Hello from Judge Tanya Chutkan's virtual courtroom, where sentencing will start soon for Troy Smocks, who pleaded guilty to post-1/6 riot threats against "RINOs, Dems, and Tech Execs": "Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are." s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2107…
Smocks was in DC on Jan. 6 but wasn't charged with participating in the riots; per his lawyer, he didn't go onto the Capitol grounds. The social media messages at issue were posted to Parler on Jan. 6 while he was in DC, per plea docs
Smocks will be arguing for a sentence equivalent to time-served — he's been in custody since his arrest in mid-January, so somewhere around 9 mos. Govt is asking for low end of the guidelines range (est'd range is 8-14 mos or 10-16 mos, depending on crim history category)
Chutkan is going over objections to the presentencing report. Smocks claimed to have served in the army, govt says DoD had no record. Smocks' lawyer said there's a report that would confirm, but doesn't have it to give to the court — Chutkan says she can't do anything w/out more
Chutkan is now getting into the complicated math of figuring out Smocks' sentencing guidelines range — the calculation that the probation office came up with in the presentencing report apparently differs from what the govt/defense calculated in the plea agreement
Long story short, Chutkan goes with calculations in the plea agreement for the offense level — she rejects applying an enhancement for disrupting govt functions/causing expenditures since he posted threats before/after the riots — and the lower crim history category = 8-14 mos
Where does this put us? Chutkan will now hear args from both sides. A range of 8-14 mos means Smocks and the govt are mostly on the same page in seeking a sentence at the low end of those guidelines. But, importantly, the judge has authority to do what she wants
AUSA Michael Friedman is up, starts with Smocks' "vitriolic" posts. AUSA notes extensive crim history (18 convictions) but vast majority were 20+ years ago, so not as much weight there. Says Smocks did the right thing by coming forward to accept responsibility here
Smocks' lawyer John Machado says Smocks understands his threats were inappropriate but argues it wasn't as bad as if he'd targeted individuals by name. Chutkan jumps in and pushes back on that, since Smocks threatened members of Congress and "tech execs": "Those aren’t people?"
Machado says he wasn't trying to downplay seriousness, but argues that if Smocks had called out specific individuals, that would be different. Chutkan quips back that he might want to ask the members of Congress who were hiding under desks on Jan. 6
Machado asks to approach the bench to say something to the judge not for public ears, and she allows it. When they finish, she says she'll take what he told her into account. No discussion of why the information needed to be under seal
Chutkan asks why time-served would be sufficient deterrence when he had a bevy of prev. convictions and still did this. Machado says he was giving his political opinion and "crossed a line" and he understands that, and now that he knows, it's a matter of "adjustment of attitude"
Smocks addresses Chutkan. He begins by saying he stands by his guilty plea and will accept his punishment, but argues that because he's Black, he is being treated more harshly compared to white people who were actually inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. and getting misdemeanor pleas
One case he brings up is Dawn Bancroft, who was recorded on video as she left the Capitol saying, "We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her," and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for parading in the Capitol buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Smocks says that there's been racism in charging decisions around Jan. 6, and invokes the civil rights movement of the 60s. Chutkan points out that what he was calling for in his Parler posts was not the same as protesting for racial justice
Chutkan is now announcing the sentence. She says that Smocks, from the "safety" of his hotel room on Jan. 6, had "the audacity to call the rioters who sought to violently overturn the legitimate election results 'patriots'"
As for his allegations of racism, Chutkan said she finds it "offensive" that he would compare his social media posts encouraging violence against people trying to carry out the peaceful transfer of power to the fight for racial justice and civil rights
Chutkan: "People died fighting for civil rights, people were gassed, they were beaten, they were tortured mentally and physically ... for you to hold yourself up as a soldier in that fight is really quite audacious"
Chutkan says she has heard no remorse from Smocks: "All I hear is what you have suffered, Mr. Smocks"
Now: Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Troy Smocks, who pleaded guilty to making threats in connection with Jan. 6, to 14 months in prison — that's at the top of the 8-14 month guidelines range, more than what the defense or the government advocated for. He's already served 9 mos.
Chutkan also orders Smocks to serve three years of supervised release after he finishes serving his prison sentence. He'll be subject to the special condition of computer monitoring and searches
Context re: Smocks' reference to Bancroft: Recall the judge asked why DOJ hadn't prosecuted her for making threats, and they noted that she was leaving the building at the time; the video also wasn't public, as compared to people who posted on social media
Smocks is the 19th person sentenced in the Jan. 6 prosecutions (he's not charged with participating in the Capitol riots but is still considered part of the broader set of cases) — 14 months is the longest sentence of incarceration ordered to date

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More from @ZoeTillman

22 Oct
Hello from Judge Reggie Walton's virtual courtroom, where sentencing is about to begin for Capitol rioters Lori Ann and Thomas Vinson. Both pleaded guilty to the parading misdemeanor, govt wants 30 days incarceration for her and home confinement for him
AUSA Mary Dohrmann begins by stressing that the govt has already accounted for the fact that a person didn't commit violence or property destruction in the plea offers that they made to defendants: "No further benefit should be received by them on that account alone."
AUSA says the govt is asking for incarceration for Lori Vinson and not her husband because of a few aggravating factors — lack of candor to law enforcement and repeated statements to news outlets "doubling down" in defense of her participation
Read 41 tweets
21 Oct
As more Jan. 6 defs face sentencing, judges are paying attention to how prosecutors/defense lawyers distinguish one from another. Chief Judge Howell has ordered the govt to provide direct analysis on this in the case of Jack Griffith, where feds are seeking 3 mos incarceration
Griffith is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow. He pleaded guilty to the parading count we've seen in most Jan. 6 plea deals so far. In arguing for more time behind bars than in other parading cases, govt focused on evidence of lack of remorse/making light s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2108…
Howell wants a detailed comparison of how the govt views Griffith's conduct compared to other cases where the govt recc'd a sentence of probation or less than 3 mos in jail. Note she also wants briefing on whether she can order probation in addition to incarceration
Read 5 tweets
19 Oct
DC Circuit has upheld pretrial detention for Jan. 6 defendant Robert Gieswein, charged with deploying a chemical spray against police, among other things.

On the district judge's detention order this summer:
The DC Circuit has in most cases upheld pretrial detention for Jan. 6 defs charged with assaulting police or conspiracy after the court in the Munchel case articulated some general guidelines for how district judges should think about the issue in these cases
The notable exception was George Tanios, who was charged with conspiring with Julian Khater to assault Officer Brian Sicknick with chemical spray, but isn't accused of being the one to physically do it. Khater lost his DC Circuit challenge to detention
Read 4 tweets
19 Oct
Hello from Judge Amy Berman Jackson's virtual courtroom, where an arraignment is set to begin soon for Michael Riley, the US Capitol Police officer charged with trying to obstruct the Jan. 6 investigation.

Previously: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Riley is arraigned, enters a not guilty plea on the two-count indictment (this is standard procedure at an arraignment, it doesn't mean anything about the future of this case), now they'll move on to discussing discovery and a schedule
AUSA confirms that discovery is "not complicated or voluminous" in this case so they expect Riley's lawyer to get everything soon. Jackson asks if a plea offer has been extended so far, AUSA says no
Read 5 tweets
18 Oct
DOJ has filed its application with SCOTUS seeking to lift the 5th Circuit stay that allowed Texas's 6-week abortion ban, SB 8, to go back into effect after a district judge halted it: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/2…

What's likely next is we get an order with Texas's deadline to respond.
DOJ says that if SCOTUS doesn't want to deal with this on an emergency basis via the shadow docket (see: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…), it could alternatively consider this a cert petition and just take up the whole case on the merits this term
Recall that the abortion providers who originally brought a constitutional challenge against SB 8 have a pending petition before SCOTUS to also skip waiting for the 5th Circuit, since all signs point to that court siding with Texas
Read 4 tweets
18 Oct
Two cameras, 40 minutes.

New Capitol surveillance footage shows a breach by Jan. 6 rioters from start to finish:
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
The videos show five Capitol Police officers making several attempts to halt the mob. There are tense but largely nonviolent confrontations between the crowd and the officers, who don't appear to have any special riot gear (helmets, shields, etc.) buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
These videos were released in the case of defendant Ethan Nordean, who argued the footage showed officers permitting people to come in. DOJ vigorously disagreed with that, saying it showed officers outnumbered, overwhelmed, and in danger: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Read 7 tweets

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