2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is extremely unlikely that Smith would be pursuing a federal RICO case. The only likely RICO case will be in Georgia, which has a much broader RICO statute than the federal law.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

4 of 5 Proud Boys have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This thread lays the complicated verdict (and ongoing deliberations).

[N.E. Brigand]

Seems like a thoughtful jury taking their responsibilities seriously.

Glad to see they found the fifth Proud Boy, Dominic Pezzola, guilty of armed robbery for stealing a shield from a police officer.

Very glad they found Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, guilty of seditious conspiracy even though he wasn't in D.C. on January 6th (because he was arrested on other charges the day before and ordered to leave town). Stand back and stand by.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Stand back and stand by.

Indeed. Now let's hold the person who said that responsible.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Edit: The White House says that the leader of the neofascist Proud Boys, who posted a picture of himself at the White House today and said that he had been invited there, was only there as part of a public tour and was not invited. So I'm deleting the picture (which had been shared by a number of journalists).
[...]
Late update: the events continued into the evening, and as we have seen so often with rallies and protests this year, things got worse after dark. A Washington Post reporter writes of the Proud Boys tonight that "hundreds of them are roaming D.C., clashing with anti-Trump protesters -- punching, kicking, wrestling. When one fight ends, another begins." Here you can see video of some Proud Boys stealing a Black Lives Matter from the Asbury United Methodist Church and then setting it on fire. And here a confrontation with a lone counter-protester surrounded by a group of Proud Boys turns violent when one of them knocks him on the head and he then stabs one of them.

Regarding the edited passage above, I may have been too quick to correct myself. Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, shared a picture Saturday on social media of himself visiting the White House that day. Friends of his said he had been invited. I posted the photo here with some comments about how Donald Trump had declined to condemn the Proud Boys during his first debate with Joe Biden. Instead Trump urged the group to "stand back and stand by" -- a phrase the group then adopted as a motto. But then the White House said that Tarrio was only there as part of a public tour, which anyone can sign up for. So I deleted the photo and most of my comments. However, Salon reports that you have to sign up for the tour 21 days in advance so that White House security has time to vet potential visitors. People with felony convictions are not permitted to enter "unless a senior member of the administration intervenes." Even former convicts working with the White House on issues like criminal justice reform, even those who have received pardons, have been denied entry in the past. Tarrio has multiple felony convictions. We don't know why he was admitted. It could just be incompetence. But it can't be dismissed as easily as I thought.

At a rally in Texas tonight, Donald Trump said this: "If I run and I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly, we will treat them fairly and if it requires pardons, then we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly." This is him repeating what he did regarding the Russia investigation: the message he means to convey is that those people who don't flip on him will be pardoned should he become president again. In other words, he's flirting with obstruction of justice all over again. Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander and Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio have both already shared Trump's message tonight on social media.

Enrique Tarrio, the founder of the Proud Boys, was charged today with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. This came in a superseding indictment for five other Proud Boys members who had previously been charged for their role in the January 6th insurrection. Tarrio himself was not at the Capitol. He had been arrested two days earlier, on a charge of destruction of property for having burned a "Black Lives Matter" banner in D.C. on December 12, 2020. He was released on January 5, 2021 with the stipulation that he not return to D.C. He later served five months on that charge.

The indictment alleges that Tarrio and the others began planning for an occupation of federal buildings in late December 2020 and also that Tarrio coordinated with Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers who was charged last month with seditious conspiracy for his role in the insurrection. The group's plan was to get so many people at the Capitol that police would be overwhelmed. One message in a Proud Boys chat was: "They would do nothing because they can do nothing." Remember that police officers said during the Insurrection that they dare not draw their guns because the crowd would probably kill them if they did.

As noted in the first quoted post above, Tarrio also visited the White House on December 12, 2020. The White House said that he was there as part of a public tour, but other reporting claimed that shouldn't have been possible under normal White House security procedures, because Tarrio was already a convicted felon. And as noted in the second quoted post above, just six weeks ago, Tarrio was sharing Donald Trump's message that he would pardon the insurrectionists. To me, it appears that Enrique Tarrio and Donald Trump are currently engaged in an ongoing conspiracy. As I see it, Trump is doing with the Proud Boys leadership just what he did with Paul Manafort: he's encouraging them to keep their mouths shut in exchange for a later pardon after their silence helps him win back the presidency. Just because they're doing it in public doesn't mean it's not a crime.

We never did get a full explanation of how Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader who was convicted today of seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, was able to tour the White House in December 2020 despite being a convicted felon. I wonder if those photo was taken before or after that:

[Sunsilver]

N.B. that could not have been an official tour, as tours were suspended due to COVID.

Speaking of tours, you know about this, right? I'm sure this has been shared in this thread before, so just a reminder...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... 6-attacker

The video footage taken at the time could easily have been shared with the Proud Boys and others involved in the riot.

Also, from the WaPo:

Last week, a group of Democrats asked congressional security officials to investigate “suspicious behavior and access given to visitors” one day before the Jan. 6 attack. In the days before the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building, the Democrats said, lawmakers and their staffers witnessed an “extremely high number of outside groups” touring the Capitol, which closed its doors to the public in March as a coronavirus precaution.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... tol-riots/

It's also been mentioned how this man, who was on the tour, is recording/taking photos of staircases and entrances using more than one cell phone. He obviously is intending to share the pictures with someone else.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Nice handy chart from Roger Parloff:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Finally, a motion for a mistrial that is unopposed!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Hung jury on all remaining counts. Jury dismissed.

[N.E. Brigand]

The government's theory of the case was that the Proud Boys hatched a plan to overturn the election results by using other people as "tools" to breach the Capitol. It appears the jury felt that Pezzola was one of those tools.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And they convicted Pezzola on enough other charges to send him to prison for a long time.

Here is Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking about the verdict, about the range of convictions that they have obtained regarding January 6, and warning certain people "our work will continue."

[N.E. Brigand]

Nice handy chart from Roger Parloff ...

Roger Parloff updated his chart after the jury's final verdict:



Interesting that Dominic Pezzola, despite not being found guilty of seditious conspiracy or conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, actually was convicted on more felony counts than the other four! I know sentencing is many months away, but: since they were tried together, should we expect them all to be sentenced at the same time?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I think so, but I don't know for sure.

[N.E. Brigand]

Don't miss Glenn Greenwald doing his part for Fox:



Of course, next week CNN will be hosting the top insurrectionist for a town hall campaign event.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I found this quite interesting.

[N.E. Brigand]

"Eight of the 16 Trump fake electors in Georgia have accepted immunity deals in the Fulton County DA investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, per new filing from their lawyer."

That would be the lawyer, Kimberly Debrow, whom Fulton County's District Attorney, Fani Willis, had sought to disqualify.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is odd to me that the 8 fake electors who accepted the immunity deals are the ones on whose behalf the filing is being made opposing the disqualification motion. There is something that is not adding up here.

_________________________

Meanwhile, the longest sentence yet has been imposed in a 1/6 case. However, I suspect that may change later this month when Stewart Rhodes and the others convicted of seditious conspiracy in the first Oathkeepers trial are sentenced. And again when Tarrio et al. are sentenced.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Back to the fake electors, there is this interesting detail: