Tag: protests

Congress’s Jan. 6 Investigation Looks Less and Less Credible

On Jan. 6, 2021, the nation was rocked by the disruption of the certification of Joe Biden as our next president. With Donald Trump set to return to the White House in 2025, it is astonishing how much of that day remains a matter of intense debate.

Those divisions are likely only to deepen after a slew of recent reports that have challenged the selective release of information from the House January 6 Committee.

January 6 remains as much a political litmus test as it is a historical event. Whether you refer to that day as a riot or an insurrection puts you on one side or the other of a giant political chasm. I viewed the attack on that day as a desecration of our constitutional process, but I did not view it as an insurrection. I still don’t.

It was a protest that became a riot when a woefully insufficient security plan collapsed. And that is a view shared by most Americans. One year after the riot, a CBS poll showed that 76 percent viewed it as a “protest gone too far.”

A Harvard study also found that those arrested on that day were motivated by loyalty to Trump rather than support for an insurrection.

A recent poll found that almost half of the public (43 percent) felt that “too much is being made” of the riot and that it is “time to move on.” Of course, that still leaves a little over half who view the day as “an attack on democracy.”

The continued distrust of the official accounts of Jan. 6 reflects a failure of the House Democrats, and specifically former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to guarantee a credible and comprehensive investigation.

The House Select Committee to investigate January 6 was comprised of Democrat-selected members who offered only one possible view: that January 6 was an attempt to overthrow our democracy by Trump and his supporters. The committee hired a former ABC News producer to create a slick, made-for-television production that barred opposing views and countervailing evidence. The members, including Republican Vice Chair Liz Cheney, played edited videotapes of Trump’s speech that removed the portion where Trump called on his supporters to protest “peacefully.”

The committee fostered false accounts, including the claim that there was a violent episode with Trump trying to wrestle control of the presidential limousine. The Committee knew that the key Secret Service driver directly contradicted that account offered by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

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Bombshell Report: Oversight Subcommittee Finds Pentagon Deliberately Delayed National Guard Deployment on January 6 — Cover-Up by DoD Inspector General Exposed

In a fiery letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), Chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, exposed the “systemic failure” within the Pentagon on January 6, 2021.

Loudermilk accused the DoD of intentionally delaying the deployment of the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) and of publishing an Inspector General report that “whitewashes” the events to protect top Pentagon officials.

The letter, addressed to Defense Department Inspector General Robert P. Storch, challenges the findings of Report No. 2022-039, which the DoD Inspector General’s office had presented as a comprehensive review of the Department’s role during the Capitol riots.

Loudermilk’s Subcommittee on Oversight, tasked with probing security failures on January 6, asserts that the report contains glaring inaccuracies and conveniently ignores testimony that exposes Pentagon misconduct.

The DoD IG’s report reveals a troubling oversight in assessing the actions of senior DoD officials, including Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, who failed to relay deployment orders to Major General William Walker, the DC National Guard Commander, on January 6.

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J6 Prisoner Released After Landmark Supreme Court Overturns Obstruction Charge, His ONLY Charge — Watch This Emotional Family Reunion

Nick Ochs, a January 6 defendant and co-founder of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, has been released from prison after serving less than two years of a four-year sentence.

Ochs, who was convicted under the controversial 1512(c) statute, had his conviction vacated after the Supreme Court overturned the obstruction charge used to jail hundreds of January 6 defendants.

Ochs’s release marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battles faced by January 6 defendants, many of whom were charged under the same statute.

Speaking to The Gateway Pundit, Ochs shared the emotional experience of reuniting with his family.

“I just got released early from Butner Prison where I was a January 6th Hostage doing 4 years. I ended up doing a bit less than 2 total,” Ochs told The Gateway Pundit, adding, “I beat the whole case and am now innocent.”

“The only charge I had was 1512(c), a charge the Supreme Court threw out on June 28 as not a crime anymore—unless someone tampered with paper ballots, which no one did,” he continued.

He also highlighted the significance of his case for other January 6th defendants, many of whom remain behind bars under similar charges.

“I believe my co-defendant and I were among the first to be released, and others will now be citing my case in court,” Ochs noted, expressing hope that this marks a turning point for many innocent J6ers.

Ochs, who was initially threatened with up to 20 years in prison for his actions on January 6th, argued that he was targeted not for any violent act but “for filming the same events in the same place as mainstream media reporters – who were not arrested.”

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‘People’s Arms Embargo’ at Travis Air Force Base

Seventy-five protesters gathered under threatening skies at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California at 6:30 am on Wednesday, November 20. Their mission: to speak out and briefly interrupt the shipment of weapons to Israel from this air base.

For 90 minutes, they showed banners such as “Stop Arms for War Crimes” and “Stop Travis: No US Weapons for Genocide. ” They delayed traffic on the busy six-lane roadway into the base by frequently pressing the button to allow pedestrian crossing.  Fliers were handed out to receptive drivers. The flyers asked “Why are we blocking access to Travis Air Base and messing up your day?”.  It was explained that while November 20 is World Children’s Day, weapons to Israel from Travis are being used to kill children. Bombs loaded onto planes at Travis and other US air bases have killed many thousands of children.

David Vidmar grew up on Travis Air Base. He said, “I am participating in the People’s Arms Embargo to honor my father as he would have been sickened by the indiscriminate targeting, slaughter and starvation of Gazan children and women in Israel’s genocide.”

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Retired Army CPT, Iraq War Veteran, and J6 Defendant Gabriel Garcia Denied Essential Medical Surgery by DOJ So They Can Sentence Him for Walking Peacefully Inside US Capitol Before Trump Is Sworn In

Gabriel Garcia is a retired U.S. Army Captain and Bronze Star combat veteran who attended the rally on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.

Gabriel walked over to the U.S. Capitol peacefully and patriotically from the DC Ellipse to protest at the Stop the Steal rally. Gabriel walked to the US Capitol filming the entire time.  Garcia entered the US Capitol.  There were no police at the door when he walked in.  There was no alarm going off.

He took video from inside the US Capitol.  Then he left when he was asked to leave. Gabriel told The Gateway Pundit, “I never heard someone get on the loudspeaker and say, hey, you can’t be in here at this time. You’re going to be prosecuted and arrested. None of that. There were no verbal commands for you to disperse.”

For that the Biden DOJ has ruined his life for nearly 4 straight years!

Gabriel Garcia has faced many hardships like the rest of the J6 community since that day. Gabriel Garcia was banned from Airbnb, canceled from Chase Bank, and banned from social media platforms. He was forced to sell his business at the time. Mr. Garcia was put on a terrorist watch list and can’t even go to any military base for health care needs as a military retiree benefit that he has rightfully earned.

Mr. Garcia faces constant harassment by TSA every time he flies, even when traveling with his family that was not in Washington DC on January 6. Mr. Garcia was placed on house arrest immediately following when he returned home from attending CPAC with his attorney at the time in Maryland on March 1, 2023.

Gabriel has also been wearing an ankle monitor for over three years – since the beginning of 2021 – even though he is not a threat to the community or a flight risk.

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Despite Supreme Court 1512 Ruling, DOJ Still Cracking Down On J6 Defendants Like Stephanie Baez — Demonstrating That Lawfare Won’t End Until President Trump Is Sworn In And Cleans Out Deep State

In June, the Supreme Court handed J6 defendants a long-awaited victory by effectively gutting the 1512 obstruction of justice statute.

Leading up to that decision, the DOJ had been using the statute in a context totally unrelated to its original intent and purpose.

The statute was enacted shortly after the Enron scandal of the early 2000s to provide oversight into fraud and corruption within the accounting industry.

The law’s originators never conceived of its use in a presidential certification process, much less against peaceful demonstrators who simply exercised their First Amendment rights to protest a contested election.

Nevertheless, radical lawyers within the DOJ, abetted by outside lawfare groups, took it upon themselves to completely pervert the statute’s meaning.

Rather than fighting accounting fraud, it was now being weaponized by vindictive, bad-faith actors within the DOJ to deny J6 political prisoners of fundamental rights, and in many cases, imprison them with cruel and unusually long sentences.

The statute’s vague wording that was the focus of much of the Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer had previously given the DOJ convenient cover to stretch its construction to absurd lengths.

This is how a statute enacted to limit the tampering of evidence to protect whistleblowers in a proceeding for accounting fraud became twisted and applied in a completely foreign area – namely, the context of punishing J6 defendants.

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What Happens To Jan. 6 Defendants After Trump’s Election Win?

After President-elect Donald Trump won a second term, multiple defendants charged for their roles in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, asked to delay their cases because they anticipate pardons from Trump.

According to data collected by NPR, more than 1,500 people have been charged in relation to Jan. 6, with nearly 1,000 pleading guilty.

At least a dozen cases have been dismissed, while plenty remain with changes following Trump’s election. At the beginning of November, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia announced multiple sentences and guilty verdicts.

Various factors could determine whether these individuals end up avoiding jail time, but perhaps the most important is Trump’s eventual control of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and who will lead that department.

On Nov. 13, Trump announced Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his pick for attorney general. Gaetz has been critical of the prosecutions and introduced a bill in July that was intended to prevent prosecutors from retaliating against Jan. 6 defendants for seeking resentencing. Gaetz has also questioned federal involvement, stating that Jan. 6 “wasn’t an insurrection” but that it “very well may have been a fedsurrection.”

Assuming the presidency also grants Trump substantial pardon power under the Constitution: Trump has indicated that he’s open to pardoning those charged but left open the possibility that some would face punishment.

“We will treat them fairly,” he said in January 2022. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”

More recently, during an event in July, he was asked about individuals who assaulted officers. He said he would “absolutely” pardon the defendants “if they’re innocent” and added that “they were convicted by a very tough system.”

More than 70 defendants have received a mixed verdict, and so far, more than 1,000 people have been sentenced, with 64 percent receiving prison time, according to NPR data. Some defendants have also taken plea deals.

“I think there’s going to be a complete second look at all of the prosecutions,” Robert Ray, a former Trump impeachment attorney, told The Epoch Times, while noting the large number of cases brought. He added that a second look wouldn’t “necessarily yield a favorable result with regard to each and every defendant, but I think there’s going to be a pretty strenuous exercise of the pardon and commutation power to deal with overreaching [by prosecutors].”

John Pierce, an attorney who has represented Jan. 6 defendants, told The Epoch Times he expects a “blanket pardon,” while Trump–Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the president-elect “will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis.”

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Radical Left Activates Anti-Trump Protests As AOC Riles Up Rioters

Not even 24 hours after President-elect Donald Trump won more votes in Illinois this general election than in the previous two, and after winning the US election in a massive red wave sweep, far-left protesters gathered outside the Trump Hotel in Obama’s Chicago.

The protests appear to have been highly organized and well-planned before the election, given the coordination among activists, the hundreds—if not thousands—of protesters—many holding signs—and the likely pre-approved protest routes from City Hall. 

Organizers shouted into megaphones, “Trump is a fascist” and “racist,” echoing hate speech spewed by the defunct Harris-Walz campaign in the months leading up to November 5.

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German Government Collapses As Mass Strikes Grind Economy To A Halt

It’s not a good day for the establishment. Just hours after Kamala Harris – and the Democrats – staggering loss which ushered in Trump as president for the third time and gave Republicans a sweep of Congress, Germany’s three-party ruling coalition which had been on the verge of collapse for months, imploded on Wednesday evening after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he will fire Finance Minister Christian Lindner over persistent rifts on spending and economic reforms, a move that paves the way for a snap election at the end of March.

The firing ejects Lindner’s fiscally conservative Free Democratic Party  (FDP) from the troubled coalition, forcing Scholz to call for a confidence vote that he said would take place on January 15. If Scholz loses that vote, which is virtually certain, a snap election is set to take place by March.

The collapse of Germany’s government came just hours after Donald Trump’s clear win in the U.S. election, a result that stunned German political leaders, who depend on American military might for their country’s defense and fear Trump’s tariff policies will hobble German industry.

“Dear fellow citizens, I would have liked to have spared you this difficult decision, especially in times like these, when uncertainty is growing,” said Scholz – viewed as the weakest German chancellor in decades – in a statement at the chancellery.

But the rifts inside the coalition proved too great to overcome. Caught in the middle of an impossible battle, Lindner and his conservative FDP insisted that the German government stick to strict spending rules and cut taxes, even as his left-wing coalition partners wanted to maintain social spending and boost German industry through economic stimulus.

“All too often, Minister Lindner has blocked laws in an inappropriate manner,” said Scholz in a statement. “Too often he has engaged in petty party-political tactics. Too often he has broken my trust.”

Scholz said he had offered Lindner a deal to create an emergency fund to aid Ukraine that would exist outside Germany’s regular budget, but Lindner refused to participate in such fiscal gimmicks that saw the UK recently redefine the nature of “debt.”

“Olaf Scholz has long failed to recognize the need for a new economic awakening in our country,” said Lindner. “He has long played down the economic concerns of our citizens.”

As Politico reports, the FDP is the smallest party in the coalition and is now polling at only four percent — below the threshold needed to make it into the German parliament — meaning its leaders have been mulling a coalition break in order to save their political futures.

Crisis talks in the coalition of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, the Greens and Lindner’s Free Democratic Party had come to a head after the FDP issued a paper with demands for liberal economic reforms that were difficult for the other two parties to accept.

Lindner’s recent policy paper, leaked to the media last week, called for tax cuts and a scaling back of climate policies in order to stimulate economic growth — both positions that put the party at odds with his coalition partners.

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Licensed to Kill: Not James Bond, But Our Department of Defense

On October 18, 2024, Law Enforcement Today had the following headline, which passed by almost unnoticed: “DoD secretly reauthorizes bill that would allow military intervention domestically…and adds ability to use deadly force.”

The reissue of Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 5240.01 was quietly put into effect on September 27, 2024, six weeks before our presidential election. It is a formalized license to kill.

 Why? Because the Democrat party has determined that civil unrest is bad after condoning the 2020 “mostly peaceful” riots that consumed much of our nation in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. It provides protection for the military to kill under clear cover of authority. Imagine the outcry if this had occurred under Donald Trump. This directive was not necessary.

President Trump argued for the use of National Guard or military assistance during this period of civil unrest as local law enforcement was unable to control the rioting mobs, although he was talked out of using an authority that presidents have used regularly over the last one hundred years:

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