I’M NOT GOING to mince words. Compared to Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, I’m way smarter.
And so are you.
That’s not bragging, because that’s like saying,
“I’m smarter,” or “you’re smarter,” than Mr. Potato Head.
*
SIX WEEKS since the riot on Capitol Hill, Sen. Johnson is as clueless as ever. I’m not sure, if he weren’t a member of Congress, he could even tell where Washington D.C. is.
This week he tried to argue that the rioters weren’t Trump fans at all, a claim that even Mrs. Potato Head wouldn’t buy.
Even worse, Johnson cited as “evidence” a January 14 article in The Federalist. In that piece, J. Michael Waller, insisted that “a small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack.” Those people you saw storming the halls of Congress might have been Trump fans! But they were led on by left-wing “agent provocateurs” who provoked the riot.
That “cadre” made all those upstanding, patriots shouting, “Hang Mike Pence!” look bad. What a dirty trick!
It was bad enough that Waller’s entire argument rested on supposition. It was worse to think that Sen. Johnson hadn’t bothered to keep up with ordinary news. We now have ample evidence to prove what kind of people were arrested in regard to the Capitol Hill riot. And if this blogger can uncover it with ease, you’d think one of the hundred members of the U.S. Senate could educate himself.
This blogger has now looked at the records of more than 240 rioters arrested and charged in the attack on U.S. democracy.
In
our most recent post, we looked at #’s 203-221 on our list. Of that group of 19,
we learned that their political affiliations were as follows:
Trump
supporters: 18
Liberal
types: 0
Unknown: 1
Today, we pick up with a second batch of recently arrested individuals. The pattern we have seen all along still holds.
Someone should break the news to Sen. Johnson.
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222. Thomas Webster: Webster, 54, is a retired New York City police officer. He’s charged with assaulting an officer (ironic) during the riot, using first a metal flagpole and then his fists.
His lawyer claims that the former Marine was defending himself after the officer punched him
first. Also, Webster’s attorney thinks we should cut his client a break because
Mr. Webster had traveled to Washington to engage in protest of an election
that he felt was unfair.
“He went there as an American citizen to protest, an event that was urged on by our former president — to protest an issue that Tom felt very strongly about,” Webster’s attorney added. “That’s protecting the Constitution.”
So, next time you want to
assault a police officer, just tell the officer, and later the judge, and maybe
the jury, you were urged on by the president and you were there protecting the
Constitution.
Once again, we start the tally:
Trump supporters: 1
Liberal types: 0
Unknown: 0
*
223. Philip Grillo: Grillo hails from New York City, where he might be in the minority of voters, but he’s a big Trump fan.
A member of the Knights of
Columbus, Grillo is alleged to have showed up prepared for a riot, carrying a
megaphone to shout out commands. On Facebook, USA Today notes, he identifies himself as “The Republican Messiah.”
He is a Republican state committeeman for the 24th assembly district, Queens,
which he says is “President Trump’s Hometown District.”
*
224. Lori Ann Vinson: She and her husband traveled to D.C. to help save President Trump’s “win” in November, by stopping the steal. Mrs. Vinson told at least one witness she had entered the Capitol Building during the riot. Eight days after the attack, she told a reporter, “I felt like I have done nothing wrong and I wouldn’t change it.”
Prosecutors
don’t agree. She has been arrested and charged. Mrs. Vinson was also fired from
her job as a nurse at an Evansville, Indiana hospital.
*
225. Thomas Vinson: The Kentucky man traveled to Washington D.C. to
“Stop the Steal.”
*
226. Clayton Ray Mullins: The Kentucky man is charged with several crimes related to the attack on Capitol Hill, including “engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.”
No other info on Mullins is
available at this point.
Trump supporters: 4
Liberal types: 0
Unknown: 1
*
227. Nicholes Lentz: Mr. Lentz, 41, claims he tried to help control the crowd that stormed into the Capitol Building. He has been charged with entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
As USA Today explains, Lentz was one of many fooled into believing the “stolen election myth.”
Lentz, a Trump supporter wrote on Facebook:
“America has spoken. You can not stop millions of people. Cannot stop it.
Can’t. It’s impossible. America has a voice. We give them the power.”
“We’re not here to hurt any cops
of course,” added the former police officer and Marine Corps veteran [possibly
in a video he posted during the riot; the story here is unclear]. “I love my
boys in blue, but this is overwhelming for them. There’s no way they can hold
us back.”
*
228. Paul Allard Hodgkins: Hodgkins told F.B.I. agents he traveled alone to D.C., by bus, from Florida. He can be seen in photos and videos taken on Jan. 6, inside the Senate chamber, nattily attired in a Trump sweater and carrying a Trump flag.
I am wondering: do these poor dupes also buy Trump underwear?
Hodgkins does admit he saw others breaking windows, and even involved in a knife fight. In all likelihood, he’s
another Trump supporter; but we do not have enough information yet to be sure.
Trump supporters: 5
Liberal types: 0
Unknown: 2
*
229. Deborah Sandoval: The 54-year-old Iowa woman and her son
traveled to the nation’s capital to take part in the protests. Both posted
videos from inside the building, during the attack. Mom exclaimed at one point,
“This is history in the making Saving America.” Mom is described
as a “die-hard supporter of Donald Trump in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
*
230. Salvador Sandoval Jr.: The
younger Sandoval has been charged with a variety of crimes, including shoving
two police officers defending the Capitol and trying to wrestle away the shield
of a third. On social media, he admits he was pepper-sprayed during the attack.
*
231. Jonathan Mellis: The 34-year-old James City County, Virginia man was arrested and charged with hitting law enforcement officers during the Capitol riot. Mellis is alleged to have made his sentiments clear on social media, posting: “Storming the Castle. The world heard the US!!! Finally not ignored.” and “We are fighting for election integrity. They heard us.”
Apparently,
Mellis had never heard of – for example – the three recounts of the votes in
Georgia.
Or the report from the Department of Justice, that there was in no way enough voting fraud to have changed the election outcome.
Neighbors
describe Mellis and his family as “nice.” But the fact he’s living at home at
age 34, is probably a bummer.
*
232. Joseph Wayne Fischer: When not rioting, Fischer, 55, is a patrolman with the North Cornwall Township Police Department in Pennsylvania. He traveled to D.C. to attend a “Stop the Steal” rally and later bragged about having broken into the Capitol Building. According to prosecutors, video footage shows him shouting, “Charge!” and leading an attack on a police line outside the Capitol. Mr. Potty Mouth can also be heard shouting “mother**kers” as he battles with officers.
During the scuffle, Fischer
allegedly tried to help an officer who fell down, and said, “I am a cop, I am a
cop.”
So, a rioter with a good heart, possibly, and not the best brain? On social media, the day after the riot, Fischer claimed the people who stormed the Capitol were “98% peaceful.” Furthermore, “entry into the Capital was needed to send a message that we the people hold the real power.”
He admitted he
might soon lose his job. Word was out that he had participated in the attack.
His chief confronted him about it. “I
told him if that is the price I have to pay to voice my freedom and liberties
which I was born with and thusly taken away then then [sic] must be the price. ...
I told him I have no regrets and give zero shits.” Fischer added, “Sometimes
doing the right thing no matter how small is more important than ones own
security.”
In
several pictures, the portly patrolman poses for selfies with members of a
group holding signs, “Blacks for Trump 2020.com.”
*
233. James Mels: The Michigan man says he entered the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, intent on giving a law enforcement officer a copy of the U.S. Constitution and having his voice heard, which is, of course, better than hitting him or her with a metal flagpole or spraying pepper spray in his or her face.
In the charging document
against him, Mels reportedly told F.B.I. agents “that he traveled to the
Capitol with 11 other ‘like minded Patriots’ that he met through online
platforms such as ‘The Patriot Hour’ and ‘X-22’ because he believed the 2020
presidential election to have been fraudulently decided.”
*
234. Steven Omar Maldonado: Maldonado was taken into custody at the Orlando, Florida airport, where he and his girlfriend were waiting to catch a flight to Puerto Rico. They had hoped to visit family and enjoy a few relaxing days at the beach. Maldonado got cuffed and carted away to jail, instead.
He has admitted that he is the
man seen in video and photographs from the riot, wearing a white baseball camp
emblazoned with the word “Trump” in blue, and carrying a “Trump 2020” flag on a
pole over his shoulder.
Maldonado, 40, reportedly has five children, and is divorced. He sometimes operates a charter boat. According to Florida Today,
Brevard
court records show Maldonado has a long history of run-ins with the law, mostly
traffic citations and speeding, but also a case from 2000 in which he was
arrested on armed burglary charges but adjudication was withheld. He also faced
battery, mischief, affray and riot charges in 1998 but prosecution was dropped.
In 2018 and 2020, he was fined for speeding in a manatee zone.
Maldonado told F.B.I. agents
that he and a friend traveled to D.C. to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally.
*
235. Eduardo Nicolas Alvear Gonzalez: Nicknamed the “Doobie Smoker,” after a video showed him firing up a joint inside the Capitol Building during the riot, the California man has been arrested for violent entry of a restricted building. According to the complaint against him, Gonzalez can be heard yelling, “It’s time to smoke weed in here.” In another video, he explains that he decided to light up, because he believed in “freedom.” Finally, he explained that he had come to Washington to “take our country back.”
According to prosecutors, the suspect
claims to have tens of thousands of viewers who go to YouTube to check out his
videos.
Gonzalez has
talked on his videos about believing that we may be living in a simulation,
that the Earth is flat and that the Smithsonian Institution is hiding evidence
of giants, according to [prosecutors]. Gonzalez also promotes central tenets
of the QAnon conspiracy theory, including the baseless beliefs that
Hollywood celebrities and other elites are operating a Satanic child sex
trafficking cult and sacrificing children...
“This is sheer
wild-eyed nonsense,” [a prosecutor] said. “But if you believe that, what
wouldn’t you do? The defendant was not just there sitting in his basement,
absorbing this material. He’s acting on it, amplifying it and rebroadcasting
it.”
Another delusional Trump fan!
*
236. Mark Roderick
Aungst: Aungst and Butry (below)
were part of a contingent of 55 Pennsylvanians who took a bus to D.C., so they
could attend the Trump rally on January 6. On the return trip, several riders
said they overheard Aungst bragging
about having been inside the Capitol Building.
*
237. Tammy A. Butry
(a.k.a Tammy A. Bronsburg): Ms. Butry calls
herself a “pissed off patriot.”
According to the affidavit for her arrest, Butry’s Facebook page includes the logo for Trump/Pence 2020 inside a circle, with her own picture in the background.
In a series of social media posts, after the riot, she repeatedly discussed
politics, “including one [post] of a
picture depicting Jesus Christ with his hands on Donald Trump’s shoulders. The
words ‘My real potus’ (POTUS stands for President of the United States)
inscribed on it.”
*
238. James Bonet: Bonet is alleged to have posted videos on Facebook (since deleted), showing him inside the Capitol Building during the riot. Like the “Doobie Smoker,” he is supposedly seen lighting a joint.
According to multiple witness, who know Bonet from work, the suspect “openly talks about government conspiracy theories” and tries to convince others “to subscribe to those theories,” including that “the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen.”
One witness told F.B.I. agents that Bonet had also “traveled
to Washington, D.C. sometime in November, 2020, to protest the results of the
Presidential Election.” The agent notes that on Nov. 14, the “Million Maga
March” was held in the city.
*
239. Adam Avery Honeycutt: Video evidence appears to put Mr. Honeycutt squarely inside the Capitol Building, including footage of him holding a broken table leg, identified as part of the Senate Sergeant at Arms’ table.
The prosecutor
said that when FBI agents raided the Clay County home Thursday morning, they
seized four guns. She noted that they were not properly secured and there were
three children in the house. Agents also reportedly found marijuana and drug
paraphernalia, which is why the prosecutor said Honeycutt shouldn’t be released
on bond.
He’s likely a Trump supporter;
but nothing definitive is currently known.
*
240. Kyle Fitzsimons: Video evidence allegedly shows Mr. Fitzsimons leading the charge against police blocking one of the entrances to the Capitol Building. At one point he lowers his shoulder like a football player, trying to clear a hole. After apparently being struck in the head by a police baton, he retreated into the crowd, and later required six stitches to his scalp.
According to the affidavit for arrest, Fitzsimons later gave an interview to the Rochester Voice. He explained how he came to be involved in the riot:
“The speeches from the morning
were overtly preaching the election was not over, there was a path to victory
through decertification, there was a plan to delay the certification by the House
and Senate and then state legislatures would convene and (certify) the right
result.” FITZSIMONS stated that as the rally at the Ellipse ended, the crowd
was asked by President Trump to walk to the Capitol to “give our Republicans,
the weak ones ... the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back
our country.”
For reasons unclear, the suspect “went to his car at a local parking garage and changed from regular clothes to his butcher whites and carried an unstrung bow with him, which was meant to signify his peaceful intent.”
The suspect also stated at one point that he believed, “Trump
is a lion leading an army of lambs through ‘lawfare,’” possibly a play on the
word “warfare” through lawful means. (Who knows, with these guys?)
Fitzsimons told authorities that he was determined, if this “was the last day of the republic,” to live it like any ordinary day.
In another social media post, said to express the opinions of
the suspect, a call is issued for patriots to go to D.C. and put a stop to “the
pretty obvious fraud being perpetuated since Trump lost the election.” The
writer, allegedly Fitzsimons, had seen the Trump flags in town; he knew there
were supporters of the president he could call to action. “I’m also seeing
flags that this election was stolen and we are being slow walked towards
Chinese ownership by an establishment that is treasonous and all too willing to
gaslight the public into believing the theft was somehow the will of the
people.”
His reasons for going to D.C. on January 6 were “clear” – at least to him. He feared tyranny. He called on others to join the fight to stop a stolen election. Yet, prosecutors note, “FITZSIMONS said this was a peaceful protest gone wrong and the violence at the protest was a set up, and it wasn’t the MAGA crowd. FITZSIMONS further identified himself as a pawn in that set up.”
He was indeed a pawn.
Of the “lion” in the White House, then-President Donald J.
Trump.
Totals for today:
Trump supporters: 16
Liberal types: 0
Unknown: 3
***
THE F.B.I. HAS A TIP-LINE with pictures of hundreds of suspects, if you think you might know anyone who took part in the riot.
