Today marks 7 months since Jan. 6, some stats on where the prosecution effort stands:
- 565 people charged to date
- 1 case dropped by the govt (Chris Kelly) + 1 case where the defendant died (Joseph Barnes)
- 31 guilty pleas (+2 set for later today)
- 6 people sentenced
- This is another number that fluctuates daily, but by my last count, 63 defendants are in pretrial detention/pending a detention hearing (I have six people whose dockets haven't been updated yet)
- Of the 31 guilty pleas entered to date (more are scheduled for the coming weeks, but I don't count them until they're accepted by the judge, because you never know), 6 involve at least one felony count, the rest are misdemanors
- Of the six sentencings:
1 probation (Anna Morgan-Lloyd)
2 home confinement (the Bustles)
2 six months in jail, both cases where the defendant had already served that via pretrial detention (Michael Curzio, Karl Dresch)
1 eight months in jail (Paul Hodgkins)
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Hello from Judge Royce Lamberth's virtual courtroom, where the first of two back-to-back plea hearings in the Jan. 6 cases is about to get underway — both involve defendants charged with assaulting police at the Capitol, which is a first and will mark another important milestone
Fairlamb is one of several dozen Jan. 6 defendants in pretrial detention while his case is pending, so he's appearing for today's plea hearing by video from jail (I'm listening to the audio feed remotely so I can't see him, but they just noted that)
New: Prosecutors are arguing that Robert Reeder, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor re: Jan. 6, should spend two months in jail — despite his plea, they say, "he appears to be proud of his participation" s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2103…
The govt highlights this exchange during the plea hearing in June where the AUSA called b.s. on Reeder's attempt at arguing he didn't think he was barred from going inside the Capitol
Govt: "Simply put, Defendant’s position is divorced from reality and is evidence of a larger issue presented in this sentencing."
Hello from Judge Amit Mehta's virtual courtroom, where a plea hearing is about to begin in the case of Jan. 6 defendant John Lolos — he was arrested after getting flagged by police for his disruptive behavior on a flight out of DC two days later -->
Lolos is pleading guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor with a max sentence of 6 mos in jail — this is the most common charge we've seen in plea deals so far, and the other three misdemeanors he's charged with will be dropped
Lolos tells Mehta that he can pay the restitution in full now, so he doesn't agree with a part of the deal that requires him to submit info about his finances to the US attorney's office — prosecutor says that's not negotiable, and Lolos says he'll continue with the plea
Hello from Judge Thomas Hogan's virtual courtroom, where Jan. 6 defendants Joshua and Jessica Bustle are due to the sentenced shortly after pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor. Previously on those pleas: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Hogan says there shouldn't be a presumption of probation as the punishment in these misdemeanor-only cases related to the Capitol riots, so he tasks the defense with explaining why the Bustles shouldn't get any jail time
Hello from Judge Amy Berman Jackson's virtual courtroom, where a plea hearing is about to get underway in the case of Jan. 6 defendant Karl Dresch. More here -->
Catching up on filings from yesterday in the meantime, three more plea hearings were added to the calendar for Jan. 6 defendants:
- Scott Fairlamb, which is notable because we haven't had pleas yet in cases involving people charged with assaulting police: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2046…
- Glenn Croy, which is another misdemeanor-only case (his codefendant Terry Lindsey's case remains pending as of now): s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2048…
The first substantive challenge to the Jan. 6 prosecutions so far is the argument that the feds overreached in bringing a felony count for obstructing an official proceeding (charged in 250+ cases). @emptywheel has a great thread going on arguments today:
In advance of today's hearing, DOJ filed a doc listing the seven cases where defendants have raised a similar challenge to the obstruction charge (note that some of these involve multiple defendants): s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2103…
Obstruction of an official proceeding is, for many defendants, the only felony and the most serious charge they're facing — it carries a max sentence of up to 20 years. It's what we saw in the case of Paul Hodgkins, the first felony plea to face sentencing buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…