Good morning. I'm starting Thread #17 of posts on new arrests at the Capitol and updates on continuing cases. Previous threads can be found below.
Overnight, prosecutors filed two new documents in the Oath Keepers conspiracy case w/a few new details on key defendants.
Here, Florida OK leader Kelly Meggs is communicating w/someone suggesting that he went looking for Nancy Pelosi after he and others breached the Capitol.
The feds say when they raided Florida Oath Keeper Kenneth Harrelson's house on March 15, they found weapons & a series of survivalist texts.
In case anyone is still debating if Antifa took part in the attack Capitol, here is a screen shot of an Oath Keeper group chat where no less than Stewart Rhodes, the group's founder, says he was there and it wasn't Antifa. (Rhodes has been Person 1 in the case docs for weeks.)
Mystery solved. In another filing, Kelly Meggs was quoted saying he was in touch w/a leader of the Proud Boys. Now it's clear that PB leader was Enrique Tarrio.
Left, is Harrelson talking to Rhodes about Tarrio's work w/the FBI.
Right, is about Meggs talking to Tarrio.
In another new filing, prosecutors connect new defendant Chris Quaglin, charged w/multiple assaults on the cops, to the Proud Boys.
They say after Quaglin shoved one cop, Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean pulled him back. Quaglin also made several social media posts about the group.
Another Quaglin-Proud Boys connection:
Quaglin (seen left in the helmet shoving a cop) is standing in front of a guy who seems to be wearing the same shirt as Joe Biggs, the Proud Boy leader (seen right.)
Capitol riot defendant Ronnie Sandlin is writing a book about his "journey" and wants to turn it into a movie, according to text messages quoted in a new government filing.
Sam Montoya, a video editor at Alex Jones' InfoWars outfit, has been charged w/storming the Capitol.
“Here we are in the US Capitol in Washington DC in the Capitol building, it has officially been stormed by Trump supporters," Montoya says in a video he made of the attack.
Judge Emmet Sullivan issues a leviathan 64-pg order detaining Capitol suspect, Jeff Sabol, who's been accused of some of the most violent attacks at Lower West Terrace.
Sullivan's order references the growing body of decisions on the fascinating issue of which rioters get bail.
The federal judge overseeing the Oath Keeper cases says that Jon Schaffer's guilty plea today contains a cooperation agreement. Schaffer's plea is not only the first among 400 charged Capitol rioters; it's also going to make life difficult for the other Oath Keeper defendants.
Jon Ryan Schaffer, the Oath Keeper who is pleading guilty today in DC, will be sponsored for Witness Protection, the judge just said.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Schaffer's cooperation deal is that the government WANTED it made public. They didn't request a sealed courtroom even after Judge Mehta gave them the chance.
They wanted someone (surely in the Oath Keepers) to know.
Lawyers for Texas florist Jenny Cudd say her Capitol riot criminal trial should be moved out of Washington DC because...fake news.
Cudd bolsters her argument for a change of venue by literally quoting the comments section.
Ah...the moment when Judge Silberman's ranty dissent against the MSM makes an appearance in Capitol riot litigation.
DECISION: Federal judge orders Proud Boy leaders Ethan Nordean & Joe Biggs to be detained before trial in their Capitol riot indictment.
Both men had been at home since their arrests but Judge Kelly just reversed that decision.
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