2 years ago
678 Here’s more from Reuters on the two Proud Boys who are being sentenced today, and what they were found guilty of:
The first Proud Boy to face sentencing on Friday morning, Dominic Pezzola, did not play a leadership role in the group and was the only defendant of five to be acquitted of seditious conspiracy. He was convicted of other felonies including obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting police.
The second defendant, Ethan Nordean, was a leader of the group who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol following a speech in which the Republican falsely claimed that his November 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Trump has continued to make those false claims even as he leads the Republican race for the 2024 nomination to challenge Democrat Biden.
Five people including a police officer died during or shortly after the riot and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.
The sentencing of Pezzola and Nordean follows U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Thursday ordering two other former Proud Boys leaders, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, to serve 17 years and 15 years in prison, respectively.
Biggs’ term is just one year less than the 18 years former Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes received earlier this year.
The sentences for Biggs and Rehl were far less than the 33-year and 30-year terms sought by federal prosecutors.
The government is seeking a 20-year prison term for Pezzola and a 27-year term for Nordean.
Although Pezzola was found not guilty of sedition, prosecutors said his assault on former Capitol Police Officer Mark Ode, in which he stole Ode’s riot shield and used it to smash at a window at the Capitol, helps to justify a lengthy prison term.
“Pezzola’s actions and testimony leave no doubt that he intended to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. “He committed crimes of terrorism on January 6.”
Pezzola’s attorneys are asking for their client to be sentenced to around five years in prison, and said in their sentencing memo that he has already served about three years in jail awaiting trial.
Nordean’s attorney, Nick Smith, plans to argue for a lower sentence within the range of 15-21 months.
“Nordean walked in and out of the Capitol like hundreds of Class B misdemeanants,” Smith wrote. “When the government does distinguish Nordean’s actions from any other January 6 defendant’s, it relies on characterization, not facts.”
Sentencing begins for Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola
The sentencing hearing for Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys militia group convicted of serious charges related to the January 6 insurrection, has begun in Washington DC, Politico reports:
HAPPENING NOW: Proud Boy Dominic PEZZOLA, who committed one of the most memorable acts on Jan. 6 when he smashed a Senate window with a stolen police riot shield — and then lit up a victory cigar in the Capitol — is in the courtroom and prepared to face sentencing. pic.twitter.com/oL7akLJxcp
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
Prosecutors are requesting a 20-year prison sentence for Pezzola, which, if granted, would be the longest handed out to any defendant related to the attack on the Capitol.
There’s no telling how the state and federal cases against Donald Trump and others for trying to overturn the 2020 polls will end, but as the Associated Press reports, the environment for election workers nationwide has grown much more hostile in recent years:
More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a justice department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote.
Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, secretaries of state and experts warn. Some point to Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen and spreading conspiracy theories about election workers. Experts fear the 2024 election could be worse and want the justice department to do more to protect election workers.
The justice department had created the taskforce in 2021 led by its public integrity section, which investigates election crimes. John Keller, the unit’s second in command, said in an interview with the Associated Press the department hoped its prosecutions would deter others from threatening election workers.
“This isn’t going to be taken lightly. It’s not going to be trivialized,” he said. “Federal judges, the courts are taking misconduct seriously and the punishments are going to be commensurate with the seriousness of the conduct.”
More people are expected to plead guilty on Thursday to threatening election workers in Arizona and Georgia.
Georgia Republicans could target DA who indicted Trump for election subversion
Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp yesterday rejected a call from a handful of rightwing lawmakers to convene a special session of the state legislature with the intention of removing Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who indicted Donald Trump and 18 others for trying to overturn the state’s elections three years ago.
But as the Guardian’s Jewel Wicker reports, Willis may not be out of the woods yet:
Republicans at the state and federal levels are calling for multiple tactics to unseat Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, even if their legal standing is murky and they lack the support of Georgia’s Republican governor.
Steve Gooch, the Georgia senate majority leader, and Clint Dixon, a state senator, have said they plan to use a commission designed to discipline and potentially remove rogue prosecutors to investigate Willis following her indictment of Donald Trump for attempting to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
In May, Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill, SB92, that makes it easier to remove elected district attorneys. Under the law, a prosecuting attorneys qualifications commission has the power to investigate complaints and discipline or remove district attorneys whom the appointed commissioners believe are not properly enforcing the law.
Kemp on Thursday dismissed talk of using the commission or the legislature to remove Willis from office, but said the decision was not his. “Up to this point, I have not seen any evidence that DA Willis’s actions or lack thereof warrant action by the prosecuting attorney oversight commission, but that will ultimately be a decision that the commission will make,” the governor said.
The commission will begin receiving complaints on 1 October 2023, and earlier this month Burt Jones, the Republican lieutenant governor, announced three appointments to the eight-member group. Jones, who served as one of Georgia’s fake electors when he was a state senator in 2020, recently criticized Willis’s prosecution of Trump and said her treatment of the defendants like criminals is “very disturbing”.
Here’s more from Reuters on the two Proud Boys who are being sentenced today, and what they were found guilty of:
The first Proud Boy to face sentencing on Friday morning, Dominic Pezzola, did not play a leadership role in the group and was the only defendant of five to be acquitted of seditious conspiracy. He was convicted of other felonies including obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting police.
The second defendant, Ethan Nordean, was a leader of the group who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol following a speech in which the Republican falsely claimed that his November 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Trump has continued to make those false claims even as he leads the Republican race for the 2024 nomination to challenge Democrat Biden.
Five people including a police officer died during or shortly after the riot and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.
The sentencing of Pezzola and Nordean follows U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Thursday ordering two other former Proud Boys leaders, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, to serve 17 years and 15 years in prison, respectively.
Biggs’ term is just one year less than the 18 years former Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes received earlier this year.
The sentences for Biggs and Rehl were far less than the 33-year and 30-year terms sought by federal prosecutors.
The government is seeking a 20-year prison term for Pezzola and a 27-year term for Nordean.
Although Pezzola was found not guilty of sedition, prosecutors said his assault on former Capitol Police Officer Mark Ode, in which he stole Ode’s riot shield and used it to smash at a window at the Capitol, helps to justify a lengthy prison term.
“Pezzola’s actions and testimony leave no doubt that he intended to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. “He committed crimes of terrorism on January 6.”
Pezzola’s attorneys are asking for their client to be sentenced to around five years in prison, and said in their sentencing memo that he has already served about three years in jail awaiting trial.
Nordean’s attorney, Nick Smith, plans to argue for a lower sentence within the range of 15-21 months.
“Nordean walked in and out of the Capitol like hundreds of Class B misdemeanants,” Smith wrote. “When the government does distinguish Nordean’s actions from any other January 6 defendant’s, it relies on characterization, not facts.”
Two more Proud Boys face sentencing on January 6 charges
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today, two more members of the Proud Boys militia group will be sentenced by a federal judge on charges related to the January 6 insurrection. Prosecutors are requesting a 27-year prison sentence for Ethan Nordean, a chapter president in the group, after his conviction for seditious conspiracy and other crimes, and a 20-year sentence for Dominic Pezzola, who was acquitted of that charge but convicted of other offenses related to the violent attack on the Capitol.
Yesterday, a judge sentenced former Proud Boys organizer Joseph Biggs to 17 years behind bars, and handed a 15-year sentence to Zachary Rehl, a leader of the group. Both men were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a civil war-era offense that is rarely brought. Their sentences were the second- and third-longest handed down from the attack on the Capitol, and two other members of the group, including its former leader, Enrique Tarrio, are scheduled to be sentenced next week.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Just-released government data shows better-than-expect hiring in August but the unemployment rate ticking up to 3.8%. Joe Biden will speak about the report at 11.15am eastern time.
More defendants in the Georgia election subversion case may opt to skip next week’s in-person arraignment and enter their pleas in writing. Donald Trump did so yesterday, as did his former lawyer Jenna Ellis.
The White House is asking Congress to allocate an additional $4b to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for the response to recent disasters, including the wildfire that destroyed Lahaina in Maui and Hurricane Idalia in Florida and other southeastern states.
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