Convictions and Indictments and Shootings, Oh My!
I have many things to say. My every right, constitutional, civil, political and judicial has been tramped upon. I have not only had no jury of my peers, but I have had no jury at all. — Susan B. Anthony
Why is DC not like the rest of the US? It’s 38% White and 41% Black. But if a jury of one’s peers is going to depend on race, that means Black defendants can’t be tried in any of the 50 states.
Richard Barnett faced eight charges stemming from the insurrection, including theft of government property. He said repeatedly in court last week that he regretted what transpired at the Capitol that day but did not consider his actions illegal.
After the verdict, Barnett told reporters outside the court courthouse, “This is not a jury of my peers. I don’t agree with the decision, but I do appreciate the process and we are surely going to appeal.”
Barnett's attorney, Joseph McBride, agreed with his client, saying Washington, D.C.’s political composition is not like the rest of the United States and that, coupled with Jan. 6 media coverage, “eviscerated any chance of a fair trial.”Barnett is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3.
Barnett became a widely known symbol of the riot when he was photographed reclining in a chair in the speaker's office, with his feet propped up, and what the government referred to as a “stun device” tucked in his pants. Before leaving Pelosi’s office, Barnett took an envelope that he later displayed for cameras outside the Capitol.
Meanwhile in another court today…
Four members of the far-right Oath Keepers group were convicted of seditious conspiracy Monday, joining founder Stewart Rhodes in being found guilty by a jury of plotting to keep President Donald Trump in power by force.
Seditious conspiracy charges are rarely used and even more rarely successful. At Rhodes’s trial only he and Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs were found guilty of the crime, while three associates were convicted of less politically-loaded charges.
Joseph Hackett, 52, ; Roberto Minuta, 38; David Moerschel, 45 and Edward Vallejo, 64, were described by federal prosecutors as armed and dangerous traitors, and by their attorneys as hapless has-beens who stumbled into chaos.
“They claimed to wrap themselves in the Constitution, but they trampled it,” prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said in closing arguments. “They ignored the will of the people,” he said, but “had the audacity to claim to be oath-keepers.”
Of the nearly 1,000 people charged with committing crimes at the Capitol on Jan. 6, only 14 were charged with seditious conspiracy, identified by the Justice Department as not just participants in a violent mob but leaders using brutality to further a political plot. The Oath Keepers verdict comes as five members of the Proud Boys face trial down the hall on seditious conspiracy charges.
And:
Federal prosecutors alleged more emphatically than in the previous trial that the Oath Keepers came close to committing deadly violence. Rhodes expressed regret after Jan. 6 about not having rifles that day. Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Manzo told jurors that both Minuta and Vallejo might have killed lawmakers had they not been deterred by the Capitol Police on Jan. 6 and the National Guard the day after.
Noting testimony that Florida Oath Keeper Kenneth Harrelson pushed Capitol Police to see if he could feel body armor, Manzo argued that “shooting officers … was on the table.” That allegation was not made before Harrelson, who was tried with Rhodes, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy in November.
While the internet is abuzz with rumors and speculation about the arrest of a higher up in the NYC field office of the FBI, the main point here is what TPM describes properly as “a stunning picture, raising serious questions about how the probe was opened, and casting doubt on other decisions that McGonigal was in a position to be making while at the FBI. It’s extremely rare for law enforcement officials of his rank to face charges of this kind.”
The same FBI official accused of illegally working for a Russian oligarch also faces charges of concealing a $225,000 payment while he was working for the bureau, court papers say.
Per a Jan. 18 indictment, a D.C. federal grand jury charged Charles McGonigal, a former special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division at the FBI’s New York City field office, with nine counts relating to a scheme in which he allegedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a former foreign intelligence official.
The indictment does not specify whether McGonigal did anything specifically in exchange for the money — he faces charges of concealment, false statements, and falsifying official records.
But the charging documents lay out a story in which McGonigal appears to have used the powers that came with his position — including to open criminal investigations — in a way that may have benefited those paying him.
With the House GOP eager to eliminate the FBI and IRS to protect the strange ex-president and other mega wealthy guys, this may provide fresh fodder they can rail about on social media. But it’ll take time and detail to determine what the accused did. The Washington Post version includes a little more:
McGonigal was arrested by agents from the bureau where he had worked for 22 years and where he rose to one of the most important counterespionage positions in the U.S. government. Given his former role, the investigation was run by FBI agents in Los Angeles and D.C. rather than in New York.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said the case showed the FBI did its duty. “The way we maintain the trust and confidence of the American people is through our work — showing, when all the facts come out, that we stuck to the process and we treated everyone equally, even when it is one of our own,” Wray said in a statement. “We hold ourselves to the highest standard, and our focus will remain on our mission and on doing the right thing, in the right way, every time.”
There’s a lot of folks alarmed because of all he knows, including counterespionage activities he’s done with the CIA. So it’s notable that he has not been charged with espionage nor with bribery. The connection with the sanctioned Russian billionaire will raise added speculation but he didn’t succeed in getting sanctions lifted so if damage to national security was done it was likely elsewhere.
All day Monday, fresh reports of mass shootings came in from around the US, the latest from Half Moon Bay in California. I’ll leave the details to others since they’ll be widely reported with the usual arguments about gun control and the useless prayers, etc. doing nothing to make the situation a tiny bit better.
Maybe the kids here can keep your spirits up in the meantime. And please review the paragraph beneath the video.