Pounding the table, saying shit like this and POOTWH is so, so brilliant? Pages 452-3.
Vice President Pence did tell Marc Short what
transpired during the meeting, but Short refused to tell the Select Committee what was said.194
Short described Vice President Pence’s demeanor as
“steady.”195
Short testified that the below excerpt from the book Peril may
have been sensationalized but was generally consistent with Short’s understanding of the discussion:
“If these people say you have the power, wouldn’t you want to?”
Trump asked.
“I wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority,” Pence said.
“But wouldn’t it almost be cool to have that power?” Trump asked.
“No,” Pence said. “Look, I’ve read this, and I don’t see a way to do it.
We’ve exhausted every option. I’ve done everything I could and then
some to find a way around this. It’s simply not possible. My interpretation is: No. . . .
“No, no, no!” Trump shouted. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do
this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
An angry mob is storming the Capitol and threatening the safety and security of your VP and this is your focus? Page 466.
At 2:25 p.m., the Secret Service rushed the Vice President, his family,
and his senior staff down a flight of stairs, through a series of hallways and
tunnels to a secure location.303
The Vice President and his team stayed in
that same location for the next four and a half hours.
The angry mob had come within 40 feet of the Vice President as he was
evacuated.304
President Trump never called to check on Vice President
Pence’s safety, so Marc Short called Mark Meadows to tell him they were
safe and secure.305
Short himself became persona non grata with President
Trump. The President directed staff to revoke Short’s access to the White
House after Vice President Pence refused to betray his oath to the Constitution.306
Marc Short never spoke with President Trump again.307
Here are some graphics that I was going to post before the previous thread was shut down....
It's nice to have faces to these punks thanks for this clarification
PJ Cuyahoga Flalls OH 8/26/1998 PJ Noblesviile IN 8/18/2000 PJ Cincinnatti OH 8/20/2000 PJ Columbus OH 8/21/2000 PJ Columbus OH 6/24/2003 PJ Hamilton Ontario 9/13/2005 PJ Phiadelphia PA 10/3/2005 PJ Cleveland OH 5/20/2006 PJ Columbia SC 6/16/2008..... e.V Chicago IL 8/21/2008 e.V Philly PA 6/11/2009 e.V Bailtimore MD 6/14/2009... PJ Chicago IL 8/23/2009 .PJ...Philly PA 10/27/2009 PJ.Philadephia PA 10/28/2009. PJ Columbus OH 5/6/2010 PJ Cleveland OH 5/9/2010. BRAD Columbus OH 10/5/2010 e.V St.Louis MO 7/1/2011 .PJ.. East Troy WI 9/3/2011..PJ..East Troy WI 9/4/2011 Neil Young & Crazy Horse Cleveland OH 10/8/2012 RNDM Chicago IL11/13/2012 Alice In Chains/SoundGarden Columbus OH 5/19/2013 AIC Fort Wayne IN 5/21/2013 PJ Pittsburgh PA 10/11/2013 AIC Cincinnati OH 5/17/2014 AIC Cleveland OH 5/19/2014 AIC Indianapolis IN 8/19/2014 PJ Cincinnati OH 10/1/2014 AIC Cincinnati OH 8/06/2015 RNDM Chicago IL 3/15/2016 PJ Columbia SC 4\21\2016 PJ Lexington KY 4/26/2016 PJ Chicago IL 8/20/2016 Soundgarden Columbus OH 5/20/2017 Canceled RIP Chris AIC Columbus OH 5/18/2018 PJ Chicago IL 8/18/2018 PJ Chicago IL 8/20/2018 PJ St Louis Missouri 9/18/2022 AIC Cuyohoga falls Oh. 8/16/2019 SHAWNSMITH Rip 2019Mark Lanegan Band 5/18/19
Pounding the table, saying shit like this and POOTWH is so, so brilliant? Pages 452-3.
Vice President Pence did tell Marc Short what
transpired during the meeting, but Short refused to tell the Select Committee what was said.194
Short described Vice President Pence’s demeanor as
“steady.”195
Short testified that the below excerpt from the book Peril may
have been sensationalized but was generally consistent with Short’s understanding of the discussion:
“If these people say you have the power, wouldn’t you want to?”
Trump asked.
“I wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority,” Pence said.
“But wouldn’t it almost be cool to have that power?” Trump asked.
“No,” Pence said. “Look, I’ve read this, and I don’t see a way to do it.
We’ve exhausted every option. I’ve done everything I could and then
some to find a way around this. It’s simply not possible. My interpretation is: No. . . .
“No, no, no!” Trump shouted. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do
this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
OMG LMAO
I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
Pounding the table, saying shit like this and POOTWH is so, so brilliant? Pages 452-3.
Vice President Pence did tell Marc Short what
transpired during the meeting, but Short refused to tell the Select Committee what was said.194
Short described Vice President Pence’s demeanor as
“steady.”195
Short testified that the below excerpt from the book Peril may
have been sensationalized but was generally consistent with Short’s understanding of the discussion:
“If these people say you have the power, wouldn’t you want to?”
Trump asked.
“I wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority,” Pence said.
“But wouldn’t it almost be cool to have that power?” Trump asked.
“No,” Pence said. “Look, I’ve read this, and I don’t see a way to do it.
We’ve exhausted every option. I’ve done everything I could and then
some to find a way around this. It’s simply not possible. My interpretation is: No. . . .
“No, no, no!” Trump shouted. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do
this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
OMG LMAO
I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
How third grade is that?
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018) The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Pounding the table, saying shit like this and POOTWH is so, so brilliant? Pages 452-3.
Vice President Pence did tell Marc Short what
transpired during the meeting, but Short refused to tell the Select Committee what was said.194
Short described Vice President Pence’s demeanor as
“steady.”195
Short testified that the below excerpt from the book Peril may
have been sensationalized but was generally consistent with Short’s understanding of the discussion:
“If these people say you have the power, wouldn’t you want to?”
Trump asked.
“I wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority,” Pence said.
“But wouldn’t it almost be cool to have that power?” Trump asked.
“No,” Pence said. “Look, I’ve read this, and I don’t see a way to do it.
We’ve exhausted every option. I’ve done everything I could and then
some to find a way around this. It’s simply not possible. My interpretation is: No. . . .
“No, no, no!” Trump shouted. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do
this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
OMG LMAO
I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
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 arrest of a defeated candidate for the New Mexico legislature on charges that he orchestrated a plot to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque prompted widespread condemnation Tuesday as well as accusations that the stolen-election rhetoric among supporters of former president Donald Trump continues to incite violence.
Following the Monday arrest, new details emerged Tuesday about the alleged conspiracy, including how close a spray of bullets came to the sleeping 10-year-old daughter of a state senator. Albuquerque police said in charging documents released Tuesday that Solomon Peña, 39, a Republican who lost a state House seat in November by a nearly 2-1 margin but complained that his defeat was rigged, hatched the plot. Police accused him of conspiring with four accomplices to drive past the officials’ homes and fire at them.
Peña “provided firearms and cash payments and personally participated in at least one shooting,” the documents said. They alleged he intended to cause “serious injury or death” to the people inside their homes, the documents said. The group allegedly stole at least two cars used in the incidents, police said.
One of the targets of the attack said the shootings were part of a lineage of violence that stems from Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and that includes the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“You think it wouldn’t happen here, that someone would do this to local officials,” said former Bernalillo commissioner Debbie O’Malley, whose home was shot at Dec. 11. “There’s been this narrative for a long time: If you don’t get your way, it’s okay to be violent. The message came from the top. It came from Trump.”
charges including four counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling, four counts of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, four counts of conspiracy, possessing a firearm with a felony conviction, attempted aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal solicitation.
According to the charging documents, the most recent incident occurred Jan. 3, when at least a dozen rounds were fired into the Albuquerque home of state Sen. Linda Lopez (D).
Lopez told police she had initially thought the loud bangs she heard just after midnight were fireworks. But in the middle of the night, her 10-year-old daughter awoke thinking a spider had crawled across her face and wondering why her bed felt like it was filled with sand.
At daybreak, Lopez noticed holes in the house that made her suspect gunfire. After realizing that it was drywall dust from bullet holes that had awakened her daughter, she called the authorities, according to the charging papers. The documents also allege that Peña personally participated in the Lopez shooting because he was displeased that prior shootings had aimed “so high up on the walls.”
Peña brought an automatic rifle to Lopez’s home, but it jammed during the incident and did not fire, according to the documents.
Police accused Peña of orchestrating similar attacks in December on the Albuquerque homes of New Mexico state Rep. Javier Martinez, Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa and O’Malley, who at the time was also a county commissioner. They did not say whether the gunfire at those homes came close to striking anyone. Lopez, Martinez and Barboa could not be reached for comment.
Before his run for office, Peña served nearly seven years in prison on convictions related to a smash-and-grab scheme that included burglary, larceny and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Democrats had sought unsuccessfully in court to have him removed from the ballot, citing his record of felonies.
In an interview, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said he has no doubt that Peña was motivated by Trump’s false claims of election fraud following the former president’s 2020 defeat. Medina said Peña regularly expressed extreme views on social media and boasted of attending Trump’s Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Play
Ad - Up Next "Suspect arrested in shooting at New Mexico Democrats' homes"
Suspect arrested in shooting at New Mexico Democrats' homes
“The individual that we’re charging believed in that conspiracy,” Medina said. “He did believe that his election was unfair and he did escalate and resort to violence as a means to find justice.”
Medina said federal law enforcement is also investigating potential federal firearms violations related to the shootings, as well as whether Peña participated in the Jan. 6 riots. An FBI spokesman said the agency is assisting local authorities in their investigation and declined to comment further.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called it “appalling that some people would use this tragedy to try to score cheap political points. President Trump had nothing to do with this and any assertion otherwise is totally reprehensible.”
Lawyers for Peña and two of his alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo and Jose Trujillo, could not be reached for comment.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D) said Peña visited all four targets’ homes in the days leading up to the attacks, seeking to persuade them that the result of his election had been rigged. “What’s absolutely disturbing and terrifying is that he went from that to literally contracting felons who were out on warrant to shoot up their houses,” Keller said. “That’s the leap he took within a matter of days.”
Keller said it is not clear why Peña did not target his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Miguel Garcia. He said police have collected an overwhelming amount of evidence, including shell casings found at the crime scenes and in the recovered stolen vehicles as well as texted instructions, including the targets’ addresses, from Peña to his alleged co-conspirators.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, an outspoken critic of the threatening rhetoric of election deniers and a target of frequent online attacks, called on Republicans to condemn the violence in Albuquerque and urged voters to reject candidates who don’t.
She cited the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as well as the more recent attack on Paul Pelosi, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, as other troubling recent examples of political violence.
“It’s horrific,” Griswold said. “There are so many people who have to look over their shoulder living in fear in an atmosphere of political violence. As a nation we’re just lucky that the bullets didn’t land.”
Some Republicans joined in the condemnations. Ryan Lane, the New Mexico House Republican leader, praised law enforcement for their quick investigation. “New Mexico House Republicans condemn violence in any form and are grateful no one was injured,” Lane said.
The Republican Party of New Mexico issued a statement late Tuesday that made no mention of Peña’s candidacy or his denial of election results, but said the accusations against him “are serious, and he should be held accountable if the charges are validated in court.”
The incident also prompted a new push for gun control. In Santa Fe, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) called for a ban on assault weapons in an address to the state legislature on the first day of its 2023 session. “There are elected officials in this room today whose homes were shot at in despicable acts of political violence,” she said.
Peña allegedly conspired with four other men, according to the charging documents, hatching a plan to steal cars to use during the attacks and then abandon them. Subsequent investigations of stolen vehicles found with matching shell casings appear to confirm that plan, the police said.
Police said they examined the cellphone of one of the alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo, and found that Peña had sent him the addresses of the targets, and that Trujillo had then searched for the addresses on his phone.
Peña started organizing the shootings soon after the election, according to the police report. On Nov. 12, he texted Barboa’s address to Trujillo. A week and a half later, Peña texted Trujillo a passage from an unknown book.
“It was only the additional incentive of a threat of civil war that empowered a president to complete the reformist project,” the text read.
On Dec. 8, Peña sent the address of Martinez, whose home was attacked that night, and that of O’Malley. The texts between Peña and Trujillo contained plans to meet in parking lots, stores and fast food restaurants, according to the police report.
The charging documents also recounted the recollections of an unnamed confidential informant who said that Peña was not happy that the shootings would take place late at night, when they were less likely to injure anyone.
“Solomon wanted the shootings to be more aggressive” and “wanted them to aim lower and shoot around 8PM because occupants would more likely not be laying down,” according to the documents.
According to the documents, Jose Trujillo was arrested less than an hour after the Lopez shooting and just a few miles away, after he was pulled over for an expired registration in a Nissan Maxima registered to Peña. In addition to two weapons found in the trunk, police found 800 pills believed to be counterfeit Oxycodone as well as cash. Police also discovered that Trujillo had a warrant out for his arrest.
Police said Peña paid his co-conspirators at least $500 for their roles.
O’Malley told The Washington Post that Peña visited her home on Nov. 10, days after he lost the election.
“He was agitated and aggressive and upset that he did not win,” O’Malley said. Peña told O’Malley that he had knocked on tons of doors across his district, which should have led to him winning more votes. She rebuffed his request that she sign a document alleging the election was fraudulent, so he left.
A week later, on Dec. 11, a loud pop — “like a fist just banging on our front door,” she said — woke up her and her husband. There were four more bangs. “Oh my goodness, gunshots,” she remembered thinking.
No one was injured, but 12 shots were fired at her house. O’Malley said that because her grandchildren often sleep over, she now worries what could have happened if they had been there. She said she also worries about what the attacks mean for democracy.
“Someone has threatened my home and feels that it’s okay to shoot at my home where my family is because they didn’t get their way,” she said. “I absolutely blame election denialism and Trump. I couldn’t tell you what the solution is.”
The arrest of a defeated candidate for the New Mexico legislature on charges that he orchestrated a plot to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque prompted widespread condemnation Tuesday as well as accusations that the stolen-election rhetoric among supporters of former president Donald Trump continues to incite violence.
Following the Monday arrest, new details emerged Tuesday about the alleged conspiracy, including how close a spray of bullets came to the sleeping 10-year-old daughter of a state senator. Albuquerque police said in charging documents released Tuesday that Solomon Peña, 39, a Republican who lost a state House seat in November by a nearly 2-1 margin but complained that his defeat was rigged, hatched the plot. Police accused him of conspiring with four accomplices to drive past the officials’ homes and fire at them.
Peña “provided firearms and cash payments and personally participated in at least one shooting,” the documents said. They alleged he intended to cause “serious injury or death” to the people inside their homes, the documents said. The group allegedly stole at least two cars used in the incidents, police said.
One of the targets of the attack said the shootings were part of a lineage of violence that stems from Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and that includes the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“You think it wouldn’t happen here, that someone would do this to local officials,” said former Bernalillo commissioner Debbie O’Malley, whose home was shot at Dec. 11. “There’s been this narrative for a long time: If you don’t get your way, it’s okay to be violent. The message came from the top. It came from Trump.”
charges including four counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling, four counts of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, four counts of conspiracy, possessing a firearm with a felony conviction, attempted aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal solicitation.
According to the charging documents, the most recent incident occurred Jan. 3, when at least a dozen rounds were fired into the Albuquerque home of state Sen. Linda Lopez (D).
Lopez told police she had initially thought the loud bangs she heard just after midnight were fireworks. But in the middle of the night, her 10-year-old daughter awoke thinking a spider had crawled across her face and wondering why her bed felt like it was filled with sand.
At daybreak, Lopez noticed holes in the house that made her suspect gunfire. After realizing that it was drywall dust from bullet holes that had awakened her daughter, she called the authorities, according to the charging papers. The documents also allege that Peña personally participated in the Lopez shooting because he was displeased that prior shootings had aimed “so high up on the walls.”
Peña brought an automatic rifle to Lopez’s home, but it jammed during the incident and did not fire, according to the documents.
Police accused Peña of orchestrating similar attacks in December on the Albuquerque homes of New Mexico state Rep. Javier Martinez, Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa and O’Malley, who at the time was also a county commissioner. They did not say whether the gunfire at those homes came close to striking anyone. Lopez, Martinez and Barboa could not be reached for comment.
Before his run for office, Peña served nearly seven years in prison on convictions related to a smash-and-grab scheme that included burglary, larceny and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Democrats had sought unsuccessfully in court to have him removed from the ballot, citing his record of felonies.
In an interview, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said he has no doubt that Peña was motivated by Trump’s false claims of election fraud following the former president’s 2020 defeat. Medina said Peña regularly expressed extreme views on social media and boasted of attending Trump’s Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Play
Ad - Up Next "Suspect arrested in shooting at New Mexico Democrats' homes"
Suspect arrested in shooting at New Mexico Democrats' homes
“The individual that we’re charging believed in that conspiracy,” Medina said. “He did believe that his election was unfair and he did escalate and resort to violence as a means to find justice.”
Medina said federal law enforcement is also investigating potential federal firearms violations related to the shootings, as well as whether Peña participated in the Jan. 6 riots. An FBI spokesman said the agency is assisting local authorities in their investigation and declined to comment further.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called it “appalling that some people would use this tragedy to try to score cheap political points. President Trump had nothing to do with this and any assertion otherwise is totally reprehensible.”
Lawyers for Peña and two of his alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo and Jose Trujillo, could not be reached for comment.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D) said Peña visited all four targets’ homes in the days leading up to the attacks, seeking to persuade them that the result of his election had been rigged. “What’s absolutely disturbing and terrifying is that he went from that to literally contracting felons who were out on warrant to shoot up their houses,” Keller said. “That’s the leap he took within a matter of days.”
Keller said it is not clear why Peña did not target his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Miguel Garcia. He said police have collected an overwhelming amount of evidence, including shell casings found at the crime scenes and in the recovered stolen vehicles as well as texted instructions, including the targets’ addresses, from Peña to his alleged co-conspirators.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, an outspoken critic of the threatening rhetoric of election deniers and a target of frequent online attacks, called on Republicans to condemn the violence in Albuquerque and urged voters to reject candidates who don’t.
She cited the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as well as the more recent attack on Paul Pelosi, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, as other troubling recent examples of political violence.
“It’s horrific,” Griswold said. “There are so many people who have to look over their shoulder living in fear in an atmosphere of political violence. As a nation we’re just lucky that the bullets didn’t land.”
Some Republicans joined in the condemnations. Ryan Lane, the New Mexico House Republican leader, praised law enforcement for their quick investigation. “New Mexico House Republicans condemn violence in any form and are grateful no one was injured,” Lane said.
The Republican Party of New Mexico issued a statement late Tuesday that made no mention of Peña’s candidacy or his denial of election results, but said the accusations against him “are serious, and he should be held accountable if the charges are validated in court.”
The incident also prompted a new push for gun control. In Santa Fe, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) called for a ban on assault weapons in an address to the state legislature on the first day of its 2023 session. “There are elected officials in this room today whose homes were shot at in despicable acts of political violence,” she said.
Peña allegedly conspired with four other men, according to the charging documents, hatching a plan to steal cars to use during the attacks and then abandon them. Subsequent investigations of stolen vehicles found with matching shell casings appear to confirm that plan, the police said.
Police said they examined the cellphone of one of the alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo, and found that Peña had sent him the addresses of the targets, and that Trujillo had then searched for the addresses on his phone.
Peña started organizing the shootings soon after the election, according to the police report. On Nov. 12, he texted Barboa’s address to Trujillo. A week and a half later, Peña texted Trujillo a passage from an unknown book.
“It was only the additional incentive of a threat of civil war that empowered a president to complete the reformist project,” the text read.
On Dec. 8, Peña sent the address of Martinez, whose home was attacked that night, and that of O’Malley. The texts between Peña and Trujillo contained plans to meet in parking lots, stores and fast food restaurants, according to the police report.
The charging documents also recounted the recollections of an unnamed confidential informant who said that Peña was not happy that the shootings would take place late at night, when they were less likely to injure anyone.
“Solomon wanted the shootings to be more aggressive” and “wanted them to aim lower and shoot around 8PM because occupants would more likely not be laying down,” according to the documents.
According to the documents, Jose Trujillo was arrested less than an hour after the Lopez shooting and just a few miles away, after he was pulled over for an expired registration in a Nissan Maxima registered to Peña. In addition to two weapons found in the trunk, police found 800 pills believed to be counterfeit Oxycodone as well as cash. Police also discovered that Trujillo had a warrant out for his arrest.
Police said Peña paid his co-conspirators at least $500 for their roles.
O’Malley told The Washington Post that Peña visited her home on Nov. 10, days after he lost the election.
“He was agitated and aggressive and upset that he did not win,” O’Malley said. Peña told O’Malley that he had knocked on tons of doors across his district, which should have led to him winning more votes. She rebuffed his request that she sign a document alleging the election was fraudulent, so he left.
A week later, on Dec. 11, a loud pop — “like a fist just banging on our front door,” she said — woke up her and her husband. There were four more bangs. “Oh my goodness, gunshots,” she remembered thinking.
No one was injured, but 12 shots were fired at her house. O’Malley said that because her grandchildren often sleep over, she now worries what could have happened if they had been there. She said she also worries about what the attacks mean for democracy.
“Someone has threatened my home and feels that it’s okay to shoot at my home where my family is because they didn’t get their way,” she said. “I absolutely blame election denialism and Trump. I couldn’t tell you what the solution is.”
is it safe to say we can call the gop the party of political violence at this point?
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
The arrest of a defeated candidate for the New Mexico legislature on charges that he orchestrated a plot to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque prompted widespread condemnation Tuesday as well as accusations that the stolen-election rhetoric among supporters of former president Donald Trump continues to incite violence.
Following the Monday arrest, new details emerged Tuesday about the alleged conspiracy, including how close a spray of bullets came to the sleeping 10-year-old daughter of a state senator. Albuquerque police said in charging documents released Tuesday that Solomon Peña, 39, a Republican who lost a state House seat in November by a nearly 2-1 margin but complained that his defeat was rigged, hatched the plot. Police accused him of conspiring with four accomplices to drive past the officials’ homes and fire at them.
Peña “provided firearms and cash payments and personally participated in at least one shooting,” the documents said. They alleged he intended to cause “serious injury or death” to the people inside their homes, the documents said. The group allegedly stole at least two cars used in the incidents, police said.
One of the targets of the attack said the shootings were part of a lineage of violence that stems from Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and that includes the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“You think it wouldn’t happen here, that someone would do this to local officials,” said former Bernalillo commissioner Debbie O’Malley, whose home was shot at Dec. 11. “There’s been this narrative for a long time: If you don’t get your way, it’s okay to be violent. The message came from the top. It came from Trump.”
charges including four counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling, four counts of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, four counts of conspiracy, possessing a firearm with a felony conviction, attempted aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal solicitation.
According to the charging documents, the most recent incident occurred Jan. 3, when at least a dozen rounds were fired into the Albuquerque home of state Sen. Linda Lopez (D).
Lopez told police she had initially thought the loud bangs she heard just after midnight were fireworks. But in the middle of the night, her 10-year-old daughter awoke thinking a spider had crawled across her face and wondering why her bed felt like it was filled with sand.
At daybreak, Lopez noticed holes in the house that made her suspect gunfire. After realizing that it was drywall dust from bullet holes that had awakened her daughter, she called the authorities, according to the charging papers. The documents also allege that Peña personally participated in the Lopez shooting because he was displeased that prior shootings had aimed “so high up on the walls.”
Peña brought an automatic rifle to Lopez’s home, but it jammed during the incident and did not fire, according to the documents.
Police accused Peña of orchestrating similar attacks in December on the Albuquerque homes of New Mexico state Rep. Javier Martinez, Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa and O’Malley, who at the time was also a county commissioner. They did not say whether the gunfire at those homes came close to striking anyone. Lopez, Martinez and Barboa could not be reached for comment.
Before his run for office, Peña served nearly seven years in prison on convictions related to a smash-and-grab scheme that included burglary, larceny and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Democrats had sought unsuccessfully in court to have him removed from the ballot, citing his record of felonies.
In an interview, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said he has no doubt that Peña was motivated by Trump’s false claims of election fraud following the former president’s 2020 defeat. Medina said Peña regularly expressed extreme views on social media and boasted of attending Trump’s Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Play
Ad - Up Next "Suspect arrested in shooting at New Mexico Democrats' homes"
Suspect arrested in shooting at New Mexico Democrats' homes
“The individual that we’re charging believed in that conspiracy,” Medina said. “He did believe that his election was unfair and he did escalate and resort to violence as a means to find justice.”
Medina said federal law enforcement is also investigating potential federal firearms violations related to the shootings, as well as whether Peña participated in the Jan. 6 riots. An FBI spokesman said the agency is assisting local authorities in their investigation and declined to comment further.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called it “appalling that some people would use this tragedy to try to score cheap political points. President Trump had nothing to do with this and any assertion otherwise is totally reprehensible.”
Lawyers for Peña and two of his alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo and Jose Trujillo, could not be reached for comment.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D) said Peña visited all four targets’ homes in the days leading up to the attacks, seeking to persuade them that the result of his election had been rigged. “What’s absolutely disturbing and terrifying is that he went from that to literally contracting felons who were out on warrant to shoot up their houses,” Keller said. “That’s the leap he took within a matter of days.”
Keller said it is not clear why Peña did not target his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Miguel Garcia. He said police have collected an overwhelming amount of evidence, including shell casings found at the crime scenes and in the recovered stolen vehicles as well as texted instructions, including the targets’ addresses, from Peña to his alleged co-conspirators.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, an outspoken critic of the threatening rhetoric of election deniers and a target of frequent online attacks, called on Republicans to condemn the violence in Albuquerque and urged voters to reject candidates who don’t.
She cited the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as well as the more recent attack on Paul Pelosi, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, as other troubling recent examples of political violence.
“It’s horrific,” Griswold said. “There are so many people who have to look over their shoulder living in fear in an atmosphere of political violence. As a nation we’re just lucky that the bullets didn’t land.”
Some Republicans joined in the condemnations. Ryan Lane, the New Mexico House Republican leader, praised law enforcement for their quick investigation. “New Mexico House Republicans condemn violence in any form and are grateful no one was injured,” Lane said.
The Republican Party of New Mexico issued a statement late Tuesday that made no mention of Peña’s candidacy or his denial of election results, but said the accusations against him “are serious, and he should be held accountable if the charges are validated in court.”
The incident also prompted a new push for gun control. In Santa Fe, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) called for a ban on assault weapons in an address to the state legislature on the first day of its 2023 session. “There are elected officials in this room today whose homes were shot at in despicable acts of political violence,” she said.
Peña allegedly conspired with four other men, according to the charging documents, hatching a plan to steal cars to use during the attacks and then abandon them. Subsequent investigations of stolen vehicles found with matching shell casings appear to confirm that plan, the police said.
Police said they examined the cellphone of one of the alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo, and found that Peña had sent him the addresses of the targets, and that Trujillo had then searched for the addresses on his phone.
Peña started organizing the shootings soon after the election, according to the police report. On Nov. 12, he texted Barboa’s address to Trujillo. A week and a half later, Peña texted Trujillo a passage from an unknown book.
“It was only the additional incentive of a threat of civil war that empowered a president to complete the reformist project,” the text read.
On Dec. 8, Peña sent the address of Martinez, whose home was attacked that night, and that of O’Malley. The texts between Peña and Trujillo contained plans to meet in parking lots, stores and fast food restaurants, according to the police report.
The charging documents also recounted the recollections of an unnamed confidential informant who said that Peña was not happy that the shootings would take place late at night, when they were less likely to injure anyone.
“Solomon wanted the shootings to be more aggressive” and “wanted them to aim lower and shoot around 8PM because occupants would more likely not be laying down,” according to the documents.
According to the documents, Jose Trujillo was arrested less than an hour after the Lopez shooting and just a few miles away, after he was pulled over for an expired registration in a Nissan Maxima registered to Peña. In addition to two weapons found in the trunk, police found 800 pills believed to be counterfeit Oxycodone as well as cash. Police also discovered that Trujillo had a warrant out for his arrest.
Police said Peña paid his co-conspirators at least $500 for their roles.
O’Malley told The Washington Post that Peña visited her home on Nov. 10, days after he lost the election.
“He was agitated and aggressive and upset that he did not win,” O’Malley said. Peña told O’Malley that he had knocked on tons of doors across his district, which should have led to him winning more votes. She rebuffed his request that she sign a document alleging the election was fraudulent, so he left.
A week later, on Dec. 11, a loud pop — “like a fist just banging on our front door,” she said — woke up her and her husband. There were four more bangs. “Oh my goodness, gunshots,” she remembered thinking.
No one was injured, but 12 shots were fired at her house. O’Malley said that because her grandchildren often sleep over, she now worries what could have happened if they had been there. She said she also worries about what the attacks mean for democracy.
“Someone has threatened my home and feels that it’s okay to shoot at my home where my family is because they didn’t get their way,” she said. “I absolutely blame election denialism and Trump. I couldn’t tell you what the solution is.”
is it safe to say we can call the gop the party of political violence at this point?
And republicans will say both sides are the same because Kamala encouraged people to contribute to bail funds and the guy who shot up the politician softball game liked Bernie Sanders.
Has anyone asked Rodger Dodger Stoned if the sun has come out yet? Page 537:
Jones repeated his claims about the election being stolen, claiming that
those in attendance stood against a “Satanic world government.”467 Stone
led a “Stop the Steal” chant, claiming the “evidence of election fraud is not
only growing, it is overwhelming, and it is compelling.” President Trump
“won the majority of the legal votes cast” and President Trump “won this
election,”Stone said. Nothing less than the fate of Western Civilization was
at stake, according to Stone:
Let’s be very clear. This is not fight between Republicans and
Democrats. This is not a fight between liberals and conservatives.
This is a fight for the future the United States of America. It is a
fight for the future of Western Civilization as we know it. It’s a fight
between dark and light. It’s a fight between the godly and the godless. It’s a fight between good and evil. And we dare not fail, or we
will step out into one thousand years of darkness.468
Stone claimed that they “renounce violence” and those on “the
left . . . are the violent ones.” But he insisted that “nothing is over until we
say it is,” and “Victory will be ours.”469
Both Taylor and Hostetter spoke as well. Hostetter told the crowd, “We
are at war.”470 Taylor promised to “fight” and “bleed,” vowing that
“Patriot[s]” would “not return to our peaceful way of life until this election
is made right.”471
Chapter 7: 187 Minutes of Dereliction; 35 Pages, 341 End Notes
As recounted in Chapter 5, President Trump called Vice President Pence
at 11:17 a.m.39 The call between the two men—during which the President
soon grew “frustrat[ed] or heated,”40 visibly upset,41 and “angry”42—
lasted nearly 20 minutes.43 And President Trump insulted Vice President
Pence when he refused to obstruct or delay the joint session.
39. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the
Capitol, (National Archives Production), P-R000285 (January 6, 2021, Schedule marked private with handwritten notes at 11:22 a.m. ET); Select Committee to Investigate the January
6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Keith Kellogg, Jr., (Dec. 14, 2021) pp.
90–93; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,
Deposition of Nicholas Luna, (Mar. 21, 2021), p. 126.
40. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Eric Herschmann, (Apr. 6, 2022), pp. 48–49; see also Select Committee
to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of
White House Employee, (June 10, 2022), p. 22 (“I could just tell in his voice when he was
talking to the Vice President that he was disappointed and frustrated.”).
41. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Eric Herschmann, (Apr. 6, 2022), p. 4.
42. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Julie Radford, (May 24, 2020), p. 18.
43. Compare Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th
Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), P-R000285 (January 6,
2021, schedule with handwritten notes about the meeting); with Documents on file with the
Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Secret
Service Production), CTRL0000100198 (communication noting “Mogul” en route to the
Ellipse at 11:39 a.m.).
President Trump walked through the corridor from the Oval Office into
the Presidential Dining Room and sat down at the table with the television
remote and a Diet Coke close at hand.125 For the rest of the afternoon—as
his country faced an hours-long attack—he hunkered down in or around
the dining room, watching television.126 He left only for a few minutes—
from 4:03 p.m. to 4:07 p.m.—to film a video in the Rose Garden, only a few
steps away, after hours of arm-twisting.127 But otherwise, the President
remained in the dining room until 6:27 p.m., when he returned to his private residence.128
What happened during the 187 minutes from 1:10 p.m. to 4:17 p.m.,
when President Trump finally told the rioters to go home, is—from an official standpoint—undocumented.
For instance, the Presidential Daily Diary—the schedule that tracks
every meeting and phone call in which the President partakes—is inexplicably blank between 1:21 p.m. and 4:03 p.m.129 When asked to explain the
gap in record-keeping on and around January 6th, White House officials in
charge of its maintenance provided no credible explanation, including: “I
don’t recall a specific reason.”130
The men who spent most of the afternoon in that room with the President, Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, both refused to comply with lawful
subpoenas from the Select Committee.131 Others in the dining room
appeared before the Select Committee but cited executive privilege to avoid
answering questions about their direct communications with President
Trump.132 Others who worked just outside of the Oval Office, like the President’s personal secretaries Molly Michael and Austin Ferrer Piran Basauldo,
claimed not to remember nearly anything from one of the most memorable
days in recent American history.133
The White House photographer, Shealah Craighead, had been granted
access to photograph the President during his January 6th speech, but once
she got to the White House—and it became clear that an attack was unfolding on the Capitol’s steps—she was turned away.134
“The President [didn’t] want any photos,” she was told.135
Here’s what President Trump did during the 187 minutes between the
end of his speech and when he finally told rioters to go home: For hours, he
watched the attack from his TV screen.136 His channel of choice was Fox
News.137 He issued a few tweets, some on his own inclination and some
only at the repeated behest of his daughter and other trusted advisors.138 He
made several phone calls, some to his personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani,
some to Members of Congress about continuing their objections to the
electoral certification, even though the attack was well underway.139
Here’s what President Trump did not do: He did not call any relevant
law enforcement agency to ensure they were working to quell the violence.
He did not call the Secretary of Defense; he did not call the Attorney General; he did not call the Secretary of Homeland Security.140 And for hours on
end, he refused the repeated requests—from nearly everyone who talked to
him—to simply tell the mob to go home.141
Throughout the afternoon, senior staff regularly entered the room to
give him updates on what was happening at the Capitol.142 And, of course,
President Trump used Twitter, where information is shared on an instantaneous basis.
Three active-duty Marines with intelligence jobs charged in Jan. 6 breach By Spencer S. Hsu and Alex Horton January 20, 2023 at 17:02 ET Three active duty members of the Marine Corps assigned to intelligence-related jobs, including one at the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland, have been charged with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to court filings unsealed Thursday and military service records. Cpl. Micah Coomer, Sgt. Joshua Abate and Sgt. Dodge Dale Hellonen were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday near Camp Pendleton, Calif., Fort Meade, Md., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., respectively, and appeared in local federal courts. The FBI said Abate admitted to entering the Capitol “with two ‘buddies’” during a June 2022 interview that was part of his security clearance process while assigned to the Marine Corps’ Cryptologic Support Battalion, which is partnered and headquartered with the NSA at Fort Meade. According to charging papers, Abate said they “walked around and tried not to get hit with tear gas,” and “admitted he heard how the event was being portrayed negatively and decided that he should not tell anybody about going into the U.S. Capitol Building.” Each faces counts including trespassing, disorderly conduct and illegal parading or picketing in a restricted Capitol building or grounds, in connection with the riots that injured scores of police officers, left offices ransacked, and forced lawmakers to evacuate the premises amid Congress’s meeting to confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election. The sergeants’ occupations as special communications signals analysts and the corporal’s job as an intelligence surveillance reconnaissance system engineer were first reported by Military.com and were confirmed in their service records. A Marine Corps spokesperson said: “We are aware of an investigation and the allegations. The Marine Corps is fully cooperating with appropriate authorities in support of the investigation.” Abate’s attorney David Dischley declined to comment. Federal defenders for the other two men did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The men are the first active-duty military members to be charged in the Capitol attack since Maj. Christopher Warnagiris of the Marine Corps was arrested in May 2021. He is awaiting trial on felony counts including assaulting or impeding police and obstructing an official proceeding. About 120 of the roughly 940 people arrested in the Capitol breach served in the military, reserves or National Guard. According to charging papers filed Tuesday and unsealed Thursday, Coomer posted photographs on Instagram taken from inside the Capitol during the breach, captioned “Glad to be apart of history.” Data provided by Facebook in connection with an August 2021 federal search warrant showed that in a Jan. 31 direct message on Instagram, Coomer allegedly “stated his belief ‘that everything in this country is corrupt. We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo.’” Coomer described the term as “Civil war 2,” according to an FBI arrest affidavit. U.S. prosecutors have described “boogaloo” as a term taken up by fringe groups referring to a racially or ethnically motivated civil war. Capitol surveillance video recorded the three Marines entering the Capitol through the Senate wing door less than 10 minutes after it was first breached, according to the FBI. The trio were moving together and spent 52 minutes in the building, with Hellonen carrying a yellow Gadsden flag with a “Don’t Tread on Me” logo, according to the FBI. That included time in the Rotunda, where “they placed a red MAGA hat on one of the statues to take photos with it,” an FBI arrest affidavit said.
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Jan. 6 defendant convicted on separate weapons charges
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
19 Jan 2023
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury has convicted a Navy reservist from Virginia accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 on separate charges that he illegally possessed silencers disguised to look like innocuous cleaning supplies.
The conviction Wednesday night against Hatchet Speed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria comes a month after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his first trial, resulting in a mistrial.
At the retrial this week, the jury needed only a few hours of deliberation before convicting him on all three counts of unlawfully possessing unregistered silencers.
Speed's case is noteworthy not only because of his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot with the far-right Proud Boys group, but also because he espoused antisemitic views in undercover recordings and discussed strategies for eradicating the Jewish population in the U.S.
The case against Speed in Virginia hinged on three devices he bought in March 2021 that the government argued were unregistered silencers. Speed contended the devices are “solvent traps” to collect excess liquid that spills out when a gun is cleaned.
Prosecutors said while the company selling the devices marketed them as solvent traps, they are designed to be easily converted into silencers, which is why people spend more than $300 for them.
The devices bought by Speed are made of titanium and contain baffles that would be found on silencers. They can be screwed onto the threaded barrel of a 9 mm handgun. A firearms expert for the government said it takes about 10 minutes to convert the device into a fully functional silencer by using a hand drill to make a hole in the end for a bullet to pass through.
Prosecutors said Speed obtained the silencers during a post-Capitol riot panic-buying spree in which he spent more than $40,000 on firearms, ammunition and accessories. He bought the solvent traps in March 2021 after learning that the delivery of several silencers he had just purchased would be significantly delayed by paperwork and registration requirements, they said.
Speed's lawyers, though, contended that the devices were indeed solvent traps, not silencers. They said Speed never modified the devices to make them functional as silencers, and that he had no intent to break the law.
The defense urged jurors to ignore Speed's antisemitic philosophy.
“Some of Mr. Speed’s thoughts may be distasteful but his conduct in this case was not criminal,” defense lawyer Courtney Dixon told jurors.
Prosecutors played recordings in which Speed told an undercover FBI employee that he understood the devices' true purpose was as a silencer.
Prosecutors said the law governing silencers covers devices intended for use as a silencer, regardless of whether they are functional or sold under another name.
“The law does not allow that kind of gamesmanship,” prosecutor Thomas Traxler said in closing arguments Wednesday.
In recent years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has shut down and seized several websites that sold solvent traps, including the one from which Speed purchased his devices.
Speed was taken into custody after Wednesday's verdict and awaits sentencing in April. Each of the three counts contains a potential maximum sentence of 10 years. While Speed is unlikely to receive a maximum sentence, it's likely that the sentence will exceed any term that is imposed on him for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack.
His lawyer, public defender Brooke Rupert, said Hatch intends to appeal the verdict.
Speed is scheduled to go on trial in that case in Washington, D.C., later this year. The case involves five counts, including disorderly conduct in the Capitol and obstructing an official proceeding. His lawyers there have filed a motion seeking to limit evidence to the jury about Speed's ideology.
Speed is among more than 940 people arrested in connection with the riot in which former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
___
This story corrects the penultimate paragraph to reflect that a superseding indictment this month in Washington has added a fifth count against Speed.
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Jan. 6 defendant convicted on separate weapons charges
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
19 Jan 2023
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury has convicted a Navy reservist from Virginia accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 on separate charges that he illegally possessed silencers disguised to look like innocuous cleaning supplies.
The conviction Wednesday night against Hatchet Speed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria comes a month after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his first trial, resulting in a mistrial.
At the retrial this week, the jury needed only a few hours of deliberation before convicting him on all three counts of unlawfully possessing unregistered silencers.
Speed's case is noteworthy not only because of his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot with the far-right Proud Boys group, but also because he espoused antisemitic views in undercover recordings and discussed strategies for eradicating the Jewish population in the U.S.
The case against Speed in Virginia hinged on three devices he bought in March 2021 that the government argued were unregistered silencers. Speed contended the devices are “solvent traps” to collect excess liquid that spills out when a gun is cleaned.
Prosecutors said while the company selling the devices marketed them as solvent traps, they are designed to be easily converted into silencers, which is why people spend more than $300 for them.
The devices bought by Speed are made of titanium and contain baffles that would be found on silencers. They can be screwed onto the threaded barrel of a 9 mm handgun. A firearms expert for the government said it takes about 10 minutes to convert the device into a fully functional silencer by using a hand drill to make a hole in the end for a bullet to pass through.
Prosecutors said Speed obtained the silencers during a post-Capitol riot panic-buying spree in which he spent more than $40,000 on firearms, ammunition and accessories. He bought the solvent traps in March 2021 after learning that the delivery of several silencers he had just purchased would be significantly delayed by paperwork and registration requirements, they said.
Speed's lawyers, though, contended that the devices were indeed solvent traps, not silencers. They said Speed never modified the devices to make them functional as silencers, and that he had no intent to break the law.
The defense urged jurors to ignore Speed's antisemitic philosophy.
“Some of Mr. Speed’s thoughts may be distasteful but his conduct in this case was not criminal,” defense lawyer Courtney Dixon told jurors.
Prosecutors played recordings in which Speed told an undercover FBI employee that he understood the devices' true purpose was as a silencer.
Prosecutors said the law governing silencers covers devices intended for use as a silencer, regardless of whether they are functional or sold under another name.
“The law does not allow that kind of gamesmanship,” prosecutor Thomas Traxler said in closing arguments Wednesday.
In recent years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has shut down and seized several websites that sold solvent traps, including the one from which Speed purchased his devices.
Speed was taken into custody after Wednesday's verdict and awaits sentencing in April. Each of the three counts contains a potential maximum sentence of 10 years. While Speed is unlikely to receive a maximum sentence, it's likely that the sentence will exceed any term that is imposed on him for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack.
His lawyer, public defender Brooke Rupert, said Hatch intends to appeal the verdict.
Speed is scheduled to go on trial in that case in Washington, D.C., later this year. The case involves five counts, including disorderly conduct in the Capitol and obstructing an official proceeding. His lawyers there have filed a motion seeking to limit evidence to the jury about Speed's ideology.
Speed is among more than 940 people arrested in connection with the riot in which former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
___
This story corrects the penultimate paragraph to reflect that a superseding indictment this month in Washington has added a fifth count against Speed.
Four Oath Keepers convicted of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack in the second major trial of far-right extremists accused of plotting to forcibly keep President Donald Trump in power.
The verdict against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Florida; Roberto Minuta of Prosper, Texas; David Moerschel of Punta Gorda, Florida; and Edward Vallejo of Phoenix comes weeks after after a different jury convicted the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, in the mob’s attack that halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
It’s another major victory for the Justice Department, which is also trying to secure sedition convictions against the former leader of the Proud Boys and four associates. The trial against Enrique Tarrio and his lieutenants opened earlier this month in Washington and is expected to last several weeks.
The Washington jury deliberated for about 12 hours over three days before delivering their guilty verdict on the rarely used charge, which carries up to 20 years in prison. The four were also convicted of two other conspiracy charges as well as obstructing an official proceeding: Congress' certification of the 2020 election. Minuta, Hackett and Moerschel were acquitted of lesser charges.
The judge didn't immediately set a date for sentencing. The judge denied prosecutors' bid to lock up the men while they await sentencing, finding them not to be a risk of flight. They were ordered to remain in home detention with electronic monitoring.
It was one of the most serious cases brought so far in the sweeping Jan. 6 investigation, which continues to grow two years after the riot. The Justice Department has charged nearly 1,000 people in the riot and the tally increases by the week.
Prosecutors told jurors that Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his band of extremists began shortly after the 2020 election to prepare an armed rebellion to keep Trump in power. Messages show Rhodes and the Oath Keepers discussing the prospect of a “bloody” civil war and the need to keep Biden out of the White House.
“Our democracy was under attack, but for the defendants it was everything they trained for and a moment to celebrate,” prosecutor Louis Manzo told jurors in his closing argument.
Prosecutors alleged that the Oath Keepers amassed weapons and stashed them at a Virginia hotel for so-called “quick reaction force” teams that could quickly shuttle guns into Washington to support their plot if they were needed. The weapons were never used.
Rhodes and Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the previous trial that ended in November. They were the first people in decades found guilty at trial of the Civil War-era charge. Three other Oath Keepers were cleared of the charge in that case but were found guilty of other serious crimes. They are all awaiting sentencing.
Defense attorneys sought to downplay violent messages as mere bluster and said the Oath Keepers came to Washington to provide security at events before the riot. They seized on prosecutors’ lack of evidence that the Oath Keepers had an explicit plan to storm the Capitol before Jan. 6 and told jurors that the extremists who attacked the Capitol acted spontaneously like thousands of other rioters.
“They left evidence out and they picked and chose what they wanted,” said William Lee Shipley, an attorney for Minuta.
Prosecutors argued that while there is not evidence specifically spelling out a plan to attack the Capitol, the Oath Keepers saw the riot as a means to an end and sprung into action at an apparent opportunity to help keep Trump in power.
Hackett, Moerschel and other Oath Keepers approached the Capitol in a military-style stack formation before they entered the building, according to prosecutors. Minuta and his group from a second stack of Oath Keepers clashed with police after heeding Rhodes’ call to race to the Capitol, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said that Vallejo, a U.S. Army veteran and Rhodes ally, drove from Arizona to prepare with the “QRF” — the quick reaction force — at the hotel outside Washington. Jurors heard an audio recording of Vallejo talking about a “declaration of a guerilla war” on the morning of Jan. 6.
Three other Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence. They are among about 500 people who have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges.
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Man who propped feet on Pelosi desk guilty in Jan. 6 case
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Arkansas man who propped his feet up on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the U.S. Capitol riot was convicted on Monday of joining a mob's attack on the building two years ago.
A jury deliberated for approximately two hours before unanimously convicting Richard “Bigo” Barnett on all eight counts in his indictment, including felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Barnett lounging at a desk in Pelosi's office made him one of the most memorable figures from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the day when Congress convened a joint session to certify President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is scheduled to sentence Barnett on May 3. The judge agreed to let Barnett remain free on certain conditions until his sentencing.
Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Barnett vowed to appeal his conviction, calling it an "injustice.” He noted that the judge had rejected his request to move his trial from Washington to Arkansas.
“This is not a jury of my peers,” he told reporters.
Prosecutors asked the judge to jail Barnett while he awaits sentencing. Justice Department prosecutor Alison Prout said the jury concluded that Barnett took a weapon into Pelosi's office.
“We can only imagine what would have happened if (Pelosi) had been there at the time,” Prout said.
Barnett, 62, testified last Thursday that he was looking for a bathroom inside the Capitol when he unwittingly entered Pelosi’s office and encountered two news photographers. He said one of the photographers told him to “act natural,” so he leaned back in a chair and flung his legs onto the desk.
“Did it dawn on you that what you were doing could cause some trouble?” defense attorney Joseph McBride asked Barnett.
“I was just in the moment,” Barnett replied. “I’m just kind of going with the flow at this point.”
Barnett's decision to testify was “unequivocally the right one,” his lawyer told reporters after the verdict.
“He had a story that needed to be told,” McBride said. “People needed to know why he came here, what his intentions were and what he did while he was here.”
Prosecutors said Barnett had a stun gun tucked into his pants when he stormed the Capitol and invaded Pelosi’s office. Barnett was convicted of entering and remaining in restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon — a stun gun with spikes concealed within a collapsible walking stick.
Barnett took a piece of her mail and left behind a note that said, “Nancy, Bigo was here,” punctuating the message with a sexist expletive. The jury convicted of a theft charge for taking the envelope from Pelosi's office.
Before leaving Capitol grounds, Barnett used a bullhorn to give a speech to the crowd, shouting, “We took back our house, and I took Nancy Pelosi’s office!” according to prosecutors.
Videos support Barnett's testimony that a crowd pushed him into the Capitol as he approached an entrance, causing him to briefly fall to his knees as he crossed the threshold.
“We have no choice!” he shouted repeatedly as he entered the Capitol.
After police ordered him and others to leave Pelosi’s office, Barnett realized he had left his American flag behind. Body camera video captured Barnett shouting at a police officer in the Rotunda for help in retrieving the flag.
More than 940 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan.6 attack. Nearly 500 of them have pleaded guilty. Barnett is one of several dozen Capitol riot defendants whose case has gone to trial.
Barnett is a retired firefighter from Gravette, Arkansas. He said he regrets coming to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally where then-President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of supporters.
“Two years of lost life. Misery for my family,” he said.
While on house arrest last year, Barnett raised money by charging donors $100 for photos of him with his feet on a desk.
McBride told jurors that Barnett was just a “crazy guy from Arkansas” who didn’t hurt anybody on Jan. 6 and couldn’t have harmed anybody with the stun gun device because it was broken that day. McBride sarcastically called it “the most famous trespass case of all time.”
Prosecutors said Barnett had a history of arming himself at political demonstrations. In July 2020, they said, a 911 caller reported that a man matching Barnett’s description had pointed a rifle at her during a “Back the Blue” rally.
“Law enforcement ultimately closed the investigation as unfounded due to unresolved apparent discrepancies in the evidence,” prosecutors wrote.
In November 2020, police were called to a “Save the Children” rally when a caller said Barnett was carrying a gun at the protest and acting suspiciously.
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Man who propped feet on Pelosi desk guilty in Jan. 6 case
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Arkansas man who propped his feet up on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the U.S. Capitol riot was convicted on Monday of joining a mob's attack on the building two years ago.
A jury deliberated for approximately two hours before unanimously convicting Richard “Bigo” Barnett on all eight counts in his indictment, including felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Barnett lounging at a desk in Pelosi's office made him one of the most memorable figures from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the day when Congress convened a joint session to certify President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is scheduled to sentence Barnett on May 3. The judge agreed to let Barnett remain free on certain conditions until his sentencing.
Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Barnett vowed to appeal his conviction, calling it an "injustice.” He noted that the judge had rejected his request to move his trial from Washington to Arkansas.
“This is not a jury of my peers,” he told reporters.
Prosecutors asked the judge to jail Barnett while he awaits sentencing. Justice Department prosecutor Alison Prout said the jury concluded that Barnett took a weapon into Pelosi's office.
“We can only imagine what would have happened if (Pelosi) had been there at the time,” Prout said.
Barnett, 62, testified last Thursday that he was looking for a bathroom inside the Capitol when he unwittingly entered Pelosi’s office and encountered two news photographers. He said one of the photographers told him to “act natural,” so he leaned back in a chair and flung his legs onto the desk.
“Did it dawn on you that what you were doing could cause some trouble?” defense attorney Joseph McBride asked Barnett.
“I was just in the moment,” Barnett replied. “I’m just kind of going with the flow at this point.”
Barnett's decision to testify was “unequivocally the right one,” his lawyer told reporters after the verdict.
“He had a story that needed to be told,” McBride said. “People needed to know why he came here, what his intentions were and what he did while he was here.”
Prosecutors said Barnett had a stun gun tucked into his pants when he stormed the Capitol and invaded Pelosi’s office. Barnett was convicted of entering and remaining in restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon — a stun gun with spikes concealed within a collapsible walking stick.
Barnett took a piece of her mail and left behind a note that said, “Nancy, Bigo was here,” punctuating the message with a sexist expletive. The jury convicted of a theft charge for taking the envelope from Pelosi's office.
Before leaving Capitol grounds, Barnett used a bullhorn to give a speech to the crowd, shouting, “We took back our house, and I took Nancy Pelosi’s office!” according to prosecutors.
Videos support Barnett's testimony that a crowd pushed him into the Capitol as he approached an entrance, causing him to briefly fall to his knees as he crossed the threshold.
“We have no choice!” he shouted repeatedly as he entered the Capitol.
After police ordered him and others to leave Pelosi’s office, Barnett realized he had left his American flag behind. Body camera video captured Barnett shouting at a police officer in the Rotunda for help in retrieving the flag.
More than 940 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan.6 attack. Nearly 500 of them have pleaded guilty. Barnett is one of several dozen Capitol riot defendants whose case has gone to trial.
Barnett is a retired firefighter from Gravette, Arkansas. He said he regrets coming to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally where then-President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of supporters.
“Two years of lost life. Misery for my family,” he said.
While on house arrest last year, Barnett raised money by charging donors $100 for photos of him with his feet on a desk.
McBride told jurors that Barnett was just a “crazy guy from Arkansas” who didn’t hurt anybody on Jan. 6 and couldn’t have harmed anybody with the stun gun device because it was broken that day. McBride sarcastically called it “the most famous trespass case of all time.”
Prosecutors said Barnett had a history of arming himself at political demonstrations. In July 2020, they said, a 911 caller reported that a man matching Barnett’s description had pointed a rifle at her during a “Back the Blue” rally.
“Law enforcement ultimately closed the investigation as unfounded due to unresolved apparent discrepancies in the evidence,” prosecutors wrote.
In November 2020, police were called to a “Save the Children” rally when a caller said Barnett was carrying a gun at the protest and acting suspiciously.
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
What a dirty piece of shit. I can't wait for his sentencing hearing.
The only credit I can give him is for admitting that what he did was wrong but I don't know if I believe him or not.
it was a non-confessuon confession to me.
defense seems to be , well I didnt intend to cause harm/damage so that should get me off of actual harm/damage because it wasn't my intention......
I don't know the guy (obviously) but just hearing him talk and seeing his mannerisms he just reminds me of a racist hilljack piece of shit.
right. its not MY fault.......
looking for the bathroom. laughable. pretty sure theres signs everywhere. stating what and whos offices. and of course there would be for bathrooms too......
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
What a dirty piece of shit. I can't wait for his sentencing hearing.
The only credit I can give him is for admitting that what he did was wrong but I don't know if I believe him or not.
it was a non-confessuon confession to me.
defense seems to be , well I didnt intend to cause harm/damage so that should get me off of actual harm/damage because it wasn't my intention......
I don't know the guy (obviously) but just hearing him talk and seeing his mannerisms he just reminds me of a racist hilljack piece of shit.
right. its not MY fault.......
looking for the bathroom. laughable. pretty sure theres signs everywhere. stating what and whos offices. and of course there would be for bathrooms too......
i would have asked him under oath why he didn't just shit on the floor like the rest of the heathens that day.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
What a dirty piece of shit. I can't wait for his sentencing hearing.
The only credit I can give him is for admitting that what he did was wrong but I don't know if I believe him or not.
it was a non-confessuon confession to me.
defense seems to be , well I didnt intend to cause harm/damage so that should get me off of actual harm/damage because it wasn't my intention......
I don't know the guy (obviously) but just hearing him talk and seeing his mannerisms he just reminds me of a racist hilljack piece of shit.
right. its not MY fault.......
looking for the bathroom. laughable. pretty sure theres signs everywhere. stating what and whos offices. and of course there would be for bathrooms too......
To be fair, that explains why they took a shit in her office.
What a dirty piece of shit. I can't wait for his sentencing hearing.
The only credit I can give him is for admitting that what he did was wrong but I don't know if I believe him or not.
it was a non-confessuon confession to me.
defense seems to be , well I didnt intend to cause harm/damage so that should get me off of actual harm/damage because it wasn't my intention......
I don't know the guy (obviously) but just hearing him talk and seeing his mannerisms he just reminds me of a racist hilljack piece of shit.
right. its not MY fault.......
looking for the bathroom. laughable. pretty sure theres signs everywhere. stating what and whos offices. and of course there would be for bathrooms too......
To be fair, that explains why they took a shit in her office.
My guess is that the Speaker’s office has a bathroom in it. With a phone. However, it’s likely unmarked and maybe Nancy, now Kevin, only have the key, kept attached to an oversized speaker’s gavel.
Judge convicts Capitol rioter who yelled Pelosi threats
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Yesterday
A federal judge on Tuesday convicted a Pennsylvania restaurant owner of storming the U.S. Capitol, where she screamed at police officers to bring out then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so the pro-Trump mob could hang her.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden decided the case against Pauline Bauer after hearing testimony without a jury. The judge convicted her of all five counts in her indictment, including a felony charge that she obstructed the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, court records show.
Bauer's bench trial started last Thursday. McFadden announced the verdict from the bench. The judge is scheduled to sentence her on May 1. McFadden agreed to let Bauer remain free on certain conditions until her sentencing.
In September 2021, McFadden ordered Bauer to be jailed for violating conditions of her pretrial release. Bauer remained in custody for several months while awaiting a trial. The judge can give her credit for the jail time that she already has served.
During her initial court appearances, Bauer expressed an ideology that appeared to comport with the “sovereign citizens” extremist movement’s belief that the U.S. government is illegitimate.
Bauer, 55, traveled from her home in Kane, Pennsylvania, to hear then-President Donald Trump speak to a crowd of his supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. Bauer was part of the crowd that forced Capitol police officers to retreat up the stairs in front of the East Rotunda doors, prosecutors said.
Bauer entered the Capitol with a friend, William Blauser, and confronted police officers protecting an entrance to the Rotunda. She shouted at police officers to "bring them out or we’re coming in,” according to prosecutors.
“They’re criminals. They need to hang,” Bauer yelled.
Video from a police officer’s body camera captured her profanely yelling at the officers to “bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang (her)."
She and Blauser left the Capitol about 38 minutes after they entered.
Bauer's indictment charged her with a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding. She also was charged with four misdemeanors, including entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building or grounds.
The only Capitol riot defendant to be acquitted of all charges after a trial was a New Mexico man whose case also was decided by McFadden, a Trump nominee.
Bauer was arrested in May 2021 along with Blauser, who pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. In February 2022, McFadden ordered Blauser to pay a $500 fine but didn't sentence him to any term of incarceration or probation.
During an interview after her arrest, Bauer acknowledged that her actions angered some of her neighbors in Kane, a small town on the edge of the 517,000-acre Allegheny National Forest. But she insisted that her participation in the events of Jan. 6 hadn't cost her any friendships or harmed her business.
“A lot of people say that they’re proud of me for standing up for my rights,” she told an Associated Press reporter during a break in dinner service at her restaurant, Bob’s Trading Post.
Bauer was combative with McFadden at pretrial hearings and claimed the court has no authority over her. Bauer has said she is a “sovereign people,” not a sovereign citizen, and referred to herself as “Pauline from the House of Bauer.” She told the judge that she doesn’t want an attorney to represent her “or any lawyering from the bench.”
“I do not recognize your bar card, sir,” she told McFadden, who appointed a lawyer to act as her standby counsel.
Bauer became a punchline for Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show on CBS. The host mocked Bauer for claiming to be a “divinely empowered entity immune from laws.”
“Divinely empowered? So she’s going to get away scot-free, just like Jesus,” Colbert joked. “But it does raise the question: If you’re chosen by God to be above the laws of government, why do you care who’s in charge of it?”
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
Comments
Vice President Pence did tell Marc Short what transpired during the meeting, but Short refused to tell the Select Committee what was said.194
Short described Vice President Pence’s demeanor as “steady.”195
Short testified that the below excerpt from the book Peril may have been sensationalized but was generally consistent with Short’s understanding of the discussion: “If these people say you have the power, wouldn’t you want to?” Trump asked. “I wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority,” Pence said.
“But wouldn’t it almost be cool to have that power?” Trump asked. “No,” Pence said. “Look, I’ve read this, and I don’t see a way to do it. We’ve exhausted every option. I’ve done everything I could and then some to find a way around this. It’s simply not possible. My interpretation is: No. . . . “No, no, no!” Trump shouted. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
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At 2:25 p.m., the Secret Service rushed the Vice President, his family, and his senior staff down a flight of stairs, through a series of hallways and tunnels to a secure location.303
The Vice President and his team stayed in that same location for the next four and a half hours. The angry mob had come within 40 feet of the Vice President as he was evacuated.304
President Trump never called to check on Vice President Pence’s safety, so Marc Short called Mark Meadows to tell him they were safe and secure.305
Short himself became persona non grata with President Trump. The President directed staff to revoke Short’s access to the White House after Vice President Pence refused to betray his oath to the Constitution.306
Marc Short never spoke with President Trump again.307
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SHAWNSMITH Rip 2019Mark Lanegan Band 5/18/19
I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” 196
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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://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/election-fraud-conspiracies-behind-plot-to-shoot-at-new-mexico-democrats-homes-police-say/ar-AA16sgkG
New details emerge about plot to shoot at New Mexico Democrats’ homes
The arrest of a defeated candidate for the New Mexico legislature on charges that he orchestrated a plot to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque prompted widespread condemnation Tuesday as well as accusations that the stolen-election rhetoric among supporters of former president Donald Trump continues to incite violence.
Following the Monday arrest, new details emerged Tuesday about the alleged conspiracy, including how close a spray of bullets came to the sleeping 10-year-old daughter of a state senator. Albuquerque police said in charging documents released Tuesday that Solomon Peña, 39, a Republican who lost a state House seat in November by a nearly 2-1 margin but complained that his defeat was rigged, hatched the plot. Police accused him of conspiring with four accomplices to drive past the officials’ homes and fire at them.
Peña “provided firearms and cash payments and personally participated in at least one shooting,” the documents said. They alleged he intended to cause “serious injury or death” to the people inside their homes, the documents said. The group allegedly stole at least two cars used in the incidents, police said.
One of the targets of the attack said the shootings were part of a lineage of violence that stems from Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and that includes the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“You think it wouldn’t happen here, that someone would do this to local officials,” said former Bernalillo commissioner Debbie O’Malley, whose home was shot at Dec. 11. “There’s been this narrative for a long time: If you don’t get your way, it’s okay to be violent. The message came from the top. It came from Trump.”
charges including four counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling, four counts of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, four counts of conspiracy, possessing a firearm with a felony conviction, attempted aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal solicitation.
According to the charging documents, the most recent incident occurred Jan. 3, when at least a dozen rounds were fired into the Albuquerque home of state Sen. Linda Lopez (D).
Lopez told police she had initially thought the loud bangs she heard just after midnight were fireworks. But in the middle of the night, her 10-year-old daughter awoke thinking a spider had crawled across her face and wondering why her bed felt like it was filled with sand.
At daybreak, Lopez noticed holes in the house that made her suspect gunfire. After realizing that it was drywall dust from bullet holes that had awakened her daughter, she called the authorities, according to the charging papers. The documents also allege that Peña personally participated in the Lopez shooting because he was displeased that prior shootings had aimed “so high up on the walls.”
Peña brought an automatic rifle to Lopez’s home, but it jammed during the incident and did not fire, according to the documents.
Police accused Peña of orchestrating similar attacks in December on the Albuquerque homes of New Mexico state Rep. Javier Martinez, Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa and O’Malley, who at the time was also a county commissioner. They did not say whether the gunfire at those homes came close to striking anyone. Lopez, Martinez and Barboa could not be reached for comment.
Before his run for office, Peña served nearly seven years in prison on convictions related to a smash-and-grab scheme that included burglary, larceny and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Democrats had sought unsuccessfully in court to have him removed from the ballot, citing his record of felonies.
In an interview, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said he has no doubt that Peña was motivated by Trump’s false claims of election fraud following the former president’s 2020 defeat. Medina said Peña regularly expressed extreme views on social media and boasted of attending Trump’s Stop the Steal rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The individual that we’re charging believed in that conspiracy,” Medina said. “He did believe that his election was unfair and he did escalate and resort to violence as a means to find justice.”
Medina said federal law enforcement is also investigating potential federal firearms violations related to the shootings, as well as whether Peña participated in the Jan. 6 riots. An FBI spokesman said the agency is assisting local authorities in their investigation and declined to comment further.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called it “appalling that some people would use this tragedy to try to score cheap political points. President Trump had nothing to do with this and any assertion otherwise is totally reprehensible.”
Lawyers for Peña and two of his alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo and Jose Trujillo, could not be reached for comment.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D) said Peña visited all four targets’ homes in the days leading up to the attacks, seeking to persuade them that the result of his election had been rigged. “What’s absolutely disturbing and terrifying is that he went from that to literally contracting felons who were out on warrant to shoot up their houses,” Keller said. “That’s the leap he took within a matter of days.”
Keller said it is not clear why Peña did not target his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Miguel Garcia. He said police have collected an overwhelming amount of evidence, including shell casings found at the crime scenes and in the recovered stolen vehicles as well as texted instructions, including the targets’ addresses, from Peña to his alleged co-conspirators.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, an outspoken critic of the threatening rhetoric of election deniers and a target of frequent online attacks, called on Republicans to condemn the violence in Albuquerque and urged voters to reject candidates who don’t.
She cited the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as well as the more recent attack on Paul Pelosi, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, as other troubling recent examples of political violence.
“It’s horrific,” Griswold said. “There are so many people who have to look over their shoulder living in fear in an atmosphere of political violence. As a nation we’re just lucky that the bullets didn’t land.”
Some Republicans joined in the condemnations. Ryan Lane, the New Mexico House Republican leader, praised law enforcement for their quick investigation. “New Mexico House Republicans condemn violence in any form and are grateful no one was injured,” Lane said.
The Republican Party of New Mexico issued a statement late Tuesday that made no mention of Peña’s candidacy or his denial of election results, but said the accusations against him “are serious, and he should be held accountable if the charges are validated in court.”
The incident also prompted a new push for gun control. In Santa Fe, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) called for a ban on assault weapons in an address to the state legislature on the first day of its 2023 session. “There are elected officials in this room today whose homes were shot at in despicable acts of political violence,” she said.
Peña allegedly conspired with four other men, according to the charging documents, hatching a plan to steal cars to use during the attacks and then abandon them. Subsequent investigations of stolen vehicles found with matching shell casings appear to confirm that plan, the police said.
Police said they examined the cellphone of one of the alleged co-conspirators, Demitrio Trujillo, and found that Peña had sent him the addresses of the targets, and that Trujillo had then searched for the addresses on his phone.
Peña started organizing the shootings soon after the election, according to the police report. On Nov. 12, he texted Barboa’s address to Trujillo. A week and a half later, Peña texted Trujillo a passage from an unknown book.
“It was only the additional incentive of a threat of civil war that empowered a president to complete the reformist project,” the text read.
On Dec. 8, Peña sent the address of Martinez, whose home was attacked that night, and that of O’Malley. The texts between Peña and Trujillo contained plans to meet in parking lots, stores and fast food restaurants, according to the police report.
The charging documents also recounted the recollections of an unnamed confidential informant who said that Peña was not happy that the shootings would take place late at night, when they were less likely to injure anyone.
“Solomon wanted the shootings to be more aggressive” and “wanted them to aim lower and shoot around 8PM because occupants would more likely not be laying down,” according to the documents.
According to the documents, Jose Trujillo was arrested less than an hour after the Lopez shooting and just a few miles away, after he was pulled over for an expired registration in a Nissan Maxima registered to Peña. In addition to two weapons found in the trunk, police found 800 pills believed to be counterfeit Oxycodone as well as cash. Police also discovered that Trujillo had a warrant out for his arrest.
Police said Peña paid his co-conspirators at least $500 for their roles.
O’Malley told The Washington Post that Peña visited her home on Nov. 10, days after he lost the election.
“He was agitated and aggressive and upset that he did not win,” O’Malley said. Peña told O’Malley that he had knocked on tons of doors across his district, which should have led to him winning more votes. She rebuffed his request that she sign a document alleging the election was fraudulent, so he left.
A week later, on Dec. 11, a loud pop — “like a fist just banging on our front door,” she said — woke up her and her husband. There were four more bangs. “Oh my goodness, gunshots,” she remembered thinking.
No one was injured, but 12 shots were fired at her house. O’Malley said that because her grandchildren often sleep over, she now worries what could have happened if they had been there. She said she also worries about what the attacks mean for democracy.
“Someone has threatened my home and feels that it’s okay to shoot at my home where my family is because they didn’t get their way,” she said. “I absolutely blame election denialism and Trump. I couldn’t tell you what the solution is.”
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Jones repeated his claims about the election being stolen, claiming that those in attendance stood against a “Satanic world government.”467 Stone led a “Stop the Steal” chant, claiming the “evidence of election fraud is not only growing, it is overwhelming, and it is compelling.” President Trump “won the majority of the legal votes cast” and President Trump “won this election,”Stone said. Nothing less than the fate of Western Civilization was at stake, according to Stone:
Let’s be very clear. This is not fight between Republicans and Democrats. This is not a fight between liberals and conservatives. This is a fight for the future the United States of America. It is a fight for the future of Western Civilization as we know it. It’s a fight between dark and light. It’s a fight between the godly and the godless. It’s a fight between good and evil. And we dare not fail, or we will step out into one thousand years of darkness.468 Stone claimed that they “renounce violence” and those on “the left . . . are the violent ones.” But he insisted that “nothing is over until we say it is,” and “Victory will be ours.”469
Both Taylor and Hostetter spoke as well. Hostetter told the crowd, “We are at war.”470 Taylor promised to “fight” and “bleed,” vowing that “Patriot[s]” would “not return to our peaceful way of life until this election is made right.”471
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As recounted in Chapter 5, President Trump called Vice President Pence at 11:17 a.m.39 The call between the two men—during which the President soon grew “frustrat[ed] or heated,”40 visibly upset,41 and “angry”42— lasted nearly 20 minutes.43 And President Trump insulted Vice President Pence when he refused to obstruct or delay the joint session.
39. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol, (National Archives Production), P-R000285 (January 6, 2021, Schedule marked private with handwritten notes at 11:22 a.m. ET); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Keith Kellogg, Jr., (Dec. 14, 2021) pp. 90–93; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Nicholas Luna, (Mar. 21, 2021), p. 126.
40. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Eric Herschmann, (Apr. 6, 2022), pp. 48–49; see also Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of White House Employee, (June 10, 2022), p. 22 (“I could just tell in his voice when he was talking to the Vice President that he was disappointed and frustrated.”).
41. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Eric Herschmann, (Apr. 6, 2022), p. 4.
42. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Julie Radford, (May 24, 2020), p. 18.
43. Compare Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (National Archives Production), P-R000285 (January 6, 2021, schedule with handwritten notes about the meeting); with Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Secret Service Production), CTRL0000100198 (communication noting “Mogul” en route to the Ellipse at 11:39 a.m.).
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President Trump walked through the corridor from the Oval Office into the Presidential Dining Room and sat down at the table with the television remote and a Diet Coke close at hand.125 For the rest of the afternoon—as his country faced an hours-long attack—he hunkered down in or around the dining room, watching television.126 He left only for a few minutes— from 4:03 p.m. to 4:07 p.m.—to film a video in the Rose Garden, only a few steps away, after hours of arm-twisting.127 But otherwise, the President remained in the dining room until 6:27 p.m., when he returned to his private residence.128
What happened during the 187 minutes from 1:10 p.m. to 4:17 p.m., when President Trump finally told the rioters to go home, is—from an official standpoint—undocumented.
For instance, the Presidential Daily Diary—the schedule that tracks every meeting and phone call in which the President partakes—is inexplicably blank between 1:21 p.m. and 4:03 p.m.129 When asked to explain the gap in record-keeping on and around January 6th, White House officials in charge of its maintenance provided no credible explanation, including: “I don’t recall a specific reason.”130
The men who spent most of the afternoon in that room with the President, Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, both refused to comply with lawful subpoenas from the Select Committee.131 Others in the dining room appeared before the Select Committee but cited executive privilege to avoid answering questions about their direct communications with President Trump.132 Others who worked just outside of the Oval Office, like the President’s personal secretaries Molly Michael and Austin Ferrer Piran Basauldo, claimed not to remember nearly anything from one of the most memorable days in recent American history.133
The White House photographer, Shealah Craighead, had been granted access to photograph the President during his January 6th speech, but once she got to the White House—and it became clear that an attack was unfolding on the Capitol’s steps—she was turned away.134
“The President [didn’t] want any photos,” she was told.135
Here’s what President Trump did during the 187 minutes between the end of his speech and when he finally told rioters to go home: For hours, he watched the attack from his TV screen.136 His channel of choice was Fox News.137 He issued a few tweets, some on his own inclination and some only at the repeated behest of his daughter and other trusted advisors.138 He made several phone calls, some to his personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, some to Members of Congress about continuing their objections to the electoral certification, even though the attack was well underway.139
Here’s what President Trump did not do: He did not call any relevant law enforcement agency to ensure they were working to quell the violence. He did not call the Secretary of Defense; he did not call the Attorney General; he did not call the Secretary of Homeland Security.140 And for hours on end, he refused the repeated requests—from nearly everyone who talked to him—to simply tell the mob to go home.141
Throughout the afternoon, senior staff regularly entered the room to give him updates on what was happening at the Capitol.142 And, of course, President Trump used Twitter, where information is shared on an instantaneous basis.
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
By Spencer S. Hsu and Alex Horton
January 20, 2023 at 17:02 ET
Three active duty members of the Marine Corps assigned to intelligence-related jobs, including one at the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland, have been charged with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to court filings unsealed Thursday and military service records.
Cpl. Micah Coomer, Sgt. Joshua Abate and Sgt. Dodge Dale Hellonen were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday near Camp Pendleton, Calif., Fort Meade, Md., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., respectively, and appeared in local federal courts.
The FBI said Abate admitted to entering the Capitol “with two ‘buddies’” during a June 2022 interview that was part of his security clearance process while assigned to the Marine Corps’ Cryptologic Support Battalion, which is partnered and headquartered with the NSA at Fort Meade. According to charging papers, Abate said they “walked around and tried not to get hit with tear gas,” and “admitted he heard how the event was being portrayed negatively and decided that he should not tell anybody about going into the U.S. Capitol Building.”
Each faces counts including trespassing, disorderly conduct and illegal parading or picketing in a restricted Capitol building or grounds, in connection with the riots that injured scores of police officers, left offices ransacked, and forced lawmakers to evacuate the premises amid Congress’s meeting to confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The sergeants’ occupations as special communications signals analysts and the corporal’s job as an intelligence surveillance reconnaissance system engineer were first reported by Military.com and were confirmed in their service records.
A Marine Corps spokesperson said: “We are aware of an investigation and the allegations. The Marine Corps is fully cooperating with appropriate authorities in support of the investigation.”
Abate’s attorney David Dischley declined to comment. Federal defenders for the other two men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The men are the first active-duty military members to be charged in the Capitol attack since Maj. Christopher Warnagiris of the Marine Corps was arrested in May 2021. He is awaiting trial on felony counts including assaulting or impeding police and obstructing an official proceeding. About 120 of the roughly 940 people arrested in the Capitol breach served in the military, reserves or National Guard.
According to charging papers filed Tuesday and unsealed Thursday, Coomer posted photographs on Instagram taken from inside the Capitol during the breach, captioned “Glad to be apart of history.” Data provided by Facebook in connection with an August 2021 federal search warrant showed that in a Jan. 31 direct message on Instagram, Coomer allegedly “stated his belief ‘that everything in this country is corrupt. We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo.’”
Coomer described the term as “Civil war 2,” according to an FBI arrest affidavit. U.S. prosecutors have described “boogaloo” as a term taken up by fringe groups referring to a racially or ethnically motivated civil war.
Capitol surveillance video recorded the three Marines entering the Capitol through the Senate wing door less than 10 minutes after it was first breached, according to the FBI. The trio were moving together and spent 52 minutes in the building, with Hellonen carrying a yellow Gadsden flag with a “Don’t Tread on Me” logo, according to the FBI. That included time in the Rotunda, where “they placed a red MAGA hat on one of the statues to take photos with it,” an FBI arrest affidavit said.
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury has convicted a Navy reservist from Virginia accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 on separate charges that he illegally possessed silencers disguised to look like innocuous cleaning supplies.
The conviction Wednesday night against Hatchet Speed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria comes a month after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his first trial, resulting in a mistrial.
At the retrial this week, the jury needed only a few hours of deliberation before convicting him on all three counts of unlawfully possessing unregistered silencers.
Speed's case is noteworthy not only because of his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot with the far-right Proud Boys group, but also because he espoused antisemitic views in undercover recordings and discussed strategies for eradicating the Jewish population in the U.S.
The case against Speed in Virginia hinged on three devices he bought in March 2021 that the government argued were unregistered silencers. Speed contended the devices are “solvent traps” to collect excess liquid that spills out when a gun is cleaned.
Prosecutors said while the company selling the devices marketed them as solvent traps, they are designed to be easily converted into silencers, which is why people spend more than $300 for them.
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The devices bought by Speed are made of titanium and contain baffles that would be found on silencers. They can be screwed onto the threaded barrel of a 9 mm handgun. A firearms expert for the government said it takes about 10 minutes to convert the device into a fully functional silencer by using a hand drill to make a hole in the end for a bullet to pass through.
Prosecutors said Speed obtained the silencers during a post-Capitol riot panic-buying spree in which he spent more than $40,000 on firearms, ammunition and accessories. He bought the solvent traps in March 2021 after learning that the delivery of several silencers he had just purchased would be significantly delayed by paperwork and registration requirements, they said.
Speed's lawyers, though, contended that the devices were indeed solvent traps, not silencers. They said Speed never modified the devices to make them functional as silencers, and that he had no intent to break the law.
The defense urged jurors to ignore Speed's antisemitic philosophy.
“Some of Mr. Speed’s thoughts may be distasteful but his conduct in this case was not criminal,” defense lawyer Courtney Dixon told jurors.
Prosecutors played recordings in which Speed told an undercover FBI employee that he understood the devices' true purpose was as a silencer.
Prosecutors said the law governing silencers covers devices intended for use as a silencer, regardless of whether they are functional or sold under another name.
“The law does not allow that kind of gamesmanship,” prosecutor Thomas Traxler said in closing arguments Wednesday.
In recent years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has shut down and seized several websites that sold solvent traps, including the one from which Speed purchased his devices.
Speed was taken into custody after Wednesday's verdict and awaits sentencing in April. Each of the three counts contains a potential maximum sentence of 10 years. While Speed is unlikely to receive a maximum sentence, it's likely that the sentence will exceed any term that is imposed on him for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack.
His lawyer, public defender Brooke Rupert, said Hatch intends to appeal the verdict.
Speed is scheduled to go on trial in that case in Washington, D.C., later this year. The case involves five counts, including disorderly conduct in the Capitol and obstructing an official proceeding. His lawyers there have filed a motion seeking to limit evidence to the jury about Speed's ideology.
Speed is among more than 940 people arrested in connection with the riot in which former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
___
This story corrects the penultimate paragraph to reflect that a superseding indictment this month in Washington has added a fifth count against Speed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack in the second major trial of far-right extremists accused of plotting to forcibly keep President Donald Trump in power.
The verdict against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Florida; Roberto Minuta of Prosper, Texas; David Moerschel of Punta Gorda, Florida; and Edward Vallejo of Phoenix comes weeks after after a different jury convicted the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, in the mob’s attack that halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
It’s another major victory for the Justice Department, which is also trying to secure sedition convictions against the former leader of the Proud Boys and four associates. The trial against Enrique Tarrio and his lieutenants opened earlier this month in Washington and is expected to last several weeks.
The Washington jury deliberated for about 12 hours over three days before delivering their guilty verdict on the rarely used charge, which carries up to 20 years in prison. The four were also convicted of two other conspiracy charges as well as obstructing an official proceeding: Congress' certification of the 2020 election. Minuta, Hackett and Moerschel were acquitted of lesser charges.
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The judge didn't immediately set a date for sentencing. The judge denied prosecutors' bid to lock up the men while they await sentencing, finding them not to be a risk of flight. They were ordered to remain in home detention with electronic monitoring.
It was one of the most serious cases brought so far in the sweeping Jan. 6 investigation, which continues to grow two years after the riot. The Justice Department has charged nearly 1,000 people in the riot and the tally increases by the week.
Prosecutors told jurors that Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his band of extremists began shortly after the 2020 election to prepare an armed rebellion to keep Trump in power. Messages show Rhodes and the Oath Keepers discussing the prospect of a “bloody” civil war and the need to keep Biden out of the White House.
“Our democracy was under attack, but for the defendants it was everything they trained for and a moment to celebrate,” prosecutor Louis Manzo told jurors in his closing argument.
Prosecutors alleged that the Oath Keepers amassed weapons and stashed them at a Virginia hotel for so-called “quick reaction force” teams that could quickly shuttle guns into Washington to support their plot if they were needed. The weapons were never used.
Rhodes and Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the previous trial that ended in November. They were the first people in decades found guilty at trial of the Civil War-era charge. Three other Oath Keepers were cleared of the charge in that case but were found guilty of other serious crimes. They are all awaiting sentencing.
Defense attorneys sought to downplay violent messages as mere bluster and said the Oath Keepers came to Washington to provide security at events before the riot. They seized on prosecutors’ lack of evidence that the Oath Keepers had an explicit plan to storm the Capitol before Jan. 6 and told jurors that the extremists who attacked the Capitol acted spontaneously like thousands of other rioters.
“They left evidence out and they picked and chose what they wanted,” said William Lee Shipley, an attorney for Minuta.
Prosecutors argued that while there is not evidence specifically spelling out a plan to attack the Capitol, the Oath Keepers saw the riot as a means to an end and sprung into action at an apparent opportunity to help keep Trump in power.
Hackett, Moerschel and other Oath Keepers approached the Capitol in a military-style stack formation before they entered the building, according to prosecutors. Minuta and his group from a second stack of Oath Keepers clashed with police after heeding Rhodes’ call to race to the Capitol, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said that Vallejo, a U.S. Army veteran and Rhodes ally, drove from Arizona to prepare with the “QRF” — the quick reaction force — at the hotel outside Washington. Jurors heard an audio recording of Vallejo talking about a “declaration of a guerilla war” on the morning of Jan. 6.
Three other Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence. They are among about 500 people who have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges.
____
Richer reported from Boston.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — An Arkansas man who propped his feet up on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the U.S. Capitol riot was convicted on Monday of joining a mob's attack on the building two years ago.
A jury deliberated for approximately two hours before unanimously convicting Richard “Bigo” Barnett on all eight counts in his indictment, including felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Barnett lounging at a desk in Pelosi's office made him one of the most memorable figures from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the day when Congress convened a joint session to certify President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is scheduled to sentence Barnett on May 3. The judge agreed to let Barnett remain free on certain conditions until his sentencing.
Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Barnett vowed to appeal his conviction, calling it an "injustice.” He noted that the judge had rejected his request to move his trial from Washington to Arkansas.
“This is not a jury of my peers,” he told reporters.
Prosecutors asked the judge to jail Barnett while he awaits sentencing. Justice Department prosecutor Alison Prout said the jury concluded that Barnett took a weapon into Pelosi's office.
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“We can only imagine what would have happened if (Pelosi) had been there at the time,” Prout said.
Barnett, 62, testified last Thursday that he was looking for a bathroom inside the Capitol when he unwittingly entered Pelosi’s office and encountered two news photographers. He said one of the photographers told him to “act natural,” so he leaned back in a chair and flung his legs onto the desk.
“Did it dawn on you that what you were doing could cause some trouble?” defense attorney Joseph McBride asked Barnett.
“I was just in the moment,” Barnett replied. “I’m just kind of going with the flow at this point.”
Barnett's decision to testify was “unequivocally the right one,” his lawyer told reporters after the verdict.
“He had a story that needed to be told,” McBride said. “People needed to know why he came here, what his intentions were and what he did while he was here.”
Prosecutors said Barnett had a stun gun tucked into his pants when he stormed the Capitol and invaded Pelosi’s office. Barnett was convicted of entering and remaining in restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon — a stun gun with spikes concealed within a collapsible walking stick.
Barnett took a piece of her mail and left behind a note that said, “Nancy, Bigo was here,” punctuating the message with a sexist expletive. The jury convicted of a theft charge for taking the envelope from Pelosi's office.
Before leaving Capitol grounds, Barnett used a bullhorn to give a speech to the crowd, shouting, “We took back our house, and I took Nancy Pelosi’s office!” according to prosecutors.
Videos support Barnett's testimony that a crowd pushed him into the Capitol as he approached an entrance, causing him to briefly fall to his knees as he crossed the threshold.
“We have no choice!” he shouted repeatedly as he entered the Capitol.
After police ordered him and others to leave Pelosi’s office, Barnett realized he had left his American flag behind. Body camera video captured Barnett shouting at a police officer in the Rotunda for help in retrieving the flag.
More than 940 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan.6 attack. Nearly 500 of them have pleaded guilty. Barnett is one of several dozen Capitol riot defendants whose case has gone to trial.
Barnett is a retired firefighter from Gravette, Arkansas. He said he regrets coming to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” rally where then-President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of supporters.
“Two years of lost life. Misery for my family,” he said.
While on house arrest last year, Barnett raised money by charging donors $100 for photos of him with his feet on a desk.
A prosecutor told jurors during the trial's opening statements that Barnett planned the trip for weeks and came prepared for violence.
McBride told jurors that Barnett was just a “crazy guy from Arkansas” who didn’t hurt anybody on Jan. 6 and couldn’t have harmed anybody with the stun gun device because it was broken that day. McBride sarcastically called it “the most famous trespass case of all time.”
Prosecutors said Barnett had a history of arming himself at political demonstrations. In July 2020, they said, a 911 caller reported that a man matching Barnett’s description had pointed a rifle at her during a “Back the Blue” rally.
“Law enforcement ultimately closed the investigation as unfounded due to unresolved apparent discrepancies in the evidence,” prosecutors wrote.
In November 2020, police were called to a “Save the Children” rally when a caller said Barnett was carrying a gun at the protest and acting suspiciously.
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The only credit I can give him is for admitting that what he did was wrong but I don't know if I believe him or not.
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
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The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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A federal judge on Tuesday convicted a Pennsylvania restaurant owner of storming the U.S. Capitol, where she screamed at police officers to bring out then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so the pro-Trump mob could hang her.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden decided the case against Pauline Bauer after hearing testimony without a jury. The judge convicted her of all five counts in her indictment, including a felony charge that she obstructed the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, court records show.
Bauer's bench trial started last Thursday. McFadden announced the verdict from the bench. The judge is scheduled to sentence her on May 1. McFadden agreed to let Bauer remain free on certain conditions until her sentencing.
In September 2021, McFadden ordered Bauer to be jailed for violating conditions of her pretrial release. Bauer remained in custody for several months while awaiting a trial. The judge can give her credit for the jail time that she already has served.
During her initial court appearances, Bauer expressed an ideology that appeared to comport with the “sovereign citizens” extremist movement’s belief that the U.S. government is illegitimate.
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Bauer, 55, traveled from her home in Kane, Pennsylvania, to hear then-President Donald Trump speak to a crowd of his supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. Bauer was part of the crowd that forced Capitol police officers to retreat up the stairs in front of the East Rotunda doors, prosecutors said.
Bauer entered the Capitol with a friend, William Blauser, and confronted police officers protecting an entrance to the Rotunda. She shouted at police officers to "bring them out or we’re coming in,” according to prosecutors.
“They’re criminals. They need to hang,” Bauer yelled.
Video from a police officer’s body camera captured her profanely yelling at the officers to “bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang (her)."
She and Blauser left the Capitol about 38 minutes after they entered.
Bauer's indictment charged her with a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding. She also was charged with four misdemeanors, including entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building or grounds.
Approximately 950 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Nearly 500 of them have pleaded guilty. Dozens of others have been convicted after trials decided by juries or judges.
The only Capitol riot defendant to be acquitted of all charges after a trial was a New Mexico man whose case also was decided by McFadden, a Trump nominee.
Bauer was arrested in May 2021 along with Blauser, who pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. In February 2022, McFadden ordered Blauser to pay a $500 fine but didn't sentence him to any term of incarceration or probation.
During an interview after her arrest, Bauer acknowledged that her actions angered some of her neighbors in Kane, a small town on the edge of the 517,000-acre Allegheny National Forest. But she insisted that her participation in the events of Jan. 6 hadn't cost her any friendships or harmed her business.
“A lot of people say that they’re proud of me for standing up for my rights,” she told an Associated Press reporter during a break in dinner service at her restaurant, Bob’s Trading Post.
Bauer was combative with McFadden at pretrial hearings and claimed the court has no authority over her. Bauer has said she is a “sovereign people,” not a sovereign citizen, and referred to herself as “Pauline from the House of Bauer.” She told the judge that she doesn’t want an attorney to represent her “or any lawyering from the bench.”
“I do not recognize your bar card, sir,” she told McFadden, who appointed a lawyer to act as her standby counsel.
Bauer became a punchline for Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show on CBS. The host mocked Bauer for claiming to be a “divinely empowered entity immune from laws.”
“Divinely empowered? So she’s going to get away scot-free, just like Jesus,” Colbert joked. “But it does raise the question: If you’re chosen by God to be above the laws of government, why do you care who’s in charge of it?”
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