Merrick Garland, get tougher on the insurrectionists

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Richard W. Painter
@RWPUSA
The United States has a treason epidemic.
Do we have an Attorney General?

Opinion: Merrick Garland, get tougher on the insurrectionists
Elie Honig writes US Attorney General Merrick Garland must do more to hold the January 6 insurrectionists accountable for their actions. Their cases are too important and their conduct is too serious...
cnn.com
7:20 AM · Aug 26, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/25/opinions/merrick-garland-insurrectionists-prosecutions-honig/index.html

(CNN) — At his confirmation hearing in February 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland said all the right things about the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He vowed to fully prosecute the "heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy." When asked if he would look "upstream" to hold accountable the people who had organized and incited the insurrection, Garland vowed to "pursue these leads wherever they take us."

Thus far, Garland's actions have not matched his rhetoric. On Garland's watch, the Justice Department has made an inexcusably weak showing in its January 6 prosecutions. Most recently, the Justice Department has offered lenient plea deals, many of them for misdemeanors -- enabling several January 6 insurrectionists, including the individual who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" T-shirt to the attack, to reduce the charges against them.

Back when I was a first-year federal prosecutor, we'd get assigned every few months to do "misdemeanor duty." We'd have to go over to the courthouse and process the pettiest of federal cases -- smoking in a Veterans Administration hospital, low level theft of mail, a fistfight at a federal park, that kind of thing. While the statutory maximum technically is up to one year in prison, nobody got locked up for a misdemeanor. Usually, it was just a quick guilty plea, a fine and an admonition not to do it again.

Plainly, every Capitol insurrectionist committed misdemeanors, likely many of them -- trespassing on federal property and disorderly conduct, for example. And many defendants have been charged with these low-level crimes.

*snip*

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Ignorant blather- go to emptywheel.net for thorough legal analysis of January 6 prosecutions

Painter is out over his skis in this op Ed, ignoring plea deals that will help convict those charged with felonies, and ignoring the difficulty of convicting for felonies those who just walked into the Capitol after the initial breach and did nothing else.

Those who were violent, coordinated with others, made social media statements about obstruction before or while in the Capitol ARE being charged with felonies, and there is copious audio and video evidence to convict them.

Remember, if these prosecutions get bogged down for too long, (which would happen if they attempted to prosecute every misdemeanour trespasser for felonies), the next Billy Barr in 2024 (a distinct possibility at this point) can simply say “never mind”, and move to dismiss, as was attempted with several prosecutions of Trump’s cronies.

Again, for folks impatient and annoyed with how long it is taking for these prosecutions, I urge everyone to visit emptywheel.net for thorough, in depth legal analysis. It is not a knee jerk pro-Biden, Pro-Garland site, and they are definitely not Pro-Trump. Marcy Wheeler, who runs the site, has been a legal expert appearing on MSNBC many times over the years.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. Thanks for the site recommendation.

I’ll go check it out right now.

[CrispyQ]

5. You make some good points.

Thank you for your post. I'll check out that site.

[Nevilledog]

8. The article was written by Elie Honig

[MontanaMama]

2. I will question Garland's priorities

if the DOJ doesn’t comply with this request in a timely fashion. Those documents are in the possession of the Dept of Justice…time to hand them over. NOW.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. The only thing that comes to mind is that they are going easy...

because they don't want to make martyrs, nor do they want the optics of making political prisoners out of them.

The christofascists are already proclaiming them as such.

I am not optimistic that they are working up to the more serious terrorists with more serious charges.

The House investigation is where it is going to get serious....if they provide any referrals that is.

[lagomorph777]

6. It is shameful and dangerous that so many weak plea deals are being made.

These pigs need to serve major jail time. On multiple occasions, they're being put back on the street, only to acquire truckloads of guns and bombs, and commit additional crimes. They are dangerous. Free to conspire again, they WILL succeed next time.

More importantly, when will Trump and his co-conspirators be arrested and indicted? They cannot be allowed to run around loose. Our nation is in unprecedented peril.

[Scrivener7]

9. We know how that ends. We saw it in the Beer Hall Putsch. And it's not good.

Weak sentences only embolden them.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. So you'd rather see a bunch of trespassers get a year instead of six months,

And forego the chance to convict and decapitate the leadership of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and 3%ers?

AFAIK, no felonies have been plea bargained down to misdemeanors. Many misdemeanour charges have been filed with the prosecution stating that superseding felony indictments could/will be forthcoming (which I learned on emptywheel). There are hours of video, tons of social media, and encrypted texts that have to be reviewed before charges can be filed. And every shred of evidence is then shared with the defence through the discovery process, which further adds to the time it takes to prosecute- it’s called due process.

AFAIK, there has been exactly ONE incidence of a defendant being released and stockpiling more weapons- and he is now back in custody.

You can have Justice and democracy, or vengeance and fascism.

It took over two years before John Mitchell went to prison for his role in Watergate. Now multiply that times 800.

[lagomorph777]

11. It's not either/or; that's a false choice.

The only way to credibly threaten Trump and his Proud Boy / Oath Keeper armies is to show actual toughness.

You are wrong about the weapons. One guy (VA cop as I recall) was recently nabbed with 34 guns. Weeks earlier, another guy was caught with a truckload of explosives.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/virginia-cop-thomas-robertson-accused-of-buying-34-guns-after-capitol-riot-arrest

https://bipartisanreport.com/2021/08/09/trump-obsessed-insurrectionist-arrested-again-for-violent-assault/

https://news.yahoo.com/capitol-rioter-arrested-allegedly-plotting-170612905.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/lonnie-coffman-capitol-riot-homemade-napalm-ted-cruz-sean-hannity-b1786299.html

[Fiendish Thingy]

12. It is often either/or; either flip someone for a lesser sentence, or get the max & big fish go free

[lagomorph777]

13. They're not flipping these idiots.

Just flipping them out the door.

[Turbineguy]

7. Drive through justice.

Instant gratification.