prosecutors Cite ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence of Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy as Oath Keepers Case Heads to Jury

After nearly seven weeks of testimony featuring dozens of witnesses and three defendants facing accusations of trying to use force to overthrow the government on Jan. 6, the case of five members of the right-wing Oath Keepers is now in the hands of the jury.

The transition from the courtroom to jury deliberations came at the end of the day Monday, after closing arguments for attorneys from Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell, all charged alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Florida chapter head Kelly Meggs with seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and a raft of other felonies in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler provided the government’s rebuttal to the defendants’ closing arguments, confidently and unequivocally repeating that the defendants are guilty.

“The evidence of these defendants’ guilt is overwhelming,” Nestler began. “It is right in front of your eyes.”

Nestler said that the defendants “said what they wanted to do” and travelled from all corners of the country to do it, and successfully halted the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote. He argued that despite the defense attorneys’ insistence that their clients’ statements were mere hyperbole, they in fact showed that the defendants did enter into a conspiracy, and showed their motive, intent, and knowledge in doing so.

“And then there were 12,” he said, before reminding them of the upcoming holiday schedule — with Thanksgiving on Thursday, the court will be closed on Wednesday and Friday as well — and, perhaps anticipating that jurors would not reach a unanimous verdict on all charges Tuesday, wished them a good rest of the week.

• N.C. man arrested for threatening to kill FBI agents, executing organization for defaming Trump, MAGA supporters

A North Carolina man was arrested for threatening to kill a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officer and vowing to execute members of a fact-checking organization if they didn’t cease and desist defamation and slander of ‘MAGA Republicans’ and former president Donald Trump.

According to the United States District Court, a complaint was first filed on Sept. 19, 2022, when Stephen ‘Jike’ Williams emailed The Good Information Foundation, a non-profit organization. He demanded them to ‘cease and desist all defamation and slander of MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump.’

Williams, from Stokesdale, N.C., wrote that if they didn’t, it would treason an act of war, and ‘we would treat you accordingly.’

“You are hereby ordered by we the people under the laws of the constitution to cease and desist all defamation and slander of Maga Republicans and Donald Trump,” the message read, according to the complaint. “This is Treason an act of war and we will treat you accordingly. You have till the end of the month to print a retraction whistle blow on yourself or I will shut you down personally.”

The email continued: “Lethal action will be necessary if any physical detainment is attempted when I shut you down. Leave peacefully or your children will forget who you are.”

Authorities discovered that Williams’ email to The Good Information Foundation was in response to a TikTok video made by a social media influencer that was asked by the organization to produce anti-Trump rhetoric.

The U.S. District Court report says that on Oct 3, a female FBI special agent and male Task Force Officer (TFO) attempted to interview Williams at his home. When agents arrived, Williams ran off his porch and towards the TFO’s vehicle shouting curse words for them to get off his property.

Williams screamed and spit at the female agent and threatened her, according to the report.

“I’m going to take you out,” Williams told the agent according to the report.

When the TFO asked him what he meant, he said “You know what I meant.”

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• Man gets jail for joining Capitol riot after Tinder date

A Delaware business owner has been sentenced to 30 days of incarceration for storming the U.S. Capitol after seeing the riot erupt on a Tinder date’s television and taking an Uber ride to join the mob’s attack, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also on Friday ordered Jeffrey Schaefer to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 in restitution for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington.

On the eve of then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, Schaefer drove from Delaware to northern Virginia to spend the night at the home of a woman whom he had met on the Tinder online dating app. The next day, he decided to take an Uber ride to the Capitol after seeing the riot unfold on TV at his date’s home in Alexandria.

“He had the Uber driver drop him off near the west front of the Capitol and he approached the Capitol from that drop off point,” Justice Department prosecutor Anita Eve wrote in a court filing.

Schaefer entered the Capitol though a broken window near the Senate Wing doors, joined other rioters in chanting and spent approximately 28 minutes inside the building before leaving through a door, prosecutors said. He posted several images of the riot on Facebook, including one showing a pile of destroyed media equipment.

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• Colorado Springs Club Q shooting suspect will be held without bond as prosecutors work to finalize formal charges

The 22-year-old accused of carrying out a mass shooting over the weekend at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will remain held without bond following a court appearance Wednesday.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, appearing in court via video conference for the first time since the attack that left five dead and more than a dozen injured, answered a few questions in a barely audible voice.

Aldrich, whose attorneys say uses they/them pronouns, acknowledged they had watched a video about their rights and said they had no questions. The defendant could be seen slumped over in a chair – their head resting on their right shoulder – behind two defense lawyers.

Formal charges are expected at the next court hearing, set for December 6, Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said. Aldrich would be expected to appear then in person, he said, adding the date could change.

Preliminary charges include five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of a bias-motivated crime – elsewhere called a hate crime – causing bodily injury, per El Paso County Court’s online docket.

“We’ll be reviewing all of the evidence and making the appropriate filing decisions at the appropriate time,” Allen said.

Ahead of the hearing, attorneys for Aldrich submitted a court filing stating the suspect identifies as nonbinary. “They use they-them pronouns, and for the purposes of all formal filings, will be addressed as Mx. Aldrich,” the court document noted.

Asked after the hearing about the potential impact on the case of the defendant’s nonbinary distinction, Allen said: “To us, his legal definition in this proceeding is the defendant,” adding, “It has no impact on the way that I prosecute this case.”

The prosecutor declined to comment on the motive for the crime or the investigation.

“I want them to know that we are going to be the voice for the victims in the courtroom and that we will be fighting alongside them during this entire process,” Allen said of the victims’ families.

The public defender’s office is representing Aldrich and has declined all requests for comment, citing office policy.

A good read with lots of images, so you need to follow the link.

Finding Rundo (Again): US White Supremacist Facing Criminal Charges Located in Bulgaria - bellingcat

• Garland: DOJ will 'hold accountable' those who attack democracy

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday touted the “tireless” work of Justice Department investigators and prosecutors that resulted in the conviction of several members of the Oath Keepers militia for crimes related to the January 6 US Capitol assault, including two leaders who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.

“As the verdict of this case makes clear, the department will work tirelessly to hold accountable those responsible for crimes related to the attack on our democracy on January 6, 2021,” Garland said.

During the news conference, Garland touted several cases brought by the department – including new litigation related to the Jackson, Mississippi, water crisis – that he said encapsulated the department’s commitment to the rule of law, public safety and the protection of civil rights.

A federal jury convicted two leaders of the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday, while finding them and other members of the militia on trial in recent weeks guilty of obstructing an official proceeding.

His remarks also come as special counsel Jack Smith has had several days to dig into the parts of the January 6 investigation that he is now helming. His appointment signaled that the probe was now looking more deeply into the conduct of former President Donald Trump, who declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race earlier this month.

Bringing the seditious conspiracy charge in the Oath Keepers case was a risky move for the Justice Department and one that Garland initially balked at, CNN has reported. Investigators, having secured the cooperation of other members of the group and obtained additional evidence, eventually convinced Garland to sign off on the charge once they built out their case.

Three of the Oath Keepers facing the charge in the recent case were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but were convicted on other charges. The partial victory on the sedition charge carries significant symbolic weight for the Justice Department, which can now frame the events around the January 6 as more than just a spontaneous riot but rather as part of an orchestrated plan to stave off Trump’s 2020 defeat.

Leader of Oath Keepers and Oath Keepers Member Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy and Other Charges Related to U.S. Capitol Breach | OPA | Department of Justice

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• Enrique Tarrio, Proud Boys Must Face Trial in D.C.: Judge

Judge Refuses to Toss Jan. 6 Charges Against Proud Boys, Keeps Seditious Conspiracy Case in D.C.

Members of the Proud Boys extremist group charged with plotting to block the peaceful transition of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021 will have to face a jury in the District of Columbia.

A federal judge rejected an 11th-hour attempt by Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and co-defendants Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola to dismiss three counts of a superseding indictment charging them with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, civil disorder, and destruction of government property.

Tarrio is accused of having created a “special chapter” of his far-right group — which describes itself as “Western chauvinists — called the “Ministry of Self Defense,” or MOSD, in order to coordinate efforts at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when Donald Trump supporters stormed the building as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win. Their trial is set to start on Dec. 12.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has alleged that Proud Boys members sussed out a potential security soft spot at the Peace Circle on Capitol grounds ahead of the protest march-turned-violent riot. A Jan. 5 meeting between Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who is currently on trial for seditious conspiracy as well, was recorded by a documentary film crew.

In their motion to dismiss, the Proud Boys defendants argued that because the alleged “conspiratorial agreements” were formed outside of the District of Columbia, it would violate the Sixth Amendment, which requires a criminal trial to be held where the alleged crime was committed.

The defense lawyers argued that because the underlying statutes to those three particular charges lack an “overt-act element” — meaning that action was taken in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy — that D.C. is not the right place to try the case.

Not so, found U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee.

Kelly noted that in some cases, “venue may be proper in more than one jurisdiction,” noting that “a crime is a ‘continuing offense’ if it was ‘begun in one district and completed in another, or committed in more than one district.'”

Kelly said that federal law provides that the government can prosecute such offenses in any district where the federal crime was “begun, continued, or completed,” and disagreed with the defendants’ take on the law.

“Defendants are incorrect,” Kelly wrote in a ruling issued Monday (citations omitted, emphasis added in ruling). “Conspiracies are continuing offenses, and the Supreme Court ‘has long held that venue is proper in any district in which an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy was committed, even where an overt act is not a required element of the conspiracy offense.'”

Kelly looked to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for further guidance.

“So too, the D.C. Circuit has said that ‘venue is proper in any jurisdiction where any co-conspirator committed an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy,’ irrespective of whether the conspiracy statute contained an overt-act element,” Kelly wrote (citations omitted).

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• Marine reservist gets 2 weeks in jail for role in Capitol riot

A Marine reservist from New Jersey who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced Tuesday to 14 days of intermittent incarceration, per the Department of Justice.

Driving the news: Marcos Panayiotou, 30, was also sentenced to 36 months of probation and was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and $500 in restitution.

Details: Panayiotou was arrested last December and pleaded guilty in August to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Panayiotou, who wore a "Make Politicians Afraid Again" during the Capitol breach, apologized to a federal judge and said he’d been swept up in the mob that day and he’d "followed the crowd," per the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, Panayiotou wrote, "I know it may sound tired and just trite, but I truly thought I was following the directives of President Trump."

The big picture: Some 900 people have been arrested for crimes related to the Capitol breach and more than 275 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the DOJ.

Originally Posted by bsnub

A good read with lots of images, so you need to follow the link.

Finding Rundo (Again): US White Supremacist Facing Criminal Charges Located in Bulgaria - bellingcat

One would think with all the whites sheets he must own he would use one of them as a backdrop to conceal his whereabouts.

Fvckin’ dumbass terrorists

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

How much do you want to bet it was some from the MAGA crowd?

FBI joins investigation into North Carolina power outage caused by ‘intentional’ attacks on substations

If true, it would be interesting to learn how many years the judge will give the culprit/s as a deterrent for others who might think about doing the same.