Posts

Capitol Rioters Using Trump As An Excuse In Court 

/in , /by

While Donald Trump himself was recently acquitted by the Senate for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, after being the first president to be impeached by the House twice, his supporters aren’t finding themselves so lucky. In fact, attorneys for at least seven of the rioters have referenced Trump in efforts to explain their clients actions. 

Matthew Ryan Miller was photographed discharging a fire extinguisher on the steps of the Capitol during the riot. At his hearing this past Tuesday, his attorney claimed that “his client was there at the behest of then-President Trump. Mr. Miller concedes he was on the Capitol grounds to protest along with thousands of other protesters and was merely following the directions of then-President Trump, the country’s chief law enforcement officer, and other speakers to march to the Capitol.”

Embed from Getty Images

Defense attorney for accused Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean wrote in a filing that Trump “egged on” his client. Dominic Pezzola, another accused Proud Boy, claimed that he was “duped and just responding to the entreaties of the then commander in chief.” 

Randy Zelin is a criminal defence attorney who claims that these attorney’s strategies are similar to an “advice of counsel” defense. “The tactic argues that a defendant couldn’t have had criminal intent if they were acting on advice from their attorney. Although Mr. Trump isn’t an attorney, there is a notion that if someone who makes the laws tells you what to do, someone could argue they had no intention to break the law.”

Zelin continued to explain that “The president of the United States telling you that it’s OK to do something or telling you to do something — that destroys your intention, your intent to commit a crime, because the president is telling you it’s OK. Basically, the argument is ‘I had no knowledge that I was breaking the law because I was told by the president of the United States to go ahead and do it.'”

Embed from Getty Images

Harry Litman is a former US attorney who, on the other hand, claimed blaming Trump in court would be extremely difficult for these accused rioters. “The ‘Trump made me do it’ defense is a real long-shot, legally, but the move could still be smart because it may create sympathy with jurors, and may even require Mr. Trump to be subpoenaed — a major logistical obstacle that could slow down a case and force prosecutors to drop to lesser charges,” Litman explained. 

At least one defendant has so far attempted to distance himself from the former president during his trial to argue that he can safely be released from jail. Christopher Ray Grider’s attorney released a memo that claimed his client “no longer cared about politics or who the President is.” 

Documents charging Kenneth Grayson show a social media post in which Grayson wrote “”I’m there for the greatest celebration of all time after Pence leads the Senate flip!! OR IM THERE IF TRUMP TELLS US TO STORM THE F***N CAPITAL IMA DO THAT THEN!”

Derrick Evans, a former lawmaker in West Virginia, has an official complaint filed against him that cites a tweet from Trump with the caption “This is why we are going to DC #StopTheSteal.” 

While Trump himself has avoided conviction for a second time by the US Senate after being impeached twice by the House, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed he was voted to be acquitted based on a constitutional limit of impeachment, not because Trump wasn’t to blame for the riot.

TV Host

Late-Night Hosts Discuss House Impeachment Proceedings And Trump’s Final Week In Office

/in , /by

This week late-night commentators and television hosts have spent their evenings discussing Donald Trump’s final week in office.

Read more
Capitol in DC

Capitol Rioters Wanted To ‘Capture And Assassinate’ Lawmakers, Prosecutors Claim

/in , /by

Federal law enforcement officers have been working non-stop since last Wednesday to get a greater understanding over what exactly transpired that allowed the riot at the Capitol to get so out of hand, and what was the actual plan for this mob should they have interacted with any US lawmakers or government officials. 

Officials are now claiming that they have found clues and evidence that points to one of the mob’s most distinctive figures, Jacob Anthony Chansley; the shirtless, tattooed man who many online have been referring to as “QAnon Shaman,” who stormed around the Capitol wearing a headdress made of coyote skin and buffalo horns. 

Embed from Getty Images

Federal prosecutors in Phoenix, Arizona submitted a court filing this Thursday that wrote that “strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.” 

The entire filing was 18-pages long, and included a request to the judge to keep Chansley detained before his trial. One of the biggest pieces of evidence working against Chansley right now is the fact that he left a note for Vice President Pence at his desk in the Senate chamber which read: “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

Chansley himself has personally called on President Donald Trump to pardon him for his crimes after his lawyer, Albert Watkins, claimed that Chansley acted in a “peaceful and compliant fashion” towards the law enforcement officials who have been running the investigation, and besides, Chansley only stormed the Capitol after Trump invited him and the rest of the mob to; according to Watkins. 

“He took seriously the countless messages of President Trump. He believed in President Trump. Like tens of millions of other Americans, Chansley felt — for the first time in his life — as though his voice was being heard.”

Embed from Getty Images

Law enforcement officials have warned that it’s likely there were multiple motives among the mob of those who stormed the Capitol, and an FBI investigation is currently in the works to determine whether some intended to do more than just disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. 

One man who was arrested was carrying a pistol and others were wearing tactical gear and were holding zip ties. Another individual was arrested after his truck was spotted near the Capitol building with 11 molotov cocktails inside. 

Trump has so far pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, and Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, before they were both sentenced. Within the past month the most action the president has done in terms of political policy has been a slew of pardons for his allies, friends, family, and fellow republicans. 

Prosecutors have pointed out that Chansley brought a weapon in the Capitol building, a spear, so the charges being presented aren’t to be taken lightly and his request to be pardoned should sound ridiculous to law enforcement. However, Chansley and every other Trump supporter present that day have forced America to have a much larger conversation over if Chansley was a person of color slinging a giant spear around the Capitol building, if the response would’ve been different.

The Capitol Building

US Olympic Champion Swimmer Klete Keller Identified At Capitol Riot

/in , /by

Klete Keller, the American Olympic swimmer who one two gold medals as a relay teammate of Michael Phelps, was identified as one of the Trump supporters who was inside the Capitol last week during the riot that occurred during the Electoral College vote proceedings. 

Popular swimming news website SwimSwam posted a report this week that alleged at least a dozen professional swimmers identified Keller due to the fact that he was wearing his US Olympic team jacket. The swimmers identified him after being sent a multitude of screenshots and videos from the riot.

Official USA Swimming did not respond when they were asked to confirm if the images from inside the Capitol were in fact Keller, but the images seemed relatively clear. Keller himself was recently reached out too by the press in order to get a confirmation or denial from the Olympic athlete but he has still yet to respond.

Embed from Getty Images

Keller currently works at a Colorado and Ohio-based real estate agency that was recently also contacted for a comment, however, the woman who answered the phone claimed that they “are not commenting on anything right now,” before hanging up. 

One of the videos circulating online, that was taken by a conservative news reporter, shows the man who has been identified as Keller in a crowd of individuals that police officers were attempting to push towards any of the Capitol exits. 

Keller has previously made headlines for more Olympic related reasons; such as when he held off Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe on the anchor leg of the 4×200 meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Athens Games, securing him and the US with a gold medal. He’s a five-time Olympic medalist in general and at the height of his career was one of the swimmers to watch at the Games. 

Embed from Getty Images

SwimmingWorld is another professional swimmer news site that confirmed with sources that Keller was seen inside the US Capitol during the riot last week. The sources also claim that the videos where Keller is seen don’t show him acting violently in any way, however, the fact that he was present among a crowd of domestic terrorists who stormed one of the most historic government buildings in the US is incredibly disheartening for Olympic fans who believe that these athletes are meant to be upholding the sanctity of the US and its democracy, not actively trying to destroy it. 

According to the New York Times Keller has deleted all of his social media accounts following the riot last week and the exposure of his involvement. In recent years Keller’s social media has apparently been saturated with pro-Trump rhetoric as well. 

As most Americans have already seen last week Trump exhorted thousands of his supporters who were at the Capitol, not wearing masks or socially distancing, which prompted them to erupt in a riot of violence, vandalism, and domestic terror. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died as a result of the rampage, and the FBI and Department of Justice is currently investigating and making dozens of arrests in relation to last weeks dark day.

US Capitol Building

Black Lives Matter Activists Call Out Double Standard Of Police Response In Capitol Riots

/in , /by

Hundreds of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol building yesterday after the current president encouraged the crowd to not back down from fighting one of the “most fraudulent elections in US history,” despite the past two months of evidence disputing every single one of Trump’s claims. 

Rioters broke windows, destroyed offices, vandalized government property, and looted, causing social media to blow up with claims of double standards and the obvious white privilege that these individuals carried to be able to simply walk into what was thought to be one of the most secure buildings in the US. 

Beyond that, many began posting images from the past year of peaceful Black Lives Matter protests that turned violent due to police and military presence alone. Hundreds of thousands of videos began recirculating of the national guard and police throughout America tear gassing, shooting, and assaulting peaceful protesters for simply expressing their first amendment rights, yet dozens of white Trump supporters were able to simply walk in and out of the Capitol as they pleased. 

Embed from Getty Images

One of the most impactful images shared showed the Capitol building steps this summer covered with National Guard troops in preparation for a DC Black Lives Matter protest; prompting many to question where the Guard was yesterday, especially since the DC Mayor called on them two days ago in anticipation of these riots. 

The Black Lives Matter Global Network released a powerful statement about the blatant racism and white supremacy that was exemplified with yesterdays act of domestic terrorism. They stated that the riot was just “one more example of the hypocrisy in our country’s law enforcement response to protest,” and unfortunately, no one was surprised. 

“When Black people protest for our lives, we are all too often met by National Guard troops or police equipped with assault rifles, shields, tear gas and battle helmets. Make no mistake, if the protesters were Black, we would have been tear gassed, battered, and perhaps shot.”

Videos online began circulating of the DC National Guard and police armed and wearing camouflage uniforms on the steps of the Lincoln memorial during a peaceful protest following several days of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the city; rioters made it into the Capitol yesterday and remained there for hours before the National Guard was activated.

Embed from Getty Images

The DC Mayor also implemented a 6 p.m. curfew when the Capitol first was stormed, however footage showed hundreds of Trump supporters still outside the Capitol building long after that curfew had passed. If we remember back to the Black Lives Matter protests this summer, the police would pull people walking home from work off the street and arrest them for being out past curfew. 

There’s also another double standard in the way in which political leaders and media outlets report on these protests and riots. When it was Black Lives Matter protests turning violent due to an aggressive police presence shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at non-threatening protesters, the narrative turned into one where the protesters were the ones inciting violence and leaving the police with no choice but to control the crowd violently. 

When we look at what was going on yesterday, Republican commentators and leaders immediately took to Twitter and told the rioters not to “become like the other side,” immediately shifting the blame from the domestic terrorists who destroyed federal property to individuals on the other side who “would’ve responded the same way.” 

The reality is it was Trump’s supporters who enacted so much violence and made dark history by storming a federal government building to protest a legitimate election. So far four individuals have died and 53 have been arrested. The FBI has opened an investigation and will be reviewing every picture and video posted online of those who were in the building, and time will tell how they will all be charged.

Biden 2020

Congress Certifies Joe Biden’s Presidential Victory After Capitol Riot

/in , /by

This time yesterday Congress was gearing up to count the Electoral College votes and confirm Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States when a mob of violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building after the current President spoke with the crowd and encouraged them to not back down.

Read more