Chronicles of a Stillborn Zombie Coup

[L'Emmerdeur]

I think this incorrigible asshat has probably read The Trial, and is banking on the fact that practically none of his intended audience of willing dupes has. Now he'll just have to wait till Trump or DeSantis pardons him.

'Oath Keepers Boss Goes on Unhinged Rant as He Awaits His Fate'

Moments before being sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy in connection with the Capitol riot, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes went on an unhinged, politically charged rant—and continued to pledge fealty to the former president whose rhetoric landed him in prison in the first place.

“I’m a political prisoner,” Rhodes, clad in an orange prison uniform, said from the podium in D.C. federal court on Thursday. “I feel like I’m the lead character in Kafka’s The Trial.”

Rhodes was found guilty in November of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering in connection with an insurrection that forced dozens of elected officials into hiding for hours and left several people dead. The far-right leader was convicted of the rare Civil War-era charge alongside Florida Oath Keeper leader Kelly Meggs, who is set to be sentenced on Thursday afternoon.

Prior to his sentencing, Rhodes stressed that he never entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 and noted that his only crime—like Donald Trump— was “opposing those who are destroying our country.”

“This country is incredibly divided..and this prosecution...is making it worse” he added, before saying he hoped Trump won again in 2024.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta seemed to disagree. In a searing speech, he said Rhodes was not a political prisoner and a jury convicted him of one of the “most serious crimes an individual American can commit.” “It’s an offense against the government, to use force. It’s an offense against the people of the country,” he said.

Mehta then said Rhodes presents an “ongoing threat and a peril to this country, to the republic, and to the very fabric of our democracy.”

“You are smart, you are compelling, and you are charismatic. Frankly, that is what makes you dangerous,” he said before handing down Rhodes’ sentence.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Just so we're all clear on what went on ...

A weaponized federal government 'set up honeypots and traps to draw people in and [took] part in making these people commit crimes, and then framing these people to set up a narrative against a president' (Twitter video).

Curiously, it would seem that the former ('Be there, will be wild!') president ('if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore') was part of the despicable, underhanded scheme.

[Joe]

Ah, Margie space lasers!

[JimC]

Ah, Margie space lasers!

Even worse, they're Jewish space lasers!

Oy vey!

[Joe]

And she's supposedly a major GOP fundraiser. Who knew there was money in being a crazy lady.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The OP in this thread describes one aspect of the extended harassment of two election workers in Georgia. It's been demonstrated repeatedly that the whole 'look, they're fiddling the vote!!!' schtick was based on lies and/or maliciously misconstrued 'evidence.' The Georgia election board (chaired by a Republican with membership composed of three more Republicans and one Democrat) has now joined in rejecting those lies, after an exhaustive investigation.

'Georgia election board dismisses ‘unsubstantiated’ 2020 fraud claim'

The State Election Board in Georgia on Tuesday dismissed a long-running case into alleged election malfeasance in 2020 after an investigation found that allegations against two Fulton County poll workers “were false and unsubstantiated.”

“We remain diligent and dedicated to looking into real claims of voter fraud,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a press release. “We are glad the state election board finally put this issue to rest. False claims and knowingly false allegations made against these election workers have done tremendous harm. Election workers deserve our praise for being on the front lines.”

Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss were election workers in Georgia during the 2020 presidential election and gained national attention after social media posts surfaced that falsely claimed to show them committing election fraud.

These false allegations were furthered by former President Trump’s then-attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who claimed to have video evidence showing Freeman and Moss scanning ballots hidden in suitcases underneath tables at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, according to the report of the investigation. He also made these claims before Georgia lawmakers.

The election workers brought a defamation claim against Giuliani, which is still pending in court. One America News Network also advanced these false claims and ultimately paid a settlement and issued an on-air retraction of the allegations.

The allegations were wholly debunked by the investigation in Georgia, which involved investigators from Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office and special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The three law enforcement agencies each conducted independent and simultaneous interviews of witnesses involved and independently reviewed the “entire unedited security video footage of the events in question.”

Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that the social media posts in question were created by a third party who “admitted he created a fake account and confirmed the content that was posted on the account was fake,” according to the investigation’s report.

[pErvinalia]

Check their deep state UN-WEF credentials.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Everybody knows elections officials of any description are part of the conspiracy, man.

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This one's not news as such. I suppose it could be melded into the 'honeypots and traps' narrative: The leftist-sympathetic FBI and DHS twiddled their thumbs (knowing that the red hats were planning on a shindig) just so they'd be able to imprison some after they beat on cops, broke into the Capitol, and smeared their crap around. The Democrats are flaunting their perfidy!!!

'Senate Probe Finds DHS, FBI Ignored "Massive" Amount of Intel Before Jan. 6 Insurrection'

The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation "failed to fulfill their mission" by dismissing or downplaying ominous intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to a Senate investigation published Tuesday.

The report—entitled Planned in Plain Sight: A Review of the Intelligence Failures in Advance of January 6, 2021—was published by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and calls the Capitol attack "an unprecedented effort to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election and our nation's long history of peaceful transitions of power" that "followed months of repeated and false claims by former President Donald Trump, his lawyers, and certain elected officials, that the presidential election was stolen."

"What was shocking is that this attack was essentially planned in plain sight in social media. And yet it seemed as if our intelligence agencies completely dropped the ball."

[Brian Peacock]

The riot seems so easy to predict after the fact. The application of hindsight is a wonderful thing eh?

[rasetsu]

"Well, yeah, sure, now that there's a line there, I see how the dots all connect!"

[L'Emmerdeur]

The riot seems so easy to predict after the fact. The application of hindsight is a wonderful thing eh?

Seems likely to me that if the feds had exactly the same amount of intel regarding for instance a Muslim threat, or that sort of talk among many black folks, their response would have been different.

From the Executive Summary:

The intelligence failures in the lead-up to January 6th were not failures to obtain intelligence indicating the potential for violence. On the contrary, the two primary domestic intelligence agencies – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) – obtained multiple tips from numerous sources in the days and weeks leading up to the attack that should have raised alarms. Rather, those agencies failed to fully and accurately assess the severity of the threat identified by that intelligence, and formally disseminate guidance to their law enforcement partners with sufficient urgency and alarm to enable those partners to prepare for the violence that ultimately occurred on January 6th. At a fundamental level, the agencies failed to fulfill their mission and connect the public and nonpublic information they received. Internal emails and documents obtained by the Committee demonstrate the breadth and gravity of the threats these agencies received related to January 6th.

[rasetsu]

If Trump wins in 2024, I think the Dems should sue to invalidate the win arguing that since he won in 2020, he already served two terms. Subpoena him and put him on the witness stand and ask him to deny that he won the 2020 election. It'd be an open-and-shut case.

[Brian Peacock]

[JimC]

[L'Emmerdeur]

The US Dept. of Justice is appealing the sentences for Mr. "It's like The Trial in here" and his associates.

'Justice Department appeals Jan. 6 prison sentences for Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers'

The Justice Department on Wednesday appealed the sentences handed down to seven members of the Oath Keepers — including founder Stewart Rhodes — for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a signal that prosecutors are not satisfied with the severity of the jail terms delivered by the federal judge overseeing the case.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison — the harshest sentence for any Jan. 6 defendant — reflecting his leadership of what Mehta characterized as a dangerous criminal conspiracy aimed at violently derailing the transfer of presidential power.

Nevertheless, the sentence for the Yale Law School graduate and disbarred attorney was seven years shorter than the 25-year prison term prosecutors recommended and four years below an agreed-upon “guidelines range” based upon Rhodes’ conduct.


In a series of filings, prosecutors also signaled they were appealing the sentences — all delivered by Mehta, an appointee of President Barack Obama — of several other defendants convicted for their own role in Rhodes’ alleged conspiracy.

Many of Rhodes’ coconspirators faced sentences that similarly fell below the guidelines ranges for their conduct — in some cases by several orders of magnitude.

...

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment. The court filings are bare-bones, noting the government’s objection to the sentences but not providing a rationale, which is likely to come in formal briefs filed in the coming months.

The government’s appeals will go to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, located just blocks from the Capitol and in the same federal courthouse where the trials were held. They’re likely to be considered in tandem with appeals filed by the same defendants challenging both their convictions and their sentences.