Thread by @alanfeuer

Good morning. I'm starting Thread #21 on posts about new arrests in the Capitol riot and updates on continuing cases.
Previous threads can be found below.

https://twitter.com/alanfeuer/status/1394247367906451456

There are two potentially interesting hearings this morning in DOJ's marquee conspiracy cases.
1) James Breheny, a NJ Oath Keeper leader, is in court on an initial appearance after his arrest last week
2) Zach Rehl, the Philly Proud Boy leader, is in court amid bail arguments.

Correction! The Oath Keepers hearing this morning, going on now, is for the full flight of defendants including a new person, William Isaacs, indicted this weekend.
James Breheny is in court on Wednesday.

Most of the 12 defendants in the Oath Keepers conspiracy case have had preliminary plea negotiations w/the govt, a prosecutor just said. She said she hopes that formal plea offers can be made to some of these defendants in the next couple of months.

A lawyer for Oath Keeper defendant Jessica Watkins says that, according to her conversations w/the govt, prosecutors are not yet done adding defendants to the conspiracy case (16 charged so far.)
Caveat: this is a defense lawyer giving her take on what the govt may or may not do.

Sorry (it's Tuesday--a Monday equivalent...): the above was said by the lawyer for defendant Donovan Crowl, not Watkins.

The prosecutor is now saying there's an "even chance" that the govt cannot (or does not want to) try all 16 current Oath Keeper defendants at one trial.
She says it's too early to say for sure b/c of possible pleas but adds that they may split the case into 2 or more trials.

A prosecutor in the case of white supremacist Timothy Hale-Cusanelli just hit on the aspect of the 1/6 investigation that makes everything so complicated.
No single defendant, she said, could have done what they did at the Capitol w/o the collective force of the mob around them

The govt missed its deadline yesterday to file a plea agreement for QAnoner Doug Jensen, a bellwether case for scores of pending deals.
That suggests prosecutors are a) having some level of difficulty reaching a deal or b)the deal was filed under seal to keep its details secret.

Prosecutors argue that Ryan Samsel, one of the first rioters to confront cops at the Capitol, deserves to stay in jail pretrial b/c of a history of violence reaching back to 2006.
There's a pattern, they say, of Samsel "choking & beating women" and breaking into a victim's house.

Samsel is an important figure in the Capitol attack b/c he approached the Capitol barricades very early in the riot w/two others--seemingly after having a brief discussion w/Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs.
He's suffered in jail, assaulted by corrections officers, his lawyers say.

One officer that Samsel attacked, known as O-1, was knocked over as he pushed at the barricades, hitting her head on stairs behind her. Hours later, prosecutors say, she blacked out and was hospitalized w/a concussion.

Samsel has a serious history of violence. In 2009, court papers say, he beat & choked a woman while holding her against her will for 5 hours. Two years later, he attacked his pregnant girlfriend, smashing pizza in her face, pouring beer on her head & holding her head underwater.

Paul Hodgkins, who breached the Senate floor, is in court now poised to plead guilty--the second person charged in the Capitol riot to do so publicly so far.
Prosecutors are dropping a serious obstruction charge as part of their deal w/him, leaving a dis-con & a trespass charge.

Plea hearings, as a general rule, are boring and formulaic. The interesting stuff will happen later when Hodgkins is sentenced. That may set a pattern for the scores of Capitol Hill defendants who are also facing relatively minor charges.

Apologies: I heard the plea wrong at first. (Bad week!)
Hodgkins will plead guilty to the top charge of obstructing an official proceeding and have the lesser charges dropped.
Interestingly, the obstruction charge is being challenged for applicability by other defendants...

Hodgkins came up by bus from Florida, a prosecutor is saying, and at 3 pm or so on 1/6 entered the Senate while others shouted and prayed. He briefly wore latex gloves. Hodgkins raised his flag in salute then left. But he agrees that he impeded the certification of the vote.

Hodgkins himself is now saying he put on he gloves (from a 1st aid kit in his backpack) b/c he saw another rioters bleeding from a rubber bullet to the face and wanted to help him. But the other rioter didn't want help so he took the gloves off, he says.

The obstruction charge Hodgkins pled to carries a serious maximum sentence of 20 years. But he won't do anywhere near that.
Judge Randolph Moss says the sentencing guidelines under the plea deal at least for now are between 15 to 21 months in prison.

Paul Hodgkins, the second person to plead guilty in the Capitol riot, is facing sentencing guidelines under his deal w/the govt of a year or two in prison.
It'll be interesting to see if this 15-21 month range holds up for other rioters charged w/relatively minor crimes.

Wildcard:
While it's usually to a defendant's benefit to plead early, Hodgkins took his plea before the challenges to the obstruction charge he admitted to have been litigated.
If, say, a judge in another case says that charge isn't applicable, he may regret moving quickly.

The fourth (and still sealed) new defendant in the most recent Capitol Hill Oath Keepers indictment has been arrested, a prosecutor just said, and the name will be unsealed at some point today.

DOJ identifies Jonathan Walden, 46, of Birmingham, Ala. as the fourth new Oath Keeper added to the group's 1/6 conspiracy indictment.

Feds make two new arrests in the Capitol riot.

Stewart Parks & Matthew Baggott, both from Tennessee, were in the early wave to breach the building, shown below w/QAnoner Doug Jensen.

"No way in hell Biden is getting the presidency," Parks wrote on Instagram.

NEW: Seattle Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean has filed a leviathan 66 page motion to dismiss his indictment. It'll take a while to read through but Nordean is attacking the obstruction of Congressional proceeding charge, the 60's era civil disobedience charge & the trespass charge

Other Capito riot defendants have challenged the obstruction & trespass charges and leftist protesters in Portland have challenged the civil disorder charge.
I wrote about a lot of this here:
nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/…

Nordean's motion to dismiss is arguably the most comprehensive attack on the govt's charges to date, going after the applicability of three counts (1512, 231a & 1752) that many many Capitol Hill defendants face.
For that reason alone it's significant.

In short Nordean attacks the obstruction of an official proceeding charge (1512) by saying that in the language of the statute such proceedings must be legal or investigative in nature and the certification of the Electoral College vote isn't either.
Thus, the charge doesn't fit.

As for the civil disorder law, which was originally drafted by southern segregationists to cripple the civil rights movement, Nordean claims it exceeds the scope of the commerce clause and is therefore (echoing the Portland defendants) unconstitutional.

Nordean then goes after the trespass statute by noting that the language of the law refers to restricted areas established by the Secret Service while the Capitol is in fact protected by the Capitol Police.

All of Nordean's attacks on his indictment are pretty wonky in nature. But I tried to the break them down in layman's terms on The Daily a couple of weeks ago.
nytimes.com/2021/05/17/pod…

Alleged Texas Three Percenter and Capitol rioter Guy Reffitt is expected to face new grand jury charges soon, possibility in connection w/bringing a firearm to the Capitol on Jan. 6, a prosecutor has just said at a hearing in DC.

Carey Jon Walden gave a statement in February to the FBI acknowledging that although he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, he didn't break anything or hurt anyone.

"I fist bumped and 'Devil horned' the swat line," he wrote.

Underway now: a detention hearing for Ryan Samsel, one of the first rioters to confront cops at the Capitol. This week, prosecutors arguing to keep Samsel in custody revealed his disturbing history of domestic violence.

One of Samsel's DV victims has written a statement and wants it read aloud. Prosecutor will do so now.

Ah...sounds like it's not a DV victim. But rather the police officer victim.

The officer writes that Samsel caused her "physical and psychological trauma" after he knocked her down on 1/6 & she suffered a concussion.

"When I will be free...of my brain injury," she writes.

"No more women should have to fear injury at his hands."

Looks like the judge is going to delay an immediate decision here and consider sending Samsel to a Pennsylvania state jail where he's wanted on a detainer for separate crime.

INBOX: DOJ email notes that 150 days after Jan. 6, about 465 people have been arrested in connection w/the Capitol riot--an average of three a day (including weekends.)
More than 130 charged w/assaulting, resisting or impeding cops. 40 charged w/using a deadly or dangerous weapon

New Capitol riot arrest: Stephanie Baez of California.

After Baez breached the Capitol, the FBI learned that she posted a video online captioned, "Girl is Looking for a Proud Boy."

This Baked Alaska hearing is the most Baked Alaska thing ever.
His lawyer says he doesn’t understand why they’re even in front of a judge at all.
The judge says b/c your client filmed a police encounter and put it on the Internet, not so wise for a guy under court supervision.

Friday evening flurry of Capitol Hill arrest announcements:

*Timothy Williams of Colorado
*Leonard Gruppo of Texas
*Richard T. Crosby of Connecticut

Federal prosecutors appear to be done w/Jacob Chansley, aka the Q Shaman, and his attempts to be released pretrial.
"It is truly incredible the defense can contend a man carrying a spear...shouting Mike Pence is 'a fucking traitor'... was not a danger to the Vice President."

"In one’s wildest imagination, no one could have predicted the events of late 2020, culminating on January 6, 2021," a lawyer for Capitol riot suspect Doug Jensen writes asking for release.
It's Huxley meets Orwell, he says.
A billionaire reality TV prez, the internet, Qanon...

Jensen is perhaps best known for confronting Officer Eugene Goodman inside the Capitol. His lawyer says he became a "true believer" in Qanon "for reasons he does not even understand today."

Jensen was one of the first Capitol Hill defendants to have publicly acknowledged being in pleas negotiations w/the govt but those appear to have broken down.
His lawyer writes that his worst case scenario, even if he accepts responsibility, is 41 to 51 months in prison.

NEW: Feds arrest alleged north Jersey Proud Boy Shawn Price in connection with Capitol riot.

"I led the storm," he told a friend on Facebook

Prosecutors say Price, indicated by red arrow, was in the thick of it, skirmishing with cops on Jan. 6

Depending on how your classification methods, Price brings the total count of Proud Boys charged in connection w/Jan. 6 to 22 or 24. That's more than the number of Oath Keepers charged, and the largest contingent from a single extremist group.

Another new Capitol riot arrest: Dillon Colby Herrington, aka #MAGALumberjack.

Prosecutors say that Herrington threw a 4x4 "in the direction" of cops on Jan. 6.