A former veteran Houston police officer was federally charged Tuesday in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol after agents said they searched his phone and found deleted selfies taken inside the building.
Houston's police chief said last week that the officer, Tam Pham, had resigned.
Pham initially told authorities during an interview Jan. 12 at his home in Richmond, Texas, that he traveled to Washington, D.C., for a business trip, according to an affidavit obtained Wednesday by NBC News. He said he briefly attended President Donald Trump's rally after having learned about it on Facebook, but he denied following the crowd to the Capitol, FBI Special Agent Amie Stemen wrote in the affidavit.
The search of his phone revealed otherwise. Agents found video of him inside the Capitol in his folder of deleted photos. Among the images were portraits of the Capitol Rotunda, a selfie inside the historic building and a photo of him posing with a statue of President Gerald R. Ford draped in a Trump 2020 flag.
The time stamp on the images and videos placed him inside the Capitol at the time of the siege, authorities said.
After investigators warned him that it was illegal to lie, Pham admitted that he joined rally attendees at the Capitol, according to the affidavit. He said he jumped barricades surrounding the building but had no intention to commit violence or vandalism, Stemen wrote.
Pham told investigators that he entered the Rotunda and remained for about 10 to 15 minutes to "look at the historical art on the walls," according to the affidavit.
Sure, because following on the heels of a mob of rioters is always the best time to scope out the art in looted buildings.
The MAGA roundup continues apace.
The dog ate my homework ...... MAGA style.
ReplyDeleteHe just smashed his way into the Capitol looking for a toilet and a fellow police officer to hand over the zip tie handcuffs and bumpstock large mazazine assault rifle (yeah, I know, CAN'T BE AN ASSAULT RIFLE, IT'S SEMIAUTOMATIC! Sue me.) he found lying around. Nothing wrong with that. When you gotta go you gotta go. Right now though, in the pokey, he is probably shitting bricks on the very public thunderstool provided by the Deep State for his use. With any luck (for us) he'll get cellmates he once arrested back in happier times. Happier for him, not for us sane people. This Trumpite unraveling is better than ponies!
ReplyDeleteI love it. They invaded our Capitol Building, filmed and posted their attempted revolution, and now they want us to pity them and let them go. Uh, no way, comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteDonny didn't pardon them, no way that anyone else should. Some of them even seem to think it was some kind of party and are now surprised that the law is at their door.
It would be hilarious if they hadn't actually tried so hard to take over the election and our seat of Government.
The law can't come down hard enough on these seditionists. This has to be stamped out.
And, here I am, a product of Ca. in the 60s' and calling for law and order, but so be it.
They deserve the weight of the entire Justice Dept. on their backs.
w3ski
No, the dog caught the car.
ReplyDeleteNah, Ten Bears, I think it was Heinlein who had it best: the dog caught the locomotive.
ReplyDeleteJust another day at the QAnon,ProudBoys, Looney Tunes theme park. Go on the rides, get cuffed, read your rights and enjoy your stay at the crossbar Hilton. Hell hath no fury in getting its own back like a fucked over law enforcement caught with its pants down. No mission, no logistics, no leadership on 1/6, but now....
Same analogy, matter of scale. My thoughts though are not of the few, the dedicated, the trained and if not rehearsed: scouted paramilitaries bent upon lynching the vice-president, speaker of the house, and various congresswomen of color but on the mob. They stormed the capital - "now what the fuck?". The Heinlein story that actually comes to mind is Job's after-the-trumpets-sound, they been chasing that car/locomotive for a long time and when they catch it, when they overrun the security and break into capital, some started vandalizing the place but most were just wandered around "OK, now what?" A bunch a pictures out there emphasis this, at least to me, where the crowd is wandering around ... inside the tourist ropes.
ReplyDeleteI been sayin' for a while, right here, they always end up pissing off the cops.
That's not sympathy, or even empathy; wither or no they got suckered is moot in the generally accepted vernacular, is beside the point, they did what they did and they need to suffer the consequences. If it were me, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this.
If anything I'm getting a good laugh at their expectation of a pardon.