Now: A judge has ordered Capitol riot def. Thomas Hale-Cusanelli, described by the govt as an "avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer," to stay in jail. Judge gave weight to his history of violent, racist speech + comments *after* Jan. 6 expressing desire for civil war 
Hale-Cusanelli had argued for pretrial release, with his lawyer focusing on the fact that he's not charged with assaulting anyone at the Capitol, and arguing that he hadn't acted with violence in the past on his documented history of hate speech
Govt argued the evidence showed Hale-Cusanelli's ideology had "escalated," that the court shouldn't wait for him to act on it to consider him a danger given the nature of what he's said, and that it's "naive" to think he's less likely to act now, given consequences of prosecution
The prosecutor (and, subsequently, the judge) also expressed concern about Hale-Cusanelli posing a danger to a confidential source who cooperated with the govt and recorded a Jan. 14 convo with the defendant where he talked about civil war and "the purpose" he felt on Jan. 6
Govt also argued Hale Cusanelli's proposed custodians were inappropriate, noting one appeared to share his beliefs (and was in "Facebook jail" for saying NJ gov should be beaten to death) and the other responded to a photo of him with a Hitler moustache with "I can’t with you"
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
