- Israel’s Netanyahu calls for deportation of Eritrean refugee ‘rioters’ Al Jazeera English
- With some 160 injured in clashes, MDA to hold special blood drive due to shortage The Times of Israel
- Eritrean Asylum-Seekers Clash With Israel Police | VOA News Voice of America
- Israel’s Netanyahu says he wants Eritrean migrants involved in violent clashes to be deported The Associated Press
- ‘A real threat’: PM backs widespread arrests, eyes deportations in migrant crackdown The Times of Israel
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: rioters
‘No amnesty!’: Brazilian protests demand jail for rioters
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — “No amnesty! No amnesty! No amnesty!”
The chant reverberated off the walls of the jam-packed hall at the University of Sao Paulo’s law college on Monday afternoon. Within hours, it was the rallying cry for thousands of Brazilians who streamed into the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, penned on protest posters and banners.
The words are a demand for retribution against the supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed Brazil’s capital Sunday, and those who enabled the rampage.
“These people need to be punished, the people who ordered it need to be punished, those who gave money for it need to be punished,” Bety Amin, a 61-year-old therapist, said on Sao Paulo’s main boulevard. The word “DEMOCRACY” stretched across the back of her shirt. “They don’t represent Brazil. We represent Brazil.”
Protesters’ push for accountability evokes memories of an amnesty law that for decades has protected military members accused of abuse and murder during the country’s 1964-85 dictatorship. A 2014 truth commission report sparked debate over how Brazil has grappled with the regime’s legacy.
Declining to mete out punishment “can avoid tensions at the moment, but perpetuates instability,” Luis Felipe Miguel, a professor of political science at the University of Brasilia, wrote in a column entitled “No Amnesty” published Monday evening. “That is the lesson we should have learned from the end of the military dictatorship, when Brazil opted not to punish the regime’s killers and torturers.”
The same day, Brazilian police rounded up roughly 1,500 rioters. Some were caught in the act of trashing Brazil’s Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace. Most were detained the following morning at an encampment in Brasilia. Many were held in a gymnasium throughout the day, and video shared on pro-Bolsonaro social media channels showed some complaining about poor treatment in the crowded space.
Almost 600 who were elderly, sick, homeless or mothers with their children were released Tuesday after being questioned and having their phones inspected, the Federal Police said in a statement. Its press office previously told The Associated Press that the force plans to indict at least 1,000 people. As of Tuesday afternoon, 527 people had been transfered to either a detention center or prison.
The administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says jailing the rioters is only the start.
Justice minister Flávio Dino vowed to prosecute those who acted behind the scenes to summon supporters on social media and finance their transport on charges involving organized crime, staging a coup, and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. Authorities also are investigating allegations that local security personnel allowed the destruction to proceed unabated.
“We cannot and will not compromise in fulfilling our legal duties,” Dino said. “This fulfillment is essential so such events do not repeat themselves.”
Lula signed a decree, now approved by both houses of Congress, ordering the federal government to assume control of security in the capital.
Far-right elements have refused to accept Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat. Since his Oct. 30 loss, they have camped outside military barracks in Brasilia, pleading for intervention to allow Bolsonaro to remain in power and oust Lula. When no coup materialized, they rose up themselves.
Decked out in the green and yellow of the national flag, they broke windows, toppled furniture and hurled computers and printers to the ground. They punched holes in a massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting at the presidential palace and destroyed other works of art. They overturned the U-shaped table where Supreme Court justices convene, ripped a door off one justice’s office and vandalized a statue outside the court. Hours passed before police expelled the mob.
“It’s unacceptable what happened yesterday. It’s terrorism,” Marcelo Menezes, a 59-year-old police officer from northeastern Pernambuco state, said at a protest in Sao Paulo. “I’m here in defense of democracy, I’m here in defense of the people.”
Cries of “No amnesty!” were also heard during Lula’s Jan. 1 inaugural address, in response to the president detailing the neglect of the outgoing Bolsonaro administration.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has waxed nostalgic for the dictatorship era, praised a notorious torturer as a hero and said the regime should have gone further in executing communists. His government also commemorated the anniversary of Brazil’s 1964 coup.
Political analysts had repeatedly warned that Bolsonaro was laying the groundwork for an insurrection in the mold of that which unfolded in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. For months, he stoked belief among hardcore supporters that the nation’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud — though he never presented any evidence and independent experts disagreed.
Results from the election, the closest since Brazil’s return to democracy, were quickly recognized by politicians across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of other governments. The outgoing president surprised nearly everyone by promptly fading from view, neither conceding defeat nor emphatically crying fraud. He and his party submitted a request to nullify millions of votes, which was swiftly dismissed by the electoral authority.
None of that dissuaded his die-hard backers from their conviction that Bolsonaro should still be in power.
In the immediate aftermath of the riot, Lula said that the so-called “fascist fanatics” and their financial backers must be held responsible. He also accused Bolsonaro of encouraging the uprising.
Bolsonaro denied the president’s accusation Sunday. Writing on Twitter, he said peaceful protest is part of democracy, but vandalism and invasion of public buildings cross the line.
Authorities are also investigating the role of the federal district’s police in either failing to halt protesters’ advance or standing aside to let them run amok. Prosecutors in the capital said local security forces were negligent at the very least. A supreme court justice temporarily suspended the regional governor, who oversees the force, for what he termed “willful omission” and issued warrants for the preventative arrests of the former heads of the security secretariat and military police, as well as searches of their residences.
Another justice blamed authorities across Brazil for not swiftly cracking down on “homegrown neofascism.”
The upheaval finally prompted municipal and state governments to disperse the pro-Bolsonaro encampments outside the military barracks. Their tents and tarps were taken down, and residents were sent packing.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy protesters want to ensure their message — “No amnesty!” — will be heeded by both the law enforcement authorities and any far-right elements who might dare defy democracy again.
“After what happened yesterday, we need to go to the street,” said Marcos Gama, a retiree protesting Monday night in Sao Paulo. “We need to react.”
___
AP videojournalist Mello reported from Sao Paulo. AP writer Carla Bridi contributed from Salvador.
Trump news – latest: Donald Trump suffers Mar-a-Lago defeat as he claims Jan 6 rioters are treated ‘unconstitutionally’
Mike Pence admits he was ‘angered’ by Trump’s Jan 6 tweet
Donald Trump promised to build his presidential campaign around the rioters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January, while claiming that the people facing charges and prison time over the violent insurrection are being treated “unconstitutionally”.
“People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said in a video screened on Thursday night at a fundraiser for families of those charged in attacking the Capitol. The country, he cautioned, “is going communist.”
Earlier the former president took to Truth Social to defend hosting the rapper formerly known as Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago, writing that “the story in AP, written by the untalented and very unreliable Jill Colvin, who I unfortunately got to know at the White House, is Fake News”.
Mr Trump didn’t mention Ye’s latest antisemitic comments on Infowars in which he praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
“I see good things about Hitler,” Ye told host Alex Jones.
Late on Thursday, an appeals court dealt a blow to Mr Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
Trump lashes out at Kanye West as aides rush to reinstate guardrails at Mar-a-Lago
The backlash over former president Donald Trump’s pre-Thanksgiving meal with antisemitic rapper Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes has led the twice-impeached ex-president’s aides to revive a 2020-era measure used to keep him from embarrassing himself while Mr Trump is reportedly blaming the disgraced musician for the negative press.
According to a source who spoke to NBC News, Mr Trump has directed his anger at Mr West, who just two years ago waged a third-party presidential campaign aimed at siphoning votes off from Joe Biden to help the then-president win reelection.
“He tried to f*** me. He’s crazy. He can’t beat me,” the ex-president said, referring to Mr West’s stated intention to mount another campaign for the presidency with an eye towards the 2024 general election.
According to reports, it was Mr West who brought Mr Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and white nationalist who has long been one of Mr Trump’s most vocal supporters, to the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago club last week.
Andrew Feinberg2 December 2022 13:00
Donald Trump promises to defend Jan 6 rioters during campaign, labels arrests ‘unconstitutional’
Donald Trump promised to build his presidential campaign around the rioters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January, while claiming that the people facing charges and prison time over the violent insurrection are being treated “unconstitutionally”.
“What they’ve done to torment people and go after people like never before, I don’t think anything like this has ever happened in our country before certainly not to this extent,” said the former president in a video screened on Thursday night at a fundraiser for families of those charged in attacking the Capitol. “And you look at other groups which have done terrible things and virtually nothing happened to them. So it’s a very unfair situation and we’re going to be as you know looking into it and talking about it very, very strongly in the coming weeks months and over the next period of a year, year and half, during the campaign.”
“People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said. The country, he cautioned, “is going communist.”
Johanna Chisholm2 December 2022 12:40
VOICES: Three of the last ‘normal’ Republican senators make their last stand
This week, the Senate voted to pass the Respect for Marriage Act to officially codify protections for same-sex and interracially-married couples across the country. It came thanks to months of hard negotiating by a bipartisan coterie, including Democrats Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, as well as Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio and Susan Collins of Maine.
Unsurprisingly, every Democrat present voted for the legislation (Senator Raphael Warnock was back in Georgia fighting Herschel Walker to secure a full term). But along with the three who negotiated it, more than a few Republicans present voted to codify same-sex marriage: Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mitt Romney of Utah, Todd Young of Indiana; and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
That breakdown is incredibly telling. Of the ten Republicans who voted for the legislation, three – Mr Portman, Mr Blunt and Mr Burr – are retiring at the end of this Congress. In these times, all of them count as what some today would consider “normal Republicans”.
Eric Garcia2 December 2022 12:00
Republicans attack Trump for meeting with Fuentes
Republicans have attacked Mr Trump’s decision to meet with Mr Fuentes, who has been a leading voice in the so-called “Stop the Steal” moment, and who attended the now notorious far right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
“There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “And anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States.”
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said: “I don’t think anybody should be spending any time with Nick Fuentes. He has no place in this Republican Party. I think President Trump came out four times and condemned him and didn’t know who he was.”
Former vice president Mike Pence, who is another possible challenger in 2024, voiced a similar criticism.
“Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and Holocaust denier a seat at the table,” Mr Pence said.
“And I think he should apologise for it, and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification.”
Andrew Buncombe2 December 2022 11:00
Ivanka has abandoned him and Melania has White House PTSD: What Trump’s family really think of a second term
Donald Trump announced a new run for the White House in 2024 on Tuesday evening, unmoved by some disastrous midterm elections results in which many of his most high-profile candidates lost their races.
While the Republican Party had been loudly predicting a “red wave” on Election Day, flooding the House of Representatives and Senate with conservatives in order to effectively disable Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, what actually happened was less a wave, more a light splash.
The Democrats instead retained control of the upper chamber of Congress while the GOP appears likely to obtain only a tiny majority in the House, sparking an outbreak of acrimonious finger-pointing, excuses and scapegoating among right-leaning lawmakers. Marjorie Taylor Greene has talked of a “civil war” erupting between traditional Republicans and the Maga movement, with much of the blame laid squarely at Mr Trump’s Palm Beach door.
Joe Sommerlad2 December 2022 10:00
A white nationalist and a 2024 rival: What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?
Donald Trump once again finds himself in hot water – this time even incurring the disapproval of his fellow Republicans – for sitting down to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, with the increasingly wayward Kanye West and the rapper’s “campaign adviser” Nick Fuentes.
Mr West, an acclaimed rapper now going by the name Ye who recently torpedoed his music career by launching into a string of bizarre antisemitic rants on social media, causing his commercial sponsors to desert him in droves, has previously sought out Mr Trump at Trump Tower in New York City and at the White House during his presidency on a whim.
Now plotting a hopelessly unlikely presidential run in 2024 – theoretically pitching him against Mr Trump – West again sought out the one-term president and former luxury real estate magnate, this time for advice on that project.
They sat down to dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday 22 November with another man in attendance, the notorious white nationalist and Holocaust-denier Mr Fuentes, whom Mr Trump has subsequently claimed not to have previously known or recognised.
Joe Sommerlad, Andrew Naughtie2 December 2022 09:00
“I had never heard of the mam,’ Trump tells Fox News Nick Fuentes
Mr Trump has sought to brush off the controversy over the visit to Mar-a-Lago of the 24-year-old Nick Fuentes, a very popular livestreamer and YouTuber who often expresses views that are racist and antisemitic. He was accompanied by Kanye West, who has said several times he is suffering from mental health issues.
“I had never heard of the man,” Mr Trump told Fox News, of Mr Fuentes. “I had no idea what his views were, and they weren’t expressed at the table in our very quick dinner, or it wouldn’t have been accepted.”
The former president added that West, who has changed his name to Ye wanted to speak with him for “advice”, saying he had heard the artist and supporter had “had difficulties, including financial difficulties”.
Andrew Buncombe2 December 2022 08:00
Worker pleads guilty in election equipment tampering case
A former elections manager who prosecutors say assisted in a security breach of voting equipment in a Colorado county pleaded guilty on Wednesday under a plea agreement that requires her to testify against her former boss.
Sandra Brown is one of two employees accused of helping Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters allow a copy of a hard drive to be made during an update of election equipment last year in search of proof of the false conspiracy theories spun by former President Donald Trump.
Brown, 45, pleaded guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, but will not be sentenced until right after she testifies at Peters’ trial next year so her performance on the witness stand can be considered.
“There were things going on that I should have questioned and I didn’t,” Brown told Judge Matthew Barrett.
In August, Peters’ chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, also pleaded guilty under a deal that required her to testify against Peters. She only pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts and was immediately sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation.
Peters gained national prominence by promoting conspiracy theories about voting machines and lost a bid to become the Republican candidate for Colorado’s secretary of state, who oversees elections, earlier this year. She is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
The Associated Press2 December 2022 07:00
VIDEO: Trump’s Tax Returns Are Handed Over to House Committee
Trump’s Tax Returns Are Handed Over to House Committee
Gustaf Kilander2 December 2022 06:00
Tax fraud case only trial to arise from Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation
Closing arguments at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial got off to a rocky start Thursday as a lawyer for the company was caught showing jurors portions of witness testimony that had previously been stricken from the official court record.
The tax fraud case is the only trial to arise from the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices.
The Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, has admitted that he came up with the long-running scheme on his own, that he did so to save money on his own personal income taxes, and that neither Trump nor Trump’s family knew what he was doing.
Prior to the interruption, Necheles was using excerpts from Weisselberg’s three days of testimony to underscore her argument that the executive was only intending to benefit himself, not the Trump Organization, and that the company shouldn’t be blamed for his transgressions.
The Associated Press2 December 2022 05:00
Iran’s supreme leader praises paramilitary for crackdown on ‘rioters’
CNN
—
Iran’s Supreme Leader has praised the country’s Basij paramilitary force for its role in the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
Meeting with Basij personnel in Tehran Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the popular protest movement as “rioters” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces and praised “innocent” Basij fighters for protecting the nation.
The Basij is a wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard deployed to the streets as protests have swelled since September.
The protest movement was initially sparked by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police.
Amnesty International says the Basij have been ordered to “mercilessly confront” protesters.
“When facing the enemy on the field of battle the Basij has always shown itself to be courageous, not afraid of the enemy,” the Supreme Leader said Saturday.
“You saw in the most recent events, our innocent and oppressed Basijis became the targets of oppression so that they wouldn’t allow the nation to become the targets of rioters and thugs and those on the [enemy] payroll, whether wittingly or unwittingly. They gave of themselves to free others,” Khamenei said.
Khamenei’s words come a day after United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief Volker Turk warned Iran is in a “full-fledged human rights crisis” due to the clampdown on anti-regime dissidents.
Turk called for “independent, impartial and transparent investigative processes” into violations of human rights in Iran during a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
He told the 47-member states council in Geneva that security forces have reportedly responded to protests by using lethal force against unarmed demonstrators and bystanders who posed “no threat.”
More than 14,000 people, including children, have been arrested in connection with the protests, according to Turk. He said that at least 21 of them currently face the death penalty and six have already received death sentences.
Among those arrested are two well-known Iranian actors, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, who were taken into custody on separate occasions for publicly backing the nationwide protests, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
The Islamic Republic has been gripped by a wave of anti-government protests sparked by the death of Amini allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
Authorities have since unleashed a deadly crackdown on demonstrators, with reports of forced detentions and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group. In a recent CNN investigation, covert testimony revealed sexual violence against protesters, including boys, in Iran’s detention centers since the start of the unrest.
The unprecedented national uprising has taken hold of more than 150 cities and 140 universities in all 31 provinces of Iran, according to Turk.
The violent response of Iran’s security forces toward protesters has shaken diplomatic ties between Tehran and Western leaders.
The White House on Wednesday imposed its latest round of sanctions on three officials in Iran’s Kurdish region, after US Secretary Antony Blinken said he was “greatly concerned that Iranian authorities are reportedly escalating violence against protesters.”
During an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV on Thursday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said foreign powers were intervening in Iranian internal affairs and creating “fallacious narratives.”
Trump ally Lindsey Graham told ex-cop Capitol rioters should be shot in head | Books
Republican senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham told a police officer badly beaten during the Capitol attack that law enforcement should have shot rioting Trump supporters in the head, according to a new book.
“You guys should have shot them all in the head,” the now ex-cop, Michael Fanone, says the South Carolina Republican told him at a meeting in May 2021, four months after the deadly attack on Congress.
“We gave you guys guns, and you should have used them. I don’t understand why that didn’t happen.”
On January 6, Fanone was a Metropolitan police officer who came to the aid of Capitol police as Trump supporters attacked. He was severely beaten, suffering a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury.
He has since resigned from the police, testified to the House January 6 committee and become a CNN analyst. His book, Hold the Line, will be published next week.
Politico reported the remarks Fanone says were made by Graham. The site also said Fanone secretly recorded other prominent Republicans, among them Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader and possibly the next speaker, who has also stayed close to Trump.
Politico said Fanone told McCarthy efforts to minimize the Capitol insurrection were “not just shocking but disgraceful”. McCarthy reportedly offered no response.
Last week, Rolling Stone published an extraordinarily frank interview in which Fanone, a self-described lifelong Republican, called McCarthy a “fucking weasel bitch”. McCarthy did not comment.
According to Politico, Fanone told Graham he “appreciated the enthusiasm” the senator showed for shooting rioters “but noted the officers had rules governing the use of deadly force”.
Fanone says the meeting with Graham was also attended by Harry Dunn, a Capitol police officer who has also testified in Congress, and Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the mother and partner of Brian Sicknick, an officer who died after the riot.
Fanone says Graham snapped at Gladys Sicknick, telling the bereaved mother he would “end the meeting right now” if she said more negative things about Trump.
Nine deaths, including officer suicides, have been linked to the Capitol attack. The riot erupted after Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden, which he maintains without evidence was the result of electoral fraud. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, urged Trump’s supporters to stage “trial by combat”.
Testimony to the House January 6 committee has shown Trump knew elements of the crowd were armed but told them to march on the Capitol and tried to go with them.
Representatives for Graham did not comment to Politico. The senator was previously reported to have advocated the use of force against Capitol rioters on the day itself.
That same day, Graham seemed to abandon his closeness to Trump. In a Senate speech hours after the Capitol was cleared, he said: “Count me out.” Days later, he said he had “never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country”.
But like most Republicans, McCarthy literally so, Graham returned to Trump’s side. Like all but seven Republican senators, Graham voted to acquit in Trump’s second impeachment trial, for inciting the Capitol attack.
He recently predicted “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted for retaining classified documents after leaving the White House.
In their recent book, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, Peter Baker of the New York Times and Susan Glasser of the New Yorker quote Graham as calling Trump “a lying motherfucker” … but “a lot of fun to hang out with”.
One of first Jan. 6 rioters to breach Capitol gets 4-year sentence
Also Thursday, the only Jan. 6 defendant to testify about his conduct in front of the House select committee investigating the riot was sentenced to two years of probation for disorderly conduct. Stephen Ayres, a 39-year-old Ohio carpenter, said he thinks about Jan. 6 “every single day” and prays for the injured officers and everyone who lost a loved one.
Hale-Cusanelli, 32, worked as a security guard at Naval Weapons Station Earle and lived on the base in Colts Neck, N.J. In addition to being a supporter of President Donald Trump, the man was a white supremacist who supported Nazi ideology and admired Adolf Hitler, even wearing a “Hitler mustache” to work, the government said in court filings. But U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden ruled that Hale-Cusanelli’s racist preferences were too prejudicial to present to a jury, though he did allow the defendant’s comments that he wanted a civil war to come into evidence.
Surveillance video showed Hale-Cusanelli climbing through a window on the Lower West Terrace at 2:13 p.m., moments after it was first smashed, wearing a gray suit and a red MAGA hat. Before entering, prosecutors said, he moved a bicycle rack barrier aside to enable crowds to get closer to the building, and then urged the mob forward by waving his arms and yelling, “Advance! Advance!”
Once inside, Hale-Cusanelli was part of a group that overwhelmed U.S. Capitol and D.C. police in the crypt. Photos and videos showed that he then attempted to pull a rioter away from a police officer who was arresting that person. Hale-Cusanelli claimed that he didn’t know the officer was an officer, and that he thought the electoral vote certification “was going to be in a building called ‘Congress.’ As stupid as it sounds, I did not realize that Congress sat in the Capitol building.”
On Thursday, McFadden called that “a risible lie,” and after the jury convicted Hale-Cusanelli in May, the judge suggested to prosecutors that he would consider a request for a longer sentence for “obstruction of justice.” And McFadden did, in fact, increase Hale-Cusanelli’s sentencing range for those sworn statements.
But prosecutors sought two even longer sentencing enhancements for obstructing and interfering with the “administration of justice” at the Capitol. Defense attorney Nicholas D. Smith said that while Congress’s act of certifying the electoral college vote might qualify as an “official proceeding,” and all but one D.C. federal judge has agreed, the certification did not qualify as administration of justice. Prosecutors argued in their sentencing brief that the “’administration of justice’ is synonymous with ‘official proceeding.’ ”
McFadden agreed with the defense. He said the electoral college count was “appreciably different” from the investigations and other justice-related actions of Congress. “I don’t think the administration of justice, as used in the sentencing enhancement, is a fair way to describe what is happening here.”
He then reduced the sentencing guidelines range of 70 to 87 months down to 21 to 27 months. The guidelines are advisory, but judges typically issue sentences within the range. The government had requested a sentence of 78 months for Hale-Cusanelli.
But McFadden then blasted Hale-Cusanelli for his racist, sexist and antisemitic remarks, some of which were captured on a recording made by his roommate when Hale-Cusanelli returned to New Jersey after the riot. The judge repeated a profane taunt that Hale-Cusanelli shouted at a female Capitol Police officer during the riot, and criticized his “decision to lie on the witness stand.”
“Neither the jury nor I believed your claim that you didn’t know Congress resides in the Capitol building … you participated in a national embarrassment,” the judge said.
Though he had lowered the sentencing range to 21 to 27 months, McFadden sentenced Hale-Cusanelli to 48 months, followed by three years of supervised release.
The judge credited Hale-Cusanelli for showing remorse.
“My behavior that day was unacceptable and I disgraced my uniform and I disgraced the country,” Hale-Cusanelli said. He claimed he was “operating under the advice of counsel” when he testified about his confusion on where Congress sits. “I was challenging the law as it applied in my case.”
Elsewhere in the courthouse, Ayres told U.S. District Judge John D. Bates that he’s embarrassed and concerned by the political rhetoric that once captivated him. “I wish everybody in this country could stop and see where it’s going,” he said, in comments similar to those he made during a nationally televised meeting of the House Jan. 6 committee, where he said he hoped like-minded people would “take the blinders off.”
Prosecutors asked for 60 days in jail, citing violent social media comments Ayres made before Jan. 6 and his “lukewarm” response on Capitol Hill when asked if he still thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen. But Bates said he believed Ayres’s remorse was “sincere” and placed him on probation.
Video of Josh Hawley fleeing Jan. 6 Capitol rioters sparks memes
Then came the jaunty tune from “The Benny Hill Show,” followed by soundtrack entries from “Rocky,” “Titanic” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Hawley hit the music scene next, appearing in Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With the Devil” and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” the 1985 song recently resurrected and whipped to the top of the charts thanks to its prominence in the Netflix show “Stranger Things.”
But the footage of Hawley was all the same: two clips that aired in prime time during the most recent hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Both showed Hawley running from rioters as they poured into the building, according to the committee.
While the videos drew laughter from the hearing’s audience in real time, the internet was just getting started. Within minutes and then for hours, people mercilessly roasted Hawley.
Some set the videos to music — mostly songs with lyrics about running. Others dabbled in wordplay by creating a new term to describe what the junior senator from Missouri was doing: Hawlin’. Most just posted memes — of Forrest Gump sprinting at the start of his run across the country; of the Road Runner zooming down the road with a “Meep meep”; of “Seinfeld” character George Costanza shoving an elderly woman and several children to escape a fire at a kids’ birthday party.
“I will drink from the well of Josh Hawley content for the rest of the week,” one Twitter user wrote.
Hawley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post late Thursday.
Aside from the brief burst of laughter, things remained somber at Thursday’s hearing. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) introduced Hawley as the senator who, while passing protesters as he walked across the east side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, held up his fist in solidarity with them before entering the building.
A U.S. Capitol police officer protecting the building reported to the committee that Hawley’s gesture “riled up the crowd,” Luria said, with a giant version of the fist-pump photo projected behind her. The officer told the committee that Hawley’s behavior “bothered her greatly” because he agitated the protesters from “a safe space,” protected by the barricades and police between him and any mob that might form. He then entered the Capitol, leaving officers on the front lines to deal with the fallout, she said.
But that safe space didn’t last, Luria said. “Later that day, Sen. Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol.”
“See for yourself,” Luria added.
The videos played. A three-second clip showed Hawley bounding down the halls of the Capitol, passing several officers, which Luria said the senator did to escape rioters flooding into the building. The committee replayed the footage in slow-mo for good measure. Then came a six-second clip showing Hawley whisking his way down a flight of stairs with others.
Hawley has defended saluting Jan. 6 protesters with a fist pump before contesting the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral win over President Donald Trump. The senator asserted that, like him, many of them came to peacefully protest and called lumping those people in with rioters “a slur on the thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people who came to the Capitol that day to demonstrate peacefully.”
Hawley has continued to make political hay — and money — out of the fist-pump picture. Hawley slapped a rendition of the image on several pieces of merchandise, along with the slogan “SHOW-ME STRONG!” — a reference to Missouri’s nickname, “the Show-Me State” — and began selling the items in February, the Missouri Independent reported in March.
Internet users keyed in on Luria’s juxtaposition of the fist-bump photo and the running videos to target Hawley. Using a popular meme, one user categorized Hawley’s fist-pump photo as messing around and a still image of him fleeing as “finding out.”
Some Twitter users stuck to the classic one-liner format in taking a dig at Hawley. There was the zinger from a freelance writer and editor in California: “From now on, if political reporters ask Josh Hawley if he’s planning to run, he’s going to have to ask them to clarify.”
A TV and film producer: “The Missouri Dems should host an annual Josh Hawley 5K as a fundraiser.”
And a political adviser, who took the opportunity to try to bolster voter turnout: “Y’all better run to the polls like Josh Hawley ran from the insurrection.”
Others drew more heavily from the language of the internet to roast Hawley. In a tweet that had racked up 13 million views by Friday morning, another TV producer posted a four-second GIF of a guy sprinting with the caption: “How Josh Hawley fled the Capitol on January 6th.”
Legendary TV journalist Dan Rather piled on, keeping it straightforward: “Run Hawley Run.” A Twitter user came in with the assist, replying to Rather’s allusion to “Forrest Gump” with the GIF of the character played by Tom Hanks sprinting.
Political commentator Charlie Sykes saw the internet value of the Hawley videos immediately. Moments after the clips were shown publicly, he was ready to call it.
“Running Josh Hawley,” he wrote, “is a meme for the ages.”
A Virginia Deputy Attorney General Quits as Praise for Jan. 6 Rioters Surfaces
A recently appointed Virginia deputy attorney general resigned on Thursday after a report that she had praised the Jan. 6 rioters on Facebook and claimed that President Donald J. Trump had won the 2020 election.
The departure of the official, Monique Miles, came about a month after she was sworn in as the deputy attorney general leading the Government Operations and Transactions Division. She was appointed by Attorney General Jason S. Miyares, a Republican who had upset a two-term Democratic incumbent in the November 2021 election.
In a statement, Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Mr. Miyares, said that Ms. Miles turned in her state government ID and equipment on Thursday, and that it was the office’s “understanding that she resigned at that time.”
“Nevertheless, the Office of Attorney General has parted ways with Ms. Miles for lack of transparency during her initial interviews for the position,” Ms. LaCivita said. “We appreciate her service and wish her well in the future. The Attorney General has been very clear — Joe Biden won the election and he has condemned the January 6th attack.”
In one of the Facebook posts, which were obtained and reported by The Washington Post, Ms. Miles said, “Patriots have stormed the Capitol.”
“No surprise,” she wrote on Jan. 6, 2021, while the Capitol was being attacked, according to The Post. “The deep state has awoken the sleeping giant. Patriots are not taking this lying down. We are awake, ready and will fight for our rights by any means necessary.”
The Facebook posts are not publicly visible, but Ms. Miles told The Post that she had not deleted them.
In another post, Ms. Miles said that “these left wing violent loonies better realize that DJT is getting a second term,” referring to Mr. Trump by his initials.
“Biden will never step his compromised self into the White House,” she wrote in another, The Post reported.
Ms. Miles did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday night.
In a statement to The Post, Ms. Miles defended the opinions she expressed on her social media and said her messages “have been taken out of context.” She emphasized that she now believes Biden “is our president as he was certified as such.”
“Democracy dies when civil discourse is squelched,” Ms. Miles told The Post, possibly referring to the newspaper’s slogan, “Democracy dies in darkness.”
In a post on Twitter, Schuyler VanValkenburg, a Democratic delegate for Virginia’s 72nd District, said, “This is very disturbing,” adding that “All eyes should be on who the AG picks next.”
Key Developments in the Jan. 6 Investigation
Card 1 of 3
Before serving as deputy attorney general, Ms. Miles was the founder and managing partner of Old Towne Associates, P.C., in Alexandria, Va., and had attended Regent University School of Law and the University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences, according to the attorney general’s office. She had worked in that role since 2013.
Ms. Miles was recognized last year by Virginia Business magazine in its 22nd edition of the Virginia Business Legal Elite Report as one of the state’s best lawyers in the labor and employment law category. She is also listed as a contributing member of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
In 2015, she lost an election for a seat on the Alexandria City Council. In an interview that year with Connection Newspapers, she stressed her ability to manage disagreements.
“Government is toxic when the representatives think they know best,” she said. “However, the key to a strong community, and something that I believe is lacking is respect and civility.”
McCaul says he doesn’t agree with RNC resolution if it applies to violent rioters
Rep. Michael McCaulMichael Thomas McCaulSunday shows preview: US deploys troops, briefs lawmakers amid Russia-Ukraine tensions House Democrats attempt balancing act on China competitiveness bill Asian caucus leader warns against encouraging xenophobia in debate on China competition bill MORE (R-Texas) on Sunday said he does not agree with the Republican National Committee’s characterization of Jan. 6 being “legitimate political discourse” if it applies to those who committed violence that day.
“I do not agree with that statement if it’s applying to those who committed criminal offenses and violence to overtake our shrine of democracy,” McCaul told ABC “This Week” host Martha Raddatz when asked if he supported the RNC’s resolution, which also censured two House Republican lawmakers who sit on the panel investigating Jan. 6.
“I think part of the problem with my party is they view that as a weaponization, that Pelosi’s weaponizing January 6th, politicizing it to her advantage,” he continued. “But at the end of the day, I think that the truth needs to come out.”
Pressed by @MarthaRaddatz on whether he supports the RNC’s resolution, @RepMcCaul says, “I do not agree with that statement if it’s applying to those who committed criminal offenses and violence to overtake our shrine of democracy.” https://t.co/6Gjco58G4f pic.twitter.com/yIP1q16n57
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 6, 2022
The resolution approved by RNC members on Friday indicated that Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” by sitting on the Jan. 6 panel, which was brought together last year by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
McCaul said he believed the RNC was referring to “peaceful protesters” on that day but that he did not agree with the statement if it applied to those who committed violence.
When asked whether Cheney and Kinzinger should’ve been censured, McCaul instead encouraged Republicans to unite.
“Republicans need to unify…about what are we going to do for the country to get the majority back in Congress, to get the White House back in 2024.” he said. “It’s not helpful when they see us divided as a party, rather than unified, and we have so much to be unified against, when it comes to Biden’s failed policies.”
–Updated at 1:15 p.m.
Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Judge will allow the men Kyle Rittenhouse shot to be potentially called ‘rioters’ or ‘looters’ — but ‘victim’ isn’t allowed
“Let the evidence show what the evidence shows, that any or one of these people were engaged in arson, rioting or looting, then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that,” Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said during the pre-trial hearing.
Rittenhouse is charged with felony homicide related to the shooting and killing of Anthony M. Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and felony attempted homicide for allegedly wounding Gaige Grosskreutz during protests that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, is also charged with possession of a dangerous weapon while under the age of 18, a misdemeanor, according to court records.
He has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys argue he acted in self-defense.
The debate Monday over the use of terms in court could foreshadow contentious proceedings when the trial gets underway for the teen accused in the deadly shooting that unfolded during a summer of racial justice protests across the country.
On Monday, Rittenhouse’s legal team and prosecutors attended a pretrial hearing to review outstanding issues before jury selection begins on November 1.
The conversation turned to whether defense attorneys would be allowed to refer to Huber, Rosenbaum and Grosskreutz as arsonists, rioters or looters due to their alleged behavior during the chaotic and fiery demonstrations.
“I don’t think I’m inclined toward prior restraint,” Schroeder said.
But Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger argued the judge was setting up a “double standard” due to his longstanding rule of not allowing prosecutors to refer to people as “victims” at trial.
“If I were to count the number of times that you’ve admonished me not to call someone a victim during a trial, it would be in the thousands,” Binger said.
“The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word. And I think ‘alleged victim’ is a cousin to it,” Schroeder said.
But Binger disagreed, telling the judge, “I think it’s the exact same issue. The terms that I’m identifying here, such as ‘rioters,’ ‘looters,’ ‘arsonists,’ are as loaded, if not more loaded, than the term ‘victim.'”
The debate over labels and how they may inform the jury’s impression of those at the center or the trial gets to the heart of the defense’s argument that Rittenhouse opened fire that night to protect himself.
Shots fired amid chaotic scene
Numerous videos taken during the protests show Rittenhouse, wearing a green T-shirt and a backward baseball cap and carrying an AR-15-style rifle, walking the city’s streets with a group of armed men.
According to the criminal complaint against Rittenhouse, which is based on videos and witness accounts, the situation turned deadly after the teenager scuffled with protesters near a car dealership. He allegedly shot Rosenbaum, a 36-year-old unarmed protester, after Rosenbaum threw an object that appeared to be a plastic bag at him and missed.
As Rosenbaum lay on the ground, the complaint says, Rittenhouse ran away while calling a friend and telling them, “I just killed somebody.” He was pursued by protesters, and then tripped and fell to the ground.
While he was on the ground, Rittenhouse shot Huber, who appeared to hit him with a skateboard, according to the complaint, and then shot a third protester approaching him, Grosskreutz, in the right arm. Grosskreutz was holding a handgun but had his hands up, the complaint says.
After the shooting, Rittenhouse walked by police with his hands up, bystander videos show, and he turned himself in at his local police department the morning after the shooting.
Binger, the prosecutor, argued Monday that any behavior Rosenbaum, Huber or Grosskreutz may have participated in that night that could lead the jury to believe they were arsonists, rioters or looters wasn’t witnessed by Rittenhouse and shouldn’t be part of his defense.
“He can’t argue self-defense against things he’s not aware of,” Binger said. “These other acts are strictly designed to attack the reputation of these individuals, it’s designed to paint them in the worst possible light to prejudice them. Two of them can’t defend themselves … because the defendant killed them. And it’s unduly prejudicial to the jury to be told about any of those things.”
But a defense attorney said the shootings should be weighed against the wider context of what was happening that night.
“All of that lawlessness, all of the facts and circumstances surrounding what is going on, is relevant in terms of Kyle Rittenhouse’s conduct. I think it’s impossible to say that it’s not.”
CNN’s Casey Tolan, Ray Sanchez, Omar Jimenez and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.