Thread by @alanfeuer

Good morning. I'm starting Thread #19 about new arrests in the Capitol riot and updates on continuing cases. Previous threads can be found below.

In a bold move, lawyers for Seattle Proud Boy Ethan Nordean accused prosecutors in a filing last night of w/holding exculpatory evidence--namely Proud Boy group chats that suggest a lack of pre-planning for the Capitol attack.
It's in keeping w/the PBs "no conspiracy" defense.

Here, Nordean comments on the charging document used to arrest his Florida colleague Joe Biggs. Nordean, in classic Proud Boy fashion, calls the affidavit "a steaming pile of dog shit" that makes it seem "like capital shit was planned."

Here, another Proud Boy on the chat says the WSJ's terrific video on the PBs at the Capitol also shows a lack of planning. (I'm not sure I personally agree.)
Recall, these are Proud Boys chatting AFTER Jan. 6 saying to one another, in essence, we didn't plan anything.

That--"we didn't plan anything"--is and will remain the central Proud Boy defense: i.e., attacking the conspiracy allegation at its root.
The government recognizes the importance of the Nordean case.
This case will be hard fought--thus, the Brady violation accusation.

Disturbing Facebook messages in the charging documents for newly-arrested Capitol Hill rioter John Wright of Ohio.
In one message, Wright tells an associate who's suggesting capturing people escaping the Capitol thru tunnels "It's all planned out."

In another FB message, Wright says that some rioters were planning to return to DC on 1/17--"LOADED," as he put it.
He also suggests, "I think we need make home visits."

Proud Boy leaders Joe Biggs & Ethan Nordean have appealed their detention orders to CADC together. The brief--which attacks basically every part of the govt's conspiracy claims and bail arguments--isn't quite conducive to Twittering but here it is in full.
1drv.ms/b/s!AnM-WBnwB3…

Interesting.
Three of the four Proud Boy leaders charged w/conspiracy have showed up for a hearing today w/their lawyers.
One did not: Zach Rehl of Philly.
Rehl also missed a filing deadline for a bond motion this week...

Luke Jones, a prosecutor, just said that Rehl's lawyer is waiting for a sign off on his pro hac motion to appear in DC. Rehl was scheduled to have bail arguments tomorrow but Jones said he doesn't know if Rehl's lawyer will file a bond motion and be ready to argue tomorrow.

(Rehl's lawyer, Shaka Johnson, has not answered my calls for over a week, fwiw.)

Ethan Nordean's lawyer, Nick Smith, just said he plans to file a motion to suppress the thousands of Telegram chats that now form of the basis of the government's conspiracy case against four Proud Boy leaders.
He's fighting this case hard.

Hopefully a motion to suppress means that the affidavit in support of searching Nordean's phone will be made public...

This social media post excerpted in a ruling today detaining Army vet Jose Padilla in his Capitol riot case is...wild. Padilla suggests the following sequence:
1. Seize Capitol
2. Declare "grievances"
3. Dissolve Congress
4. Replace Congress w/"patriots"
5. Amend Constitution

Ryan Samsel, the Pennsy man who marched w/the Proud Boys on the Capitol and was in the first wave of rioters to confront the cops, has agreed--for the second time--to delay his preliminary hearing as his lawyer and the government continue their efforts "to resolve this matter."

The government has just agreed to a request by 15 news organizations to make evidentiary video of the Capitol Hill attack publicly available.
Prosecutors suggest setting up a Drop Box for the clips.

So...
Robert Petrosh's mom told her friend that her son broke into the Capitol on 1/6.
Then the friend told her grandson that the mom told her that Petrosh broke into the Capitol.
Then the grandson told the FBI that the mom told his grandma that Petrosh broke into the Capitol.

When FBI agents from Atlanta showed up to ask Glen Simon if he was the guy in the Facebook photo standing at the Capitol w/his arm around someone "wearing a rubber mask in the shape of an eagle head," court papers say, Simon admitted to being that guy.

At a hearing just now, Judge Emmett Sullivan told four men charged with assaulting cops at the Capitol that he would help them get vaccinated in jail if they wanted.
"If that's what you want, you're going to get it," Sullivan said.

Marilyn Hueper said the FBI erred when agents raided her home in Alaska last week looking for Nancy Pelosi’s stolen laptop. But the newly unsealed search warrant makes a fairly decent case that the feds had the right place. extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/…

H/t to @SeamusHughes for unearthing the affidavit.

At least the government did not oppose this motion by Eric Munchel, aka Zip-Tie guy, to call his mother (and alleged co-conspirator) Lisa Eisenhart on Mother's Day.
The terms of their release say they can't communicate but prosecutors have apparently made an exception.

Overnight alleged NY Proud Boy William Pepe filed a slew of motions: one to sever his case from his co-conspirators Dominic Pezzola & Matthew Greene, another to move his case out of DC and a third attacking the validity of his obstruction of an official proceeding charge.

Unlike the "leadership" Proud Boy case, there's never been a lot of evidence in this "foot soldier" Proud Boy case that the 3 defendants worked together or even kne each other. Pepe says he met Pezzola at a previous rally in December. He says he met Greene for the 1st time on 1/6

Pepe claims he was surprised to find Pezzola, Greene & several others in a hotel room he thought he was sharing with only one other person.

Pepe's lawyer, John Pierce (who once represented the young Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse), has also filed a motion to transfer for another Proud Boy client, Chris Worrell. Pierce represents more Proud Boys than any other single lawyer in the Capitol Hill cases.

The eventual decision in Pepe's motion to dismiss his obstruction charge will be interesting. Many defendants are charged with the count. Indeed, it's not a perfect fit for what happened on the ground. Others have thought to challenge it. More here:
nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/…

Prosecutors want to detain David Judd for tossing a firecracker at cops at the Capitol.
Judd says it was a celebratory thing, not an attack.
"He did not bang a drum, blow on a kazoo, or otherwise just try to make a celebratory noise," prosecutors say. "He threw a firecracker."

At a detention hearing for alleged 3%er Guy Reffitt, prosecutors just said they have a witness telling them that Reffitt was armed w/a pistol while storming the Capitol.

How much data has the government collected in the Capitol riot investigation?
From a single phone--the one belonging to Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean--prosecutors say they have extracted 204,000 pages of Telegram chats. And that doesn't include Nordean's Signal & WhatsApp chats.

Among the new chats from Nordean's phone revealed by the government last night: One from Proud Boy chairman Enrique Tarrio watching the Capitol riot unfold while sitting at home in Miami after being banned from DC.
"Make no mistake," prosecutors say he wrote. Then: "We did this."

"FUCK TRUMP!"
Nordean was pretty upset about the former president after 1/6, his Telegram messages show.
He says he followed Trump for 4 years believing "some great justice was upon us."
But now: "Fuck you trump you left us on [t]he battlefield bloody and alone," he wrote.

The newly released chats also suggest for the first time that NY Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola was on the PB Telegram group called Ministry of Self-Defense. The chats also reference Nick Ochs, the PB Hawaii chapter prez who was arrested w/PB livestreamer Nick DeCarlo.

Nordean's lawyers have said that he foreswore politics & rallies after 1/6. Here, however, the govt produces a chat from 1/20 where Nordean lays out an agenda for what appears to be a PB officers' meeting in February.
"We are on the brink of absolute war," he wrote.

Rounding out this iconic photo of Jake Angeli, the Q-Shaman, and William Watson is, right, Eric Bochene who was charged today by federal prosecutors with being among the first of the rioters to breach the Capitol.

NEW: The numerous video exhibits in the Capitol riot cases will not be immediately released as media companies requested, the chief judge in DC rules, but will be considered on a case by case basis given the possibility of prejudice to defendants.

How did the FBI identify JT Mott of Arkansas as one of the Capitol rioters?
They surveilled Mott at his workplace, saw his "distinctive" ring finger tattoo and compared the image to video from Jan. 6.

Both of these facts from the Degrave/Sandlin/Colt stoner Capitol riot case have been reported but are...unforgettable.
One is when their bear mace accidentally goes off in the car driving to DC.
The other is Degrave asking Facebook for sharpshooting training a week b4 the attack.

Here, two newly charged Capitol defendants, Douglas Wangler & Bruce Harrison, are quoted explicitly telling the FBI that they saw a "violent crowd" at the Capitol on 1/6, pushing barricades, throwing stuff at cops & spraying them w/bear mace.
They were part of the crowd itself...