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Home Front: Politix

Judge refuses to dismiss alleged Proud Boys leaders' charges

2021-12-29

[Vegas Sun] A federal judge refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Tuesday rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe — are charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

Kelly said the defendants had many nonviolent ways to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election.

"Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests," Kelly wrote in his 43-page ruling. "Moreover, even if the charged conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost whatever First Amendment protection it may have had."

Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe were indicted in March on charges including conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. All four of them remain jailed while they await a trial scheduled for May.

Defense lawyers also argued that the obstruction charge doesn't apply to their clients' cases because Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote was not an "official proceeding." Kelly disagreed.

Earlier this month, another judge in the District of Columbia's federal court upheld prosecutors’ use of the same obstruction charge in a separate case against two riot defendants.

The case against Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe is a focus of the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection. More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates, including at least 16 defendants charged with conspiracy.

Posted by:Besoeker

#29 Our problem is that we believe in this country and are committed to upholding its institutions, including rule of law.

Look at the fraud, BS and anarchy unleashed by the left in 2020: they actually did everything that they falsely accused us of perpetrating.

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-29 16:04

#28 ^ Decades of "tough on crime" messaging has grown the GOPe a wicked set of blinders.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 15:43

#27 I don't think the right generally appreciates just how corrupt law enforcement and the courts have become.

Posted by: Angstrom 2021-12-29 15:39

#26
22 and 23, You're projecting, but funny. Thanks for the laugh.

Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 2021-12-29 14:27

#25 Re dangerous truths: The truth of the Biden Family's corruption -- in great detail, with forensic evidence supported by sworn affidavits from their business partner Bobulinski -- this was so dangerous to our Kakocracy that the entire media establishment (with the exception of t. Carlson and the NYPost) colluded to spike the story in October 2000.

So yeah, typing truth into forums is the only way to keep it from being completely extinguished today.

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-29 14:16

#24 If the truth isn't dangerous, why do corporations spend billions trying to suppress it?

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 14:01

#23 Ref #21: We're here for u Ves. Don't be a stranger.

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-29 13:53

#22 A cautionary note, not an insult, but thin skins suggest it was warranted nonetheless...

Posted by: NoMoreBS 2021-12-29 13:39

#21 Thanks BS for telling what to think and do. Next time I'm conflicted I'll seek your council.

Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 2021-12-29 13:14

#20 Anagram #2:
T.S.A.I.F. <=> A Fist
...up the arse of the Kakocracy

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-29 13:12

#19 Given the Epps and Whitmer examples, which are just the most visible, "typing shit into a forum" is exactly all any of us should be doing here. Other urges you might feel don't belong on this page...

Posted by: NoMoreBS 2021-12-29 13:08

#18 Anagram:
Ray Epps <=> Spy-Rape

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-29 13:03

#17 ^ this. Well said, M.

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-29 12:24

#16 When speaking the truth is devalued, so is the truth itself.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 12:24

#15 T.S.I.A.F. sounds like something Ray Epps would say.

Posted by: Abu Uluque 2021-12-29 12:22

#14 These guys are being held without bail while a red pickup truck driven by a previously convicted felon, who is out on $1000 dollar bail after being charged with the new felony of attempted murder, runs over and kills several people at a Christmas parade. Right. I get it.

Posted by: Abu Uluque 2021-12-29 12:16

#13 The point of T.S.I.A.F. is to combat The Narrative with facts, logic and sarcasm. By exposing the absurdity of our demented, decadent, corrupt and moronic crapulosities, an Alternate Narrative is created.
Examples:

- the scurrilous big lie of "Systemic Racism" are displaced with the facts of opportunistic race-baiting and looting

- the absurd big lies of "soothing, grandfatherly good ol' Joe Biden the Unifier" are displaced with the facts of Magoo The Big Guy, PervOTUS and UberGropersniffer

- the ridiculous big lies of "White Supremacist Insurrectionists" are displaced with the facts of Anarcho-Tyranny imposed by the Ferret's American Stasi and Soros's Commie DA's

- the preposterous big lies of the Great Russia Hoax are displaced with the facts of the FB-eye's circle jerk with Steele-Glenn Simpson-NYT/CNN/WaPo, the FISA crimes, the Mueller idiocy, the Clinesmith forgery farce, and the voluminous evidence that the man they ludicrously called a Russian agent was actually the most anti-Russian president since Reagan's first term.

Yes, you're right: T.S.I.A.F. is not as thrilling as kinet!c act!on. May not change any election outcome. Won't shut up the liars at American Pravda or restore constitutional governance or rein in the Stasi.

But it's absolutely necessary to combat their Big Lies. If they aren't repeatedly, relentlessly mocked, if truth is not stated again and again and again, then you get Faucism and Schifferbrains-level idiocy, not just wrt WuFlu and Russia Hoax but EVERYWHERE.

We must cultivate our garden.

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-29 12:06

#12 Is anyone here prohibiting you from commenting?
"...it isn't enough".

Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 2021-12-29 11:49

#11 Ref #8: I hope and pray I never see the day arrive when I am prohibited from ......

"typing shit into a forum"

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-29 11:42

#10 Hey, I fergit. Is Ray Epps a Proud Boy?

Posted by: Bobby 2021-12-29 11:20

#9 ^ I'm not sorry I didn't do something stupid like go to the Jan. 6 debacle.

Granted, that's passive compared to "typing shit into a forum," but not being meat for the regime's grinder is OK with me too.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 11:18

#8 Something about history and those whose lack of historical knowledge condemns them to something, something...
Posted by: M. Murcek

History does repeat itself, often. That doesn't mean we should lie down and take it, typing shit into a forum isn't enough.

Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 2021-12-29 11:13

#7 Something about history and those whose lack of historical knowledge condemns them to something, something...

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 08:00

Tanks and armed troops involved here also. Didn't end well there either. A few of the senior Army officers in charge of making the unpleasantness go away, went on to splendid military careers.

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-29 07:48

#5 Reading Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies: The True Story Of America's Greatest Crime Wave. He opens with FDR's inauguration and notes there were tanks in the DC streets and machine gun emplacements atop gummint buildings because of (the threat of) Depression era unrest. A bit later, he casually mentions future president Harry Truman's role as a judge in the corrupt Kansas City Pendergast machine before he moved up to the senate.

What's old is new again.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 06:51

#4 Much smaller scale, but a carbon copy of the The Tiananmen Square protests, known as the June Fourth 1989 Incident. Get several thousand protestors or rally attendees congregated, then insert government agent provocateurs.

There was simply no choice. Poland's mounted cavalry would have invaded and rode on to Berlin. The Blitzkrieg was inevitable.

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-29 06:37

#3 Minnesota police officer (wrong gun) Potter convicted of murder. Ashli Babbitt Capitol riot shooter Lt. Mikchael Byrd was..... simply doing his job.

Justice on it's fok'n head.

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-29 06:27

#2 In the trials to come, you can see it:

"You are convicted of participation in the cabal. Do you have any statement before sentencing?"

"I was just doing my... Uh, wait. I was just following... Oh, never mind."

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-29 06:16

#1 On November 16, 2018, Judge Timothy J. Kelly ordered the White House to restore the press credentials of CNN’s Jim Acosta.

All I needed to know about Judge Kelly. He's also very highly regarded and recognized by the FBI.
Link

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-29 06:03

00:00