January 6 Rioters - Part VIII - Seditious Conspiracy (254-308)

 

SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY

PART VIII

 (Rioters #254-308)

__________ 

“Truth would you teach, to save a sinking land,

All fear, none aid you, and few understand.” 

Alexander Pope

__________

 

Who plotted to steal the election? This guy.

 

THE QUEST CONTINUES. This most diligent blogger is determined to find out who these January 6 rioters were. 

What motivated them? 

What lies did they believe? 

What was the plan on January 6? 

We pick up our search once again. How do we explain what took place on that most terrible day, when democracy itself was put at grave risk?

 

* 

“I tried to pry my eyelids open with my fingers.”

254. CHRISTOPHER WORRELL: The East Naples, Florida man is another member of the Proud Boys and a rioter of the first order on January 6. The federal charges lodged against him included one for carrying a “deadly or dangerous weapon” during the attack. A tipster who knew Worrell’s girlfriend saw that he had been involved in the attack, and contacted authorities. 

The Naples Daily News adds: 

In 2009, Worrell was arrested for impersonating an officer after he followed and pulled up to a woman on U.S. 41 East and Guilford Road in East Naples trying to get her to pull over for running a red light, according to his arrest report.

 

He had a loaded handgun, handcuffs, knives, boxes of ammunition and a fake badge in his possession when deputies arrested him. 

 

In May 2010, Worrell was sentenced to three years [sic] probation and two years of community control for impersonating a law enforcement officer. 

 

Arrested again for his actions on January 6, Worrell later caught COVID-19 in prison, awaiting trial. 

Later still: At Worrell’s trial, Officer Timothy Lively told the jury he was sprayed with chemicals at least ten times that day. He didn’t blame Worrell, specifically, but noted, “My eyes felt like they were on fire. I tried to pry my eyelids open with my fingers and I could not do that.” 

Even later still: The jury rendered a verdict in Worrell’s case. On May 12, 2023, they found him guilty on seven counts, including felony assault, related to his use of pepper gel to spray three police. 

The defendant was scheduled for sentencing in August but cut off his ankle monitor in a Walmart parking lot and vanished. He was apprehended at the end of September, when he tried to return home, and now had to assume his legal problems were exponentially worse. This time, when federal agents searched Worrell’s house, they found night-vision goggles, survivalist gear, and $4,000 in cash. 

It’s also fun to know that when the feds first entered Worrell’s home, he was found lying on the floor, “seemingly unresponsive,” with an empty bottle of prescription opioids in his hand. F.B.I. agents performed what they believed were “lifesaving procedures,” and Worrell was rushed to the hospital. 

Where it turned out his “overdose” was a ruse. 

Finally, on January 4, 2024, 1,157 days since the last presidential election, Worrell gets the bad news. The judge sentences him to ten years in prison, one of the longest sentences so far. The defendant does have a rare form of cancer, and will go to a prison facility for medical care first.

Worrell (right) and buddy flash the "white power" sign.

Trump supporter, right-wing, violent.

 

* 

Cockroach complaint! 

255. FEDERICO KLEIN: The 42-year-old Trump-appointed State Department aide was charged with assaulting police officers during the Capitol Hill riot. A judge ruled that he remain in jail until trial. 

According to Politico, “Prosecutors say Klein spent 30 minutes inside the tunnel at the front lines of a mob ‘fanatically’ engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat with officers. While in the crowd, he repeatedly called for ‘fresh people’ to rotate in and press into the Capitol, the government contends.” 

During one court hearing, Klein complained that there were cockroaches in his cell and he should be allowed to post bail. 

Now we know. He’s going to be dealing with bugs for a while. 

Klein’s legal problems increased dramatically in August 2021, when, as part of a massive indictment of Klein and eight other men, he was charged with an even dozen felonies and misdemeanors of various kinds. 

Klein spent a month in jail at one point, won release on a judge’s order, then was accused of violating conditions of his release by getting drunk at his mother’s. In all, he has been hit with five superseding indictments, each one worse than the other. A co-defendant in an indictment against Klein was also warned against going into the water while wearing his court-ordered GPS device. 

So, the wheels of justice churned, slowly but surely, and in July 2023, after a bench trial, Mr. Klein was found guilty of seven felonies. 

Yep. That’s seven more felonies (so far) than all the Antifa types arrested (0) have racked up. 

On November 3, 2023, exactly three years after the last presidential election, Klein learned the penalty for his violent behavior during the Capitol Hill attack. One officer testified that Klein was trying to kill him that day – and the judge believed him. 

Klein will spend the next 70 months behind bars – sent there by a judge Donald Trump appointed. 

He also owes $5,000 in fines and restitution. 

Trump supporter, violent.

 

* 

James agrees to cooperate. 

256. Joshua James: Mr. James is the latest member of the right-wing Oath Keepers to be charged in the Capitol Hill riot. In addition to his role in the attack, he was photographed providing “security” for Trump pal and pardoned seven-time-felon Roger Stone. 

In a charging document, James is described as a member of “a security detail for a speaker at the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies and events.”

 

* 

On July 9,2021, Time magazine provided a lengthy portrait of James, in “From Combat to Conspiracy.” 

For much of that article, James seems like the kind of person most of us would like. He has a young son, and two stepchildren, and a wife Audrey who wants desperately to keep him from going to prison. His family lives in Arab, Alabama, a town of about 8,400. People who know Josh describe him as a “soft-spoken, God-fearing family man.” Time reporters note that the defendant has a “wry sense of humor,” likes “fishing, grilling and secretly watching Golden Girls.” 

At that point, Audrey had developed a TikTok account, where she had 18,000 followers. She also ran an online site to help raise money for her husband’s legal defense – $184,000 by the time reporters filed the report. 

After graduating from high school, Josh enlisted in the U.S. Army, and soon shipped out for Iraq. Before he deployed, in March 2007, he got a tattoo: DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR. His unit arrived just in time to experience some of the bloodiest days of the war, and on June 7, Josh “earned a Purple Heart,” as Time explained. 

That day, 

the 19-year-old Army private was in the turret of his armored truck outside Baghdad. His eight-man unit had spent hour after eye-glazing hour staring at the arid terrain, hunting for signs of buried roadside bombs. Suddenly the road erupted into a fireball. “A dump truck full of 2,000 lb. of homemade explosives blew the bridge in half that my squad was on,” Sergeant David Aleman, the unit’s squad leader, tells TIME.

 

The blast killed three and wounded several others, including Aleman. It rocked James’ head and neck, shattering his jaw as the column of a nearby building collapsed on him. Smoke and blood filled James’ nostrils. Scrambling in the chaos, someone in the unit managed to radio for medical support. “It is a miracle,” Aleman says, “that some of us survived.”

 

For James there were difficult months ahead, filled with “a blur of surgeries and physical-therapy sessions.” He settled in Florida, but was “forced to take medical retirement from the Army.” Adapting to civilian life was hard. The young veteran “suffered from PTSD, anxiety and depression.” He had at least one serious run-in with the law, although charges were dropped. 

Then, in 2014, his life changed for the better. He had known Audrey for years (she had been the wife of another soldier). In fact, they met when his jaw was still wired shut after his unit was decimated by the dump truck bomb. Now, she was divorced. James took her for a first date to a comedy club. “She later posted on Facebook that she laughed so loud, she embarrassed him.” They married in 2016, settled in Florida, and had a son. The former soldier started a pressure-washing business, which did well enough. But his military service – and the sacrifices he had made – were not to be forgotten. 

Nor should they have been. 

Searching for some kind of bond with men of similar backgrounds and experiences, Joshua got involved with the Oath Keepers, a sort of military fraternity, and a group which sometimes did good, helping Florida victims of Hurricane Irma in 2017, for example. But the founders of the group had darker instincts too, and those instincts led many members to disaster on January 6. Recruiting materials for the group reminded potential recruits that the oath they swore in the military, to protect America, from all enemies, foreign and domestic, was “forever.” 

All well and good. But websites for the group also called members “the last line of defense against tyranny,” and Oath Keepers liked to talk boldly about their mission to keep America safe. “America’s veterans truly are like a sleeping giant,” read one mission statement for the group. “It is time to awaken them and fill them with a terrible resolve to defeat the domestic enemies of our Constitution.” 

And there was the rub. 

What was it these men believed “must be done?”

 

With the rise of Donald Trump, conspiracy thinking came to permeate the group’s views. There was talk among members about “a cabal of elites actively trying to strip American citizens of their rights,” and those elites had taken control of the federal government. Equally troubling, the Oath Keepers’ ethos often had racist overtones. In the summer of 2020, after Black Lives Matter protests erupted, and violence erupted in several cities, James became convinced that drastic action was needed to restore order. Soon, the media site for his business was including calls on President Trump to, “Invoke the Insurrection ACT NOW!!!” 

(How a president who had dodged service himself, with fake stories about bone spurs, ever became a hero to men like Joshua James remains a mystery to this blogger to this day.) 

As the 2020 election approached, and then passed, James’s views spiraled out of control. He could be seen at pro-Trump rallies, in company with Roger Stone, retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn, and conspiracy maven Alex Jones. On November 21, he attended a rally in Atlanta. There, speakers called upon the crowd to “accept nothing less than a Donald Trump victory.” 

James himself came to believe the election had been stolen. On social media he posted warning: “Communists and CCP Loyalists want to change our way of life!” 

In weeks following Trump’s defeat – and he was defeated by seven million votes – James immersed himself in planning for what would become the January 6 attack. He and other Oath Keepers communicated on the encrypted messaging app Signal. And there was talk of open war. 

According to prosecutors in his case, 

James allegedly fielded messages from other men in Alabama eager to join his “quick reaction force” (QRF) team. When one said he had friends near D.C. willing to help with “a lot of weapons and ammo if you get in trouble,” James responded, according to prosecutors. “That might be helpful, but we have a sh-tload of QRF on standby with an arsenal.” On Parler [another website favored by right-leaning Americans], James chatted with Roberto Minuta, a New York tattoo artist and member of the Oath Keepers. “I’ve been hoarding any ammo I can get my hands on lol,” Minuta responded in December to a photo James had posted of his guns and ammunition.

 

And so they planned for January 6, a day the president had promised would be “wild.” Trump didn’t win the election, but men like James believed he had. There was no liberal “cabal” controlling the government, and there were no hordes of communists planning to destroy the American way of life. Yet, in service to the president’s lies, with judgment clouded by conspiracy thinking, on the day of the attack, James and Minuta could be seen speeding to the Capitol on golf carts, around 2:30 p.m. Meanwhile, a group of seven Oath Keepers, dressed like combat soldiers, and formed in a “stack,” forcibly entered the building. James and Minuta soon followed. “Patriots storming the Capitol building,” Minuta crowed. “F-cking war in the streets right now.” 

Trump and his apologists would later pile up a fresh layer of lies. They would claim the attackers weren’t Trump fans at all. Good patriot had been “led on” by leftist scum, mixed among the crowd. The president would deny that there was any violence at all. But James had come prepared for violence – and he and his buddies didn’t need to be “led on.” Just two days after the riot, he realized he and his friends might be in trouble. After he returned home, he warned fellow Oath Keepers that they would need to delete and destroy any communications they had had, prior to the attack. In a text, he told others to “make sure that all signal comms about the op has been deleted and burned,” according to federal investigators. 

It was too late to escape. Arrests soon began. Members of the group turned on their leaders, in hopes of avoiding lengthy prison sentences. James, himself, eventually cut a deal to cooperate. 

Nevertheless, a fundamental question remained. How did men like Joshua James, who said they loved this country, come to believe that killing other Americans might be required to keep Donald Trump in power? 

Even Judge Amit Mehta, who was assigned to handle his case, had trouble understanding what motivated the former soldier. “Mr. James,” he said, at a hearing in April 2021, “I’ve got to tell you, I’m not sure of why anyone in your position, given the life that you’ve led, would do this.” 

Unfortunately, James is likely to have a long time in jail to figure out how misguided his thinking had been. 

 

UPDATE (January 12, 2022): Mr. James and ten others are indicted for seditious conspiracy, and if convicted could receive a sentence of twenty years in prison. (See: Elmer Stewart Rhodes, et. al, Rioter #601 on our list). 

 

UPDATE (March 2, 2022): James pleads guilty to the charge of seditious conspiracy. He agrees to cooperate fully with prosecutors, and testify at the trial of other Oath Keepers. 

The judge warns him he could face nine years in prison. 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (11/23/23): On “X,” formerly known as Twitter, Ryan J. Reilly continues to track the trials of all the rioters. According to court documents, Mr. James and six other Oath Keepers are cooperating with investigators. Those others include Graydon Young (#220 on our list), Jason Dolan (#279), Mark Grods (#387), Caleb Berry (#417), Brian Ulrich (#603) and William Todd Wilson (#623). 

Trump “sent us,”  right-wing type, ready for violence, he believed election was stolen.

 

* 

“Millions will die. So what?” 

257. ROBERTO A. MINUTA: The Newburgh, New York tattoo artist and fellow Oath Keeper and security guard for Stone, was arrested in March 2021 and charged with participating in the Jan. 6 assault. 

CNBC notes: 

A prosecutor said that Minuta admitted to FBI agents that he was at the Capitol during the riot, as well as to carrying pepper spray or bear spray that day. He also was seen wearing tactical goggles and gloves, and carrying a radio, court documents state.

 

Those documents also say that when he left the Capitol building, Minuta harassed law enforcement officers with other rioters, yelling, “All that’s left is the Second Amendment,” while holding up two fingers. Minuta has 10 licensed firearms, according to prosecutors.

 

In January 2022, Minuta and ten others were indicted for seditious conspiracy, and if convicted could have received a sentence of twenty years in prison. (See: Elmer Stewart Rhodes, et. al, #601.) 

December 2022: The trial of Minuta and three other members of the Oath Keepers begins. 

According to WUSA9, the defendant was ready to spill copious blood to keep Donald J. Trump in office. 

Jurors…saw a preview of a video Minuta recorded of himself in which he told viewers “Jesus said sell your cloak and buy a sword” – a reference to Luke 22:36.

 

“Millions will die,” Minuta said in the video. “Millions will die. So what? Get your f***ing soul ready.”

 

A lawyer for another defendant told jurors his client had been misled by two charismatic leaders who had sway over the four men on trial. Rhodes was one. President Donald Trump was the other. 

He described Rhodes as “a right-wing televangelist.” He continued: “I think we’re going to learn he lives off other people’s dues and manipulates them. But we’re also going to learn he’s incompetent.” 

(He could have said exactly the same of the president.)

Rep. Norman - smiling at the thought of sending in the troops.

 

FUN WITH FACISM: We finally learn – in December 2022 – that people like Minuta weren’t the only Americans with military-style action in mind, to save Trump a second term as president. 

On January 17, 2021, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-N.C.) texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Rep. Norman begged Meadows to convince Trump to take drastic action. “Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!!” he said. “PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!” 

He meant “martial law,” of course. So he not only forgot his oath of office, to uphold the Constitution, he’s also an idiot. 

 

UPDATE (January 23, 2023): Minuta and three other members of the Oath Keepers are convicted and face lengthy prison terms. 

The jury deliberates for twelve hours before slapping the defendants with two additional conspiracy charges.

 

UPDATE: On June 1, 2023, Minuta learns he will be spending 54 months in a jail cell, courtesy of the U.S. government. 

Right-wing type, Trump “sent us;”

believed election was stolen, violent.

 

* 

258. ISAAC STEVE STURGEON: The 32-year-old Montana man, and owner of a lawn-care business, was arrested and denied bond after authorities charged him with taking part in the riot. 

The criminal complaint notes that Sturgeon “traveled to Kenya on Jan. 24 and afterward bought a ticket to fly back to the United States on April 5. Kenyan authorities booted him from their country in advance of that date.” 

He was later charged with eight counts related to the riot, including two counts of engaging in acts of physical violence. 

Also charged with him, and hit with a similar numbers and types of crimes: Craig Michael Bingert (#44 on the list) and Taylor James Johnatakis (#486). 

On May 11, 2023, Sturgeon asked for and was granted a bench trial, before a judge, and without a jury. Two weeks later both he and Bingert were convicted on all counts. 

On September 27, 1,058 days after the last presidential election, he was sentenced to spend six years in prison, three additional years on probation, and pay $2,000. 

Trump supporter, violent.

* 

“It was intended to halt the very functioning of our government.”

259. ANNA MORGAN-LLOYD: You might say Morgan-Lloyd turned herself and a friend in by boasting about their exploits on social media. “I’m here. Best day ever. We stormed the capitol building me and Dona Bissey were in the first 50 people in,” she wrote in a Facebook comment. 

Naturally, she posted pictures. 

At her sentencing, in June, the grandmother of five from Indiana explained how she ended up trying to destroy democracy. “I went there to support . . . President Trump peacefully,” she said. “I’m ashamed that it became a savage display of violence that day. . . . It was never my intent to be a part of something that’s so disgraceful to our American people and so disgraceful to our country. I just want to apologize.” 

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, in 1987, and a former U.S. Army prosecutor granted Morgan-Lloyd probation – but warned her not to violate the rules of her release. 

Then he took time to blast the fools – for example, Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), who claimed the riot that fateful day wasn’t really so bad, if you thought about it. “I’m especially troubled by the accounts of some members of Congress that January 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol,” he explained to listeners in the courtroom. “I don’t know what planet they were on. . . . This was not a peaceful demonstration. It was not an accident that it turned violent; it was intended to halt the very functioning of our government.” 

At her sentencing, Morgan-Lloyd said she felt really bad about what happened that day. “I’m ashamed that it became a savage display of violence that day,” she told the court. “And I would have never been there if I had a clue it was going to turn out that way. It was never my intent to be a part of anything that’s so disgraceful to our American people.” 

The next day, however, the same woman appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show, and the Fox News host asked her what she really thought. Was it really all that bad? Ingraham wanted to know (because she is apparently too stupid to watch any of the videos). 

“If anybody bumped into anybody, it was, ‘Excuse me,’ and people were very polite,” Morgan-Lloyd now said. “Nobody was breaking anything, and it was calm enough that people were actually walking out of the Capitol building that worked there and they had no fear on their faces.” 

Ingraham wondered. Was the attack on January 6 an insurrection? Morgan-Lloyd responded, “I don’t believe it,” and said she saw police officers “talking and chatting with people.” 

So, she’s also a liar. 

(Sentenced to three years on probation, ordered to perform 120 hours of community service, and pay $500 in restitution.) 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

“Best fucking day ever!!”

260. DONA SUE BISSEY: After her friend fingered her on social media, authorities came looking for Bissey. 

One witness interviewed by the F.B.I. had often visited a hair salon that Bissey owned and said the proprietor “regularly spoke supportively of QAnon and other conspiracy theories.” That same witness turned over screenshots of Facebook posts that Bissey allegedly put up about her experience at the Capitol, including some in which she tagged Morgan-Lloyd. 

“Best fucking day ever!! I’ll never forget. We got into the Capitol Building,” Bissey wrote in one. 

Bissey also posted or responded to posts from other Trump supporters. In one she talks about a woman named “Linda,” a “True Patriot and Warrior,” who led the way into the Capitol. On January 7, she posted on Facebook that she and Morgan-Lloyd were glad to be home. “It will be a day I’ll remember forever. I’m proud that I was part of it,” she added. “No Shame.” Then came eight American flag emojis and the admonition, “BTW turn off the #FakeNews.” 

Like dozens of rioters, Bissey had been duped by the whole QAnon myth. 

* 

At Bissey’s sentencing hearing in October, after she pleads guilty, Justice Department prosecutor Joshu Rothstein noted that Bissey appeared to be 

an avid consumer of other conspiracy theories, including that the coronavirus is a “hoax pandemic” and that the COVID-19 vaccine is part of a Jewish plot to murder people. She also appeared to believe the pandemic was foreshadowed by “predictive programming” during the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics in London.

 

“It’s one thing to believe in conspiracy theories in your basement. It’s another thing to act out on them,” he said.

 

One of the first defendants to plead guilty, Bissey catches a break and gets only fourteen days in jail. 

Trump supporter, QAnon believer.

 

* 

“Clayton’s opinions were strong” – and wrong.

261. CLAYTON RAY MULLINS: Mullins was charged with assaulting a Metropolitan Police officer just outside the Capitol. 

His indictment read in part: 

On or about January 12, 2021, A.W. [a Metropolitan Police officer] was interviewed by MPD as part of an investigation into assaults of officer[s] occurring at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. During the interview, A.W. advised that after he was pulled into the crowd, he was kicked, struck with poles, and stomped on by several individuals. Additionally, Officer A.W. recalled having his helmet ripped off his head and being stripped of his CDU baton, gas mask (later recovered), and MPD issued cellular phone. A.W. was also maced once his mask was ripped off. At some point during the assault, A.W. was able to retrieve his gas mask and one individual, prevented the rioters from further assaulting A.W., allowed him to get on his feet and head back to the tunnel area. Once A.W. was back in the tunnel, another officer realized A.W. was bleeding from his head. A.W. was subsequently escorted to the east side of the USCB before being taken to the hospital. At the hospital, A.W. was treated for a laceration on his head which required two staples to close.

 

Videos documenting MULLINS’ assault of A.W. were also posted on YouTube. One YouTube video shows MULLINS leaning over a handrail making multiple attempts to grab A.W.’s leg. Once MULLINS successfully secured his grip on A.W.’s right foot, he began violently pulling on it, ultimately leading to A.W. being dragged down the stairs at the USCB lower west terrace tunnel entrance.

 

As was true in the cases of many of the rioters, Mullins was hit with multiple superseding indictments – meaning his legal jeopardy only compounded. Perhaps he hoped that dragging out the process would pay off in the end, should Trump win a second term in 2024, and pardon all these delusional “patriots.” 

On September 6, 2023, he pleaded guilty to assaulting police. At one point he got a good hold on one officer’s leg near the tunnel, where fighting was worst, and tried to drag him into the mob. 

A neighbor, former Marine, and former F.B.I. agent put in a plea for mercy before sentencing. He said he knew Mullins well and asked the judge to go easy on the defendant, saying, 

Clayton’s opinions were strong, but all were for the betterment of the country. I considered him a patriot and wished more Americans were like him. In the 14 years I have known Clayton, He [sic] has never been violent in any way and never promoted it in any way. I ask that you do not incarcerate him for he is a good American and has suffered enough.

 

So has the country, and thank you, Donald J. Trump. 

Mullins gets 30 months in prison, 36 more on probation, and is ordered to pay $81,929 in fines and restitution. 

Violent.

 

* 

262. STEPHANIE HAZELTON  (a.k.a. Stephanie Wolfe/Wolfe): Hazelton is an anti-vaxxer, which is no surprise. In one vide from January 6, she can be seen urging men, “but not women” to rush the building.) 

Philly Magazine picks up the story: 

“After winning an important early victory in securing Stephanie’s pretrial release, we will continue to vigorously contest the ridiculous charges brought against her, a homeschooling mother of two special needs children who loves her family and her country immeasurably,” says Daryl Kipnis, Hazelton’s attorney, who is also a failed 2018 Republican congressional candidate in New Jersey. “The charges appear to be based on a fantastical misinterpretation of words that my client is alleged to have said in a YouTube video that simply does not comport with reality.”

 

Kipnis went on to say that Hazelton “deeply regrets” the violence seen at the Capitol on January 6^th and insists that she had nothing to do with said violence.

 

Federal prosecutors, however, do not agree and charge Hazelton with six counts on January 28. 

Hazelton, described as a “conservative activist,” pleads guilty in October 2022, and awaits sentencing. In May 2023, she gets a light sentence – in part because of her home school duties: ten days in jail, three months home confinement. 

But $2,000 down the drain, in restitution. 

Right-wing, Trump supporter.

 

* 

Turned in by the ex he called a “moron.”

263. RICHARD MICHETTI: Poor Richard may have one of the lamest stories of any of those arrested. 

He was turned in by his ex-girlfriend after he texted her to say she was a “moron” if she couldn’t “see the election was stolen.” It wasn’t; but Michetti was moronic enough to send his old flame two videos from inside the Capitol Building. 

Now he’s almost sure to spend time in jail. I don’t think he’s going to get the girl back, however. 

(On May 31, 2022, Michetti pleads guilty to one felony, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, and a fine as high as $250,000. In September 2022, he avoids a truly terrible fate, and is sent to jail for only nine months, fined $2,000, and assigned a probation officer for two years.) 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

264. JEREMY GROSECLOSE: The Virginia man remained free on bail, after being charged in the breach of the Capitol. The judge in his case ordered him not to engage in further protests, to refrain from consuming alcohol or using narcotics and surrender any guns he might have. 

He was also required to forfeit his passport. 

Video evidence placed Mr. Groseclose firmly inside the Capitol at the time of the riot. 

Then, in a superseding indictment, Groseclose was hit with six charges, both felonies and misdemeanors. 

It turns out, he was one of the rioters who kept a garage door from closing at one entrance to the Capitol Building, by placing chairs, garbage cans, and other objects under it. While other members of the mob drove back outnumbered police trying to close it, Groseclose and many others gained entrance. Later, he deleted all evidence of his participation on his phone, and urged others he knew to do likewise. 

In January 2024, he wins a partial victory in court when three judges rule that prosecutors must prove (on one of the charges he faces) that Groseclose “knowingly” entered the Capitol that day and understood that Mike Pence was then inside the building, and prepared to finalize the electoral vote. 

It’s an abstruse point – or maybe the blogger is just too dumb to figure it out. It is fun, however, to note that the three judges who ruled on the point were appointed by Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump (that fat bum) and Mr. Reagan. Abstruse or not, 1,186 rioters have been charged with “knowingly” entering restricted grounds; and there could be broad ramifications. 

UPDATE: Whatever you say, Groseclose gets hammered at sentencing. He will spend 40 months in prison, another 24 on probation, and he must pay $5,000. 

(LIKELY TRUMP SUPPORTER; NOT DEFINITIVE.)

 

* 

265. (R.I. P.) JOHN ANDERSON: In the charging document against him, Anderson is identified as a man wearing a “beanie” which he later removes, “revealing his bald head.” The fact that federal agents shared that detail on the national news was probably hard on Mr. Anderson’s ego.

Video footage appears to show him grabbing one police shield and passing it back to other members of the mob. He later ends up holding a second. “Some of the members of the crowd are pushing toward the police, brandishing sticks or batons, and throwing objects toward the officers,” the indictment notes. 

Anderson, 61, eventually wields his police shield until an officer sprays him with mace. At that point he collapses. He tells police he has “asthma.” They extricate him from the scene and call an ambulance. 

(The right-wing gentleman quickly beats all charges by dying before he can go on trial, at the age of 61.) 

Right-wing type.

 

* 

One year and one day in prison. 

266. JOHN D. ANDRIES: Mr. Andries is another member of the Proud Boys, a group described in his indictment:  

The Proud Boys is a nationalist organization with multiple U.S. chapters. The group describes itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modem world; aka Western Chauvinists.” Proud Boys members routinely attend rallies, protests, and other events, some of which have resulted in violence involving members of the group.

 

He and others were charged with plotting, “to forcibly enter the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and to stop, delay, and hinder the Congressional proceeding occurring that day.” 

His legal problems were compounded in March 2022, when the 36-year-old veteran from Leonardtown, Maryland was arrested and charged with public intoxication and assault, after getting into a fight with several other patrons at a bar, and at least one police officer.  

On August 2, 2022, he is offered a plea deal, but has to plead guilty to a charge that could land him in jail for up to twenty years. Three weeks later, he agrees – and, this blogger assumes – likely begins cooperating with prosecutors. On January 17, 2023, he is sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. Andries is also ordered to pay a fine of $2,000, and will spend three additional years on supervised release once he is released from jail.

Trump supporter, right-wing type,

believed in myth of “stolen election.”

 

* 

267. RYAN ASHLOCK: Like Andries, Ashlock is a member of a Kansas City chapter of the Proud Boys. 

It was charged that he and others, 

did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and others known and unknown, to commit an offense against the United States, namely, to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, that is, Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote, and to attempt to do so, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section l 5 l 2I(2), as well as to commit and attempt to commit an act to obstruct, influence, impede, and interfere with law enforcement officers engaged in official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder that did obstruct, delay, and adversely affect the performance of a federally protected function, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 231 (a)(3).

 

Compared to other members of the Proud Boys, Ashlock gets off with a light sentence: 70 days in jail, a year on probation, and $500 in restitution.

Trump supporter, right-wing type,

believed in myth of “stolen election.”

 

* 

268. IAN ROSS HORVATH: Described as the “least-famous fur-hatted January 6 rioter” by one court reporter, Mr. Horvath pleads guilty to a single misdemeanor charge two years after the attack. 

On September 14, 2021, Horvath called the F.B.I. and noted that his picture had appeared on the Bureau’s “most-wanted page” related to the riot. He entered the Capitol at 2:18 that day, shortly after the building was breached, and exited 32 minutes later. In January 2023, he plead guilty to a single misdemeanor. 

The cost in the end: a fine of $500, and a three-year tour through the federal probation system. 

(LIKELY TRUMP SUPPORTER; NOT DEFINITIVE)

 

* 

“I can tell my grandchildren I was there!”

 269. Jared Hunter Adams: The Ohio man has been charged with participating in the January melee. He can be seen in video footage wearing an Ohio State sweatshirt and backwards baseball cap. “We stormed the Capitol building and the senate today! I can tell my grandchildren I was there!” he says. 

In another video, Adams, 26, allegedly writes, “the Capitol police better have enough pepper spray.” 

According to the indictment, Adams was inside the Capitol for at least one hour and 47 minutes. 

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION YET TO BE DETERMINED.)

 

* 

270. CLIFFORD MACKRELL: In a Facebook post, dated January 6, Mackrell criticized all government officials and said, “how about we get rid of all of them because well it is out [sic] literal job as 0344’s [Marine Corps designation for an infantryman] to kill the tyrannical government,” the federal complaint against him read. In January 2023, still awaiting trial, Mackrell’s lawyer, a public defender, asked if his client might remove his ankle monitor, and the judge agreed. 

On October 20, 2023, 1,082 days after the last presidential election was decided, Mackrell had to cut a plea deal. 

He cops to one felony charge, for assaulting police. 

In a letter to the judge before sentencing, Mackrell offers an apology: “I am filled with remorse and regret causing harm to law enforcement officers…Please know that I am deeply ashamed of my actions and am committed to learning from this experience and making better choices in the future.” 

On March 5, 2024, he gets 27 months in prison, 36 on probation, and a bill for $2,000, on a felony conviction for assaulting police officers on January 6, 2021. Among other antics, Mackrell tried to grab at an officer’s gas mask and pull it off. The day after the riot, he also admitted “the cops got their ass handed to them” during the battling. 

He further noted that violence might explode again on Inauguration Day, since one attack on democracy didn’t do the trick. 

He’s going to jail – and 1,218 days have passed since the last presidential election. Still, ZERO proof shown in court that the vote was rigged. 

Yanking off the officers face shield.

Violent.

 

* 

Who filled the cesspool? 

271. JAMES MATTHEW HORNING: According to his indictment, Horning posted on social media: “To anyone on my list who has a problem with what happened in DC today.. I am (expletive) proud I was there. If you have a problem with that, hit the inbox if you want.. or use the unfriend feature if you ain’t bout it.” 

An old high school friend told federal agents that Horning had posted a video where he appeared to be smoking marijuana outside the Capitol. In another social media post, Horning said in addition to wanting “to be there when history happens,” he went to Washington to “smoke weed in government buildings.” 

Then, on a more serious note, he added that his real purpose was to “intimidate congress,” adding by way of lame justification that lawmakers had a 9% approval rating. (It’s actually more like 20% most of the time – but still terrible.) 

That is: Horning was there to stop the final vote that would deny President Trump a second term he hadn’t won in the first place. 

In October 2022, Horning pleads guilty to one charge, related to his participation in the attack on democracy. He is sentenced to 30 days in prison in February 2023, in part because the judge believes he’s using marijuana so often, it’s probably an addiction. (He managed to pick up another marijuana arrest while awaiting sentencing.) 

Horning’s lawyer asked the judge to go easy on his client, noting that social media sites where Horning went for information were “a cesspool of nonsense.” The judge agreed that that might be true, but added “no one made (Horning) jump into the pool.” 

Who filled the pool? Trump. With his incessant lying. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

$10,560 restitution. 

272. TROY FAULKNER: The Associated Press notes that Faulkner, 39, is the owner of Faulkner Painting in Columbus, Ohio. He faced charges that included the destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, and violent entry. A few days after the riot, Faulkner posted on Facebook that “we weren’t fighting against antifa we were fighting against the government.” 

He got caught, in large part, because he wore his company jacket to the riot – and could be seen smashing a window at the Capitol Building. 

He plead guilty to a single felony charge in August 2022 and was sentenced in November. He will now be spending five months in federal prison. Faulkner told the court he backed President Trump because he was “combatting human trafficking.” The judge in his case asked if the defendant still believed in Donald. His lawyer responded, saying Faulkner “was and still is a fan.” 

As he left court, Faulkner stepped up to reporters and asked, “How about that Epstein Island list?” a reference to Jeffrey Epstein. 

(I am guessing Faulkner has never heard that Donald Trump’s first Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta, in 2008, when still a prosecutor in Florida, cut Jeffrey a sweet deal that, in essence, kept him from going to jail for a decade.) 

Faulkner is also ordered to pay $10,560 in restitution. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

273. RICHARD FRANKLIN BARNARD: Barnard and his friend, Jeffrey Witcher (see below), were arrested in part based on the following photo. They met when both were serving in the Marine Corps.

 

The indictment against the two notes, in part, that, “On January 6, 2021, BARNARD went to former President Donald Trump’s speech before moving to the Capitol building in the hopes of being closer to the President when he announced he would march to the building.” 

You may recall that Trump announced he would be with the marchers, then headed back to the White House to watch the show. 

At his sentencing in February 2022, Barnard told the judge he had lost his six-figure job, his pension, and his credit rating, and there was nothing the courts could do that was as bad as all that. 

The judge placed Barnard on probation for a year, gave him 30 days of home confinement, 60 hours of community service, and fined him $500. 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

“So emotional and invested in the moment.”

274. JEFFREY SHANE WITCHER: Witcher turned himself in to federal authorities. As the indictment explains: 

As a combat veteran, WITCHER believed free speech across the country was being censored and most people were tone deaf to discussion and have become disenfranchised with the political process. He stated his purpose was to take part in civil disobedience, which he felt was necessary to facilitate a dialogue, only he had expected it to be nonviolent and peaceful.

 

In one video, Witcher makes it clear he and his friend had come to Washington to stop Congress from certifying the electoral votes which would put Joseph Biden in the White House. After helping storm the Capitol, Witcher is heard shouting excitedly: 

“I am in the White House! We crashed this. Our house! We did it! We did it, family, we did it! We did it! We’re in the White House! I’m out here with my brother Richard Barnard-no, no, no, let’s go! It’s our house, it’s our house! Our house! Our house! Hey family, we did it. We came, and we did it. We’re inside the White House. Our house.”

 

WITCHER later clarified during his interview that he was so emotional and invested in the moment, he briefly forgot he was in the Capitol building, and not the White House.

 

In the second video, which is recorded from inside the rotunda, WITCHER’s voice can be heard saying, “We’re in the rotunda. We’re in the rotunda. Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house! Our house!” WITCHER’s voice can be heard shouting to law enforcement, “Our house! Our house! Our house! Don’t be a traitor! Fulfill your Constitutional duties, man. Do or die! Do or die! Do or die! Be with us! Be with us! Be with us!” WITCHER continues shouting to law enforcement saying, “You are us! You are us! You are us! You are us! Hey man, you grew up in the same place I grew up, you’re us. Hey man, you are us, you are us, you’re us, guy. Hey man, don’t forget your Constitutional duties. Don’t forget your oath, brother. Don’t forget your oath! do not forget your oath! You are us! You are us! You are us!”

 

A few seconds later, a heavy thud can be heard in the video, which WITCHER described during his interview as someone throwing a fire extinguisher at the police officers. WITCHER can then be heard shouting, “Don’t do that! No, no! No! These are not our enemies. No, don’t do it.” WITCHER then joins in the chant in the rotunda, saying, “Our house! Our house! Man, I’m so proud of us.” 

(Here, I have added paragraphs to the indictment to facilitate reading.) 

 I should note: Witcher has earned a little extra room to protest, having served in combat. Is he some right-wing nut? This blogger would argue he is not. Did he believe Trump’s lies about being cheated out of millions of votes? 

Sadly, he and his friend did. 

Witcher, a former Marine, has also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of entering a restricted building. He gets off with a slap on the right wrist: 60 hours of community service, $500 in restitution, and a year on probation.

 Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

“Dissolve the legislature, and replace it with Patriots.” 

275. JOSEPH PADILLA: The Georgia man posted on his website thedonald.win, admitting he participated in the attack. 

According to authorities, he showed up for the riot, wearing scuba goggles. Ironically, Padilla can be seen in one photo, as rioters pick up a large Trump sign on wheels and use it to batter police defenses.

Padilla later explained his hopes for that day, not to mention days to come: 

If we could have occupied the Capitol, we could have invoked the right given to us in the 2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence….We would have been in the Seat of Power. All we would need to do is declare our grievances with the government and dissolve the legislature, and replace it with Patriots who were there. Then simply re-adopt the Constitution with amendments added to secure future Federal elections.

 

What happened Wednesday is what needs to be done again and again.

 

At one point during his trial, Padilla claimed that he was trying to hit another rioter when he threw a flag pole – which struck an officer. He was trying to “help” the officer out. The judge called BS (in legal terms) when he wondered why Padilla stood by and watched another rioter club an officer with a hockey stick. 

On May 3, 2023, Padilla was convicted on 10 of 11 counts he was facing, including multiple felonies. 

His sentence was handed down on September 13, 1,044 days after the 2020 election. There has still be NO CASE proven in court that the election was stolen. But Padilla won’t have to worry about the 2024 election. 

Or the 2028 election. 

He’s going to spend the next six-and-a-half years in prison, because he was a fool and believed Trump’s lies. He has been in jail since his arrest in February 2021, so this blogger is not sure. Does time served count. 

Or will he serve another six plus?

Trump supporter, violent, believed the election was stolen.

 

* 

“Fight for one reason and one reason only.” 

276. RUSSELL JAMES PETERSON: Peterson streamed video from inside the Capitol. He can be seen wearing a black sweatshirt, where a stick figure sexually violates the words “your feelings.” 

A tipster informed the F.B.I. that she was an old friend of Shelly Peterson, Russell’s mom. Shelly Peterson proudly posted on social media, soon after the riot, that her son had stormed the Capitol and “sat in Pelosi’s chair.” In other words, way to go, mom! You ratted out your son. 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes, “According to the affidavit of probable cause for Mr. Peterson’s arrest, he traveled to Washington D.C. with his wife, Elizabeth Peterson, and his mother, Shelly Peterson, to participate in a rally for former President Donald Trump that was also held on Jan.6.” 

He also posted, after the riot, that he “had fun lol” 

In November, at his sentencing, the Judge Amy Berman Jackson decided Peterson had had too much fun. She sentenced him to 30 days in jail and fined him $500. She added, however, that while Peterson deserves blame for his actions, those who spoke at the rally on the morning of Jan. 6, including Trump (who she does not name specifically), riled up the crowd and “explicitly encouraged them to go to the Capitol and fight for one reason and one reason only – to make sure the certification of the election didn’t happen.” 

“You did receive a lot of overwhelming inaccurate information on social media,” Jackson admitted, in addressing the defendant, “but you had a choice to reject the lies and not to join the antidemocratic call for martial law. 

Finally, Jackson noted, “There may be others who bear greater responsibility and should be held accountable. But this is not their day in court. It’s yours.” 

Trump supporters, all three (only Russell has been charged).

 

* 

A Democrat – or not!

277. ERIC GENE BARBER: Barber, a former Parkersburg, West Virginia city council member, was elected in 2016, as a Democrat! 

By the time of the riot, however, he had changed his registration, first to “Independent,” then to “Republican.” In one interview he told a local NBC affiliate that, “Those windows were being broken there was officers 15 feet away with their hands in their pocket just watching it..so..um..I think at any point Capitol Police could of stopped what was happening but just didn’t.” 

Barber himself showed up ready for battle, “wearing a green combat style helmet and a green military style field jacket.” 

Among other crimes, he is accused of stealing a powerstation device from a Cspan camera during the mayhem. 

CBS News adds the kind of detail to Barber’s story that makes you wonder how he ever got elected under any party label: 

In December 2017, Barber pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for ignoring police orders to stop taking photos and video near his Parkersburg home of someone being treated during a medical emergency. A month earlier Barber’s license was suspended after he was found guilty of a marijuana charge.

 

In 1999 he was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for breaking and entering and petit larceny. Upon release from prison, his parole was revoked after a May 2003 arrest. He later pleaded guilty to drunken driving, having a controlled substance, and fleeing on foot, according to the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

 

At the time of the riot, he was a Trump supporter, and no longer one of “ours” on the liberal side. 

He pays, of course – whereas Trump never has: 45 days in jail, $500 in restitution, and must pay CNN for $52.95 in damages.

FUN FACT: Barber is back in federal court in June 2023, when he violates probation and smokes a bit too much marijuana. He is also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Trump supporter.

 

* 

278. JOSEPH HACKETT: Mr. Hackett, Mr. Jason Dolan and Mr. William Isaacs (see below) are Florida members of the far-right Oath Keepers group. All three, and a fourth member of the Sunshine State group were charged with joining in the attack on Capitol Hill. 

In fact, on January 12, 2022, Hackett and ten others were indicted for seditious conspiracy. See: Elmer Stewart Rhodes, et. al, (#601 on our list). 

Hackett and three other Oath keepers were convicted on the charge of seditious conspiracy, and two other conspiracy charges, in January 2023. On June 2, Hackett received his just deserts. He will be spending almost as long in prison as Trump spent in the White House. His sentence: 42 months in prison. 

Trump “sent us,” right-wing person, ready for violence.

 

* 

The twisted heart of the MAGA movement. 

279. Jason Dolan: On September 9, 2022, Mr. Dolan agreed to a plea deal that may well have had to do with his Florida friends – Hackett (see #278, above), and Isaacs (#280, below) – as well as plenty of other Oath Keepers. 

He admitted to a pair of felonies, one of which carries a maximum sentence of five years, the other a sentence of twenty. 

It seemed to this blogger, at the time, that Dolan must be cooperating with prosecutors, in return for a lesser sentence. 

(And we now know he was.)

 

In a story filed by Ryan J. Reilly and Daniel Barnes, in October 2022, and in Reilly’s book, Sedition Hunters, we learned that Dolan, a veteran of twenty years in the Marine Corps, had been ready to die on the day of the Capitol Hill riot, if it meant keeping Donald J. Trump in office. 

In court, as Reilly and Barnes wrote, Dolan admitted he was drinking heavily before January 6, “often alone and in his garage – and getting sucked into online conspiracy theories.” Some nights he polished off  a six-pack of beer. Other nights, he downed half a bottle of vodka. 

As he himself admitted, “I was watching a lot of videos about the election. At the time I felt like the election had been stolen.” 

He told the court he found it difficult to “mentally prepare” for what he believed he must do, once he and his friends arrived in Washington D.C. In a December 2020 text message, he explained his thinking to other Oath Keepers. “I have to be mentally prepared,” he said, “for however far I’m willing to go to stand for America, for the Constitution, for the President & for the survival of our ideals.” 

He felt he was asking his wife to sacrifice again, to let him fight a new war, on behalf of Trump and America. 

I'm asking her to put up with it again [like his oversees deployments] but this time there is no pay, [no] awards, no homecomings, and if I’m lucky I get a prison sentence, tagged with treason, or a bullet from the very people I would protect. Yet I swore to defend this country against all enemies foreign & domestic. I think my biggest trouble is trying to convince myself to say good bye to my family, after all they had to endure, with the likelihood of never seeing them again…again”  

 

“I meant it literally,” Dolan said at trial. He was “pretty pissed” when he heard that Biden won the election, and he said it “didn’t seem possible” Trump would lose. Alone, he said, there wasn’t much he could do. “It felt like within the group I was with … that there was a core group that would be willing to fight.” 

“Conquer or Die,” was the Oath Keepers’ motto, and if need be, Dolan said they were willing to “take up arms and fight back.” 

In fact, Dolan and his friends had a cache of arms stashed across the Potomac River, at a Virginia hotel. They expected Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act on January 6, but should he fail, they would have to stop the certification of the electoral votes and keep Biden from being declared President-Elect, “by any means necessary.” If that meant “government on government” violence, so be it. 

And here we have the fundamental problem, we now face as Americans. “Conquer or Die,” has a corollary. If you are successful – and this is the twisted heart of the MAGA movement – you have to be ready to “Conquer and Kill.” History will not forgive Donald J. Trump for teaching Americans, so to hate other Americans, that they would be willing to spill oceans of blood in his name. 

Trump certainly didn’t win a “sacred landslide election,” as he cried out before his audience on January 6, 2021. 

He didn’t win, period. 

(See: Sedition Hunters by Ryan J. Reilly, pp. 87-89.) 

 

UPDATE: As of December 13, 2023, we are 1,135 days out from the 2020 Presidential Election. No judge or jury in any court, local, state, or federal, has found proof that any significant voter fraud occurred, enough to cheat Trump out of a “landslide” win. Or even a squeaker. Poor Dolan – a veteran like this blogger – fell for his Commander-in-Chief’s lies. He was ready to back Trump up (without doubt, the greatest liar in American history) and kill people like me. 

According to court documents, Mr. Dolan and six other Oath Keepers have cooperated with investigators. Those others include Graydon Young (#220 on our list), Joshua James (#256), Mark Grods (#387), Caleb Berry (#417), Brian Ulrich (#603) and William Todd Wilson (#623). 

Trump “sent us,” right-wing person, ready for violence.

 

* 

280. WILLIAM ISAACS: See above. 

On March 23, 2023, after a two-month trial, Isaacs is found guilty by a jury of his peers, on all counts against him. That includes both felonies and misdemeanors – mainly because he wanted to stop the election of Joe Biden. 

Also found guilty at that time, fellow Oath Keepers Connie Meggs (#216), Sandra Parker (219), and Laura Steele (#220), all on serious charges. 

For reasons unclear, Isaacs also gets off lightly at sentencing – with five years on probation his final cost. 

Trump “sent us,” right-wing person, ready for violence.

 

* 

281. Unidentified Individual: Federal authorities are still looking for a fourth associate of Isaac, et. al, also a member of the Oath Keepers. 

As of June 2, at least nineteen members of the Oath Keepers had been charged for their roles in the attack on Capitol Hill. 

That’s nineteen right-wingers, and zero Antifa types, if you’re keeping score, as this blogger is. 

Trump “sent us,” right-wing person, ready for violence.

 

* 

Two down, one to go? 

282-283. MARK and JALISE MIDDLETON: The Texas couple gave themselves away by posting proudly on Facebook about their role in the attack. That included jabbing flags in police officers’ faces. 

A video they posted from included the following caption: 

We are on the front lines. We helped push down the barriers. Jalise and I got pepper sprayed, clubbed, and tear gassed. We had to retreat, but more patriots pushed forward, and they’re taking back our house. They’ve got the giant flag up on the upper terrace up there. No more fooling around! Jalise and I gotta go back to the hotel and try to recoup and change, get dry clothes on. Make America great again! Freedom!

 

Or, as Fox News 29, out of Philadelphia put it, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton were two more cogs in “a violent mob loyal to former President Donald Trump [that] stormed the U.S. Capitol.”  

According to their LinkedIn accounts, Mark is a former cub master for the Boy Scouts, a licensed pilot, and a volunteer firefighter. Jalise works as an account executive for Angels Care Home Health. She enjoys “providing community education and hosting public speaking engagements.”  

After Mrs. Middleton joined in pummeling law enforcement officers, she posted to social media, “We fought the cops to get in the Capital [sic] and got pepper sprayed and beat but by gosh the patriots got in!” 

If you’ve never noticed, Trump fans are quick to label themselves “patriots” and equally quick to paint foes as “traitors” who want to destroy the U.S. Consti… 

According to a Texas newspaper, the Gainesville Daily Register, 

Mark Middleton is listed as a precinct chair on the Cooke County Republican Party’s website and a salesperson with Muenster-based Nortex Communications on social media.

 

Nortex Network Operations Manager and Cooke County GOP Chairman Chris McNamara said Thursday that Mark Middleton worked for Nortex for a short time “but as of now he is no longer employed with us.”

 

FUN FACT: At one point, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton argued that unless Trump were charged, they were being selectively prosecuted. As of August 1, 2023, that matter is moot. 

After he is indicted and officially charged with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Donald J. Trump appears at #1150 on our list.

 

FUN FACT #2: As of February 2024, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton are matching felons, after a jury convicts them on multiple charges. They could be looking a free lodgings with bars, soon. 

Donald, too? Two down, one to go? 

Wouldn’t it be fun – if Trump were convicted – and he and Mark could share a cell together!

 

FUN FACT #3: For variety, let’s just combine the family carnage, and you can look it up, if you want to know the division. For the lovely couple: 50 months in prison, 66 more on probation, $4,000 in restitution. 

Trump supporters, violent (both).

Mr. and Mrs. Middleton.

 

* 

284. TRACI SUNSTRUM: Speaking of “patriots,” Ms. Sunstrum was indicted after authorities identified her inside the Capitol during the assault on democracy. She stood out nicely in stars-and-stripes-themed pants:

Sunstrum (or Sunstrom) appears to be a fan of Q-Anon conspiracy theories; but nothing definitive yet on that matter. 

The Department of Justice lists her as Traci J. Sunstrom in at least one document. She is charged with: 

Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds.

Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds.

Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building.

Parading, Demonstrating or Picketing in a Capitol Building.

(In February 2022, she pleads guilty to one misdemeanor, and receives a sentence of 30 days of home confinement, a fine of $500, and three years on probation.)

Likely QAnon believer.

 

* 

“God put me in that window.”

285. YVONNE ST. CYR: Countless rioters have touted their own patriotism, related to their decision to attack the seat of democracy. Few have cited God as their justification.  According to F.B.I. reports, St. Cyr, 53, an Idaho woman, live-streamed video of “the destruction of an office window from within the Capitol and continued to record herself standing in the window and shouting at the crowd located on the west side of the Capitol grounds.” 

At one point, she crows happily, “Patriots are in our house!” and shows other “patriots” trashing what looks like a conference room. 

St. Cyr notes that she will soon need to charge her phone. Then she adds, “Super sad that this is America, and Americans are being beaten for wanting to save their country. So welcome to communist America ...” 

Finally, she turns the camera on herself to create what might be the most unflattering mug shot of the day:

 

In December 2020, we also know that St. Cyr was arrested after disrupting a meeting to discuss mask mandates for Boise, Idaho. 

(She hates them.)

 

After St. Cyr appeared, hanging out a broken Capitol Building window and screaming like a “mad woman,” in CNN’s coverage of the riot, she claimed, “God put me in that window.” Then she added: “So hey, maybe I’m going to get arrested again, but I would get arrested and I would die for this country. So no regrets.” 

Checking two more right-wing-nutty boxes, she claimed on Facebook that the election was “stolen” and posted in support of various Q-Anon myths. Her husband Troy shares similar beliefs, and traveled with her to D.C. for the “Stop the Steal” rally. (He has not been charged.) On Jan. 23, his wife posted a comment on his Facebook page, after hers had been closed for spreading disinformation. Of Mr. Biden, she said, “Stupid people seriously think he’s really the President lol.” 

(Such as: former VP Mike Pence, who had the decency to show up at the Biden/Harris inauguration.) 

On March 10, 2023, St. Cyr was convicted by a jury on all six charges lodged against her, a mix of felonies and misdemeanors. Moments later, she proudly announced her love for Tucker Carlson, who days earlier had produced a show, purportedly showing that the rioters were harmless. “Their s---'s gonna blow up!” she said of prosecutors, “So, just keep watching Tucker, keep spreading the truth, keep talking about the corruption, keep sharing, and we will bring the system doooooowwwwn.”

 

FUN FACT: St. Cyr reportedly plans to wear a “Never Surrender” t-shirt, featuring Donald Trump’s mugshot at her sentencing hearing. Authorities are recommending a 33-month sentence. 

St. Cyr later showed up outside the lower tunnel entrance into the Capitol, during some of the worst fighting, and shouted at least fifteen times for fresh bodies to join the battle and “push” against police lines.

 

St. Cyr learns her fate on September 13, 2023 – assuming God doesn’t step down from the clouds and save her. She is sentenced to 30 months behind bars, and ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and restitution. The judge sends her home, to get her affairs in order, and sets a reporting date to prison in six weeks. 

Which means: St. Cyr can go home and start posting on Facebook! She insists: “I did the right thing,” on January 6, adding (correctly, this blogger would say) “This may sound delusional.” Facing serious jail time, she told followers on social media, that standing before the judge, “I understood what Jesus felt like when he was in the garden of Gethsemane praying and felt so alone.” 

Now she had six weeks. Americans, she warned, needed to “figure it out and stand up and get some truth, or I’m going to jail.” 

Well, the truth is simple. It often is. Team Trump and all of Team Trump’s enablers in the right-wing media universe have had 1,044 days, as of September 13, to “get some truth,” to show their proof. 

If the election had been stolen, evidence would have surfaced in all the recounts Team Trump demanded, or some righteous state or federal judge would have looked at what was brought before them by Team Trump lawyers and said, yes, here is proof that Biden didn’t win the 2020 election. 

That hasn’t happened. 

It’s not going to happen in the next six weeks. It’s not going to happen during the 30 months St. Cyr will rot in prison.

Trump supporter, QAnon, believed election was stolen.

 

* 

Voting for Kamala. 

286. PAM HEMPHILL: Ms. Hemphill, another active rioter from the right, was indicted for her role on Jan. 6, after – like so many dopes – posting on social media about her part in “making history.” 

Bad history, true. 

As the Idaho Statesman reports, Hemphill posted videos on YouTube and live-streamed on Facebook before, as well as on Jan. 6, though her YouTube channel and Facebook page were later deactivated. 

However, some videos she recorded were shared across social media, including one showing Hemphill move past a police barricade, before turning around to show police pushing back against the mob.

 

In another video shared on Facebook, Hemphill is recording just outside of a partly shattered Capitol door. She is heard telling another man her “knees are broke” and that several people “walked over her.” She adds that she was one of the first people to pass the police barricade…

 

“We broke the same glass in Boise, Idaho,” Hemphill said to others near the damaged door. “In Boise, Idaho, we did the same thing.”

 

The broken glass is likely in reference to the Idaho Legislature’s special session that took place in August, as angry spectators pushed their way into the Idaho House gallery, shattering a glass door in the process. Legislators, who were meeting to address issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and November election, later permitted the spectators to stay.

 

After the Jan. 6 uprising, Hemphill shared some of her videos with WUSA, a CBS-affiliated TV station in Washington, D.C., and spoke with the station. WUSA reported that Hemphill indicated she “made it inside the Capitol, but she claims was pushed in and got hurt before an officer came to help her.”

 

The 68-year-old Idaho woman ran afoul of the law when tipsters led authorities to her social media accounts, including one post on Dec. 28, 2020, that reads: “It’s not going to be a FUN Trump Rally that is planned for January 6^th, its [sic] a WAR!” 

Later, she insisted in court that she had been “pushed” inside the Capitol; but a video she made that day shows her encouraging others, outside a line of police barriers, to come on in, “it’s easy.” 

A second video shows the increasingly angry mob pulling apart barriers, with Hemphill still filming.

(She gets sixty days behind bars, three years of supervised release, and must pay $500 in restitution.)

UPDATE: By the summer of 2023, the now 69-year-old grandmother from Idaho seems to have had a change of heart. When a user on “Truth Social” notes that Hemphill, who now has cancer, received more time in jail than Hunter Biden, Rejected-President Trump responded: “HORRIBLE!”

Hemphill replied, “Please @realDonaldTrump don’t be using me for anything, I’m not a victim of Jan6, I plead guilty because I was guilty! #StoptheSpin”[.] 

UPDATE #2 (August 2024): Hemphill now calls January 6, “the worst day in our history.” She says she plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November, because Trump has said he wants to be a dictator. She has admitted she was “brainwashed,” and part of a “cult.” As for her decision to participate in the attack on the Capitol, she calls it “a scar that I have to carry for the rest of my life.” 

Trump supporter, she believed the election was stolen.

 

 

* 

287. MICAJAH JOEL JACKSON: The Arizona man, 25,  says on Facebook he’s a 100% disabled Marine. 

Oddly enough, he can be seen walking to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and hobnobbing with members of the Proud Boys. In some pictures Jackson wears an orange armband, which members of the group used that day to identify themselves. 

According to a story in USA Today, 

Jackson stated in the post that he had evidence of BLM, Antifa, police officers and “Non Trump” extremists “causing the mayhem.” Jackson also stated that he’s a college student studying to be a political science professor. “My only love is the United States of America,” he wrote.

 

On social media an Instagram account linked to Jackson: 

was used to post a screenshot on Dec. 12 of what appears to be a Tweet from then-President Donald Trump that says “WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” The Instagram account captioned the president’s Tweet with “You tell us when Sir. You are the commander in chief. WE WILL NOT CONCEDE.”

 

As for the Proud Boys, on February 4, the Canadian government listed them as a terrorist organization, along with ISIS and Al-Qaida.  

Jackson is also the fifteenth person on this list to claim Antifa agents were used to stir up all the right-wing haters – even though he was a right-wing hater, and didn’t need much to stir him up. 

On March 24, 2022, he is sentenced to 36 months of probation, including 90 days in a residential re-entry center. He is also fined $1,000, and ordered to cough up $500 in restitution. 

Right-wing, believed election was stolen, Trump “sent us.”

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

 

* 

Guilty on eleven counts.

 288. RICHARD L. HARRIS: USA Today describes Mr. Harris succinctly: 

Harris was at the leading edge of a group that pushed past a barrier of officers inside the Capitol, according to court documents, and is shown in a photo with his arm upraised. Harris told an officer that police were outnumbered, that there were “a (expletive) million of us out there,” and they were “listening to Trump,” court documents stated. Fearing for his safety, the officer stepped aside to allow the mob to enter. Speaking into a phone, Harris said they were coming for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who FBI officials have stated in other documents was [sic] still in the building. Court records show Harris called Pence a “(expletive) traitor.”

 

So: A Trump supporter. 

And, fittingly, on Trump’s 77^th birthday, in the summer of 2023, Harris is finally convicted in a bench trial on eleven counts, including felony assault. 

According to evidence presented at trial, Harris was one of the initial individuals who entered the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.  Court documents state that before entering the Capitol, Harris took a selfie video in which he boasted that police “tear gassed us, front fucking line baby, we’re storming the Capitol.” Evidence showed that Harris then entered the Capitol through the northwest Senate Wing door at approximately 2:14 p.m., only one minute after the initial rioter entered the building.

 

U.S. Capitol Police video surveillance and open-source video from inside the building show Harris menacing Capitol Police officers from the front of a large crowd, resulting in the officers moving aside so that Harris and the crowd could continue into the building.

 

Harris then marched to the Rotunda, where he picked up a landline in the area and threatened, “Can I speak to Pelosi? We’re coming, bitch. Oh, Mike Pence? We’re coming for you, too, you fucking traitor.” Later, while still in the Rotunda, video surveillance and body-worn camera footage show Harris physically assaulting a Metropolitan Police Department officer. Harris grabbed the officer’s baton and pulled it, causing the officer to move forward toward Harris. Harris then remained in the Rotunda until he was forced out by officers at around 3:36 p.m., an hour and twenty-two minutes after entering the building. 

Finally, the cost of believing in Trump’s lies is made clear to the defendant. Mr. Harris won’t be voting in the 2024 election. He’ll be rotting in prison for the next 41 months, and then he’ll spend 36 more on probation. 

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

 

* 

“Are you gonna be in DC on the 6^th like Trump asked us to be?”

289. DANIEL PAUL GRAY: Gray, a Florida man who was charged with assaulting a female police officer during the riot, was clear about why he was in D.C.. By obtaining a search warrant for his social media accounts, the F.B.I. found that Gray had posted messages saying the election was the “biggest scandal” of his lifetime. 

He wrote elsewhere that “if they [members of Congress] intend to certify a false election its gonna have to be to our faces.” He also messaged someone that he had just joined a militia group. In another message, he asked an unidentified person: “Are you gonna be in DC on the 6^th like Trump asked us to be?” 

Gray was proud of his actions on Capitol Hill, describing his behavior as “the rowdiest thing I’ve ever done.” 

“Dude we literally took over Congress,” he added in a private Instagram post. 

So, Vini, Vici, I Got Convicted. 

Gray’s case slowly worked its way through the courts. Prosecutors noted at one point that the defendant was pumped about what he expected would happen on January 6, posting this message beforehand: “I’m actually really excited at the possibility of the insurrection act being implemented.”  

He did his small part to keep the underserving Mr. Trump in office for a second term. And, as of October 25, 2023, he’s a two-time felon, having agreed to plead guilty and admit to his crimes. 

On February 16, 2024, exactly twelve hundred days since the last presidential election, the hammer falls for Mr. Gray. He will spend 30 months in prison, 36 months more on probation, and must hand over $2,000 in restitution. 

No court yet has found any significant voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election. Trump just bleepin’ lost. 

Trump supporter, violent, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

290. BRUCE J. HARRISON: Harrison, 58, claims to have done nothing more than walk into the Capitol building after others breached police lines. He and his friend, Douglas Wangler, had traveled from Illinois to attend Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally that morning. Although Harrison admitted to seeing violence on Capitol Hill, he claims he and Wangler only looked around and then left. (See below.) 

Harrison pleads guilty to a single misdemeanor and is sentenced in December 2021 to two years’ probation, sixty hours of community service, and ordered to pay five hundred dollars in restitution.

(LIKELY TRUMP SUPPORTER; NOT CLEAR.)

 

* 

291. DOUGLAS WANGLER: Wangler admitted being inside the Capitol, but also denied doing harm. “If walking around and singing some patriotic songs is a crime, then I guess I am guilty,” he told reporters. 

See! More patriotism! 

But less vote-counting and fewer constitutional strictures! 

(He has since plead guilty, received 60 hours of community service, two years on probation, and ordered to cough up $500 restitution.) 

(LIKELY TRUMP SUPPORTER; NOT CLEAR.)

 

* 

“Felony rape.”

292. SEAN MICHAEL McHUGH: Mr. McHugh was charged with an array of crimes. That included two counts for assaulting law enforcement officers with a deadly weapon – namely chemical spray. 

Prosecutors also say McHugh used a bullhorn to urge other rioters to continue to press the attack. 

According to evidence presented in court, McHugh was on the Lower West Terrace on the afternoon of January 6 where he was captured on video footage and audio assaulting multiple U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers. McHugh is captured on video carrying a cannister of bear spray in a holster on his hip and discharging the bear spray into a line of USCP officers. Metropolitan Police Department body worn camera video and audio captures McHugh yelling at officers, among other things, “You’re protecting communists!”; “There is a Second Amendment behind us, what are you going to do then?”; and “You ain’t holding the line!” At approximately 1:40 p.m., McHugh, along with other rioters, pushed a large metal sign into a line of uniformed police officers while McHugh yelled into his megaphone, “Put it up there! Put it up there!”

 

Mr. McHugh is no model citizen. According to CBS News, noting an article by Gold Country Media in 2010, McHugh had previously been sentenced for felony rape involving a minor. Fox News adds: “Investigators say a background check into McHugh showed he was on probation at the time of the insurrection after he was convicted of driving under the influence with a suspended license in Placer County. He was sentenced to five years [sic] probation and 180 days in jail.” 

 

FUN FACT: McHugh later bragged about his exploits on January 6, explaining, “I unloaded a whole can of bear spray on a line of cops I got three of them down really[,] really good.” 

FUN FACT #2: On September 7, the judge lowers the boom. McHugh will have six-and-a-half years in prison to think about all the fun he had on January 6. And maybe that will give him enough time to figure something simple out. He will be required to pay $7,000 in fines and restitution. 

Trump didn’t win. 

Trump supporter, right-wing individual, violent.

 

* 

293. Matthew Greene: The Syracuse, New York suspect remains in jail, after a judge noted that after he returned from Washington D.C., Mr. Greene purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition and war gear. Because if one riot is good, bloody civil war would be better? 

A little additional checking turns up evidence indicating that Greene is – yep – another right-winger, and a member of the Proud Boys. 

Sen. McConnell and Sen. Blount could easily look this up. 

* 

December 2021: Greene pleads guilty to two charges, and admits to conspiring with other rioters to obstruct Congress. He decided to travel to D.C., after seeing then-President Trump’s tweet that January 6 would be “wild.” 

March 2, 2023: Greene is still cooperating with prosecutors. He wins a 60-day delay in his sentencing. 

Trump supporter, right-wing individual, violent.

 

* 

294. MICHAEL ORANGIAS: The Kentucky man later explained why he went to Washington D.C. and got mixed up in a riot. He was there to hear President Trump speak, and after Trump said march, he marched. 

Why? 

“To keep American good … keeping the freedom of speech there. … If we let the left continue what they’re doing, they’re going to keep taking more and more …” he told reporters. 

It appears that Orangias entered the Capitol, took some quick pictures, and exited five minutes later. So he probably deserves no more than a slap on the wrist. But he’s still a Trump fan, not some left-winger. 

(He plead guilty and in March 2022, was sentenced to 36 months on probation, 90 days of home detention, and ordered to pay $500 restitution.) 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

295. JAMES BURTON MCGREW: The F.B.I has identified Mr. McGrew, another rioter in the January 6 crowd, based in part on a distinctive tattoo on his belly – which clearly not the most glamorous way to be identified as a criminal. McGrew is an ex-Marine (as is this blogger) but before you feel the urge to thank him for his service, keep in mind he was already a convicted felon, out of jail but on probation, when he decided rioting on Capitol Hill might be the ticket. 

He is accused of assaulting two police officers during the riot – but with federal agents closing in for an arrest, McGrew fled to Mexico. Which proves Mexico should pay for the border wall. They need it to keep out all our “rapists” and “killers,” as Donald J. Trump once said. 

McGrew is a QAnon believer, and having returned to this country, he has been arrested and is currently back behind bars. 

On social media, McGrew explained his plan to head to D.C. as part of an effort to “protest” the “stolen vote.” 

He was charged with an array of crimes for his role in the riot, including “assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer.” 

McGrew had aggressively confronted police during the mob violence, shouting, “We’re coming in here, whether you like it or not,” and “Fight with us, not against us,” according to court documents. 

At one point during the riot, McGrew threw a wooden handrail with metal brackets at the end at officers trying to hold off the mob. He pled guilty in May 2022. In January 2023, he was sentenced to 78 months in prison. Nor is that the limit to his pain. He will have to pay $7,000 in fines and restitution, and he’ll be on probation for an additional 36 months after he gets out of prison. 

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

 

* 

“Tell Pelosi we are coming for that bitch!” 

296. AUDREY ANN SOUTHARD-RUMSEY: Southard-Rumsey, 52, of Spring Hill, Florida was taken into custody recently. She originally faced nine charges, including assault on a federal officer or employee.  

According to F.B.I. documents Southard-Rumsey demanded that a Huff Post notes:

 

   U.S. Capitol Police sergeant guarding one hall should, “Let us though. We have the building already.” Then she pushed “against him with a flagpole until he was driven back into the first set of doors leading to the House floor. The doors flew open, and the sergeant was pushed back, striking his head on the base of [a] marble statue. It wasn’t clear if the unnamed officer was injured.” 

That officer later told the F.B.I. that he felt like he was being trampled during the ordeal.   

Southard-Rumsey was captured in video clips yelling at police, “Tell Pelosi we are coming for that bitch!” “There’s a hundred thousand of us!” …

 

Like so many Trump supporters, Southard-Rumsey made her intentions clear in days leading up to the Capitol Hill Riot:

 

A tipster told the FBI in the days after the attack that Southard-Rumsey was inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, pointing to an image posted on her Facebook page showing her outside the building with the caption “DC Taking it back!!”

 

The FBI said that person also captured a video Southard-Rumsey posted on Twitter, in which she said: “I’m doing a live feed. Standing in front of the Capitol building ready to take it. As soon as we get enough people up here. To run the Capitol building. It’s going to be fun.”

 

She had written messages in the days leading to the attack stating her intention to go to Washington, including ones that said, “We The People are making a declaration ... 1776!!” and “Patriot’s vs Traitors,” according to the affidavit.

 

Clearly, Southard-Rumsey and many other rioters on that day were confused about who the “patriots” were. And who were the police-battering, Constitution-trashing, Pelosi-wannabee-hanging, Q-Anon-spouting “traitors.” 

The courts eventually helped Southard-Rumsey see the error of her ways (we thought). In January 2023, she was convicted on multiple felony counts. In all likelihood, she would be imprisoned when Trump tries to win a second term in November 2024, but she can always dream of a pardon. 

 

UPDATE (7/17/23): So much for seeing the error of her ways. At sentencing Southard-Rumsey has a meltdown. Her lawyer understands that his client is facing a stiff sentence, and tries to defend her behavior, insisting that Trump’s calls to come to D.C. and it will be “wild” were “outrageous,” and led Southard-Rumsey on. But now, he says, she has faced up to the truth. 

But Southard-Rumsey hasn’t. Given a chance to speak, she tosses aside a prepared statement and starts to rail against a system she believes is unfair. “My whole dream of my life has been taken, because people have different politics than mine,” she begins. She claims Antifa was filming her during the riot. She complains about the cost of groceries and gas, which seems irrelevant. “I’m terrified what’s happening to our country,” she continues.  She insists she never pushed police on Jan. 6. They pushed her. “I have grievances,” she says, “since they don’t listen to us at the polling place. They don’t listen to us little people in the regular world.” 

“I’m ashamed of this country,” she adds. 

Looking back at others in the courtroom, she says, “When you decide to throw me in prison for doing my duty…. Think of what I now have to give up.” 

She tells the judge finally, “It’s not right, it’s not fair.” 

Only it is fair. When I edit this post on December 29, 2023, we are 1,152 days out from the 2020 election. No evidence has ever been produced in any court to show Biden didn’t win the contest. That the voices of people like poor, deluded Ms. Southard-Rumsey were ignored. Now she’s going to jail because she believed Trump’s lies. Prior to her participation in the insurrection, the defendant was a vocal coach in Spring Valley, Florida, but lost her job in the wake of her arrest. 

The judge finally admonishes her: “There’s nothing patriotic about what you did at all. You hurt people. You terrorized people.” 

And with that, he sentences her to six full years in prison. 

Trump supporter, right-wing individual, violent.

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

 

* 

297. KERRY WAYNE PERSICK: The Fort Worth, Texas man can be seen inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

 

__________ 

“These people are patriots who went to the Capitol because the President of the United States summoned patriots.”

__________ 

 

Naturally, he’s wearing the red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap so favored by Trump lovers. 

If you want to know where Mr. Persick and these other defendants stand, you can go to this website and donate to a defense fund in his name. 

The post is titled in giant letters:

 

53 Texas Patriots are being Politically Persecuted for Jan. 6; Support Them

 

These people know who they are – even if the right-wing folks have tried to deny who they are. Chuck Hammer makes that clear when he attempts to sanitize what happened on Jan. 6: 

But, even what is written about them is revealing. Nothing about their criminal records or checkered pasts is written because they don’t have any. These people are basically Boy Scouts, probably at least a few are Eagle Scouts. They are the kind of people you want for neighbors. One is a policeman, one is a Republican Precinct Chair, four of them went as father and son. These people are patriots who went to the Capitol because the President of the United States summoned patriots. He told them to come to the Capitol and that he would be there with them. Most did nothing more than follow the crowd into the building. Some others got a little bit rowdy. Perhaps they broke a window.

 

Despite the peaceful and patriotic activities of these citizens, the government has branded them as “domestic terrorists.” The media has gone along with the charade. They are looking at decades in jail and being cowed into taking plea deals. Meanwhile, the people who burned down our cities and tore down our statues last year are never going to be held accountable.

 

It is very important that we stand up for these people. We need to support them personally and pressure our politicians to support them publicly. Why?

 

First, because it is a disgrace and a complete mockery of our justice system.

 

Second, because they would do the same for you. These are good people who felt very strongly about standing up. If you were in jail, they would be there for you.

 

(Oh well, too late to help Persick. He has plead guilty, and will serve 36 months of probation, including 90 days of home detention, as well as pay a $5,000 fine, and $500 restitution.)

Right-wing individual.

 

* 

An “attempt to overthrow our government.” 

 298. JOHN JURAN: Charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct. He is said to have shown up in video evidence, inside the Capitol, wearing a distinctive “Trump 2020” cowboy hat. 

The 51-year-old faced several charges, as a result of his actions, plead guilty in February 2022, and was sentenced to two months of home detention, fined $1,000, and required to pay restitution. 

His lawyer asked for mercy for his client, in part because he traveled to Washington D.C. at President Trump’s call. 

“I guess I got caught up in all the emotion of what was going on,” Mr. Juran explained to the court. 

If you love Trump, and listen to Trump News, with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity ever night, you may have heard the events of January 6 discounted. Nothing more than a bunch of tourists showing up. Judge Thomas F. Hogan, appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, made it clear what he thought. He labeled what transpired an “insurrection” and an “attempt to overthrow our government.”  

Trump “sent us.”

 

* 

299. JEREMY GRACE: Grace, from Oregon, was arrested on May 26, after a search of his phone placed him squarely inside the Capitol during the riot. He was charged with unlawful entry of a restricted building and disorderly conduct, among other offenses. 

His father, Jeffrey, (#201 on our list) was arrested last February, but denied that his son had been with him inside the Capitol. Dad also said he was not an advocate of violence, but did admit he knew individuals associated with the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, and the 1 Percent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. These are not the kind of groups one finds in liberal circles. 

(Sentenced to 21 days in jail, a year of supervised release, 60 hours of community service, and to pay $500 restitution.) 

Right-wing (assumed, like his father).

 

* 

300. JONATHAN ACE SANDERS JR.: This Indiana man was arrested and charged with entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. He and two friends drove all the way to D.C. to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally that day. 

Both friends talked with F.B.I. agents and corroborated Sanders Jr.’s story about why they came to the city. Neither has been charged. 

In one story, we learn that Sanders served twenty years in the military, and was awarded a Purple Heart. He admitted in court that he had failed his training. “I wasn’t tricked, I wasn’t pushed, that was my failure ... I am sincerely sorry,” he told the judge. 

He gets off relatively easy in the end. He pleads guilty and gets three years on probation, and must pay $500.

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

301. LARRY DROPKIN JR.: Dropkin was arrested in Newark, N.J., on October 1, and hit with four charges related to illegal entry of the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

On LinkedIn Larry, as he calls himself, says he’s a sales executive in New Brunswick.

Security cameras inside the Capitol show him taking a tour, clad in a red “Make America Great Again” cap. 

A lifelong friend tipped off the F.B.I. and shared screenshots from a Facetime call Larry made from inside the building. 

The F.B.I. also talked to a relative, who heard Dropkin’s father say he expected his son to spend time in jail for what he had done, including making his way inside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. 

In July 2022, he plead guilty to all charges he faced. 

At the website, American Gulag, Dropkin is listed as a “political prisoner,” and everyone who went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 was really a peaceful, misunderstood, patriotic American. 

Dropkin eventually gets sentenced to 30 days in the “gulag,” and has to cough up $500 in restitution. 

Also, very “gulag-y:” he has to complete sixty hours of community service. 

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION NOT DEFINITIVE.)

* 

302. Arthur Jackman: The Florida man was arrested and charged for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on U.S. democracy. 

He’s another alleged member of the Proud Boys – and happens to be married to an Orange County deputy sheriff. 

As for the idea that peaceful protesters like Jackman showed up, and were then tricked into rioting, Jackman appears to have come to D.C. ready to fight. In one message exchange among the Boys, one man interjects, “Gonna be war soon…” 

“Yes, Sir, time to stack those bodies in from [front] of Capitol Hill,” another Boy replies. 

A third suggests that “a few million” protesters vs. “a few hundred coptifa,” could never protect Congress. 

A fourth Boy, going by the message name, “Deplorable51,” replied: “cue the music…let the bodies hit the floor let the bodies hit the floor.” 

Finally, another member of the group chat claimed that people stealing the election had been “caught,” and they were “gonna make the whole country stand up and fuckin’ do bad things to bad people.” 

Jackman agreed. There were hundreds of people, he believed who would soon sign sworn affidavits, and testify that the election was stolen. (He had been watching Sean Hannity’s idiotic show, which probably didn’t help.) 

In another group chat, the day before the riot, the Boys were told that police would be the “primary threat.” They were advised not to get drunk “until off the street,” and reminded not to dress in their usual Proud Boys regalia, but to come dressed as ordinary “patriots.” In other words: Ready to fight. 

Jackman, however, does not appear to have been involved in any violence on January 6, and in August 2024, finally pleaded guilty, to a misdemeanor charge. It is possible that he is cooperating with authorities – but that’s supposition. 

Trump supporter, right-wing individual.

He believed the election was stolen

* 

Seventeen police officers still recovering from injuries. 

303. JACK WADE WHITTON: The Locust Grove, Georgia man was one of a group of rioters that attacked a police officer with, among other objects, a flagpole, a crutch, a police baton, and a skateboard (see above and below). 

Whitton bragged that he yanked a cop away from his post and helped a crowd drag him down a Capitol Hill stairway. He also texted a picture of blood on his hand, telling a friend, this came “from a bad cop.” Then he added, “Yea I fed to the people. Idk his status. And don’t care tbh.” 

By his actions, prosecutors noted, he “inspired further criminal conduct on the part of others,” which “enhances the defendant’s responsibility for the destabilizing events of January 6 and thus the seriousness of his conduct.” 

The defendant also threatened another group of officers, saying, “You’re gonna die tonight.” 

In denying bail, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan noted correctly: 

While the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election is now complete, and President Biden has taken office, the Court is not convinced that dissatisfaction and concern about the legitimacy of the election results has dissipated for all Americans. Former President Donald J. Trump continues to make forceful public comments about the “stolen election,” chastising individuals who did not reject the supposedly illegitimate results that put the current administration in place. Such comments reflect the continued threat posed by individuals like Mr. Whitton [emphasis added], who has demonstrated that he is willing and able to engage in extreme and terrifying levels of violence against law enforcement with a chilling disregard for the rule of law and the lives of law enforcement, seemingly based on mistaken beliefs about the illegitimacy of the current administration.

 

Whitton’s lawyer did note that his client was not a member of the Proud Boys, or any other anti-government militia, which gives you a good idea of who Whitton might have favored in the 2020 election. That is: His lawyer did not feel a need to tell Judge Sullivan that his client wasn’t some kind of Antifa supporter. 

We should also note that as of June 5, 2021, CBS could report that seventeen police officers were still recovering from injuries sustained during the attack. One officer, dragged into the crowd – allegedly by Whitton and others – suffered a head wound that required two staples to close. Another officer sustained crushed spinal disks, and others were battered in various ways. 

So: Blame ex-President Trump for stirring up men and women like Whitton – and then keeping them stirred.

 

UPDATE: Whitton pled guilty to felony assault in September 2022. Guidelines suggested a sentence of 6.5 to 8 years in prison. 

UPDATE #2 (March 20, 2024): New video footage appears to show Whitton grabbing the foot of another police officer and trying to knock him down, and drag him into the mob. He is likely to face added charges. 

UPDATE #3: Whitton hears the gavel bang in May 2024: He is sentenced to spend 57 months behind bars. Upon release, he will spend another 36 months on probation. And he’s out $2,000.

Whitton, circled in yellow, grabs the back of the officer's helmet
and drags him into the mob.

Trump supporter, violent.

* 

304. (R.I.P.) MICHAEL JOHN LOPATIC SR.: The 57-year-old from Pennsylvania is accused in the attack on the same police officer as Whitton. Like Whitton, he faces multiple felony charges related to his conduct.

As for his motivations, NPR reports:

Prior to Jan. 6, 2021, Lopatic posted threatening messages on social media against election officials and expressed an intention to gather at the Capitol and “fight.” According to FBI agents, Lopatic also posted multiple photos of dead pheasants on social media. One of the captions read: “I got a double today. The dog flushed them up together. Full choke. Two shots, two kills. Both head shots. I got a rooster and a hen. I named them Joe and Kamala,” a reference to the president and vice president, according to court documents.

 

When not assaulting police (allegedly), Mr. Lopatic was a staunch Catholic and hoped to advance his anti-abortion policies if he could help Trump gain a second term. 

He died in July 2022, at age 58, before he could have his case resolved. “He got caught up in something I think he really didn’t understand,” Dennis Boyle, his attorney, said at that time. 

Trump supporter, (allegedly) violent.

 

* 

“Braggers get caught.” 

305. Jonathanpeter Allen Klein: Klein, 21, traveled all the way from Oregon with his older brother (see below), allegedly to join in the riot. 

Yep. Court documents note that Jonathanpeter is a member of the Proud Boys in good standing. 

In fact, Forbes notes that Klein is a “self-identified” member of the group. 

With his case still not settled, in June 2023, Mr. Kleins’ lawyer insists, in a separate civil case, that his client can’t be held liable for any harm he caused during the attack on the Capitol. It was, the lawyer insists, really Antifa and other left-wing groups that lead the charge.

Trump supporter, right-wing individual.

(HIS LAWYER CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA!)

 

* 

306. Matthew Leland Klein: Mr. Klein, 24, is facing several charges as a result of his alleged role in the storming of Congress, including conspiracy, obstruction, and disorderly conduct. 

Matthew is also facing charges for carrying a loaded weapon during a…wait for it…another Proud Boys rally. 

Apparently, Nancy Klein warned her two boys, after the riot. Allegedly, mom sent them a message. “Remember braggers get caught,” a Jan. 7 text between a contact listed as “Mom” in Jonathanpeter Klein’s phone read, according to court documents. “I wouldn’t tell people you were in the capital.” 

Right-wing individual.

 

* 

 

Plunked on a bunk in a federal lockup. 

 

307. PAULINE BAUER: This Pennsylvania woman forced her way into the U.S. Capitol and demanded that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers be handed over to the rioters. “Bring them out now. They’re criminals. They need to hang,” she shouted. 

Bauer went on to tell police officers barring rioters’ passage through one hallway: “Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang that f---ing bitch. Bring her out. We’re coming if, if you don’t bring her out. What are you trying to do, protect a f---ing Nazi?” 

Ms. Bauer is singularly obtuse, even by the low standards for a Trump supporter. She both stars in videos from that day, but then blames left-wing types for putting together those videos in which she happily appears. 

Before arresting her, the FBI found comments on Facebook from Bauer’s profile.

In one, according to the FBI, she writes: “I am at the capital and was inside. No [sic] of us are armed just pissed that this is what we have to do to take back our country from communism.”

 

And then we had this common refrain from the attackers. Bauer blamed the riot on left-wing groups. “Do you really think anyone could break into the capital. The antagonists were let in. We all got maced trying to stop what was happening. They used us for a movie so you could watch it on the news.” 

As a bonehead bonus, Ms. Bauer is a Q-Anon dope: 

In another post, she propagated a Q-Anon lie. When asked if she was inside the Capitol legally, she allegedly answered: “You can thank me after you start researching that these Democrats not only cheated and stole this election from the people but they have been trafficking children for years.”

 

According to the F.B.I., Bauer organized busloads of “Stop the Steal” people to travel to D.C. from Pennsylvania. (See below.) 

In June, Bauer wrote to the judge handling her case that she was a “free living soul” and “an ambassador of Christ.” 

No way, she intimated, should the judge order her to spend time in jail! 

In January 2023, a Trump-appointee, Judge Trevor McFadden, ruled against her in a bench trial. Bauer was found guilty on all counts, including one felony for obstructing the workings of Congress. 

At her sentencing hearing, on May 30, Bauer pleads for leniency. McFadden cites a pattern of perjury on the witness stand – but also says he has never seen so many letters of support from a community, for a defendant. All in all, he cuts Bauer a bit of a break and sentences her to only 27 months in prison. 

On this, the 938^th day since the 2020 election, with no evidence yet proven in any court, the “free living soul” is headed for prison. If Trump wins the GOP nomination to run again in 2024, the 55-year-old Bauer won’t be able to vote for him, even if she wanted to. She’ll be plunked on a bunk of her own in a federal lockup.

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

 

* 

308. WILLIAM BLAUSER JR.: Blauser was one of those who answered Bauer’s call to travel to Washington and stop the imaginary theft of the November election. 

A decorated war veteran, with a Purple Heart on his resume, Blauser pleads guilty and receives his sentence in February 2022. He gets off lightly, but apologizes to the court, saying, “I was caught up in something I truly regret. If I had a chance to redeem myself, I would certainly do that in a heartbeat. All I can do is sincerely apologize to my country and the court for my actions.” 

His trip to Capitol Hill, as part of the mob, costs Mr. Blauser $1,000 in fines and restitution, plus legal expenses. 

Trump supporter.

 

*

____________________ 

“A sacred landslide election victory.” 

President Trump

____________________ 

 

FINALLY, let’s not forget who stirred these people to action. During the deadly hours of January 6, when one of his supporters was shot and killed, and another was trampled to death, when three others died and 140 police officers were injured, then-President Trump tweeted, “these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”