Assault on the Capitol (DC)

[sugar magnolia]

Federal prosecutors wrote that Montgomery shot and killed a mountain lion at a state park near Sedalia on March 31. He used a .357-caliber handgun, as determined by Colorado Parks & Wildlife personnel who responded to Montgomery’s call reporting the kill.

Montgomery, according to the prosecution’s motion, is a convicted felon who is not allowed to possess a firearm.

So he called the Fish and Frog people on himself? Not real bright, is he?

[fierceredpanda]

Federal prosecutors wrote that Montgomery shot and killed a mountain lion at a state park near Sedalia on March 31. He used a .357-caliber handgun, as determined by Colorado Parks & Wildlife personnel who responded to Montgomery’s call reporting the kill.

Montgomery, according to the prosecution’s motion, is a convicted felon who is not allowed to possess a firearm.

So he called the Fish and Frog people on himself? Not real bright, is he?

Yes. He was under the (almost-certainly mistaken) impression that his felony conviction was different from all the others, and that he was allowed to possess firearms. Because he's special.

[Fiascoist]

I remember from more than a few years ago that when restoring a person's right to have a firearm in Oregon, even if successful, there could be a chance the Feds might not be so understanding. However, there is also something else I somewhat recall was that the federal position in Oregon was that if Oregon was okay with a person being able to possess, they would not move forward solely on this issue. However, step one micro-inch out of the state with a firearm and all bets were off. OTOH, I never had a client go out and "allegedly" commit some really nasty federal crimes later or be under some form of release order. So, maybe that's the reason for the feds to be "up in arms" about these vile acts of this____________(insert whatever word you want for this idiot).

[Maybenaut]

It’s a common question from appellate clients getting ready to leave prison. I tell them they need to get advice from a lawyer in their home state with respect to their own state law, but the federal law is pretty clear.

[Dr. Ken]

[LM K]

Engaging in what many call "crazy" acts doesn't mean someone is "crazy". I get so frustrated when people claim that a possible psychiatric disorder caused their behavior. There are some disorders that can definitely be an impetus for a criminal action. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe postpartum depression with psychoses come to mind.

People with psychiatric disorders are less likely to commit criminal acts than those without psychiatric disorders. The exception is antisocial personally disorder.

A significant number of inmates have antisocial personally disorder and/or borderline personality disorder. Both disorders are linked to impulsive behaviors. But thoughts and actions are different things.

Being a conspiracy theorist isn't evidence of mental illness. Being allegedly manipulated or swayed into believing conspiracy theories isn't evidence of mental illness. Both can be linked to a lack of critical thinking skills and being highly susceptible (as defined psychologically/psychiatrically) are linked to likelihood of thinking/believing "crazy" things. They are not, however, impetuses for criminal acts.

[roadscholar]

That's the problem: stupid so often looks like crazy.

[Kendra]

Dear
@RepGosar
: I will support your proposal if you promise to watch all of the videos. In fact, I will watch them with you and point out all the times that supporters of you and the former President assaulted and brutalized police officers.

[Maybenaut]

A significant number of inmates have antisocial personally disorder and/or borderline personality disorder. Both disorders are linked to impulsive behaviors. But thoughts and actions are different things.

In most places (depending on the facts, of course) a personality disorder likely wouldn’t excuse criminal behavior. Psychopaths, sociopaths, and people with borderline personality disorder or anti-social personality disorder can distinguish right from wrong. That is, they know what society considers right even if they personally don’t give a shit. And because they can distinguish right from wrong, the insanity defense fails even if it’s likely that they wouldn’t have committed the offense if they didn’t have the disorder.

Parenthetically, we have a jury instruction in the military that says that a personality disorder is not a “severe mental disease or defect” as a matter of law. Personally, I think whether any condition is or is not a severe mental disease or defect is a question for the jury, and the instruction amounts to a directed verdict on an element of the defense. I challenged it on appeal in the only case to come across my desk that had the issue, and in my research I couldn’t find a similar jury instruction from any jurisdiction. But the Court didn’t rule on it. They overturned the conviction on another ground and the client ended up pleading guilty to a lesser offense.

[LM K]

A long read, but very good.

He led the Proud Boys in the Capitol riot and shamed his town

Dozens of merchants here on the shore of Puget Sound received a letter in August of 2019 decrying the rise of far-right extremism in America — and its arrival in their town.
“Here in our own community, a prominent seafood restaurant on Marine View Drive has a connection with the Proud Boys,” it said.


Ethan Nordean, an on-and-off assistant manager at his father’s restaurant, Wally’s Chowder House, was a rising star in the violent, far-right hate group that made its name brawling with left-wing activists. The issue divided the town.


After reaching a fever pitch last summer, the controversy receded, and for a few months it seemed that Wally’s might simply go back to being good old Wally’s.

Then on Jan. 6, the Proud Boys took the lead in the march on the U.S. Capitol, reaching the steps ahead of the larger mob that stormed the building to try to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president.


He described himself as moderately conservative — while supporting gay rights and diversity among his staff — but kept his politics out of banter with customers and shunned social media. She frequently broadcast her pro-gun, anti-Muslim and anti-gay views on Twitter.


Joining the group was “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Ethan Nordean told Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist.

In a 2018 interview on Jones’ internet show, he said he had attended his first right-wing rally in May 2017 in Seattle.

“That’s where I was introduced to the Proud Boys, who allowed me to network with like-minded men,” he said, telling Jones that the group defended 1st Amendment rights that police, controlled by liberal politicians, failed to uphold.

“You start to kind of develop this feeling that these are no longer people who are necessarily Americans per se, but they’re kind of anti-America,” he said.

Mike Nordean said that his son had floundered since joining the Navy out of high school in hopes of becoming a SEAL, only to wash out of basic training.A bodybuilder, he worked in a gym and sold fitness supplements until his father hired him as a dishwasher, then as an assistant manager.

The Proud Boys appeared to offer the sort of camaraderie and acceptance that he longed for, Mike Nordean said.


On Aug. 3, 2018, Judy Nordean tweeted: “Antifa is another word for ISIS. They dress the same. They behave the same and [they] have no accountability. America is watching!”


Ethan would go on to brawl with antifa activists in Portland.

Ethan Nordean was becoming a pariah in Des Moines and beyond.

That fall, he and his new wife, Cory Dryden, a longtime waitress at Wally’s, had to cancel their wedding celebration after managers at Kiana Lodge in Poulsbo, Wash., learned he was in the Proud Boys and told them they were not welcome.

Employees at Wally’s began to fear for their safety after their photographs showed up on social media next to threats against Ethan, according to a recently settled lawsuit that Rose-Ann “Roxi” Wills — a waitress and Bird’s sister — filed last year against the business and its owners, alleging a hostile work environment and wrongful termination.

Trying to help his son, Mike Nordean eventually hired him back.


Others made note of Judy Nordean’s tweets — and of a 2019 post that appeared on the Wally’s Chowder House Facebook account promoting a far-right rally in support of a man accused of trying to run down left-wing protesters with his pickup while flying a Confederate flag.


“Let me say right off the bat that I love my son,” he wrote in a public statement on June 19 last year. “That said, I admit that I was slow to recognize how radical and violent that group is.”

“Until very recently, my wife and I were blind to the ideology that our son supports,”


Mike Nordean said that his son was misguided but not the “very violent, angry, right-wing, racist Nazi type of person” that the media had made him out to be.

I have mixed feelings for Ethan Nordean's parents. His mom is a true MAGA believer. Ethan's dad? I'm not sure.

I don't believe that Nordean's parents were "slow to recognize" who the Proud Boys are and what they believe. I just can't believe that.

I found it interesting that Ethan only made it 5 out of 6 weeks in basic training. He comes home and tries to "prove himself" by joining the Proud Boys.

MAGA and the hate it facilitates ruins so many lives.

[Kendra]

I used to work in Des Moines for years, drove past Wally's many times, but never stopped there. That's a very small community right by the marina area.

[LM K]

He bragged at the dentist’s office about attending the Capitol riot, feds say. Another patient turned him in.

Less than a week after the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol a patient at a dentist’s office in western New York couldn’t believe what was being said nearby. During a routine checkup on Jan. 12, a patient listened in as an alleged rioter who was getting his teeth cleaned bragged about his breach of the building, according to federal authorities.

Daniel Warmus, of Alden, N.Y., talked of smoking marijuana inside the Capitol and refusing a police officer’s order to leave the building, and even proudly played a video from Jan. 6, a federal complaint states.

After the patient “overheard Warmus talking about his experience while at a dentist’s office,” the person, who authorities said wished to remain anonymous, alerted the FBI and passed along Warmus’s phone number and home address. That mundane trip to the dentist’s office led to an investigation that concluded this week with Warmus, 37, in police custody.


His arrest is the latest in what has become a familiar trend in the past four months of the FBI getting information from just about anyone connected to boastful members of the pro-Trump mob — family members, friends, work colleagues and ex-girlfriends. On May 5, Robert Lee Petrosh was arrested after his mother shared the news of his presence at the Capitol with a friend of hers, which eventually resulted in the FBI’s involvement.


Warmus, who made the nearly 300-mile journey from western New York apparently in hopes of overturning the election results, was seen wearing a Trump 2020 hat and sweatshirt that read, “CNN is fake news,” and waving a large flag with an expletive directed toward the far-left movement antifa, according to a nine-page statement of facts. Security footage shows that Warmus entered the Capitol at 2:17 p.m. on Jan. 6, authorities say, just minutes after rioters overwhelmed police officers trying to prevent them from entering the building.

Security images shared by the Justice Department show Warmus entering the Capitol Rotunda and joining the rioters in taking photos and filming video of the scene. An officer is captured on video grabbing Warmus by his backpack before the 37-year-old “pulled away and retreated from the officer,” federal court documents say. Warmus was in the building for 16 minutes before he was seen exiting the building with other rioters at 2:33 p.m., according to authorities.


The tipster also reported hearing — but not actually seeing — Warmus play a video he took when he was inside the Capitol.


Through Verizon phone records obtained via a search warrant, investigators were able to see that Warmus’s cellphone was being used around the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the statement of facts.

He was to have made his first court appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in western New York, court records show.

[p0rtia]

Hope he knows enough to show up fifteen minutes early.

[Slim Cognito]

Hope he knows enough to show up fifteen minutes early.

I see what you did there.

[p0rtia]

Watching the House debating the Jan 6 Commission on C-Span now. 10 to 11:50, says Mdme Speaker.

ETA: Or maybe not. GQP is talking about Dems raising taxes (what decade is this?).

[noblepa]

Watching the House debating the Jan 6 Commission on C-Span now. 10 to 11:50, says Mdme Speaker.

ETA: Or maybe not. GQP is talking about Dems raising taxes (what decade is this?).

I'm not sure that a "bipartisan" commission is such a great idea.

Such a commission, while consisting of representatives of both parties, will never, ever agree that Trump had any involvement, or that the attack really was an attack.

The best that will happen, which, IMHO, is also the worst, is that the democrats on the commission will issue one report, blaming Trump, and the republicans will issue a report, blaming the media for overblowing the group of unarmed tourists who peacefully visited the capital building.

Neither report will convince anyone. They will only serve to further inflame the divisions between Americans.

Even if the commission subpoenas Trump and he pulls a Col. Jessop moment, declaring "You're damn right I did it!", his supporters will never believe he did anything wrong.

I am not advocating that we simply forget about the events of January 6. I'm really not sure of best way to handle it.

[Kendra]

John Berman on CNN's New Day had a somewhat contentious interview with the lawyer representing Chansley among others, and his recent comments referring to mental capacity of some defendants. The word he used is much worse, but I won't post it here. I can't find a clip on New Day's Twitter page.

[AndyinPA]

John Berman on CNN's New Day had a somewhat contentious interview with the lawyer representing Chansley among others, and his recent comments referring to mental capacity of some defendants. The word he used is much worse, but I won't post it here. I can't find a clip on New Day's Twitter page.

I saw that. Real asshole attorney.

[Kendra]

John Berman on CNN's New Day had a somewhat contentious interview with the lawyer representing Chansley among others, and his recent comments referring to mental capacity of some defendants. The word he used is much worse, but I won't post it here. I can't find a clip on New Day's Twitter page.

I saw that. Real asshole attorney.

Yes. He. Is. I'd like to know what the lawyers here think of his tactic and might it backfire with a jury?

ETA: you can watch the video here. https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-shamans-lawyer/

[RVInit]

So, now anti fascism is a "far left" position?

[zekeb]

Watching the House debating the Jan 6 Commission on C-Span now. 10 to 11:50, says Mdme Speaker.

ETA: Or maybe not. GQP is talking about Dems raising taxes (what decade is this?).

Meh. Put Cheney on the commission and have all matters voted on and passed by a majority vote. Since Cheney no longer has other commitments to her Party, she should have plenty of time.

[noblepa]

So, now anti fascism is a "far left" position?

To a fascist, yes.

[filly]

That idiot lawyer calling people on the spectrum that slur demonstrates what a horrible mess he would be taking this case to trial.

I know even right wing Republicans who have children who are on the spectrum. The children are extremely intelligent and I have no doubt these parents might shoot someone who referred to their child in that disgusting way. All the voir dire in the world wouldn't reveal everything about a potential juror, and this reprehensible lawyer is likely to make more offensive comments in a trial.

Speaking of that slur, where is $arah Palin on this? $he used to speak out on this stuff.

[p0rtia]

Okay, _now_ watching the House debate on the Jan 6 Commission.

Republicans had a few speakers and are reserving their time, for unknown reasons. Jim McGovern wonders if they are reserving their time because they cant get any R's to speak. Earlier, one of the R's fell on the "the scope is too narrow" sword. Oy.

Sheila Jackson Lee knocks her minute out of the park.

Jamie Raskin doing what he does.

R's have skipped their turn seven or eight times in a row.

Fascinating.

[p0rtia]

Tom Cole closes. More complaining about the narrow* scope*. Cutting the baby in half by saying Katko did a great job, but the whole House needs to be in on the discussion, bla bla bla. He leaves about 15 minutes of debate time unused. When does that ever happen.

McGovern pointing out that Dems agreed to all Republican requests for bipartisan deal. Still not enough for McCarthy & Co.

---

Okay, turns out that was the Rule debate. Full debate on the Commission to be this afternoon. Vote around 5.