Richard Barnett, the man photographed with his foot on Nancy Pelosi's desk during the Capitol riot, is making another push for release: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2058…
Barnett attempts to draw a line from the George Floyd protests to the Capitol insurrection: "...while in no way equivocating their experience to the horrors of racism, they too began to complain how they have been ridiculed and exploited for generations by America’s ruling class"
Barnett is the latest Jan. 6 to try to relitigate pretrial detention in light of the DC Circuit's ruling in the Munchel case, which raised the bar the govt has to clear in cases that don't involve specific allegations of violence, property destruction, or leadership that day
Barnett is arguing Chief Judge Howell got it very wrong when she ordered pretrial detention and reversed a magistrate judge in Arkansas who had signed off on release. Now that Barnett's been indicted, the next round is before the judge assigned to his case, Judge Casey Cooper
Barnett is arguing that the court shouldn't consider the stun gun he had with him in the Capitol as a dangerous weapon because it didn't have batteries installed, which meant it was inoperable and only a type of walking stick
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A hearing is about to start in the case of Joseph Biggs and Ethan Nordean, two alleged Capitol rioters charged in the latest Proud Boys conspiracy case — they'd been granted pretrial release, but the govt is now arguing they should be held in light of the new charges + evidence
Biggs and Nordean are arguing the govt's new evidence (the govt focuses on messages exchanged before/during 1/6) doesn't actually speak to the grounds the govt is arguing for detention — which involve allegations they were involved with property destruction — or dangerousness
To link Nordan and Biggs with the property destruction element, AUSA Jason McCullough ties them to Dominic Pezzola, who is charged with using a riot shield to break a window — McCullough says Pezzola is a coconspirator who is just charged in a different indictment
A judge is hearing arguments now on Capitol riot defendant Garret Miller's motion for pretrial release. Aside from charges re: participating in the insurrection, he's accused of tweeting "Assassinate AOC" and talking about hanging a Black US Capitol Police officer after Jan. 6
Miller's lawyer begins by noting the recent DC Circuit ruling in Munchel (buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…), which raised the bar for pretrial detention in these cases. Judge Carl Nichols says he's "well aware" of the opinion
New: Biden's first slate of judicial nominees is out, with a focus on diversity. His circuit picks include two former public defenders, and all are Black women:
- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, DC Circuit
- Tiffany Cunningham, Federal Circuit
- Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, 7th Circuit
Biden's district court picks include nominees who would be the:
- first Muslim American district judge (Judge Zahid Quraishi, NJ)
- first AAPI woman on the DC federal district court (Judge Florence Pan)
- first BIPOC woman on the Maryland district court (Judge Lydia Griggsby)
Finally, there's a nominee for DC Superior Court: Judge Rupa Ranga Puttagunta, a local administrative judge
Shortly after prosecutors filed noticed they were no longer seeking detention for Eric Munchel — photographed at the Capitol in tactical gear holding zip tie handcuffs — and Lisa Eisenhart, a judge entered orders releasing them to home detention buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
The govt's decision to back down from the monthslong fight to keep Munchel and Eisenhart in jail comes a few days after the DC Circuit set a new, higher bar for prosecutors to clear to get pretrial detention in the Capitol insurrection cases buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
When the govt brought charges in Jan. against Capitol riot defendant Garret Miller, they alleged he talked about having rope in his bag and hanging an officer. In a filing today, the govt specified he was talking about an officer he believed was Black: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2053…
Here's @JaneLytv's original story on the arrest of Garret Miller, who also allegedly tweeted "Assassinate AOC" and shared a selfie of himself inside the Capitol with "just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol" buzzfeednews.com/article/janely…
@JaneLytv Miller is challenging his pretrial detention. In a 3/19 filing, his lawyer didn't deny he tweeted "assassinate AOC" and made "vile and racially tinged threats against a Capitol Police officer," but argued there was no evidence of him *acting* on any of it assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2051…
New: The DC Circuit has revived the detention fight over Capitol riot defendants Eric Munchel (the man photographed holding a bunch of zip ties) and Lisa Eisenhart: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2052…
It doesn't mean they'll be released now, but will get another round in the district court.
In a 2-1 decision, the court found that the district court judge "did not demonstrate that it adequately considered, in light of all the record evidence, whether Munchel and Eisenhart present an identified and articulable threat to the community"
Importantly, the majority set some guidelines that will now apply to detention fights in all the Capitol insurrection and make it harder for the govt to secure detention if someone isn't charged with assaulting cops, breaking things, and conspiring/planning/aiding