Good morning. I'm starting Thread #22 of posts about new arrests in the Capitol riot and updates on continuing cases.
Previous threads can be found archived below.
As promised prosecutors moved overnight to detain newly arrested Oath Keeper suspect Jason Dolan. They say Dolan's behavior was a lot like his codefendant Ken Harrelson's. They drove up to DC together, stashed arms in a Va. hotel, joined the "stack" that breached the building.
The detention memo for Dolan, a former Marine marksmanship instructor who used the chat handle "Turmoil," doesn't add a whole lot to the govt's larger claims about the role the Oath Keepers played on Jan. 6 but there are few interesting details.
Prosecutors say that Dolan, learning from Harrelson's earlier arrest, cleaned his home of firearms, including the ones the neighbors saw & the one in the pic of his wife he used in his cellphone contact list.
(Apparently the wep he bought his daughter at age 7 was also missing.)
Missing as well, prosecutors say, are the long guns that Dolan (and Harrelson) seem to have stashed at a Comfort Inn in Va. just before the Capitol attack, allegedly to arm a Quick Reaction Force.
Prosecutors further say that Dolan gave a voice-masked interview to Gateway Pundit two weeks ago claiming that Capitol Police purposefully unlocked the Capitol's magnetic doors to let the mob in.
Prosecutors call that claim a conspiracy theory.
In a separate case, Robert Gieswein, the young Colorado man who was among the first wave of rioters to breach the Capitol, moved overnight to be freed from pretrial detention. Gieswein has been locked up for months but now claims he should released.
Gieswein argues for example that the baseball bat and chemical spray he used at the Capitol don't really qualify as "dangerous" weapons.
Prosecutors say that Gieswein is a member of a militia-style group called the Woodland Wild Dogs.
Gieswein, however, says the Dogs are no threat to no society but merely a group of friends "who like guns and Star Wars."
On Jan. 5, Gieswein was interviewed on video at Freedom Plaza saying things like the corrupt politicians have to go and that he'd come to DC "to keep President Trump in."
Now, he claims he was stoned at the time and was merely making "rambling comments."
In an overnight filing, prosecutors reveal that they have a phone call that KC Proud Boy William Chrestman made to a friend and recorded himself. In it Chrestman admits to breaking into the Capitol--"we rushed that shit"--stopping the vote certification & fighting with the cops.
Chrestman's call, made on Jan. 6, seems to support the theory that even if the Proud Boys didn't plan to storm the Capitol before that day, they led the mob in the assault.
"They all followed us, Proud Boys," Chrestman said, describing how he kicked a fence down & everyone rushed
Speaking to an unknown interlocutor, Chrestman describes how people in the DC crowd treated the Proud Boys like "rock stars."
New Capitol riot arrest:
Pittsburgh area man, Robert Morss, has been charged with helping form a "shield wall" of rioters at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol then pushing through officers to enter through a broken window.
"Hey, everyone with a shield, back up and organize," prosecutors quote Morss as saying in the tunnel under the west terrace. "Make a shield wall! Organize right now and make a shield wall. Where are those fucking shields?"
Morss, a Penn State graduate, was carrying scissors and a knife during the attack, prosecutors say.
JUST IN: Charging documents unsealed accusing an active duty Chicago police office, Karol Chwiesiuk, with breaching the Capitol on 1/6.
Prosecutors say Chwiesiuk made his way to Sen. Jeff Merkley's office where some Proud Boys, including Philly chapter prez Zach Rehl (smoking left), were having a party.
On Jan. 5, they say, Chwiesiuk "surveyed the barricades" at the Capitol & sent 44 pics to 3 different people.
I imagine many loved ones of those arrested at the Capitol feel like the girlfriend of Sean McHugh whose letter to the court asking for his release was filed today.
She didn't want him to go, said politics had consumed his life & rued that he only talked to likeminded people.
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