Prosecutors Dropped A High-Profile Fight To Keep Two Alleged Capitol Rioters In Jail

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/capitol-riot-detention-zip-tie-eric-munchel

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have dropped a longstanding fight to keep two alleged Capitol rioters in jail, marking one of the highest profile setbacks for the government in these cases so far.

The US attorney’s office in Washington had spent the past two months arguing to keep Eric Munchel and Lisa Eisenhart behind bars while their cases are pending. In February, a federal judge in DC sided with the government and ordered the mother-son codefendants to stay in jail. But the government notified the judge on Monday that they were backing down; the decision comes three days after a federal appeals court ruled that the DC judge had failed to justify the detention order when the two weren’t charged with assaulting anyone or destroying property.

Munchel — who was photographed inside the Capitol wearing tactical gear and carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs — and Eisenhart have been in a jail since their arrests on Jan. 10 and Jan. 19, respectively. They’ll be released to home detention and location monitoring, which is what a federal magistrate judge in their home state of Tennessee originally ordered shortly after their arrests; they’ll only be allowed to leave home for work, school, medical appointments, religious services, court appearances, and a handful of other pre-approved reasons.

In exchange for dropping the detention fight, the government also asked that the two be barred from accessing the internet and using encrypted messaging applications without advance approval, and prohibited from contacting anyone involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Munchel and Eisenhart agreed to those conditions.

*snip*

[PortTack]

1. Sure...they agreed..they won't contact anyone on the internet...sure

[aeromanKC]

2. They will violate terms in 3,2,1.......

[msfiddlestix]

3. Headline confuses me. Maybe I'm just dense

Prosecutors Dropped A High-Profile Fight To Keep Two Alleged Capitol Rioters In Jail

Is the "high profile fight" a descriptor of the Two Capitol Rioters in Jail, and Prosecutors decided to cave and drop the charges or is there another case they're sacrificing in order to stay the course with the the "Two Capitol Rioters" ?

I read the excerpt, I still don't feel exactly clear.

[zipplewrath]

4. No charges were dropped

They just stopped trying to keep them in jail until their trial. They were probably going to lose that fight.

[msfiddlestix]

7. hmm

Wonder if the two had broken into this judge's court chambers and the judge's office just for kicks, with the intent to disrupt a very important legal matter and the two had cozy time of it in his bench etc etc etc, made all manner of threats of life, limb and liberty against anybody around.

How would the Judge view similar charges? Just wondering...

[dragonlady]

5. I was puzzled too at first

The appellate court decided the two could not be kept in jail, so the prosecutors had to end their fight to keep them there. That's all that the title means. However, the prosecution did get some extra orders to restrict the freedom of the defendants for the time being.

[msfiddlestix]

8. Thanks, but something doesn't smell right. N/t

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. Zip ties? Didn't he have a stun gun too?

He needs to be behind bars.