A federal judge in Virginia has declared a mistrial in a firearms-related case against a US Naval reservist who is separately charged with storming the US Capitol.
US District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff declared the mistrial on Friday after a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, failed to reach a unanimous verdict on charges that Hatchet Speed illegally possessed unregistered silencers for guns. The Washington Post reports that Justice Department prosecutors intend to retry the case against Speed.
Speed also faces charges in Washington, DC, that he joined a mob’s attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. For that case, a bench trial without a jury is scheduled to start on February 6.
Speed was charged in Virginia with owning three unregistered silencers after FBI
...Formerly one of the world's premier criminal investigation organizations, something for a nation to be proud of. Now it's a political arm of the Deep State oligarchy that is willing to trump up charges, suppress evidence, or take out insurance policies come election time...agents found the devices during a search of a storage unit that Speed had rented in Alexandria.
Speed’s lawyers said he never modified the devices to convert them into functioning silencers. Defense attorney Courtney Dixon told jurors that Speed was a gun enthusiast who was stocking up on scarce items during the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
pandemic.
Before his arrest in June, Speed told an undercover FBI agent that he stormed the Capitol with members of the far-right Proud Boys Death Eater group, authorities said. Speed also said he had contemplated using violence to further his antisemitic beliefs and discussed using violence against members of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization, according to prosecutors.
Jew-hate appears to make people as stupid as jihadis. So does playing at it in an attempt to appear edgy.
The FBI said Speed was a petty officer first class in the US Naval Reserves and was assigned to the Naval Warfare Space Field Activity at the National Reconnaissance Office, an agency that operates US spy satellites used by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.After the Capitol riot, Speed bought at least 12 firearms over the span of a few months and spent more than $50,000 at firearm and firearm-part retailers, a prosecutor said in a court filing.
Lots of shopping happened during the lockdown.
"This firearm-buying spree is alarming in light of statements that Speed has made in which he has espoused the use of violence to further his anti-government and anti-Semitic ideologies," Assistant US Attorney Alexis Loeb wrote.