Tag Archive for: January 6

Dems ‘Tilted the Scales of Justice’ Regarding J6, Lawmaker Says

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As Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to focus on prosecuting individuals involved in the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, lawmakers and experts say the administration and the Democratic Party have embellished the facts of what occurred, misallocated federal resources, unjustly prosecuted nonviolent protestors, and weaponized the incident for political gain.

On Monday, the fourth anniversary of the riot, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement claiming in part that “five officers … lost their lives in the line of duty as a result of what happened to them on January 6, 2021.” But as noted by National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, “no police officers died in the line of duty during the Capitol riot.” As he went on to write, some of the officers involved in protecting the Capitol tragically passed away after the incident as a result of medical complications and suicides, but “[n]ot a single charge of murder of a federal officer, nor conspiracy or attempt to murder a federal officer, was alleged by DOJ” related to January 6 (J6).

Despite this, Garland’s DOJ has filed charges against almost 1,600 individuals in connection with J6, with reports on Monday indicating that as many as 200 more individuals may be charged as well. As Garland acknowledged in his statement, “Over the past four years, our prosecutors, FBI agents, investigators, and analysts have conducted one of the most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in the Justice Department’s history.”

But Republican lawmakers argue that much of the narrative surrounding J6 has been distorted to paint anyone who was present at the Capitol that day as a violent “insurrectionist” and blame President Donald Trump for instigating the violence. On Monday, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss an interim report released by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight regarding J6.

“[Garland] certainly, I think, overdid it” with regard to the number of individuals charged, Griffith contended. “That’s not to say there weren’t bad actors on January 6th,” he added. “There were some, but the vast majority of folks were there to protest, but they were planning on a peaceful protest. And then, you know, everything broke loose and got out of control, but it is amazing how they don’t want to tell the whole narrative. And you know, what we need to do is tell the whole truth, right? [The] good, the bad, the ugly on both sides of this thing.”

Griffith went on to point out that Trump attempted to contain the chaos on that day with the National Guard.

“[O]ne of the biggest things that has struck me from our investigation is the fact that President Trump authorized the National Guard to come in,” he emphasized. “[But] it was the D.C. politicos … Nancy Pelosi and company who — and I can’t say that she made the decision herself — but they didn’t want to have this image of the National Guard coming in. They had bicycle racks up for a perimeter, knowing that there were going to be tens of thousands, if not more than 100,000 people in Washington that day to protest. Today, for example, they’ve been putting up for about a week … these huge fences that kept people from getting anywhere near the Capitol. None of that was done in advance [of J6].”

“Our law enforcement was not prepared,” Griffith continued. “Nobody in D.C. was prepared. And then the people who could have ameliorated this issue were left sitting on the sidelines. The National Guard was told just to sit by and wait for orders. And then even after the military folks gave the orders at the highest level, a general decided he wasn’t going to issue that order right away and held on for another couple of hours before sending in the National Guard. So we need to look at all the totality of the circumstances and look at each individual case if we’re really going to make a decision as to whether or not these people had evil in their hearts on that day. I would submit a lot of them did not.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins concurred, observing that officials took extra precautions with barricades in D.C. following the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, but curiously did not implement the same security measures ahead of J6. “When you add those facts and these perceptions with what happened post January 6th with the sham investigation that took place by Nancy Pelosi and the January 6th committee, it only fuels that idea that this was politically motivated to advance a narrative.”

“I don’t think there’s any question,” Griffith agreed. “The January 6th select committee that Nancy Pelosi put together was politically motivated. I think the evidence is clear on that from the very beginning, from day one. They wanted to project that this was all Donald Trump’s fault, that he was the big bad guy, and the evidence just didn’t bear that out.”

The congressman further contended that the January 6th Select Committee “gave partial truth, and sometimes maybe even given Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony, was clearly in error, if not just falsehoods. … And the witnesses who were on the scene that the January 6th Select Committee had in their possession before they issued their report was not in that report. And they should have given the American people the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They chose not to do so because they had a political agenda.”

Griffith additionally noted that Pelosi kept “conservative Republicans off of the commission, who could have asked the pointed questions, who could have brought out [further] information,” further detailing that “there was about a terabyte of information that was deleted or attempted to be deleted by the J6 Select Committee. That should have gone to the archives of the United States. That’s just gone.”

“[L]et all the proper evidence in and let the chips fall where they may,” Griffith concluded. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But you know what? They didn’t do that. They tilted the scales of justice for political reasons, and it’s atrocious.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Secret Service’s ‘Inexcusable’ J6 Failures Stem From Much Deeper Problems, Former Agents Say

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Leadership that completely ignores field agent concerns, combined with inconsistent communication protocols and a lack of preparation, lead to outcomes like the Secret Service’s failures on Jan. 6, 2021, former agents told the Daily Caller.

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report July 31 detailing the agency’s performance on the day of the Capitol riot. A fundamental breakdown in inter-agency correspondence led to disparities in intelligence gathering and coordination between the agency and the United States Capitol Police (USCP), the former agents said.

“The bottom line that caused it all is, whether it’s a combination of the Capitol Police and the Secret Service or ultimately, the entity responsible for protection, were not prepared, or did not anticipate accurately, the necessary manpower,” former Secret Service agent Dean Peterson told the Caller. “Because of it, they were kind of caught off guard, and that led to some poor, in-the-moment decisions.”

The potential for chaos was obvious, however, according to Peterson, which render the mishaps “inexcusable.”

“I’m shocked, I guess, by what the intelligence community may or may not be communicating. I would think … you don’t need to be a part of these things and have intimate knowledge to have this perspective of like, ‘Wow, this is an unusual election circumstance,’” Peterson said.

The Secret Service said they fully cooperated with the OIG and have “taken steps to implement the majority of the recommendations” in the report, according to a statement they provided to the Daily Caller.

“The United States Secret Service (USSS) has a no-fail mission to protect our nation’s leaders. The actions taken by our agents on January 6, 2021 demonstrated their dedication to preventing harm to Secret Service protectees and assisting the U.S. Capitol Police,” the agency said. “We are continually improving protectee operations and benefit from oversight and investigations”

One example of the agency’s shortcomings was allowing Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to come within 20 feet of a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) building in Washington, D.C, the OIG report notes.

The agency assigned two separate canine teams to sweep the DNC building where Capitol Police found the bomb the morning of Jan. 6 but did not assign an Explosives Ordnance Disposal team (EOD), which surprised agents on the ground, according to the report.

The Secret Service’s Operations Unit claimed that they didn’t request an EOD team because of a Department of Defense (DoD) rule that requires 72-hour advance notice for an EOD. The OIG, however, found seven occasions where EOD support was requested and approved despite being submitted less than 72 hours before a protectee’s visit.

“Regardless if it’s 72 hours or not, the job still needs to get done. If we’ve got a protectee that’s traveling to a location, the whole 72-hour thing, to me doesn’t make sense,” Michael Matranga told the Daily Caller.

The agency’s excuse was strange, Matranga says, and policy shouldn’t get in the way of safety.

A suspect allegedly planted two pipe bombs, one at the DNC and one at the RNC, the evening of Jan. 5, according to the FBI.

USCP received reporters of an “explosive device” at the RNC around 12:42 p.m. on Jan. 6, according to Republican Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk. Approximately 20 minutes later, officials discovered there was another “device” at the DNC while Harris was inside.

The violence at the Capitol had begun around 1 p.m., according to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol’s report.

A group of young students appeared to walk in the vicinity of the alleged bomb at the DNC after officials had apparently discovered it was there, footage Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie provided to Revolver News’ Darren Beattie appears to show.

Law enforcement have not identified the suspect who allegedly planted the bombs, offering a $500,000 reward for any leading information.

The disarray is largely due to a lack of leadership, Matranga told the Caller.

“The problem is the 8th floor, which is headquarters. They’re just not listening,” Matranga said. “There needs to be some serious procedural and policy changes in order for them to adapt to the current threat landscape.”

The July 31 OIG report says intelligence agencies compiled an information packet that “contained some information indicating a potential threat against the Capitol” but that the Secret Service did not receive it.

Two Task Force officers from the Secret Service did report hearing “general information” about potential protests, but “nothing out of the ordinary or uncommon.” These officers, however, later discovered they were not included on an email list set up to monitor pre-inauguration threats, according to the OIG report.

Secret Service relies on intelligence agencies like the CIA, FBI and NSA to provide intelligence to them, but the process is far from streamlined, the former agents said.

People assume these agencies play nice, but Matranga told the Caller this isn’t always the case. Sometimes the agencies provide information that’s “very good,” while other times the intel is sorely lacking.

Matranga and Peterson spoke of a need for significantly more efficient communication between the agency and the intelligence organizations.

“The Secret Service, now, because of what they do, has to have a seat at the table … a more prominent seat at the table with the intelligence community,” Peterson said. “Far too many pieces of information do not get appropriately and timely communication, and that’s a huge issue.”

“At the end of the day, this is that breakdown in communication that has been going on for a very long time. It’s jurisdictional,” Matranga said.

Once the chaos began and protesters broke into the rotunda, the Secret Service’s Uniformed Division Chief offered to assist the United States Capitol Police (USCP) with extra officers. The chief then delegated that responsibility to the Assistant Chief, who told the OIG, “[He] thought the Chief requested another USSS official to assist with sending support to the USCP but did not know who.”

Ultimately, it took the Secret Service nearly an hour and a half to deploy additional officers to assist USCP after they initially offered their help, according to the report. The number of officers sent “may not have been the magnitude of assistance leadership anticipated.”

An email the Secret Service’s Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division (PID) sent to the Secret Service director at approximately 3:47 p.m. said they had sent 100 officers to the Capitol and would be deploying an additional 100 “within the next hour.”

The OIG found that the 100 number “far exceeded the actual number of officers that we could verify as present on the scene.” The report also says “Secret Service leadership provided inconsistent recollections of where these estimated numbers originated … ”

“What I have to believe is just either a lie about the available manpower or an egregious oversight of how manpower is allocated as a whole,” Peterson said of the response.

Some officers indicated they could have been better utilized to respond to rioters rather than securing the Dirksen Senate building due to their training and equipment, according to the report. Peterson concurred with their assessment.

“There was a very good group of available officers who could have immediately responded, because they are all trained to do that,” Peterson told the Caller.

Everyone is required to be prepared for civil disobedience, Peterson says, and the lack of additional support left him “a little confused.”

Matranga expressed an agency-wide lack of support in leadership. Peterson echoed that sentiment, noting that the agency may be better off if they cull some of their career bureaucrats.

The OIG made six recommendations to the Secret Service in their report, four of which the agency concurred with. The OIG suggested a reassessment of the Secret Service’s agreement with UCSP, improved policy guidance on requesting Technical Security Division (TSD) personnel, improved policy guidelines on requesting EOD personnel and an adequate procedure for ensuring the agency conducts after-incident reviews, all of which the Secret Service concurred with.

The Secret Service, however, did not concur with two of the OIG’s recommendations. The agency split from the OIG on their recommendations that they develop protocols for providing Civil Disturbance Unit (CDU) support to law enforcement and implement training for site agents on directing canine sweeps if there was no TSD on hand.

The agency said it was “opposed to developing and implementing protocols for providing CDU assistance to support law enforcement partners in the National Capital Region, even in the event of emergencies such as those that occurred during January 6, 2021,” according to the report.

“The Secret Service stated its primary mission limits its ability to provide emergency support to other law enforcement partners,” the OIG report notes.

An April 2022 update to the Secret Service’s operational procedures addressed “the need for site agents to be trained on directing canine sweeps” and requested the OIG close the recommendation.

Instead of addressing agents’ concerns, leadership encourages them to try to stretch their current resources, Matranga said.

“We got lucky on July 13. We absolutely got lucky.”

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Lawyer Of ‘J6 Praying Grandma’ Says Potentially Record Fine Could ‘Financially Destroy Her’

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Rebecca Lavrenz, known as the “J6 praying grandma,” was fined an amount that could “financially destroy her,” her attorney told the Daily Caller.

Lavrenz was sentenced for entering the Capitol building on January 6. Prosecutors stated that the 72-year-old spent about 10 minutes inside the U.S. Capitol Building, The Associated Press (AP) reported. She was reportedly fined $103,000 and sentenced to one year’s probation Monday — the first six months in home confinement with no internet access.

“We believe it’s the largest misdemeanor fine in American history,” John Pierce of the National Constitutional Law Union and Lavrenz’s attorney told the Caller. “It’s going to financially destroy her if she has to pay it.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) initially sought “10 months’ incarceration, 12 months of supervised release, 60 hours of community service, and $500 in restitution,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors claimed Lavrenz’s “unrepentant promotion of the riot” demonstrated she “pos[es] a threat to future acts of political violence.”

“She’s a great grandmother in her mid-seventies,” Pierce told the Caller, adding that Lavrenz went to the U.S. Capitol to pray.

Rebecca Lavrenz the ‘J6 Praying Grandma’ Facing 3 Years in Jail.

She has a GiveSendGo set up where supporters can donate to help pay her legal fees.

Prosecutors accused Lavrenz of “profiting off the celebrity of her conviction,” according to the court documents

Pierce told the Caller that Lavrenz did not attempt to create her celebrity status. “I think it’s a function of the fact that the Department of Justice is going after great-grandmothers,” he claimed, explaining how her story caught the eye of major figures like former President Donald Trump.

Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social

Rebecca Lavrenz, also known as the “J6 Praying Grandma,” has been unfairly targeted by Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, and now faces up to 1 YEAR in prison for peacefully walking around the Capitol, and praying for our Failing Nation on January 6th! Rebecca is a 72-year-old Grandmother and Small Business Owner from Colorado, and now she is one of Joe Biden’s J6 HOSTAGES!!! Crooked Joe Biden spends more time prosecuting Patriots like Rebecca, AND ME, than Violent Criminals, Thugs, Murderers, and ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who are destroying our Country. THIS IS WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST. MAGA2024! https://restoringgodlyculture.com

“It got a lot of attention,” he continued. “Not because she was trying to be a celebrity, but because they went after a praying, you know, great-grandmother.”

Pierce told the Caller he had only heard of an internet ban in situations where it’s “incredibly compelling from like, a safety standpoint” such as in child pornography cases.

Pierce’s law firm, John Pierce Law, has represented over 20 Jan. 6 defendants, according to the biography on his website. “We represent lots of people who are misdemeanor defendants who didn’t engage in any kind of violence or property destruction,” he told the Caller.

He told the Caller that his firm has been successful overall in getting those defendants no jail time or a “slap on the wrist.”

“None of them have been fined anywhere near this amount,” Pierce said. “I think before this, the highest fine that we’ve seen in our cases was $20,000, and that was a case that involved felony assault claims and convictions.”

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told Lavrenz that while her case is not as serious as others, “it’s still a grave offense,” the AP reported.

Pierce told the Caller there was “certainly no indication of any kind of threats” from Lavrenz.

“I think these judges are attempting to apply the law fair,” Pierce said. “There’s a certain built in bias with respect to anybody in D.C., including these judges.”

He noted that it can be difficult for these judges to “understand the mindset” of those who traveled from the middle of the country to protest.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

General assignment reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘I Take Responsibility’: Nancy Pelosi Fesses Up To J6 Blunder

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Newly released video HBO provided to congressional investigators shows former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claiming responsibility for the lack of police preparedness on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., while she was fleeing the Capitol.

The video, shot by Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra, shows an irate Pelosi complaining about a lack of accountability for the incident.

“We have responsibility, Terry! We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous!” Pelosi exclaimed.

She then expressed contempt for what she appeared to feel was a late request for National Guard troops to help quell the situation.

“You’re gonna ask me in the middle of the thing, when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff, ‘should we call the Capitol Police?’ I mean the National Guard. Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”

“They thought that they had sufficient resources …” her Chief of Staff Terri McCullough answered, before Pelosi interjected.

“It’s not a question of how they had … they don’t know! They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” Pelosi concluded.

HBO released 45 minutes of footage to congressional investigators after a House Administration subcommittee requested it, according to Politico.

Congressional leaders, including Pelosi, chose not to deploy the National Guard early over concerns of “optics” amid 2020’s Black Lives Matter riots, according to a 2022 GOP report.

Additionally, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s fear former President Trump would commandeer the military for political reasons allegedly influenced the delay of deploying the National Guard, D.C. National Guard witnesses testified in April.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security had information beforehand that would suggest impending chaos and violence at the Capitol, but they failed to warn about or recognize it, according to a 2022 Senate report. They also allegedly ignored or downplayed a “massive amount” of intelligence.

“Throughout 2020, the FBI and DHS disseminated written documents detailing the potential for increased violent extremist activity at lawful protests and targeting of law enforcement and government facilities and personnel,” the report read.

“Despite online calls for violence at the Capitol, neither the FBI nor DHS issued a threat assessment or intelligence bulletin warning law enforcement entities in the National Capital Region of the potential for violence,” the report stated.

AUTHOR

ROBERT MCGREEVY

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden Focuses On Issues Americans Care Least About In Biggest Speech Of Presidency

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President Joe Biden set aside immigration, inflation and crime to lead his 2024 State of the Union speech with a trio of issues that hardly register in polls of the American people.

During the first ten minutes of his 2024 State of the Union address, Biden spent his time discussing the war in Ukraine and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot before moving on to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. At least an hour after the president was scheduled to take the podium, he finally touched on concerns about his age, the southern border crisis and answered the growing calls to say Laken Riley’s name, the deceased Georgia 22-year-old who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant.

“If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not,” the 81-year-old began. “But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking. They are not asking for American soldiers.”

“In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. And I am determined to keep it that way. But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world,” he continued.

After stressing his message to Putin and making a pitch for more Ukraine aid, Biden pivoted to another topic that occurred nearly three and a half years ago: the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The president never addressed former President Donald Trump by name, rather referring to him as his predecessor.

“January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War,” Biden said. “But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. But we must be honest the threat remains and democracy must be defended.”

“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th. I will not do that,” Biden continued.

Biden cast the recovery from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as a story of American comeback.

“America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all of America, in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind,” Biden said.

“The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer,” he continued.

While Biden and his advisors deemed Ukraine, COVID-19 and the January 6th Capitol as the best topics to open the address with, the American people have indicated an interest in other topics. Immigration is now Americans’ top concern, with 28% naming it their top priority, according to a February Gallup poll. Twenty percent of American voters called “government” their top priority while 12% named the “economy in general.”

Only nine percent of Americans called “threats to democracy,” a common phrase Biden and his allies have used to characterize Trump and his administration, their top priority, according to a January Data for Progress survey.

Just 3% of American voters said foreign aid and issues overseas are their priority — the very topic Biden chose to open his State of the Union with.

Those issues that Americans have deemed their top concerns came in the second half of Biden’s speech, about thirty minutes into his address. When discussing the border crisis, the president repeated his calls for Congress to pass a supplemental funding bill that would provide funds to stem the border crisis, while also giving aid to both Ukraine and Israel. Most notably, the president was confronted by Georgia Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, who called out during the address and begged the president to say the name of Riley.

Biden tried to, but he botched Riley’s first name and instead referring to her as “Lincoln.”

“Lincoln. Lincoln Riley,” Biden said, holding up a pin with the late female’s name. “The innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right.”

The slip-up was the only major flub for Biden, who saved the final moments of his speech to address his age, another key concern for voters.

“Now some other people my age see a different story. An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me,” Biden said, before going on to tout the experience his age gives him.

Biden’s fitness for office remained a main concern ahead of his address. At least 66% of American voters are worried about Biden’s age and health ahead of the 2024 election, according to a Feb. 6 NBC poll. But the worries for Biden’s health truly ignited following special counsel Robert Hur’s report on the president’s handling of classified documents last month. Hur noted that in a five hour interview with the special counsel, the president appeared to forget when he began and ended his vice presidency and was unable to identify the date that late son passed away.

There was an emphasis on the president’s energy during his State of the Union address, a moment his re-election campaign is reportedly planning to use as a reset while he trails in the polls. In preparation, Biden reportedly spent ample time fine tuning his address and doing physical tests. Regardless of the prep work, some Democrats and allies still feared potential gaffes.

“If I was smart I would go home now,” Biden said as he took the podium.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Memo to Democrats — Lawlessness Started Long Before January 6

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With nothing but three years of failure to campaign on, President Biden has made it clear that he intends to use January 6 as the theme of his reelection bid. The first evidence of that was his speech in Charleston on Monday, when he told the audience, “Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always. Not sometimes — always.” Conservatives agree — we just didn’t wait until January 6 to say so.

Like most Americans, I thought the chaos created in the Capitol was foolish, and in some cases, criminal. But it was a riot, not an insurrection. You don’t stage an insurrection with signs, placards, and flags. The difference between many Republicans and President Biden is that we’ve been talking about the destructive nature of lawlessness for the last several years. But apparently, the burning down of major cities, the lobbing of Molotov cocktails, and destruction of federal property all went down the memory hole for the Left.

Now, suddenly, the legacy media has decided to care about these things, running headlines like The Washington Post’s, “Violent Political Threats Surge as 2024 Begins Haunting American Democracy.” The article starts with the story of Rusty Bowers, former speaker of the Arizona House and the latest victim of “swatting” that we’ve seen across America. “It was one of many violent threats and acts of intimidation that have defined the lives of various government officials since the 2020 election,” they claimed.

According to them, these political attacks just started. That’s interesting, since it was eight years earlier when, inspired by the radical Southern Poverty Law Center, a gunman followed SPLC’s “hate map” to Family Research Council and shot one of our employees. Armed with 100 rounds of ammunition, Floyd Corkins said his goal was to “kill as many people as possible.”

Despite that and so many other horrifying incidents, Steven Levitsky, a Harvard professor, suggested in the article that “while violent threats span the political spectrum, the ‘vast majority’ come from activists on and others on the far right.”

Does the entire Left suffer from clinical amnesia? When then-House Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot at a congressional baseball practice in 2017, it wasn’t a threat from the “far right.” It was a politically-motivated attack that almost took my good friend’s life. And after it happened, what did Democrats do? They fanned the flames.

High-ranking officials like former Attorney General Eric Holder seconded Hillary Clinton’s call for incivility, telling a rowdy crowd to start roughing up conservatives in 2018 — two years before the supposed genesis of all political violence. “Michelle [Obama] always says, ‘When they go low, we go high,’” Holder told the audience. “No. No. When they go low, we kick them!”

This is the same party who told Americans to get up in people’s faces. “You have to be ready to throw a punch,” former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said. “Push back on them,” Democrat Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) coached the crowd. “Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!” “[We’ll] fight Trump… in the streets,” Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) vowed. “Get up in their face,” Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) demanded. Even the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, encouraged the Left to loot, burn, and torment their opponents. “I support them,” she said.

And what about the hostility toward the newest members of the Supreme Court? Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) openly declared that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “will pay a price” for not supporting abortion. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” he fumed, escalating tensions that were already evident outside the justices’ homes. But sure, it’s Trump supporters who “embrace political violence.”

Over at Reuters, reporters claims this all started with Biden’s predecessor. “Incidents of political violence began rising in 2016,” Gary LaFree argued, “around the time of Trump’s first run for the presidency.”

But let’s consider the context. In the summer of 2020, 140 American cities were torched in the most expensive explosion of civil disobedience, rioting, and looting that’s ever taken place in the country. As many as two dozen people died as a result of the mayhem unleashed after George Floyd’s death, causing $2 billion dollars worth of damage. But the media doesn’t factor in any of this. Nor do they take into account the hostility against pro-lifers since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has yet to earn a footnote in their distorted reporting.

In The Washington Times, experts on violence called for bipartisan solutions. Here’s a solution. This one goes back to the very first president of the United States, George Washington. In his farewell address, he says, “Of all of the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” He continues, “And let us with caution, indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion …”

In other words, the very thing our country needs is being driven out, and that is a recognition of God and religion — allowing people to live out their faith in such a way that it affects the world around them. That, my friends, is the answer to incivility, lawlessness, and division.

AUTHOR

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: They Push BS Lawfare & Trump Rises In The Polls

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

LARRY ELDER: ‘Insurrection’ Is The New ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’

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President Joe Biden, on the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol building riot, gave a fiery speech in which he condemned former President Donald Trump for allegedly causing an “insurrection.”

Biden said: “For the first time on our history, insurrectionists had come to stop the peaceful transfer — transfer of power in America — first time — smashing windows, shattering doors… Trump did nothing. It was among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history: an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force and violence. … America, as we begin this election year, we must be clear: Democracy is on the ballot.”

Sigh.

Biden, of course, says he decided to run for president in 2020 to defeat Trump over his supposedly racist comments after the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, rally that turned violent. When he announced his candidacy in 2019, Biden said: “That’s when we heard the words from the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation.” Trump, according to Biden, said there were “some very fine people on both sides” and “assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it.”

Trump was referring to the debate over whether a Confederate monument should be in a public square. Even CNN’s Jake Tapper, in 2019, said so. Trump even added, “And I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” Biden omits this, just as he ignores the part of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech where the former president said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

To repeat, the Jan. 6 rioters certainly deserve punishment. But was it “insurrection,” a coordinated attempt to overthrow government, let alone one inspired, orchestrated or led by Trump?

On Aug. 20, 2021, The Hill published an article with the following headline: “FBI finds scant evidence Jan. 6 attack was coordinated: Reuters.”

“The FBI has found little evidence at this point to suggest that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was largely coordinated by supporters of former President Trump or right-wing groups,” according to a Reuters report.

“‘Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases,’ a former senior law enforcement official told Reuters. ‘Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages.’…

“A Democratic congressional source confirmed to Reuters that senior lawmakers are aware of the FBI’s current findings and believe the results so far are reliable.

“The findings could prove relevant for the House select panel that is investigating the circumstances of the Jan. 6 attack…”

Speaking of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), wrote: “The bottom line is, you’re going to get a second opinion on January 6th from the committee, whether you wanted it or not. … The FBI has no evidence that the events of January 6th were coordinated, that President Trump had any involvement, or that his allies had any sort of inclination that individuals would enter the Capitol. And they will find none.”

Nothing has changed since then and none of the rioters were charged with “insurrection,” and neither was Trump. This, of course, does not stop the media — only 3.4% of American journalists are registered Republicans — from routinely calling Jan. 6 an “insurrection.”

After Biden’s speech, CNN wrote a piece with this headline: “Biden’s faith in US democracy faces hard reality three years after insurrection.” NBC News wrote, “Get the latest news on the investigations into the Jan. 6 insurrection…” A Washington Post headline read: “The Jan. 6 insurrection.” A PBS headline read: “Capitol insurrection.” A Politico headline read: “Insurrection Fallout.”

But this casual characterization of Jan. 6 as an “insurrection” appears to be creating a backlash, at least among Republicans. This likely explains a new CBS News poll finding fewer Republicans “disapprove strongly” of the Jan. 6 riot. In January 2021, 51% of Republicans said they “disapprove strongly.” Now it’s down to 32%. It looks like Republicans believe calling Jan. 6 an “insurrection” is just a “Big Lie.”

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

AUTHOR

LARRY ELDER

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com. Copyright 2024 Laurence A. Elder.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Sympathy for J6 Protestors Growing amid Election Integrity Concerns

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Nearly half of Americans believe the U.S. Capitol protestors on January 6, 2021, had a point. According to a new Suffolk University/USA Today poll, a combined total of 43% of registered voters agreed that Capitol protestors “had a point,” with 37% of respondents adding that the protestors “went too far.”

Suffolk’s analysis of the data said “sympathy” had increased for the protestors, noting, “Only 48% of voters overall said they thought the rioters were ‘criminals,’ a significant drop from the 70% of voters who thought so in a Suffolk survey conducted just weeks after [January 6].” Suffolk added, “Those who agreed that ‘they went too far, but they had a point’ rose to 37% from 24%, and 6% called their actions ‘appropriate,’ when in 2021 just 2% did.”

Additionally, nearly a third (32%) of respondents stated that the criminal charges leveled against over 700 protestors are “inappropriate and should be reversed.” Over 1,200 protestors have been charged for their participation in the events at the Capitol, with over 745 defendants having been sentenced already. Republicans have been critical of the Biden administration’s treatment of protestors. After visiting a prison where protestors were held in custody, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called the protestors “political prisoners of war” and attested that their treatment was “abuse.” Greene also explained that prisoners are being kept in solitary confinement, asserting:

“They have been beaten by the guards [and] they are called white supremacist. They are denied religious services, haircuts, shaving, the ability to trim their fingernails. There’s more outrageous things happening there. They’re denied time with their attorneys. They are denied the ability to even see their families and have their families visit there. They are denied bail and being held there without bail.”

In November, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) made public hundreds of hours of previously-unreleased video footage of the January 6 Capitol events, which included footage of police officers opening doors for protestors and guiding them down hallways. A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll released earlier this week showed that a quarter of American adults believe the FBI was involved in either instigating or organizing the breach of the Capitol building, including 13% of Democrats.

The Suffolk University/USA Today poll also reported that less than half (43%) of Americans are confident “that the results of the 2024 election will be accurately counted and reported,” while 27% are “not confident.” Additionally, 31% of respondents stated that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020. This follows a report that one in five mail-in voters admitted to committing fraud in the 2020 election, as well as numerous reports on the federal government skirting the Constitution to censor Americans’ political speech.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: Jan 6 “Pipe Bomb” Truth with Darren Beattie

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

House Republicans Call Out Cassidy Hutchinson’s J6 Testimony, Threaten Subpoena If She Does Not Produce Documents

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Republicans on the Oversight Subcommittee for House Administration sent a letter Monday to the Jan. 6 Committee’s key witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, demanding she preserve and produce all records and materials in her possession related to the events of Jan. 6.

The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, which was spearheaded by Chairman Barry Loudermilk of Georgia. Loudermilk called on Hutchinson to provide the subcommittee with all documents, communications, electronic information and metadata that is or could be related to her different testimonies regarding Jan. 6 and the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

“On June 28, 2022, you testified during one of the Select Committee’s primetime hearings. During this hearing you asserted that former President Donald Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel from one United States Secret Service employee driving the vehicle and lunged at another,” Loudermilk wrote in the letter.

“However, in your previous three transcribed interviews on February 23, 2022, March 7, 2022, and May 17, 2022, you did not mention this interaction. You subsequently testified that you spoke with Alyssa Farah Griffin in order to orchestrate the third interview with the Select Committee on May 17th without your attorney’s knowledge. Despite this, you did not recount this attention-grabbing series of events during the May 17th interview,” he continued.

“This letter serves as formal notice and instruction to preserve and produce all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that is or may be responsible to this congressional inquiry. This includes all materials you previously turned over to the Select Committee. This instruction includes all electronic messages sent using official and personal accounts or devices, including records created using text messages, phone-based message applications, or encryption software,” he adds in the letter.

“For purposes of this letter, ‘preserve’ includes taking reasonable steps to prevent the partial or full destruction, alteration, deletion, shredding, wiping, relocation, migration, theft, mutation, or any negligent or reckless handling that could affect the records or materials. This includes all records, notes, or documents prepared by you for interviews with the Select Committee or the Department of Justice.”

READ THE LETTER HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) –… by Henry Rodgers

Before sending the letter, Loudermilk told the Caller that her actions are “deeply concerning” and that he will issue a subpoena if she does not provide the unredacted documents.

“Cassidy Hutchinson’s sudden and substantive changes to her testimony are inconsistent with previous statements she’s made publicly and to the January 6 Select Committee. Her actions are deeply concerning and raise serious questions about her credibility,” Loudermilk said.

“If she refuses to provide us with these documents, I will not hesitate to subpoena her for further questioning,” Loudermilk added.

Hutchinson made headlines after testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, where she claimed former President Donald Trump lunged for the steering wheel to reroute the car to the Capitol where protesters were gathering. Sources close to the Secret Service have denied her claims.

Watch Hutchinson’s testimony: 

Hutchinson also called the Jan. 6 committee “bs” in a text message obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller.

Loudermilk called for the unredacted documents to be provided to the subcommittee no later than January 26, 2024.

The Daily Caller contacted Hutchinson about the letter, to which she did not immediately respond.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Capitol Police Commander: ‘J6 Was Not an Insurrection’

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A former Washington, D.C. Capitol Police official is declaring that the events of January 6, 2021, were not an insurrection, and alleging that government agencies have attempted to silence his firsthand testimony. Former U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Tarik Johnson posted on Twitter on Thursday, “I’ve been saying publicly for a year that J6 was not an insurrection but not many people would listen.” Johnson explained that he was the commander who ordered the House and Senate evacuations that day, noting, “No one would benefit more than I if J6 was an insurrection…”

According to Johnson, he was “begging” Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman for permission to evacuate the Capitol while “she sat comfortably in the Commander Center watching the events unfold on CCTV while Chief Steven Sund was obtaining National Guard approval and getting assistance from local law enforcement agencies.” The former lieutenant explained that since Pittman ignored his request, he ordered the evacuation without her permission.

Three days afterwards, he called then-Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who was serving at the time as president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, to file a report against Pittman. “[A]pproximately an hour after I got off the phone with the senator I was contacted by the USCP internal affairs section and informed I was suspended,” Johnson continued. “The suspension lasted for 17 months and I was under a USCP gag order not to speak about the events of January 6, 2021 to the media until I separated from the Department.” The former commander also stated that he was required to remain in his home from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday through Friday due to USCP orders and was afraid his job would be terminated if he even set foot off his property.

After the events of January 6, former Montgomery County, Maryland, police chief John Thomas Manger was hired to lead the USCP. Johnson called Manger “arguably the most corrupt politician in the country” and alleged the chief was hired specifically to “cover-up” the true events surrounding January 6.

Johnson’s post was in response to a video clip featuring Republican presidential primary contender Vivek Ramaswamy discussing January 6 during a Wednesday night CNN Townhall event. In the clip, Ramaswamy quipped, “If you had told me [in 2021] that January 6 was in any way an inside job the subject of government entrapment, I would have told you that was crazy talk, fringe conspiracy theory nonsense.” He continued, “I can tell you now having gone somewhat deep in this — it’s not.”

The presidential hopeful noted that the federal government has lied on a number of subjects, including the origins of COVID-19, the Hunter Biden laptop, and the alleged Trump-Russia collusion of 2016, which investigative journalist Lee Smith exposed as a Democratic Party-led hoax in his books “The Plot Against the President” and “The Permanent Coup.”

“Now we come to January 6,” Ramaswamy continued. “The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that field, we don’t know how many.” When CNN moderator Abby Phillip interrupted Ramaswamy to say that he had no evidence to support his claims, the businessman-turned-presidential hopeful responded, “So why before Congress, when pressed on what the number was, they [the FBI] didn’t say there were none, they just couldn’t say how many there were? … We’ve seen multiple informants suggesting that there were, we know people were FBI informants.”

He also asked why the Congressional January 6 Committee only released 12 hours of video footage from the day and suppressed the other hundreds of hours of footage, which included video of police firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowd outside the Capitol. When Phillip accused Ramaswamy of “cherry-picking” incidents to craft a narrative, he responded, “You know who cherry-picked? The government did. The government cherry-picked 12 hours of footage, when there was 200 hours of footage.”

In a Twitter post accompanying the video clip, Ramaswamy wrote, “There is clear evidence that there was at the very least entrapment of peaceful protestors, similar to the fake Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot & countless other cases.” He noted that newly-released video footage from January 6 shows that Capitol Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowd and then “willingly later allowed [the crowd] to enter the Capitol.” He concluded, “That doesn’t add up & the actual evidence turns the prior narrative upside down: if the deep state is willing to manufacture an ‘insurrection’ to take down its political opponents, they can do anything.”

Johnson had posted, “If presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy would like more FACTS to disrupt the insurrection narrative, I will inbox his designated representative my personal phone number. God bless our country now and in 2024.” Ramaswamy reposted the former officer’s testimony with the caption “This is wild.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Speaker Johnson Releases January 6th Capitol Tapes

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House Speaker Mike Johnson released a tranche of tapes of the January 6th, 2021 Capitol riot on a website so Americans could watch the footage for themselves.

Speaker Johnson announced Friday on X he was going to be releasing the tapes and proceeded to post a link to them on the Committee on House Administration’s website.

“Follow the link below to view the January 6th tapes for yourself,” Johnson said on X. “To restore America’s trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker.”

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy previously turned over some of the January 6th footage to former Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson.

Beginning on Nov. 20, the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight will allow Americans to access the January 6th footage in person, the subcommittee said in a press release.

“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.” Johnson wrote in another X post. “Processing will involve blurring the faces of private citizens on the yet unreleased tapes to avoid any persons from being targeted for retaliation of any kind and segregating an estimated 5% of the videos that may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture.”

U.S. Capitol Police security cameras captured footage of the Capitol riot, and it includes the videos released by Tucker Carlson. Additional footage will continue to be uploaded to the website following the initial tranche of footage released Friday.

“The goal of our investigation has been to provide the American people with transparency on what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and this includes all official video from that day,” Republican Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, said.

“We will continue loading video footage as we conduct our investigation and continue to review footage. As I’ve said all along — the American people deserve transparency, accountability, and real answers supported by facts instead [of] a predetermined political narrative,” Loudermilk added.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has prosecuted more than 1,200 individuals from nearly all 50 states in connection with the Jan. 6th riot as of Nov. 6, 2023.

This story has been updated to include statements from Republican lawmakers and additional context surrounding Jan. 6.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Investigative reporter. James Lynch can be reached on Twitter @jameslynch32.

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Ray Epps Charged With A Felony For His Alleged Role In January 6th Riot

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Ray Epps, a man who was filmed encouraging protesters to storm the Capitol building ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, is being charged with a felony for his alleged role in the riot.

Epps was charged Monday with a felony for disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds by the U.S. Attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., according to a court filing uploaded Tuesday.

“On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, James Ray Epps Sr. did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds,” the document reads. Epps is being charged with a single count for violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(2) and could face prison time.

Epps said in a defamation lawsuit filed against Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson that the Department of Justice (DOJ) notified him in May 2023 that he was going to be charged for his alleged role in the Capitol riot.

“Finally, in May 2023, the Department of Justice notified Epps that it would seek to charge him criminally for events on January 6, 2021—two-and-a-half years later,” Epps’ lawsuit states.

Livestream footage from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, appears to show Epps pushing for Trump supporters to storm the Capitol the next day. His apparent role in the Jan. 6th riot and lack of law enforcement scrutiny led to speculation from Carlson and other pundits that Epps was a federal agent.

He has been profiled by the New York Times and CBS’s 60 Minutes because of the speculation surrounding Epps’ role in the Capitol riot. Epps said in his lawsuit that he and his wife were forced to leave their Arizona home because of alleged threats and intimidation.

“I’m probably gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol,” Epps could be heard shouting on the livestream. Epps added that it should be done “peacefully” after protesters around him accused him of being a federal agent.

In his lawsuit, Epps says that his remarks were intended to “prove that he was on their side so that he could deescalate the situation.”

The DOJ has charged more than 1,100 defendants in nearly all 50 states and D.C. 32 months since the Capitol riot, according to an update the DOJ posted on Sept. 6.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Investigative reporter. James Lynch can be reached on Twitter @jameslynch32

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘At Least 40’ Undercover Informants Were Doing Surveillance On Jan. 6, Defense Lawyer Says

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Law enforcement agencies had at least 40 undercover informants engaging in surveillance work among defendants on Jan. 6, defendant Dominic Pezzola’s lawyer Roger Roots said Wednesday.

A Proud Boys member, Pezzola is currently standing federal trial in Washington, D.C. with the group’s former national chairman Enrique Tarrio and members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl for allegedly conspiring to oppose the Jan. 2021 transfer of presidential power and related charges. The government admitted Tuesday that eight FBI confidential human sources were embedded among the Proud Boys on Jan. 6, Roots reported in a Wednesday court filing, saying the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) agency appears to have had some 19 informants active at the time.

At least 13 undercover plain-clothes DC Metro Police (MPD) agents worked among Jan. 6 defendants that day, Roots said. He reported that federal prosecutors revealed information involving twelve of the officers on Friday.

“Some of these undercover Metro officers marched with the Proud Boy march,” Roots said. “And some appear to have played roles of instigators, in that they are seen on body-worn videos chanting ‘Go! Go!,’ ‘Stop the Steal!,’ and ‘Whose house? Our house!’ on Jan. 6. Others generally followed demonstrators toward the Capitol.”

Dominic Pezzola by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

“When added to the 8 FBI CHSs now acknowledged by the prosecutors, this means that there were at least 40 undercover informants or agents doing surveillance among defendants on January 6,” he concluded.

Roots asked the court to make the government “reveal all informants, undercover operatives and other confidential human sources relating to the events of January 6,” arguing that the HIS informants and their likely conduct could “almost certainly” help exonerate Pezzola. He said the defense would have been “much more aggressive” in the trial originally if they knew “the scope and scale” of Jan. 6 undercover government operations.

Roots had motioned Friday for permission to issue a subpoena for Jan. 6 rioter Ray Epps, who has been accused of being an FBI informant, though Epps and others have vehemently denied this. The attorney argued Epps “is being suspiciously protected from prosecution by the government,” and the Friday motion referenced Jan. 6 defendant William Pope‘s claims that undercover MPD officers were instigating the Jan. 6 crowd from within to storm the Capitol.

The government revealed to the defense on March 22 that a woman that Tarrio’s defense intended to call as a witness had been an FBI confidential human source from April 2021 to January 2023. Judge Timothy Kelly Kelly ruled March 27 that defense lawyers could not raise the woman’s FBI relationship in the trial, and Tarrio’s attorney Sabino Jauregui subsequently said he would not call her to testify, according to Lawfare’s Robert Parloff.

AUTHOR

TREVOR SCHAKOHL

Legal reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Justice Department Prosecutors Respond To Tucker Carlson’s Capitol Riot Footage

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Federal prosecutors responded to Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson’s newly released Capitol riot footage in a court filing Sunday.

Prosecutors rejected Carlson’s argument about the Justice Department (DOJ) withholding evidence from defendants and accused him of cherry-picking footage of “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley.

“In fact, the videos of Chansley’s movements throughout his time in the Capitol are highly inculpatory of Pezzola, Chansley, and other rioters captured on them. Pezzola’s argument seems to be that the snippets of Chansley’s movements that were televised by Carlson establish that there was no emergency necessitating the suspension of proceedings,” prosecutors argued in the court filing.

“The televised footage lacks the context of what occurred before and after the footage. Chansley entered the building as part of a violent crowd that gained access as a result of Pezzola’s destruction of a window and he traveled with Pezzola during the initial breach.”

The filing was connected to Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola’s motion to dismiss the government’s seditious conspiracy case against him based on Carlson’s footage of Chansley. He argued the DOJ was monitoring his communications, destroyed evidence and fabricated evidence involving confidential human sources.

“The televised footage shows Chansley’s movements only from approximately 2:56 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Prior to that time, Chansley had, amongst other acts, breached a police line at 2:09 p.m. with the mob, entered the Capitol less than one minute behind Pezzola during the initial breach of the building, and faced off with members of the U.S. Capitol Police for more than thirty minutes in front of the Senate Chamber doors while elected officials, including the Vice President of the United States, were fleeing from the chamber,” prosecutors continued.

Carlson’s footage appeared to show Capitol Police officers escorting Chansley through the Capitol building. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger on Tuesday accused Carlson of airing selective footage and coming to “misleading conclusions.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, led the criticism of Carlson for airing the footage and his commentary about the Capitol riot. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided Carlson with the footage and defended his decision to do so Wednesday.

Chansley’s former defense attorney Albert Watkins told the Daily Caller on Thursday that he is calling for the Justice Department to publicly state it failed to provide Chansley with all of the footage during his prosecution. He told various outlets he did not receive the footage of his client aired by Carlson.

Prosecutors rejected accusations of withholding footage taken by the Capitol Police’s surveillance system (CCTV) in the filing. “First, all the footage of Jacob Chansley that aired on Tucker Carlson earlier this week has been produced to these defendants in discovery,” the prosecutors said.

“While discovery in this case is voluminous, the government has provided defense counsel with the necessary tools to readily identify relevant cameras within the CCTV to determine whether footage was produced or not. Accordingly, the volume of discovery does not excuse defense counsel from making reasonable efforts to ascertain whether an item has been produced before making representations about what was and was not produced, let alone before filing inaccurate and inflammatory allegations of discovery failures,” they added.

Chansley was sentenced in November to 41 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release for his role in the Capitol riot. His charges included disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Pezzola’s charges include seditious conspiracy; assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; obstruction of an official proceeding; destruction of government property and aiding and abetting; and robbery of personal property of the United States, according to a superseding indictment. He allegedly used a stolen riot shield to smash windows of the Capitol building and threatened to kill then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Pezzola is on trial with four other high-ranking members of the Proud Boys, an extremist group known for violent demonstrations.

“Our team’s review of available surveillance footage of Mr. Chansley is consistent with our reporting,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight” senior executive producer Justin Wells said in a statement to the Daily Caller.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

January 6 Prison Choir Has The Number One Song In The Country

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A new song featuring former President Trump topped iTunes’ charts.

The single “Justice for All” debuted March 4 by the J6 Prison Choir, reaching No. 1 on iTunes top songs Saturday, according to Variety.

The track consists of the choir singing “The Star Spangled Banner” behind bars, interspersed with audio of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The song concludes with chants of “USA! USA!”

The J6 Prison Choir is composed of prisoners incarcerated for the involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot.

Trump’s contribution was recorded for the project at his Mar-a-Lago residence per the request of a group supporting Jan. 6 prisoners, according to CNN.

The third-time presidential candidate’s 2024 campaign was not motivation for his involvement in this production, advisers claim. Trump has consistently expressed his support for those imprisoned, promising full pardons if he wins re-election and financially supporting some Jan. 6 defendants.

At least 1000 individuals have been arrested for participating in Jan. 6, according to CNBC.

“Justice for All” retails for $1.29 on iTunes. It is also available for play on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.

Money raised by the song will be distributed to families of Jan. 6 prisoners via a group organized by conservative commentator Ed Henry, according to Newsmax.

Trump-era White House official Kash Patel was also involved in the project, having released an exclusive music video for the song on The War Room with Steve Bannon.

AUTHOR

JULIANNA FRIEMAN

Contributor.

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