A key moment in determining whether Danny Rodriguez’s confession to electroshocking Mike Fanone is admissible.
Right before the FBI agent brought up HuffPost, Antifa, and BLM, his lawyers argued he "unambiguously and unequivocally invoked his right to remain silent."
In a filing last night, Danny Rodriguez’s federal public defenders argued that with "a simple ‘no,' Mr. Rodriguez specifically and clearly informed the agents he '[did not] want to' answer questions related to the alleged assault on Officer Fanone.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
But watch for yourself. Danny Rodriguez shakes his head no, but then the FBI special agent chimes in.
“I’ll tell you what, everybody else is going to talk about that,” he says.
Danny Rodriguez quickly admits he’s “very ashamed.”
Rodriguez’s lawyers: “Mr. Rodriguez unambiguously and unequivocally invoked his right to silence as to any questions related to the alleged assault through a verbal response to Agent Armenta’s question.”
Danny Rodriguez’s lawyers: “Because agents ignored Mr. Rodriguez’s invocation and continued questioning him, all statements related to and addressing the alleged assault must be suppressed.”
On second look I’m not even sure we really get a clear head shake. Tough to argue it’s an unambiguous and unequivocal invocation of the right to remain silent when there’s crosstalk. Six seconds later, he says he’s “ashamed.”
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.@nickquested has an important new film out called 64 Days that zeroes in on the critical timeframe in the lead up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
I’ve watched far more Capitol attack footage than any sane human being should, and even I was floored by what he’s got.
The day after the 2020 election, a mob of Trump supporters who believed Trump’s lies about voter fraud flooded to the TCF Center in Detroit, the largest majority-Black city in the nation.
NBC News’ own @PattersonNBC was inside, here’s some of what he saw:
As @janestreet and I report in our new story on the chaos at the TCF Center in 2020, some of the key instigators there — including folks banging on the windows — had official ties to the Trump 2020 campaign operation.
@janestreet Now, here's a key thing to know about the people who flooded down to the TCF Center on Nov. 4, 2020, because they saw some post on Facebook or something: They're plainly wrong. Trump didn't lose Michigan because of fraud in Detroit, where he performed better than he had in 2016.
NEW: One of the worst Jan. 6 rioters, David Dempsey, hit with 20 years in federal prison by a Reagan-appointed federal judge who has spoken out about the “preposterous” and dangerous rhetoric some Republicans have used in an attempt to “rewrite history" on Jan. 6.
Dempsey appeared to flash an “OK” sign as he was led out of court, several witnesses observed. Other rioters have yelled “Trump won!” as they were led out of court.
DOJ inspector general concludes, as folks who were paying attention four plus years ago did contemporaneously, that having Bureau of Prisons guards man civilian protests was a bad idea.
"Allowing federal law enforcement to operate with anonymity all but eliminates accountability when force is inevitably used against demonstrators." huffpost.com/entry/william-…
"A senior Justice Department official credited Barr with the idea of bringing in federal prison corrections officers, calling it an example of Barr’s 'outside the box' thinking." huffpost.com/entry/william-…
“If [we] don’t have a charge, we don’t say anything about an investigation; we just don’t do that.”
From the OIG report on Willam Barr and the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who helped fuel the ex-president's bogus voter fraud narrative back in 2020.
He announced his resignation just before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was fueled by Trump's election lies. huffpost.com/entry/david-fr…
"Freed’s unusual conduct came under intense scrutiny from Justice Department veterans who noted it was “wildly improper” for a federal prosecutor to be making public declarations about investigations that could be used as a political cudgel and help undermine confidence in the electoral process." huffpost.com/entry/david-fr…
DOJ inspector general's report on the Roger Stone sentencing recommendation (remember that?) is now out. It calls former interim U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea's leadership "ineffectual" and DOJ's handling of the Stone sentencing "highly unusual." Bill Barr refused to cooperate.
"we found that Barr had articulated his position about the sentencing recommendation both before and shortly after the first sentencing memorandum was filed, and before the President’s tweets." oig.justice.gov/sites/default/…
"Barr was in the middle of listening to what others thought about the idea of a second filing when someone mentioned the tweets, and then 'the air almost went out of the room.'"