Federal prosecutors on Thursday for the first time described last week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol as a “violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government” — and one they consider to still be underway.
The language was included in a filing in federal district court in Arizona, intended to deny bail to Jacob Anthony Chansley, a man they describe as “an active participant in" and “the most prominent symbol of” the insurrection.
Chansley, an Arizonan who also goes by Jacob Angeli and “Q Shaman,” has become a social media fixture in the aftermath of the mob violence at the Capitol, which left five dead and resulted in the impeachment of President Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection.” A shirtless Chansley has been seen in numerous pictures carrying a six-foot spear, donning horns, a coyote tail headdress and face paint — including one on the Senate’s rostrum.
Prosecutors say Chansley has expressed his intention of returning to Washington for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden — and that his pending criminal case is unlikely to be a deterrent.
“Chansley told the FBI prior to his arrest that he’ll ‘still go, you better believe it,’” prosecutors said in the 18-page filing. “His status as a symbol of the insurrection, his actions inside the Capitol building, and his demonstrated disregard of orders while inside with the goal of disrupting official Congressional proceedings, demonstrate the danger his release would pose.”
“At this juncture in our Nation’s history,” they continued, “it is hard to imagine a greater risk to our democracy and community than the armed revolution of which Chansley has made himself the symbol.”
Chansley was indicted by a Washington grand jury Monday on six charges, including two felonies: impeding law enforcement during civil disorder and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The other charges are misdemeanors, although the indictment does claim at one point that Chansley was engaged in “an effort to prevent the Electoral College votes from being certified.”
Though the filing focuses on Chansley, it also spells out clearly the government’s view of an ongoing “insurrection movement” that is reaching a potential climax as Biden’s inauguration approaches. The filing cites media and FBI reports detailing planned armed protests in all 50 state capitals and Washington D.C. in the runup to Inauguration Day.
Though the government now describes Chansley’s involvement in last week’s Capitol riots as part of a broad and sinister government overthrow attempt, he has not been charged with any of the gravest crimes related to such an effort — such as sedition or insurrection. But FBI and Justice Department officials have emphasized that more serious charges are on the horizon, after an initial round of lesser charges were leveled to ensure they corralled some of the most dangerous offenders.
While prosecutors are recommending that Chansley be detained pending trial, the court’s pretrial services agency recommended that he be released with conditions on his movements to reduce the chance that he would pose a threat as he awaits his day in court. But the government said evidence it has uncovered made that recommendation imprudent.
“Media and FBI reports have detailed carefully-planned insurrection attempts scheduled throughout the country in the coming weeks at every state capital, including the Arizona’s capitol,” prosecutors said. “As he admitted, and as corroborated by the items in his car, Chansley expected to go there after his FBI interview (if he had not been arrested).”
The government also described releasing Chansley as particularly risky because of his association with Qanon, which it called a “dangerous anti-government conspiracy” that has treated him as a leader, helped him travel “off-the-grid” and “fundraise rapidly through unconventional means.” Prosecutors also note he is a “repeated drug user” who is "unable to appreciate reality."
A federal magistrate judge in Phoenix is scheduled to hold a bail hearing for Chansley on Friday afternoon.
The Rev. Franklin Graham compared the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the Roman authorities.
In a Facebook post Thursday in which Mr. Graham praised Mr. Trump at length while also calling the day of the ...
Former FBI Director James Comey spoke out this week to surprisingly say that Joe Biden should “consider” pardoning Donald Trump when he takes office next week as Democrats continue their efforts to impeach the current president for a second time.
“I obviously think he belongs in jail, but I don’t think pursuing that is in the best interests of the entire nation, so I think the wiser decision would be not to pursue him,” said Comey, who has long been no fan of Trump’s. He added that it is crucial that whatever Biden’s decision on this is, that he explain it to the American people.
“Be transparent about why you’re doing what you’re doing,” he continued.
Related: Trump Calls For Arrest Of Former FBI Director James Comey
When Comey was asked if Biden should pardon Trump like “Ford did Nixon,” he said that he did not know, but that Biden “should at least consider it.”
“Now I don’t know whether Donald Trump, he’s not a genius, but he might figure out that [if] he accepts a pardon, that’s an omission of guilt, the United States Supreme Court has said,” he continued, going on to say that he doesn’t even know if Trump would accept the pardon if offered it.
“But as part of healing the country and getting us to a place where we can focus on things that are going to matter over the next four years, I think Joe Biden is going to have to at least think about that,” Comey said.
Related: If James Comey Was That Incompetent At The FBI, How Did He Keep His Job?
“Donald Trump belongs in jail.”
Ex-FBI Director @Comey says while he “obviously believes” the president should be in jail, he doesn’t think “pursuing that is in the best interests of the American people”, adding Joe Biden should "consider" pardoning Donald Trump#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/RUghKyq5nW
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) January 13, 2021
The House voted on Wednesday to impeach Trump for a second time for allegedly inciting the Capitol riots last week. Some have even called for him to be prosecuted for the riots, but legal experts have said that this will be difficult to do.
“Legal experts have said it could be difficult to charge Trump with a crime related to last week’s deadly rioting at the Capitol by his supporters that led to the president’s second impeachment on Wednesday,” The Hill reported. “But the president and his company could face scrutiny for possible financial crimes in the Southern District of New York, they have noted.”
This piece was written by James Samson on January 14, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Trump Takes Blame For Assault On The Capitol
Man Arrested After He Allegedly Discussed ‘Putting A Bullet’ In Pelosi Via Text
Top GOP Senator Claims Trump Impeachment ‘Clearly Is Not Going To Happen’
The post Ex-FBI Director James Comey Calls On Biden To ‘Consider’ Pardoning Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.
By this time next week, we’ll have a new president! (… hopefully)
But with Donald Trump’s second impeachment (who says Congress can’t act at state legislature-like speed when it wants to?) because of his responsibility for last week’s violence in the U.S. Capitol, we’re very much not yet done with the old one.
Worse, we’re far from done with his effects on politics—from federal elected officials all the way to state capitols.
In fact, the number of state legislators so affected by Trump that they traveled to DC last week for the terrorist attack on the Capitol is actually much larger than it was when I wrote about it in this space last week.
Here’s a list of the people who make laws in states who participated in this domestic terrorism (13 strong to date):
*Derrick Evans faces criminal charges and has since resigned from the West Virginia House.
… plus various former state legislators, which is bad, but at least they don’t make laws any more.
by the by armed insurrection by private citizens is also bad
So yeah, that’s Republicans from 12 states and counting that physically, actively participated in a violent, seditious attack on the very core of our government.
And if you think these lawmakers left those anti-democratic impulses in DC, I’ve got some bad news for you.
Loyalty to Trump and distrust of the 2020 presidential election results has become a mainstream position in many (GOP-governed) parts of the country.
Earlier this week, Wisconsin Senate Republicans shut down Democrats’ attempt to pass a resolution condemning the violence in the U.S. Capitol and acknowledging Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.
As a reminder, Wisconsin GOP lawmakers did more than their fair share to further Trump’s lies about about the election being “stolen” from him, including holding bogus hearings and filing bogus lawsuits.
Thankfully, some lawmakers who fomented Trump’s dangerous, anti-democratic lies about the fairness of the presidential election are actually facing consequences.
In Georgia, the Republican lieutenant governor stripped three GOP senators who backed Trump’s attempts to undermine the state’s election results of their committee chairmanships.
In Virginia, three Republican delegates (Ronnie Campbell, Mark Cole, Dave LaRock) signed a letter casting doubt on the validity of the election outcome and asking Vice President Mike Pence to effectively disenfranchise millions of Virginia voters.
Democratic House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn booted the three Republicans from one committee each, saying in a statement that they “showed exceedingly poor judgment and conducted themselves in a manner unbecoming of their office.”
In Oregon, where Republican Mike Nearman opened a locked door to admit protesters to the state capitol (closed to the public because of the pandemic) as lawmakers gathered inside for a special session in December, Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek has removed Nearman from all committees and called on him to resign.
She also fined him $2,000 in damages the unruly protesters did to the building, several of whom were arrested after spraying responding officers with bear mace and attacking journalists.
And we’re not done: Early this week, the FBI issued a warning that armed far-right extremist groups are planning marches on state capitols across the country this weekend.
To return to another piece of business from last week’s edition, the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania state Senate finally swore in and seated Democratic Sen. Jim Brewster.
On Tuesday, a federal court tossed a last-ditch lawsuit brought by Republican Nicole Ziccarelli, and Senate Republicans decided to accept the Democrat’s 69-vote victory (nice).
Remember, this shitty move by the Pennsylvania GOP had nothing to do with their control over the chamber.
Even after seating Brewster, Senate Republicans have a 29-21 majority. (Technically one member is independent, but he caucuses with the GOP.)
And now, a rerun of a totally different sort.
In the eons-ago time of Before Trump, it was something of a fad among GOP-controlled legislatures to attempt to gerrymander the Electoral College.
That is, Republican lawmakers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, who were still sore about Obama winning their historically blue states, wanted to figure out a way to give some of their electoral votes to the Republican presidential candidate for a change by allocating them by (conveniently GOP-gerrymandered) congressional districts.
Then 2016 happened and they weirdly forgot all about it.
(That is, Trump won all of those states but Virginia, which was about to go fully indigo at every level of government.)
But (via Dave Weigel, who writes another newsletter you should read and has been on this incredibly esoteric beat for as long as I have, somehow) Republicans in some states are suddenly reconsidering this scheme.
In Michigan and Wisconsin, specifically, proposals to effectively disenfranchise voters who live in densely populated areas are already being floated.
Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Huizenga proposed such change in a Facebook post earlier this week.
It’s been tried twice before in the Wolverine State.
In Wisconsin, there’s actual legislation to allocate the state’s electoral votes by (gerrymandered) congressional district being considered.
Thankfully, both of these states have Democratic governors who aren’t shy about using their veto pens.
And on top of that, Michigan is about to get its first redistricting via an independent commission.
Still, as yet another anti-democratic proposal from the GOP, it should very much generate concern.
NEW YORK (AP) - A bound edition of materials about President Donald Trump's second impeachment will feature a foreword from an estranged associate - former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Skyhorse Publishing announced that “The Second Impeachment Report: Materials in Support of H. Res. 24, Impeaching Donald John Trump, President ...
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Joe Biden already faces the daunting task of steering a newly announced $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill through a closely divided Congress as the pandemic and its economic fallout grow.
Now Biden will have to do it with President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial beginning potentially as ...
No president has ever found himself so shunned and so isolated, with repercussions affecting his political legacy and his earnings potential.
