1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

The latest on prosecution of accused Jan. 6 seditious conspirators

CBS News congressional reporter Scott MacFarlane joins "Red and Blue" for the latest on the prosecution of accused January 6th seditious conspirators, as well as the House select committee's efforts to gather potential witnesses.

Watch: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-latest-on-prosecution-of-accused-jan-6-seditious-conspirators/

[Rick Plant]

Court has loosened restrictions on Oath Keeper seditious conspiracy defendant Joshua James of Alabama.

James has pleaded guilty and agreed to help the feds.

No more home confinement and a curfew instead.

[Rick Plant]

DOJ asks Jan. 6 committee for its transcripts

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Jan. 6 House committee to turn over some transcripts of depositions it has conducted as part of its investigation into the attack on the Capitol, even as the chair warned they would not receive “unilateral access.”

According to the Times, Kenneth Polite Jr., the assistant attorney general for the criminal division, and Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote to the panel’s investigative lead on April 20, saying the committee has conducted interviews that “may contain information relevant to a criminal investigation we are conducting.”

Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) confirmed the request to reporters Tuesday, but said he was not sure what information DOJ wanted and said the committee would be willing to provide unfiltered access as it gears up for hearings next month as well as a report expected in the fall.

“If they want to come in and say we want to look at something, that’s fine. But my understanding is they want to have access to our work product. And we told them no, we’re not giving that to anybody,” Thompson said.

“I mean, the reality is, we are conducting our own investigation. And obviously if they want to come and talk they’re perfectly welcome to come and talk and we have talked to them on other situations, but we can’t give them full access to our product. That would be premature at this point, because we haven’t completed our work.”

The development comes as committee members have become more vocal in their frustration over a lack of action from the Justice Department in targeting high-ranking Trump-era officials in their own investigation.

While the DOJ has brought charges against at least 800 people involved with the attack, it’s only recently brought them against leadership of the far-right Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy, a weighty charge that can carry up to 20 years in prison.

The Jan. 6 committee, meanwhile, has spoken with high-ranking White House officials and others in the Trump administration in the course of conducting more than 1,000 interviews.

That includes former DOJ officials who were pressured by former President Trump to advance investigations into his baseless claims of election fraud, members of Trump’s own family and other aides who described efforts to coordinate with lawmakers and state officials in order to block certification of the election results.

DOJ did not respond to request for comment.

It’s unclear which of the committee’s witnesses might be of interest to federal prosecutors, and Thompson told reporters that the request came “with no names attached to it.”

Earlier this year, the Times reported that the department had expanded the scope of its criminal investigation to include those involved in organizing the rallies that directly preceded the attack on the Capitol, as well as the scheme to organize fake slates of electors who would have cast their “votes” for Trump in states that President Biden won.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3491932-doj-asks-jan-6-committee-for-its-transcripts-report/

[Rick Plant]

Capitol rioter who attacked officers with a large metal Trump sign pleads guilty



A Colorado man who wore a helmet and a “Guns Don’t Kill Clintons Do” sweater has pleaded guilty to one of five counts – civil disorder – for which was charged in connection with the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Thomas Patrick Hamner, 48, of Colorado Springs, entered the plea Tuesday to Count 2 of the indictment against him. The Department of Justice website states that “all other charges remain pending.”

As Raw Story reported last November, Hamner’s case stood out because the FBI was able to identify him with the help of an online restaurant review he had posted. That story cited coverage from Denver's Channel 7:

“A person who 'has had personal contact with Hamner' confirmed to investigators that he was the man seen in videos and in an online business review Hamner left for a restaurant, according to court records," the station reports. ‘Great food, close by, glad I found them,’ Hamner wrote of an unidentified Colorado Springs restaurant in the review, according to court records.

The FBI complaint against Hamner alleged that he was captured multiple times on video and was seen “working with others to push a large metal 'TRUMP' sign into the line of officers trying to keep the barricade on the Capitol's West Plaza in place.”

At the time of Hamner’s arrest, the Colorado Springs reported that “Hamner told onlookers that he was being arrested for being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and joked that the officers arresting him were “lucky” he wasn’t running.

“I’m a runner, and I’m a fighter, but I ain’t that today because I know I’ve been doing right,” he appeared to say, referencing his “rap sheet.”

“In 2015, Hamner was convicted of driving without a license, failing to signal, and obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest, for which he was sentenced to 45 days in jail. Court records indicate he appealed that conviction, but show his sentence largely remained and that his case was closed.”

You can read the FBI complaint against Hamner here:

https://www.rawstory.com/thomas-patrick-hamner-pleads-guilty/

[Rick Plant]

‘Pretty savvy’ DOJ just sidestepped legal battles that have slowed Jan. 6 committee’s probe: legal expert

The Department of Justice may have sidestepped the legal battles that have slowed the House Select Committee's investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Federal authorities opened a new direction in their criminal probe by requesting transcripts of interviews conducted by congressional investigators, and MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner explained why that move was "savvy."

"I think we've all experienced some frustration because it doesn't look like the Department of Justice has been investigating this the way it would ordinarily investigate, you know, even large-scale conspiracy cases because they don't appear to have been sort of carpet-bombing folks with grand jury subpoenas the way we ordinarily would," Kirschner said.

Kirschner praised DOJ investigators for waiting until the Select Committee had conducted its interviews instead of pursuing the same witnesses.

"If the Department of Justice had gone after everybody with grand jury subpoenas, they probably would have been battling witness after witness after witness, these thousand-plus witnesses," he said. "They would have been battling Congress, who gets which witness first and who has the greater priority. Now what the Department of Justice can do is take a thousand-plus transcripts and they can use that to build their criminal investigation.

"I actually think whether this was by design or happenstance, this may turn out to be a pretty savvy way about investigating the case," Kirschner added, "and let's not forget that the chief investigative counsel for the Jan. 6 committee is frankly a very accomplished prosecutor in his open own right when he served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and I expect this is a really savvy investigation put together by the Jan. 6 Committee."

Watch the video below in this link:

https://www.rawstory.com/glenn-kirschner-msnbc/

[Rick Plant]

New video surfaces from Jan. 6 Insurrection

The footage shows an alleged rioter saying he wants to “drag” former Vice President Mike Pence through the streets.

https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/video-surfaces-jan-insurrection-82697835

[Rick Plant]

Plea hearing today at 3pm in Jan 6 case of Landon Copeland, who's accused of assaulting police.

In jailhouse interviews, Copeland had claimed police provoked him and that Trump would return to office before next election.