Tag: January 6

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Capitol Insurrection January 6

Capitol Rioter Attempts To Suck Up To Judge And Gets His A*s Handed To Him

John Cameron thought he had the perfect way to curry favor with the federal judge who was about to hand down a sentence for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.

But the judge, according to The Washington Post, was not impressed:

“Can you guess who my favorite president is?” asked the man about to be sentenced for his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Senior Judge Thomas F. Hogan did not respond. So John Cameron, a real estate agent from the Seattle area, answered his own question. “Ronald Reagan,” he said during the hearing Monday, suggesting the judge might agree. Hogan was appointed to the federal bench in Washington by Reagan 40 years ago.

Cameron, 55, went on to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which Reagan made part of Flag Day ceremonies that same year.

Judge Hogan began asking Cameron questions about what he’d done on Jan. 6:

How, he asked, could Cameron claim to have seen no violence or clear sign he could not enter the Capitol during the riot? Did he not hear murderous chants and blaring alarms, smell tear gas, see people climbing up scaffolding and through windows? Did he think, as he said on Facebook, that it was all “fun”? And if so, was he withdrawing his plea to a misdemeanor charge?

Cameron sheepishly replied:

“No. I picketed within the Capitol, and that was illegal. … I would never do it again.”

The judge then let Cameron know exactly what he thought about yahoos who decided to break into the Capitol building and call for former Vice President Mike Pence to be hung:

“I keep hearing from Jan. 6 defendants, ‘We’re being prosecuted,’ like it’s a surprise, or ‘We’re being persecuted,’ like it’s unfair. I do not understand that psychology. What irritates me most is that all of you are claiming you’re patriots; you’re not patriots when you attack the Capitol of the United States.”

Cameron was sentenced to three years probation and 30 days of intermittent confinement, along with a $1,000 fine and $500 restitution.

Before he left the courtroom, Cameron also got this warning from Judge Hogan:

“If you had pleaded to a felony, I would just put you in jail for a long time. The court at least hopes that in this three-year period, you don’t engage in any such conduct again.”

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Crime Donald Trump January 6

Search Warrant For Trump Was About January 6, Not Classified Documents: Report

While multiple news outlets have reported that the search warrant served by the FBI at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida was as a result of his handling of classified documents he took from the White House, there is now a dissenting opinion regarding why the Justice Department authorized the move.

Writing in National Review, Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, says the real purpose of the search warrant was to obtain information about Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And he also makes clear this was not a “raid” as Trump and his defenders are calling it:

This was not a raid, in the sense of a lawless break-in. The FBI conducted a court-authorized search. For the FBI to have a search warrant, a federal prosecutor first had to write a search-warrant application, sworn to by an FBI agent, which convinced a federal judge that (a) one or more crimes probably occurred and (b) it was probable that evidence of those crimes would be found in the place the Justice Department was asking to search.

Does Trump have classified documents? McCarthy suspects he does, noting:

From the DOJ’s perspective, there was a probability that the classified documents Trump returned had for months been kept in an unauthorized place. Moreover, because Trump did not return to the National Archives everything that was shipped to Mar-a-Lago in January 2021, he likely still has classified documents it may be unlawful for him to possess.

But is the Justice Department really that interested in documents that might have been classified?

As a prosecutable crime, I am betting the Biden Justice Department is not very interested in this. The DOJ is very interested, however, in the Capitol riot, and it is under intense pressure from the Democratic base to charge Trump with crimes arising out of it.

McCarthy concludes that Justice is most interested in Trump and Jan. 6:

The Justice Department is trying to make a Capitol riot case, but Garland is not sure at this point that he has one he’s comfortable bringing. And since it would be explosive to signal that Trump is the subject of a Capitol riot investigation, the DOJ is trying to investigate him as such without saying so.

Which is a bigger crime: Hoarding classified documents or trying to carry out a coup? The answer to that question seems clear, and it probably did to the attorney general as well.

 

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Capitol Insurrection GOP January 6

Stephen Colbert Has A Hilarious New Nickname For Josh Hawley – And It’s Absolutely Perfect

The five days since last Thursday’s public hearing of the House Select Committee investigating January 6 have been especially bad ones for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who was exposed as a coward by the panel when it aired new video of him running away from rioters like a little boy who thinks he’s just seen the boogeyman.

That scene took place just hours after Hawley had given a raised fist salute to protesters as he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.

As you’d expect, reaction to the video of Hawley, especially when compared to his tough guy salute, has set off plenty of laughter on social media.

And now Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” has joined the mockery, giving Hawley a nickname that will likely stick with him for the remainder of his life and help assure he is never elected president, despite his reported ambitions to run for the White House in 2024.

HuffPost reports:

“This weekend, at the right-wing Turning Point USA Summit, we heard from Missouri senator and star of the new film ‘Fascist Gump’ Josh Hawley,” Colbert said Monday.

Colbert then played a clip of Hawley’s speech at the summit in which he proclaimed:

“I just want to say to all of those liberals out there and the liberal media, just in case you haven’t gotten the message yet: I do not regret it. And I am not backing down. I’m not going to apologize. I’m not going to cower. I’m not going to run from you.”

That led Colbert to counter:

“Yeah. He is never going to run from his enemies. In fact, here he is on January 6 bravely moonwalking into danger.”

 

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Capitol Insurrection January 6 Racism WTF?!

Mom Of Jan. 6 Rioter Ashli Babbitt Says A ‘Black Woman’ Would Have Been Treated Better Than Her Daughter

The mother of the late Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt is suggesting that if her daughter had been black, she might still be alive.

Speaking with former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani on his podcast, Micki Withoeft remarked:

“Nancy Pelosi sitting up there in her castle mad that the minions dared show up that day — well, you know there are a million strong people there to address their government and they made an attempt to kill the First Amendment. But the First Amendment isn’t dead. It’s wounded but it’s not dead. And people are startin’ to realize things that happened that day.”

The First Amendment, however, doesn’t give anyone the right to attack the seat of government and call for the vice president to be hanged.

And while Withoeft also claimed that her daughter did nothing wrong on January 6, the facts suggest otherwise, the Los Angeles Times notes:

In the seven months since she was killed, Babbitt has become a martyr to the far right. In the twisted revisionist narrative being pushed by former President Trump and his supporters, she was a peaceful demonstrator — an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman” — who was unjustifiably murdered by the police even though she posed no danger.

But that’s not what the video shows. Her death was a tragedy, to be sure — but it was hardly an unjustified murder.

Here’s how Babbitt managed to get herself killed:

Members of Congress can be seen on the other side of the door. Also on the other side of the door is a police lieutenant holding a gun, pointing it at the mob, an unmistakable warning to stay back.

But Babbit decides instead — although it’s a little hard to see on the video — to climb through the shattered glass window into the Speaker’s Lobby, past the police barricade, toward the pointed gun. If she is allowed through, it seems inevitable that the mob will follow.

As she climbs through, a single shot is fired and she drops to the floor.

If Ashli Babbitt didn’t want to get shot, she shouldn’t have rioted and gone against the orders of the cop who told her to stop. She’s the one who caused her death.

Here’s the podcast:

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Donald Trump January 6 Media in America

Murdoch-Owned Newspapers Destroy Trump With Scathing Op-Eds – Accuse Him Of ‘Incitement By Silence’

Both of the American newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation — The Wall Street Journal and New York Post — made it very clear in scathing op-eds that failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump has completely lost the support of the conservative media mogul and that Murdoch is ready for the Donald to disappear from the political scene as a result of his actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021.

The Wall Street Journal used this headline for their editorial,  “The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6,” writing:

“No matter your views of the Jan. 6 special committee, the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering. The most horrifying to date came Thursday in a hearing on President Trump’s conduct as the riot raged and he sat watching TV, posting inflammatory tweets and refusing to send help.”

The Journal’s editorial board continued:

“The committee’s critics are right that it lacks political balance. Still, the brute facts remain: Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out.

“Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his.”

The Post was equally critical of Trump:

“There has been much debate over whether Trump’s rally speech on Jan. 6, 2021, constituted ‘incitement.’ That’s somewhat of a red herring. What matters more — and has become crystal clear in recent days — is that Trump didn’t lift a finger to stop the violence that followed. And he was the only person who could stop what was happening. He was the only one the crowd was listening to. It was incitement by silence.”

Post editors wrote Trump’s political obituary by concluding:

“There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence. It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.”

The only reason Trump has any plans to run again is so he can forestall being prosecuted for his endless list of crimes. But it’s a long way to 2024, and we’ll know well before then whether or not he’s facing indictment and trial.

But for what it’s worth, Rupert Murdoch has clearly washed his hands of the Donald.