A Liberal in Trumpistan: January 6 Rioters - Part III

Sunday, July 10, 2022

January 6 Rioters - Part III - Fooling the "Patriots" (80-101)

FOOLING THE “PATRIOTS”

PART III

(Rioters #80-101)

__________

“Who was that feeble-minded son of bombast and confusion?”

James Thurber

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Master of bombast and bullshit.

YOU need not look hard to find out who stirred up these poor, riotous dopes to go on the attack on January 6.

He’s pictured above.

This wasn’t an “Antifa” action. This was the 2020 model of the Republican Party, harkening to the call of their cult leader.

“A call to ALL patriots from Donald J Trump.”

Time magazine had no trouble gathering enough evidence to spell it out. In days leading up to the January 6 vote count, local GOP politicians and groups repeatedly adopted QAnon language and all but called for armed insurrection. Benton County, Oregon Republicans called for protest (and more) at the state capital.

Considering the fact that Oregon went “blue” by a substantial margin, you had to wonder why the Benton folks quoted Abraham Lincoln: “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

“Operation Occupy the Capitol,” they suggested, would mean “Taking back our country from corrupt politicians.”

Nor were the folks in Oregon the only ones ready to fight. Both the New Hanover County GOP in North Carolina and the public Facebook group for the Horry County GOP in South Carolina, announced on Dec. 28: “This is a call to ALL patriots from Donald J Trump for a BIG protest in Washington DC! TAKE AMERICA BACK! BE THERE, WILL BE WILD!” On Jan. 4, the Bergen County, N.J. GOP barked, “FIGHT BACK! Stop the Steal MAGA Bus Trip… Tell Congress – DO NOT CERTIFY THIS VOTE.” The Phyllis Schlafly Eagles – a group launched by the former president of Schlafly’s longtime group Eagle Forum, amid infighting in 2016 – promoted the event on its website, likening the rally to D-Day in one post.

Just before the protests turned violent, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona tweeted, “Biden should concede. I want his concession on my desk tomorrow morning [emphasis added]. Don’t make me come over there.” He added a photo of thousands of Trump supporters on the National Mall.

Despite the fact all these Republican voices stirred up the anger in days leading up to the attack, the Arizona Republican Party decided, afterward, to shift the blame. “Several dozen, including members of Antifa, made the reprehensible decision to riot,” they tweeted five days after the attack. “Punish the perps, stop gaslighting the innocents.”

It was insane.

“Democratic tyranny WILL NOT STAND!”

80. BLAKE AUSTIN REED: The Tennessee man posted on the day of the riot about his part, stating, “We the People have spoken and we are pissed! No antifa, no BLM…We the People took the Capitol! Every American ethnicity was here. Democratic tyranny WILL NOT STAND! WE HAVE SPOKEN!!”

He added six flag emojis and a number of hashtags: #Trump #March for Trump #StopTheSteal #landofthefreehomeofthebrave.

Reed is indicted along with Matthew Bledsoe (#130 on our list), Jack Jesse Griffith (#109) and Eric Chase Torrens (#497).

He has since plead guilty. On April 13, 2022, he was sentenced to three years of probation, including 42 days of intermittent confinement, three months of home detention, a $2,500 fine, and ordered to pay $500 restitution.

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

This flag doesn't belong to Trump or members of his cult.
It belongs to all Americans.

Invited in by President Trump.

81. LISA MARIE EISENHART: mother of Eric Munchel (#116), who was seen carrying a fistful of zip ties inside the Senate chamber; both mother and child were charged with conspiracy in regard to the attack on January 6.

In one video, taken before the attack, mom is shown wearing a bulletproof vest. Other photos and video show both defendants holding flex cuffs and lurking in the halls of the Capitol – one would guess – in case Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Vice President Mike Pence happened past.

In court, Eisenhart’s lawyer claimed she and her son were “invited” into the Capitol by Trump, and all they did was listen.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a former U.S. Army captain, responded, “By word and deed, [Eisenhart and Munchel] supported the violent overthrow of the United States government.” They pose, he said, “a clear danger to our republic.” “Indeed, few offenses are more threatening to our way of life.”

In any case, the pair opted for a bench trial – without a jury – and got their asses handed to them, legally speaking. On April 18, 2023, they were found guilty on all counts, including multiple felonies.

As Fox News explains, Eisenhart and Munchel seemed ready to go out in a blaze of gunfire, killing other Americans, in an effort to save Trump’s second, undeserved term in office. Which he did not, technically speaking, “win.”

Prosecutors say the two wore tactical and bulletproof vests in the Capitol and Munchel carried a stun gun. Munchel also recorded their storming of the Capitol, and prosecutors say that video shows the pair stashed weapons in a bag before entering the building. A search of Munchel’s Nashville home turned up assault rifles, a sniper rifle with a tripod, shotguns, pistols, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a drum-style magazine.

The gavel finally falls for mom on September 8, 2023. Mom gets 30 months in prison, her son gets 57, and both get docked for $2,000.

One thousand, thirty-nine days have passed at that point since the last presidential election. Zero evidence has been proven in court to prove the election was stolen.

Trump “sent us,” she believed the election was stolen.

82. EMILY HERNANDEZ: Some of those arrested appear to be much more enthusiastic about violence and dangerous than others.

In photos taken inside and outside of the Capitol Building, Hernandez, 21, could be seen posing proudly with part of the broken wooden name plate from Speaker Pelosi’s office.

Her lawyer spoke to reporters after leaving his client’s preliminary hearing. “This is obviously a mistake but she’s ready to move past it,” he said. He described Ms. Hernandez as “the girl next door.”

“It’s an unfortunate situation and it’s one she didn’t want to put herself in,” he added. “She’s willing to move beyond it, do the things she needs to do to make it right and get on with the rest of her life.”

(On January 5, 2022, “the girl next door” is involved in a head-on crash, while driving the wrong way on Interstate 44, south of St. Louis. One other person is killed. Hernandez is likely to face several charges.

On January 10, she pleads guilty to one criminal count, related to her role in the Capitol Hill riot. For that crime, she gets 30 days in jail, a year on probation, a fine of $500, and must complete 80 hours of community service.)

Trump supporter.

“We are frontline patriots who are fighting for liberty,”

83. JENNIFER LEIGH RYAN: real estate broker from Frisco, Texas, flew on a private plane to Washington D.C., to take part in the show, saying later that she “answered the call” from President Trump. Just before she climbed through a broken window at the Capitol, she turned to the camera and said: “Y’all know who to hire for your Realtor. Jenna Ryan for your Realtor.”

Once her post went viral, and her fame spread, Texas Monthly noted that Ryan turned to Facebook and apologized. “‘Unfortunately, what I believed to be a peaceful political march turned into a violent protest,’ she said, despite being recorded on her livestream saying that she and other rioters would be ‘breaking those windows’ and ‘deal[ing] with the tear bombs.’”

The day after the attack, she told one media outlet she had no regrets for her behavior. “We are frontline patriots who are fighting for liberty,” she insisted.

Ryan later told Texas Monthly she had received “thousands of death threats” since her arrest, and has had to shut down her business.

(This blogger has scant sympathy for many of these rioters, more for those who seem to have been led into delusion. Still, there’s a simple rule of thumb at play here: If you are making a death threat, you’re an asshole, at best. If it can be shown that you are serious, you deserve to be arrested too.)

A story some months later, notes that on January 6, Ryan posted a picture of herself from the Capitol, with a warning, “if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next...” She said she “deserved a medal” for participating in the attack and bragged that she had “blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail[.]”

On October 31, 2021, she found out she was. The judge sentenced the blonde-haired white lady to spend sixty days in jail.

Ryan reported on December 31, but not before complaining to a reporter about how unfair it was being labeled “Insurrection Barbie.” She claimed her comment about white skin came only in defense of attacks on her by others – about her white skin. Then she went full-idiot, grumbling, “And so, that is the epitome of a scapegoat. Just like they did that to the Jews in Germany. Those were scapegoats. And I believe that people who are Caucasian are being turned into evil in front of the media.”

And with that, it was off to the slammer and time to check out a book on the Holocaust from the prison library.

On October 31, 2021, she found out she was. The judge sentenced the blonde-haired white lady to spend sixty days in jail.

And with that, it was off to the slammer and time to check out a book on the Holocaust from the prison library.

Trump “sent us,” believed in a “stolen election”

Brian Miller: Mr. Miller joins Ryan on the flight from Texas, films early stages of the attack on Capitol Hill, but has not been arrested. He does later tell the Dallas Observer that those who stormed the halls of Congress and “intended to harm lawmakers are ‘terrorists’ and should be arrested.”

Of course, he believed the election had been stolen. He also complained about being “harassed” by others whenever he expresses his belief that Trump was cheated out of a second term.

Miller is a Navy veteran and representative of the very kind of men and women who answered the Trumpian trumpet call to battle on January 6.

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

84. ANTHIME JOSEPH GIONET: Gionet, an alt-right troll known as “Baked Alaska” to fans, was arrested as part of the investigation into the Capitol Hill riot. According to The New York Times, he “posted a video that showed supporters of Mr. Trump taking selfies with officers in the Capitol who calmly asked them to leave the premises. The video showed the Trump supporters talking among themselves, laughing, and telling officers and each other: ‘This is only the beginning.’”

Or, in his case, perhaps the ending to a long, sad saga. Besides being indicted for his part in the mob attack on Jan. 6, Gionet also appears to have been indicted in a plot to trick pro-Hillary Clinton voters in 2016 into thinking they could vote by phone. That effort allegedly involved fake advertisements, telling citizens they could “avoid the line” and vote by texting “Hillary” to a phone number provided. According to the F.B.I., at least 4,000 messages resulted.

ABC News, Channel 15, in Scottsboro, Arizona, followed up on Gionet’s Capitol Hill arrest:

“Tim Gionet is the ultimate alt-right troll,” said Joanna Mendelson, the Associate Director at ADL’s [Anti-Defamation League] Center on Extremism. “At the core of his antics, and they are antics, is to reach out to like-minded adherents with bigoted humor, racism and anti-semitism.”

Jason Wilson, a journalist who writes about extremism, says “Baked Alaska” marched with the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017.

“He became kind of an e-celebrity and tried to ride the wave of the far-right upsurge in this country the past five years,” said Wilson. “Gionet’s been known to float ideas or make gestures online that are associated with neo-Nazism. He was one of the first of the alt-right figures to be de-platformed in a serious way. To lose his Twitter account and access to YouTube.”

ABC continues:

On January 6 he live-streamed his role in the Capitol riots.

“We need to get our boy Donald J. Trump into office,” said Gionet, faking a call on a Representative’s phone and performing for his followers online.

Gionet later deleted the incriminating video, but not before many people saved or screen recorded it. He has since had his entire account suspended by the site Dlive.

“At some point, he moved to Arizona and was walking dogs for a living,” said Wilson.

So, woof woof, to the neo-Nazi guy.

Further investigation adds to the story of how Baked Alaska ended up on Capitol Hill, taking part in the mob attack on democracy . During the Jan. 6 riot he confronts one police officer, and shouts, “You’re a fucking oathbreaker, you piece of shit…you broke your oath to the constitution.”

Later, he shouts encouragement to others, “America First is inevitable. Fuck globalists, let’s go!”

In fact, Mr. Baked Alaska had violated terms of his release from jail in a prior case even to be there, after he was charged last December with pepper-spraying a bouncer in a Scottsdale bar. The judge had told him not to leave the state.

Vox is good enough to provide a link to ol’ Alaska standing by the street one night, yipping about the need to “preserve the white race.”

Vox also noted that in the past Gionet had landed a gig as tour manager for white supremacist instigator Milo Yiannopoulos, who was set to do a lecture series on college campuses. That tour was derailed, mostly, once Milo’s racist ideas were exposed. Later, both men were kicked off Twitter. In Baked Alaska’s case, Twitter acted after he started quoting actual Nazi slogans and “joking” about gas chambers.

The Holocaust.

So funny, right!

He pleads guilty in July 2022. In January 2023, Gionet was sentenced to 60 days, put on probation for two years, and ordered to pay $2,500 in fines and restitution. (He had previously served 30 days for pepper-spraying the bouncer, and had been fined $300 for damaging a Hanukkah display outside the Arizona state capital.

Trump supporter, right-winger.

Arrested as a flight risk.

85. JEFFREY SABOL: This is not your typical headline: “Jeffrey Sabol, Geophysicist Accused of Beating Cop at Capitol Riot, Claims He Was Just ‘Patting Him on the Back.’” Sabol was accused of dragging a police officer down the Capitol Hill steps during the riot on January 6, and joining in his beating.

The Daily Beast reports that in one video,

Sabol was seen holding a police baton across the officer’s neck. After the savage attack, Sabol bought a plane ticket to Zurich in an attempt to flee, prosecutors said.

The geophysicist was arrested Friday at Westchester Medical Center after he admitted to assaulting an officer on the steps of the Capitol in a “fit of rage,” prosecutors said.

According to the affidavit, that officer was hit in the “head and body with various objects.” Sabol has insisted he was just patting the downed officer on the back and telling him “we got you man.”

Sabol was brought to the hospital on Jan. 11 after authorities spotted him driving erratically and “covered in blood, suffering from severe lacerations to both thighs and arms.” Inside his car, authorities found razor blades, a note with instructions and passwords to a computer, his passport, and an airline ticket, among other items.

“While officers aided Sabol, he made several spontaneous statements to include but not limited to: ‘I am tired, I am done fighting,’ ‘My wounds are self-inflicted,’ I was ‘fighting tyranny in the DC Capital,’” according to the complaint.

A memo from the Department of Justice, at the time of his trial, described Sabol’s behavior on that violent day:

According to the government’s evidence, Sabol traveled to Washington, D.C., with several members of what he had described as a “neighborhood watch” group to attend a January 6 rally at the Ellipse.

Sabol brought a trauma kit, a buck knife, a helmet, and zip ties to the rally. After the event, Sabol and at least one other member of the group walked to the Capitol. As they approached, Sabol observed that, in his words, “a battle was already going on” and heard munitions (which Sabol believed were flashbangs) in the distance. Along the way, Sabol separated from the group and began grappling with the police officers who were protecting the Capitol grounds.

At about 2 p.m., U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers were positioned to the west of the Capitol building. Many of the officers carried riot shields. At 2:04 p.m., Sabol and another man pushed a third rioter – who himself was holding a riot shield – from behind, propelling him forward so that he ran into the police line. As the officers worked to repel them, Sabol kept pushing against the police until a USCP officer pushed back, causing Sabol to fall down a set of steps.

At about 2:33 p.m., Sabol and another rioter grabbed at a helmet-visor held by an MPD officer and engaged in a tug-of-war over it. Sabol then made his way to the Lower West Terrace tunnel and archway. At approximately 4:27 p.m., an MPD officer near the archway was knocked to the ground. As the officer attempted to defend himself, Sabol reached for the officer’s baton, grabbed it, and ripped it out of his hands. Sabol used such force in wrestling the baton from the officer that he fell backward down the steps.

Sabol climbed back up the Lower West Terrace steps, moved towards the archway, and assisted two rioters dragging another officer down the steps and into the mob, where the rioters beat the officer with a flagpole and a baton.

In the days following January 6, Sabol deleted text messages and other communications from his cell phone. He also asked another individual to delete a “selfie video” which depicted Sabol immediately after he had been pepper sprayed and in which Sabol stated that he had “tried to rush the front gate, the front door.” Sabol also destroyed his laptop computers in a microwave oven and dropped his cell phone into a body of water.

Prosecutors pointed out that Sabol tried to flee to Switzerland soon after the riot. He was apprehended and jailed as a flight risk. Arrested on January 27, 2021, he remained in custody until his trial.

On August 18, 2023, he was finally found guilty, and on March 21, 2024, he learned his fate: 63 months in prison, with credit for more than three years already served. Sadly, he’ll also spend three years on probation, and must pay a fine of $32,165.65.

FUN FACT: Sabol excused his actions – in his own mind – as court documents in his case explain.

Following his arrest, Sabol was interviewed by FBI agents on multiple occasions. During those interviews, Sabol told agents, among other things, that he believed that there was no question that the 2020 election was stolen; that he had seen video of ballots being mishandled and knew that Dominion voting machines have been tampered with; that he was very angry about election fraud, that his state of mind on January 6th, 2021 was that of patriotic rage. Sabol also told the agents that, on January 6th, a “call to battle was announced,” and he “answered the call because he was a patriot warrior.”

So, let’s be clear. When I post my edit, after Sabol is sentenced, it’s March 22, 2024, and 1,235 days have passed since Trump lost his last election. No court has found any significant evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

And I predict they never will.

Rudy Giuliani, who pushed a video of votes being “mishandled” hard, has been hammered like a tent peg in court for his lies. He defamed two Georgia workers – and people like Sabol believed him – and Rudy was held responsible by a jury and ordered to pay the victims of his attacks $148.2 million. Fox News also paid Dominion $787.5 million – for defaming the company, and not being able to back up any claims that votes were stolen.

So, Sabol was a dupe. His “patriotic rage” was misguided.

UPDATE: At Sabol’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge Rudy Contreras warned that the former President Trump might issue the same kind of call if he loses his third bid for the presidency of the United States.

Contreras said that Trump and his allies had “spurred” the attack on the Capitol, saying he was worried that Sabol would respond once again if a similar “call” was issued.

“It doesn't take much imagination to imagine a similar call coming out in the coming months,” Contreras said.

Trump supporter, violent, believed the election was stolen.

Hoping to return for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump.

86. ALBERT CIARPELLI: The Syracuse, N.Y. man, 65, has been charged with two crimes related to illegal entry of the Capitol on January 6.

NewsChannel 9 in Syracuse explains:

At first, through his lawyer, Ciarpelli admitted being at the protest but denied going into the Capitol building. When pressed by [federal] agents with images of a man appearing to be Ciarpelli, he admitted to following a group of people who broke through the crowd and went up to the entrance of the Capitol, noticing a door wide open with some broken glass.

Ciarpelli then “did something that he knew he should not have, and made his way into the building.” He told agents he considered his time in the Capitol to be a “little adventure” as he walked around taking pictures.

Only when Ciarpelli found himself next to protestors more aggressive and worked up — some dressed in paramilitary gear and the bare-chested man with a fur hat and horns — did he decide to leave the way he came in.

The next morning when thinking back on what happened, Ciarpelli said that he was out of his mind and had never done anything like that before.

He had, however, attended the Trump rally that morning, as well as a post-election rally in D.C. in November, to support the president. On January 6, he left Syracuse, N.Y. at 5 a.m., driving alone, and arrived in the capital just in time to check in at his hotel, and walk to the “Save America” rally nearby. He also told federal agents that he had planned to go on to Florida, and then return to D.C. for the inauguration of the president – who he believed would be Donald J. Trump.

It wasn’t. And Ciarpelli was finally sentenced in May 2024, to 90 days in jail, another year on probation and fined $500.

Trump supporter.

Dating coach goes to jail.

87. SAMUEL J. FISHER: said to be a dating coach in New York City, also known as “Brad Holiday;” operates a business that teaches men “how to meet, date, and keep women attracted to you.” The F.B.I. said he was in possession of multiple firearms and a bulletproof vest while he was in D.C.

A Trump supporter and a QAnon fan, Fisher had been posting and sending Facebook messages for weeks about plans to travel to Washington, DC, and “bring the pain.”

“We must stand up to these people and take our world back. … It’s time to bring the pain upon them,” Fisher posted on Dec. 3, according to court papers.

On Dec. 31: “they cant arrest us all man.”

On Jan. 3: “Real Patriots will fall upon the capital in protest.”

Then, on Jan. 6, the day a mob pushed past barriers and U.S. Capitol Police officers to stream into the Capitol, Fisher sent a photo of a rifle and a handgun he’d brought to DC on Facebook to an unidentified person. He wrote that he planned to leave the weapons — “maybe except the pistol” — at a garage in case “it kicks off.” He also posted a call to action on his website.

“Trump just needs to fire the bat signal… deputize patriots… and then the pain comes,” Fisher, who was arrested in New York on Wednesday and charged with unlawfully entering the Capitol and disorderly conduct, wrote that day. “1 Million Pissed off men with guns… bad idea.” The day after, in posts quoted by prosecutors that no longer appear online, he wrote, “i was there,” and that “people died . . . but it was fucking great if you ask me.”

Fisher also delighted, he said, in “seeing cops literally run,” but his world has since that day come crashing down. After he posted about his large stash of guns, authorities were tipped off, and the New Yorker was found to illegally possess “a modified semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle, a so-called ghost gun pistol, a loaded shotgun and about a dozen pre-loaded high-capacity magazines.”

On April 4, 2022, Fisher was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on the gun charge, a victim (so to speak) of his QAnon delusions, and his misplaced belief in President Donald J. Trump.

Trump, he wrote, on the day of the riot, had “an ace up his sleeve.” Joe Biden was a “communist agent.”

Biden wasn’t. Trump didn’t. Fisher will have a long time behind bars now to reconsider his thinking.

He also netted four months in jail, related to his participation in the riot on January 6, and various other penalties.

Trump “sent us,” believed in QAnon, ready for violence.

88. Peter J. Harding: charged with violent entry; allegedly tried to set media equipment on fire outside of the Capitol; construction worker, age 47; became increasingly angry as mask-mandates and other measures to combat the pandemic spread. Came to D.C. to protest, saying, “We know that if Biden-Harris was going to get into office, they’ve said they’re going to make the lockdowns mandatory and mask-wearing mandatory across the country.”

The Washington Post has this story:

Harding said that the only weapon he carried was a dinner fork, which he put in his pocket because he believed he might need it to confront “antifa” or “Muslim brotherhood” fighters. It stayed in his pocket.

“Fortunately, I didn’t have to wield the kitchen fork menacingly,” he said.

Once he left the Capitol, he saw journalists with cameras protected by barricades. He says he walked over twice to taunt them, saying, “You’re responsible for this” and “There’s a woman shot — this is on your hands.” Harding claims that only after he walked away did other Trump supporters harass the journalists to the point that they fled, leaving behind their equipment. He was delighted.

“I was kind of happy about it, to be honest with you, not going to lie, because they deserve it. But that’s not a crime,” he said. He said he came back and piled up the abandoned equipment, then used a lighter to try to set it on fire though he believed most of it was metal and wouldn’t burn.

“The visual and the imagery was for the media to see, that they have started our country on fire,” Harding said, “with their constant lies about covid and about Trump.”

Trump supporter.

89. ~~Christopher M. Kelly~~: In one of the more unfortunate sartorial decisions, Kelly posed shirtless in front of the U.S. Capitol before allegedly storming the building.

As a result of his participation, Kelly got slapped with the usual array of charges, including “obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, unlawful entry to a restricted building and violent entry/disorderly conduct.”

Two days before the riot, we also know the “Antifa” boogie man reared his head. On Jan. 4, Kelly told a friend on social media that he would be heading for D.C. That friend told him, “Stay safe, Antifa will be out in force.”

That made no sense. Kelly and his friend should have known. The Antifa crowd would have zero interest in obstructing the counting of the electoral votes on January 6, allowing Donald J. Trump to serve a second term. The Antifa crowd vehemently opposes President Trump (or did) because of his fascist inclinations.

Kelly replied, “No worries, I’ll be with ex NYPD and some proud boys.” He was excited and told his friend, “This will be the most historic event of my life.”

At one point during the attack on Congress, Kelly posted excitedly, “We’re inside! Hearing stopped, sending everyone to the basement.”

He also claimed to have left a written message behind for lawmakers to read: “F--- these snakes. Out of OUR HOUSE.”

(Charges were later dropped. It turns out Kelly was only bragging about having joined the rioters, to impress friends.)

Trump supporter (but only a rioter in spirit).

90. DOMINICK MADDEN: Madden, a Brooklyn sanitation worker, decided to take a “sick day” from work to go to D.C. and get mixed up in a riot. In one photograph he is alleged to be pictured in blue QAnon hoodie, waving what looks like a cane in menacing fashion.

Authorities said he made it inside the building for roughly fifteen minutes. Madden also wore a QAnon sweatshirt in at least one social media profile picture. He was first suspended by the New York City Department of Sanitation.

And then he quit his job before January 2021 had ended.

Madden pled guilty in October 2021. Prosecutors recommended he spend 60 days in jail, three years on probation, and pay $500. I can add that his lawyer asked for mercy, noting that his client was not violent during the riot, and spent only thirteen minutes inside the Capitol.

Madden was also described as a good father in a plea for leniency; and from what the blogger can tell, that would appear to be true.

A co-worker described the defendant as someone who “loved his family and always put them before himself.”

So the guy’s a loveable dope – who fell for all Trump’s lies about a “Stolen Election.” He is finally sentenced in January 2024: twenty days in a jail cell, and $500.

QAnon believer.

“Civil War will ensue!”

91. STEPHEN MICHAEL AYRES: The Ohio man posted on Facebook, the day after Christmas, 2020, saying that if President Trump lost the election, “Civil War will ensue!”

The affidavit for his arrest said Ayres asked a few days later: “Where will you be on Jan. 6? Chilling at home? Hoping this country isn’t going to hell in a hand basket? Or are you willing to start fighting for the American Dream! Again!?!”

In a video filmed a few days after the attack, Ayres allegedly says that what happened at the Capitol was “just the beginning,” and there was “more to come next week.”

On July 12, 2022, Mr. Ayres appeared as a witness at the January 6 Committee hearings. He had come forward voluntarily to tell his story. Ayres described himself as a “family man,” “a working man, really.” He said he liked to go camping, and enjoyed “playing games with my son.”

How did he come to be in D.C. on January 6, 2021? “I was pretty hardcore” into social media, he said. He believed all the stolen election lies, and “felt like I needed to be down there.”

“I was very upset,” he added.

In fact, prior to the attack, Ayres had been clear about why he was going to Washington on that fateful day. On Facebook, on Jan. 4, he wrote:

“History is being made right in front of your eyes! When your grandchildren ask ‘Where were you when...........happened?’ What’s your answer going to be?” The post attaches an image of a poster stating, “January 6^th Washington, DC, the president is calling on us to come back to Washington on January 6^th for a big protest – ‘Be there, will be wild.’”

He was asked why he joined the march to Capitol Hill. Was he planning to march? To enter the building?

“Well, basically,” he replied, “the president, you know, got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down. So we basically…just following what he said.” His decision, of course, has done grave damage to his family and overturned his life. He was fired from his job of twenty years. He had to sell his home. (I felt bad watching him testify, because his wife sat behind him – and for her it had to be incredibly hard.) Ayres sounded contrite. He sounded sincere. He sounded like some of the people I know here in Ohio, myself, people who still believe Donald Trump’s lies.

A questioner on the panel asked Ayres what he would say to others who believed as he once did?

“I was hanging on every word [Trump] said,” he admitted. “I consider myself a family man, and I love my country…I feel like I had horse blinders on.” He thought a moment and added, he would tell others “to take the blinders off.”

After the hearing ended, Ayres went over to a group of police officers that had been injured in the attack, including Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. Officer Gonell learned recently that the injuries he sustained during the assault will never completely heal, and he will no longer be able to perform his duties. The panel pointed him out and explained highlighted his story (Iraq combat veteran, U.S. Army for sixteen years). Now permanently disabled. Gonell was shown, wiping away a tear. Ayres shook his hand and apologized for his part in the disasters of that day.

Trump?

He still sits, unscathed at Mar-a-Lago, goes golfing whenever the mood strikes, still lies about the stolen election. He’s still plotting his next move.

(Mr. Ayres plead guilty to one count of “disruptive or disorderly conduct in a restricted building,” on June 8, 2022. In September he learned his sentence: two years’ probation, $500 in restitution.)

Trump supporter, he believed the election was stolen.

92. THOMAS BARANYI: Baranyi, age 28, once enlisted in the Marines but was discharged. He told a reporter on the scene the day of the riot that he and others “blitzed our way in through all the chambers.” He added that he was near when police killed the rioter, Ashli Babbitt.

“It was a joke to them until we got inside, and then guns came out,” he added, raising a hand to show blood. “But we’re at a point now, it can’t be allowed to stand. We have to do something. People have to do something,” he said.

The judge hits him with 90 days in jail, orders him to pay restitution, and adds a year on probation.

Trump supporter.

93. Leonard Guthrie Jr.: is a self-described street preacher and conservative Christian. He told authorities he crossed police barricades in an act of “civil disobedience.” He said he believed that if he and others had been allowed to pray outside the Senate chamber, the votes would have been changed. Trump would have prevailed and been able to serve a second term. He admitted, “I broke the law.” But he said he and others like him could take no more.

“We’ve been silenced for so long,” he said. “For years, because I voted for Trump, I’m called a racist, a Nazi, a bigot and all that stuff, and it’s not right.”

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

“We will save this nation. Are u with me?”

Rick Saccone ran as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. He was endorsed by the president but did not win. Although he was not arrested as a result of the Capitol Hill attack, he still made it perfectly clear who he believed was storming the building. Wearing a Trump beanie, he posted a video message to Facebook: “We are storming the capitol. Our vanguard has broken thru the barricades. We will save this nation. Are u with me?”

There seems to be no evidence that Saccone actually stormed the building.

Trump supporter (not arrested).

Step #122.

94. GLENN ALLEN BROOKS: Brooks runs a kitchen and bath remodeling business, and initially faced two charges related to the Capitol Hill riot. Like so many others arrested as a result of the attack, Brooks was dressed in Trump gear when he climbed through a broken window into the building, and tried to disrupt the certification of the electoral vote.

On August 2, 2021, according to CBS News, “Federal agents descended on Brooks’ residence just before 6 a.m. with shields up and weapons drawn.”

According to a neighbor, “There were assault weapons, full body armor, like top and bottom, battering rams, like it seemed like it was going to be something…they were getting ready for something. It was actually kinda scary. I thought it was fake.”

But it wasn’t, and Brooks is one of more than 1,500 since arrested for a role in the Jan. 6 riot.

Federal authorities were originally tipped off by a member of Brooks’ prayer group after he texted selfies to the group, showing that he had breached the Capitol. He also bragged to the group that he had taken part in the attack.

And if you ever wonder why it might take so long to deal with the January 6 defendants (or the former president himself) a list of trial motions and various legal filings in Brooks’ case runs to 132 steps, many including multiple parts. In #122, a jury finds the defendant guilty on four charges.

A few more steps – and there you go – six months in jail for the dope, and a bill for $2,500.

(LIKELY TRUMP SUPPORTER; NOT DEFINITIVE.)

95. TERRY BROWN: retired public safety code enforcement officer, age 69; a Trump supporter. Brown said in an interview that he had no regrets about taking part in the storming of Congress. “I came to the conclusion that we needed to be heard, and nobody was listening,” he told a reporter. “So if this is what it took … to make the people stand up and listen, then to me it was worth it.”

(In December, Brown is sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $500 in restitution and do 60 hours of community service. He also gets hit with one month of home confinement.)

Trump supporter.

“To murder the Speaker of the House.”

96-97. DAWN BANCROFT and DIANA SANTOS-SMITH were arrested on January 30, and charged with taking part in the riot on Capitol Hill. According to the affidavit filed against the two women, Bancroft shot the evidence needed to convict the pair, apparently on her cell phone. In that video, Bancroft brags, “We broke into the Capitol … we got inside, we did our part….We were looking for Nancy [Pelosi] to shoot her in the friggin’ brain,” she adds, “but we didn’t find her.”

When first questioned by the F.B.I. about her involvement, Santos-Smith lied and said she attended Trump’s rally, but would never have gotten all fired up and have wanted to storm the halls of Congress and shoot lawmakers.

Sadly, for both suspects, according to the criminal complaint, the video shows Bancroft wearing a red “Make America Great Again” ski-cap style hat and Santos-Smith with a “Make America Great Again” baseball hat, around the time they attempt to leave the Capitol Building.

The two women now claim that they really didn’t do their part, and remained inside the building for no more than “one minute.”

Maybe, only “thirty seconds.”

At a hearing in September 2021, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan made it plain to Bancroft that he thought she was fortunate to be getting off with a plea deal where she agreed to admit to one misdemeanor. “It’s very troubling to hear someone say the reason they entered the Capitol on January 6 was essentially to murder the Speaker of the House,” he told the defendant. “Very troubling.”

Nevertheless, she had a plea deal, and he would honor it. He warned, however, that her comments would come up again at her sentencing.

We do know that Bancroft has had her ups and downs since. In May 2022, she won a primary race to become a member of a local Republican district committee. So, yay! In the meantime, the gym she owned lost its CrossFit affiliation, and she and her adult children have been harassed and threatened.

(Let’s pause a moment and denounce any and all harassment and threats aimed at other human beings, no matter their political opinions.)

On July 22, Bancroft is finally sentenced to serve 60 days behind bars. She must perform 100 hours of community service, pay $500 in restitution, and will spend the next three years on probation.

Santos-Smith gets off with a sentence of twenty days in jail.

Trump supporter, ready for violence (Bancroft).

Trump supporter (Santos-Smith).

98. William Joseph Pepe, 31, another member of the Proud Boys, and Dominic Pezzola (#135 on our list), was charged with conspiracy, civil disorder and unlawfully entering restricted buildings or grounds.

Reuters also reports that Pezzola has been indicted on other charges. Those include obstruction of an official proceeding, robbery of personal property of the United States, and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.”

UPDATE (January 2023): I try to get my facts straight. So, I had Pepe as “reportedly” a Proud Boy, originally.

Checking back, two years later, I found information that made it clear: He was. If an Antifa person ever gets indicted, I’ll add that to my lists.

UPDATE (November 2024): Pezzola has long since been convicted and sentenced; but delay may redound in Pepe’s favor, as possible future president, Donald “Let’s Riot” Trump has promised to pardon these criminals. Pepe was convicted on multiple charges, including felonies, and will be sentenced in March 2025. No doubt he’ll be watching election returns with great interest.

Trump supporter, right-winger, violent.

IN THE WAKE of the shocking attack on Capitol Hill, a new myth quickly took root in Trumpistan.

The thousands of rioters we saw, dressed like Trump fans, fitting the demographic profile of Trump fans, and howling like Trump fans, were not Trump fans. The dread Antifa had struck again. The president’s loyal defenders began road testing a brand new lie. “If Antifa was there,” former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer suggested, “we need to root it out and to make sure that that’s called out because it shouldn’t be blamed on groups that weren’t responsible.”

Groups that weren’t responsible? Such as people in red MAGA hats, carrying Trump flags, and howling for Nancy Pelosi’s head. (It was good to see that Spicer hadn’t lost his talent for bullshitting and obfuscation.)

“I heard those reports, too, about possible Antifa infiltration,” said Newsmax host Chris Calcedo, during an interview with…Mike Lindell…of all people. Lindell could only frown and shake his head in disgust.

Antifa!!!

On Fox News, Lou Dobbs noted that there had been “reports of instigators.” Sean Hannity hitched a ride on the same crazy bandwagon. “We also knew that there’s always bad actors that will infiltrate crowds,” he hinted. Laura Ingraham defended the mob that gathered to surround Capitol Hill, insisting that “an overwhelming majority of them, more than 99%, had to be, were peaceful, but because of a small contingent of loons, these patriots have been unfairly maligned.”

(DOBBS - CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

(HANNITY - CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

(INGRAHAM - CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

Even better, the Washington Times reported that XRVision, a company that markets facial recognition software, had scanned the members of the mob who stormed the building. Yep! They were Antifa scum!

Rep. Matt Gaetz, that rare politician who can match Trump for mendacity, heard the news and could hardly wait to stand up in the House of Representatives and tell his colleagues the good news. Just hours after the attack, as lawmakers reassembled for business, Gaetz insisted, “some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters and in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group Antifa.”

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

See! Trump’s “Law & Order” fans would never break the law. Or, if they did, Trump would pardon them all.

XRVision had no idea what the newspaper was talking about.

Gaetz smirked as he spoke, because that’s the only expression that ever registers on his mug, and cited the story in the Washington Times, and the proof supplied by XRVision. So the myth was born. The people who stormed the halls of Congress on January 6, were not Trump supporters at all.

They were America-hating, flag-burning vermin.

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

XRVision promptly notified the Times that they had no idea what the newspaper was talking about.

The Times had no choice but to issue a retraction, noting, that “an earlier version” of the story they had published and that the dimwitted Rep. Gaetz had happily cited, “incorrectly stated that XRVision” had “identified Antifa members among rioters who stormed the Capitol Wednesday. XRVision did not identify any Antifa members [emphasis added]. The Washington Times apologizes to XRVision for the error.”

It didn’t matter. The lie took root. And lie became QAnon truth. It has often been said that people believe what they want to believe. More apt to say that people believe what they need to believe. Faced with bleak evidence of what they had become, supporters of the president had to tell themselves that what they witnessed on January 6, was not what they really were. Mark Levin, host of a nightly show on Fox News, condemned the rioters, as any sane person would.

Then he assured his audience, Trump lovers all, “None of you had anything to do with it….You, we, are the law-abiding citizens of this country.”

Greg Kelly, a top host on Newsmax, took one look at that vast MAGA crowd that gathered to hear Trump speak that fateful day. That throng, wearing Trump hats, waving Trump flags, and gathered to “Stop the Steal” as their banners proclaimed, yes, those were Trump fans.

Patriots, all.

When people in that crowd roared approval, when the president told them to march to Capitol Hill and fight like hell – no, no, no. Those weren’t Trump supporters who marched. Whose feet started to shuffle. Kelly looked at the Trump hats on their heads. He looked at the Trump flags they used to break out windows and crack cops over the heads. “These people don’t look like Trump supporters,” he assured Trump supporters who looked exactly like those people did.

“Trump supporters,” he added, “don’t do these things.”

Yet the did.

On his show, Sean Hannity feigned confusion. “I’d like to know who the agitators were,” he said.

It was fucking obvious from the start.

(LEVIN — HINT, HINT: IT WAS ANTIFA!)

(KELLY - HINT, HINT: IT WAS ANTIFA!)

(HANNITY - HINT, HINT: IT WAS ANTIFA!)

FACTS MATTER. Evidence piled high counts. Let’s continue to look at the people who have been arrested and charged so far.

Many of the insurrectionists told reporters on the scene and investigators in coming days that they had answered the call to “save the country,” issued by President Trump and his enabling pals.

(Sean Hannity, for one.)

Among those taken into custody, for example, we had:

“Homemade napalm.”

99. LONNIE LEROY COFFMAN:

…Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 70, an Alabama grandfather who drove to Washington to attend Trump’s “Save America Rally” in a red GMC Sierra pickup packed with an M4 assault rifle, multiple loaded magazines, three handguns and 11 Mason jars filled with homemade napalm, according to court filings.

His grandson, Brandon Coffman, told the [Associated Press] on Friday his grandfather was a Republican who had expressed admiration for Trump at holiday gatherings. He said he had no idea why Coffman would show up in the nation’s capital armed for civil war.

(In April 2022, Coffman is sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.)

Trump supporter, ready for violence.

“Headed to DC with a (s — ) ton of 5.56 armor-piercing ammo.”

100. CLEVELAND GROVER MEREDITH JR.: In the wake of the November election, Meredith protested outside Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s house, sure (in some unfathomable way) that Kemp and other Republicans had turned a blind eye to all the vote stealing Trump said occurred in that state.

Meredith drove to Washington last week for the “Save America” rally but arrived late because of a problem with the lights on his trailer, according to court filings that include expletive-laden texts.

“Headed to DC with a (s — ) ton of 5.56 armor-piercing ammo,” he texted friends and relatives on Jan. 6, adding a purple devil emoji, according to court filings. The following day, he texted to the group: “Thinking about heading over to Pelosi (C —’s) speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” He once again added a purple devil emoji, and wrote he might hit her with his truck instead. “I’m gonna run that (C —) Pelosi over while she chews on her gums….Dead (B —) Walking. I predict that within 12 days, many in our country will die.”

Meredith, who is white, then texted a photo of himself in blackface. “I’m gonna walk around DC FKG with people by yelling ‘Allahu ak Bar’ randomly.”

As Huff Post adds,

Meredith had written to his relative that he was “[t]hinking about heading over to Pelosi C[**]T’s speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV 😈.” “I ain’t goin to jail, the morgue maybe, not jail[.]”

When a friend wrote that “Trump wants you to go home peacefully,” Meredith said that was nonsense.

“Bullshit, he wants HEADS and I’m gonna deliver,” he wrote.

Someone involved in the group text grabbed screenshots of the threats and contacted the F.B.I.

Agents tracked the would-be assassin to a Holiday Inn not far from the Capitol shortly after. There, they “found a compact Tavor X95 assault rifle, a 9mm Glock 19 handgun and about 100 rounds of ammunition, according to court filings. The agents also seized a stash of THC edibles and a vial of injectable testosterone.” Just about the perfect mix if you had half-baked dreams of mayhem in mind.

(In December 2021, Meredith gets sentenced to 28 months in prison, minus the 11 months he has already spent behind bars.)

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election,” believed in QAnon,

ready for violence.

Finally:

101. JACOB ANTHONY CHANSLEY: Poor Mr. Chansley was photographed dressed in Viking garb during the uprising. Prosecutors at his first hearing noted that Chansley, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, was still a threat to others.

And to himself.

Inside the Senate chamber, Chansley could be seen in one video leaving a note at the Vice President’s desk, warning, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

In seeking to deny bail, prosecutors warned, “Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.” Charges against the defendant “involve active participation in an insurrection attempting to violently overthrow the United States government.” They told the judge that “the insurrection is still in progress.”

In another kick to the pseudo-Viking’s shins, authorities noted that he suffered from drug abuse and mental illness, a fitting leader for any QAnon crew. “Chansley,” they explained, “has spoken openly about his belief that he is an alien, a higher being, and he is here on Earth to ascend to another reality.”

Nevertheless, Chansley’s lawyer had a great idea. His client should receive a pardon from President Trump. Albert Watkins explained: “My client had heard the oft-repeated words of Donald J. Trump. The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something.”

Such as, let’s go to the Capitol and “fight like hell,” as Trump suggested during his speech that day, and maybe lynch Vice President Pence.

“Given the peaceful and compliant fashion in which Mr. Chansley comported himself [inside the Capitol building],” Watkins added, “it would be appropriate and honorable for the president to pardon Mr. Chansley and other like-minded, peaceful individuals who accepted the president’s invitation with honorable intentions.”

Plus, he might as well have said, “My client is crazy; and so is the President of the United States.”

In comments to Talking Points Memo, Watkins later described his client as having “brain damage” and being “f***ing retarded.”

He stood by his words the next day, adding,

A lot of these defendants – and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully – but they’re all fucking short-bus people. These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum.

But they’re out brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers – they’re part of our country. These aren’t bad people, they don’t have prior criminal history. Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler.”

The reference to “short-bus people,” harkens to the smaller buses typically used to bring students with disabilities to school.

(Sentenced in November 2021, Chansley earned one of the stiffest penalties handed out to that point: 41 long months in prison. He has since dumped his old lawyer, and plans to appeal.)

UPDATE: In November 2023, Mr. Chansley announces plans to run for a seat in Congress from Arizona, as a Libertarian. I think we can assume, should he be defeated, that he and his supporters might like to riot.

You know – to stay in practice.