The Assholes Keep Getting Ground Up

A U.S. Army soldier has been arrested in Hawaii on charges that he repeatedly struck a police officer with a flagpole during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol more than three years ago, according to court records unsealed on Wednesday.

A felony conviction may lead to a Big Chicken Dinner or a Duck Dinner. The latter will mean no VA benefits.

(Bad-conduct discharge, dishonorable discharge.)

MAGA Republicans Are Just Fucking Despicable Ugly Bags of Sentient Goo

A visit to the Pennsylvania House floor by two former police officers who helped protect the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot of 2021 drew boos and walkouts by some Republican legislators [last] week.

Witnesses said the appearance Wednesday by former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and his ex-boss, former Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, triggered a distinctly negative response from some Republicans, with someone even shouting that they were cowards.

House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, who welcomed Gonell and Dunn to the floor, called the GOP reaction to the former officers disrespectful. She said in a statement that many Republican members walked off the floor, turned their backs and booed.

Those cops were doing their job on 1/6/21 to defend the Capitol against a pack of unhinged Trump-cultists who were trying to overturn the government to keep their guy in. Among the people they were defending (and they probably now wish they hadn't) were treasonous little fucks like fleeing Josh Hawley.

They tried to hold the line, they were assaulted and beaten by supposedly pro-police Trump supporters and now they get booed for their service by piece-of-shit MAGA Republicans who are not fit to lie on the ground and let those brave cops wipe their feet on their balls.

Memo to J6 Defendants

Vixen Stragely wrote about one defendant who is in an absolute tizzy that she is being prosecuted for her actions on J6.

Ten Bears has no sympathy for them. He did a lot of outlaw shit in his day, got beaten by the cops a few times, locked up some, and he never, ever, hit a cop.

The memo to the J6 Perps is this: When you step outside of the law, you've got to ride the rap. As the old saying goes; if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Why Hasn't the TOFF Been Charged With Murder?

He stoked up a mob which stormed the Capitol to try and overturn the 2020 election. He watched it unforld, on TV, and declined the requests by his staff and family to call off the mob. People died as a result.

So why hasn't he been charged with felony murder? Is it because he's not a poor Black dude who's being represented by an overworked public defender?

Hell, the felony murder rule could apply to all of the J6 defendants, for that matter.

Heh. Heh. Fourteenth Amendment Ed.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race
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Trump’s attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the nation’s highest court, which has the final say about constitutional matters. His campaign said it was working on a response to the ruling..

I'm not sure why the Supremes get a say, as qualification of people for a ballot is a state issue. But you know this court, issues are a matter for the states, unless they have an effect on conservatives. For we all know how Ginni Clarence Thomas will vote.

An Eminently-Skimmable Book

Renegade, by Adam Kinzinger. He's a Christian conservative who is, as you might have guessed, dismayed that his political party has turned into a fascist cult of personality.

I did learn that "accidentally" hitting other congressmen in the back is a dick move that McCarthy was known for. And that when the mob invaded the Capitol, Kinzinger was sitting in his office, alone, with the door locked and a Ruger LCP on his desk. He had given his staff the day off because he had been paying attention and he suspected that shit was going to get real.

But as for the rest of the book? Other than his personal history, as far as the politics go, the rise of the Tea Party, the events leading up to the TOFF's Coup Day and the aftermath, if you have been paying any attention to the news coverage (on non-Fox platforms), you probably won't learn anything. And those who have partaken of the MAGA Kool-Aid won't read it, so I'm not quite certain what Kinzinger thought that he was accomplishing by doing this book.

Kinzinger is holding to hope that his party will get over Trump and recover from the insanity of the past few decades. To that, I say: Objection, assumes facts not in evidence.

Meanwhile, In Alabama, the MAGA-to-Prison-Pipeline is Operating

An Alabama man has been charged in connection with threats against the prosecutor who brought the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies in Fulton County, Georgia, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

A federal grand jury in Atlanta on Wednesday indicted Arthur Ray Hanson II of Huntsville, Alabama, on charges of transmitting interstate threats to injure Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her involvement in the election case, the Justice Department said in a news release.
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Hanson left another voicemail on Aug. 6 threatening Sheriff Patrick Labat in a message that referred to Trump, according to court documents. The message specifically warned Labat against taking a mug shot of the former president, suggesting that he would be subject to violence if he did so.

My reading of the Federal criminal justice system is that the Feds generally don't bring charges in cases such as this unless they have the receipts. This clown's only hope is to try and convince a jury that he was just some good ole boy having a little funnin', bless his heart.

The story ended with this nugget:

Trump has frequently attacked prosecutors and judges involved in cases brought against him in Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C., though he has been noticeably more restrained in the classified documents case over which U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, one of his appointees, is presiding.

Because the TOFF thinks that he can work that judge. Which he may have some justification for believing, as she did earlier try to throw a wrench into the case and he seems to believe that she is a loyal Trumpie.

Another Rat Jumps Off the SS TOFF

Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial on charges accusing him of participating in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia.

Chesebro, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a last-minute deal. His plea came a day after fellow attorney Sidney Powell, who had been scheduled to go to trial alongside him, entered her own guilty plea to six misdemeanor counts.

The prosecution gets two more witnesses and they also don't end up showing their hand early. My suspicion was that was part of the plan, to get Powell and Cheseboro to, in essence, do a scouting run of the case. But there is nothing like an inpending trial with the potential of hefty prison time to concentrate the mind of a criminal co-defendant. Both walk with probation instead of up to two decades in a Georgia prison.

Cheseboro authored one of the legal-coup memos, which he may end up having to testify about. His (and Powell's) flipping is going to turn up the heat on the other criminally-indicted lawyers: Eastman and Giuliani. The smart money probably is that they aren't going to fall on their swords for the TOFF, any more than Powell and Cheseboro would.

Bad News for the TOFF: The Flipping Continues

Lawyer Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia, becoming the second defendant in the sprawling case to reach a deal with prosecutors.

Powell, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, entered the plea just a day before jury selection was set to start in her trial. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties.

As part of the deal, she will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She also agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.

That seems like a pretty sweet deal. The implication I draw is that she has some testimony that is well worth the deal. And possibly, with misdemeanors only, she'll not be disbarred. As far as I recall, she's licensed in Texas, which probably requires either a homicide conviction for killing a white person or theft of client's funds for a disbarment.

The reaction in the MAGA Universe should be epic.

As for the rest of us, schadenfreude is the beverage tonight.

4.5 Years is Only the Beginning

A man who attacked a police officer and a Reuters cameraman during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than four years in prison.

Shane Jason Woods, 45, was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Woods, of Auburn, Illinois, took a running start and tackled the Reuters cameraman “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Woods also attacked and injured a Capitol police officer who was 100 pounds (45 kilograms) lighter than him, according to prosecutors. He blindsided the officer, knocking her off her feet and into a metal barricade. The next day, the officer was still in pain and said she felt as if she had been “hit by a truck,” prosecutors said.
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He also has been charged in Illinois with first-degree murder in the death of a woman killed in a wrong-way car collision on Nov. 8, 2022.

While free on bond conditions for the Jan. 6 case, Woods was pulled over for speeding but drove off and fled from law enforcement. Woods was drunk and driving in the wrong direction down a highway in Springfield, Illinois, when his pickup truck slammed into a car driven by 35-year-old Lauren Wegner, authorities said. Wegner was killed, and two other people were injured in the crash.

Woods was injured in the crash and was taken to a hospital, where a police officer overheard him saying that he had intentionally driven the wrong way on the highway and had been trying to crash into a semi-trailer truck, according to federal prosecutors. He remains jailed in Sangamon County, Illinois, while awaiting a trial scheduled to start in January, according to online court records.

Apparently, this troll was trying to off himself rather than go to prison for his part in the TOFF's autogolpe attempt. But like a true MAGA coward, he chose a method that put other people in harm's way.

So, if he doesn't die in prison in Illinois, the Feds will be waiting for him to do his sentence for his Trumpist crimes.

Let the Flipping Begin, or The Rats Start Bailing

A defendant charged alongside former President Donald Trump in Georgia has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, is the first person to reach a plea deal in the case, in which Trump and 18 others were charged with racketeering conspiracy for their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
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Part of the plea deal requires Hall to testify against others at future trials or hearings of “any co-defendants” in the election racketeering case. The felony charges against Hall were dropped as part of the agreement.

Trump was not mentioned by name during Hall’s plea hearing, but a Fulton County prosecutor did mention co-defendant and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell as being involved in the alleged scheme to gain access to Dominion voting machines in Coffee County, Ga.

The key for this guy, as a bail bondsman, is that, if he was convicted of a felony, he might have had to give up his business and he damn sure would have given up his right to possess a gun.

If this guy is a credible witness with direct kowledge of what Powell did, will Powell choose to ride the rap to protect the TOFF or will she now flip?

The wheel is spinning. Place your bets.

Who Is This Clown and Why the Special Treatment?

Hundreds of rioters have been charged, convicted and sentenced for joining the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Unlike their cases, Samuel Lazar’s appears to have been resolved in secret — kept under seal with no explanation, even after his release from prison.

Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles, and used chemical spray on officers who were desperately trying to beat back the angry Donald Trump supporters.

There is no public record of a conviction or a sentence in Lazar’s court docket.

But the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that the man was released from federal custody this week after completing a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer.

Why does one of the TOFF's putschists get special treatment? Who is he to somebody?

Maybe a New GoFundMe to Help Pay for Alex Jones's Moving Expenses

If he really thinks that Russia is such a great country under Putin, he should fucking move there.

By the way, if you are a Republican politician, you should go stick up a bank and then, after you're indicted for your crime, hold a rally and tell your supporters that you're being indicted for them.

Which is a pretty bizzare claim for the TOFF to make, given that his supporters who attacked the Capitol keep getting convicted and sentenced. So far, the score for prosecutors has been 793-1.

ETA: For the Banhammer Boys who have tried to comment, feel free to join Jones in exile in Russia. Maybe you won't be drafted.

Mark Meadows Gets His Dick Slapped

A judge on Friday denied Mark Meadows’ request to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court, ruling that the Trump White House chief of staff must fight the charges in state court instead.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta wrote in a 49-page ruling that Meadows “has not met even the ‘quite low’ threshold” to move his case to federal court, noting that the question was whether the actions at issue were related to his role as a federal official.

“The evidence adduced at the hearing establishes that the actions at the heart of the State’s charges against Meadows were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign with an ultimate goal of affecting state election activities and procedures,” Jones wrote. “Meadows himself testified that working for the Trump campaign would be outside the scope of a White House Chief of Staff.”

Not to mention that trying to stage a coup is outside the scope of the job.

How to Ensure Even More Time in Stir

Go on the lam before sentencing is a good way.

Authorities are searching for a member of the Proud Boys extremist group who disappeared days before his sentencing in a U.S. Capitol riot case, where prosecutors are seeking more than a decade in prison, according to a warrant made public Friday.

Christopher Worrell, 52, of Naples, Florida, was supposed to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty of spraying pepper spray gel on police officers, as part of the mob storming the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to 14 years.

If he can stay in the wind, maybe he'll catch a ride on TOFF Force One for the flight into exile.

Come to think of it, he could be hiding out in the warrens in Mar-a-Lago.

America's Leading Crime Boss is Charged, Yet Again

Donald Trump was charged Tuesday in a Justice Department investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

The charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States government and witness tampering.

The indictment, the third criminal case brought against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024, follows a long-running federal investigation into schemes by Trump and his allies to subvert the peaceful transfer of power and keep him in office despite a decisive loss to Joe Biden.

Even in a year of rapid-succession legal reckonings for Trump, Tuesday’s criminal case was especially stunning in its allegations that a former president assaulted the underpinnings of democracy in a frantic and ultimately failed effort to cling to power.
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They focus on the turbulent two months after the November 2020 election in which Trump refused to accept his loss and spread lies that victory was stolen from him. The turmoil resulted in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump loyalists violently broke into the building, attacked police officers and disrupted the congressional counting of electoral votes.

In between the election and the riot, Trump urged local election officials to undo voting results in their states, pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to halt the certification of electoral votes and falsely claimed that the election had been stolen — a notion repeatedly rejected by judges.

Heh. Heh. Heh. He did it. We all know he did it. Even the loyal Trumpanzees know, deep down, that he did it.

The tragedy is that he and his co-conspirators won't get the penalty that they wanted to mete out during their coup. So, is it against the law to chant "Hang Donald Trump! Hang Donald Trump!"? And if so, why weren't any of the January 6th Coup Attempt crew charged for chanting "hang Mike Pence"?

Buy the TOFF's Lies, Go to Prison

A former Republican attorney general candidate and another supporter of former President Donald Trump have been criminally charged in Michigan in connection with accessing and tampering with voting machines after the 2020 election, according to court records.

Matthew DePerno, a Republican lawyer who was endorsed by Trump in an unsuccessful run for Michigan attorney general last year, was charged with undue possession of a voting machine and conspiracy, according to Oakland County court records.

Daire Rendon, a former Republican state representative, was charged with conspiracy to commit undue possession of a voting machine and false pretenses.

Those who believe the TOFF's lies and act accordingly are ending up in prison.

The Wheels Grind On

Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges Tuesday against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that all 16 people would face eight criminal charges, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

The group includes the head of the Republican National Committee’s chapter in Michigan, Kathy Berden, as well as the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, Meshawn Maddock, and Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot.

Obviously, all are allegations until a trial is held. But if, and I do mean if, these people are convicted, they should all serve consecutive sentences. Because they tried to fraudulenty steal the election for their Orange Master, none of them can be classified as being loyal to this country.

Meanwhile, another one of the members of the Cult of the Orange God has been convicted for participating in the TOFF's Insurrection.

A Pennsylvania woman who used a bullhorn to direct rioters attacking the U.S. Capitol was convicted on Tuesday of charges that she joined the mob in an attempt to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth heard testimony without a jury before he convicted Rachel Marie Powell of felony charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Powell, who was convicted of all nine counts in her indictment, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 17, according to court records.

One of the TOFF's "very fine people" has been arrested for participating in the Trumpist Coup Attempt.

A man who served a prison term for joining torch-toting white nationalists in marching through the University of Virginia’s campus in 2017 has been arrested on charges that he stormed the U.S. Capitol and attacked police officers.

Tyler Bradley Dykes, 25, of Bluffton, South Carolina, was arrested in Charlottesville, Virginia, and made his initial court appearance on Monday, according to court records. A federal judge ordered Dykes held in custody until a detention hearing on Wednesday.

Videos captured Dykes tearing down police barriers, attacking officers outside the Capitol and stealing a riot shield during a mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021, an FBI affidavit says.

But while that asswipe is being held in custody until a detention hearing, you can bet your farm that the thug who set all of this into motion won't be held for a millisecond in a jail cell after being indicted and until he's tried for his coup attempt.

It Should Have Been Longer

A California man who drove a stun gun into a police officer’s neck during one of the most violent clashes of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez yelled, “Trump won!” as he was led out of the courtroom where U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Only two other Jan. 6 defendants have received longer prison terms so far after hundreds of sentencings for Capitol riot cases.

Prosecutors wanted him to be sentenced to fourteen years. The judge should have accepted that. The perp shocked Officer Fanone into a heart attack, damn near killing him. But when it comes to the Jamuary 6th Trumpist Coup Attempt, the law-'n-order crows pivots to wanting to murder the boys in blue.

The Wheels Keep Grinding on Those Trumpy Clowns

An actor known for his roles on the comedy television shows “Bob’s Burgers” and “Mr. Show with Bob and David” was arrested Wednesday on charges that he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in confronting police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot, court records show.

Jay Johnston, 54, of Los Angeles, was arrested there on charges including civil disorder, a felony. A federal magistrate judge agreed to free Johnston on $25,000 bond after his initial court appearance in California. A public defender who represented him at the hearing declined to comment.

Video footage captured Johnston pushing against police and helping rioters who attacked officers guarding an entrance to the Capitol in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. Johnston held a stolen police shield over his head and passed it to other rioters during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, the affidavit says.

Across the country, another 1/6 asswipe has been arrested:

An owner of several funeral homes on Long Island was arrested Wednesday on charges that he sprayed wasp killer at police officers and attacked journalists — including an Associated Press photographer — during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said.

Peter G. Moloney, 58, of Bayport, New York, faces numerous charges, including civil disorder and assaulting police officers, according to court documents. An email was sent to his defense attorney seeking comment, but there was no response.

He was released on a $100,000 bond after an initial court appearance, according to a spokesperson for the federal prosecutors’ office in New York.

Gotta love it that the funeral home owned by the asswipe's family issued a statement basically disavowing what he did on his own time as being none of their business.

These guys are probably going to do some years in prison, because they assaulted cops and because they're making the Feds work hard to find them. It's sort of an analogue to the old rule that if you run from cops, they're going to bring a beating with them.

It does seem that if you were one of the rioters, the Feds will eventually haul your ass in. And if you were dumb enough to run your mouth on social media about how much fun you had, you're going to do even more time.