Vox - Trump supporters storm the US Capitol: News and updates https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2023-05-25T13:55:00-04:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/219816982023-05-25T13:55:00-04:002023-05-25T13:55:00-04:00Two of January 6’s most famous faces are getting serious sentences
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<figcaption>Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers. | Aaron C. Davis/Washington Post via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Oath Keeper head Stewart Rhodes received the longest sentence of any insurrectionist yet. </p> <p id="C2B1oh">While it’s not yet clear whether former <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump" data-source="encore">President Donald Trump</a> will face legal consequences for his role in the January 6 insurrection, those who stormed the Capitol continue to do so as two developments made evident this week. </p>
<p id="CBoJGD">On Wednesday, one of the rioters — <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/richard-barnett-january-6-pelosi-desk-sentencing/">Richard Barnett</a>, who is known for being photographed with his feet on a desk in then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office<strong> </strong>— was sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being convicted on eight charges by a jury, including civil disorder. </p>
<p id="mC4MbQ">And on Thursday, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/1/16/22886516/stewart-rhodes-seditious-conspiracy-january-6-oath-keepers">Stewart Rhodes</a>, the leader of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group that helped spread claims of election fraud and planned for violence on January 6, was sentenced to 18 years. Rhodes was sentenced for seditious conspiracy, one of the most severe offenses that an insurrectionist has been charged with thus far. </p>
<p id="S009jm">Together, the sentences are a reminder of how courts are holding insurrectionists accountable, and set a precedent for how attempts to subvert democracy will be punished moving forward. </p>
<p id="vfcicH">Rhodes’s sentencing, in particular, could send a message to far-right extremists with anti-government leanings and signal how seriously courts are taking these groups’ plans on January 6. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/1/16/22886516/stewart-rhodes-seditious-conspiracy-january-6-oath-keepers">As Vox’s Ellen Ioanes explained</a>, seditious conspiracy is a significant charge that former federal prosecutor Laurence Tribe has previously described as “treason’s sibling.” </p>
<p id="gcvuQI">Defined as an act of two or more people conspiring to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States,” <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384">according to US criminal code</a>, seditious conspiracy is also a rare charge. Previously, the Justice Department hadn’t pursued such a charge in more than a decade — and Rhodes is the first of those involved in the insurrection to be sentenced for it. His sentence is the highest that any insurrectionist has faced for their actions related to January 6. </p>
<p id="rP0zxA">As part of the case against Rhodes, prosecutors emphasized that the Oath Keepers repeatedly urged the blocking of the election certification, brought small arms to the DC area, and planned to defend Trump’s election claims with violence if necessary. Rhodes’s defense has said the Oath Keepers were only in DC to protect prominent Trump supporters attending the “Stop the Steal” rally. </p>
<p id="L7Esw7"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/25/oath-keepers-sentencing-seditious-conspiracy-jan6/">According to the Washington Post</a>, prosecutors expressed hopes that the sentence will serve as a deterrent to people who may seek to pursue similar attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in the future. Additionally, it will establish a standard for how other insurrectionists — including additional members of the Oath Keepers and the far-right Proud Boys who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy — are treated as their cases play out. </p>
<p id="xOm26F">“I think it absolutely does send a message to anyone who wants to engage in this type of activity, this anti-democracy activity,” Stephen Piggott, a program analyst at the Western States Center studying right-wing extremism, told Vox. “It sends a very clear message that this type of activity will not be tolerated, that political violence is not a viable option.”</p>
<h3 id="0VfOBn">This sentencing sets a precedent for future January 6 cases</h3>
<p id="jP2rL3">Thus far, multiple members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been convicted of seditious conspiracy, and will face their respective sentencings later this year. So far, courts have sentenced more than 500 people involved in the insurrection, and the longest sentence, of 14 years, had previously gone to a person <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-capitol-peter-schwartz-insurrection-9176bad22fff2bafaea5c32ce06bb772">who attacked police officers with pepper spray and a chair</a>. </p>
<p id="C9QoNt">Experts in far-right extremism have emphasized that prosecutors’ decision to pursue the seditious conspiracy charge in multiple cases was important because it establishes the insurrection as intentional and planned versus a spontaneous effort. </p>
<p id="V51n90">“I think it’s a significant win for the federal government in terms of putting one of the masterminds, essentially, of January 6 behind bars,” says Piggott. </p>
<p id="VqlFhb">The severity of the sentence in Rhodes’s case could be interpreted differently by various constituencies, says Sam Jackson, a University of Albany professor who studies right-wing extremism. </p>
<p id="pGxfO2">Jackson noted that the longer, more aggressive sentence could strengthen loyal Oath Keeper supporters’ beliefs that the government is tyrannical, but that it could convince those who are weaker supporters of the group that it’s not a patriotic organization like they may have believed. </p>
<p id="wFfUgh"><em><strong>Clarification, May 26, 9:30am ET: </strong></em><em>This story has been updated to clarify where the photo of Barnett was taken. </em></p>
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https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/25/23737575/oath-keepers-sentencing-conviction-january-6-insurrection-capitol-attack-riotLi Zhou2022-02-06T17:40:00-05:002022-02-06T17:40:00-05:00The GOP’s January 6 lies have reached a fever pitch
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<img alt="Former President Donald Trump, wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, gestures from behind a microphone on stage at a rally in Florence, Arizona, on January 15, 2022." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vfUAsTsFreTXNgmvUm7DLimNcFk=/106x0:5127x3766/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70477857/1364881985.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Florence, Arizona, on January 15, 2022. | Mario Tama/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The RNC censured two members of Congress for refusing to play along.</p> <p id="b0kISn">On Friday, the Republican National Committee officially stated that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, which left at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-deaths.html">five dead</a> and about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html">140 injured</a>, was “legitimate political discourse.”</p>
<p id="HymAFe">In a two-page <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/rnc-censure-resolution/58226d40412e4f18/full.pdf">censure resolution</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/22917728/liz-cheney-adam-kinzinger-censure-january-6-committee">condemning</a> Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation in the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, the RNC wrote that “Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes.”</p>
<p id="FORkar">In a subsequent tweet, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1489693461452361748?s=20&t=Ql9-CnnWx7T3qC0AIG7sVA">expanded</a> on the language of the censure to clarify that it referred to “ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”</p>
<p id="qQLKGp">The original text of the resolution, however — which, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/republicans-jan-6-cheney-censure.html">the New York Times notes</a>, was “carefully negotiated in private among party members” before publication — is a fitting cap to a week that saw the GOP, led by former President Donald Trump, draw closer than ever to explicitly supporting the attack on the Capitol and its goal of overturning the 2020 election.</p>
<p id="TjtHx6">In addition to the censure, Trump last Saturday told supporters at a rally in Conroe, Texas, that he would <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/30/politics/trump-rally-texas/index.html">consider pardoning</a> those charged in connection with the January 6 attack, and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/02/trump-considered-blanket-pardons-for-jan-6-rioters-before-he-left-office-00004738">Politico reported on Wednesday</a> that he also contemplated doing so before leaving office in January last year.</p>
<p id="DSOglB">“If I run and if I win [in 2024], we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly,” Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/30/politics/trump-rally-texas/index.html">said at the rally</a>, without addressing any specific concerns about the treatment of rioters. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.”</p>
<p id="1hgJWV">Trump also said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1487943126396411906?s=20&t=ZBTpGUa4z4hu4gcfwHPrTg">statement last week</a> that former Vice President Mike Pence “could have overturned the Election!” — an assertion that, while incorrect, is among Trump’s most overt remarks about the intent behind January 6 and his actions leading up to it.</p>
<p id="VvYtM6">Trump has not yet announced an official run for the presidency in 2024, but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-drops-hint-about-2024-run-calling-himself-47th-president-2022-1">signs point</a> to a likely White House bid as he retains a tight grip on the GOP rank and file.</p>
<p id="TN9949">In the meantime, large swaths of the Republican Party, still apparently in Trump’s thrall,<strong> </strong>have shifted their position on the Capitol insurrection, distancing themselves from the disturbing reality of those events and positioning the insurrectionists as innocent protesters, or even patriotic guardians of the Constitution. </p>
<p id="R8Ujwa">That <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/03/lindsey-graham-familiar-arc-trump-bringing-his-gop-allies-meekly-heel/">reversal</a> — from horror at the falsehood-fueled spectacle that unfolded at the Capitol last January to condemnation of Republicans who defy Trump’s narrative — may have coalesced even more clearly over the past week and a half, but it’s been building almost since the attack, spearheaded by members of Congress like Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). </p>
<p id="2kqB1g">While some establishment Republicans, including <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/politics/romney-gop-cheney-kinzinger-censure-vote/index.html">Sen. Mitt Romney</a>, have spoken out against the censure and praised Cheney’s and Kinzinger’s moral compasses, while <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/592462-graham-defends-opposition-to-jan-6-pardons-after-trump-calls-him-a-rino">others have expressed dismay</a> at the idea of a future President Trump pardoning January 6 rioters, many have bought so wholeheartedly into Trump’s narrative that they attacked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/pence-trump-election.html">Pence</a> for accurately disputing on Thursday Trump’s assertion that he could have overturned the results of the election.</p>
<h3 id="alCyeg">What Trump means when he says he wants January 6 prisoners treated “fairly”</h3>
<p id="QQTHft">Trump’s assertion that he wants fair treatment for the January 6 defendants may be superficially benign, but in reality, it’s just one front in the GOP attempt to mythologize the attack as less severe than it was.</p>
<p id="6GEsaz">Trump, along with members of Congress like Gaetz and Greene and would-be members like Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance, have made misleading statements about the slightly more than 700 people arrested for their roles in the attack, including describing them as “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-visited-jan-6-rioters-jailed-patriot-wing-2021-11">political prisoners</a>” and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/08/politics/fact-check-jd-vance-capitol-charges/index.html">claiming that they haven’t been charged with crimes</a> (they have).</p>
<p id="Z2m6RX">The subtext of Trump’s argument about fairness is particularly alarming, given the shocking violence directed against police defending the Capitol on January 6. By floating pardons should he regain office, Trump rewrites the limits of acceptable behavior for his supporters — and reinforces that those loyal to Trump are in the right and will be rewarded for their loyalty, while those who oppose his claims to power are not only wrong, but unprincipled.</p>
<p id="iGWcPY">“There is no room for dissenters from Donald Trump’s views in the Republican Party,” Alex Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told Vox in a Sunday interview. </p>
<p id="z3uAJe">Gaetz and Greene — both <a href="https://www.axios.com/jan-6-social-media-congress-democrats-40237d4e-7e9f-41f4-95b5-da7546aa6dc1.html">ardent supporters of Trump</a> — are leading proponents of the narrative that January 6 attendees are being mistreated (<a href="https://apnews.com/article/records-rebut-claims-jan-6-rioters-55adf4d46aff57b91af2fdd3345dace8">they’re not</a>). <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-jail-gop/2021/07/29/8362d17e-f096-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html">Last summer</a>, they, along with Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), visited a DC jail where some January 6 defendants were being held, demanding access as members of Congress and erroneously claiming they oversaw the budget for the jail, according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p id="fGbat4">The group, joined by Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Bob Good (R-VA), also barged into the Justice Department this past summer, with Gosar calling January 6 defendants “political prisoners” and attempting to ask whether any of the defendants were being held in solitary confinement, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-jail-gop/2021/07/29/8362d17e-f096-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html">Washington Post’s Meagan Flynn</a> reported at the time. </p>
<p id="ZEUUff">The January 6 defendants are facing <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases">a variety of charges</a>, ranging from <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/january-6-riot-felony-obstruction-charges">obstructing an official proceeding of the government</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/1/16/22886516/stewart-rhodes-seditious-conspiracy-january-6-oath-keepers">seditious conspiracy</a>. Some have already been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/06/jan6-sentencings-judges/">convicted and sentenced</a>; as of the one-year anniversary of the attack, the longest sentence was just over five years in prison.</p>
<p id="5lDpqT">As Keyssar <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/29/how-will-the-history-books-remember-2021-526219">told Politico</a> in a 2021 retrospective in December, the insurrection of January 6 accelerated “the downward spiral of American political life” and set off an “intensified, rancorous struggle over the preservation of democratic values and institutions.”</p>
<p id="Mo5Dpa">Trump’s insistence on pursuing his self-serving narrative of victimhood — and pulling the Republican Party along with him — doesn’t just affect the GOP, as Keyssar points out; it ultimately affects the functioning of democracy and people’s ability to participate in it. “It’s not just a matter of telling different stories,” Keyssar told Vox on Sunday.</p>
<p id="BpGk2B">Specifically, he said, Trump’s rhetoric around the insurrection is “storytelling to justify a particular social order.” According to Keyssar, the narratives forming around the insurrection echo the end of the Reconstruction period in the South following the Civil War. The Reconstruction era gave Black Americans unprecedented rights, power, and political representation for a brief period, until the end of the 19th century; in the decades following Reconstruction, the prevailing narrative among white Southerners was that the Civil War was an attack on Southerners’ ways of life, and the Reconstruction period was the result of corrupt Northern “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” taking over the remains of that society.</p>
<p id="jZ3l28">At the time, Keyssar said, the white Southern narrative argued that the disenfranchisement of Black Southerners and reinforcement of white supremacy “had to be restored in order to have a ‘good society’ again.” In the same vein now, Trump’s fiction — that he was the true winner of the 2020 election and widespread fraud robbed him of a second term in office; that members of his own party who don’t support his lies are unpatriotic; and that the people who protested and stormed the Capitol on January 6 aren’t criminals — aims to restore him to power.</p>
<p id="rfkcI2">Just because Trump’s talking points around the 2020 election and the Republican Party’s embrace of them aren’t exactly unprecedented, that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous, Keyssar said.</p>
<p id="H3D8hW">The polarization of the two parties, and their dominance in state legislatures, has emboldened <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/31/florida-voting-laws-elections-00003952">some places to propose laws</a> <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2022/02/03/west-virginia-lawmakers-advance-bill-to-enhance-voter-fraud-penalty/">targeting voter fraud</a> — though there was no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election — which can have the real-world effect of making it more difficult for disenfranchised communities, including Black people and those in poverty, to vote.</p>
<p id="XxTp1L">Furthermore, Keyssar said, the constant effort to delegitimize the election does serve to negate the peaceful means of changing power, which could portend further violence in one form or another. “If you discredit the mechanism of elections,” he said, “then what are you left with? Force.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/2022/2/6/22920432/trump-republican-party-january-6-lies-pardon-riotersEllen Ioanes2022-01-16T17:30:00-05:002022-01-16T17:30:00-05:00How seditious conspiracy charges change the January 6 narrative
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<img alt="Stewart Rhodes, the recently indicted founder of the Oath Keepers, in a photo by the Washington Post via Getty Images on February 28, 2021, in Fort Worth, Texas." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EwAR-LKFTybV0Sb8A0On8gI0dSg=/0x0:4032x3024/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70397503/1231796848.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Stewart Rhodes, the recently indicted founder of the Oath Keepers, on February 28, 2021, in Fort Worth, Texas. | Aaron C. Davis/The Washington Post via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Stewart Rhodes is facing the most serious charges yet in connection with the Capitol riot.</p> <p id="SEgO95">On Thursday, federal prosecutors <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-oath-keepers-and-10-other-individuals-indicted-federal-court-seditious-conspiracy-and">charged</a> Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and 10 others with seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.</p>
<p id="LvpWH9">That charge — the most serious yet to come out of the investigation — is one of several in <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1462481/download">the indictment</a> unsealed Thursday, which alleges Rhodes and his co-defendants brought small arms to the Washington, DC, area; engaged in combat training to prepare for the attack; and made plans to stage quick-reaction forces to support insurrectionists.</p>
<p id="H5Q6y5">Rhodes was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/stewart-rhodes-arrested-oath-keepers-jan-6-insurrection-70019e1007132e8df786aaf77215a110">taken into custody Thursday</a> in Texas and is among the highest-profile arrests made in the investigation into last year’s attack on the Capitol, although <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/31/capitol-deadly-attack-insurrection-arrested-convicted/">more than 700 people</a> have thus far been arrested and charged in connection with January 6.</p>
<p id="78T6TD">Rhodes’s group, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/right-wing-militias-civil-war/616473/">Oath Keepers</a>, is “one of the largest far-right antigovernment groups in the US today,” <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers">according to the Southern Poverty Law Center</a>. Founded in 2009, the group’s members have a history of attending protests while heavily armed, clashing with law enforcement, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/7/13489640/oath-keepers-donald-trump-voter-fraud-intimidation-rigged">supporting former President Donald Trump’s baseless election fraud claims</a>.</p>
<p id="WEZ8JQ">Thursday’s indictments are also the first seditious conspiracy charges in the investigation so far, and the first the Justice Department has brought in more than a decade. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/riots-conspiracy-9d22bdd4e2d4d786531ebe0fb8095de4">Seditious conspiracy</a> isn’t the same as treason, but it’s also not terribly far off; as former federal prosecutor Laurence Tribe <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-indictment-puts-january-6-plotters-notice-ncna1287540">wrote for NBC News on Saturday</a>, the “crime is, in effect, treason’s sibling.”</p>
<p id="sEAHhY">Specifically, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384">seditious conspiracy</a> occurs when two or more people work together to plan to overthrow the government or prevent the execution of its laws.</p>
<p id="8yuC9m">In the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1462481/download">case against Rhodes</a> and his alleged co-conspirators, the government presented evidence in the charging documents that shortly after the November 3, 2020, election, Rhodes told his followers, “Prepare your mind, body, and spirit” because, “We aren’t getting through this without a civil war.” In December, Rhodes promised a “bloody, massively bloody revolution” should a peaceful transfer of power occur, and in the lead-up to the Capitol riot purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of weapons, ammunition, and related tactical gear.</p>
<p id="eSP8I9">Other defendants in the case are alleged to have set up paramilitary training groups and created private Signal groups to discuss their operations, including procuring weapons and establishing a <a href="https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1481726769606520832?s=20">quick reaction force</a> outside the DC area to bring in additional insurrectionists and weapons. </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Reading this Oath Keepers indictment.<br><br>These posts on TheDonald from January 5th make a lot more sense now.<br><br>The plan was to go all night and transport in the guns later, once they felt they had control over the Capitol. <a href="https://t.co/5Nq2tXHm8j">pic.twitter.com/5Nq2tXHm8j</a></p>— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) <a href="https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1481726769606520832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2022</a>
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<p id="UraacX">The new indictments are a significant step up from previous charges in the case, which range in seriousness from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/us/politics/qanon-shaman-jan-6-sentenced.html">disorderly conduct to obstructing an official proceeding before Congress</a>, and have so far resulted in sentences up to 41 months in prison. In comparison, seditious conspiracy carries a potential sentence of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-indictment-puts-january-6-plotters-notice-ncna1287540">20 years in prison</a>.</p>
<p id="RErYFG">The indictment is “major news in [the] effort to hold extremists accountable for their role in #Jan6 insurrection,” the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/antigovernment">Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-government desk</a> told Vox via email. “January 6th was a culmination of years of poor behavior on Rhodes [sic] part. It felt like this was always where he and Oath Keepers were headed, but many of us had hoped that we could have prevented it.”</p>
<p id="3VEDg0">The new charges also refute the argument that narratives about the January 6 attack are overblown because no participants had yet been charged with sedition. As the Washington Post’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/13/fox-news-right-pitched-no-sedition-charges-proof-jan-6-wasnt-an-insurrection-now-what/">Aaron Blake</a> pointed out on Thursday, Fox News’s Brit Hume had tweeted just hours before Rhodes’s arrest, “Let’s base our view on whether 1/6 was an ‘insurrection’ on whether those arrested are charged with insurrection. So far, none has been.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here's a thought. Let's base our view on whether 1/6 was an "insurrection" on whether those arrested are charged with insurrection. So far, none has been. <a href="https://t.co/szsAGU3bz0">https://t.co/szsAGU3bz0</a></p>— Brit Hume (@brithume) <a href="https://twitter.com/brithume/status/1481649782841962500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2022</a>
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<p id="mxobUb">Hume’s tweet echoes months of Fox News hosts’ and guests’ attempts, along with <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/10/americas-justice-system-says-jan-6-was-neither-a-terrorist-attack-nor-an-insurrection/">other conservatives</a>, to argue that the Capitol riot did not rise to the level of insurrection. </p>
<h3 id="Rq4y1h">Seditious conspiracy prosecutions are rare and difficult</h3>
<p id="uPO8ia">Seditious conspiracy charges are rare — so rare that, as the SPLC points out, this is just the fourth time in the past 80 years that the statute has been used against right-wing extremists in the US.</p>
<p id="z4Gq6x">In 2010, members of a small Christian militia group in Michigan called <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125856761">the Hutaree</a> were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges, and before that, in the late 1980s, white supremacist militia members in Arkansas were charged with the same crime. In both cases, they were acquitted.</p>
<p id="5Oe6Ey">That means the stakes for the Justice Department’s prosecution of Rhodes and his cohort are high, even as lawmakers in Congress continue to seek accountability for January 6 along different avenues. “It’s that significant of a moment,” the SPLC told Vox.</p>
<p id="ZroTJ6"><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/last-time-justice-department-prosecuted-seditious-conspiracy-case">According to a 1993 case</a>, <em>United States v. Lee</em>, proof of a conspiracy rests on establishing that everyone in the conspiracy shares “a ‘unity of purpose,’ the intent to achieve a common goal, and an agreement to work toward that goal”; previous seditious conspiracy cases have failed in part because the government failed to prove that unity, or to establish exactly what defendants were planning to do.</p>
<p id="gCh8CZ">Even when cases are more clear-cut, there are barriers; as historian Kathleen Belew <a href="https://twitter.com/kathleen_belew/status/1481700975882776579?s=20">described on Twitter</a> Thursday, cultural and circumstantial factors may have contributed to the 1988 acquittal of the extremists in Arkansas, despite a surfeit of apparent evidence.</p>
<p id="EtItM3">“Seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers will seek to show that Jan 6 was not just a ‘protest’ ... but an organized and pre-planned [attack] on American democracy,” <a href="https://twitter.com/kathleen_belew/status/1481702563531702276?s=20">Belew tweeted</a>. “The stakes are high, but there are a lot more tools today than existed in 1987-88: an FBI aware of and willing to confront white power and militant right violence; a DOD aware of the problem and taking action; hundreds of journalists telling better and more complete stories.” </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The stakes are high, but there are a lot more tools today than existed in 1987-88: an FBI aware of and willing to confront white power and militant right violence; a DOD aware of the problem and taking action; hundreds of journalists telling better and more complete stories (20)</p>— Kathleen Belew (@kathleen_belew) <a href="https://twitter.com/kathleen_belew/status/1481702834257248261?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2022</a>
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<p id="3orhcJ">In fact — and perhaps in foreshadowing of Thursday’s indictments — the DOJ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-national-security-terrorism-899caf47624dd8741d04f73e65659e68">announced</a> last week it was establishing a unit dedicated to investigating and prosecuting domestic terrorism, shortly after the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack.</p>
<p id="jwpvy6">“We have seen a growing threat from those who are motivated by racial animus, as well as those who ascribe to extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told lawmakers.</p>
<p id="fKtn5f">Thursday’s indictment, however, could help combat that threat. Jonathon Moseley, an attorney for Stewart Rhodes and his co-defendant Kelly Meggs, told Vox in a phone interview that “the Oath Keepers in general have been pretty much stalled in any of their operations during this whole year.”</p>
<p id="lfUvE8">“So a lot is going to depend on how the trial goes, what the outcome is. If they’re found guilty, they’re going to be sort of a pariah ... so I think a lot is at stake in terms of the viability of the organization and its movement,” Moseley said. </p>
<p id="xPVVjs">The indictment could also affect the ability of extremist groups to plan an attack like the Capitol riot, Michael Edison Hayden, an SPLC spokesperson and senior investigative reporter, told Vox.</p>
<p id="NWH8sj">“Extremists are also paying close attention to the use of Signal” — an <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22226618/what-is-signal-whatsapp-telegram-download-encrypted-messaging">encrypted messaging app</a> — “in making this arrest,” Hayden said. “So many far-right figures are perpetually chasing an online space to plan in secret and Signal’s presence in Rhodes’s indictment is a very clear warning sign that they don’t have any great options left. It’s an arrest that will likely inspire quite a bit of paranoia.”</p>
<p id="kRmME0">Rhodes himself maintained his innocence during an interview with the FBI last year and in a subsequent appearance in Texas early last year, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/14/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-january-6-us-capitol-attack">the Guardian reports</a>. “I may go to jail soon, not for anything I actually did, but for made-up crimes,” Rhodes said at the time. </p>
<p id="HhfWJG">Rhodes has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/us/politics/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-fbi.html">denied in FBI interviews</a> that he ordered members of his group to breach the Capitol building, saying that anyone who did went in only to give medical aid after they heard someone had been shot, and he did not personally breach the Capitol.</p>
<p id="Z11mDI">Even beyond the futures of Rhodes and the Oath Keepers, the implications for Thursday’s indictments could be far-reaching. More than a year after January 6, 2021, both the DOJ and Congress continue to probe the attack, but the DOJ has far more staying power: If Republicans win back the House in the midterm elections, DOJ’s seditious conspiracy case will continue, but the same can’t be said for the January 6 select committee, which could be hamstrung or dismantled if the balance of power changes in the House next year.</p>
<p id="t8n869">Despite the improved resources and focus on domestic extremism in 2022, the government’s case isn’t necessarily a slam-dunk. It’s still momentous, however: As <a href="https://twitter.com/kathleen_belew/status/1481702563531702276?s=20">Belew tweeted</a>, “the outcome of this prosecution will be enormously important if we hope to curb further violent attacks on people, institutions, and democracy itself.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/2022/1/16/22886516/stewart-rhodes-seditious-conspiracy-january-6-oath-keepersEllen Ioanes2022-01-06T07:00:00-05:002022-01-06T07:00:00-05:00To catch an insurrectionist
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<figcaption>A mob breaches the Capitol on January 6, 2021. | Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Everyone thought it was cool to take selfies doing crimes until the FBI got all their data from Google and said hello.</p> <p id="Qz3t2m">A few days after the Capitol insurrection last January, the FBI got two tips identifying an Ohio man named Walter Messer as a participant, and both cited his social media<strong> </strong>posts about being there. To verify those tips, the FBI turned to three companies that held a large amount of damning evidence against Messer, simply as a result of his normal use of their services: AT&T, Facebook, and Google. </p>
<p id="PNwssx">AT&T gave the FBI Messer’s telephone number and a list of cell sites he used, including one that covered the US Capitol building at the time of the insurrection, per the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/case-multi-defendant/file/1417576/download">criminal complaint against Messer</a>. Facebook told the FBI that the phone number provided by AT&T was linked to Messer’s Facebook account, where he posted several selfies from inside the Capitol during the riot. </p>
<p id="C8sdrO">Google gave the FBI precise location data showing Messer’s journey from Ohio to DC and back again between January 5 and 7, as well as his location on the afternoon of January 6 as he wandered around and ultimately inside the Capitol building. The complaint also lists videos of the riot posted on Messer’s YouTube channel, Messer’s YouTube searches, internet searches, and emails from his Gmail account — all used to help build a case against him.</p>
<p id="WlYhu8">Messer was arrested in late July. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including trespassing and violent entry on Capitol grounds.</p>
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<cite>Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>A person in a “Make America Great Again” hat and wearing a Trump flag as a cape poses beside a statue inside the Capitol Rotunda during the riot on January 6, 2021.</figcaption>
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<p id="SwXsOy">This case is just a small part of what’s become one of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/capitol-attack-investigation-largest/2021/03/12/5c07b46c-833d-11eb-9ca6-54e187ee4939_story.html">largest</a> investigations in FBI history, as agents and other law enforcement officers scramble to identify hundreds, if not thousands, of people who invaded the Capitol on January 6 in an unprecedented attempt to stop the democratic transfer of power. </p>
<p id="Lh1L0G">A year later and with more than 700 people charged, we now have a look at how the law enforcement agency handles such an enormous task (or at least, as much as they’re willing to reveal to the public). Rather than revealing the breadth of the FBI’s domestic surveillance capabilities, the majority of cases show the power of the tech industry to collect and collate vast amounts of data on its users — and their obligation to share that data with law enforcement when asked.</p>
<p id="6nbWoU">Case files on the hundreds of people arrested so far show a heavy reliance on the vast stores of data obtained from companies like Facebook and Google. <a href="https://www.stopspying.org/jan6">Many defendants</a> were identified simply by getting tips from the public. The FBI used its various social media accounts and a <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence">section of its website dedicated</a> to the investigation to call for tips. The agency has received more than 200,000 of them, supplied by everyone from close family members to complete strangers. In some cases, amateur sleuths and crowdsourced investigations yielded better results faster than the professionals.</p>
<p id="OJqBKW">Even as the insurrection unfolded, it was apparent that there would be <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22218963/capitol-photos-legal-charges-fbi-police-facebook-twitter">plenty of evidence</a> for investigators to find if they wanted to pursue cases against the rioters. In fact, the rioters generated so much evidence that the Department of Justice has <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/09/doj-database-capitol-riot-prosecutions-498911">paid more than $6 million</a> to build a database of it to provide to defendants’ attorneys as the cases wind their way through the legal system. </p>
<p id="eKpnxk">“I don’t think we can conclusively say that the social media evidence was the only thing that got them caught, but an element of social media evidence was involved,” Jon Lewis, research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told Recode. He added that social media evidence has played a role in about 75 percent of cases so far.</p>
<p id="wnZpQZ">It’s now clear that the FBI either failed to recognize or neglected to act upon a threat that should have been hard to miss, if the agency had been thoroughly monitoring social media in the days leading up to the attack.</p>
<h3 id="LBzAlE">The FBI had to play catch-up</h3>
<p id="3b7wJ1">As the FBI’s investigation ramped up in the days and weeks following January 6, the agency found itself with images of thousands of potential suspects. To put names to faces, it appealed to the public for help, which has been quite effective. The FBI’s wanted posters have led to some of those 200,000 tips, while many others came from people who saw alleged participants’ own social media posts, read <a href="https://www.mlive.com/politics/2021/02/fueled-by-rage-over-a-stolen-election-a-michigan-man-breached-the-us-capitol-after-trumps-call-to-action.html">local media</a> interviews with people who freely admitted to breaching the Capitol building, or even gotten confessions <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bumble-dating-app-trips-another-capitol-riot-suspect-n1274918">from matches on dating apps</a> (this has happened at least twice on Bumble). </p>
<p id="6uBZ6i">At the same time, <a href="https://seditionhunters.org/">loosely organized groups of online amateur sleuths</a>, like the “Sedition Hunters,” have amassed their own pool of suspects. Sometimes, the sleuths find clearer photos than what the FBI has. They’ve also given them clever hashtags — #BloatedCuomo and #ZZTopPB, for instance — to help their photos circulate and be more memorable.</p>
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<cite>Al Drago/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>A bus stop billboard in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2021, displays a message from the FBI seeking information related to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.</figcaption>
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<p id="WGqHwt">“In some ways, they kicked the FBI’s butt in the early days in terms of using these investigative techniques and open source intelligence to figure out who a lot of these individuals were,” said Ryan Reilly, senior justice reporter at HuffPost, who has been tracking the Sedition Hunters’ efforts for an <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1410620785492910082">upcoming book</a>.</p>
<p id="n6bcs1">There is at least one case of the Sedition Hunters doing a better job of identifying a suspect than the FBI did. The FBI <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fbi-capitol-raid-alaska-trump_n_60930634e4b0c15313fbe48f">falsely identified</a> an Alaska woman as a person who helped steal a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Agents went so far as to break down the woman’s door and search her home last spring. But looking through Facebook and using publicly available <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/facial-recognition-capitol-matthew-beddingfield_n_605cc93fc5b67ad3871dad4e">facial recognition tools</a>, online sleuths were able to identify another woman, Maryann Mooney-Rondon, as the suspect. They found photos of Mooney-Rondon wearing the same jewelry as the woman in the video inside the Capitol building. She and her son Rafael Rondon<strong> </strong>were arrested <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-attack-arrest-mother-son-pelosi-office_n_6155e986e4b099230d2095e4">in October</a> and <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/watertown-mother-son-enter-not-050100479.html">pleaded not guilty</a> to charges including theft of government property and trespassing.</p>
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<cite>FBI via AP</cite>
<figcaption>An image from video provided by the FBI appears to show Maryann Mooney-Rondon and her son Rafael Rondon inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021.</figcaption>
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<p id="mMFjsa">The FBI might not have to rely so heavily on others to make these initial identifications if the alleged participants were on their radar in the first place. Despite <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/74622/stopthesteal-timeline-of-social-media-and-extremist-activities-leading-to-1-6-insurrection/">having months</a>, if not years, to recognize the growing threat of QAnon conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and right-wing extremists, including the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/proud-boys-leaders-biggs-nordean-capitol-riot-jailed-ae6c6a6de9a58a2c4a92024d29bd8ee3">Proud Boys</a>, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/10/1054024084/capitol-riot-suspects-had-more-ties-to-oath-keepers-than-previously-known">Oath Keepers</a>, and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/first-person-linked-three-percenters-plead-guilty-us-capitol-riot-2021-08-11/">Three Percenters</a>, the FBI failed to realize the potential for violence those groups could do. </p>
<p id="sXZPbW">They also didn’t seem to take seriously the widely publicized “Stop the Steal” rally that immediately preceded the insurrection and prompted thousands to march to the Capitol in an attempt to stop Joe Biden from becoming president. There was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/25/us/politics/capitol-riot-fbi-informant.html">at least one FBI informant</a> in the crowd, and reports about what law enforcement knew and when have varied. But many see January 6 as a fundamental failure to either collect or correctly assess intelligence (if not both), given the ultimate result.</p>
<p id="liPXAW">“The FBI and Justice Department have long deprioritized white supremacist and far-right militant violence in their domestic terrorism program,” Michael German, a former FBI agent and current fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s liberty and national security program, told Recode. “So it would seem that this was the prime opportunity for the FBI to engage. But they chose not to.”</p>
<p id="k7sY9L">Contrast this apparent lack of action with reports of law enforcement’s close monitoring and infiltration of groups associated with left-leaning movements, such as in Portland, Oregon. The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/22/us/portland-protests-fbi-surveillance.html">recently reported</a> that activists involved in Portland protests against police violence were subject to “extensive surveillance operations” in the summer of 2020. The FBI is also famous for <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/federal-bureau-investigation-fbi">decades</a> of history surveilling <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/29/fbi-surveillance-black-activists/">Black activists</a>, and there are countless reports of law enforcement monitoring of Muslim communities for years following 9/11.</p>
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<cite>Carolyn Kaster/AP</cite>
<figcaption>Proud Boys including Joseph Biggs, front left, and Ethan Nordean, second from left with megaphone, walk toward the Capitol in support of then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.</figcaption>
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<p id="Wm0did">“So much of the organizing went on in places that the FBI would never be allowed to surveil (particularly under a Trump presidency),” explained Joseph Brown, a professor of political science at University of Massachusetts Boston. “The agency’s surveillance capabilities are very good, but they could never have been employed fully in this case.”</p>
<p id="tlCCtq">German, the former FBI agent, says he finds it troubling that so many allegedly violent participants remain unidentified. He expected the agency to make it a priority to find and arrest the most dangerous offenders as soon as possible. Instead, it appears that the FBI has gone after the low-hanging fruit — the people who essentially “told on themselves,” as Lewis, the extremism researcher, noted.</p>
<p id="pMM7Pp">The numbers back up these claims. Of the more than <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/one-year-jan-6-attack-capitol">725 people</a> who have been arrested for Capitol riot-related crimes, less than a third of them have been charged with assaulting or resisting law enforcement officers, and only 75 people have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. At least 350 people the FBI suspects committed violent acts on Capitol grounds remain unidentified, though it’s likely this list will grow, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-riot-investigation.html">as many as 2,000 people expected to be charged</a> by the time the investigation concludes. Meanwhile, the Sedition Hunters have listed hundreds more in their own unofficial database.</p>
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<cite>Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP</cite>
<figcaption>Doug Jensen, center, confronts a Capitol Police officer in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber on January 6, 2021.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="bvi8Ty">Data-hungry tech companies are making the FBI’s job easier</h3>
<p id="L0AKvi">Reading through the cases of the people who have been charged paints a picture of just how extensively various companies track us, and how much more of our data a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/technology/google-sensorvault-location-tracking.html">company like Google has</a> than the actual government apparently does. The January 6 investigation is not an isolated example of this, although it makes for a pretty good one, given its scale, notoriety, and just how much digital evidence was left by so many people. </p>
<p id="rAImaC">“Social media has become a place where investigators, more and more often, are getting formally trained to look for evidence … on a regular basis,” said Adam Wandt, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and cybercrime investigations expert. </p>
<p id="ERhif9">While those accused of taking part in the riot posted plenty of evidence on various platforms, tracking that goes on underneath the surface can also be used against them in the coming months and years. Though controversial, law enforcement has used some of these methods of tracking and data collection in the Capitol insurrection investigation. </p>
<p id="3sExaR">For example, the <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-526.pdf">FBI admits</a> to using commercial facial recognition technology systems, including Vigilant Solutions and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/11/21131991/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-database-law-enforcement">Clearview AI</a>, which scrape the internet for photos, rather than relying on license photos and mugshots. Stephen Chase Randolph <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/facial-recognition-capitol-defendants_n_607f34c0e4b0df3610c17614">was identified</a> by using an “open source facial recognition tool” that matched a photo of him on his girlfriend’s Instagram page. Randolph is accused of assaulting a police officer and rendering her unconscious. He has pleaded not guilty.</p>
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<cite>Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Rioters take photos and videos after breaching the Capitol.</figcaption>
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<p id="9QEnqm">Geofence warrants are another tool that has <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22565926/police-law-enforcement-data-warrant">drawn concern among privacy and civil rights groups</a>. Also known as reverse search warrants, these orders require companies to provide all the accounts that were in a certain area at a certain time, in the hope that a suspect can be identified within that group. That means the devices of perfectly innocent people might be caught in, essentially, a digital dragnet. Law enforcement agencies are using them <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/google-geofence-warrants/">more and more</a> with little oversight. <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/capitol-riot-google-geofence-warrant/">Documents in multiple January 6 cases</a> say the FBI has and is using geofence data of all devices on the Capitol grounds during the insurrection. Anyone inside the Capitol building who had an Android phone turned on or used a Google application during the riot was likely caught in the geofence warrant. </p>
<p id="aYNI9i">This seems to be how the agency <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/case-multi-defendant/file/1417721/download">found Amy Schubert</a>. After receiving a tip that a woman wearing a jacket with a Joliet, Illinois, union’s logo on it could be seen in a YouTube video of the insurrection, the FBI searched its geofence database for Google accounts that had a Joliet area code. There were six. Two of those belonged to women, and a quick search revealed Schubert’s Facebook page, which featured a photo of a woman who looked just like the woman in the video. Investigators got a search warrant for Schubert’s Google account and found that her phone was inside the Capitol building on January 6 and that it took several photos and videos while there. Some of them showed her husband, John. He was also arrested. Both Schuberts <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/12/03/john-amy-schubert-crest-hill-couple-pleads-guilty-us-capitol-breach-insurrection-attack/">pleaded guilty</a> to demonstrating in a Capitol building in December.</p>
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<cite>Jose Luis Magana/AP</cite>
<figcaption>Rioters scale the west wall of the US Capitol.</figcaption>
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<p id="jwNJl1">That’s not to say that the Schuberts and other Capitol rioters wouldn’t have been caught if not for Google; the FBI may have other tools at its disposal it could have used to identify and catch them. But Google certainly seems to be the simplest, and bound by the fewest legal restrictions when it comes to collecting and keeping so much data on so many people — unlike the government, which has to get warrants and show cause to monitor American citizens this way. That means a bunch of private businesses are almost certainly tracking you right now. Unless it has a good reason to do so, the government probably isn’t.</p>
<p id="44g7Sp">While tech companies have helped the FBI find the people who didn’t make much or enough of an effort to hide their actions, one of the most potentially dangerous suspects remains at large: The person who <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/suspected-pipe-bombs-in-washington-dc">placed pipe bombs</a> outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the insurrection has yet to be identified. The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, and has released surveillance videos and photos of the suspect with their face obscured, a map of their likely route, and detailed information about the shoes they were wearing. </p>
<p id="Y80dvc">The <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/1035402389/the-fbi-releases-new-video-of-the-suspect-who-planted-bombs-before-the-capitol-r">FBI also says</a> it’s interviewed hundreds of people, collected tens of thousands of video files, and followed up on more than 300 tips trying to find the pipe bomber, yet they remain unknown and on the loose as far as we know. The Sedition Hunters have even <a href="https://seditionhunters.org/seditionbomber/">dedicated a section</a> of their site to them. But without a preponderance of social media evidence and mobile device data, it seems to be a lot harder for the FBI to identify people who make efforts to stay hidden.</p>
<p id="FOw3RS">Others have been less careful. In the weeks after the Capitol riot, Walter Messer, the Ohio man, did some internet sleuthing of his own, according to the web search history the FBI obtained from Google. He looked up news articles about Capitol arrests, FBI billboards, and Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died shortly after the riot. Messer also wanted to know what the penalties were for violating federal trespassing laws. A few months later, when he was charged with breaking federal trespassing laws, these searches were used as probable cause to arrest him.</p>
https://www.vox.com/recode/22867000/january-6-fbi-search-facebook-google-insurrectionSara Morrison2021-05-22T17:43:35-04:002021-05-22T17:43:35-04:00Democrats barely passed a bill to increase security at the US Capitol
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<img alt="CAPITOL POLICE" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XmrJlN2useut110367J75yiJRnw=/494x0:4449x2966/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69329029/1232848991.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Capitol Police officers ride past the US Capitol on May 12, 2001. | Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Republicans and some progressive Democrats opposed the January 6-inspired measure.</p> <p id="655T8x">A $1.9 billion emergency funding bill to boost security at the US Capitol in the wake of the January 6 insurrection barely passed the House on Thursday. The measure, which would also provide additional personal security for lawmakers facing an <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/lawmakers-security-jan-6-threats-490165">intensifying wave</a> of threats and harassment in Washington and their home districts, received no Republican support, and exposed fissures within the Democratic Party over the issue of increasing funding for any police force.</p>
<p id="Rl0oW2">The bill ultimately passed on Thursday, following last-minute negotiations led by House Speaker Nancy<strong> </strong>Pelosi, with 213 votes for the bill and 212 against.</p>
<p id="pj67Ft">Every voting Republican voted no on the bill, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-security-vote-democrats-spending-bill/2021/05/20/299b7af2-b972-11eb-96b9-e949d5397de9_story.html">claiming</a> that it cost too much money and that there was no guarantee the funding would be properly spent enhancing security. Those votes followed recent statements from Republicans that <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/554834-gop-efforts-to-downplay-danger-of-capitol-riot-increase?rl=1">downplayed or outright fabricated</a> facts about the violence that transpired at the Capitol on January 6. </p>
<p id="5O38be">More strikingly, Democrats were not unified among themselves. Left-wing members of the House, including the members of the so-called <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/7/17/20696474/squad-congresswomen-trump-pressley-aoc-omar-tlaib">Squad</a>, broke from the party out of what could be described as a defund-the-police rationale.</p>
<p id="asOcCa">Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (MO), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Ayanna Pressley (MA) voted against the legislation; Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Jamaal Bowman (NY), and Rashida Tlaib (MI), voted present, which means they officially took no position.</p>
<p id="QdsKY9">The defection is a sign of fissures within the party over how to think about police reform and the use of force, a policy domain that has been a source of intense national debate since the protests that swept the nation last year following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. </p>
<p id="i09dk9">It also appears to be a carefully aimed warning shot by the Squad, illustrating that, when they’re unified, they have the ability to torpedo Democratic legislation. The Democratic Party relies on a narrow majority in the House to pass any one of its bills. </p>
<p id="GJgOlX">Bush, Omar, and Pressley released a <a href="https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-bush-omar-pressley-statement-emergency-security-supplemental">joint statement</a>, saying a package that “pours $1.9 billion into increased police surveillance and force without addressing the underlying threats of organized and violent white supremacy, radicalization, and disinformation that led to this attack will not prevent it from happening again.”</p>
<p id="PLDSKu">Bowman <a href="https://www.cbs58.com/news/house-to-vote-on-19-billion-capitol-security-bill-after-january-6-insurrection">told reporters</a> he voted present because “there are some things about the bill that I support, like making sure our custodial staff and our cleaners have the resources they need to respond and deal with this trauma, but there are other parts of it that I don’t support, like adding more funding to police budgets.”</p>
<p id="vv7VDV">While Democrats have been unified on most major legislation during the opening months of the Biden administration, that unity may not hold as more complicated and polarizing policy issues come up for debate, throwing some Democratic bills into jeopardy.</p>
<p id="5CbzIk">Meanwhile, Republicans’ unified opposition to a nominally pro-law enforcement bill may signal — once again — a challenge to President Joe Biden’s vision of being able to unify Congress around shared values.</p>
<h3 id="ABKtCW">January 6 and its aftermath raised serious security questions</h3>
<p id="Q7ayrM">The violence and security breaches by pro-Trump rioters seeking to shut down the certification of the 2020 election results on January 6 have raised big questions about what security should look like at the US Capitol going forward.</p>
<p id="PSkJOe">Capitol Police were <a href="https://www.vox.com/22218446/capitol-police-mob-trump-storming-washington-dc">unprepared for and slow to react to</a> thousands of demonstrators — some of whom were armed — who stormed the Capitol, destroyed property, chanted death threats, searched the halls for lawmakers, and shut down the certification of the election results. Some <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html">140 officers were injured</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-building-attack.html">several people died</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-insurrection-could-have-been-deadlier-experts-say-2021-1">Experts say</a> things could’ve gone far worse, had lawmakers not narrowly avoided the mob in a few close encounters.</p>
<p id="IYAyx9">The crisis in turn has precipitated massive scrutiny of the Capitol Police and created a morale problem in its ranks, which appears to have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/politics/capitol-police-officers-left-force-january-insurrection/index.html">caused an uptick in resignations and retirements</a> among rank-and-file officers. </p>
<p id="INNjSU">In spite of this, Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate have <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/16/22438835/gop-whitewash-capitol-attack-january-6-commission-mccarthy">downplayed</a> the threat that Capitol Police faced on January 6. This has served to both exonerate supporters of former President Donald Trump for their role in the violence on that day, and also underpinned arguments for maintaining the security status quo at the Capitol. </p>
<p id="ploqpH">At a hearing last week, one House Republican from Georgia <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/">said</a> that some of the people who broke into the Capitol on January 6 were behaving as if on “a normal tourist visit” to Washington. Another likened the rioters to a “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-government-and-politics-f4a96296f56e1896220050618d59ea74">mob of misfits</a>.” And appearing on a Fox News program on Wednesday, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson called the incursion a “<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/554548-ron-johnson-jan-6-capitol-riot-was-largely-peaceful-not-an-insurrection">peaceful protest</a>.” </p>
<p id="pgscBo">A majority of Republicans also opposed the formation of an independent commission tasked with investigating the events of the day. While <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/21/republican-leaders-claim-that-jan-6-commission-bill-would-not-allow-gop-staff-hires/">35 House Republicans</a> broke ranks with their party on Wednesday to support the investigation, top Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/politics/kevin-mccarthy-opposes-1-6-commission/index.html">opposed such an inquiry</a>. </p>
<p id="vFNnag">This disregard for the perils that Congress members faced on January 6 comes as threats and harassment against lawmakers have been increasing. Members of Congress <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/lawmakers-security-jan-6-threats-490165">report</a> that they’re increasingly being confronted in public, receiving threats to their families, and having private details of their lives posted online. Compared to last year, threats against federal lawmakers have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/threats-against-members-of-congress-have-more-than-doubled-this-year.html">more than doubled</a> so far this year.</p>
<p id="fxW1nn">The nearly $2 billion bill passed Thursday is meant to address a wide variety of issues, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/house-congress-capitol-security-489792">including</a>: back pay for overtime hours, hazard pay, and retention bonuses; better equipment and training; a “new quick-reaction team that would essentially create a standing force of the D.C. National Guard,” <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/house-congress-capitol-security-489792">according to Politico</a>; fortifying the Capitol complex with movable fencing, surveillance equipment, and reinforced windows and doors; and extra security for lawmakers who have been threatened and typically are not eligible for publicly funded security.</p>
<h3 id="0IhHEF">The Squad is averse to increased police funding without reform</h3>
<p id="lBAGJ8">Without any Republican support, Democrats were able to pass the spending package, but just barely. Pelosi and other top Dems had to scramble to try to assuage the Squad’s concerns about the bill, which included, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/house-congress-capitol-security-489792">according to Politico</a>, considerations about allocating more money to a Capitol Police force in which some officers indirectly contributed to the day’s violence through lax enforcement.</p>
<p id="SY3Wzl">“I am tired of the fact that any time where there is a failure in our system of policing, the first response is for us to give them more money, rather than investigate the failings and hold those responsible accountable,” Omar, who voted against the bill, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/20/squad-capitol-police-funding-pressley-aoc-omar/">told the Intercept</a>. “I’ll continue to fight for structural change that actually centers people’s safety and humanity. That applies to us here in the Capitol, as well as my constituents in Minneapolis.”</p>
<p id="OvLYHb">The <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/20/squad-capitol-police-funding-pressley-aoc-omar/">joint statement</a> from Omar, Bush, and Pressley expressed a broader set of concerns with the bill. Here’s a key passage:</p>
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<p id="HPlKFb">Increasing law enforcement funds does not inherently protect or safeguard the Capitol Hill or surrounding D.C. community. In fact, this bill is being passed before we have any real investigation into the events of January 6th and the failures involved because Republicans have steadfastly obstructed the creation of a January 6th commission. </p>
<p id="2huDBr">The bill also does far too little to address the unspeakable trauma of the countless officers, staff, and support workers who were on site that day – dedicating fifty times more money to the creation of a ‘quick reaction force’ than it does to counseling. We cannot support this increased funding while many of our communities continue to face police brutality while marching in the streets, and while questions about the disparate response between insurrectionists and those protesting in defense of Black lives go unanswered. </p>
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<p id="8XIST3">Ultimately, Pelosi’s Democratic caucus emerged with the bill they wanted because three members of the Squad decided to vote “present” rather than oppose it.</p>
<p id="6x0PpE">But the entire episode showed the progressive wing of House Democrats flexing its muscle as a voting bloc, and likely foreshadows future legislative battles to come, whether on issues tied to criminal justice or other major points of policy disagreement.</p>
<p id="8ImIOD">Pelosi’s 11th-hour negotiations to save the bill also suggest that, with a narrow majority in the House, Democratic Party leadership cannot afford to alienate its most progressive members on any must-pass legislation — potentially offering those farther-left members more leverage on their own priorities.</p>
<p id="Wm0L12">And while Biden and Democratic House leadership seem to have been able to satisfy the Squad on Biden’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/10/22320350/biden-sign-stimulus-bill-covid-19">coronavirus relief bill</a> and the administration’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-praised-vision-joe-bide-infrastructure-plan-should-be-bigger-2021-4">opening gambit on a massive infrastructure bill</a>, some rifts between the establishment and the Squad may have further-reaching consequences. For example, in light of Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza,<strong> </strong>some members of the Squad <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gqzq/aoc-and-the-squad-are-trying-to-block-the-us-from-selling-bombs-to-israel">introduced an unprecedented resolution</a> to block Biden’s $735 million arms sale to Israel this week; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a similar proposal <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/20/sen-bernie-sanders-introduce-resolution-disapproval-735-million-us-arms-sale-israel/">in the Senate</a>. </p>
<p id="K2KBpn">While these resolutions are unlikely to get traction, they can embolden others in the party to break from Biden — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/israel-arms-sale-biden-democrats/2021/05/19/edc11814-b8d8-11eb-a5fe-bb49dc89a248_story.html">as some briefly seemed to do</a> on the weapons sale — and serve as symbols of how the small left-wing bloc in Congress could become a thorn in the side of party leadership in the coming months and years.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2021/5/22/22448803/capitol-police-security-january-6-billZeeshan Aleem2021-05-16T16:15:00-04:002021-05-16T16:15:00-04:00The GOP whitewash of the Capitol attack shows the need for a January 6 commission
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kqTeUcGTOUvpMUcxRtHVF42QCv8=/265x0:5129x3648/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69295943/1155697616.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) holds a news conference at the US Capitol in 2019. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Two House Republicans have suggested that a commission could subpoena Kevin McCarthy.</p> <p id="LPE7gu">On Sunday, a <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1393920465253588995?s=20">second</a> House Republican suggested that, if a congressional <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/january-6-commission-capitol-attack/2021/05/14/615a4484-b4c5-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html">commission</a> examining the January 6 attack on the US Capitol materializes, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) could soon receive a subpoena to testify.</p>
<p id="PnFik8">Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) joined former Republican House conference chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/5/22419504/liz-cheney-trump-big-lie">ousted</a> from that job Wednesday, in <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl/status/1393289451208679424?s=20">suggesting</a> that a subpoena could be on the table for McCarthy, telling CNN’s Dana Bash on <em>State of the Union</em> that “I would suspect Kevin would be subpoenaed.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">“I would suspect Kevin would be subpoenaed” and other members too, Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, says to <a href="https://twitter.com/DanaBashCNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DanaBashCNN</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSotu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNNSotu</a>, referring to the Jan. 6 commission and McCarthy’s conversations with Trump.</p>— Manu Raju (@mkraju) <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1393920250719113222?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2021</a>
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<p id="v5BYjd">Cheney struck a similar note in an <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1393288379605913600?s=20">interview segment</a> released Friday, telling ABC’s Jonathan Karl that McCarthy “absolutely should [testify] and I wouldn’t be surprised if he were subpoenaed.”</p>
<p id="ON58Pj">“I think that he very clearly said publicly that he’s got information about the president’s state of mind that day,” Cheney said. “The elements of that commission are exactly as they should be.”</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">JUST IN: Rep. Liz Cheney tells <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jonkarl</a> that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy should "absolutely" testify before possible commission investigating Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.<br><br>"I wouldn't be surprised if he were subpoenaed."<br><br>Watch the interview Sunday on <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ThisWeekABC</a>. <a href="https://t.co/3D46K3uOeV">pic.twitter.com/3D46K3uOeV</a></p>— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1393288379605913600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2021</a>
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<p id="JR8tH3">Upton and Cheney were among the 10 House Republicans who broke from McCarthy in January to vote to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/13/22227519/house-second-impeachment-trump-incitement-insurrection">impeach</a> former President Donald Trump in the wake of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, which left <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-building-attack.html">five people dead</a>.</p>
<p id="RALkyC">Since the attack, House members, who were forced to evacuate the chamber after it was stormed by pro-Trump insurrectionists, have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/18/22390623/pelosi-renews-call-congress-investigate-the-capitol-insurrection-commission">debating</a> the potential creation of an independent investigative commission, after the pattern of the one formed following 9/11, to look into the January 6 riots.</p>
<p id="u34RAX">As of Friday, when the leaders of the House Homeland Security Committee announced a <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-thompson-announces-bipartisan-agreement-with-ranking-member-katko-to-create-commission-to-investigate-the-january-6-attack-on-the-capitol">bipartisan agreement</a> on its formation, that commission looks closer than ever — much to McCarthy’s potential discomfort, should he be called to testify.</p>
<p id="W7Ql6a">If McCarthy testifies either voluntarily or under subpoena as part of the commission’s investigation, he could face the prospect of bridging the rather large gap between Trump — who has shown no inclination to relinquish his grasp on the Republican Party — and the truth of what happened on January 6.</p>
<p id="KK6O7A">As <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/12/politics/trump-mccarthy-shouting-match-details/index.html">CNN</a> and other outlets have reported previously — and pro-impeachment Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) <a href="https://jhb.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402083">confirmed</a> in a statement in February — McCarthy spoke with Trump while the riots were still ongoing and pleaded with Trump to call his supporters off.</p>
<p id="FnmV5T">According to Herrera Beutler, Trump “initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol” on the call with McCarthy.</p>
<p id="XDmpj5">Subsequently, Herrera Beutler said in her February statement, “McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’”</p>
<p id="do9V5R">Other Republicans have corroborated Trump’s state of mind as the attack was unfolding. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-actions-capitol-attacks/2021/02/09/6dada250-6a3b-11eb-9ead-673168d5b874_story.html">According to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE)</a>, “Donald Trump was walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building.”</p>
<p id="hVXNDv">If McCarthy is called upon to substantiate Herrera Beutler’s account of the McCarthy-Trump call for the commission, however, it would likely also put McCarthy in an awkward position politically.</p>
<p id="qcaxM5">That’s because McCarthy’s call with Trump — which <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/12/politics/trump-mccarthy-shouting-match-details/index.html">reportedly</a> took place as rioters were attempting to break through the minority leader’s office windows — is a reminder of the true severity of the January 6 attacks, and of Trump’s support for the mob, who he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IZ0pNu2h-8">described</a> as “very special” in a video later the same day. It’s also increasingly out of step with a Republican conference eager to <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1392637353232158722?s=20">downplay</a> the insurrection and a former president who is hypersensitive to criticism — and it’s hard to imagine McCarthy looking forward to giving a faithful retelling of January 6 to a potential commission.</p>
<h3 id="5QYlH5">The commission plan isn’t confirmed yet</h3>
<p id="EzIHSB">Despite Upton’s and Cheney’s comments, there are still lots of “ifs” floating around any potential McCarthy testimony — including the commission itself. Although Friday’s <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-thompson-announces-bipartisan-agreement-with-ranking-member-katko-to-create-commission-to-investigate-the-january-6-attack-on-the-capitol">agreement</a> between House Homeland Security Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and ranking member John Katko (R-NY) gives the commission at least a veneer of bipartisanship, it’s less clear how much support the proposal will find with House GOP leadership.</p>
<p id="tRLwoW">Katko, specifically, is an outlier — one of just 10 House Republicans to support impeaching Trump — and his conference just purged the only member of leadership, Cheney, who voted to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/13/22227519/house-second-impeachment-trump-incitement-insurrection">impeach</a> Trump for inciting insurrection.</p>
<p id="CIrXbv">For now, McCarthy has yet to come down either for or against the plan — <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1393201620188647429?s=20">telling reporters Friday</a> that he hadn’t approved the deal and wants to see more details — but a vote on the measure could be coming “as soon as next week,” according to the <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-thompson-announces-bipartisan-agreement-with-ranking-member-katko-to-create-commission-to-investigate-the-january-6-attack-on-the-capitol">statement</a> released by Thompson.</p>
<p id="RyO3tv">“Inaction — or just moving on — is simply not an option,” Thompson said Friday. “The creation of this commission is our way of taking responsibility for protecting the US Capitol. ... We owe it to the Capitol Police and all who enter our citadel of democracy to investigate the attack.”</p>
<p id="SsuZfz">There are also questions about whether a McCarthy subpoena could materialize even if the commission is established in its proposed form.</p>
<h3 id="XoZ0l4">McCarthy will likely get a say in selecting half of the commission</h3>
<p id="S5ELeo">According to the <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-thompson-announces-bipartisan-agreement-with-ranking-member-katko-to-create-commission-to-investigate-the-january-6-attack-on-the-capitol">statement</a> by Thompson, the independent commission would consist of 10 members appointed by a bipartisan, bicameral leadership group — five by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), including the commission chair, and five by McCarthy himself and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), including a vice chair.</p>
<p id="8MK5zT">None of those members may be sitting members of Congress or current government employees, according to Thompson, and they must all have “significant expertise in the areas of law enforcement, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, intelligence, and cybersecurity.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The negotiation between McCarthy and McConnell - one who still talks to Trump regularly and the other who won't say his name -- over the 5 GOP commissioners will be....interesting<br><br>NOTE: "Current government officers or employees are prohibited from appointment"</p>— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) <a href="https://twitter.com/jmartNYT/status/1393204946347216900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2021</a>
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<p id="0IhzHY">Though the commission would have subpoena power in its proposed form, actually issuing a subpoena would require at least limited bipartisan consensus — either an agreement between the chair and vice chair, or a simple majority vote.</p>
<p id="HK6zsD">In other words, McCarthy would have a direct hand in choosing enough commission members to block the subpoena process if they vote as a bloc, which could make Upton and Cheney’s suggestion that McCarthy be subpoenaed aspirational at best.</p>
<h3 id="8rjBDg">The Republican conference is trying to whitewash the insurrection</h3>
<p id="Y5Kt7X">If the commission proposal, which calls for a final report and “recommendations to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions” to be issued by the end of this calendar year, does come to fruition, it could be a valuable reminder of what actually occurred on January 6 — which some House Republicans appear increasingly fuzzy about.</p>
<p id="GHMBEx">In just the past week, the GOP effort to whitewash the insurrection, which <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/51421">injured</a> 140 members of law enforcement, has kicked into high gear.</p>
<p id="GITIzh">On Wednesday, for example, in a committee hearing on the attack, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that “there was no insurrection and to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a boldfaced lie.”</p>
<p id="birVPp">“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos and pictures,” Clyde said. “You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">i want to reiterate how crazy it is for Andrew Clyde to say this. bonkers. one of the craziest things i’ve heard uttered in a dozen years covering Congress. <a href="https://t.co/8Xlzwx2uXl">https://t.co/8Xlzwx2uXl</a></p>— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1392637353232158722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2021</a>
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<p id="NdBL2D">Clyde isn’t alone. Also this week, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/scottwongDC/status/1393255920419934213?s=20">said</a> “there’s no evidence this was an armed insurrection,” and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1392524853698306057?s=20">described</a> the insurrectionists as “peaceful patriots.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rep. Paul Gosar offers unequivocal defense of the January 6 insurrectionists, describing them as "peaceful patriots" who are being "harassed" by the DOJ <a href="https://t.co/b4Ijgvfz3V">pic.twitter.com/b4Ijgvfz3V</a></p>— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1392524853698306057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2021</a>
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<p id="y3Umb1">Needless to say, all three statements (and there are <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1392968312523481094?s=20">several</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1392528190216851459?s=20">others</a> in the same vein just from this week) are flat-out false — and there’s abundant video evidence to prove it.</p>
<p id="nBK3eh">In addition to all of the footage that has already emerged from the riot — much of which is graphic and disturbing — CNN just this week obtained new bodycam video showing a DC Metropolitan Police officer, Michael Fanone, being attacked by the mob.</p>
<p id="mV0A5l">According to CNN, Fanone was “stun-gunned several times and beaten with a flagpole” by Trump supporters. He also suffered a “mild” heart attack, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/14/dc-police-capitol-riot/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8">according to the Washington Post</a>, and at least one insurrectionist shouted that the mob should “kill [Fanone] with his own gun!”</p>
<p id="cGwvIV">As the Washington Post editorial board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-jan-6-commission-should-make-it-harder-for-republicans-to-twist-the-truth/2021/05/14/6966d9fa-b41e-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html?itid=sf_opinions-the-posts-view">argued</a> on Friday, it’s no sure thing that the 9/11-style commission agreed on by Thompson and Katko would stop Republicans from pushing a false, revisionist account of January 6.</p>
<p id="E7ZA7z">“But,” the board writes, “as [the commission] answers outstanding questions about how the riot occurred and who is responsible — in part, we hope, by taking the sworn testimony of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other eyewitness lawmakers — the panel ought to make it harder for Republicans to twist the truth.”</p>
<p id="t0mf7X">Upton himself has made the same point: In the same <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2105/16/sotu.01.html">CNN interview</a> Sunday, he told Bash that his colleagues’ claims that the attack was “peaceful” were “absolutely bogus.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Republican Rep. Fred Upton on the Jan. 6 US Capitol riot: “It was chilling what happened. Absolutely chilling. And that's why I think that it's important that we move forward with this bipartisan commission” <a href="https://t.co/0EEa9RR4Ys">https://t.co/0EEa9RR4Ys</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNNSOTU?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CNNSOTU</a> <a href="https://t.co/FSCIUxzvqC">pic.twitter.com/FSCIUxzvqC</a></p>— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1393922541065064450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2021</a>
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<p id="dqvsIu">“I saw the gallows that were constructed on the East Front of the Capitol,” Upton <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1393922541065064450?s=20">said</a>. “It was chilling, what happened, absolutely chilling. And that’s why I think that it’s important that we move forward with this bipartisan commission.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/2021/5/16/22438835/gop-whitewash-capitol-attack-january-6-commission-mccarthyCameron Peters2021-04-18T15:50:00-04:002021-04-18T15:50:00-04:00Pelosi renews call for Congress to investigate the Capitol insurrection
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<figcaption>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a news conference on April 15, in Washington, DC. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The House speaker hopes to form a commission that sheds more light on the events of January 6.</p> <p id="nsLweb">House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) renewed her call for a congressional commission to investigate <a href="https://www.vox.com/22217039/capitol-attack-trump-rally-election-biden-explained">the January 6 Capitol insurrection</a> in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to her Democratic House colleagues Friday.</p>
<p id="dmzgWw">The letter, sent to mark 100 days since the attempted revolt, indicated that Pelosi recently sent another proposal to Republican House leadership seeking to create a formal group in the vein of the 9/11 Commission. </p>
<p id="A3aled">“Compromise has been necessary; now, we must agree on the scope, composition and resources necessary to seek and find the truth,” Pelosi wrote. “It is my hope that we can reach agreement very soon. At the same time, committees in the House and Senate have been holding and planning hearings, which will be a resource to the commission.”</p>
<p id="dRn713">Thousands of <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/22232660/trump-capitol-extremism-insurrection-riot-inauguration">supporters</a> of former President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/6/22217657/us-capitol-breach-trump-rally-presidential-election">stormed the Capitol</a> on January 6 while both the House and Senate were in the process of certifying the Electoral College votes. Six people, including one Capitol Police Department officer, died as a result of the day’s events.</p>
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<p id="SYoGAk">Pelosi commemorated Brian Sicknick, the CPD officer who<a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/brian-sicknick-capitol-police-officer-dies-after-riot.html"> died during the insurrection</a>, in her letter, as well as Billy Evans, a CPD officer who died <a href="https://kfdm.com/news/local/drivers-tries-to-breach-barricade-outside-capitol-strikes-two-police-officers">when a car attempted to overrun</a> a Capitol barricade earlier this month. Both officers were <a href="https://www.aoc.gov/what-we-do/programs-ceremonies/lying-in-state-honor">lain in honor</a> in the Capitol for their bravery in giving their lives to protect the Capitol and members of Congress.</p>
<p id="Kq3e1A">Calls for a congressional commission began almost immediately following the insurrection, and Trump was impeached over his role in inciting the violence in late January. He escaped conviction in the Republican-controlled Senate <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/2/13/22280838/senate-acquits-donald-trump-impeachment-vote">despite seven of his party’s senators crossing over to vote for his conviction</a>.</p>
<p id="SQ8E43">Democratic lawmakers would like to bring to light more facts surrounding the events of that day — who contributed to the organizing, whether the White House had a direct hand in organizing the riot, and law enforcement’s planning and response to the threat posed by the far-right mob.</p>
<p id="xSaUy5">Pelosi, however, hasn’t done herself any favors in attempting to form the commission. In early February, the speaker proposed a commission consisting of seven Democrats and four Republicans to “conduct an investigation of the relevant facts and circumstances relating to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.”</p>
<p id="ZDpvNF">Republican leadership responded by objecting to the partisan imbalance in the initial proposal, and attempting to broaden the commission’s scope to include all political violence within the United States. Republicans have also sought subpoena power for conservative members of the commission.</p>
<p id="eQoMsG">“If Congress is going to attempt some broader analysis of toxic political violence across this country, then in that case, we cannot have artificial cherry-picking of which terrible behavior does and does not deserve scrutiny,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riot-commission-pelosi-2021-04-16/">said in February</a>.</p>
<p id="3kqpA4">As for the newest call to action, Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) denied that he’d received a fresh proposal from Pelosi’s office, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riot-commission-pelosi-2021-04-16/">according to a CBS News report</a>. </p>
<p id="fLYLjG">“Neither the Republican leader nor his staff have been provided Speaker Pelosi’s latest proposal, but hopefully the speaker has addressed our basic concerns of equal representation and subpoena authority,” a spokesperson for McCarthy told CBS News.</p>
<p id="g8Sdv0">The Republican strategy throughout appears to be an attempt to distract from their party’s responsibility in driving the social and political dynamics which led to the insurrection, by pointing to random examples of left-wing violence. What-about-ism has become a common GOP tactic over recent years.</p>
<p id="FPfcfr">But it remains to be seen whether the actions — and words — of several Republican lawmakers who promoted the “<a href="https://www.wamc.org/post/can-forces-unleashed-trumps-big-election-lie-be-undone">big lie</a>” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump will be within the scope of the commission’s investigation.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2021/4/18/22390623/pelosi-renews-call-congress-investigate-the-capitol-insurrection-commissionKatelyn Burns2021-02-16T16:10:00-05:002021-02-16T16:10:00-05:00A new lawsuit targets Trump and the Proud Boys under a law enacted to stop the KKK
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<figcaption>Protesters who claim to be a members of the Proud Boys gather with other Trump supporters outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. | Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>They are accused of conspiring to incite the Capitol attack. </p> <p id="ghPrhO">Though the Senate voted to acquit former President Donald Trump of inciting the Capitol insurrection on Saturday, some Democrats are still seeking to ensure that he and his associates, as well as the far-right hate groups that participated in the attack, are held accountable. </p>
<p id="bGwZdA">Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, sued Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and two far-right groups, the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers, on Tuesday, claiming that they conspired to interfere with Congress’s certification of the 2020 election results. </p>
<p id="z0UccF">The <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20484426/2-16-21-thompson-v-trump-complaint.pdf">complaint</a> — which was filed in collaboration with the NAACP in Washington, DC, federal court and seeks financial damages — argues that the groups pursued a “common plan” that culminated in the “Save America” rally on January 6 and the subsequent storming of the Capitol. </p>
<p id="3gPONB">“The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence,” the complaint states. “It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”</p>
<p id="4PQHip">Thompson also asserts that they violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law that was designed to protect Black Americans against white supremacist violence. The law imposes criminal penalties on people who conspire to use “force, intimidation, or threat” in order to prevent public office holders from performing their duties. </p>
<p id="AJ1XTv">The lawsuit is one of many measures that members of Congress are taking to hold those behind the Capitol insurrection accountable. </p>
<p id="7svNUQ">House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday that Congress would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/15/riot-commission/">establish a commission</a>, modeled after the commission that examined the 9/11 attacks, to investigate the insurrection. And the Senate Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing next week examining the <a href="https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1361709098929160192?s=20">security failures</a> that allowed rioters to breach the Capitol. </p>
<p id="4PpplE">Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted to acquit Trump, also said that Trump could face criminal and civil litigation for his role in the Capitol attack. Trump is already under <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/us/politics/trump-georgia-investigation.html">criminal investigation</a> in Georgia for attempting to influence the 2020 election results and asking officials to “find” votes. </p>
<p id="ix24sG">“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office,” he said. “Didn’t get away with anything yet.”</p>
<h3 id="l3kKtb">Some Proud Boys and Oathkeepers have begun facing legal consequences</h3>
<p id="G2j2bQ">Members of the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers are being prosecuted for their role in the events leading up to and including the Capitol insurrection.</p>
<p id="ciAa8p">The Proud Boys’ leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/proud-boys-arrest-black-lives-matter-banner/index.html"><strong>arrested</strong></a> two days before the insurrection for allegedly burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was stolen from a church in northwest Washington, DC, following a “Stop the Steal” rally in December. When he was arrested, police found him in possession of two high-capacity firearm magazines. He was consequently charged with destruction of property and possession of a high-capacity feeding device.</p>
<p id="cRdX7L">Two additional members — Dominic Pezzola and William Pepe, both of New York — were <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/30/22257682/two-proud-boys-charged-conspiracy-us-capitol-insurrection"><strong>charged with conspiracy</strong></a> for storming the Capitol building. Federal prosecutors said that they “engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct, influence, impede, and interfere with law enforcement officers engaged in their official duties in protecting the U.S. Capitol and its grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.”</p>
<p id="nBdaX0">Three members of the Oathkeepers — Thomas Edward Caldwell, who held a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/09/capitol-riot-oath-keeper-fbi/">leadership role </a>in the group, and two associates from Ohio, Donovan Crowl and Jessica Watkins — have also been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/oath-keepers-capitol-riot.html">charged with conspiracy</a> for planning to bring “heavy weapons” and train in “urban warfare” ahead of the attack.</p>
<p id="2I4rPx">Other apparent members of the Oathkeepers, including retired Air Force officer Larry Brock and heavy metal guitarist Jon Ryan Schaffer, have been arrested for their involvement in the attack. </p>
<p id="3O0Uve">The Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers have vocally supported Trump and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, making appearances at various “Stop the Steal” rallies nationwide. </p>
<p id="RT9LAN">Trump infamously refused to denounce them and other white supremacist organizations during a presidential debate with Joe Biden in October, instructing them to instead “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/9/29/21494841/trump-proud-boys-stand-white-supremacy"><strong>stand back and stand by</strong></a>.” Trump later downplayed the statement, but many in the group seemd to take it as a command, embracing it as a rallying cry and put it on their <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/15/17978358/proud-boys-trump-biden-debate-violence"><strong>official merchandise</strong></a>.</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/2/16/22285662/trump-giuliani-proud-boys-oathkeepers-lawsuit-capitolNicole Narea