This New York Post opinion column hides the ball, but it would appear that the conservative FBI special agent here wanted to be a "conscientious objector" to... the arrest of members of a militia group who were at the western tunnel on Jan. 6.
There were five individuals arrested in connection with that case. Three of them were arrested in Florida. There are no other Capitol attack arrests in Florida on Aug. 24 in the Justice Department database.
Now, the NYP story twice mentions that he objected to using standard FBI arrest tactics on a Jan. 6 defendant charged with misdemeanors.
Two out of three of the militia members arrested in Florida on Aug. 24 were facing a felony count.
So let's say that this FBI special agent was, on Aug. 24, supposed to help arrest a misdemeanor-only Jan. 6 defendant.
That would be Tyler Bensch. In addition to dressing like this and spraying someone in the face with a chemical irritant on Jan. 6, the feds say he had a GoPro.
Setting all else aside, you can see here why the FBI might want to, say, get a copy of that critical GoPro footage rather than issuing a summons and giving him an opportunity to delete the incriminating evidence!
Here's what the feds say the only misdemeanor Capitol defendant arrested in Florida on Aug. 24 did. This is the guy who this FBI special agent apparently thought should've gotten the kid-glove treatment, such as with a court summons.
Anonymous #SeditionHunter just now: "I did check to see if I could find the agent on j6 no luck🙂"
Can't imagine why the New York Post didn't include these photos in their story!
Also seems clear that the misdemeanors were likely just the opening salvo from DOJ. They've only been charged by criminal complaint. Just imagine what a grand jury can do with this with a boatload more evidence when it comes time for the indictment.
"The notion that the FBI isn't, in essence, a conservative-leaning organization is really silly..." nbcnews.com/politics/justi…
.@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.'"