Deep Politics Forum

Klete Keller

• Age: 38
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/2021
  
• Home state: Colorado
  

Charges
Obstructing law enforcement engaged in official duties incident to civil disorder; Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
What happened
Olympic gold-medal swimmer Klete Keller was arrested after being identified in video from the Capitol riot. At 6-foot-6, Keller is a five-time Olympic medalist and three-time Olympian. His height helped the FBI identify him after SwimSwam published a story confirming Keller was in footage shot by TownHall. Keller wore a jacket with a U.S. Olympic patch in the video.
Keller had been listed as a real estate agent at Hoff & Leigh in Colorado, which issued a statement the day before Keller's arrest that he had resigned.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee responded to reports of Keller's presence at the Capitol before his arrest without naming him. CEO Sarah Hirshland said, "I strongly condemn the actions of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol. They do not represent the values of the United States of America or of Team USA."
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Robert Keith Packer

• Age: 56
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/21
  
• Home state: Virginia
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry or disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
What happened
The "Camp Auschwitz" shirt Robert K. Packer was photographed wearing at the Capitol riots ultimately helped lead to his identification and arrest. In an affidavit accompanying an arrest warrant, the FBI noted they received a tip because someone in the community recognized Packer and had seen him wearing the shirt in the past.
The complaint noted the shirt, with a human skull and the phrase "Work brings freedom" appears to be a symbol of Nazi hate ideology.
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Kevin J. Lyons

• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/2021
  
• Home state: Illinois
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Lyons posted a photo of a map to his Instagram on Jan. 5, saying: "I refuse to tell my children that I sat back and did nothing. I'm heading to DC to STOP THE STEAL!! #MAGA #KAG."
The arrest complaint states that he later posted a photo from the Capitol of a sign over the door to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office with a comment saying "WHOS HOUSE?!?!? OUR HOUSE!!"
Two days later, two FBI agents who interviewed Lyons at his home reported that he was evasive about whether he entered the Capitol, telling them he dreamed it and that in the dream, "people really didn't have much choice of where they were going because of the mob." When the agents asked to see his phone, he showed the officers the photo he posted on Instagram and agreed to upload two videos he recorded inside the Capitol to YouTube and email them the link. He eventually told the agents he had walked up the Capitol stairs and entered through its rear doors. He said he went into Pelosi's office where an armed police officer told him to get out.
Jenny Cudd

• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/2021
  
• Home state: Texas
  

Charges
Restricted building or grounds; Violent entry or disorderly conduct
What happened
A former candidate for mayor in Midland, Texas, Jenny Cudd, wearing a Trump flag as a cape, posted a video saying: “We did break down Nancy Pelosi’s office door.”
“I’m proud of everything I was a part of today,” the florist shop owner stated in another video clip. “The government serves at the consent of the governed. Well, the governed are pissed off.”
The Midland Reporter Telegram reported that Cudd said she didn't do anything unlawful. The newspaper also reported Cudd said: “When (Vice President) Pence betrayed us is when we decided to storm the Capitol.”
According to court records, the FBI tracked Cudd and Eliel Rosa, whom she was later arrested with, as they walked through the Capitol rotunda on the day of the riot.
Eliel Rosa

• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/2021
  
• Home state: Texas
  

Charges
Restricted building or grounds; Violent entry or disorderly conduct
What happened
Rosa was arrested with Jenny Cudd, who was photographed with him in the Capitol rotunda. Cudd, a former mayoral candidate in Midland, Texas, appeared in Facebook videos and in photos admitting to entering the Capitol. In a Facebook video, she said, "We did break down the Nancy Pelosi’s office door."
The FBI tracked Rosa and Cudd's movements in the rotunda using surveillance footage. In an interview with the FBI two days after the riot, Rosa admitted he and Cudd entered the Capitol.
Albert Ciarpelli

• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/2021
  
• Home state: New York
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Albert Ciarpelli drove from Syracuse to Washington, D.C. to attend the rally. After the rally he joined the crowd walking toward the Capitol, according to his statements to FBI agents. When he got there, he said he found a small door to the right of the main entrance open and he walked in and began taking pictures.
Ciarpelli told agents he took his time inside the building sight-seeing, and considered it a "little adventure." After 15 minutes, he felt he shouldn't be there and decided to leave. He told the agents when he tried to leave he got caught up in a mob pushing its way into the building.
When thinking back to that day, agents said he stated he was out of his mind and had never done anything like that before. He told them that on Oct. 28, he bought flights to Washington to attend the inauguration with his wife and a family member, but recently cancelled them.
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Robert Sanford

• Age: 55
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/13/21
  
• Home state: Pennsylvania
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Disorderly or disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds; Civil disorder; Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers while engaged in the performance of official duties
What happened
After reviewing video footage and receiving a tip, the FBI identified Sanford as the man shown on video heaving a fire extinguisher from an elevated position on the Capitol steps toward a line of officers who were trying to hold back a mob of rioters. According to charging documents, the extinguisher ricocheted and hit three officers in the head, two of whom were wearing a helmet and one who was not.
The FBI received a tip from a friend of Sanford's who identified Sanford and said he had confessed that the FBI was looking for him, according to the documents. The friend told the agency Sanford recently retired from the Chester Fire Department.
Video taken that day captured Sanford wearing a knit cap with the letters “CFD” on the front, and the person who alerted the FBI confirmed it was Sanford. The tipster told the FBI Sanford said he was on the Capitol grounds that day.
Officials told the Wall Street Journal that the extinguisher Sanford is alleged to have thrown is different from the one that killed Officer Brian Sicknick.
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Andrew Williams

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/2021
  
• Home state: Florida
  

Charges
Disorderly conduct
What happened
Andrew Williams, a firefighter and paramedic with the city of Sanford, Florida, was arrested Jan. 12 and charged with disorderly conduct in the Capitol riot.
After Williams was spotted in viral photos from the riot, the city opened an investigation the next day.
Orlando's WESH 2 NBC affiliate reported his attorney said: "The President and the Capitol Police encouraged despicable behavior."
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Kevin D. Loftus

• Age: 52
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/2021
  
• Home state: Wisconsin
  

Charges
Unlawful entry; disorderly conduct
What happened
The Associated Press reported Loftus was charged with illegal entry and disorderly conduct on the grounds of the Capitol. Court documents stated Loftus posted on social media that he was "one of 700 inside" the Capitol.
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Josiah Colt

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/2021
  
• Home state: Idaho
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
CBS2 News, the affiliate in Boise, Idaho, reported Josiah Colt turned himself in at the Ada County Sheriff's Office on Jan. 12.
The FBI had posted a photo of him. In one photo, he’s clinging with one hand onto a ledge over the Latin inscription “Annuit coeptis,” which means “God has favored our undertakings.”
According to court records, the FBI confirmed Colt's identity in a phone interview with a relative.
Colt issued a statement apologizing, saying he loved America and its people. “I recognize my actions that have brought shame upon myself, my family, my friends, and my beautiful country. In the moment I thought I was doing the right thing."
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William Watson

• Age: 23
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/2021
  
• Home state: Alabama
  

Charges
Bond revoked
What happened
The Associated Press reported that Watson was arrested in Alabama because he violated a previous bond when he traveled out of state. A CBS affiliate for eastern Alabama said authorities recognized Watson by the distinctive tattoos on his hand, and from photos of him wearing a tan or yelllow sweatshirt standing next to the man with the horned hat. The TV station reported federal authorities accompanied Auburn Police when they arrested Watson.
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Thomas Baranyi

• Age: 29
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/21
  
• Home state: New Jersey
  

Charges
Restricted building or grounds; Violent entry or disorderly conduct
What happened
Baranyi identified himself in a WUSA-9 interview after the riot, telling a reporter that he was in the Capitol and near where a woman was shot. That woman was later identified as 35-year-old Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.
According to court records, the FBI reviewed video clips the Washington Post published of that shooting and identified Baranyi by matching him to his drivers license and his clothing and backpack to the interview clip. The video showed Baranyi standing near the door to the Speaker's Lobby, where Babbitt was shot.
Court records note that in Baranyi's WUSA-9 interview, he said, "We tore through the scaffolding, through flash bangs and tear gas, and blitzed our way in through all the chambers just trying to get into Congress or whoever we could get in to and tell them that we need some kind of investigation into this.”
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Kash Lee Kelly

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/21
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
After receiving tips about Kelly's presence in the Capitol during the riot, the FBI found a photo of Kelly standing on the pedestal of a statue in the building that he posted on Facebook. Law enforcement officers who have known Kelly for years confirmed his identity in screenshots, according to court documents. Kelly, who has nearly 380,000 Facebook followers, also gave an interview after the riot, which the FBI found on YouTube. In it, he says, “We feel like our voices weren’t being heard, which is why we ran through that Capitol Building," according to court records.
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Timothy Hale-Cusanelli

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/21
  
• Home state: New Jersey
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Disrupting the orderly conduct of government business; Violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building; Obstructing a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder
What happened
Hale is enlisted in the Army Reserves, a contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle and has a "Secret" security clearance and "access to a variety of munitions," according to court records. A confidential source with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service reported Hale-Cusanelli to the FBI after Hale-Cusanelli showed the source video on his phone showing him "making harassing and derogatory statements toward Capitol Police officers both inside and outside the Capitol building."
The confidential source told the FBI that Hale-Cusanelli is an "avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer," according to court records. That source recorded a conversation with Hale-Cusanelli on Jan. 14 in which he admitted to entering the Capitol, to giving directions to others to "advance" and to taking a flag and flagpole that he saw another rioter throw at a Capitol police officer.
Michael Daughtry

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/21
  
• Home state: Georgia
  

Charges
Restricted building or grounds
What happened
The Pelham, Georgia, Police Department began investigating Daughtry after being alerted to his social media posts within hours of the Capitol riot, and an officer recorded a call with him that day. According to court records, Daughtry acknowledged that he went "up to the Capitol door" but backed off after being shot with rubber bullets. He told the police officer, "We was the first ones over the fence. Everybody followed us."
The FBI reviewed Daughtry's social media, including Facebook posts in which he said, "We just tore down the fence and stormed the Capitol." He also posted a photo from atop the scaffolding on the Capitol steps set up for the inauguration of President-elect of Joseph Biden.
William Watson

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/2021
  
• Home state: Alabama
  

Charges
Civil disorders; Restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; Violent entry or disorderly conduct
What happened
Watson violated bond in a felony drug case in Alabama and was arrested after he traveled out of state. While in custody, the FBI interviewed him twice about the Capitol riot and Watson admitted to going to "support the patriots, support Trump, support freedom.”
Watson told the FBI he went into the building through a broken window and that he was part of a crowd that had police shields and batons when they encountered more officers in the hallway of the Capitol. According to court records, Watson told the FBI he tried to work with the officer to get people to calm down, which a Capitol Police officer confirmed in an interview. The Capitol Police officer told the FBI that Watson had mace. Watson admitted to carrying mace and a pocket knife.
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William McCall Calhoun

• Arrested or charged on: 1/12/21
  
• Home state: Georgia
  

Charges
Restricted building or grounds; Violent or disorderly conduct; Tampering with a witness, victim or an information
What happened
The FBI received a tip on Nov. 12 that Calhoun was making threats on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, encouraging people "to storm Washington D.C. and peacefully protest while openly carrying firearms," according to court records. The caller read Calhoun's messages, including one that said, "We are going to kill every last communist who stands in Trump’s way."
In social media posts, he called on others to go to Washington and posted from inside the Capitol once he was there. According to court records, he wrote on Facebook that “the first of us who got upstairs kicked in Nancy Pelosi’s office door and pushed down the hall toward her inner sanctum, the mob howling with rage."
Two days after the riot, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported it had an exclusive interview with Calhoun, a defense attorney who describes himself as an anti-Communist counter-revolutionary. The newspaper reported Calhoun said: “This was civil disobedience. Anyone who claims it was anything other than civil disobedience was not there, and they did not see it and they do not know.” The newspaper reported he called the people who went into the Capitol "heroic."
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Aaron Mostofsky

• Arrested or charged on: 1/11/2021
  
• Home state: New York
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds; Unlawful entry and disorderly conduct
What happened
Mostofsky, whom the Gothamist identified as a Brooklyn native, appears in several photos inside the Capitol wearing a police vest over fur-looking pelts.
The Gothamist identified him as the son of a King County Supreme Court judge. Nachman Mostofsky, his brother, told the website, "My brother did nothing illegal. He definitely was not part of the riot."
He was arrested on federal charges in New York on Jan 11.
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William Pepe

• Arrested or charged on: 1/11/2021
  
• Home state: New York
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority
What happened
Photos from the riot showed Pepe in the Capitol holding his phone up, and the FBI confirmed his identity with New York's Metro Transit Authority, according to court records. Pepe works in the mechanical department there and took sick leave to travel to Washington .
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Andrew Wrigley

• Arrested or charged on: 1/11/21
  
• Home state: Pennsylvania
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
The FBI reviewed Wrigley's Facebook page, where he posted photos and video from inside the Capitol. On one post he wrote, "At the protest in DC. I went inside the capitol building and got tear gassed," according to court records. Wrigley has since deleted his Facebook page.
Eric Gavelek Munchel

• Age: 30
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/10/2021
  
• Home state: Tennessee
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Munchel, 30, is allegedly the man in photos dressed in all-black, carrying zip ties as he stepped over a row of seats inside the Capitol. He was arrested on Jan 10. in Nashville. In a news release, federal authorities said he appeared to be carrying plastic restraints, an item in a holster on his right hip and a cell phone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward. A story in the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, said Munchel traveled to D.C. with his mother and was interviewed there after the riot. The story quotes Munchel as saying: "We wanted to show that we’re willing to rise up, band together and fight if necessary. Same as our forefathers, who established this country in 1776."
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Larry Rendell Brock Jr.

• Arrested or charged on: 1/10/2021
  
• Home state: Texas
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Brock, a retired Air Force officer, was seen in photos in the Capitol wearing a green helmet, tactical vest and military patches. After he was identified in photos holding plastic zip-tie handcuffs, he gave an interview to The New Yorker. The story stated Brock said he had gone to D.C. to demonstrate peacefully after hearing the president ask his supporters to be there.
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Derrick Evans

• Arrested or charged on: 1/9/2021
  
• Home state: West Virginia
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds
What happened
Evans was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates last fall, but resigned over the weekend after filming himself storming the Capitol.
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Doug Jensen

• Arrested or charged on: 1/9/2021
  
• Home state: Iowa
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Disrupting the orderly conduct of government business; Violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building ; Parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building; Obstructing a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder
What happened
Wearing a QAnon shirt emblazoned with a bald eagle, Jensen was in numerous photographs and videos inside the Capitol. He told his family he was let in to the Capitol. He regularly posted about the QAnon conspiracy theory on his social media accounts. His employer, Forrest & Associate Masonry in Des Moines, fired him on Jan. 8.
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Jacob Anthony Chansley
Jake Angeli

• Arrested or charged on: 1/9/2021
  
• Home state: Arizona
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Most notable for his horned, fur hat and red, white and blue face paint in viral photos from the Capitol, authorities said Chansley, known as Jake Angeli, also carried a 6-foot spear with an American flag tied just below the top.
Chansely was familiar to many in his native Arizona for his appearances at rallies He told police he'd traveled to D.C. in a group of "patriots" at the president's request.
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Adam Johnson

• Age: 36
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/8/2021
  
• Home state: Florida
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; one count of theft of government property; and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Photos from the riot show Adam Christian Johnson smiling under his Trump cap, casually holding a lectern under his arm.
By Saturday, Johnson, 36, had been arrested and was booked into the Pinellas County Jail in Florida on a warrant from the U.S. Marshal's office. Photos on his Facebook page, since deleted, show the Manatee County, Florida man descending into Washington D.C. for the rally. Johnson had misdemeanor drug arrests in 2004 and 2005 and was involved in a sealed domestic relations court case from 2010.
Johnson is a married father of five. They live in a six-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot, pool home in southwest Florida.
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Nick Ochs

• Age: 34
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/8/2021
  
• Home state: Hawaii
  

Charges
Unlawful entry into restricted buildings or grounds
What happened
Ochs is a co-founder of the Hawaii Proud Boys. The Proud Boys is an extremist group with ties to white nationalism. A U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran, he posted a photo of himself in the Capitol smoking a cigarette on Twitter Wednesday afternoon. He told CNN he did not break in, he just walked in.
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Richard "Bigo" Barnett
Bigo

• Age: 60
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/8/2021
  
• Home state: Arkansas
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and theft of public money, property, or records.
What happened
A photo of Barnett with his feet up on a staffer's desk inside the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly went viral.
He bragged on camera afterward that he had been escorted out but not arrested. A Trump supporter who attended a "Stop the Steal" rally in Northwest Arkansas in November, Barnett has a long history of financial woes, online records show.
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Cleveland Meredith

• Arrested or charged on: 1/7/2021
  
• Home state: Georgia
  

Charges
Making interstate threats to Speaker Nancy Pelosi
What happened
Cleveland Grover Meredith was charged with threatening Pelosi after driving to D.C. from Colorado. He missed the riot after experiencing troubles with his truck and trailer, according to an FBI arrest complaint. Meredith arrived Thursday and was later arrested at a Holiday Inn.
Officers found a Glock 19, a 9mm pistol, a Tavor X95 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his truck and trailer.
In the complaint, the FBI said Meredith had texted a relative saying he was “thinking about heading over to Pelosi's (expletive) speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV,” with a purple devil emoji.
In a later text conversation about Pelosi, the complaint said, Meredith wrote, “Dead Bitch Walking. I predict that within 12 days, many in our country will die.”
But he added, "LOL, jus havin fun."
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Anthime J. Gionet
"Baked Alaska"

• Age: 33
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/7/21
  
• Home state: Arizona
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; Violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Tim Gionet, a right-wing social media personality known as “Baked Alaska," was photographed as he livestreamed the scene from inside the Capitol with more than 5,100 viewers watching.
Authorities in Arizona later stated his trip to Washington, D.C. violated the terms of an earlier release agreement after a December arrest for assault, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.
The Anchorage Daily News reported Gionet graduated from Grace Christian School in Anchorage. The Southern Poverty Law Center has noted his participation in other events, including the controversial “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017.
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Bradley Rukstales

• Age: 52
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Illinois
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
The CEO of an Illinois company, Brad Rukstales was arrested by Capitol Police for taking part in the Capitol riots. Federal authorities then filed additional charges. He admitted to entering the Capitol building.
According to federal court records, he was part of a crowd that encountered Capitol Police on the upper level near the door to the House atrium. Police said he and five others in that crowd were arrested after they ignored orders to leave the building.
Federal prosecutors later added several charges. Campaign finance reports show Rukstales contributed more than $25,000 to Trump’s campaign and other GOP committees during the 2020 election cycle. Following the arrest, his employer, Cognesia, stated he was fired. "It was the single worst personal decision of my life,” Rukstales told CBS Chicago. “I have no excuse for my actions and wish that I could take them back."
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Christopher Alberts

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Maryland
  

Charges
Carrying a Pistol Without a License (Outside Home or Place of Business) 2015, Possessing a Firearm on Capitol Grounds, Curfew Violation, Possession of Unregistered Ammunition, Possession of a Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device (and)
What happened
As Christopher Michael Alberts of Maryland was being escorted away from the Capitol on Wednesday, a Metro Police officer noticed a bulge on Alberts' hip, a complaint stated. A closer inspection revealed two separate holsters, one with a 9 mm weapon with a single round in the chamber and a fully loaded 12-round magazine and the other with a second fully loaded 12-round magazine. Alberts also was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a backpack with a gas mask, pocketknife and an MRE.
Alberts told officers he was carrying the gun for personal protection and didn't intend to use it to harm anyone.
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Cindy Fitchett

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Virginia
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.  
What happened
Fitchett entered the Capitol during the riots and was part of a crowd that encountered Capitol Police on the upper level near the door to the House atrium, according to federal court records. Capitol Police arrested Fitchett and five others after they ignored orders to leave the building.
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David Blair

• Age: 26
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Maryland
  

Charges
Assaulting a police officer
What happened
According to D.C. Superior Court records, Blair struck Metro Police officers who were holding the police line at the lower West terrace door of the Capitol with a "lacrosse type stick." MPD officers struck him with batons and Blair's head was injured when officers took him to the ground to arrest him. MPD called Capitol Police to make the arrest. According to court records, while Blair awaited an ambulance he told officers, "(I was) being an idiot, pumped up and didn’t move back. Accept everything. I’m sorry, I got hit four times, I had a knife in my bag because I was scared of ANTIFA jumping me on the way back.”
Douglas Sweet

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Virginia
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Sweet entered the Capitol during the riots and was part of a crowd that encountered Capitol Police on the upper level near the door to the House atrium, according to federal court records. Capitol Police arrested Sweet and five others after they ignored orders to leave the building.
Sweet told Virginia television station WTKR that the Capitol had already been breached by the time he arrived and that he walked in. He said he and others “surrendered immediately.”
Sweet told WTKR that he believed Trump’s claims that the election was stolen. No widespread election fraud has been found, and courts around the country have rejected Trump’s claims in dozens of cases.
"Trump asked all the patriots to show up, so I did," Sweet told WKTR.
“I was hoping to go in and talk to the Senate and the House and actually speak,” Sweet added. “First of all, you're not going to get in there unless you walk right in.”
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Grant Moore

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Georgia
  

Charges
Carrying a pistol without a license and unregistered ammunition
What happened
Capitol Police found Moore parked in his white Ford Econoline 150 van near the Capitol, and Moore admitted to having a gun in his backpack on the front passenger seat.
Officers found a Ruger pistol in a holster, according to D.C. Superior Court records. The gun was loaded with six rounds, and officers recovered three more six-round magazines along with 12 loose rounds.
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Joshua Pruitt

• Age: 39
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: DC
  

Charges
Riot Act - Felony, curfew violation, unlawful entry, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority
What happened
Joshua Pruitt, 39, appears twice among arrest records of the Metro Police for violating the Riot Act, unlawful entry and curfew violations. A day after the riot, the U.S. attorney charged a man with the same name with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.
A man with the same name, who lives in D.C., took the Proud Boys oath in a video posted to Twitter in mid-November during a gathering of Trump supporters. However, a few days later, in a Facebook comment, that man denounced the group. Attempts to reach Pruitt were unsuccessful.
Lonnie Leroy Coffman

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Alabama
  

Charges
Possession of an unregistered firearm (destructive device) and carrying a pistol without a license.
What happened
When authorities found Coffman's truck near the Capitol, they reported finding 11 Molotov cocktails -- Mason jars filled with flammable liquids -- in addition to guns and ammunition.
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Mark Leffingwell

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Washington
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; assault on a federal law enforcement officer; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Leffingwell is accused of entering the Senate side of the Capitol. When police stopped him, the complaint says, he struck an officer in the helmet and chest.
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Matthew Council

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Florida
  

Charges
Unlawful entry
What happened
Authorities accuse Council of unlawfully entering the Capitol building. When police stopped him, the complaint says, he pushed an officer.
Michael Curzio

• Age: 35
  
• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Florida
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Michael Curzio was among the rioters arrested by U.S. Capitol Police for unlawful entry. It was not the Florida man’s first brush with law enforcement.
Curzio, 35, was released from prison in February 2019 following an eight-year sentence for attempted first-degree murder, according to records from the Florida Department of Corrections.
Read more
Terry Brown

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: Pennsylvania
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Brown entered the Capitol during the riots and was part of a crowd that encountered Capitol Police on the upper level near the door to the House atrium, according to federal court records. Capitol Police arrested Brown and five others after they ignored orders to leave the building.
Read more
Thomas Gallagher

• Arrested or charged on: 1/6/2021
  
• Home state: New Hampshire
  

Charges
Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry; or knowingly, with intent to impede government business or official functions, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds
What happened
Gallagher entered the Capitol during the riots and was part of a crowd that encountered Capitol Police on the upper level near the door to the House atrium, according to federal court records. Capitol Police arrested Gallagher and five others after they ignored orders to leave the building.
Read more

The Role of Trump’s Incitement in Providing Violent Foot Soldiers 
January 31, 2021/100 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection /by emptywheel
As I’ve covered, in addition to a conspiracy charge tying Zip-Tie Guy’s actions to his mother’s cheering of violence, the government has thus far charged two sets of defendants from organized gangs in the January 6 insurrection — three members of the Oath Keepers and two of the Proud Boys. While Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola is charged with assault for his efforts to steal the police shield he used to bash open a window, his co-defendant William Pepe and most other defendants identified as Proud Boys were not charged with assault (Robert Gieswein, who was indicted on his own, did allegedly assault cops with a baseball bat; he appears in videos with the Proud Boys that day, though was not identified as such in his charging documents).
Thus far at least, the most violent actions from that day aren’t known to have been perpetrated by the right wing militias, members of which appear to have, instead, channeled the violence of others, possibly while pursuing more tactical goals (like locating members of Congress).
That makes the way in which the government describes that other violence important, as it may or may not tie everything together (and tie it back to those who incited the violence).
Take Emanuel Jackson, a 20-year old black guy from DC who was twice caught assaulting cops on video. First, he was caught on film punching a cop, an assault which charging documents describe helped break the police line allowing others to stream in.

Quote:The defendant, EMANUEL JACKSON, is observed on U.S. Capitol video surveillance footage making a fist and repeatedly striking a U.S. Capitol Police officer on his person while attempting to forcefully enter the building. United States Capitol Police officers are designated as officers of the United States under 18 U.S.C. 1114.
At approximately 2:48 p.m., the large crowd that was being restrained by law enforcement overpowered the officers and gained entry. One of the first individuals observed entering the doorway is the defendant.

Then, later that day, he attempted to get back into the Capitol wielding a baseball bat.

Quote:At 4:50 p.m., the violent and aggressive crowd continued to confront law enforcement at the West Terrace entrance. The crowd was armed with various weapons and multiple individuals are observed assaulting law enforcement in the entranceway. The defendant is clearly observed in surveillance video of this entrance, wearing the same clothing described above and observed in earlier footage, and armed with a metal baseball bat. The defendant is observed repeatedly striking a group of both U.S. Capitol and Metropolitan Police Department uniformed officers with the baseball bat.

These two alleged assaults happening two hours after each other, the first unarmed, the second armed, attest to the sustained violence of the riot, as well as a possible intensification of it as violence came to incorporate additional weapons. Over those two hours, Rudy Giuliani was calling Senators asking for delay.
While Jackson did have a backpack on him during the riot, there’s nothing in Jackson’s file that suggests any organizational affiliation with known extremist groups (nor is there any explanation of why a 20-year old black guy would ruin his life for Donald Trump). According to a government detention motion, in an interview, Jackson described attending Trump’s rally and going from there to the Capitol.

Quote:During the defendant’s post-arrest interview, he clearly articulated that he attended former President Trump’s rally earlier that day, and that he joined the thousands of individuals who descended on the U.S. Capitol to protest the election results.

That ties his later actions to the events at the rally.
That’s important, because Jackson confessed that his goal in storming the Capitol was to delay the counting of the vote (and he was charged with obstructing an official proceeding as a result, which itself carries a steep sentence if violence is involved).

Quote:During the interview, the defendant stated that his purpose in joining the violent mob was to enter the U.S. Capitol and disrupt the vote count of the Electoral College as it met to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. Thus the defendant combined his criminal intention to interfere with the functioning of Congress with multiple violent assaults – one with a dangerous weapon – on the law enforcement officers trying to protect that function.

The detention motion describes how his initial assault made it possible for him and others to storm the building.

Quote:The defendant was part of a group that tore out windows, ripped open the blocked entrance, and then physically attacked law enforcement in an effort to gain entry. The law enforcement officers are in full uniform with the word “police” clearly visible. At approximately 2:48 p.m., the defendant is observed physically striking a law enforcement officer with his fist. The punching continues for several strikes and seconds later, the mob forces their way into the entranceway and overruns the group of law enforcement officers. The defendant’s assaultive behavior in part allowed the large mob of individuals to successfully breach the U.S. Capitol, putting additional law enforcement officers and members and staff of Congress at grave risk. The defendant’s actions allowed other rioters to commit multiple other criminal acts inside the building.

So at least on this thin record, it appears that Jackson went to the rally, got riled up to disrupt the certification of the vote, and then took repeated violent actions in service of doing just that. As the detention motion describes, Jackson was one spoke in a wheel that together thwarted democracy.

Quote:The defendant was a spoke in the wheel that caused the historic events of January 6, 2021,

On January 27, Jackson’s attorney asked for a one month continuance, with the government’s consent. That generally indicates the defendant is preparing to plead before indictment (which isn’t surprising given that, before he got a lawyer, Jackson confessed to his assaults).
That means it’s possible that by the time Trump’s impeachment trial starts, Emanuel Jackson will have pled guilty to being inspired by Donald Trump to halt the vote certification, walking down Pennsylvania Avenue and then assaulting two cops in an effort to help Trump steal the election.
Update:  Hunter Seefried, whose dad was the one caught carrying a Confederate flag through the Capitol, played a key role in cleaning out the window many streamed through. The father and son pair marched over after listening to Trump.

Quote:Defendant Kevin Seefried told law enforcement that he had traveled with his family from Delaware to the District of Columbia to hear President Trump speak and that he and Hunter Seefried participated in a march from the White House to the Capitol led by an individual with a bull horn.
Finally, I have reviewed video footage posted to Twitter which shows Hunter Seefried punching out glass in a window in the Capitol complex after people adjacent to him in the crowd broke it with a wooden 2 x 4. Kevin Seefried confirmed to law enforcement agents that Hunter Seefried was asked by an individual unknown to the Seefrieds to assist with clearing the window because Hunter Seefried was wearing gloves. After Hunter Seefried complied, people from the crowd outside, to include the Seefrieds, were able to access the interior of the Capitol Building.

https://twitter.com/jsrailton

is one of several persons tracking down bad people in the Capitol insurrection!

https://twitter.com/jsrailton
https://twitter.com/1600PennPooch
https://twitter.com/Forrest_Rogers


are some of several persons tracking down bad people in the Capitol insurrection!

I do NOT understand why NO ONE looking at this Forum [now a zombie, apparently] is interested in these insane people and their illegal and seditious actions.....nor to Trump's coming Senate Trial and afterwards criminal and civil cases against him by the hundreds [literally]. As I see it, the USA is on the brink of the Second Civil War - long in the making and different in many respects this time around, but no less deadly. Last time was about 650,000 dead... This time, the winners will not be on either side......they just are the puppetmasters of the entire event.

Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency
[/url]
[url=https://www.axios.com/authors/newsdesk/]
Jonathan Swan, Zachary Basu





Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Getty Images photos: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post, George Frey/Bloomberg

Last month, Axios published "Off the rails," a series taking you inside the end of Donald Trump's presidency, from his election loss to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that triggered his second impeachment — and a Senate trial set to begin next week.
In this bonus edition, we take you back into those final weeks — to one long, unhinged night a week before Christmas, when an epic, profanity-soaked standoff played out with profound implications for the nation.
Four conspiracy theorists marched into the Oval Office. It was early evening on Friday, Dec. 18 — more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden, and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official.
"How the hell did Sidney get in the building?" White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president. 
President Trump's private schedule hadn't included appointments for Powell or the others: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and a little-known former Trump administration official, Emily Newman. But they'd come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting.
As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann — a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who'd been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump — quietly slipped in behind them.
The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy.
Herschmann took a seat in a yellow chair close to the doorway. Powell, Flynn, Newman and Byrne sat in a row before the Resolute Desk, facing the president.
For weeks now, ever since Rudy Giuliani had commandeered Trump’s floundering campaign to overturn the election, outsiders had been coming out of the woodwork to feed the president wild allegations of voter fraud based on highly dubious sources. 
Trump was no longer focused on any semblance of a governing agenda, instead spending his days taking phone calls and meetings from anyone armed with conspiracy theories about the election. For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders.
Powell began this meeting with the same baseless claim that now has her facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit: She told the president that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged their machines to flip votes from Trump to Biden and that it was part of an international communist plot to steal the election for the Democrats.
[Note: In response to a request for comment, Powell said in an emailed statement to Axios: “I will not publicly discuss my private meetings with the President of the United States. I believe those meetings are privileged and confidential under executive privilege and under rules of the legal profession. I would caution the readers to view mainstream media reports of any such conversations with a high degree of discernment and a healthy dose of skepticism.”]
Powell waved an affidavit from the pile of papers in her lap, claiming it contained testimony from someone involved in the development of rigged voting machines in Venezuela.
She proposed declaring a national security emergency, granting her and her cabal top-secret security clearances and using the U.S. government to seize Dominion’s voting machines.
"Hold on a minute, Sidney," Herschmann interrupted from the back of the Oval. "You're part of the Rudy team, right? Is your theory that the Democrats got together and changed the rules, or is it that there was foreign interference in our election?"
Giuliani's legal efforts, while replete with debunked claims about voter fraud, had largely focused on allegations of misconduct by corrupt Democrats and election officials.
"It's foreign interference," Powell insisted, then added: "Rudy hasn't understood what this case is about until just now."
In disbelief, Herschmann yelled out to an aide in the outer Oval Office. "Get Pat down here immediately!" Several minutes later, White House counsel Pat Cipollone walked into the Oval. He looked at Byrne and said, "Who are you?"
The meeting was already getting heated.
White House staff had spent weeks poring over the evidence underlying hundreds of affidavits and other claims of fraud promoted by Trump allies like Powell. The team had done the due diligence and knew the specific details of what was being alleged better than anybody. Time and time again, they found, Powell's allegations fell apart under basic scrutiny.
But Powell, fixing on Trump, continued to elaborate on a fantastical election narrative involving Venezuela, Iran, China and others. She named a county in Georgia where she claimed she could prove that Dominion had illegally flipped the vote.
Herschmann interrupted to point out that Trump had actually won the Georgia county in question: "So your theory is that Dominion intentionally flipped the votes so we could win that county?"
As for Powell's larger claims, he demanded she provide evidence for what — if true — would amount to the greatest national security breach in American history. They needed to dial in one of the campaign's lawyers, Herschmann said, and Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan was patched in via speakerphone.
By now, people were yelling and cursing.
The room was starting to fill up. Trump's personal assistant summoned White House staff secretary Derek Lyons to join the meeting and asked him to bring a copy of a 2018 executive order that the Powell group kept citing as the key to victory. Lyons agreed with Cipollone and the other officials that Powell's theories were nonsensical.
It was now four against four.
Flynn went berserk. The former three-star general, whom Trump had fired as his first national security adviser after he was caught lying to the FBI (and later pardoned), stood up and turned from the Resolute Desk to face Herschmann.
"You're quitting! You're a quitter! You're not fighting!” he exploded at the senior adviser. Flynn then turned to the president, and implored: "Sir, we need fighters."
Herschmann ignored Flynn at first and continued to probe Powell's pitch with questions about the underlying evidence. "All you do is promise, but never deliver," he said to her sharply.
Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles.
Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down.
The meeting had come entirely off the rails.
Byrne, backing up Flynn, told Trump the White House lawyers didn't care about him and were being obstructive. "Sir, we're both entrepreneurs, and we both built businesses," the former Overstock CEO told Trump. "We know that there are times you have to be creative and take different steps."
This was a remarkable level of personal familiarity, given it was the first time Byrne had met the president. All the stanchions and buffers between the White House and the outside world had crumbled.
Byrne kept attacking the senior White House staff in front of Trump. "They've already abandoned you," he told the president aggressively. Periodically during the meeting Flynn or Byrne challenged Trump's top staff — portraying them as disloyal: So do you think the president won or not?
At one point, with Flynn shouting, Byrne raised his hand to talk. He stood up and turned around to face Herschmann. "You're a quitter," he said. "You've been interfering with everything. You've been cutting us off."
"Do you even know who the fuck I am, you idiot?" Herschmann snapped back.
"Yeah, you're Patrick Cipollone," Byrne said.
"Wrong! Wrong, you idiot!"
The staff were now on their feet, standing behind one of the couches and facing the Powell crew at the Resolute Desk. Cipollone stood to Herschmann's left. Lyons, on his last day on the job, stood to Herschmann's right.
Trump was behind the desk, watching the show. He briefly left the meeting to wander into his private dining room.
The usually mild-mannered Lyons blasted the Powell set: "You've brought 60 cases. And you've lost every case you’ve had!"
Trump came back into the Oval Office from the dining room to rejoin the meeting. Lyons pointed out to Powell that their incompetence went beyond their lawsuits being thrown out for standing. "You somehow managed to misspell the word 'District' three different ways in your suits," he said pointedly.
In a Georgia case, the Powell team had misidentified the court on the first page of their filing as "THE UNITED STATES DISTRICCT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRCOICT OF GEORGIA." And they had identified the Michigan court as the "EASTERN DISTRCT OF MICHIGAN."
These were sloppy spelling errors. But given that these lawsuits aimed to overturn a presidential election, the court nomenclature should have been pristine.
Powell, Flynn and Byrne began attacking Lyons as they renewed their argument to Trump: There they go again, they want to focus on the insignificant details instead of fighting for you.
Trump replied, "No, no, he's right. That was very embarrassing. That shouldn't have happened."
The Powell team needed to regroup. They shifted to a new grievance to turn the conversation away from their embarrassing errors. Powell insisted that they hadn't "lost" the 60-odd court cases, since the cases were mostly dismissed for lack of standing and they had never had the chance to present their evidence.
Every judge is corrupt, she claimed. We can't rely on them. The White House lawyers couldn't believe what they were hearing. "That's your argument?" a stunned Herschmann said. "Even the judges we appointed? Are you out of your fucking mind?"
Powell had more to say. She and Flynn began trashing the FBI as well, and the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr, telling Trump that neither could be trusted. Both institutions, they said, were corrupt, and Trump needed to fire the leadership and get in new people he could trust.
Cipollone, standing his ground amidst this mishmash of conspiracies, said they were totally wrong. He aggressively defended the DOJ and the FBI, saying they had looked into every major claim of fraud that had been reported.
Flynn and Powell had long nursed their antipathy to the FBI and Justice. Flynn had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation but withdrew the plea after hiring Powell as his lawyer in June 2019.
The two alleged the FBI had entrapped Flynn and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, known as Brady material, as required by law. They had found an ally in Barr, a fierce critic of the Russia investigation who finally directed the DOJ to drop Flynn's case.
Herschmann, known inside the White House as a defender of Barr and the DOJ, went off on Flynn again: "Listen, the same people that you're trashing, if they didn't produce the Brady material to Sidney, your ass would still be in jail!"
It was no longer technically true that Flynn would be in jail, as he had received a post-election pardon from Trump. But Flynn was furious. "Don't mention my case," he roared. Herschmann responded, "Where do you think Sidney got this information? Where do you think it came from? From the exact same people in the Department of Justice that you're now saying are corrupt."
Byrne, wearing jeans, a hoodie and a neck gaiter, piped up with his own conspiracy: "I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation."
Herschmann stared at the eccentric millionaire. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?" Byrne brought up the bizarre Clinton bribery claim several more times during the meeting to the astonishment of White House lawyers.
Trump, for his part, also seemed perplexed by Byrne. But he was not entirely convinced the ideas Powell was presenting were insane.
He asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. They’re saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let's give this a shot.
The words "martial law" were never spoken during the meeting, despite Flynn having raised the idea in an appearance the previous day on Newsmax, a right-wing hive for election conspiracies.
But this was a distinction without much of a difference. What Flynn and Powell were proposing amounted to suspending normal laws and mobilizing the U.S. government to seize Dominion voting machines around the country.
Powell was arguing that they couldn't get a judge to enforce any subpoena to hand over the voting machines because all the judges were corrupt. She and her group repeatedly referred to the National Emergencies Act and a Trump executive order from 2018 that was designed to clear the way for the government to sanction foreign actors interfering in U.S. elections.
These laws were, in the view of Powell, Flynn and the others, the key to unlocking extraordinary powers for Trump to stay in office beyond Jan. 20.
Their theory was that because foreign enemies had stolen the election, all bets were off and Trump could use the full force of the United States government to go after Dominion.
It was remarkable that the presidency had deteriorated to such an extent that this fight in the Oval Office between senior White House officials and radical conspiracists was even taking place.
"How exactly are you going to do this?" an exasperated Herschmann asked again, later in the conversation. Newman again cited the 2018 executive order, which prompted Herschmann to question out loud whether she was even a lawyer.
Then Byrne chimed in: "There are guys with big guns and badges who can get these things." Herschmann couldn't believe it. "What are you, three years old?" he asked.
Lyons, the staff secretary, told the president that the executive order Powell and Flynn were citing did not give him the authority they claimed it did to seize voting machines. Morgan, the campaign lawyer, also expressed skepticism about their idea of invoking national security emergency powers.
To help adjudicate, Trump then patched in the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, on speakerphone. Trump's personal assistant brought O'Brien into the call with no explanation of what madness would await him.
O'Brien said very little in the short time he was on the call but intervened at one point to say he saw no evidence to support Powell's notion of declaring a national security emergency to seize voting machines. There was so much fiery crosstalk it was hard for anyone on the telephone to follow the conversation.
Trump expressed skepticism at various points about Powell's theories, but he said, "At least she’s out there fighting."
The discussion shifted from Dominion voting machines to a conversation about appointing Powell as a special counsel inside the government to investigate voter fraud. She wanted a top secret security clearance and access to confidential voter information.
Lyons told Trump he couldn't appoint Powell as a special counsel at the Justice Department because this was an attorney general appointment. Lyons, Cipollone and Herschmann — in fact the entire senior White House staff who were aware of this idea — were all vehemently opposed to Powell becoming a special counsel anywhere in the government.
By this point Trump had also patched into the call his personal lawyer Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows indicated that he was trying to wrap his mind around what exactly Powell's role would entail. He told Powell she would have to fill out the SF-86 questionnaire before starting as special counsel.
This was seen as a delaying tactic. The sense in the room was that Trump might actually greenlight this extraordinary proposal.
At its essence, the Powell crew's argument to the president was this: We have the real information. These people — your White House staff — don't believe in the truth. They're liars and quitters. They're not willing to fight for you because they don't want to get their hands dirty. Put us in charge. Let us take control of everything. We'll prove to you that what we're saying is right. We won't quit, we'll fight. We're willing to fight for the presidency.
On some level, this argument was music to Trump's ears. He was desperate. Powell and her team were the only people willing to tell him what he wanted to hear — that a path to stay in power in the White House remained.
The Oval Office portion of the meeting had dragged on for nearly three hours, creeping beyond 9 p.m. The arguments became so heated that even Giuliani — still on the phone — at one point told everyone to calm down. One participant later recalled: "When Rudy's the voice of reason, you know the meeting's not going well."
Giuliani told Trump he was going to come over to the White House. The president, having forgotten about the others on the line, hung up and cut multiple people off the call.
Herschmann, Cipollone and Lyons left the Oval Office, but soon discovered that the Powell entourage had made their way to the president’s residence. They followed them upstairs, to the Yellow Oval Room, Trump's living room, where they were joined by Giuliani and Meadows.
Trump sat beside Powell in armchairs facing the door, separated by a round, wooden antique table. Giuliani sat in an armchair to the right of them, while Byrne and Meadows sat on a couch. Byrne wolfed down pigs in a blanket and little meatballs on toothpicks that staff had set on the coffee table.
Herschmann was primed to brawl and ready to dump on Powell. It had been a long day.
"Rudy," he said, turning to Giuliani, "Sidney was just in the Oval telling the president you don't know what the fuck you're doing. Right, Sidney?" He turned to Powell: "Why don't you tell Rudy to his face?"
"Eric, really it's not appropriate," Trump replied curtly. 
"What's not appropriate?" Herschmann shot back. Turning to Powell, he said, "Why don't you repeat to Rudy what you just told the president in the Oval Office — that he has no idea about the case and that he only just began to understand it a few hours ago."
Three days later, Giuliani would publicly distance himself from Powell, telling Newsmax that Powell did not represent the president, and that "whatever she's talking about, it's her own opinions."
It didn't take long for the yelling to start up again. They were now in hour four of a meeting unprecedented even by the deranged standards of the final days of the Trump presidency. 
Now it was Meadows' turn, blasting Flynn for trashing him and accusing him of being a quitter. "Don't you dare challenge me about whether I'm being supportive of the president and working hard," Meadows shouted, reminding Flynn that he'd defended him during his legal troubles.
Trump and Cipollone, who frequently butted heads, went at it too, over whether the administration had the authority to do what Powell was proposing.
Powell kept asserting throughout the night that she had — or would soon produce — the evidence needed to prove foreign interference. She kept insisting that Trump had the legal authority he needed to seize voting machines. But she did not have the goods.
Powell at one point turned to Lyons and demanded, "Why are you speaking? Are you still employed here?" The staff secretary, who had already resigned, laughed and joked, "Well I guess I'm here until midnight."
It was after midnight by the time the White House officials had finally said their piece. They left that night fully prepared for the mad possibility Trump might still name Sidney Powell special counsel. You have our advice, they told the president before walking out. You decide who to listen to.

Some are calling the events at the US capitol a Reichstag fire in that it has placed a new domestic agenda front and center--the domestic terrorist.  I think Trump was played big time.  His utter incompetence has handed a new weapon over to the deep state.  Read the latest DHS bulletin on domestic terrorism knowing there will be legislation that will extend the erosion of human rights in the US coming soon.

https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/nation...ry-27-2021

DOJ Moves Towards Parallel Conspiracy Prosecutions of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys 
February 4, 2021/20 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection /by emptywheel
As noted, on January 27, DOJ indicted three Oath Keepers, Thomas Edward Caldwell, Donovan Ray Crowl, and Jessica Marie Watkins, in a conspiracy to hinder Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote. FBI seems to be working on identifying the other people who were marching in formation with Watkins and Crowl on January 6, as well as building out a larger prosecution team (which includes, among others, one of the women who worked the Russian side of the Mueller cases).
Meanwhile, yesterday, DOJ announced the arrested of yet another Proud Boy — Ethan Nordean — and the indictment of two other Proud Boys, Nicholas DeCarlo and Nicholas Ochs, in a conspiracy to hinder Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote. Of particular note, in DOJ’s request for detention with Nordean, they invoked the list of crimes that can merit a terrorist enhancement. (h/t FM)

They don’t say which of the terrorist enhancement crimes they have in mind, but several are possibilities:

• 351 (relating to congressional, cabinet, and Supreme Court assassination and kidnaping)
  
• 844(f)(2) or (3) (relating to arson and bombing of Government property risking or causing death)
  
• 930© (relating to killing or attempted killing during an attack on a Federal facility with a dangerous weapon)
  
• 1114 (relating to killing or attempted killing of officers and employees of the United States)
  
• 1203 (relating to hostage taking)
  
• 1751(a), (b), ©, or (d) (relating to Presidential and Presidential staff assassination and kidnaping)
  
• 2332f (relating to bombing of public places and facilities)
  

All of which is to say the government is treating Nordean’s arrest like he’s part of a terrorist group.
As suggested above, the DeCarlo and Ochs conspiracy indictment parallels the one obtained against the Oath Keepers.
The Object of the conspiracy is the same: “to stop, delay, and hinder Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.” And several of the overt means are the same: agreeing to participate in a January 6 operation, taking planning steps together, and forcibly storming past the police barricades to enter the Capitol.

The conspiracy indictment of Dominic Pezzola and William Pepe effectively charged they conspired to achieve one of the means in the DeCarlo and Ochs indictment, to,

Quote:obstruct, influence, impede, and interfere with law enforcement officers engaged in their official duties in protecting the U.S. Capitol and its grounds during the demonstrations planned for January 6, 2021.

The government has not, yet, charged Pepe with 18 USC 1512, obstructing an official proceeding (meaning the vote certification).
Meanwhile, the Nordean complaint cites the charges against Pezzola, Joe Biggs, and Robert Gieswein, tying all their actions together without (yet) claiming an agreement to act together.
But you can see where this is heading: to two parallel conspiracy prosecutions, each sharing the same object — to halt the vote certification — and each also sharing several of the same overt acts.
These conspiracy indictments are, for now, based off personal communication between the co-conspirators, for example the Zello communications that Watkins sent. But as I noted in the Oath Keepers post, there is someone with whom both these groups agreed with and pursued some of the same steps as: Donald Trump. These conspiracy indictments may build little by little based off what each group has done among themselves, but the framework for a much broader conspiracy is already in place.

• Rebekah Mercer is a principal investor in the Parler social media network, which was used to organize the January 6 insurrection. Mercer also has an equity stake in Breitbart News, which has propagated false information about election fraud.
  
• In 2014, Robert Mercer gave $150,000 to the Black Conservatives Fund, which promoted the January 6 march on Capitol Hill. Ali Alexander, one of the lead organizers of January 6, is a former adviser to the Black Conservatives Fund.
  
• In 2017, the Mercers gave $200,000 to the Gatestone Institute, which has advanced theories about a stolen election.
  
• The following year, they gave $8.1 million to DonorsTrust, which recently donated $1.5 million to white nationalist hate group VDARE, which has also advanced evidence-free theories surrounding the 2020 election results.
  
• In 2017 and 2018, the Mercer Family Foundation donated over $2 million to the Government Accountability Institute, whose research director, Eric Eggers, appeared on Sean Hannity's radio show to suggest that fraudulent activity had tilted the election to Joe Biden.
  
• Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who has also used violent rhetoric around the election, has received $21,600 in campaign contributions from the Mercer family.
  
• The Mercers were the biggest donors to the super PAC of Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, one of the most prominent activists whose rhetoric helped create the conditions for the January 6 attack.
  

And just in case the Mercers’ goals weren’t obvious based on where they put their money, The Intercept reported last week on a 2019 book by Rebekah Mercer raising the specter of “armed conflict.”

Capitol Police knew ahead of January 6 that Congress itself was the target of the Donald Trump-fueled mob that violently breached the Capitol, but the police department’s leaders ignored warnings and were thoroughly unprepared for the mob, a new report from the department’s watchdog has found.
Michael A. Bolton, the Capitol Police inspector general, excoriates the Capitol Police department in the 104-page document reviewed by [i]The New York Times[/i] and not yet available to the public. The department’s intelligence unit, Bolton finds, warned staff three days ahead of January 6 that the pro-Trump mob was targeting Congress and had the potential to be violent.
“Unlike previous postelection protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counterprotesters as they were previously, but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th,” read an internal assessment of threats from January 3, reports [i]The New York Times[/i].
“Stop the Steal’s propensity to attract white supremacists, militia members and others who actively promote violence may lead to a significantly dangerous situation for law enforcement and the general public alike,” the report continued. Bolton is expected to testify on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
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• The threat assessment also found that some people had even posted about preparing for the attack in much detail online. On one pro-Trump online forum, one person had posted a map of the Capitol complex’s tunnel system. Previous reporting has shown that plans for the attack were telegraphed widely online, and the mob’s plans should have been no secret to the Capitol Police.

But department leaders ignored the assessment from their own staff — and warnings from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security — and said there were “no specific known threats related to the joint session of Congress” in their preparations for the day of the Electoral College vote certification. Bolton says in his report that department dysfunction is to blame for that lapse in judgment.
After the attack, officials attempted to shift the blame and say they were unaware of the extent of the violence and unrest that the mob had planned. “None of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred,” former Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund told the Senate in February, [i]The New York Times[/i] notes. Findings from Bolton’s report contradict Sund’s statements, though Sund told Congress that he never saw the aforementioned threat assessment.
The report also finds that the Capitol Police were instructed to hold back on using their most forceful and aggressive tactics — often used liberally against Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters — on the pro-Trump mob ahead of January 6. This bolsters research showing that police are three times more likely to use force against left-wing protesters than against right-wing protesters, something that many left-wing protesters had already noted after witnessing brutal police crackdowns against last year’s BLM uprisings and the movements that preceded it.
Capitol Police downplayed the threat of the Trump mob, whose members had threatened to kill Democratic members of Congress. While the mob was breaching the Capitol, officers treated some of the members of the mob as friends, with one even taking a selfie with them.
In stark contrast, as participants in the movement for Black lives have organized protests and marches across the country, cities have repressed them with military-style responses, and their police forces have broken the law to use cruel and violent tactics, such as rubber bullets and tear gas, which have injured and killed protesters in the past, to rapidly disperse crowds and terrorize protesters. Activists have pointed out that police even described right-wing militias who showed up to intimidate, harass and even kill BLM protesters as “heavily armed friendlies.”


Sharon Zhang