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Home Front: Politix

The January 6 Prosecutions Hit a Speed Bump

2021-03-28

[Am Thinker] Two weeks ago, I wrote of the Department of Justice’s overreach respecting some of the hundreds of January 6 defendants. On Friday the D.C. Circuit clipped the department’s wings. I expect more such losses as time goes on and the Department must actually present evidence in contested trials.

The ploy of keeping in D.C. jails without bail some of the protestors who engaged in no specific violent acts at the Capitol until their cases can be heard was very obviously designed to compel them to plea bargain so they could return home to their families and jobs, and the three-judge panel wasn’t buying it. If you think that there is a partisan tinge to their decision, you’d be wrong, Judge Robert Wilkins was confirmed under Barack Obama; Judge Judith Rogers under Bill Clinton, and Judge George Katsas under Donald Trump. It was bipartisan.

The case made it to the Circuit Court upon appeal from a detention order by Judge Royce Lamberth (a senior judge first appointed to the bench by then-president Ronald Reagan). I mention the judicial appointment history of these judges as an antidote to the all-too-common implications that judges are always using the law to cover their personal political beliefs. Sometimes it appears they do. Other times -- like this one -- they are honestly applying the Constitution and law to the facts.

And they do so here in what was clearly the Department of Justice’s political effort to paint with a broad brush anyone who supported Trump on January 6 and to place unreasonable and unlawful burdens on those protestors in order to bolster overcharged crimes.
SNIP
As BuzzFeed reports, the Munchel ruling is already impacting existing cases of January 6 protestors being held without bail. Two Oath Keepers members, Connie Meggs and Donovan Crowl, were granted bond by Judge Amit Mehta (by the way, an Obama appointee) who relied on the Munchel decision.

The description of Munchel and Eisenhart’s conduct at the Capitol, a description based on evidence, not news reports, is more in accord with my view of what almost all the thousands of protesters exhibited -- no armed violence to persons or destruction of property; at best misdemeanor trespass which given the encouragement to do so by a number of Capitol Police even seems a dubious charge. This description is contrary to the perfervid press coverage and the bias it engendered upon which it appears that the Department of Justice was counting in the subsequent criminal court proceedings. The florid accounts in the press were in my view designed to tar any Trump supporters and justify surrounding the Capitol with National Guard troops, fences, and barbed wire. When actually facing evidentiary challenges, those accounts failed here.

“Last time we were here 30 days ago, I was convinced that it was a plan to execute an incursion on the Capitol building,” the judge told Caldwell’s attorney. “You’ve raised some evidence that, I think, rebuts that notion.”

The judge has since released other defendants, noting there’s no evidence they assaulted anyone at the Capitol or, in some cases, don’t appear to be as involved in the planning before Jan. 6.

But Mehta on Friday ordered Meggs to remain locked up, calling him a danger to the community. The judge said his communications in the weeks leading up to the attack show he was planning for violence in the streets of Washington even if none specifically mention a plot to storm the Capitol.

Prosecutors have also apparently been unable to get on the same page about what to say to the press.

A judge recently scolded the Justice Department over a “60 Minutes” interview during which the prosecutor who was leading the investigation suggested some of the rioters could face sedition charges. Former acting District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin’s interview appeared to violate Justice Department rules and Sherwin is now under internal investigation, a prosecutor told the judge.

It’s no secret that Justice Department counsel hoping for career advancement have in recent years relied on manipulated news to influence judges and jurors. It’s long past time for adult supervision of excessive criminal charges and overly aggressive advocacy. As the hoopla about January 6 fades, I expect more losses for the department.

Posted by:Frank G

#2 Will go the way of Fitzmas and Mueller's Egg Noodles: A couple symbolic nobodies will plead to "being mean" and the wagon train will move along.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-03-28 09:21

#1 Good. Faster, please.

Posted by: trailing wife 2021-03-28 08:50

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