Thread by @JordanOnRecord

Ok, I'm dialed in now. Brandon Fellows was sent back to jail after getting pretrial release for... a number of reasons. But now he's representing himself and trying to get his bond status reconsidered. #CapitolRiot @wusa9

https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1448002178547949571

I missed the first half of this argument, but both DOJ and Cara Halverson, who is now Brandon Fellows' backup counsel, are going over what happens if Fellows, who is now representing himself, incriminates himself while talking in court.

Judge McFadden is now warning Fellows that if he testifies he opens himself up to perjury or obstruction of justice charges and, most likely, will still end up going back to the D.C. Jail.

McFadden: "Most people do not do this. Obviously your attorney has discouraged this. I do not think this is a good idea... but I'm going to allow you to take the stand, if you wish."

Oh god. Fellows says he wasn't prepared for this hearing because he thought it was an evidentiary hearing, not a bond hearing.

"I will caution, this is a little towards Jesus' motions when he was flipping the tables. He was a little upset," Brandon Fellows says. "He called the Pharisees snakes."

Brandon Fellows says he has spoken to another Capitol riot defendant in the jail, whose name he doesn't remember, who was the man who broke out the window Ashli Babbitt climbed through. Says the man has admitted he was "antifa."

**This, it should be stressed, is not true.**

After a long tirade about the Portland riots, Fellows begins a tangent about the Taliban, at which part Judge McFadden tells him to move along to why he's being detained.

Fellows says an "NSA man" has filed charges "ex parte" against him (which is not a thing).

McFadden says no NSA man has filed charges against him.

Fellows: "Oh, he hasn't? Well, I'll move on then..."

Fellows apparently wants to call his own attorney, Cara Halverson, as a witness in a future bond hearing and says he will waive attorney-client privilege. This is his worst idea yet.

That motion denied, of course. Judge McFadden is being remarkably patient about this. He keeps trying to keep Fellows on track, which is that he has an opportunity to testify today if he wants.

Fellows says he was "tricked" by something he read. Apparently he thought he would call his former lawyer to testify, she would say... I'm not sure what, that he's innocent I guess... and the judge would just accept that.

Fellows: "I'm a little socially awkward because of... I don't want to say 'disorders,' because I don't like to get privilege points for them."

Fellows is addressing a bunch of things that have to do with his original detention and not the later decision to revoke his pretrial release.

Fellows says when the FBI caught up with him he had gone up to a mountain to pray.

I've entirely lost the thread of what he's talking about here. Some "constitutional lawyer" told him to wrap his phone in tin foil, apparently.

Basically.

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1448013979536838666

Brandon Fellows: "I kind of feel like I was a battered wife in training" with the "abuse" from the prosecutor.

Judge McFadden is just letting him take as much rope as he wants at this point.

He's now talking about a book report he did in high school now about Canadian positive policing.

Ok, the point of the past 20 minutes, I guess, was that he became depressed and that's why he didn't report in for his mandatory drug test.

Something about a dumpster baby. I... don't know. I don't know how McFadden has not stopped this.

Fundamentally, Brandon Fellows simply does not understand the difference between missing, say, a doctor's appointment and a court-ordered pretrial check-in.

Fellows' ex-girlfriend allegedly burned all of his clothes last year.

We're now onto all of his previous relationship issues.

Brandon Fellows just admitted he RECORDED a conversation with his attorney in which he asked if he should CONTACT THE JUDGE'S FAMILY in order to try to get a new judge.

Brandon Fellows apparently found something very sovereign citizen-sounding online that he believed was a "loophole" that would allow him to force the courts to give him a new judge, which is why he listed a previous judge's wife as his emergency contact.

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1448020724241899522

"I should note that I did not want to go pro se. I thought it was a stupid decision," Brandon Fellows correctly says.

Brandon Fellows says he doesn't want to leave jail just yet because he wants to stay and "help a couple of other people." I would give anything to be able to see Judge McFadden's face right now.

Judge McFadden has called a 2-minute recess before the DOJ has the unenviable task of responding to 40 solid minutes of rambling from Brandon Fellows.

Between the "constitutional lawyer" thing and the online "loophole" information – not to mention the whole pro se thing generally – I think it's pretty clear Brandon Fellows has been exposed to some sovereign citizen ideas.

https://twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/1448013153871224837

Prosecution is up now and Brandon Fellows has just realized testifying means he's now subject to cross-examination.

DOJ: "The reason your bond was revoked was because you did not go to the mental health evaluation, yes."

Fellows: "One of the reasons, yes."

DOJ: You said you're not a druggie. But you told CNN that you smoked marijuana in Sen. Merkley's office.

Fellows: I believe it was marijuana, yes.

DOJ: You're telling us today, at least the prosecution and the court are learning, that there was an officer who gave you "the rules of the day" when you spoke with him?

Fellows says an officer told him he wouldn't get in trouble if he didn't break anything or steal anything.

DOJ: "You came in to the Capitol through a broken window, correct?"

Fellows: "Yes."

DOJ: "Put us in the scene. Where was this officer?"

Brandon Fellows says he climbed up on a desk to wave a flag to show that he was not violent and not going to attack officers. Says he was "trying to maintain constant eye contact" with the officer he says told him the "rules" of the day.

Fellows says he "followed all the rules."

DOJ: "So who told you you could climb in through the window?"

Fellows: "That would be the crowd."

DOJ: "So you're saying that because the officers didn't come up to you and become violent, that you assumed it was OK to climb through the window?"

Fellows: "Yes, that seemed to me to be what was going on."

DOJ: "You understand the reason you were revoked is that you canceled your mental health check-in."

Fellows: "That was one of the reasons."

DOJ: "And the court concluded you were not going to follow rules."

Fellows: "That was the court's conclusion."

Brandon Fellows says police officers "sympathized" with Capitol rioters. Says he felt a "welcome, temporary invite" into the Capitol.

Judge McFadden cuts Fellows off, tells him he has 10 minutes to "argue anything he wants" about why he should reconsider his bond determination.

Fellows says he has a "weird sense of politically incorrect comedy."

Fellows says in Albany, where he's from, "you're able to go on the Capitol grounds at any time."

DOJ: "[Fellows] says that he's the victim, everybody else is wrong... the women he harassed, it's their fault. He didn't like the judge in New York, so he used the wife's phone number to get rid of the judge. Your honor, he didn't do it with you, but he thought about it."

Fellows: "I'm, unfortunately, not only impulsive, but I trust people too much."

Fellows: "When I'm worried, I don't make the most understandable decisions, but I don't purposefully make illegal decisions."

Nearly 2 hours into this hearing, Brandon Fellows makes his first legal argument, which is that his arrest as a result of January 6 was entrapment by estoppel. DOJ obviously ID'd that was coming with the "who told you you could climb in the window" question.

Judge McFadden denies Brandon Fellows' motion to have his detention hearing reopened. He says he allowed him to testify, even though he wasn't obligated to.

"You are charged with a federal felony. This is not a community college where you get pats on the back."

Judge McFadden: "What speaks most saliently, and loudly, is your conduct in post-arrest, pretrial status, where you repeatedly failed to follow the conditions of release. I've listened to your explanations and I think Ms. Furst is right. These are excuses."

Judge McFadden: "You've admitted to incredible lapses of judgement here on the stand, not least of which was seeking to disqualify a New York state judge."

Judge McFadden: "You've admitted to obstruction of justice in that case, and you've admitted to what was probably obstruction in this case in trying to have me disqualified, and only Ms. Halverson's advice stopped you from doing so."

Judge McFadden: "You've engaged in a pattern of behaviors that shows contempt for the criminal justice system, and I just have no confidence that you will follow my orders if I release you."

In summation, after a two-hour bond hearing, Brandon Fellows has admitted under oath to multiple possible felonies, including trying to get a judge disqualified, and is not getting out of jail. #CapitolRiot @wusa9

I'm working on writing something up about this but you're going to have to give me a minute just to, you know, process it all.

Hey, in the meantime, if you like this thread: Consider signing up for my #CapitolRiot newsletter. It's like this thread, but only twice a week and I email it to you. Sign up here: bit.ly/3plAnKk

As promised, a write-up on today's bond hearing for Brandon Fellows: wusa9.com/article/news/n…