Chief federal judge in D.C. assails 'almost schizophrenic' Jan. 6 prosecutions

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The chief judge presiding over the federal court in Washington on Thursday unleashed a blistering critique of the Justice Department’s prosecution of Capitol rioters, saying fiery rhetoric about the event’s horror did not match plea offers to minor charges. “No wonder parts of the public in the U.S. are confused about whether what happened on January 6 at the Capitol was simply a petty offense of trespassing with some disorderliness, or shocking criminal conduct that represented a grave threat to our democratic norms,” Judge Beryl A. Howell said in court Thursday. “Let me make my view clear: The rioters were not mere protesters.”

While she and other judges have expressed similar concerns before, this was Howell’s first time sentencing a rioter and her first chance to fully air her views and demand answers from prosecutors. She took the opportunity, spending over an hour interrogating prosecutors on the decision to let Tennessee video game developer Jack Jesse Griffith plead guilty to the misdemeanor of parading inside the Capitol. Howell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010, also oversaw portions of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Before taking the bench, she served as a prosecutor and worked on cybersecurity law in the public and private sector.

Why, she asked, when prosecutors called the riot an “attack on democracy . . . unparalleled in American history,” were Griffith and other participants facing the same charge as nonviolent protesters who routinely disrupt congressional hearings? “It seems like a bit of a disconnect,” Howell said — “muddled” and “almost schizophrenic.” The parading charge carries a sentence of at most six months, with no supervised release. “Is it the government’s view that the members of the mob that engaged in the Capitol attack on January 6 were simply trespassers?” Howell asked incredulously. “Is general deterrence going to be served by letting rioters who broke into the Capitol, overran the police . . . broke into the building through windows and doors . . . resolve their criminal liability through petty offense pleas?”

After asking for probationary sentences in several cases, the government sought a three-month jail sentence for Griffith. Howell questioned what distinguished those cases from this one. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitra Jafary-Hariri said prosecutors gave some defendants credit for early acceptance of responsibility. Griffith, she added, displayed a lack of remorse after the attack and continued to spread false election claims. “Probation should not be the norm,” Howell said, but added that Griffith should not be punished more than others who engaged in similar conduct. Instead, she put him on probation for 36 months.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/judge-howell-capitol-riot-case/2021/10/28/8f6da2c2-3809-11ec-9bc4-86107e7b0ab1_story.html

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Full headline: Chief federal judge in D.C. assails ‘almost schizophrenic’ Jan. 6 prosecutions: ‘The rioters were not mere protesters’

[bottomofthehill]

1. Thanks Judge Howell

I am in complete agreement with you.

Thank you for commenting on how wrong the undercharging is.

[jimfields33]

3. Yet gave 36 month probation anyway.

[Progressive Jones]

45. Big problem. These judges are caving to the weak Justice Dept. prosecutors.

[blm]

2. Dept of Justice is playing softball against a movement who

Wants to kill us.

[LogicFirst]

14. A movement that wants Trump to dictate and for minorities to be enslaved.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I think half of those sentenced will be right back in court within a year or two

[groundloop]

5. Unless their insurrection is successful the next time.... then they'll be heroes.

[modrepub]

7. When The Police and National Guard Just Let People Walk Out

and didn't load them into a patty wagons for processing, I knew there weren't going to be any serious repercussions for anyone involved. You don't just let folks walk away then half-heartedly try and herd them back in for prosecution. How many of these bozos would have not had any charges against them at all if it wasn't for the on-line sleuths?

[Wild blueberry]

8. Thank you, Judge Howell

[Jon King]

10. We were told these were preliminary charges and once Garland took over....

All the cable news legal experts said the initial charges were just that, initial charges. They said once the Garland DOJ got in they would likely simply review the cases and add more charges. Yet nothing.

I have no idea why DOJ is being so easy on these traitors.

[gab13by13]

11. Judges keep demanding

for more than slaps on wrists. Some judges even had to up the sentence. If I say anything bad about Garland I gat attacked.

Not hearing from Garland about Bannon scares me. If he comes out and says that Democrats can pursue Bannon's case in civil court I'm moving out of the country.

[hadEnuf]

22. B-but maybe we'll get Fitzmas!

[FakeNoose]

39. It seems the federal judges are fighting harder than the prosecutors are

What's up with that? The U.S. attorneys are asking for fines of $500 ... WTF??? The attorneys are asking for light sentences and in some cases, probation-only with no time served. WTF???

Some of these judges are getting disgusted and going over the recommendations of the prosecutors. If everyone who got convicted paid a $500 fine, there would be no way to cover the costs involved. No way, this is ridiculous!

[NQAS]

12. If...

If they were Black

Or Muslim

Or Puerto Ricans some five decades ago …

They’d haven charged with more serious crimes and would gave been sentenced to decades in prison.

But they’re white. And they’re running for office.

[onecaliberal]

15. They're white, and they're IN office.

[Thunderbeast]

20. NO...They would have been corpses on the capitol steps.

[Farmer-Rick]

13. This is so pathetic

The DOJ cowering in fear of a tongue lashing from the oligarchs. The oligarchs will be upset if you hold their gang of traitors to account. So, best let the treason go unnoticed and pretend it didn't really happen, like we pretend Zuckerberg didn't betray our democracy when he played patty-cake with the Russians.

The meetings and the attack meet the legal standard for Treason of Levying War against the United States. There is so much documentation, recordings and evidence of their blatant Treason. But not to worry, since Trump failed to come through on his promised blanket pardons, it will always hang over their heads because there is no statute of limitations on Treason.

Maybe in a couple of years someone will grow a spine.

[onecaliberal]

17. In a couple of years they will be in charge of everything then the Presidency after that.

[Lonestarblue]

16. The DOJ evidently has too many prosecutors who sympathize with white supremacists.

Had the Capitol attackers been black, I suspect there would have been many troops around the Capitol on January 6 and sentences for insurrection would have been in years, not a few months that are a slap on the wrist for white terrorists. Insurrection is a serious crime, and these sentences are treating it like little more than taking a loaf of bread from a store. Totally disgusted.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. Remember how long it took for them

to actually admit to something called "domestic terrorism"?

"Terrorists" were always "other" (mostly "foreign" ). There were many excuse treatises written to pretzel-twist and move goal-posts for who was a "terrorist" and it was never the Hitler-worshiping, Confederate flag-waving, Jew-hating racist scum who threatened and carried out harassment and violence "domestically" because the claim was they "weren't political" or hadn't written some "manifesto" or other such nonsense.

Many of them are apparently operating under some decades-long "definition" and "profile of a terrorist" that needs to be deprecated and rewritten.

[CaptainTruth]

19. This is where a strong message needs to be sent, that what happened on 1/6...

...was absolutely positively NOT acceptable & those who engage in such activities will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[trof]

21. What's with Garland? Really.

He's sure not a fire in the belly guy.
Read his wiki entry.
Apparently he's brilliant.
Described as a 'moderate'.
But why is his department not going after these assholes?

[markpkessinger]

33. Garland is cautious . . . to a fault n/t

[dalton99a]

23. Kick

[tonekat]

24. When the Republicans hold office

They vigorously pursue their agenda, in which they are united.

Democrats...yeah, still bringing a pea shooter to a machine gun fight. I'm so disappointed. They're limp noodles.

Remember how shocked everyone was that McConnell passed over Garland because what Mitch wants happens?

Now that he's AG, I wonder if he just doesn't care since he didn't get installed on SCOTUS?

[Wuddles440]

26. Or...

maybe he actually wants another opportunity to be on SCOTUS once Breyer departs and is trying to do whatever is necessary ingratiate himself with the GQP leadership and conservative media. He seems extremely reluctant to take any actions that may upset them or the MAGA cult.

[AnrothElf]

25. we are

Fucked

[Bobstandard]

28. In another thread, we who question Garland..

In another thread, we who question Garland, wish he were more aggressive, and suggest it would be better if he were replace are mocked for our cupidity. But here a judge who sees all the info reacts as we do

So don’t go telling me I don’t know enough about the law, that I should suppose Biden’s man is playing some kind of long game that I couldn’t possibly understand.

Garland and his DOJ is letting us down.

And the stakes couldn’t be higher

[markpkessinger]

34. Amen! n/t

[JudyM]

37. ⬆️⬆️⬆️ Absolutely this, right here ⬆️⬆️⬆️

Those who say wait and see are dampening the social appetite to see actual justice done. We need to champion this narrative. We should be clamoring for justice instead of letting this outrageous prosecutorial minimalism abide.

It.is.not.ok.

[hay rick]

29. The response so far looks like weakness and smells like weakness.

I can not imagine maintaining a democracy following the present course.

[rockfordfile]

30. I agree

[malthaussen]

31. Some of the judges seem pretty schizophrenic, too.

But they are bound by the deals the prosecutors make. Still, calling a 30-day sentence a "serious penalty" is some pretty wild rhetoric.

-- Mal

[Progressive Jones]

46. The judges are bound by these lame plea deals - but

-they aren't bound to weak sentences.
If prosecutors ask for a sentence of, say, "20-30 months", why are judges giving anything less than that "30 months"?

I would love to hear what the DOJ has to say about these weak deals. What is the rationale? Just because one of these assholes says "I'm Sorry", they shouldn't be let off the hook. I know these are "wins" for the prosecution, but this was an attack on the United States of America. I don't give a fuck about some rank and file prosecutors padding their resume. There should be NO MERCY for these terrorist assholes.

[SpankMe]

32. The DoJ's light touch may be part of a calculation

I think Garland is trying to set a precedent that will make it harder for Republican AG's in the future to overreach and charge liberals with sedition.

Republicans are extremists. When liberal antifa and anti-racist protesters in Portland damaged federal buildings and federal property, AG Barr encouraged the Oregon feds to try and go for sedition charges against the protesters. His little mind was trying to classify any and all violent acts directed toward any federal entity - be it property or people - as an attempt to overthrow the government by force, regardless of the true motivation of the vandals.

Garland may be thinking that if he charges the Jan. 6 insurrectionists with "attempt to overthrow the government by force" (i.e., sedition - which is exactly what it was) that future right-wing crackpot AG's would try to charge any liberal who acts out on a beef against the government with sedition.

I know this precedent wouldn't legally forestall a future AG from attempting such charges. But, it would give defendants and liberal leaders ammo to resist such charges in the future.

[markpkessinger]

35. You are giving Garland way too much credit . . .

. . . The man simply isn't that calculating. No, what we are seeing i play is Garland's excessive caution, which under some circumstances might be laudable, but not when our democracy is at stake!

[HighFired49]

36. and Republicans, too!

It won't keep them from doing anything that they feel like doing; deserved or not.

[Justice matters.]

40. Future RW crackpot AG's WILL try to charge any liberal who acts out on a beef against the gov with

sedition, no matter how Garland deals with the Qultists.

The next RepubliQon POTUS will trash Democracy and replace it with a cruel Theocracy.

[BlueIdaho]

41. The DOJ fish stinks from the head down. nt.

[live love laugh]

42. These are the remnants gov't. wide sabotage by TFG.

The DOJ, DOA, IRS, USPS -- all agencies ... and it’s not going to away overnight.

[BumRushDaShow]

43. And I expect

career ones and/or converted Schedule Cs (to civil service).

[live love laugh]

44. 💯