January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

[Crumpets]

It seems excessive to keep bumping the original thread, so I'm making a new one for any news on arrests, investigations, and court cases related to January 6th. I think we'd all prefer one thread to a new thread for every update while also not making the original thread hundreds of pages long.

Some recent updates:

https://twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC/status/1404880500091756548

Meanwhile, the guy who broke into Pelosi's office:

https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1404168430324965378

Also from Los Angeles Daily News: Former congressman Dana Rohrabacher breached Capitol police barricades on Jan. 6

Newly released footage from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol shows former Orange County Congressman Dana Rohrabacher joined a crowd that crossed police barricades, making him the highest profile politician known to be on the ground that day.

Rohrabacher is not among the 500-plus people who’ve been charged with crimes connected to Jan. 6, and there’s no evidence he entered the Capitol building or participated in any of the violence that unfolded.

He didn’t respond to requests to speak for this story, though he told the Press Herald in Maine that he marched peacefully Jan. 6 and “was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.”

But online critics also are pointing to a speech Rohrabacher gave during a “Stop the Steal” rally in Huntington Beach a few weeks before the insurrection, where he referenced the Revolutionary War and told the cheering crowd that “Communists” were trying to “take control of our government.”

‘This is your crisis, patriots,” he said in video posted to his Facebook page. “…It’s all up to us.”

[Crumpets]

Lol:

Daily Beast: ‘Vanilla Kind of Guy’: Lawyer Roasts Capitol Rioter in Bid to Keep Him From Jail

Russell Taylor, a 40-year-old from Ladera Ranch, is among six men federally indicted last week on a slew of charges, including conspiracy, for their role in the Capitol riot. Prosecutors allege the group, which contained at least four Three Percenters militia group members, arrived in D.C. armed with weapons, bear spray, and two-way radios in preparation for the siege.

...

Prosecutors argue Taylor joined a “mob of protesters” to attack law enforcement officers attempting to secure the Capitol—while armed with a knife—and he should be kept in pre-trial detention.

But his defense team had a different theory on Tuesday: the family man simply had too much time on his hands during the coronavirus pandemic and acted out.

“He’s kind of boring, this is probably the most exciting thing that’ll happen in his life,” Taylor’s lawyer, Dyke Huish, said during a Tuesday detention hearing. “Really he’s kind of a vanilla kind of guy—though admittedly he was upset about the masks.”

Huish describing his client as “moderately successful,” and a religious man who doesn’t drink and went to Brigham Young University. He insisted that Taylor’s actions during the insurrection were unique and spurred by his anger over the state-wide lockdown and mask mandate. He denied that Taylor is a militiaman—just that his documented violent actions were misunderstood.

[Crumpets]

New visual investigation from NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007606996/capitol-riot-trump-supporters.html

[Crumpets]

Here's the NYT report without a paywall. Lots of new footage and context.

One interesting suggestion from this video is that House Staff and security giving Rep. Jim McGovern the go-ahead to continue with hearing objections to Arizona's electors in the House after the Senate had already been evacuated and rioters were in the building directly contributed to the death of Ashli Babbit by ensuring the evacuation of the House took place much closer to the front of the mob than it otherwise could have.

[Crumpets]

The fences around most of the Capitol are coming down.

https://twitter.com/mmillerwtop/status/1414296201818779655

[Crumpets]

The headline says it all.

A Capitol rioter's bail was revoked after he left his probation officer 'frightening' voicemails about the size of his genitalia

I don't know if the second "his" in the headline refers to the rioter or the probation officer, but either way it's hilarious.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1417120791804645381

[Crumpets]

Hodgkins got 8 months in prison.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1417250273794301961

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1417250273794301961

Oh dear God.

I do think there's a silver lining here, which is that nobody can claim this committee isn't bipartisan enough or full of RINOs. At least nobody who could have any sway over turnout or independents.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/JanNWolfe/status/1422962033281089540

[Crumpets]

LOL, one of the rioter's own mother bragged on Facebook about how her son stormed the Capitol, other relatives sent screenshots to the FBI who then arrested him: https://deadstate.org/mom-of-capitol-rioter-brags-about-him-storming-the-capitol-on-social-media-fbi-promptly-arrests-him

This guy's Facebook profile is still up. Take a gander while you can:

https://www.facebook.com/tyler.w.slaeker

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1425849355131670532

https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1425856978367270922

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1433525418854916100

[Crumpets]

I've only seen this one report, so probably worth waiting for confirmation, but worth a post.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1434233350940774402

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1450611574331346946

[Crumpets]

Just goes to show how important random unelected government positions can be, like whoever that's referencing at the National Archives. Sure it would have taken more than one person on the inside to make it work, but for the first one they reached outside the state helped put a stop to it early. Call it the Deep State or whatever, it's one of the strongest buffers we have against both quick and decisive change for good and well-organized, methodical attempts to tear things apart.

[Crumpets]

So much for keeping that oath, I suppose.

But one big thing this should show us is that we do not need new anti-domestic terrorism legislation to be able to seriously prosecute groups like this. We just need to properly investigate and charge them under the existing laws. And something tells me if Republicans tried to charge "the leader of Antifa" under this same statute as a reprisal, they'll find that a bit tough to pull off.

[Crumpets]

So what are everyone’s official predictions?

The committee is called to order, the witness comes in, it's someone nobody recognizes. Liz Cheney says "we understand you have some information regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election." [Witness in an altered voice] "I do."

The witness then does the Tom Cruise face peel to reveal Donald Trump. "My fellow Americans, the storm is upon us."

The committee reacts in shock, armed agents swarm in and put them in handcuffs. Cameras pan in on Trump. "You didn't think I'd want to miss out on all the fun, did you?"

[Crumpets]

But actually if I had to make a guess, I know Ali Alexander gave a bunch of testimony recently, and he seems like someone who could at least overturn new stones that haven't been looked at before. So maybe some other Proud Boy who has flipped and has receipts about direct communications with other important people?

[Crumpets]

Hutchinson is currently testifying that Trump was upset at the crowd size at the Ellipse (surprise, surprise) and was trying to get the organizers to take down the metal detectors people had to pass through to get in because he knew there were armed people outside the rally's perimeter, and he wanted to let them in. He said he knew they weren't there to hurt him and "they can march to the Capitol when the rally's over."

[Crumpets]

Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the truck that transported him from the rally to force them to take him to the Capitol, and, according to a third-party witness (i.e. not Hutchinson), lunged at someone (the driver?) and apparently tried to choke him?! We had better get whoever the source for that story is subpoenaed stat.

[Crumpets]

Trump threw his lunch at the wall. Hutchinson had to clean the ketchup off the wall. Hutchinson was aware of "several times" Trump had previously thrown his food or pulled the tablecloth off the table when he had had temper tantrums.

[Crumpets]

For the record, Fox is covering this.

[Crumpets]

Fox just had to broadcast Laura Ingraham's texts to Meadows telling Trump to call off the attackers.