2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[N.E. Brigand]

Today a judge issued the longest sentence yet for a January 6th participant: a Pennsylvania man named Peter Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years and 2 months. He had a long criminal record and had been convicted five months ago "on 13 counts, including four counts for attacking police with dangerous weapons and three other weapon-related felonies" during the attack on the Capitol. The Department of Justice had asked the judge to sentence him to more than 24 years. (Edited to note that V posted about this before I did.)

Speaking of the attack on the Capitol, here in Cleveland today, former Attorney General William Barr said that "January 6th was a clown show" and "there was no threat" from that day's rioters comparable to the "threat to democracy ... coming from the progressive side." This is one day after four members of an organization allied with Barr's former boss were convicted of seditious conspiracy. (Video here.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And, right on cue,

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Wow. Newly released video footage from January 6th with one hell of a metaphor at the end:

[N.E. Brigand]

A Navy contractor (and former Naval Reserve petty officer) named Hatchet Speed, who was a member of the Proud Boys, was convicted in a bench trial in early March on five counts, including obstructing Congress, for his actions on January 6, 2021. A year after the insurrection, Speed had explicitly told an undercover FBI agent that he went into the Capitol and "took control" after hearing that Vice President Pence wasn't going to stop the Electoral Vote count because, Speed said, "I have no respect for people in this building."

Speed has already been convicted in January in a federal court in Virginia for an unrelated weapons charge. Last month, he received a three-year sentence for that.

Next week Speed will be sentenced for the obstruction counts. The Dept. of Justice is requesting that he be sentenced to four years, bringing his total to seven. Their sentencing memo notes that Speed "became enamored with Hitler and apparently developed a world view where he and other Proud Boys were modern-day Nazis fighting to save white Christians from multiple 'enemies.'" They offer multiple examples of Speed holding up Hitler's Brownshirts as a positive example of what the Proud Boys should be.

As a reservist and contractor, Speed held Top Secret clearance.

Hatchet Speed was indeed sentenced to four years for his actions on Jan. 6th, to run consecutively to the three years he was sentenced on weapons charges. The judge who convicted and sentenced him, Trevor McFadden, has generally given shorter sentences to Jan. 6th defendants than other judges have done (apparently because McFadden feels that the government -- during Donald Trump's administration, mind you -- didn't do enough to prosecute rioters associated with Black Lives Matter protests across the country). Not this time.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The argument in Robertson’s case came just a month after a split decision by a different panel of the D.C. Circuit considering several Jan. 6 defendants’ challenge to the obstruction law resulted in a muddle.

But Thursday’s argument suggested that the appeals court may be on the way to clarifying the issue in favor of the government. The panel’s two liberal judges — Cornelia Pillard and Florence Pan — indicated they leaned toward a broader definition of “corruptly,” one that would capture the open attempt by Jan. 6 rioters to derail the electoral college proceedings that day.

The panel’s lone conservative, Karen Henderson, said she leaned toward the narrower view but noted that she was likely to be “the minority” on the panel. But even Henderson bristled at the notion, raised by the defense counsel in the case, that “corruptly” obstructing required secrecy, like a backroom deal or quid pro quo.

“I think I could name several political figures who have been openly corrupt,” Henderson said. “I won’t, but we’ll disagree about that.”

[N.E. Brigand]

Speaking of Nick Fuentes, here he is promising to give the most "racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying speech in Dallas" this weekend.

"Anti-Semitic" and "Holocaust denying" got the loudest cheers. The level of anti-Semitism in the current discourse really is an absolute disgrace.

A prominent staffer in the office of Rep. Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, is a follower of racist commentator Nick Fuentes. Wade Searle, who is Gosar's digital director, pledged his "undying allegiance" to Fuentes in May 2022 and swore he would "defend the white race." This information was published two days ago, but the staffer has yet to be fired.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This:


And this:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Also in Georgia, with regard to Trump's ridiculous motion to strike the special grand jury report and recuse Fani Willis from the case, last week they made an incredibly brazen request to be given 21 days to file a reply brief in response to the opposition that Willis' office filed. Normally, a reply brief would be due just a few days after the opposition brief. I expected the judge to tersely order any reply brief to by filed within a week or less, but he went a lot further than that.



Also a group of federal and Georgia former prosecutors have filed an amicus brief opposing Trump's ridiculous motion.

[RoseMorninStar]

Shane Lamond

[N.E. Brigand]

Also in Georgia, with regard to Trump's ridiculous motion to strike the special grand jury report and recuse Fani Willis from the case, last week they made an incredibly brazen request to be given 21 days to file a reply brief in response to the opposition that Willis' office filed. Normally, a reply brief would be due just a few days after the opposition brief. I expected the judge to tersely order any reply brief to by filed within a week or less, but he went a lot further than that.
...
Also a group of federal and Georgia former prosecutors have filed an amicus brief opposing Trump's ridiculous motion.

"That is plenty." Love that!

This:

Ford Fischer, a documentary filmmaker, has some interesting thoughts about Officer Lamond's role in the events of January 6th. Lamond isn't charged for anything directly related to that day (yet), but Fischer speculates, fairly reasonably in my view, that Lamond and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio conspired prior to January 6, 2021. Lamond deleted more than 100 messages he and Tarrio exchanged. The charges against Lamond pertain to his having tipped off Tarrio on Jan. 4th that he would be arrested upon arriving in D.C.; that arrest led to Tarrio being expelled from the city. As you may recall, on Dec. 12, 2020, the Proud Boys had torn down a Black Lives Matter from a D.C. church and set it on fire. Tarrio himself seems only to have observed those events, but it appears that he left an anonymous message for police claiming that he was the perpetrator. This had the effect of ensuring that Tarrio would be legally barred from personally attending the events of Jan. 6th while also taking the heat off the Proud Boys who had actually stolen and burned the banner. (Fischer doesn't mention it, but Dec. 12 is also the date on which Tarrio somehow got a White House tour.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I agree that it is highly likely that Lamond and Tarrio conspired prior to 1/6, but I think it is fairly unlikely that enough evidence will be found to charge him for that. We'll see.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I will post this with the caveat that, like others, I am very skeptical that Meadows is actually cooperating.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

This is what happened today, isn't it?

18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 808; July 24, 1956, ch. 678, § 1, 70 Stat. 623; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(N), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)

There will be people charged with sedition for this, right?

I'm sure I picked the idea up from some media commentator (although I think I actually found the text of the code myself). Borrowed or not: that post was made Jan. 7th, 2021 at 2:28 p.m. EST, when I hadn't yet gone to bed, so I made that point on the very day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Today a number of Oath Keepers are being sentenced for their actions on January 6th, some of whom were convicted for seditious conspiracy.

"Just because she was arguably a terrorist attempting to overthrow the United States government doesn't mean she presented an imminent threat to that officer."

For god's sakes, unless these people were threatening people's lives, which to my knowledge almost none of them were, they were NOT TERRORISTS. I'm so disgusted by this line of thought. What that group did was shocking and frightening, but a mostly unarmed and unorganized mob rushing into a building is mostly just trespassing, with a few cases of vandalism. Trespassing and minor vandalism DO NOT qualify as terrorism, and they most certainly aren't crimes worthy of killing over.

The quoted text referring to Ashli Babbitt is mine. Her criminal status will never be adjudicated. But in the course of today's sentencing, the judge in the case ruled that a terrorism enhancement applies to the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. At least some of the January 6th attackers were indeed terrorists.

Edited to add: Stewart Rhodes was just sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. The government had asked for 25 years. Even so, this is the longest sentence to date -- about four years longer than Peter Schwartz received for assaulting police officers -- in connection to the January 6th insurrection.

[N.E. Brigand]

... Today a number of Oath Keepers are being sentenced for their actions on January 6th, some of whom were convicted for seditious conspiracy. ... in the course of today's sentencing, the judge in the case ruled that a terrorism enhancement applies to the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. At least some of the January 6th attackers were indeed terrorists.

Edited to add: Stewart Rhodes was just sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. The government had asked for 25 years. Even so, this is the longest sentence to date -- about four years longer than Peter Schwartz received for assaulting police officers -- in connection to the January 6th insurrection.

Remember: the Oath Keepers were officially in D.C. that day to provide security for Donald Trump's longtime associate, Roger Stone, who had been convicted in 2019 of lying to federal investigators about his knowledge of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and whom Trump had pardoned for that crime just two weeks before January 6th.

Here's what the judge said before pronouncing the sentence: "I dare say, Mr. Rhodes, and I have never said this to anyone I have sentenced: You, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country, the republic and the very fabric of democracy."

[N.E. Brigand]

Judge Mehta has also determined that Oath Keeper member Kelly Meggs is a terrorist. Sentence to be announced shortly. The range is 15-20 years. The judge departed downward from that for Stewart Rhodes (whose range was 22-27 years, but he only got 18 years). My guess: 12 years.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Right on the money.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Actually, the charges pending against Paxton are state securities fraud charges, not federal charges. So a pardon is not going to do him any good with regard to the existing charges. As for the bribery allegations, who knows what will happen with those; they should also lead to state charges, but since he is the head of Texas's judicial system currently, that seems unlikely.

Oops. I apologize for the error, and I thank you for the correction. I was confusing the two federal civil enforcement actions filed by the SEC against Paxton in 2016 and 2017, both of which were dismissed (the second time with prejudice), with the state criminal charges filed in 2015 against Paxton for the same conduct. Charges for which he has yet to go on trial, five years later.

Since this thread is still active for other reasons, I'll use it to note that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today reached a $3.3 million settlement with four former employees who had reported to the FBI about possible crimes that Paxton may have committed.

This seems a convenient place to follow-up on the tale of Ken Paxton.