Tag: protests

Journalists Attack the Powerless, Then Self-Victimize to Bar Criticisms of Themselves

The daily newspaper USA Today is the second-most circulated print newspaper in the United States — more than The New York Times and more than double The Washington Post. Only The Wall Street Journal has higher circulation numbers.

On Sunday, the paper published and heavily promoted a repellent article complaining that “defendants accused in the Capitol riot Jan. 6 crowdfund their legal fees online, using popular payment processors and an expanding network of fundraising platforms, despite a crackdown by tech companies.” It provided a road map for snitching on how these private citizens — who are charged with serious felonies by the U.S. Justice Department but as of yet convicted of nothing — are engaged in “a game of cat-and-mouse as they spring from one fundraising tool to another” in order to avoid bans on their ability to raise desperately needed funds to pay their criminal lawyers to mount a vigorous defense.

In other words, the only purpose of the article — headlined: “Insurrection fundraiser: Capitol riot extremists, Trump supporters raise money for lawyer bills online” — was to pressure and shame tech companies to do more to block these criminal defendants from being able to raise funds for their legal fees, and to tattle to tech companies by showing them what techniques these indigent defendants are using to raise money online.

The USA Today reporters went far beyond merely reporting how this fundraising was being conducted. They went so far as to tattle to PayPal and other funding sites on two of those defendants, Joe Biggs and Dominic Pezzola, and then boasted of their success in having their accounts terminated:

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Biggs fundraiser was listed as having received $52,201. Pezzola had received $730. Biggs’ campaign disappeared from the site shortly after USA TODAY inquired about it….

Friday, a USA TODAY reporter donated to Pezzola’s fundraiser using Stripe. Stripe told USA TODAY it does not comment on individual users. A USA TODAY reporter was able to make a $1 donation to Pezzola’s fundraiser using Venmo, a payment app owned by PayPal. After being alerted by USA TODAY, Venmo removed the account. 

Soon a PayPal account took its place. PayPal caught that and removed it, too. 

Wow, what brave and intrepid journalistic work: speaking truth to power and standing up to major power centers by . . . working as little police officers for tech giants to prevent private citizens from being able to afford criminal lawyers. Clear the shelves for the imminent Pulitzer. Whatever you think about the Capitol riot, everyone has the right to a legal defense and to do what they can to ensure they have the best legal defense possible — especially when the full weight of the Justice Department is crashing down on your head even for non-violent offenses, which is what many of these defendants are charged with due to the politically charged nature of the investigation.

The right to a vigorous defense has always been a central cause of mine as a lawyer and a journalist (it also used to be a central cause of left-wing groups like the ACLU, years ago; it was that same principle that caused then-candidate Kamala Harris to solicit donations last summer that went to protesters charged with violent rioting). A federal prosecutor was recently referred for disciplinary procedures for publicly threatening to charge some of these Capitol protesters with sedition, one of the gravest crimes in the U.S. Code. That is how grave the legal jeopardy is faced by these people trying to raise money for lawyers.

What makes all of this extra grotesque is that, as The Washington Post reported, most of those charged with various crimes in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot, including many whose charges stem just from their presence inside the Capitol, not the use of any violence, are people with serious financial difficulties: not surprising for a country in the middle of a major economic and joblessness crisis, where neoliberalism and global trade deals have destroyed entire industries and communities for decades:

Nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over the past two decades, according to a Washington Post analysis of public records for 125 defendants with sufficient information to detail their financial histories. . . . The group’s bankruptcy rate — 18 percent — was nearly twice as high as that of the American public, The Post found. A quarter of them had been sued for money owed to a creditor. And 1 in 5 of them faced losing their home at one point, according to court filings.

This USA Today article is thus yet another example of journalists at major media outlets abusing their platforms to attack and expose anything other than the real power centers which compose the ruling class and govern the U.S.: the CIA, the FBI, security state agencies, Wall Street, Silicon Valley oligarchs. To the extent these journalists pay attention to those entities at all — and they barely ever do — it is to venerate them and mindlessly disseminate their messaging like stenographers, not investigate them. Investigating people who actually wield real power is hard.

Rabid Democrats Call on Justice Thomas to Recuse Himself From Jan. 6 Cases Because His Wife Exercised Her First Amendment Rights on 2020 Election

Rabid Democrats are now calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any cases related to January 6 because his wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas exercised her First Amendment rights to friends in private texts regarding the 2020 election.

Recall, the January 6 Committee on Thursday leaked Ginni Thomas’ text exchanges with Mark Meadows to the Washington Post as her husband was hospitalized with an infection.

The text messages exchanged between Ginni Thomas and Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are uneventful.

The media however is having a feeding frenzy over Ginni Thomas’ benign text messages that are completely covered by the First Amendment.

Many Democrat lawmakers are now calling on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from January 6 cases because his wife sent text messages to Mark Meadows encouraging him to fight for Trump and expose the election fraud.

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Man Told by an Officer That He Could Enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 Now Faces 20 Years in Prison

On Jan. 6, 2021, a protestor, 40-year-old Brady Knowlton, says that an officer at the Capitol told “You can go in, as long as you don’t break anything.” At 2:35 p.m., Knowlton did, entering through the Upper West Terrace doors. He looked around inside the building, walked through the Rotunda, lobby, and Senate chamber gallery, obeyed the officer’s injunction not to break anything, and left the building at 2:53 p.m. For that, Knowlton now faces twenty years in prison in Old Joe Biden’s vengeful banana republic.

On top of the possibility of being behind bars until 2042, Knowlton, a law student, has suffered numerous other consequences already. According to the Daily Wire, “his law degree has been withheld, his lawyers say, Airbnb has banned him and his wife, and, for reasons that remain undisclosed, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stripped his Global Entry access.”

According to the charges filed against him in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Knowlton “did unlawfully and knowingly enter and remain in a restricted building and grounds.” He also “did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting.” He “willfully and knowingly engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct within the United States Capitol Grounds. He “willfully and knowingly entered and remained in the gallery of either House of Congress, without authorization to do so.”

If Knowlton’s contention that a police officer said he could go in is true, it vitiates all these charges, and Knowlton’s claim is certainly corroborated by photographic and video evidence of cops at the Capitol opening gates, holding the doors open for protestors, and reports that police even posed for selfies with protestors. Also, when the FBI raided Knowlton’s home, they found no evidence whatsoever “concerning the breach and unlawful entry” of the Capitol, or “of any conspiracy, planning, or preparation,” or “maps or diagrams” of the Capitol, or of any “materials, devices, or tools” that Knowlton might have planned to use to get inside.

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NY Times reporter admits a “ton” of federal informants were in the crowd during Jan. 6 Capitol “riot,” says “ridiculous pee tape” of Trump does not exist

A veteran reporter for The New York Times has made several stunning admissions and statements that were captured on undercover video by Project Veritas, including verification that the FBI had scores of informants in the crowd during the Jan. 6 false flag incident at the U.S. Capitol Building.

In a two-part series, the investigative journalism organization recorded statements by Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, who at one point was talking about his sources including one for “that ridiculous, like pee tape” — a false claim made in a fake ‘dossier’ assembled ahead of the 2016 election by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign that also accused then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump of being a dupe for Vladimir Putin.

Specifically, the claim was that Trump hired hookers to pee on a bed in a Moscow hotel where President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama reportedly stayed.

Rosenberg also talked about what happens in the newsroom at The New York Times, explaining that there is “a real internal tug of war between, like, the reasonable people and some of the crazier leftist sh*t that’s worked it’s way in there.”

“They’re not the majority, but they’re very vocal, loud minority that dominate social media and, therefore, has just hugely outsized influence,” he continued, adding that he believes it is “alienating” Times subscribers whom he describes as “prosperous.”

The 11-year veteran reporter also said that many of his colleagues at the paper are “bullies” and “not the clearest thinkers, some of them,” before going on to describe those who end up at the Times as “very neurotic people.”

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Feds admit breaking law with delay in case against alleged Jan. 6 rioter

Federal prosecutors admitted Monday to losing track of one jailed defendant in the storming of the Capitol and conceded that the indictment against him should be dismissed, but they urged a judge to permit the charges to be refiled because of the seriousness of his alleged attack on police during the Jan. 6 riot.

In a highly unusual court filing, lawyers from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the handling of the case against Texas resident Lucas Denney violated his rights under the Speedy Trial Act. Prosecutors said errors and oversights led to Denney sitting in a Virginia jail for weeks last month as he awaited his first court appearance in Washington, D.C.

“There was nothing intentional or nefarious about the delay. It was an isolated incident, unlikely to happen again, and the time frame —while undoubtedly regrettable — is nevertheless not significantly egregious to warrant dismissal with prejudice,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Rozzoni wrote.

But during a chaotic afternoon hearing held by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Randy Moss, defense attorneys for Denney dropped their earlier bid to dismiss the case and instead sought to have him plead guilty before prosecutors could add more charges to a single-count indictment a grand jury returned last week.

The move seemed to take prosecutors and the judge by surprise, since defendants almost never plead guiltyat a federal court arraignment on a grand jury indictment.

“This, obviously, is nothing I was prepared to decide today,” said Moss, an appointee of Barack Obama.

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Pelosi Congress Claims Sovereign Immunity in Federal Court to Keep Secret January 6 Videos and Emails

“The Pelosi Congress (and its police department) is telling a federal court it is immune from all transparency under law and is trying to hide every second of its January 6 videos and countless emails,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The hypocrisy is rich, as this is the same Congress that is trying to jail witnesses who, citing privileges, object to providing documents to the Pelosi rump January 6 committee.”

In November 2021, Judicial Watch revealed multiple audio, visual and photo records from the DC Metropolitan Police Department about the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021, in the U.S. Capitol Building.  The records include a cell phone video of the shooting and an audio of a brief police interview of the shooter, Lt. Michael Byrd. In October, Judicial Watch released records, showing that multiple officers claimed they didn’t see a weapon in Babbitt’s hand before Byrd shot her, and that Byrd was visibly distraught afterward. One officer attested that he didn’t hear any verbal commands before Byrd shot Babbitt.

Also in November, Judicial Watch filed a response in opposition to the Department of Justice’s effort to block Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit asking for records of communication between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several financial institutions about the reported transfer of financial transaction records of people in DC, Maryland and Virginia on January 5 and January 6, 2021. Judicial Watch argues that Justice Department should not be allowed to shield “improper activity.”

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Whistleblower: FBI Is Just Now Asking Basic Questions About Jan. 6 Pipe Bombs — A Year Into Its Investigation

A senior FBI special agent has sounded the alarm on the bureau’s investigation into the pipe bombs that were placed outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee buildings the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, suggesting that the investigation has been a low priority and made no real progress.

According to a letter sent on Wednesday from Rep. Jim Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the FBI agent filed a whistleblower disclosure about the pipe bomb investigation — an investigation the Associated Press had characterized as “one of the highest-priority investigations for the FBI and the Justice Department.” The agent alleged that on Feb. 7, 2022, more than a year after the bombs were planted, the bureau’s Washington Field Office asked its other field offices “to canvass all confidential human sources nationwide for information about the individual and the crime.”

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Project Veritas Releases Video of New York Times Journalist Admitting ‘There Were a Ton of FBI Informants’ at Jan. 6 Riot

Project Veritas has released video of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Matthew Rosenberg admitting that feds were embedded in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot and that the fake news media has lied about the nature of the threat of the infamous election integrity protest.

Rosenberg can be seen on hidden camera speaking candidly about snowflakes who work for the Times. He called the young reporters “f*ckin’ b*tches” for their histrionics in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 rally.

“It’s like January 6th stuff, but it’s like I’m so over it at this point. I’m so over it,” Rosenberg said.

“The left’s overreaction – the left’s reaction to [Jan. 6], in some places, was so over the top. It was like, me and two other colleagues who were there who were outside and we were just having fun,” he continued, adding that the New York Times staff “were not in any danger” during Jan. 6.

Rosenberg also confirmed that there were many federal agents embedded in the crowd when the violence in and around the U.S. Capitol took place on Jan. 6.

“There were a ton of FBI informants among the people who attacked the Capitol… For the CIA and NSA, if you work there, you get polygraphed every year, and you’re asked if you’ve spoken to a reporter and your answer is anything but no, you’re in deep trouble. So I’ve been talking to former people who are talking to people who are still in,” Rosenberg said about how he gathered his intel.

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New Zealand Joins the International Crackdown on COVID Mandate Protests

Last week, with the world understandably distracted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, New Zealand authorities took advantage of the moment to disperse an inconvenient protest against pandemic mandates. Like Canada’s Freedom Convoy, by which it was inspired, the protest was grounded in grassroots disagreement with authoritarian policies, mixed with a little nuttiness, and had outlived its welcome. Also like its inspiration, the protest in New Zealand was forcibly shut down to the surprise of those with preconceptions about peaceful, tolerant democracies. Governments are most peaceful, it turns out, when there’s little dissent to test that tolerance and, under pandemic stresses, gloves are coming off in an increasingly illiberal world.

“Police in riot gear cleared a protest camp outside New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, sparking violent clashes that saw dozens arrested as protesters hurled bricks and set fire to their tents,” Michael E. Miller wrote March 2 for The Washington Post. “In what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said was a planned operation to remove the camp, hundreds of officers assembled at dawn and began towing the cars and trucks demonstrators have used to block streets for more than three weeks, in imitation of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada.”

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Canada Freezing Bank Accounts is Child’s Play Compared to the Coming ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’

It is not a conspiracy theory. Earlier this month, Canada’s Prime Minister began freezing the bank accounts of protesters who stood against tyrannical mandates and arresting them. Not only did they go after the protesters, but the government went after the bank accounts of those who provided monetary support in the form of donations as well.

For practicing their free speech, Canadians were persecuted and driven into financial ruin by the government who claims to protect them. This was all carried out with zero due process and without any democratic input at all.

Last week, holding no punches Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland announced that “…all crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use must register with Fintrac, and they must report large and suspicious transactions to Fintrac.” This, she said, is a way to “mitigate the risk” of “illicit funds” and “increase the quality and quantity of intelligence received by Fintrac and make more information available to support investigations by law enforcement.”

When the American political class watched as the Canadian government began financially persecuting individuals for their freedom of speech, it was crickets from the mainstream. This was one of the most tyrannical moves in recent Western history and instead of standing against it, the establishment actually supported it.

In fact, a poll by Trafalger Group for Convention of the States recently found that a super-majority of Democrats, 65%, actually thought Trudeau’s authoritarian move to arrest people and confiscate their life savings — for practicing their freedom of speech — was a good thing.

Just 17% of the establishment left disapproved of it.

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