Thread: Right-wing domestic terrorists

carry a combined potential 33 years in prison. / also convicted of three trespassing and disorderly conduct misdemeanors, which carry a combined maximum sentence of 30 months behind bars

• Vitali GossJankowski convicted of assault for Jan. 6 attack

Taser-wielding DC student who said he reached toward officer Michael Fanone during Jan. 6 ‘merely to help’ is convicted of felonies

A Florida man who was seen “activating” a Taser multiple times while in the crowd battling law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol has been convicted of assaulting law enforcement and trying to block an official proceeding of Congress.

Vitali GossJankowski, 34, was convicted on Thursday after a nine-day trial and one day of jury deliberation. According to prosecutors, GossJankowski — then attending a Washington, D.C., university for deaf and hard of hearing students — had joined the mob of angry Donald Trump supporters in the hourslong battle against police at the Lower West Terrace tunnel. He had gone to the Capitol after attending Trump’s speech at the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House, where the then-president encouraged his followers to “fight like hell” against the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win.

While at the tunnel, GossJankowski watched and stood near other rioters as they used poles to strike a line of police officers trying to keep the crowd away from the building. He also watched rioters break a glass door that was clearly marked with the words “Members Entrance Only.” He was later seen on footage from surveillance cameras and officer body-worn cameras — as well as other rioters’ cellphone videos — pushing and spitting at police officers and pulling at their protective shields, according to the Justice Department. He also joined a concerted effort to push against the line of officers and urged other rioters to join the fight against law enforcement.

At one point, he was seen holding a “black-colored handheld Taser,” according to the Justice Department’s probable cause affidavit. He was also allegedly seen “activating the Taser multiple times, as evidenced by light flashes emanating from the Taser’s tip; and pushing himself through the crowd of violent individuals towards the police line that was protecting the entrance to the U.S. Capitol building,” federal investigators said.

He also apparently helped pass a clear ballistic shield away from the entrance to the Capitol building, prosecutors say.

According to the probable cause affidavit, GossJankowski voluntarily turned himself in to the Metropolitan Police Department seven days after the Capitol attack. At that time, GossJankowski — apparently wearing the same blue jacket he had worn on Jan. 6 — told investigators that he had found a Taser on the ground when he was walking toward the Capitol and had thrown it away in a trash can outside the building.

Prosecutors, however, indicate that GossJankowski may have tried to deploy the stun gun on a police officer. When two police officers were pulled into the crowd, GossJankowski “pushed his way through the crowd just outside the tunnel and grabbed an officer with the United States Capitol Police by his helmet,” the DOJ said in a press release.

“GossJankowski pulled the officer close and reached toward the officer with an unrecovered device GossJankowski would later call a taser,” the DOJ said. “The officer suffered no additional harm and would later be escorted out of the crowd where he then returned to the Capitol to continue battling rioters attempting to enter the building.”

Investigators say that during an interview 11 days after the attack, GossJankowski was shown a picture of Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was dragged into the crowd, assaulted, and Tased multiple times by a mob of rioters, suffering a minor heart attack and requiring hospitalization as a result.

GossJankowski “recognized Fanone in the snapshot and described him as the officer with tattoos on his neck,” the initial charging documents say. “He said he did not use his Taser on Officer Fanone, but if he touched him, he touched his helmet and it was merely to help him.”

GossJankowski also told investigators that he took pictures and video while on Capitol grounds, but that he “either deleted them or they were lost when his phone died.”

After one day of jury deliberation, GossJankowski was convicted of obstructing, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, or interfering with a law enforcement officer on account of his official duties. Those felonies carry a combined potential 33 years in prison.

GossJankowski was also convicted of three trespassing and disorderly conduct misdemeanors, which carry a combined maximum sentence of 30 months behind bars.

‘You make your bed, you have to lie in it.’ - 40 months in prison

• Mother cries out in court after second-youngest defendant in Jan. 6 riot gets 3 1/2 years

A North Carolina man, the second youngest defendant in more than 1,000 arrests linked to the deadly riot at U.S. Capitol, will spend the next three years of his early adulthood behind bars.

Aiden Bilyard of Cary was 18 when he sprayed chemical agents at police and broke out a window in the Capitol during the violent mob attack on Jan. 6, 2021, to keep Donald Trump in office.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced the now-21-year-old to 40 months in prison for assaulting police with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Bilyard, he said, had answered “the calls of a demagogue” and had taken up arms with “people prepared to destroy this country to get what they wanted.

“... Age and immaturity are not an excuse for what occurred.”

The punishment is the second-longest handed down so far to a N.C. defendant in the Jan. 6 investigation — one month shorter than what was given in July to former Fort Bragg soldier James Mault for a related but lesser assault charge.

The judge’s announcement drew a sob from the convicted felon’s mother, Amy Bilyard, who was seated in the Washington, D.C., courtroom.

Walton warned her that she would have to leave if she could not control her emotions.

“I know you’re upset,” Walton said. “Unfortunately your son did what he did. And as my mother always told me, ‘You make your bed, you have to lie in it.’”

Bilyard pleaded guilty in October, part of a deal with federal prosecutors that led to the dismissal of eight other charges, including four felonies.

Bilyard has been held in a Virginia jail for the past five months under 22-hour lockdown. Given a chance to speak to the judge, he tearfully apologized to the police officers he may have injured, his mother, and for making “the most foolish decisions of my life.”

“My promise to the court is that I will never make these mistakes again,” he said, adding that he was aware that Walton had heard such promises before.

“Know that there is a real person with remorse behind these words,” he said. “Please have mercy.”

Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, was not swayed, saying the seriousness of Bilyard’s crimes demanded more than home detention or a short prison stay.

The judge did agree to recommend that Bilyard serve his time in a North Carolina prison so he can be closer to his family. He closed his comments on a long, cautionary note.

“It’s scary,” Walton said. “What happened on Jan. 6 is not something just in the past. It’s something that still haunts us. ... It goes to the roots of what we’re supposed to be as a democracy, and a democracy cannot survive if (people) attempt to subvert an election simply because they lost.

“... It’s just very perplexing. People want to holler that they’re patriots. They’re calling ‘USA, USA.’ That’s not the America I want to live in.”

Four Oath Keepers members found guilty of Jan. 6 obstruction

Four Oath Keepers members found guilty of obstruction in the far-right group's third Jan. 6 trial

Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Monday, as a judge ordered jurors to continue deliberating the most serious counts against two additional defendants.

Sandra Parker, Laura Steele, Connie Meggs and William Isaacs were found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The jury found Michael Greene, another member of the Oath Keepers, not guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, but was still debating whether he was guilty of aiding or abetting the obstruction of an official proceeding. Bennie Parker was found not guilty of aiding or abetting, but the jury was still deliberating the conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding charge.

All six members of the far-right group were found guilty of the charge of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Both Parker and Greene may only ultimately be convicted of that charge.

This was the third group of Oath Keepers members to go to trial for their actions on Jan. 6, but these defendants did not face the more serious and seldom-used charge of seditious conspiracy that those in the first two groups faced.

Parker, Steele, Meggs and Isaacs were alleged to have entered the Capitol, while Greene and Parker were not.

Jury Convicts Four Far-Right Oath Keeper Associates Over US Capitol Attack

Prosecutors rest in sedition case against Proud Boys leaders

Federal prosecutors on Monday rested their seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants charged with plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

Jurors will hear testimony from defense witnesses before deliberating in one of the most serious cases to come out of the Justice Department’s massive investigation of the violent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Defense attorneys have argued there is no evidence the Proud Boys plotted to attack the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying Biden’s electoral victory. Norm Pattis, an attorney for former Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs, said the group Boys had no plan, “no understanding” and no “implicit conspiracy” for Jan. 6.

“They did not come to your home to cause a riot,” Pattis told jurors on Monday.

The jury in Washington’s federal court has heard more than 30 days of testimony over more than two months by more than 20 prosecution witnesses, including two former Proud Boys members who are cooperating with the government in hopes of lighter sentences.

Tarrio, a Miami resident who served as national chairman of the group, and the other Proud Boys could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of seditious conspiracy.

The case comes on the heels of the seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and a Florida leader of the antigovernment group. Four other Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy in January. Rhodes and other Oath Keepers are scheduled to be sentenced in May.

Also on trial with Tarrio and Biggs are Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter leader. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.

Nordean’s attorney called the first defense witnesses, including former Proud Boys member Travis Nugent, of Vancouver, Washington. Nugent, who hasn’t been charged with any riot-related crimes, testified that he was shocked to see rioters breach police barricades near the Capitol.

“It definitely felt spontaneous to me,” Nugent said. “I didn’t know it was going to happen.”

“You had every reason to expect violence, didn’t you?” prosecutor Conor Mulroe asked Nugent during his cross-examination.

“No,” Nugent replied.

Most of the defendants aren’t accused of engaging in violence themselves. Tarrio wasn’t even at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Police arrested him in Washington, D.C., on separate charges two days before the riot, and he heeded a judge’s order to leave the nation’s capital.

“It’s too hard to blame Trump,” Sabino Jauregui, one of Tarrio’s lawyers, said during the trial’s opening statements. “It’s easier to blame Enrique as the face of the Proud Boys.”

Prosecutors have employed an unusual theory that Proud Boys leaders mobilized a handpicked group of foot soldiers — or “tools” — to supply the force necessary to carry out their plot by overwhelming police and breaching barricades. Defense attorneys have dismissed the government’s “tools” theory as a novel, flawed concept with no legal foundation.

Jurors have seen hundreds of messages that Tarrio and other Proud Boys privately exchanged on the Telegram platform and publicly on social media before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack. The messages show the Proud Boys becoming increasingly agitated as Trump’s legal challenges fail in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6. The messages also show the Proud Boys celebrating the attack on the Capitol and their role in it.

In one exchange shown to jurors, Tarrio urged his fellow extremists to stay at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Make no mistake,” he wrote. “We did this.”

That evening, Rehl’s mom asked if he was OK.

“I’m ok!” Rehl replied. “Seems like our raid of the capital set off a chain reaction of events throughout the country. i’m so (expletive) proud.”

The Proud Boys trial has lasted significantly longer than the judge and attorneys expected when jury selection began in December. The proceedings have been bogged down by bickering. Defense lawyers have routinely sparred with U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly during breaks in testimony and repeatedly asked for him to declare a mistrial.

Two onetime Proud Boys members, Matthew Greene and Jeremy Bertino, were among the key witnesses for prosecutors.

Greene testified in January that Proud Boys members were expecting a “civil war” after the 2020 election. Bertino testified last month that the Proud Boys saw themselves as “the tip of the spear” and plotted to keep Biden out of the White House because they wanted to “save the country” from what they feared would be a tyrannical government.

Greene and Bertino said they didn’t know of any specific plan to storm the Capitol. Greene said group leaders celebrated the attack on Jan. 6 but didn’t explicitly encourage members to use force.

“My expectation was, if there was violence started, you should not back down,” Greene testified.

Bertino, of North Carolina, is the only Proud Boys member who has pleaded guilty to a seditious conspiracy charge. Greene, of Syracuse, New York, pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress certifying the Electoral College vote.

two years in prison and 18 months’ imprisonment for five misdemeanor

• Retired Air Force officer who stormed Capitol in tactical gear on Jan. 6 sentenced to two years

A retired Air Force officer who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was sentenced to two years in prison Friday.

A release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia states 55-year-old Lance Brock, a resident of Galveston, Texas, was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment for a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

He was also sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for five misdemeanor counts of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, entering and remaining on the floor of Congress, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

The sentences will run concurrently.

Brock was found guilty of the six charges he faced in November. Prosecutors said he spent 37 minutes inside the Capitol, went through paperwork on senators’ desks and picked up a pair of plastic flex-cuffs.

The release states Brock posted messages on social media in the leadup to the insurrection about what was coming, including one that said, “I prefer insurrection at this point” and another that said, “our second American Revolution begins in less than two days.”

He also wrote a few days before the riot that “[Then-president-elect] Biden won’t be inaugurated. We will ensure that on the 6th.”

Brock was arrested four days after the attack.

3 years in prison

• Far-right extremist Riley Williams sentenced to 3 years in prison for storming Capitol on Jan. 6

A far-right extremist who was "obsessed" with white nationalist Nick Fuentes was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol and directing a mob toward the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, where another rioter stole a laptop.

In delivering the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson called Riley Williams' actions “utterly reprehensible.”

Williams, federal prosecutors argued at trial in November, "led an army" up a set of stairs toward Pelosi's office and was present when rioters swiped the laptop that the California Democrat kept in her conference room and used for “all her Zoom meetings."

Williams’ federal public defender Lori Ulrich said that while Williams might have “distasteful” beliefs, she was a young woman equipped with only a “cell phone and her fuzzy zebra bag” who even posted at one point that she was “STORMING THE WHITE HOUSE” when she was, in fact, in the legislative branch. Williams, her defense argued, “wanted to be somebody.”

At the hearing ahead of her sentencing, Williams said she is embarrassed watching the actions of the “young and stupid girl” she now sees in all of those videos. She said she is now “a responsible woman” and had been “addicted to the internet since before I can remember.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Dalke argued that Williams was not some “impulsive Gen-Z gadfly” or "the Forrest Gump of January 6." Williams “participated in domestic terrorism, plain and simple.” Dalke said.

Williams was ultimately convicted on six counts: felony civil disorder, resisting and impeding certain officers, and four misdemeanor charges. The jury deadlocked on a count of obstruction of an official proceeding as well as on the question of whether Williams aided and abetted the theft of Pelosi’s laptop.

Jackson had ordered Williams remanded after the verdict, saying she had “no confidence whatsoever” that Williams had respect for the rule of law.

“Everywhere she went, Williams acted as an accelerant, exacerbating the mayhem. Where others turned back, she pushed forward. When officers blocked her path, she recruited other rioters, especially larger men wearing helmets and body armor, gathered them together, and pushed them forward like a human battering ram, using the mob as a weapon to break through the police lines. The officers she faced off with were among those injured,” they wrote in a sentencing memo.

“Then, in the 12 days between the riot and her arrest on January 18, 2021, Williams repeatedly destroyed evidence and tried to evade law enforcement officials: She deleted her social media and communication accounts, instructed others to delete messages and take down videos from the internet, reset her iPhone, switched cellular phones, and used advanced software to wipe her computer,” they wrote.After storming Pelosi's office, Williams yelled at officers inside the Capitol rotunda, “F--k you. We’ll remember your f-----g face," and "You’re a traitor. You’re a traitor to this country," prosecutors said. She later bragged that she was "right in front of the police calling them traitors" and that she pushed up against police. Williams spent about 90 minutes inside the building, and then climbed on top of a tactical police vehicle when she left, they wrote.

“I’ve been told what I did was wrong by everybody but in my heart and soul I know what we did was patriotic and what is right and anybody who says otherwise should be condemned," Williams wrote to her dad, who traveled with her to D.C., on Jan. 14, 2021, prosecutors said.

Profiles of the January 6th Inmates in the D.C. Jail

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and James Comer (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, recently announced their intent to arrange for a congressional delegation to visit January 6th inmates held in the Washington, D.C. jail. Both Greene and former President Donald Trump have portrayed these individuals as “political prisoners.” However, not one of the inmates is being held for political reasons.

Twenty (20) January 6th inmates were held in D.C. as of Mar. 13, 2023, according to the Washington, D.C. Department of Corrections’ official list, which Just Security has obtained. Below, we present an analysis showing that all of them have been charged with committing serious criminal offenses on Jan. 6, 2021. Seventeen (17) of the twenty inmates are accused of assaulting law enforcement officers during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The remaining three inmates, which include a Proud Boys member and an Oath Keepers member, have all been charged with committing other serious crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, and one of them has already been convicted.

Throughout their letter, the three representatives refer to the January 6th inmates as “detainees,” even though they are in the custody of the criminal justice system and many of them have pleaded guilty or otherwise been convicted. Curiously, the congressional representatives do not identify any of the inmates.

Some highlights:

Nine (9) of the twenty (20) January 6th inmates have already been either convicted or pleaded guilty to at least some of the charges against them. For the eleven (11) defendants who have not yet been tried or accepted a plea deal, it is important to remember that they are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. And all inmates deserve humane treatment under human rights law and the U.S. Constitution.

All 20 of the current inmates in the D.C. facility are listed below.

Thomas Ballard
Status: Charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, among other crimes

William Chrestman
Status: Charged with conspiring to obstruct or impede an official proceeding, threatening a federal officer, and carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon onto the Capitol grounds and into the building, among other charges

Eric Christie
Status: Charged with multiple January 6-related crimes, including entering and remaining in a restricted building with a deadly weapon and disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building with a deadly weapon

Kyle Fitzsimons
Status: Convicted of seven felony charges, including assaulting law enforcement officers, as well as four misdemeanor charges

Peter Schwartz
Status: Convicted of several counts including assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon; interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding, and related charges

The other criminals are in the link

Trump desperate for attention

• Trump warns of ‘potential death and destruction’ if he’s indicted

Former President Trump argued early Friday morning that filing charges against him could result in “potential death & destruction” as he railed against the possibility of an indictment by the Manhattan district attorney.

“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after 1 a.m. Friday.

“Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!” Trump wrote. https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/statu...17513912877057

• Trump grand jury: Death threat to Manhattan DA Bragg

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg gets death threat with powder after Trump warns of probe-related violence

“ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!”″ said the typewritten note in a letter contained in an envelope addressed to Bragg, WNBC reported, citing law enforcement sources.

The letter, containing an Orlando, Florida, postmark from Tuesday, was found in the DA’s mail room in a lower Manhattan building after being received at 11:40 a.m. ET on Friday. The white powder in the envelope was found to be non-hazardous, the New York Police Department told CNBC.

• Trump supporter charged with pulling knife on family with children outside Manhattan courthouse

A Donald Trump supporter protesting the Manhattan district attorney’s probe of the former president pulled a knife on a family with two small children Tuesday outside Manhattan Criminal Court, according to a court official.

The man and woman with two children in strollers accidentally bumped into the Trump supporter while crossing the intersection of Hogan Place and Centre Street just after 4:00 p.m., three bystanders told POLITICO. The female protester, who held a sign that read “I support Trump, do you?” began arguing with the couple before she pulled out a blade approximately 6 inches long and waved it at the family, according to the eye-witnesses.

"Angelica Rucker pulled a knife from her right side belt hip area and began menacing one of the complainants with the knife as the verbal confrontation pursued," a court spokesperson said.

Court officers, who were standing outside the building, rushed over, pulled out their guns and ordered the woman to drop the knife, the bystanders said. She was arrested without incident.

No one was injured. Rucker, who could not immediately be reached for comment, was placed in custody and charges are pending, according to a court spokesperson.

“The court officers were standing on the corner and within 20 seconds they were here and she had dropped the knife,” said one bystander who could not be named because of his job. “The woman yelled, ‘Knife, knife’ and the court officers were on the Trump-supporter like Voltron,” the bystander said.

The altercation came after Trump called on supporters to protest the probe and predicted “potential death & destruction” if he is charged for his alleged role in a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

So far, significant support for Trump has failed to materialize.

The Trump-supporter was the only protester present outside the courthouse Tuesday. The grand jury usually only hears evidence on the case on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Last week, activists clamoring for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to indict Trump far outnumbered the president’s supporters outside the courthouse.

Police and court officials did not immediately release the protester’s name, age or other personal information.

a statutory maximum six-month jail sentence.

• Zachariah Sattler pleads guilty for Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Jan. 6 rioter who bragged that he ‘threw up on the Capitol’ pleads guilty

A rioter who bragged that he “threw up on the Capitol” has pleaded guilty to breaching the building during the Jan. 6 attack.

Zachariah Sattler, of Maryland, was seen among the crowd of Donald Trump supporters both inside and outside the Capitol building that day. According to prosecutors, he entered the building at around 2:40 p.m. near the Capitol Rotunda with a wave of Donald Trump supporters angry over Joe Biden winning the 2020 presidential election.

Once inside, he “shouted, celebrated, and urged the crowd to move further inside” the building, according to the probable cause affidavit for Sattler’s arrest. Surveillance footage showed Sattler exiting and entering the Rotunda, apparently making friends and taking pictures.

Like numerous other convicted Jan. 6 rioters, Sattler’s own documenting of his time at the Capitol turned out to be his downfall. According to the affidavit, Sattler is seen on video marching toward the Capitol after Trump’s so-called “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House.

“There’s that b—- a– Capitol Building with all them dirty motherf—–s in it,” he is heard saying on the video. He also reportedly said he wanted to “go hang out with the Proud Boys for a minute,” referring to the extremist group whose leaders and members are currently on trial for seditious conspiracy.

“[T]hey dones bustin’ through the gate, we’re going to the motherf—–g Capitol Building!” he is also heard saying, according to prosecutors, as he walks past overturned barriers and signs that indicated the area was closed.

“In another video, SATTLER stood near a Capitol Building entrance and stated: ‘Son of the revolution SATTLERs’ and moments later zoomed in on his own vomit and bragged that he ‘threw up on the Capitol,'” the affidavit says.

He pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor with a statutory maximum six-month jail sentence. He had originally been charged with four trespassing and disorderly conduct misdemeanors that carried a combined maximum of three years behind bars.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/case...59726/download

__________

Just for fun.

Faces up to 10 years in prison

• Far-right influencer convicted in voter suppression scheme

A self-styled far-right propagandist from Florida was convicted Friday of charges alleging that he conspired to deprive individuals of their right to vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Douglass Mackey, 33, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was convicted in Brooklyn federal court before Judge Ann M. Donnelly after a one-week trial. On the internet, he was known as “Ricky Vaughn.”

In 2016, Mackey had about 58,000 Twitter followers and was ranked by the MIT Media Lab as the 107th-most important influencer of the then-upcoming presidential election, prosecutors said. He had described himself as an “American nationalist” who regularly retweeted Trump and promoted conspiracy theories about voter fraud by Democrats.

Mackey, who was arrested in January 2021, could face up to 10 years in prison. His sentencing is set for Aug. 16.

His lawyer, Andrew Frisch, said in an email that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will have multiple reasons to choose from to vacate the conviction.

“We are optimistic about our chances on appeal,” Frisch said.

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a release that the jury rejected Mackey’s cynical attempt to use the First Amendment free speech protections to shield himself from criminal liability for a voter suppression scheme.

“Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality,” he said.

The government alleged that from September 2016 to November 2016, Mackey conspired with several other internet influencers to spread fraudulent messages to Clinton supporters.

Prosecutors told jurors during the trial that Mackey urged supporters of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media, knowing that those endorsements were not legally valid votes.

At about the same time, prosecutors said, he was sending tweets suggesting that it was important to limit “black turnout” at voting booths. One tweet he sent showed a photo of a Black woman with a Clinton campaign sign, encouraging people to “avoid the line” and “vote from home,” court papers said.

Using social media pitches, one image encouraging phony votes utilized a font similar to one used by the Clinton campaign in authentic ads, prosecutors said. Others tried to mimic Clinton’s ads in other ways, they added.

By Election Day in 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “Hillary” or something similar to a text number that was spread by multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by Mackey and co-conspirators, prosecutors said.

Twitter has said it worked closely with appropriate authorities on the issue.

Just another 1,000 to go

• Over 1,000 people now face charges in connection to Jan. 6 riots

In the 27 months since a mob of Trump supporters breached the Capitol, more than 1,020 people have been charged in connection to the insurrection and around 533 have pleaded guilty, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

The big picture: The federal investigation has led to a slew of high-profile arrests and convictions even as former President Trump and his allies accused the DOJ of unfair prosecutions.

Criminal charges

• 931 defendants have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, including 102 who face charges for entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
• 339 have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees, including 107 who face charges for using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
• 308 have been charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so.
• 55 have been charged with conspiracy, including conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, conspiracy to injure an officer or some combination of the three.

Pleas

• 144 defendants have pleaded guilty to felonies, including 61 who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers and four who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.
• 389 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.

Trials

• 67 defendants have been found guilty at contested trials.
• 16 have been convicted following an "agreed-upon set of facts," per the DOJ.
• Those who have been sentenced include the New Jersey man who used chemical spray to assault police officers, including the late Brian Sicknick. He will serve nearly seven years in prison.

7 years in prison

• Ex-soldier with Jan. 6 ties gets 7 years prison in Tampa case

Jeremy Brown, the retired U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant ensnared in a federal investigation of the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, received a sentence of seven years in federal prison Friday for having two illegal guns, a set of hand grenades and a classified military document at his Tampa home.

Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew also ordered Brown to complete three years of supervision upon his release, with a condition that he undergo an evaluation for mental health treatment.

The prison sentence, which totaled 87 months, came after the judge spoke of Brown’s 20 years of service as a Green Beret, but also his actions since his retirement, which she said demonstrated Brown put himself above the law.

“You’ve accepted no responsibility for what you’ve done in this case,” Bucklew said. “And you are defiant to the end.”

Clad in baggy orange pants and an orange jail shirt, Brown addressed the judge for close to 15 minutes before he was sentenced. In lofty rhetoric that detailed his military background and referenced the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the Declaration of Independence and the judge’s own legal career, Brown accused the government of deceiving the court and targeting him.

“My service cannot be tarnished by lesser men,” he said, looking at the prosecutors.

He mentioned his connection to Jan. 6, 2021, suggesting the events of that day were orchestrated by the FBI.

“The truth will come out,” he said of his case.

Brown, 48, was arrested in the fall of 2021 after federal agents executed a search warrant at the Palm River-area home where he lived with his girlfriend. The warrant had to do with an investigation of Brown’s ties to the Oath Keepers and their involvement in the events of Jan. 6, when a mob in support of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building and disrupted certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

In the search of Brown’s home and a recreational vehicle on the property, agents found a sawed-off shotgun and a short-barreled rifle, which were not registered in a federal database as is required when such weapons are modified. They also found a tactical vest that held two hand grenades.

They also found a printed “trip report,” authored by Brown during his time in the Special Forces, which detailed a search for missing soldier Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan. The report contained information deemed sensitive to national security and was thus classified.

In a weeklong trial in December, Brown’s defense argued that the CD and hand grenades were planted by government agents. He testified during the trial, admitting the guns were his and that he wrote the trip report, but he claimed the information in it was not classified.

A jury convicted Brown on six federal charges for the guns, the grenades and the trip report.

But the jury found him not guilty on four other charges related to several other classified documents saved on a CD labeled “secret,” which agents also found in his belongings. Brown said he’d never seen the CD before.

A sentencing memo filed by Brown’s defense asserted that he was a member of the Oath Keepers for only one month immediately after the 2020 election. His membership in the extremist group ended shortly after FBI agents came to interview him in December 2020 and attempted to recruit him to be a confidential informant, according to the memo.

The memo claims that Brown’s presence on Jan. 6 outside the Capitol, where he was photographed in combat attire, was merely as a volunteer to provide security for the rally, which escalated to a riot.

Appeals court upholds 'obstruction' charge used against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters, for now

A federal appeals court panel has affirmed the government's use of an obstruction charge used against hundreds of defendants arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, though the complex opinion appears likely to result in additional litigation and leaves questions about the future of the use of the statute.

A three-judge panel, on a 2-1 vote, upheld the use of the obstruction of an official proceeding charge against defendants who assaulted law enforcement during the Capitol attack. A lower court judge, Trump appointee U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, had previously tossed the charge, a decision the appeals court reversed.

"The question raised in this case is whether individuals who allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers while participating in the Capitol riot can be charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2)," the opinion stated.

Nichols' ruling "held that the statute does not apply to assaultive conduct, committed in furtherance of an attempt to stop Congress from performing a constitutionally required duty. We disagree and reverse," Friday's opinion said.

The opinion was written by U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Florence Y. Pan, a Biden appointee, and joined in part by Justin R. Walker, a Trump appointee who was just 38 when he became the youngest judge to sit on the powerful appellate court in several decades, after serving less than a year as a federal judge in Kentucky. Judge Gregory G. Katsas, who served as Trump's deputy White House Counsel for the first year of his presidency, dissented.

Prosecutors are seeking nearly 16 years in prison

• Prosecutors seek lengthiest Jan. 6 sentence yet for rioter who pinned officer in Capitol doorway

Prosecutors are seeking nearly 16 years in prison for Patrick McCaughey, a Jan. 6 defendant who pinned a police officer in a Capitol doorway amid some of the most chaotic moments of violence that day.

The Justice Department called for the sentence — which would be more than five years longer than the longest sentence handed down in any Jan. 6 case — to reflect what it called McCaughey’s “heinous” conduct, some of the most egregious of any Jan. 6 defendant

“McCaughey taunted police officers at the West Front bike racks and joined the mob that threw its weight against the beleaguered line of officers guarding the Capitol,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall wrote in the 45-page sentencing memo. “McCaughey used a deadly and dangerous weapon against Officer Hodges, where he spent over two minutes using his body weight to crush the officer in the doorframe.”

McCaughey’s restraint of D.C. Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a Capitol doorway is one of the most recognizable and horrifying images of the violence that day. McCaughey’s restraint of Hodges lasted more than two minutes while other rioters disarmed the officer, removed his gas mask and ignored his screams or help. Images of McCaughey face-to-face with Hodges became a symbol of the brutality of the Jan. 6 riot. It occurred in the Capitol’s lower west terrace tunnel, where many of the most violent confrontations that day took place.

“The defendant’s actions on January 6 show an absolute disregard for the rule of law coupled with a willingness to incite and engage in violence,” Paschall wrote. “The nature and circumstances of this defendant’s crimes weigh heavily towards a significant term of incarceration.”

U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden convicted McCaughey of nine charges — including three counts of assaulting police and obstruction of Congress’ Jan. 6 proceedings — at a bench trial in September 2022. He has characterized McCaughey’s actions as particularly horrific, even compared to other rioters who participated in some of the same violent attacks. But McFadden has also repeatedly rejected prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations, often disagreeing with their calculations and proposed enhancements. Prosecutors indicated in their sentencing memo that they anticipate him disagreeing with them once again.

Still, DOJ’s recommendation is the second-steepest it has made in any Jan. 6 case so far, trailing only the 17.5-year sentence it recommended for Thomas Webster, a former New York Police Department officer who brutally assaulted an officer on the front lines of the riot. Webster is currently serving a 10-year sentence, the longest of any handed down to a Jan. 6 defendant so far, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta. Mehta viewed Webster’s conduct as particularly egregious and also concluded that Webster lied on the stand when he testified about it.

The recommendation for McCaughey surpasses the 15-year sentence the Justice Department recommended for Guy Reffitt, the first Jan. 6 rioter convicted by a jury. Reffitt, a militia member, planned for violence with associates ahead of Jan. 6, carried a firearm and engaged with police in a lengthy standoff that enabled the mob to start amassing at the base of the Capitol. Ultimately, the judge in his case, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, sentenced Reffitt to just over seven years in prison.

Prosecutors say McCaughey, like Webster, was dishonest when he testified in his own trial last year. In addition to his lack of candor on the stand, prosecutors say McCaughey’s recommended sentence was influenced by the brutality of his attack against Hodges and a second officer, Henry Foulds — who McCaughey struck with a riot shield as the officer tried to close the doors to the tunnel.

McCaughey, for his part, is arguing for a sentence of a year in prison, contending that his crimes on Jan. 6 were an “aberration” in an otherwise law-abiding life.

“Although his conduct is indeed serious, it represents the only legal transgression this hard-working person has ever committed,” his attorney, Dennis Boyle wrote in a 25-page sentencing memo. “It is also significant to note that his actions were not motivated by any desire for personal financial gain or any other type of benefit. Rather, his actions, which he himself admits were reprehensible, were motivated by a misunderstanding as to the facts surrounding the 2020 election.”

faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine

• Austin synagogue arson suspect pleads guilty to hate crime

A man accused of setting an Austin synagogue on fire has pleaded guilty to hate crime and arson charges.

At the downtown federal courthouse on Thursday, Franklin Barrett Sechriest, a former member of the Texas State Guard, admitted to starting the fire at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on Halloween 2021.

Surveillance footage placed Sechriest at the scene before and during the fire, leading to his arrest.

The incident was part of a nationwide increase in anti-Semitic incidents, with the Jewish Federations of North America reporting in 2021 that 60% of religious bias crimes are against the Jewish community. Following the fire, the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue received nearly $100,000 in donations and support from across the country.

Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Hate Crime and Arson for Setting Fire to Synagogue | Department of Justice

Jan. 6 rioter who said he was following Trump's 'marching orders' and wanted to arrest Biden and Pelosi is found guilty

A Jan. 6 defendant who was charged alongside the Donald Trump supporter who drove a stun gun into the neck of a D.C. police officer during the Capitol attack was convicted Tuesday on three counts.

The verdict was announced the same day that former President Donald Trump was set to appear in court in Manhattan to be arraigned on charges related to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Ed Badalian was arrested in November 2021 after he was indicted for conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, and tampering with documents or proceedings. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and a misdemeanor count. He was found not guilty of a tampering count because the judge found that a government witness, a fellow Jan. 6 rioter, was a "hot mess" on the stand.

Badalian was charged alongside Daniel Rodriguez, a MAGA-hatted rioter who admitted that he had electroshocked D.C. Police Officer Mike Fanone when Fanone was abducted by the mob. Rodriguez is set to be sentenced in May. A third man, known to online sleuths as #SwedishScarf and referred to in court as "Jeff," was indicted alongside the other two men, but has not yet been arrested. Law enforcement officials believe that he has fled the country.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who presided over Badalian's bench trial this year, delivered the verdict on Tuesday. She allowed Badalian to remain on release until his sentencing, but ordered him to wear an ankle monitor. Walking out of the courtroom on Tuesday, Badalian called that "cruel and unusual punishment."

Jackson described Badalian as a "very self-satisfied young man" who seemed impressed by his own intelligence and charm.

Jackson said Badalian was "extremely well aware" of the electoral college proceedings on Jan. 6 and how the process worked. "This defendant knew exactly what Jan. 6 was all about," she said. His focus was not on antifa, but on arresting politicians, Jackson said, pointing to messages in which Badalian talked about arresting President-elect Joe Biden and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"No, Mr. Badalian, the Constitution does not give you the right" to arrest the House speaker, Jackson said.

Badalian drove a rented van across the country along with Rodriguez and told members of the groups that he had packed a respirator, masks, snow goggles, kneepads and baseball helmets for the group, according to his indictment.

“Our duly elected leader has called his marching orders, we gotta show up,” Badalian wrote in the “Patriots 45 MAGA Gang” chat on Dec. 21. Jackson said Tuesday that the Trump tweet gave the group "the focus it needs," by giving them a time and location.

"We don't want to fight antifa lol we want to arrest traitors," Badalian wrote before the Jan. 6 attack. When then-Attorney General William Barr finally said the election wasn't stolen, Badalian considered him a traitor, too.

Jackson set Badalian's sentencing hearing for mid-July

sentenced to 72 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $43,315.25 in restitution

• Nevada Man Sentenced for Assaulting Officers During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | Department of Justice

Nevada Man Sentenced for Assaulting Officers During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach

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

WASHINGTON — 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 court documents, Kenyon was illegally in the Capitol Building from approximately 2:53 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 into the Capitol. He threw a large plastic pylon towards officers, striking one officer’s riot shield. He also struck officers with what appeared to be a table leg. He hit one officer in the leg, causing the officer to fall to the ground; the officer 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 provided 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 breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

Rolling the dice - a 68-month prison sentence that is nearly two years longer than the sentence he might have served under his plea deal, which sought a sentence of between 41 and 51 months. Gillespie was also ordered to pay $25,000, restitution of $2,000 and to serve 36 months of supervised release

• Athol Y'all Quedist who was turned in by his own townspeople gets nearly six years for attacking cops in failed Capitol coup

A federal judge in Washington, DC today sentenced Vincent J. Gillespie, 61, of Athol, to 68 months in prison for ramming cops with their own riot shields on Jan. 6, pulling one of the cops towards the surging mob as another protester beat him with a crutch and screaming at the police in his way that they were traitors.

Gillespie was so hated in his hometown that he was turned in by several townspeople not long after the FBI released photos of him at the Capitol. The people who contacted the FBI included a former neighbor, a manager at the hardware store he shopped at and three municipal workers for Athol - a town he railed against for installing parking meters downtown. He was arrested Feb. 18.

In a sentencing memorandum urging Judge Beryl Howell to sentence Gillespie to 87 months, federal prosecutors summed up the case against Gillespie, who was convicted by a federal jury on five of eight counts: Assaulting police officers, interfering with police officers during civil disorder, engaging in physical violence in a restricted federal building and committing federal violence in the Capitol.

Gillespie's attorney, though, said his client was a simple man who just happened to get caught up in the tide of events, and that he deserved no more than 30 months in prison.

He said Gillespie did not wield the police shields as dangerous weapons because he did not intend to hurt anybody with them.

Massachusetts Man Sentenced for Assaulting Law Enforcement During January 6 Capitol Breach | Department of Justice

sentenced to three years in prison, three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay a $3,688 fine and $2,000 in restitution

• Romance novel model gets prison for Jan. 6 attack on police

A Michigan pipelayer who modeled for covers of romance novels was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison for assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol during a mob’s attack.

Logan Barnhart joined one of the most brutal clashes between rioters and police on Jan. 6, 2021. He grabbed an officer by his neck and torso and dragged him into the crowd of rioters on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Minutes later, he returned to a police line and swung a flagpole at officers.

A Michigan pipelayer who modeled for covers of romance novels was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison for assaulting police at the U.S. Capitol during a mob’s attack.

Logan Barnhart joined one of the most brutal clashes between rioters and police on Jan. 6, 2021. He grabbed an officer by his neck and torso and dragged him into the crowd of rioters on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Minutes later, he returned to a police line and swung a flagpole at officers.

Barnhart, 42, of Holt, Michigan, said he didn't recognize himself on a video, shown in court, that captured him assaulting the officer.

“The way I was acting seems so foreign to me,” he told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras.

Contreras also sentenced Barnhart to three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay a $3,688 fine and $2,000 in restitution. Contreras said anybody who “directly and brazenly” attacks police is inherently dangerous to the public.

“He ran to the fight,” the judge said.

Earlier on Thursday, a former Capitol police officer avoided a prison sentence for trying to help a Virginia fisherman avoid criminal charges for storming the building his law enforcement colleagues defended on Jan. 6. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Michael Angelo Riley to two years of probation and four months of home detention.

Riley, a 25-year police veteran, was on duty when a mob attacked the Capitol, injuring more than 100 officers. Riley’s voice cracked as he lamented how his “awful judgment” cost him his career, tarnished his reputation, ended friendships in the department and traumatized his family.

“The amount of regret and remorse I have over this situation is unimaginable,” Riley told the judge.

In Barnhart's case, federal prosecutors had recommended a prison term of five years and three months. Barnhart has been on home detention while awaiting his sentencing. The judge ordered him to remain on home detention until he reports to prison at a date to be determined.

Barnhart has worked as a pipelayer and heavy machine operator for construction companies. NBC News reported that Barnhart has modeled for covers of romance novels, including “Stepbrother UnSEALed: A Bad Boy Military Romance.” Internet sleuths using facial recognition technology found photographs of Barnhart from his modeling career, NBC reported.

Defense attorney Michelle Peterson said Barnhart drove alone to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 because he wanted to support then-President Donald Trump and believed the baseless claims that Democrats stole the election from the Republican incumbent.

“Now two years away from the chaos of that day, he is deeply remorseful and cannot understand how he acted so foolishly,” Peterson wrote.

Barnhart was charged with several other riot defendants in the same indictment.

Barnhart and co-defendants Jack Whitton and Jeffrey Sabol dragged a Metropolitan Police Department officer away from a police line, down stairs and into the crowd, where co-defendants Peter Stager and Mason Joel Courson beat the officer with a flagpole and a baton, according to prosecutors.

Barnhart was arrested in August 2021 and pleaded guilty in September 2022 to assaulting the officer with a dangerous weapon.

“He threw that officer to the wolves,” prosecutor Benet Kearney said.

Barnhart wrote an apology letter addressed to the officer. He said he was ashamed of his behavior on Jan. 6.

“I hope one day we can all put aside our petty differences that seem to be tearing our beautiful country apart,” Barnhart wrote.

In the case against Riley, the former Capitol police officer, prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months.

The judge said Riley's actions were “shocking conduct for any member of law enforcement.”

“You knew exactly how bad January 6th was,” she added. Jackson also ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine and perform 150 hours of community service.

Justice will seek the longest prison sentence in any January 6 riot case to date when it argues for more than 24 years in prison

• Justice Department to seek longest sentence in any Jan. 6 riot case so far

The U.S. Department of Justice will seek the longest prison sentence in any January 6 riot case to date when it argues for more than 24 years in prison for Peter Schwartz of Pennsylvania at sentencing on May 5. If imposed, the sentence would be more than twice as long as any handed down so far in the approximately 450 cases related to the January 6, 2021, assault that have reached sentencing.

In a sentencing memo submitted Monday, federal prosecutors argue Schwartz already had a lengthy criminal history when he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, where he then unleashed a series of violent assaults against groups of officers. He was convicted at trial in December on several charges, including four counts of felony assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon.

In a request for a more lenient sentence, his defense argued Schwartz was the victim of political grifters and misinformation. A sentencing memo submitted on his behalf Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., said, "There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the 'great lie' that Trump won the election. Donald Trump being among the most prominent."

In arguing for the lengthy prison sentence, the Justice Department said Schwartz "stole chemical munitions, including pepper spray... left behind by the fleeing officers and used that pepper spray as a weapon to attack those same officers as they desperately tried to escape."

Prosecutors also argue Schwartz assaulted several groups of police officers and "did not back down. He then joined the larger mob inside of the tunnel in attempting to push through the police line and into the Capitol Building."

"By Schwartz's own admission, he viewed himself as being at 'war' that day, stating in a Facebook post on January 7, 2021, 'What happened yesterday was the opening of a war. I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war,'" the Justice Department's sentencing memo notes.

Schwartz's wife, Shelly Stallings, was also charged for her role in the riot. She pleaded guilty last August and was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this year.

In requesting the 24-year sentence for Schwartz, prosecutors accused him of profiting from his arrest. Prosecutors allege, "As of April 17, 2023, Schwartz has raised $71,541 in an online campaign styled as a 'Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC' with an image of Peter Schwartz at the top."

Schwartz's defense recommends a sentence of 54 months in prison. The defense argues, "Mr. Schwartz travelled to Washington D.C. with his wife to listen to former President Trump's speech and walked to the Capitol Building alongside hundreds of other protestors. Mr. Schwartz did not come prepared to incite violence, attack the Capitol Building or any officers that day—none of his actions on January 6th were planned in anticipation of his travels."

The defense also wrote that "Although his conduct is indeed serious, it is significant to note that Mr. Schwartz's actions were not motivated by any desire for personal financial gain or any other type of benefit."

The memo states that Schwartz knew "next to nothing to nothing about the 2020 election and listened to sources of information that were clearly false. Mr. Schwartz has learned valuable life lessons from this incident, and he will never repeat the actions that bring him before the Court in this case."

But as recently as February 2023, Schwartz made jailhouse phone calls to a widely-streamed protest outside the Washington, D.C., jail where he is being held, claiming to have been "entrapped" by the U.S. government and referring to government officials as traitors.

_________

extra

maximum penalty of up to five years in prison

• Torch-carrying marchers indicted in Charlottesville rally

Nearly six years after a large gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville erupted in violent clashes with counterprotesters, a grand jury in Virginia has indicted multiple people on felony charges for carrying flaming torches with the intent to intimidate.

The Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said in a news release that the indictments relate to an event on Aug. 11, 2017. That’s when a group of white nationalists carrying torches marched through the campus of the University of Virginia, some chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney James Hingeley did not say in the release how many people have been indicted and did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment on Tuesday. According to electronic court records, the indictments against three people have been unsealed, including William Zachary Smith, of Nacona, Texas; Tyler Bradley Dykes, of Bluffton, South Carolina; and Dallas Medina, of Ravenna, Ohio.

Each is charged with a single count of burning an object with the intent of intimidating a person or group of people. The charge carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison.

__________

and another....

• Houston man arrested after leaving multiple voicemails threatening to assault, kill Congresswoman Maxine Waters

A 60-year-old Houston man has been arrested and charged after court documents show he threatened to assault and kill Congresswoman Maxine Waters last year.

Brian Michael Gaherty has since been charged with transmission of a threat to injure the person of another interstate commerce.

According to court documents, between August and November 2022, Gaherty called Congresswoman Waters’ office located in California and told a member of her staff that he was going to assault the congresswoman. He also left at least four threatening voicemails, including a threat to “cut your black (expletive) throat” on Aug. 8, 2022.

On Nov. 16, 2022, at 4:37 p.m., court documents show Gaherty called Congresswoman Waters’ Hawthorne office and spoke to a staff member, and said, “Tell Congresswoman Maxine Waters when I see her on the street I’m going to bust her upside her head.”

The following day, the district director of Congresswoman Waters’ office reported the threatening call to the U.S. Capitol Police and provided them with copies of the threatening voicemails received in August 2022.

USCP agents then used the phone number, with the help of T-Mobile, to determine the suspect was located in Houston and using a TraceFone, which is a prepaid, no-contract phone, to make the threatening calls.

On Dec. 15, 2022, the FBI located Gahetry and went to his home to question him. During the interview, court documents state Gahetry invited the agents inside his home and showed them a bag full of cell phones that he claimed: “did not work.” He also showed them receipts for a TraceFone and a serial number, which matched one of the phones used to call Congresswoman Waters.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Gaherty “has a history of sending racist, violent threats to other congresswomen.” In addition to his threats targeting Congresswoman Waters, Gaherty has also called and left threatening voicemails with two other congresswomen.

According to court documents, from September 2022 to February 2023, Gahetry left 10 voicemails for another congresswoman threatening to assault her.

Gahetry was arrested on April 13. His bond was set at $100,000, but records show he has since posted bond and is set to be released.

Cook was sentenced to 92 months in prison and Frost was sentenced to 60 months in prison

• White supremacists sentenced in Ohio for plot to attack U.S. power grid

Dublin man and another white supremacist sentenced in plot to attack U.S. power grid

A Dublin man and another man identified by federal prosecutors as white supremacists who plotted to attack the U.S. power grid were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

Christopher Brenner Cook, 21, of Dublin, was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. Jonathan Allen Frost, 25, who had addresses in Katy, Texas, and West Lafayette, Indiana, was sentenced to five years in prison.

A third man convicted in the scheme, 22-year-old Jackson Matthew Sawall, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, will be sentenced at a later date.

All three men pleaded guilty in February 2022 to one count each of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

In late 2019 and 2020, the men plotted, amassed weapons and recruited juveniles to the cause using neo-Nazi propaganda, according to court documents.

The plan was to attack substations with powerful rifles, federal prosecutors said. The three men believed disrupting the power supply for many months would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest, possibly sparking a race war or inducing the next Great Depression, prosecutors said.

The men, according to court records, had "suicide necklaces" containing fentanyl that they planned to ingest should law enforcement capture them.

Two Men Sentenced for Conspiring to Provide Material Support to Plot to Attack Power Grids in the United States | OPA | Department of Justice

_____________________

• Proud Boy who broke Capitol window slams 'fake' charges as trial wraps up

A right-wing extremist who admitted he wielded a police shield and shattered a window at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot called the charges against him "fake" as the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial, which has been underway for more than three months, nears an end.

Dominic Pezzola — a Proud Boy from New York who is on trial along with former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, and three other members, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — said during cross examination on Thursday that rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, were "acting as trespassing protesters." He also argued that law enforcement officers used excessive force on the mob that day.

Pezzola, who admitted that he lied to the FBI about one of his co-defendants having a firearm during the riot, also called the trial "phony" and "corrupt." He argued that he was speaking metaphorically when he said he was willing to fight for the Proud Boys, comparing his past remarks to “how I’m fighting this corrupt trial with these fake charges.”

Pezzola also admitted that he was wearing a hat that said “respect is earned, beatings are free” during parts of the riot.

All five defendants rested their case Thursday evening, and prosecutors rested their case on Friday morning.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly began instructing jurors on Friday morning, and told attorneys he thought the best idea was to hold off on closing arguments until Monday. Justice Department prosecutors opposed that plan, saying the jurors were ready to hear closing arguments on Friday afternoon.

During the lengthy trial, Pezzola said that he was “just interested in joining a group of like-minded men" when he signed up with the Proud Boys shortly before the insurrection. "I believed everyone’s freedom is under attack by radical socialists," he said.

Prosecutors had presented a journal entry in which Pezzola wrote about why he wanted to join the far-right organization. “If the time comes, I’m willing to stand first on the line to protect who I love and what we stand for," read an excerpt from the journal.

Pezzola has acknowledged that he yelled at law enforcement as the mob overran them on the day of the riot. “You better decide what side you’re on motherf-----s,” Pezzola admitted he yelled on Jan. 6. “You think Antifa’s bad? Just wait.”

He also used his courtroom testimony to advance a conspiracy theory. Pezzola argued that Ray Epps, a Trump supporter who tried to calm down rioters on Jan. 6, was a government informant.

Asked by prosecutors if he had any first hand knowledge that Epps is a government informant, Pezzola said: “I’ve seen no evidence that he isn’t."

__________

No longer probation with the recent felony charge

• Capitol rioter shot at local deputies after FBI informed him of Jan. 6 charges

A Texas man facing charges in the Jan. 6 riot opened fire last week on sheriff’s deputies who had gone to his home to check on him ahead of his scheduled surrender to the FBI, according to a new criminal complaint.

Nathan Donald Pelham, of Greenville, who initially faced four misdemeanor charges tied to the insurrection, faces an additional felony charge of being a felon in possession of firearm after the incident April 12, a criminal complaint filed this week shows.

An FBI special agent wrote in a filing that he had called Pelham on April 12 and asked him to surrender in a few days. That evening, according to the agent, local authorities went to Pelham’s home after his father requested a welfare check.

When the deputies arrived, Pelham fired several shots toward them, prosecutors said.

One of the law enforcement officers said one gunshot “came in so close proximity to myself that I could hear the distinct whistling sound as the bullet traveled by me and then strike a metal object to my right side,” according to a court filing.

The new weapon charge against Pelham is likely to give federal authorities a quick way to keep him locked up before his trial. He could face other charges related to the shooting down the line.

Court records show that Pelham waived a detention hearing and that a federal magistrate judge ordered him detained.

Nice to see the convictions rolling in

^got about 1,000 more

_______

day 1

• Proud Boys were 'thirsting for violence' on Jan. 6, DOJ says in closing arguments

Five members of the far-right Proud Boys were "thirsting for violence, and organizing for action" before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department said at closing arguments in their seditious conspiracy trial on Monday.

What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was "a national disgrace," Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe told jurors as the three-month-long trial nears its end. But for the Proud Boys, Jan. 6 "was mission accomplished," Mulroe said. "They had done it. They had stopped certification of the election."

Five members of the Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — are facing nine counts, including the rarely-used charge of seditious conspiracy, a Civil War-era statute that has been used against a small subset of Jan. 6 defendants. Pezzola is facing a tenth count for allegedly stealing a police shield he used to smash out a Capitol window. Two members of the Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy in one trial in the fall and four Oath Keepers were convicted at another trial in January in separate Jan. 6 cases. A few members of the Oath Keepers pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, as did a member of the Proud Boys, Jeremy Bertino, who testified at the Proud Boys trial.

Mulroe told jurors that the Proud Boys thought politics “meant actual, physical combat, a battle between good and evil in the most literal sense." The defendants conspired to “stop certification of the election” by “any means necessary, including by force,” Mulroe said. A conspiracy “can be unspoken,” Mulroe said, “a mutual understanding reached by a wink and a nod.”

There’s no magic date when jurors have to agree that the conspiracy began, Mulroe argued, telling jurors that the defendants could be guilty of conspiracy even if the agreement did not begin until Jan. 6, when "those barricades at Peace Circle has already come down.”

Mulroe said that they were motivated by their belief that the election was stolen and their desire to keep then-President Donald Trump in office.

“People generally don’t commit crimes for no reason,” Mulroe said. “Using force against the government is not something that any group of people would take lightly.”

Mulroe noted to jurors that the Proud Boys formed what they called a "Ministry of Self Defense" right after Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020 “will be wild” tweet, in which he called on his supporters to go to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. The Ministry of Self Defense wasn’t a “drinking club” or a men’s fraternity, Mulroe said, it was “a violent gang that came together to use force against its enemies.”

Mulroe said that the defendants made their intentions known — they were not in Washington on Jan. 6 to see Trump’s speech or to protest peacefully. They were there to threaten and, if necessary, use force to stop the certification of the election, he said.

Two of the defendants — Rehl and Pezzola — testified in their own defense during the trial. Just hours before Rehl was set to be cross-examined last week, online sleuths turned up video that appeared to show Rehl deploying pepper spray on a police line, video that the FBI had missed over the course of a two-year investigation.

Under cross-examination, Rehl claimed he could not "recall" if he shot pepper spray at officers on Jan. 6.

Mulroe, during closing arguments, noted that Rehl’s attorney asked his client over and over again on the stand if he ever used force against officers and Rehl said no, never.

“That was false,” Mulroe said. "He did that. He did that and he lied to you under oath about it."

The lie "belongs with all of Zachary Rehl’s evasive, aggressive, implausible, testimony, and tells you how much weight you should give anything he told you. Zero.”

Pezzola, who called the charges against him "fake" and called the trial "phony" and "corrupt" during his testimony and raised conspiracy theories about Ray Epps — a man who has been frequently accused by the far-right, without evidence, of stoking the Jan. 6 riot as an undercover government agent — "was the first" to breach the Capitol by using a stolen police shield to smash a window, Mulroe said.

“They went into the building like soldiers in a conquered city," Mulroe said. "They showed total contempt for the seat of American democracy.”

Defense attorneys began presenting their closing arguments on Monday afternoon, and those arguments are expected to continue into Tuesday. After the government's rebuttal, the jury is likely to begin deliberating the case late Tuesday or Wednesday.

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day 2

• Proud Boys leaders: Trump caused Jan. 6 attack

Former Proud Boys national chair Enrique Tarrio — the man prosecutors have portrayed as the ringleader of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — told jurors Tuesday that he’s merely a scapegoat for the real culprit: Donald Trump.

“It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your amazing and beautiful city,” said Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s lawyer, during closing arguments in a seditious conspiracy trial stemming from the Jan. 6 attack.

Hassan leaned heavily into the role Trump played in ginning up the crowd at his rally the morning of Jan. 6, just minutes before rioters began breaching police barricades at the Capitol. Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” just 36 minutes before the first wave of the mob charged at police, Hassan noted.

“It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power,” Hassan said.

Trump has loomed in the background of Tarrio’s trial, the most significant to emerge from the Jan. 6 assault on Congress. He’s charged alongside four other Proud Boys leaders — Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — with orchestrating a violent effort to derail the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden. The jury is expected to receive the case and begin deliberating Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors say the leaders, loyal to Trump and fearful of the Proud Boys’ survival in a post-Trump America, devised plans to keep Trump in office. And throughout the four-month trial, the Justice Department repeatedly emphasized how Tarrio and the Proud Boys keyed off and drew energy from Trump’s own bid to subvert the 2020 election. The group’s plan went into overdrive, prosecutors said, after Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020 tweet calling on supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 to challenge the election results.

In tandem with their effort to support Trump, the Proud Boys also soured on their once close relationship with law enforcement, prosecutors say, becoming enraged at cops — particularly in Washington — after they failed to apprehend a man who stabbed four Proud Boys outside a bar on Dec. 12, 2020. That anger at police carried over into the Proud Boys’ posture toward law enforcement on Jan. 6, they say.

Hassan, though, said it was Trump pulling the strings and driving events ahead of Jan. 6 — not Tarrio. He was joined in that contention by Biggs’ lawyer Norm Pattis, who said Trump and his cadre of lawyers stoked the “stop the steal” fervor among millions of supporters.

“The leader of the free world sold this narrative, and many members of the Proud Boys believed it,” Pattis said. “People believe their president ... He’s not on trial here, much though I wish he were.”

“If my president tells me my republic is being stolen, who do I listen to?” Pattis added. “The thief or the commander-in-chief? ... A nation of strangers gathered together as their commander in chief sold a lie.”

Hassan noted that Trump contributed to a surge in Proud Boys recruitment after invoking the group — and urging members to “stand back and stand by” during a televised debate against Biden in September 2020.

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio told a group of national Proud Boys leaders in a private chat after the attack. “We did this.”

Hassan spent much of his closing argument urging jurors not to convict Tarrio because they disliked him. Tarrio was brash, said offensive things and often acted like an “entertainer,” Hassan said.

“Do not let your dislike for Henry Enrique Tarrio affect your judgment in that jury room,” Hassan said.

Dislike of the defendants was a theme in the Proud Boys’ closing arguments. Pezzola’s attorney, Steven Metcalf, urged jurors not to confuse their dislike for Pezzola with his potential guilt of the crimes he’s charged with.

“Even if you hate him … put that aside in judging these facts,” Metcalf said.

Metcalf agreed that Pezzola broke the law — as Pezzola largely did when he took the stand last week — but said he’s not guilty of seditious conspiracy, which he called a “fairy tale, fairy dust conspiracy created out of nowhere.

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impeding law enforcement officers carries a statutory maximum of 8 years in prison. The civil disorder charge, carrying a firearm on Capitol grounds, and carrying a firearm without a D.C. license each carry a statutory maximum of 5 years in prison. The charges also carry potential financial penalties

• Maryland Man Convicted of All Charges for Actions During Capitol Breach

A Maryland man was convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges in federal court in the District of Columbia for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of Congress called to ascertain and validate the electoral college vote for the 2020 presidential election.

Christopher Alberts, 35, of Maryland, was found guilty yesterday of six felonies: civil disorder, assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers, disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon, entering and remaining on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, possessing a firearm on Capitol grounds, and possession of a firearm without a D.C. license, and three related misdemeanor: act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, engaging in violence in a restricted building or grounds. U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper scheduled a sentencing hearing for July19, 2023. The verdict followed a trial in the District of Columbia.

According to the government’s evidence, Alberts arrived at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 wearing a body armor vest containing metal plates, a two-way radio with a throat mic, and a military backpack containing eight bungee cords, a flashlight, a ski mask, a meal-ready-to-eat kit, a first aid kit, military trousers, and a pocket knife. Alberts carried in a holster a 9 millimeter pistol loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition and an additional bullet in the chamber. Alberts also wore a separate holster containing another 12 rounds of ammunition. The ammunition included “hollow point” bullets.

Disorderly conduct and entering and remaining on restricted grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon each carry a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison. Assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers carries a statutory maximum of 8 years in prison. The civil disorder charge, carrying a firearm on Capitol grounds, and carrying a firearm without a D.C. license each carry a statutory maximum of 5 years in prison. The charges also carry potential financial penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

There's really only one I'd like to see