Matt_W
5224
No, they all somehow landed both sides down
Pssst! Hey Nick Kirby! Sorry to break it to you but…
I appreciate his being lauded, but at this point this is almost doxxing a dude who shamed a bunch of MAGA pasta-militias who still have unresolved anger, homemade bombs and minimal ability to defer gratification.
Keep thinking about this, and something about this actually scans frighteningly well.
I just mentioned in another thread that the Smithsonian museums that ring the outside of the National Mall are closed currently, due to COVID. Basically…every government building in downtown DC is closed for tours. The US Mint tours, which are awesome, are closed. The National Zoo. Everything.
And so too are Capitol tours, I think. I’m still trying to find official confirmation of that…but yeah, that does scan. And I should say, there are different levels of Capitol tours, too. You can schedule one for you and your family just as regular joes, and go and you’re walked around the Capitol by a guide who works there. But you can also book tours through your representative or senator, and in those cases a staffer or the congressperson themselves may show you around. Usually that latter type of tour is a high-roller donor perk.
And so it might stand out a little bit if the day or two after your swearing in for the next Congress, you were showing “tourists” around the Capitol.
Maybe, but his name is already out there. I don’t care to know the name of ‘Q Shaman’, or any of the ex military dumbfucks, or any of the former cops who were there, but I do care to recognize the name of Eugene Goodman. I know almost nothing about him, but I know he was courageous when he could have done nothing.
As devalued as the medal of freedom is when nothings like Jimmy Jordan receive it, it should be given to Goodman by Biden.
But Qt3’ers overreacted, of course.
Not sure it’s better to bury the story. We definitely need stories like these.
Deleted, because not reliably sourced.
So yesterday, some folks here expressed bitter disappointment at the DOJ press conference yesterday.
I’d like to recommend to them, and really to you all that you listen to Wednesday’s edition of the podcast All The President’s Lawyers. In that episode Ken White – a/k/a Popehat, a/k/a MrFed around these parts and elsewhere years ago – explains very well what was actually going on in that press conference, what the implications are for participants in the riot – especially those who did really bad things or planned to do really bad things. Ken is a former prosecutor in a US attorney’s office…so he knows of what he speaks here.
In case it’s a while until you can get to it, I’ll bullet point a few things.
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Right at the start, the host, Josh Barro, asks Ken what he made of the press conference. White was pretty unequivocal: there are a lot of folks who are in for a life-changing world of hurt, potentially. As he put it, the Federal criminal investigation apparatus is something that doesn’t get activated too particularly regularly…but when it does get activated, very bad things happen to the folks it comes into action against. Another point made is that there’s really no middle area for the US Attorney in DC. Either he’s going to blow it off, or he’s going all in. His statements Tuesday indicate pretty clearly: it’s all in.
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Ken later addresses the ticky-tack charges levied against many of the folks who’ve been rounded up so far. Turns out there’s a reason for that, too. In these cases, the SOP is to get federal felony indictments from a grand jury, which as far as we know hasn’t yet been empaneled. So right now they’re making arrests on the smaller stuff that they can charge without needing grand jury indictments. And a lot of these folks are going to be questioned at length, told how serious the shit they are in really is, and told to get an attorney for what’s coming – namely felony indictments to add to the smaller offenses they’ve been brought in for.
Ken is usually pretty reserved. Plenty of times I’ve listened to ATPL wanting red meat…and he’s the guy throwing the cold water.
In this episode, White repeatedly makes it pretty clear: it’s very likely that a whole lot of people who stormed the Capitol last week are likely to be in an absolute world of total pain. It is 100% worth a listen, and I really hope he’s right about the hurricane of legal issues that will hit the folks involved last week.
@triggercut thank you for the summary and link to the Ken White ATPL podcast.
Seems to me that empaneling a grand jury for this is going to be exceedingly difficult. How on earth do you find people that don’t have significant bias about the event?
I believe for a grand jury the only requirement as far as prior knowledge goes is that grand jurors not personally know defendants. I’m not 100% sure on that…but if they could empanel a grand jury to get felony charges against the Oklahoma City bombers or the Boston marathon bombers…they’ll get one for this.
Aceris
5241
I’ve got to admit I saw the “camp auschwitz” T shirt and didn’t think much of it beyond “Oh look a Nazi Trumpist moron committing insurrection”.
But reading this helped remind me just how evil you’ve got to be to wear that shirt - or tolerate people who do.
Maybe I should post this in the internet dating thread.
Matt_W
5244
If definitely not a lawyer, nor obviously do I have Ken’s depth of experience and expertise, but even I could tell that the US Attorney’s office was serious about catching and prosecuting people from that press conference.
My beef was that there was nothing in the briefing about why the police force was so paltry, why it took so long to mobilize support, and if they were doing anything to mitigate those failures for the inauguration.
138
5245
Absolutely gutted after reading that.
morlac
5246
I have an M.C. Escher painting of this in my mind.
