He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Jose seemed to think it was justifiable too here.
I'll let him answer though.
I know, just a bit ironic seeing these hardcore anti-gun people defending a shooting of an unarmed person.
She was part of a crazed mob willing to beat cops and kill anyone that was in their way not sure what they expected the cops to do , this is not the same thing as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets or getting pulled over ..
"Willing to beat cops and kill anyone" and you say my statements are laughable?
How many people did this mob kill?
You are right, this is not the same as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets but it is still a officer of the law shooting and killing an American citizen. Funny that this board preaches that we need more gun control and police reform but not when someone gets killed that they don't politically agree with.
That thug climbing through the window had been warned
He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Jose seemed to think it was justifiable too here.
I'll let him answer though.
I know, just a bit ironic seeing these hardcore anti-gun people defending a shooting of an unarmed person.
She was part of a crazed mob willing to beat cops and kill anyone that was in their way not sure what they expected the cops to do , this is not the same thing as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets or getting pulled over ..
"Willing to beat cops and kill anyone" and you say my statements are laughable?
How many people did this mob kill?
You are right, this is not the same as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets but it is still a officer of the law shooting and killing an American citizen. Funny that this board preaches that we need more gun control and police reform but not when someone gets killed that they don't politically agree with.
That thug climbing through the window had been warned
We agree.
Yea sure. Was Pence strapped into his car seat in the back? Off to see the Taj yet?
He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Jose seemed to think it was justifiable too here.
I'll let him answer though.
I know, just a bit ironic seeing these hardcore anti-gun people defending a shooting of an unarmed person.
She was part of a crazed mob willing to beat cops and kill anyone that was in their way not sure what they expected the cops to do , this is not the same thing as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets or getting pulled over ..
"Willing to beat cops and kill anyone" and you say my statements are laughable?
How many people did this mob kill?
You are right, this is not the same as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets but it is still a officer of the law shooting and killing an American citizen. Funny that this board preaches that we need more gun control and police reform but not when someone gets killed that they don't politically agree with.
He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Jose seemed to think it was justifiable too here.
I'll let him answer though.
I know, just a bit ironic seeing these hardcore anti-gun people defending a shooting of an unarmed person.
She was part of a crazed mob willing to beat cops and kill anyone that was in their way not sure what they expected the cops to do , this is not the same thing as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets or getting pulled over ..
"Willing to beat cops and kill anyone" and you say my statements are laughable?
How many people did this mob kill?
You are right, this is not the same as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets but it is still a officer of the law shooting and killing an American citizen. Funny that this board preaches that we need more gun control and police reform but not when someone gets killed that they don't politically agree with.
So you missed the videos of cops being beaten with flag poles lol I guess you believe they were tourists going there to take pictures?
He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Jose seemed to think it was justifiable too here.
I'll let him answer though.
I know, just a bit ironic seeing these hardcore anti-gun people defending a shooting of an unarmed person.
She was part of a crazed mob willing to beat cops and kill anyone that was in their way not sure what they expected the cops to do , this is not the same thing as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets or getting pulled over ..
"Willing to beat cops and kill anyone" and you say my statements are laughable?
How many people did this mob kill?
You are right, this is not the same as a cop killing an unarmed black kid on the streets but it is still a officer of the law shooting and killing an American citizen. Funny that this board preaches that we need more gun control and police reform but not when someone gets killed that they don't politically agree with.
He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Jose seemed to think it was justifiable too here.
I'll let him answer though.
I know, just a bit ironic seeing these hardcore anti-gun people defending a shooting of an unarmed person.
Jeez, I wonder what the initial and ongoing firearms training and background check process is for a secret service agent because we all know all gun owners are “responsible.”
He wants to know who is responsible? He's responsible. Just give him a mirror.
Do you believe in police reform? Do you think that all officers should have this same kind of protection when they are involved in a deadly shooting that is considered "justified"?
Laughable 🤣🤣🤣 that’s how I take all your post! Let me guess if that chick was breaking & entering your household I bet you’d welcome her with open arms?
What would you do? Shoot her? And with what, good vibes?
Yeah I would shoot her. And I'd have multiple options.
Nice law abiding cop here: Notice the spelling in one of the pictures. Seems bright too.
A former police officer arrested after the Jan. 6 riot was told to stay away from guns. He bought 34, feds say.
In January, a federal judge agreed to release Thomas Robertson, a former Rocky Mount, Va., police officer facing multiple charges over his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
But Judge G. Michael Harvey’s release conditions were clear: Robertson could not own any firearms, destructive devices or dangerous weapons while his case was pending. If he owned any guns, he must relocate them within two days.
Days after his release, authorities found eight firearms at his home in Ferrum, Va., according to court documents. The judge gave Robertson a second chance, reminding him of his release conditions.
Then, last month, authorities found a loaded M4 carbine and a partially assembled pipe bomb while conducting an authorized search at his home, court records state. Robertson is also accused of buying 34 firearms online and “transporting them in interstate commerce while under felony indictment,” prosecutors said.
Now they are asking the judge to revoke Robertson’s release order and issue an arrest warrant for violating his pretrial release terms a second time.
“Because the defendant has shown utter disregard for the Court’s orders prohibiting his possession of firearms and other weapons during the time he has been on pretrial release, and because he has further flouted his release conditions through repeated violations of the federal firearms laws, the defendant presents a danger to the community that no release conditions will adequately mitigate,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Ann Aloi and Risa Berkower wrote in a motion filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington.
An attorney for Robertson did not immediately respond to a message from The Washington Post late Thursday. Robertson could not be immediately reached for comment. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges (obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building).
The prosecutors’ motion comes days after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department has arrested 500 people in connection with the insurrection, among them the first defendant in the Jan. 6 riot to face charges including assaulting a journalist.
On Jan. 6, prosecutors said, Robertson and Jacob Fracker, his then-colleague with the Rocky Mount Police Department, stormed the Capitol and posed for a photo in front of a statue of John Stark making an obscene gesture. Both men, who were off duty at the time, later sent the photo to their colleagues, the criminal complaint states. (Fracker has also pleaded not guilty.)
Shortly after, Robertson posted the picture on social media and said he was “proud” of the photo because he was “willing to put skin in the game,” court records state. In a Facebook comment on Jan. 8, Robertson wrote, “The next revolution started in DC 1/6/21. The only voice these people will now listen to is VIOLENCE. So, respectfully. Buckle armor or just stay at home.”
On Jan. 13, Robertson was arrested in Virginia and released pending trial under the judge’s terms forbidding him from possessing any guns and instructing him not to violate federal, state or local laws while on his release.
Four days later, authorities discovered and seized eight firearms inside his home while conducting a search. That day, court records state, authorities also found large amounts of ammunition, and what appeared to be equipment used for reloading ammunition, in a building located on his property. Soon after, Magistrate Judge Harveyreminded Robertson that he must adhere to the terms of his pretrial release at another hearing.
But days after he was indicted on Jan. 29, the FBI became aware of evidence indicating that Robertson was buying firearms online, court records state. Emails reviewed by the FBI after judges issued search warrants to examine Robertson’s Yahoo account indicate he paid thousands of dollars to buy an arsenal of weapons. Records from the website Gunbroker.com, also obtained by the FBI, showed Robertson spent thousands of dollars on multiple weapons he ordered through the site.
On June 29, the FBI visited Robertson’s Virginia home for a second time and discovered a loaded M4 on his bed, along with the ammunition and the semi-assembled pipe bomb. Agents also found a box labeled with the words “Booby Trap.” Inside the box, agents found a metal pipe “with two ends caps, with a fuse inserted into a hole that had been drilled into the device.” Although this device did not contain explosive powder, such material was found in the building on Robertson’s property, prosecutors said.
But there was no arsenal of newly purchased weapons at the home. Robertson told agents that he had bought them online and hadn’t picked them up yet.
The owner of Tactical Operations, a Federal Firearms License broker in Roanoke that serves as an intermediary for online gun purchases, told agents in an interview that Robertson had 34 firearms waiting for him at the store.
The FFL owner told agents Robertson said he could not keep the guns at his home because of his current bond conditions, adding that Robertson had been in the store to handle several of the weapons as recently as one week earlier.
Nice law abiding cop here: Notice the spelling in one of the pictures. Seems bright too.
A former police officer arrested after the Jan. 6 riot was told to stay away from guns. He bought 34, feds say.
In January, a federal judge agreed to release Thomas Robertson, a former Rocky Mount, Va., police officer facing multiple charges over his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
But Judge G. Michael Harvey’s release conditions were clear: Robertson could not own any firearms, destructive devices or dangerous weapons while his case was pending. If he owned any guns, he must relocate them within two days.
Days after his release, authorities found eight firearms at his home in Ferrum, Va., according to court documents. The judge gave Robertson a second chance, reminding him of his release conditions.
Then, last month, authorities found a loaded M4 carbine and a partially assembled pipe bomb while conducting an authorized search at his home, court records state. Robertson is also accused of buying 34 firearms online and “transporting them in interstate commerce while under felony indictment,” prosecutors said.
Now they are asking the judge to revoke Robertson’s release order and issue an arrest warrant for violating his pretrial release terms a second time.
“Because the defendant has shown utter disregard for the Court’s orders prohibiting his possession of firearms and other weapons during the time he has been on pretrial release, and because he has further flouted his release conditions through repeated violations of the federal firearms laws, the defendant presents a danger to the community that no release conditions will adequately mitigate,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Ann Aloi and Risa Berkower wrote in a motion filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington.
An attorney for Robertson did not immediately respond to a message from The Washington Post late Thursday. Robertson could not be immediately reached for comment. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges (obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building).
The prosecutors’ motion comes days after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department has arrested 500 people in connection with the insurrection, among them the first defendant in the Jan. 6 riot to face charges including assaulting a journalist.
On Jan. 6, prosecutors said, Robertson and Jacob Fracker, his then-colleague with the Rocky Mount Police Department, stormed the Capitol and posed for a photo in front of a statue of John Stark making an obscene gesture. Both men, who were off duty at the time, later sent the photo to their colleagues, the criminal complaint states. (Fracker has also pleaded not guilty.)
Shortly after, Robertson posted the picture on social media and said he was “proud” of the photo because he was “willing to put skin in the game,” court records state. In a Facebook comment on Jan. 8, Robertson wrote, “The next revolution started in DC 1/6/21. The only voice these people will now listen to is VIOLENCE. So, respectfully. Buckle armor or just stay at home.”
On Jan. 13, Robertson was arrested in Virginia and released pending trial under the judge’s terms forbidding him from possessing any guns and instructing him not to violate federal, state or local laws while on his release.
Four days later, authorities discovered and seized eight firearms inside his home while conducting a search. That day, court records state, authorities also found large amounts of ammunition, and what appeared to be equipment used for reloading ammunition, in a building located on his property. Soon after, Magistrate Judge Harveyreminded Robertson that he must adhere to the terms of his pretrial release at another hearing.
But days after he was indicted on Jan. 29, the FBI became aware of evidence indicating that Robertson was buying firearms online, court records state. Emails reviewed by the FBI after judges issued search warrants to examine Robertson’s Yahoo account indicate he paid thousands of dollars to buy an arsenal of weapons. Records from the website Gunbroker.com, also obtained by the FBI, showed Robertson spent thousands of dollars on multiple weapons he ordered through the site.
On June 29, the FBI visited Robertson’s Virginia home for a second time and discovered a loaded M4 on his bed, along with the ammunition and the semi-assembled pipe bomb. Agents also found a box labeled with the words “Booby Trap.” Inside the box, agents found a metal pipe “with two ends caps, with a fuse inserted into a hole that had been drilled into the device.” Although this device did not contain explosive powder, such material was found in the building on Robertson’s property, prosecutors said.
But there was no arsenal of newly purchased weapons at the home. Robertson told agents that he had bought them online and hadn’t picked them up yet.
The owner of Tactical Operations, a Federal Firearms License broker in Roanoke that serves as an intermediary for online gun purchases, told agents in an interview that Robertson had 34 firearms waiting for him at the store.
The FFL owner told agents Robertson said he could not keep the guns at his home because of his current bond conditions, adding that Robertson had been in the store to handle several of the weapons as recently as one week earlier.
They want to start a civil war specially ex-army & police personnel unreal how they totally have thrown the precious constitution to the garbage heap! I’ll never trust cops or army people at all none ever!
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://apple.news/AZZik58VkQ4GM7gIG48ETjg Yeah I guess 11 armed insurrection dudes armed to the tilt wouldn’t raise flags lol 😂 and they ran out of gas you can’t make it up
Capitol, symbol of democracy, off-limits on Independence Day
By LISA MASCARO
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — As it has been for nearly 16 months, longer than any time in the nation’s history, the U.S. Capitol is closed to most public visitors.
The one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered the Capitol’s doors in the spring of 2020 and the deadly insurrection by then-President Donald Trump's supporters on Jan. 6 has left the icon of American democracy unopen to all but a select few.
As the rest of the nation emerges this July Fourth holiday from the pandemic for cookouts and fireworks that President Joe Biden is encouraging from the White House, the people’s house faces new threats of violence, virus variants and a more difficult moment.
“What is heartbreaking about it is that the Capitol has been forever our symbol of democracy — enduring through the Civil War, through world wars, through strife of all kinds," said Jane L. Campbell, president and CEO of the United States Capitol Historical Society.
Congressional leaders are working intensely to try to resume public tours at the Capitol in some form, but any reopening probably will come with new protocols for health and safety for the millions of annual visitors, 535 lawmakers and thousands of staff and crew that work under the dome and its surrounding campus.
In the House, lawmakers have been operating under a proxy voting system that has allowed them to avoid travel to Washington, though most now vote in person. The smaller Senate is mostly back to in-person business. Both chambers conduct some committee operations remotely.
The security fencing surrounding the Capitol is about to come down, a gesture toward normalcy. A $1.9 billion emergency spending package to bolster security for the complex was approved by the House, but the Senate is objecting to the increased money.
The conversations in public and private over how to safely reopen are shifting as dangerous coronavirus strains emerge and federal law enforcement officials issue new warnings about about the potential for violence from right-wing extremist groups and those who believe in conspiracies.
White nationalists and other far-right groups loyal to Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and were among those trying to overturn Biden’s victory. Authorities have been tracking chatter online about groups of people potentially returning to Washington as part of an unfounded and baseless conspiracy theory that Trump would be reinstated in August, according to two officials familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement information.
“I want people to feel proud that they can come to the Capitol, and they can talk about its rich history,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and now chairman of a new select panel that will investigate the riot.
“We shouldn’t ever think about visiting the Capitol and wondering if it’s safe,” he said.
Lawmakers have struggled over the past year with their own mixed emotions over the shuttered doors, wary of returning to the Capitol when a segment of their colleagues, mainly Republicans, refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Two elected officials have died of COVID-19 complications.
While many lawmakers say they are saddened by the black-metal security fencing, and all it represents, some also view it as a necessary deterrent after having fled to safety from the pro-Trump rioters.
But the quieted hallways now create their own unease, representing all that is being lost. A lawmaker's children played in the empty Rotunda one recent evening, a reminder of the absence of school groups, tourists and other visitors who typically crowd the summer season to see democracy in action or petition their government.
Congress provides the most direct link between Americans, and their federal government, the representative democracy the founders envisioned. Some 2.5 million people used to visit the Capitol each year and 12 million to the surrounding grounds, according to a House aide. Public tours of the White House tours also remain closed.
“I miss the visitors," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who said she had escorted some people to the House gallery last week only to find that it closed to onlookers who used to be able to watch some of the day’s legislative session.
“I always find it inspiring that so many people want to come here," she said.
The Capitol has endured crises before. The public galleries were shut down for about a month during the 1918 pandemic. The grounds were closed for a few months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The public was also unable to visit in 1968 during unrest after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Security was reconsidered at different points, including after shootings on lawmakers and bombings at the building.
But not since the end of the War of 1812, when the British invaded in 1814, has the seat of American democracy seen an attack like the one this year.
Trump’s supporters fought the police, broke through barricades and stormed the halls, threatening to harm former t hen-Vice President Mike Pence and other leaders and lawmakers as the mob tried to stop Congress from certifying the states’ election results for Biden.
All told, five people died stemming from the events, including a Trump supporter shot by police, three people who suffered medical emergencies and a police officer who died later. Two police officers later took their own lives. Hundreds of people have been arrested.
Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter signed by some 135 other Republican lawmakers calling for a plan to fully reopen.
“There is no reason for the Capitol to be closed,” Davis said in an interview.
He said those involved in the siege should be prosecuted, but it’s time for the House to end proxy voting and resume regular operations. "We've got to get back to doing what the people sent us here to do,” he said.
A senior Democratic aide, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said tours have not resumed for both pandemic and security reasons. The House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms are continually reviewing the situation in consultation with Office of Attending Physician, the aide said.
The Capitol complex is open to official business visitors with limits on the numbers allowed. Most are asked to sign in and provide background information.
“The Capitol has now being closed for the longest stretch in its 228 years history,” said Campbell of the historical society.
“What I would say to all of us is that it’s important for Congress to come together around safety,” she said. “People ought to be able to work together around that.”
___
Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
6 months after Capitol assault, corporate pledges fall flat
By DAVID KLEPPER
Today
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — As shockwaves spread across the country from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, corporate America took a stand against the lies that powered the mob. Or so it seemed.
Dozens of big companies, citing their commitment to democracy, pledged to avoid donating money to the 147 lawmakers who objected to Congress' certification of Joe Biden's victory on the false grounds that voting fraud stole the election from then-President Donald Trump.
It was a striking gesture by some of the most familiar names in business but, as it turns out, it was largely an empty one.
Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not. When it comes to seeking political influence through corporate giving, business as usual is back, if it ever left.
Walmart, Pfizer, Intel, General Electric and AT&T are among companies that announced their pledges on behalf of democracy in the days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent bid to disrupt the transfer of power.
The companies contend that donating directly to a candidate is not the same as giving to a PAC that supports them. Given America’s porous campaign finance laws, that's a distinction without a difference to campaign finance experts.
The companies' argument also glosses over the fact that, in large measure, they did their giving through PACs before their pledge, rather than to individuals, so in many cases nothing changed.
“Pledging not to give to a certain person doesn’t mean that much when there are so many other ways that corporate money reaches elected officials,” said Daniel Weiner, a former senior counsel at the Federal Election Commission who now works at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school. “These pledges are largely symbolic.”
Walmart’s moral stand lasted three months. In January, the retail giant said it would suspend all donations to the 147 lawmakers who objected to the election results. But in April, the company gave $30,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party organization that supports House Republicans in elections.
Two-thirds of those House members voted against certifying Biden's win.
Walmart gave an additional $30,000 to the House committee's counterpart for Senate Republicans, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That group is led by an objector to the election's certification, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who stands to benefit from the contribution along with seven other GOP senators who also sought to overturn the will of voters. Messages left with both committees by The Associated Press were not returned.
In January, after the attack, General Electric said it would “halt donations to lawmakers who voted against certification” because “we believe it is important to ensure that our future contributions continue to reflect our company’s values and commitment to democracy.” But that's not exactly what happened.
In April, General Electric gave $15,000 each to the House and Senate GOP election groups.
Likewise, Pfizer pledged to suspend contributions to Republican objectors for six months. But after only three months, it gave $20,000 to the GOP's Senate group. Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo told the AP that the company drew a distinction between giving money to individual lawmakers and to groups created to help those same lawmakers. “We just don’t think it is an accurate connection,” she said.
Yet she said Pfizer had no commitment from the Senate election committee that the company's donation would not be used to benefit the eight senators who voted against certification.
AT&T also pledged not to give money to lawmakers who objected, but the company sent $5,000 in February to the House Conservatives Fund. Company spokeswoman Margaret Boles said AT&T received assurances the money would not flow to lawmakers who objected to election results, though the PAC is led by a lawmaker who did.
Campaign finance experts say there’s no way to know whether the money given to Republican PACs will end up directly in the campaign accounts of incumbents who objected to the election results. These Republican committees, like the ones for Democrats, help incumbents in a variety of ways, whether through direct contributions or technical and professional help with voter data, advertising and get-out-the-vote assistance.
Moreover, corporate donations to the party committees do not include so-called dark money contributions given to groups that are not required to disclose details publicly. Dark money is a favored vehicle for corporate giving.
“It’s completely frustrating from an accountability point of view,” Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a Stetson University Law School professor who studies corporate campaign finance.
Many of the lawmakers who objected to the certification leaned heavily on the GOP House and Senate election committees in the past and can be expected to want substantial help from them again.
For the 2020 election, the NRCC passed along contributions to 39 Republican lawmakers who later objected to the election result, compared with 11 who did not. Altogether, the objectors of Jan. 6 got five times more money in total last year than did those who later voted to certify the states' electoral tallies.
Pfizer, GE, Walmart and other companies contacted by the AP said their criticism of lawmakers who objected to the election results stands.
For other companies, the pledges may just be a cynical attempt to look good in the eyes of the public. Few of the companies that made pledges tended to give big donations to individual lawmakers anyway, preferring the big party PACs or dark money groups.
Weiner said that if companies were serious about using their clout to support democracy, they would fund efforts to defeat Republican measures that would make it harder to vote in many states.
“I don’t think these companies are giving to these groups because they supported the insurrection,” Weiner said. “They give money — and are pressured to give money — for a lot reasons all related to their bottom line.”
Some companies did follow through on their pledges. Hallmark, for instance, said it would not donate to objectors — and the record to date shows no PAC donations by that company this year as well as no direct giving to the 147 objectors.
Hallmark also asked two objectors, Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Roger Marshall of Kansas, to return direct contributions it made to them before the insurrection. Campaign finance records do not yet show those refunds. Messages seeking comment from the two senators were not returned.
Other companies said they would halt campaign contributions following Jan. 6 to give them time to reassess their campaign finance strategy. That list includes Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Archer Daniels Midland and Kraft Heinz.
The money given to Republican groups by companies that pledged not to support objectors is small compared with the huge amounts of cash given overall. Walmart’s $60,000 contribution to the GOP Senate and House committees is just a fraction of the company’s overall political spending on both parties, which last year topped $5 million.
Companies often give money to Democrats and Republicans alike as they try to cultivate good relations with whichever party is in power. The companies behind the pledges are no exception.
Jan. 6 seemed to shake up that calibration. The violent images from the Capitol were so visceral, the assault at the core of American democracy so extraordinary and the falsehoods behind the attack so audacious that some loyal Republicans abandoned their president and denounced the objectors in their ranks.
If the objectors got their way, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that fraught night, “our democracy would enter a death spiral.”
For a time, all but the 147 seemed on the side of the angels, and corporations jostled to get on board with their pro-democracy pledges. But the devil was in the details.
___
Associated Press writer Calvin Woodward in Washington contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"The men refused to put down their weapons or comply with authorities’ orders, claiming to be from a group “that does not recognize our laws” before taking off into a wooded area, police said."
Blatant disregard for the law is unbelievable...
I don't understand how people think they can just do whatever they want and not expect consequences from it?
"The men refused to put down their weapons or comply with authorities’ orders, claiming to be from a group “that does not recognize our laws” before taking off into a wooded area, police said."
Blatant disregard for the law is unbelievable...
I don't understand how people think they can just do whatever they want and not expect consequences from it?
This story doesn't add up... if you were driving from Rhode Island to Maine, you could make it across the NH / ME border in around 90 minutes at the time of night they were traveling... they didn't have enough gas in the tank to make it through MA?
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,800
Hunt for Capitol attackers still on 6 months after Jan. 6
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Today
The first waves of arrests in the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol focused on the easy targets. Dozens in the pro-Trump mob openly bragged about their actions on Jan. 6 on social media and were captured in shocking footage broadcast live by national news outlets.
But six months after the insurrection, the Justice Department is still hunting for scores of rioters, even as the first of more than 500 people already arrested have pleaded guilty. The struggle reflects the massive scale of the investigation and the grueling work still ahead for authorities in the face of an increasing effort by some Republican lawmakers to rewrite what happened that day.
Part of the problem is that authorities made very few arrests on Jan. 6. They were focused instead on clearing the building of members of the massive mob that attacked police, damaged historic property and combed the halls for lawmakers they threatened to kill. Federal investigators are forced to go back and hunt down participants.
The FBI has since received countless tips and pieces of digital media from the public. But a tip is only the first step of a painstaking process — involving things like search warrants and interviews — to confirm people's identities and their presence at the insurrection in order to bring a case in court. And authorities have no record of many of the attackers because this was their first run-in with the law.
“Most of these people never showed up on the radar screen before,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI special agent who led the bureau’s field offices in Seattle and Honolulu. “You watch the movies and a name comes up on the radar screen and they know all the aliases and the last place he ate dinner, all with a click of a button. Unfortunately, that’s not how it is in reality.”
The FBI has been helped by "sedition hunters,” or armchair detectives who have teamed up to identify some of the most elusive suspects, using crowdsourcing to pore over the vast trove of videos and photos from the assault.
Forrest Rogers, a business consultant who helped form a group of sedition hunters called “Deep State Dogs,” said the group has reported the possible identities of about 100 suspects to the FBI based on evidence it collected.
Sometimes, a distinctive article of clothing helps the group make a match. In one case, a woman carrying a unique iPhone case on Jan. 6 had been photographed with the same case at an earlier protest, Rogers said.
“It’s seeking justice," he said. “This is something that’s unprecedented in the history of our country.” Rogers asked, “Where else have you had several thousands of people who commit a crime and then immediately disperse all over the United States?"
John Scott-Railton is a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto who has been collaborating with journalists and others to identify suspects using digital clues. He said that while much is known about the “small fish” who committed crimes that day, a deeper understanding is needed of the actions of organized group leaders.
"We all need to be in a place where we can have conversations about what Jan. 6th was that go beyond a bunch of individuals motivated by a set of ideologies who showed up at the Capitol,” he said.
Those being sought include many accused of violent attacks on officers. One video released by the FBI shows an unidentified man attacking officers with a baton. In another, a man is seen ripping the gas mask off an officer who screamed in pain as he was being crushed into a doorway by the angry mob.
In some cases, social media platforms have turned over incriminating posts that defendants tried to delete after their gleeful celebrations of the siege gave way to fears of being arrested. Often, the attackers' own family, friends or acquaintances tipped off authorities.
In one case, the FBI used facial comparison software to find a suspect on his girlfriend’s Instagram account. Agents then went undercover, secretly recorded the man at work and got him on tape admitting to being in the crowd, which he described as “fun.”
“The more of these people you identify — potentially through search warrants and social media communications — you're going to be able to identify others," said Tom O'Connor, who focused on counterterrorism as a special agent before leaving the bureau in 2019. “Those people who have been arrested will then be given the opportunity to cooperate and identify other persons involved.”
The FBI has offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for planting the pipe bombs in Washington on Jan. 5. Footage shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the Democratic National Committee and the person walking in an alley near the Republican National Committee before the bomb was placed there. It remains unclear whether the bombs were related to planning for the insurrection.
Justice Department officials say arresting everyone involved in the insurrection remains a top priority. Authorities recently arrested the 100th person accused of assaulting law enforcement as well as the first person accused of assaulting a member of the press — a man prosecutors say tackled a cameraman.
“They will find them," said Robert Anderson Jr., former executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. "I don’t care how long it takes. If they are looking for them, they will find them.”
More than a dozen Jan. 6 defendants have pleaded guilty, including two members of the Oath Keepers militia group who admitted to conspiring with other extremists to block the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.
Most of the other plea deals reached so far are in cases where defendants were charged only with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol. The only defendant who has been sentenced is an Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was spared any time behind bars.
___
Richer reported from Boston and Kunzelman from College Park, Maryland.
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"The men refused to put down their weapons or comply with authorities’ orders, claiming to be from a group “that does not recognize our laws” before taking off into a wooded area, police said."
Blatant disregard for the law is unbelievable...
I don't understand how people think they can just do whatever they want and not expect consequences from it?
This story doesn't add up... if you were driving from Rhode Island to Maine, you could make it across the NH / ME border in around 90 minutes at the time of night they were traveling... they didn't have enough gas in the tank to make it through MA?
Being bright doesn't seem like their strongpoints, lol?
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A former police officer arrested after the Jan. 6 riot was told to stay away from guns. He bought 34, feds say.
In January, a federal judge agreed to release Thomas Robertson, a former Rocky Mount, Va., police officer facing multiple charges over his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
But Judge G. Michael Harvey’s release conditions were clear: Robertson could not own any firearms, destructive devices or dangerous weapons while his case was pending. If he owned any guns, he must relocate them within two days.
Days after his release, authorities found eight firearms at his home in Ferrum, Va., according to court documents. The judge gave Robertson a second chance, reminding him of his release conditions.
Then, last month, authorities found a loaded M4 carbine and a partially assembled pipe bomb while conducting an authorized search at his home, court records state. Robertson is also accused of buying 34 firearms online and “transporting them in interstate commerce while under felony indictment,” prosecutors said.
Now they are asking the judge to revoke Robertson’s release order and issue an arrest warrant for violating his pretrial release terms a second time.
“Because the defendant has shown utter disregard for the Court’s orders prohibiting his possession of firearms and other weapons during the time he has been on pretrial release, and because he has further flouted his release conditions through repeated violations of the federal firearms laws, the defendant presents a danger to the community that no release conditions will adequately mitigate,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Ann Aloi and Risa Berkower wrote in a motion filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington.
An attorney for Robertson did not immediately respond to a message from The Washington Post late Thursday. Robertson could not be immediately reached for comment. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges (obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building).
The prosecutors’ motion comes days after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department has arrested 500 people in connection with the insurrection, among them the first defendant in the Jan. 6 riot to face charges including assaulting a journalist.
500 arrested in Jan. 6 Capitol riot, including first charged with assault on media member, Garland announces
On Jan. 6, prosecutors said, Robertson and Jacob Fracker, his then-colleague with the Rocky Mount Police Department, stormed the Capitol and posed for a photo in front of a statue of John Stark making an obscene gesture. Both men, who were off duty at the time, later sent the photo to their colleagues, the criminal complaint states. (Fracker has also pleaded not guilty.)
Shortly after, Robertson posted the picture on social media and said he was “proud” of the photo because he was “willing to put skin in the game,” court records state. In a Facebook comment on Jan. 8, Robertson wrote, “The next revolution started in DC 1/6/21. The only voice these people will now listen to is VIOLENCE. So, respectfully. Buckle armor or just stay at home.”
On Jan. 13, Robertson was arrested in Virginia and released pending trial under the judge’s terms forbidding him from possessing any guns and instructing him not to violate federal, state or local laws while on his release.
Four days later, authorities discovered and seized eight firearms inside his home while conducting a search. That day, court records state, authorities also found large amounts of ammunition, and what appeared to be equipment used for reloading ammunition, in a building located on his property. Soon after, Magistrate Judge Harvey reminded Robertson that he must adhere to the terms of his pretrial release at another hearing.
But days after he was indicted on Jan. 29, the FBI became aware of evidence indicating that Robertson was buying firearms online, court records state. Emails reviewed by the FBI after judges issued search warrants to examine Robertson’s Yahoo account indicate he paid thousands of dollars to buy an arsenal of weapons. Records from the website Gunbroker.com, also obtained by the FBI, showed Robertson spent thousands of dollars on multiple weapons he ordered through the site.
On June 29, the FBI visited Robertson’s Virginia home for a second time and discovered a loaded M4 on his bed, along with the ammunition and the semi-assembled pipe bomb. Agents also found a box labeled with the words “Booby Trap.” Inside the box, agents found a metal pipe “with two ends caps, with a fuse inserted into a hole that had been drilled into the device.” Although this device did not contain explosive powder, such material was found in the building on Robertson’s property, prosecutors said.
But there was no arsenal of newly purchased weapons at the home. Robertson told agents that he had bought them online and hadn’t picked them up yet.
The owner of Tactical Operations, a Federal Firearms License broker in Roanoke that serves as an intermediary for online gun purchases, told agents in an interview that Robertson had 34 firearms waiting for him at the store.
The FFL owner told agents Robertson said he could not keep the guns at his home because of his current bond conditions, adding that Robertson had been in the store to handle several of the weapons as recently as one week earlier.
Robertson is due back in court on Aug. 3.
Capitol riot suspect accused of buying more guns during case - The Washington Post
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https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/07/03/armed-standoff-with-police-shuts-down-part-of-i-95-in-wakefield/
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Yeah I guess 11 armed insurrection dudes armed to the tilt wouldn’t raise flags lol 😂 and they ran out of gas you can’t make it up
WASHINGTON (AP) — As it has been for nearly 16 months, longer than any time in the nation’s history, the U.S. Capitol is closed to most public visitors.
The one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered the Capitol’s doors in the spring of 2020 and the deadly insurrection by then-President Donald Trump's supporters on Jan. 6 has left the icon of American democracy unopen to all but a select few.
As the rest of the nation emerges this July Fourth holiday from the pandemic for cookouts and fireworks that President Joe Biden is encouraging from the White House, the people’s house faces new threats of violence, virus variants and a more difficult moment.
“What is heartbreaking about it is that the Capitol has been forever our symbol of democracy — enduring through the Civil War, through world wars, through strife of all kinds," said Jane L. Campbell, president and CEO of the United States Capitol Historical Society.
Congressional leaders are working intensely to try to resume public tours at the Capitol in some form, but any reopening probably will come with new protocols for health and safety for the millions of annual visitors, 535 lawmakers and thousands of staff and crew that work under the dome and its surrounding campus.
In the House, lawmakers have been operating under a proxy voting system that has allowed them to avoid travel to Washington, though most now vote in person. The smaller Senate is mostly back to in-person business. Both chambers conduct some committee operations remotely.
The security fencing surrounding the Capitol is about to come down, a gesture toward normalcy. A $1.9 billion emergency spending package to bolster security for the complex was approved by the House, but the Senate is objecting to the increased money.
The conversations in public and private over how to safely reopen are shifting as dangerous coronavirus strains emerge and federal law enforcement officials issue new warnings about about the potential for violence from right-wing extremist groups and those who believe in conspiracies.
White nationalists and other far-right groups loyal to Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and were among those trying to overturn Biden’s victory. Authorities have been tracking chatter online about groups of people potentially returning to Washington as part of an unfounded and baseless conspiracy theory that Trump would be reinstated in August, according to two officials familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement information.
“I want people to feel proud that they can come to the Capitol, and they can talk about its rich history,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and now chairman of a new select panel that will investigate the riot.
“We shouldn’t ever think about visiting the Capitol and wondering if it’s safe,” he said.
Lawmakers have struggled over the past year with their own mixed emotions over the shuttered doors, wary of returning to the Capitol when a segment of their colleagues, mainly Republicans, refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Two elected officials have died of COVID-19 complications.
While many lawmakers say they are saddened by the black-metal security fencing, and all it represents, some also view it as a necessary deterrent after having fled to safety from the pro-Trump rioters.
But the quieted hallways now create their own unease, representing all that is being lost. A lawmaker's children played in the empty Rotunda one recent evening, a reminder of the absence of school groups, tourists and other visitors who typically crowd the summer season to see democracy in action or petition their government.
Congress provides the most direct link between Americans, and their federal government, the representative democracy the founders envisioned. Some 2.5 million people used to visit the Capitol each year and 12 million to the surrounding grounds, according to a House aide. Public tours of the White House tours also remain closed.
“I miss the visitors," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who said she had escorted some people to the House gallery last week only to find that it closed to onlookers who used to be able to watch some of the day’s legislative session.
“I always find it inspiring that so many people want to come here," she said.
The Capitol has endured crises before. The public galleries were shut down for about a month during the 1918 pandemic. The grounds were closed for a few months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The public was also unable to visit in 1968 during unrest after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Security was reconsidered at different points, including after shootings on lawmakers and bombings at the building.
But not since the end of the War of 1812, when the British invaded in 1814, has the seat of American democracy seen an attack like the one this year.
Trump’s supporters fought the police, broke through barricades and stormed the halls, threatening to harm former t hen-Vice President Mike Pence and other leaders and lawmakers as the mob tried to stop Congress from certifying the states’ election results for Biden.
All told, five people died stemming from the events, including a Trump supporter shot by police, three people who suffered medical emergencies and a police officer who died later. Two police officers later took their own lives. Hundreds of people have been arrested.
Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter signed by some 135 other Republican lawmakers calling for a plan to fully reopen.
“There is no reason for the Capitol to be closed,” Davis said in an interview.
He said those involved in the siege should be prosecuted, but it’s time for the House to end proxy voting and resume regular operations. "We've got to get back to doing what the people sent us here to do,” he said.
A senior Democratic aide, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said tours have not resumed for both pandemic and security reasons. The House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms are continually reviewing the situation in consultation with Office of Attending Physician, the aide said.
The Capitol complex is open to official business visitors with limits on the numbers allowed. Most are asked to sign in and provide background information.
“The Capitol has now being closed for the longest stretch in its 228 years history,” said Campbell of the historical society.
“What I would say to all of us is that it’s important for Congress to come together around safety,” she said. “People ought to be able to work together around that.”
___
Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — As shockwaves spread across the country from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, corporate America took a stand against the lies that powered the mob. Or so it seemed.
Dozens of big companies, citing their commitment to democracy, pledged to avoid donating money to the 147 lawmakers who objected to Congress' certification of Joe Biden's victory on the false grounds that voting fraud stole the election from then-President Donald Trump.
It was a striking gesture by some of the most familiar names in business but, as it turns out, it was largely an empty one.
Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not. When it comes to seeking political influence through corporate giving, business as usual is back, if it ever left.
Walmart, Pfizer, Intel, General Electric and AT&T are among companies that announced their pledges on behalf of democracy in the days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent bid to disrupt the transfer of power.
The companies contend that donating directly to a candidate is not the same as giving to a PAC that supports them. Given America’s porous campaign finance laws, that's a distinction without a difference to campaign finance experts.
The companies' argument also glosses over the fact that, in large measure, they did their giving through PACs before their pledge, rather than to individuals, so in many cases nothing changed.
“Pledging not to give to a certain person doesn’t mean that much when there are so many other ways that corporate money reaches elected officials,” said Daniel Weiner, a former senior counsel at the Federal Election Commission who now works at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school. “These pledges are largely symbolic.”
Walmart’s moral stand lasted three months. In January, the retail giant said it would suspend all donations to the 147 lawmakers who objected to the election results. But in April, the company gave $30,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party organization that supports House Republicans in elections.
Two-thirds of those House members voted against certifying Biden's win.
Walmart gave an additional $30,000 to the House committee's counterpart for Senate Republicans, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That group is led by an objector to the election's certification, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who stands to benefit from the contribution along with seven other GOP senators who also sought to overturn the will of voters. Messages left with both committees by The Associated Press were not returned.
In January, after the attack, General Electric said it would “halt donations to lawmakers who voted against certification” because “we believe it is important to ensure that our future contributions continue to reflect our company’s values and commitment to democracy.” But that's not exactly what happened.
In April, General Electric gave $15,000 each to the House and Senate GOP election groups.
Likewise, Pfizer pledged to suspend contributions to Republican objectors for six months. But after only three months, it gave $20,000 to the GOP's Senate group. Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo told the AP that the company drew a distinction between giving money to individual lawmakers and to groups created to help those same lawmakers. “We just don’t think it is an accurate connection,” she said.
Yet she said Pfizer had no commitment from the Senate election committee that the company's donation would not be used to benefit the eight senators who voted against certification.
AT&T also pledged not to give money to lawmakers who objected, but the company sent $5,000 in February to the House Conservatives Fund. Company spokeswoman Margaret Boles said AT&T received assurances the money would not flow to lawmakers who objected to election results, though the PAC is led by a lawmaker who did.
Campaign finance experts say there’s no way to know whether the money given to Republican PACs will end up directly in the campaign accounts of incumbents who objected to the election results. These Republican committees, like the ones for Democrats, help incumbents in a variety of ways, whether through direct contributions or technical and professional help with voter data, advertising and get-out-the-vote assistance.
Moreover, corporate donations to the party committees do not include so-called dark money contributions given to groups that are not required to disclose details publicly. Dark money is a favored vehicle for corporate giving.
“It’s completely frustrating from an accountability point of view,” Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a Stetson University Law School professor who studies corporate campaign finance.
Many of the lawmakers who objected to the certification leaned heavily on the GOP House and Senate election committees in the past and can be expected to want substantial help from them again.
For the 2020 election, the NRCC passed along contributions to 39 Republican lawmakers who later objected to the election result, compared with 11 who did not. Altogether, the objectors of Jan. 6 got five times more money in total last year than did those who later voted to certify the states' electoral tallies.
Pfizer, GE, Walmart and other companies contacted by the AP said their criticism of lawmakers who objected to the election results stands.
For other companies, the pledges may just be a cynical attempt to look good in the eyes of the public. Few of the companies that made pledges tended to give big donations to individual lawmakers anyway, preferring the big party PACs or dark money groups.
Weiner said that if companies were serious about using their clout to support democracy, they would fund efforts to defeat Republican measures that would make it harder to vote in many states.
“I don’t think these companies are giving to these groups because they supported the insurrection,” Weiner said. “They give money — and are pressured to give money — for a lot reasons all related to their bottom line.”
Some companies did follow through on their pledges. Hallmark, for instance, said it would not donate to objectors — and the record to date shows no PAC donations by that company this year as well as no direct giving to the 147 objectors.
Hallmark also asked two objectors, Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Roger Marshall of Kansas, to return direct contributions it made to them before the insurrection. Campaign finance records do not yet show those refunds. Messages seeking comment from the two senators were not returned.
Other companies said they would halt campaign contributions following Jan. 6 to give them time to reassess their campaign finance strategy. That list includes Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Archer Daniels Midland and Kraft Heinz.
The money given to Republican groups by companies that pledged not to support objectors is small compared with the huge amounts of cash given overall. Walmart’s $60,000 contribution to the GOP Senate and House committees is just a fraction of the company’s overall political spending on both parties, which last year topped $5 million.
Companies often give money to Democrats and Republicans alike as they try to cultivate good relations with whichever party is in power. The companies behind the pledges are no exception.
Jan. 6 seemed to shake up that calibration. The violent images from the Capitol were so visceral, the assault at the core of American democracy so extraordinary and the falsehoods behind the attack so audacious that some loyal Republicans abandoned their president and denounced the objectors in their ranks.
If the objectors got their way, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that fraught night, “our democracy would enter a death spiral.”
For a time, all but the 147 seemed on the side of the angels, and corporations jostled to get on board with their pro-democracy pledges. But the devil was in the details.
___
Associated Press writer Calvin Woodward in Washington contributed to this report.
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Blatant disregard for the law is unbelievable...
I don't understand how people think they can just do whatever they want and not expect consequences from it?
The first waves of arrests in the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol focused on the easy targets. Dozens in the pro-Trump mob openly bragged about their actions on Jan. 6 on social media and were captured in shocking footage broadcast live by national news outlets.
But six months after the insurrection, the Justice Department is still hunting for scores of rioters, even as the first of more than 500 people already arrested have pleaded guilty. The struggle reflects the massive scale of the investigation and the grueling work still ahead for authorities in the face of an increasing effort by some Republican lawmakers to rewrite what happened that day.
Among those who still haven't been caught: the person who planted two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the night before the melee, as well as many people accused of attacks on law enforcement officers or violence and threats against journalists. The FBI website seeking information about those involved in the Capitol violence includes more than 900 pictures of roughly 300 people labeled “unidentified.”
Part of the problem is that authorities made very few arrests on Jan. 6. They were focused instead on clearing the building of members of the massive mob that attacked police, damaged historic property and combed the halls for lawmakers they threatened to kill. Federal investigators are forced to go back and hunt down participants.
The FBI has since received countless tips and pieces of digital media from the public. But a tip is only the first step of a painstaking process — involving things like search warrants and interviews — to confirm people's identities and their presence at the insurrection in order to bring a case in court. And authorities have no record of many of the attackers because this was their first run-in with the law.
“Most of these people never showed up on the radar screen before,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI special agent who led the bureau’s field offices in Seattle and Honolulu. “You watch the movies and a name comes up on the radar screen and they know all the aliases and the last place he ate dinner, all with a click of a button. Unfortunately, that’s not how it is in reality.”
The FBI has been helped by "sedition hunters,” or armchair detectives who have teamed up to identify some of the most elusive suspects, using crowdsourcing to pore over the vast trove of videos and photos from the assault.
Forrest Rogers, a business consultant who helped form a group of sedition hunters called “Deep State Dogs,” said the group has reported the possible identities of about 100 suspects to the FBI based on evidence it collected.
Sometimes, a distinctive article of clothing helps the group make a match. In one case, a woman carrying a unique iPhone case on Jan. 6 had been photographed with the same case at an earlier protest, Rogers said.
“It’s seeking justice," he said. “This is something that’s unprecedented in the history of our country.” Rogers asked, “Where else have you had several thousands of people who commit a crime and then immediately disperse all over the United States?"
John Scott-Railton is a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto who has been collaborating with journalists and others to identify suspects using digital clues. He said that while much is known about the “small fish” who committed crimes that day, a deeper understanding is needed of the actions of organized group leaders.
"We all need to be in a place where we can have conversations about what Jan. 6th was that go beyond a bunch of individuals motivated by a set of ideologies who showed up at the Capitol,” he said.
Those being sought include many accused of violent attacks on officers. One video released by the FBI shows an unidentified man attacking officers with a baton. In another, a man is seen ripping the gas mask off an officer who screamed in pain as he was being crushed into a doorway by the angry mob.
In some cases, social media platforms have turned over incriminating posts that defendants tried to delete after their gleeful celebrations of the siege gave way to fears of being arrested. Often, the attackers' own family, friends or acquaintances tipped off authorities.
In one case, the FBI used facial comparison software to find a suspect on his girlfriend’s Instagram account. Agents then went undercover, secretly recorded the man at work and got him on tape admitting to being in the crowd, which he described as “fun.”
“The more of these people you identify — potentially through search warrants and social media communications — you're going to be able to identify others," said Tom O'Connor, who focused on counterterrorism as a special agent before leaving the bureau in 2019. “Those people who have been arrested will then be given the opportunity to cooperate and identify other persons involved.”
The FBI has offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for planting the pipe bombs in Washington on Jan. 5. Footage shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the Democratic National Committee and the person walking in an alley near the Republican National Committee before the bomb was placed there. It remains unclear whether the bombs were related to planning for the insurrection.
Justice Department officials say arresting everyone involved in the insurrection remains a top priority. Authorities recently arrested the 100th person accused of assaulting law enforcement as well as the first person accused of assaulting a member of the press — a man prosecutors say tackled a cameraman.
“They will find them," said Robert Anderson Jr., former executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. "I don’t care how long it takes. If they are looking for them, they will find them.”
More than a dozen Jan. 6 defendants have pleaded guilty, including two members of the Oath Keepers militia group who admitted to conspiring with other extremists to block the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.
Most of the other plea deals reached so far are in cases where defendants were charged only with misdemeanors for illegally entering the Capitol. The only defendant who has been sentenced is an Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was spared any time behind bars.
___
Richer reported from Boston and Kunzelman from College Park, Maryland.
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https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence
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