Jan. 6 rioter asks for early release, says he was 'manipulated' by Trump and Fox News

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

Nov. 30, 2023, 3:38 PM EST


WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump supporter who bashed in a Capitol window, assaulted police officers with pepper spray and urged the mob to “pull the cops out” during the brutal battle at the lower west tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021, is asking a judge to grant him early release, saying he was “manipulated” by the former president and Fox News.

Mitchell Todd Gardner, who was wearing a Trump hat and a “Reagan Bush ’84” sweatshirt during the Capitol attack, yelled “pull the police out,” “pull the cops out,” and “grab their hands and pull them out” during the battle, and then unloaded a fire extinguisher-sized canister of OC spray on officers in the tunnel, according to evidence shown at trial. He then bashed a Capitol window and entered into a suite of Senate “hideaway” offices that were assigned to Republican senators, including one belonging to Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.

Gardner wrote a memo, styled as a “Motion for Compassionate Release and/or Reduction of Sentence,” that was filed on the docket in his criminal case this week. In it, Gardner states that he and “so many other Americans” were “persuaded by then President Donald J. Trump that he had irrefutable evidence that he had been cheated by a ‘rigged election.’”

In his memo, Gardner writes that “a large group of hard working red blooded Americans” were influenced by Trump and “felt obligated to act on his behalf” to save the country.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jan-6-rioter-manipulated-trump-fox-news-rcna127404

[calimary]

1. NO!!!!!

This dude should get the same “compassion” and “understanding” as he showed everybody during that January 6th riot.

And KEEP him locked up.

[3catwoman3]

31. Precisely!

I'm not a biblical scholar at all, but I do recall something about "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Or, a more secular spin, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. Don't join cults.

[The Magistrate]

3. Straight-Faced Use, Sir, Of The Phrase 'hard working red blooded Americans'

Ought to count for a sentence enhancement....


"There is no one feels more keenly the injustices of our criminal justice system than a white man of middle age and conservative leanings caught in its toils for the first time."

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Who's that quote from?

It's very well put.

[The Magistrate]

16. I Think PopeHat, Sir

I doubt I've remembered word for word, mine would be a close paraphrase, though.

This is one I like as well, that I've no idea where I first saw it:

"Ninety percent of conservative outrage is just people finally finding out how things work."

[Marthe48]

4. Don't fall for guff

This excuse is so weak. This guy and others listened because they wanted to listen. And they attacked the capital because they wanted to attack the capital. For every dick who showed up to stage a coup, how many came to their senses and stayed home? Somebody should create a national poll to see how many people didn't even get close to the cliff before they realized that traitor was directing them to commit treason.

[BComplex]

8. Exactly. How does he account for the 80 million Americans who DID NOT fall for their lies?

It's on him.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

39. Not 80. It's 330 million.

Anybody in the US could have gone to Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

About 330 million did not.

About 330 million did not attack the Capitol.

About 330 million did not enter the Capitol.

About 330 million did not cause a delay in extremely official proceedings at the core of democracy: peaceful transfer of power.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

38. Exactly. They only seek confirmation when they "research"

They indulged in willful ignorance and then acted on it violently, criminally, with malice.

[Attilatheblond]

5. Is he a child, mentally impaired, or insane? Or is he a 'freedom loving patriot?

Can't go all Medieval on the cops and then say you didn't make that decision for yourself.

[AllaN01Bear]

6. snork.

[rsdsharp]

7. He wants time off for being stupid?

I knew Trump was lying scum. Why didn’t he?

[tom_kelly]

9. As Alex Trebek used to say, "oh, sorry... sorry"

[bluestarone]

10. Do the crime? Do the time!!

F U!

[MissMillie]

12. Not Antifa??? Not FBI???

Can't be so....

/sarcasm

[Aviation Pro]

13. How about, "Fuck you?"

Will you take, “Fuck you,” for an answer?

[JoseBalow]

22. We were looking for "Go Fuck Yourself"

But we'll accept "Fuck You" or "Eat Me"

[keithbvadu2]

14. To conservatives/republicans, personal responsibility means finding some other person to blame.

[Think. Again.]

26. Bingo.

[eggplant]

15. Now let's be fair...

(considers the request briefly)

... NOPE.

[PortTack]

17. Being manipulated doesn't give you the right to harm property or ppl!!

Last edited Thu Nov 30, 2023, 11:49 PM - Edit history (1)

[Rebl2]

18. Oh brother.

Give me a break. You knew what you were doing was illegal and just plain wrong. So that’s a NO!

[ChazInAz]

19. In the late 1940s

I do believe that his predecessors tried to use the same defense in Nuremberg.
We hanged a lot of them.

[Skittles]

20. these idiots (and religion) are proof people can be made to believe anything

[bdamomma]

51. I guess

they forgot that poem about "the snake". Which that Orange blob used to tell his cult.


During the Save America Rally, Donald Trump took the time to read a poem to the crowd.

The Snake, written by civil rights activist Oscar Brown Jr in 1963, talks about a woman who tends to a sick snake and nurtures it back to health, only for the snake to bite her in the bed.

Lines included: "'Oh, shut up, silly woman,' said that reptile with a grin
"'Now you knew darn well I was a snake before you brought me in.'"

[JoseBalow]

21. The same way Dan White was 'manipulated' by Twinkies

[bucolic_frolic]

23. "irrefutable" was not introduced to the insurrectionist vocabulary until summer 2023

so I call BS and liar on his begging for mercy because he doesn't want to accept responsibility for his actions.

[Bev54]

24. These immature babies need to learn accountability for their own actions. JFC that is a real problem

failure to own one's actions.

[Mblaze]

25. Right. We know all of that...

But brother, you followed through and (red) cold-bloodedly did the crime.

[republianmushroom]

27. One must be held accountable for their actions, good or bad.

The excuse "I was 'manipulated' " is total male bovine excrement in other words B.S...

[Wonder Why]

28. Double the sentence. Half for the convictions. Half for being too stupid for a brain.

[Prairie Gates]

29. I made terrible decisions, so please release me from prison

These people are really something else. They inveigh endlessly against the "criminals," and imagine themseves different. Look to your right and left in the chow hall, buddy. Everyone there made bad decisions. Most were in some way manipulated into it by others or a peer group.

Mitchell Todd Garner: You're not special. You committed crimes for stupid reasons, just like the other people around you. The very fact that he would make this request shows that he's learned nothing.

[CaptainTruth]

30. Newsflash: "I was a gullible dumbass" is NOT a defense.

Idiots.

[Traildogbob]

32. Should all the people still in jail for

A little weed years ago get out early because the music influenced them?

[LudwigPastorius]

33. Sucks to be stupid, don't it Mitchell?

Maybe you can brush up on your critical thinking in between shifts at the prison laundry.

[JT45242]

34. In his defense, all the Congress critters that told them which windows would break are free...

Apparently, he doesn't realize that you had to be much higher up to get away with it.

Let's hope that Perry, grassley, cruz, maga mike Johnson, boebert, MTG, etc. are soon making the same ridiculous court filings.

And better still if the judge says, "umm, nope. I'm going to need you to stay in prison. Maybe you will learn something about consequences of actions that way.

[Takket]

35. yeah, real life doesn't work that way. sorry, jackass

[Dulcinea]

36. Cry me a river, loser.

Tough shitski, as we used to say where I grew up.

[Aussie105]

37. Being easily manipulated means . . .

he has no internal dialogue, and no internal concept of what is right and wrong.

Some personal development and re-education needed there. Say, another 10 years in the slammer for some intensive deprogramming?

But didn't the 'someone else made me do it' as an excuse for your own behavior go out the window once you reached the age of around 8 to 10?
That boy was sure brought up wrong, I'm thinking.

[Demobrat]

40. The devil made me do it.

Yeah, we know, but unfortunately that doesn’t fly in a court of law.

[twodogsbarking]

42. Not even for Flip Wilson.

[Sailingdiver]

41. Sounds like a mental health evaluation is in order

If you've fallen for what the con has been bloviating seems a mental health evaluation is in order to ensure you don't want to harm yourself or others.

[rpannier]

43. So he can turn around and claim he was a patriot and there was no riot,

he wishes he never plead guilty (if he did plead so), then claim victimhood and fealty to il duche

[sop]

44. Looks to me like the guy just confessed to taking part in a conspiracy.

He can testify for the prosecution after Trump and FOX News are charged with conspiracy.

[BumRushDaShow]

45. I remember the J6 Committee featured at least 2 of these insurrectionsts in hearings

who basically said the same thing!

[JohnnyRingo]

46. He should have known it was "The Big Lie".

He was offered the same evidence of corruption as everyone else, but he chose to live in a MAGA fantasy.

[Marthe48]

47. What gets me about the criminals

is that they have enough money to pay for weapons, ammo, all the gear they buy to look like Kommando Ken, and transportation to the protest, riot, or coup. Unless someone else is footing their bill, what is their cause?
I don't think they're homeless, poverty-stricken down on their luck average Joes, but is it really hatred that turns them into a murderous gang of traitors? I'm afraid the answer is yes.
When they are in court, and they hear the testimony against them, do any of them feel shame that they are regarded as traitorous criminals? In their mind's eye, they are misunderstood heroes fighting to save their country. When does that bubble burst? I'm thinking of Stephen King's novel "Needful Things" and how finally, the people victimized saw that the things they wanted were not unique and desirable, but ratty and tattered. How do we break traitor's spell?

[LiberalFighter]

48. He manipulated his brain to fall for it.

[Aristus]

49. No, dickbrain! You ALLOWED yourself to be manipulated.

“I didn’t do it, Your Honor! It was the one-armed man!”

[IcyPeas]

50. I read the article at the link... what if he is sincere? He voted for Obama twice.

I know it's hard to believe..... but he could actually have been manipulated and realizes it now. I'm not suggesting he shouldn't be punished.

Read this article too.

https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-man-supported-obama-45-years-prison-for-jan-6-2023-3

"He believed President Trump's candidacy to be a joke, a publicity event for a celebrity," the sentencing memorandum states.

After President Joe Biden was announced as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Trump's misinformation caused Gardner to believe "that the election had been stolen and the way of life in America was about to change," the document says.

Gardner had never been politically active before 2020, but during Trump's presidency he "flourished financially," which led him to believe the misinformation that Trump was spreading, his attorneys said.