Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Justice Dept. investigating sedition and conspiracy charges and any terror links to violent storming of U.S. Capitol
The Justice Department and FBI have created a sedition and conspiracy task force to pursue charges against participants in the storming of the U.S. Capitol and are investigating any links to domestic or foreign instigators, officials said Tuesday.
The investigation, one of the largest ever undertaken by the department, includes counterterrorism and counterterrorism facets and has charged 70 individuals and identified 170 suspects to date, acting U.S. attorney Michael R. Sherwin of D.C. said. Those arrest figures are expected to increase into the hundreds, if not “exponentially.”
Of the dozens who have already been arrested, many face charges for minor offenses such as unlawful entry or breaking curfew, with others facing more serious charges involving weapons or assaults on police officers. But Sherwin and Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said any impression that prosecutors are bringing mainly misdemeanor trespassing counts based on cases charged to date is flawed. They said the cases are only the beginning and that U.S. authorities are investigating everything including the plundering of congressional offices and digital devices, assaults on law enforcement officers, theft of national security and defense information, in addition to felony murder and excessive use of force.
The gamut of cases is mind-blowing,” Sherwin said.
Capitol and D.C. police were in openhanded combat with rioters, tear gas was used against police and destructive devices and semiautomatic weapons have been recovered, he said.
“People are going to be shocked with egregious activity in the Capitol,” Sherwin said, citing video footage and witness accounts that have not been made public. “No resources of the FBI or the U.S. attorney’s office will be untapped to determine if there was command and control, how it operated and how it executed these activities.”
Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol by supporters of President Trump led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer and a rioter who was fatally shot, and disrupted the electoral vote count of President-elect Joe Biden.
A new grand jury was empaneled Friday and met Monday to hear new Capitol cases.
Hours before officials spoke, the first public federal indictment in the Capitol breach was filed against an Alabama man who allegedly brought 11 molotov cocktails and five loaded weapons to the U.S. Capitol
In an indictment dated Monday, Lonnie L. Coffman, 70, who was previously charged with two counts in a U.S. Capitol Police complaint, was charged with 16 counts of D.C. firearms violations and one federal firearms count. He also possessed a crossbow, several machetes, a stun gun and smoke devices, prosecutors said.
Coffman allegedly formulated the incendiary devices to be particularly lethal, prosecutors asserted, and “appears to have been motivated to conduct violence against our elected representatives.”
Coffman is accused of carrying 11 Mason jars with gasoline and melted Styrofoam — which an FBI affidavit said could produce a “napalm-like” explosion of sticky, flammable liquid — in addition to a rifle, shotgun, two 9mm pistols, a .22-caliber pistol, five types of ammunition and a large-capacity magazine, all loaded and unregistered and unlicensed in the capital. Coffman had an apparent license to carry a pistol in Alabama, prosecutors said.
However, they asserted in court filings said the stockpile of weapons suggests “an intent [by Coffman] to provide them to others, as no one person could reasonably use so many at once.”
FBI report warned of ‘war’ at Capitol, contradicting claims there was no indication of looming violence
Exhibits filed by prosecutors seeking to detain Coffman show he alleged possessed handwritten notes, including one quoting Abraham Lincoln who once wrote in opposition to slavery, “We The People Are The Rightful Masters Of Both The Congress And The Courts, Not To Overthrow The Constitution But To Overthrow The Men Who Pervert The Constitution.”
Prosecutors said the notes “raise alarm in the context of the January 6 rioting and criminal infringement on our nation’s democratic process.” They showed others that contained purported contact information for “Conservative Talk Show Host Mark Levin,” “Shaun [sic] Hannity,” and “Senator Ted Cruz.”
Coffman did not enter a plea, and was ordered held without bond by a U.S. magistrate. Defense lawyer Tony Miles argued Coffman has no criminal record, is retired after a history of work, with family ties in Alabama and 10 years service in the U.S. Army
Prosecutors previously said Coffman was investigated because he was the registered owner of a red GMC pickup truck with Alabama plates parked near the Capitol. Officers allegedly found the molotov cocktail devices while investigating reports of suspected pipe bombs near the Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill and its Democratic counterpart minutes before the assault on the Capitol began.
Coffman was not charged in relation to those possible devices.
On Wednesday, the FBI reiterated it is offering a $50,000 reward for information regarding the pipe bombs, which Sherwin said were “real devices,” with igniters and timers.
“We don’t know obviously exactly why they did not go off,” Sherwin said, or whether there were “adiversionary type of a tactic used by some of these rioters.”
Others charges that public Tuesday included ones against Aaron Mostofsky, 34, the son of a Brooklyn judge who was photographed inside the Capitol wearing what appear to be several fur pelts, a U.S. Capitol Police bulletproof vest and a riot shield.
Mostofsky was expected to make an initial appearance later Wednesday in New York City on four charges including entering restricted grounds, violent or disorderly conduct at the Capitol, and theft of government property exceeding $1,000, a felony that carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The New York Times reported that Mostofsky’s father is Kings County Supreme Court Judge Shlomo Mostofsky.
Aaron Mostofsky told the New York Post in a video inside the Capitol last week: “We were cheated. I don’t think 75 million people voted for Trump — I think it was close to 85 million. I think certain states that have been red for a long time turned blue and were stolen, like New York.”
An FBI affidavit said Mostofsky also appeared to post on social media a self-taken video labeled, “DC bound stopthesteal,” and exchanged messages and photographs on Instagram describing his presence in the Capitol.
“If we find each other look for a guy looking like a caveman,” Mostofsky wrote a friend, the affidavit said, adding later, probably referring to the election, “Even a caveman knows it was stolen.”
The FBI added that after the election, Mostofsky posted on Facebook: “Since the republicans lost the house I have the following questions 1 when and where are we protesting/rioting …”
In the video interview, FBI agent Michael Attard wrote, Mostofsky said he took the shield he found on the floor, and motioned to the vest, apparently indicated that he also found that item and took it. He said he returned a hat he found to a police officer “because that might be someone’s personal item,” the agent attested.
KEITH PACKER OF VIRGINIA: Man in 'Camp Auschwitz' sweatshirt during Capitol riot identified
(CNN)A rioter who stormed the US Capitol Wednesday wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the phrase "Camp Auschwitz" has been identified as Robert Keith Packer of Virginia, according to three sources who spoke with CNN.
An image of Packer inside the Capitol, whose sweatshirt bore the name of the Nazi concentration camp where about 1.1 million people were killed during World War II, has evoked shock and disbelief on social media. The bottom of his shirt stated, "Work brings freedom," which is the rough translation of the phrase "Arbeit macht frei" that was on the concentration camp's gates.
A rioter wearing a sweatshirt with the phrase "Camp Auschwitz" has been identified as Robert Keith Packer of Virginia, according to three sources who spoke to CNN.
Packer did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.
One Virginia resident, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, described Packer as a long-time extremist who has had run-ins with the law.
"He's been always extreme and very vocal about his beliefs," the resident said.
Another source familiar with Packer described him as an "off-beat" character who has expressed frustrations with the government, though this source did not recall Packer ever talking about President Donald Trump or false allegations of voter fraud.
A third source said Packer previously worked as a welder and pipe-fitter.
Virginia court records show that Packer has a criminal history that includes three convictions for driving under the influence and a felony conviction for forging public records. In 2016, he was charged for allegedly trespassing, though that case was dismissed.
JANUARY 6, 2021
Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the constitution? By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it.
President Abraham Lincoln, Letter to AG Hodges, April 4, 1864
There is much controversy presently over the censoring of President Donald Trump on various social media outlets. What is beyond dispute is that at a rally on January 6, 2021 Donald Trump incited the riot that subsequently occurred on Capitol Hill while the Congress was fulfilling its constitutional duty to count and certify the Electoral College votes for the new presidential administration that will begin on January 20, 2021. The riot and the bloodshed and mayhem associated with it temporarily disrupted the counting and certification of the Electoral College votes. Congress, to its credit, came back and completed its constitutional duty, finished counting the electoral votes and certified Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the incoming President-elect and Vice President-elect, respectively.
President Abraham Lincoln was highly criticized for occasionally acting in a blatantly unconstitutional manner at various times during the American Civil War. As an attorney, President Lincoln revered the US Constitution, but he revered the continued survival of the Union even more. As President Lincoln explained in his letter to AG Hodges, ensuring the survival of the nation in the midst of the greatest crisis America ever faced required occasionally violating the letter of the US Constitution. By doing so, President Lincoln observed the larger spirit and intention of the US Constitution: to promote the survival and thriving of the United States of America as a successful, going nation-state.
President Trump, on January 6, 2021, clearly violated his oath of office to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States, and by so doing, put the preservation of the the rule of law and the Constitution under grave threat from an angry, riotous mob he deliberately incited and sent to Capitol Hill to assault the Congress in the performance of its constitutional duty.
At this point in time, President Trump clearly needed to have his access to social media restricted in order to help preserve the rule of law and ensure a smooth, seamless transition of power on January 20, 2021. While seemingly a violation of Trump’s First Amendment rights under the US Constitution, as President Lincoln so wisely observed during the Civil War, it is occasionally necessary to sacrifice a limb in order to save the body. No one sacrifices the body to save a limb.
Rebecca Solnit wrote:
“The middle ground is not halfway between Nazis and antiracists. The reasonable position is not a compromise between rapists and feminists, slaveowners and abolitionists, Natives and General Crook. The truth is not midway between the liar and the truthteller. That has to be a factor in all those calls for reaching out and unity. The murderer and his intended victim don’t have to agree on what’s right. The people who were harmed don’t have to reach out to those who did the harming. The people who told the truth don’t need to make liars feel better about themselves or what they said. Those who were targeted by this war don’t have to do all the peacemaking. If reaching out and finding unity is good, the haters and liars can go find some olive branches and apologies and do the work to leave their will to destroy the rest of us behind. Then it begins. The party of hate never had a mandate; they lost the popular vote last time and this time; they may think of themselves as the real American and the gatekeepers but we don’t have to, and we don’t have to enter their gates or play by their rules. We don’t have to hate them either, but we don’t have to protect them from the consequences of their choices or sell out our principles for their comfort. When you stand on the ground of truth and justice, let others find their way to you. If you stand firm, many will in the end. Not everyone will; that does not change what truth and justice are.”
Well funded and organized effort since 1950s by corporate oligarchs (ALEC, Koch) in coalition with racists (see Brown vs Board of Education 1955) and religious zealots, to demonize and cripple democratic government so they can avoid regulation which protects us from them, buy and control government, evade taxation, take all the money, hijack our military and do whatever they want (see: Feudalism, Fascism).
RSN: FOCUS: Troops Flood a Rattled Washington Ahead of the Biden Inauguration
12 January 21
Off that Couch and Help Out … Yes You!
We have overwhelming numbers in our favor. What we need “you” to say is, “yes me.” I’ll be the one. It’s never fair, it’s never ideal or perfect. The only way to make it work is reject failure and take responsibility.
Yes you. Who is better suited?
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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12 January 21
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FOCUS: Troops Flood a Rattled Washington Ahead of the Biden Inauguration
Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Helene Cooper, The New York Times
Excerpt: "Law enforcement authorities, responding to threats of violence before the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration, will deploy up to 15,000 National Guard troops to the nation's capital and set up checkpoints in the city to avoid the botched response that helped rioters overrun the Capitol last week."
Chad F. Wolf, the head of the department overseeing the agency leading inauguration security, announced that he would resign as acting secretary on Monday night.
Sixteen groups — some of them armed and most of them hard-line supporters of President Trump — have registered to stage protests in Washington, prompting deep concern among federal officials about an event that has historically been a packed celebration of American democracy. With coronavirus cases soaring and the deadly siege of the Capitol still fresh, the leaders of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia issued a joint statement asking Americans to stay away from the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr. and instead tune in virtually.
The F.B.I. has notified local law enforcement of the potential for armed protests in all 50 state capitals, organized and promoted by far-right extremist groups.
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