Tag: Trump insurrection

St. Cloud ‘Boogaloo Bois’ member charged with planning attack on Minnesota Capitol

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Boogaloo Bois member from St. Cloud is accused of plotting strike in St. Paul. 

Federal agents in Minnesota have arrested a St. Cloud man who claims allegiance to anti-government Boogaloo Bois and plotted a violent attack on the Minnesota State Capitol earlier this year, according to charges unsealed in Minnesota U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Last December, Michael Paul Dahlager, 27, traveled to a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol in St. Paul to take video of law enforcement numbers, scout tactical positions for the Boogaloo Bois and note which streets were being blocked off, according to the criminal complaint. He told a confidential informant, who recorded the conversation for the FBI, he was conducting reconnaissance for an attack on Jan. 17. Rallies to protest President Joe Biden’s election were planned for that date by a nonviolent group of Donald Trump supporters.

After the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Minnesota erected a fence around the Capitol, and hundreds of state police officers — which Dahlager called an “army” — stood guard on the perimeter in response to threats of more attacks. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson Goes Full Revisionist On The U.S. Capitol Riot

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The Fox News personality’s reality-denying spin on the deadly insurrection was slammed as “gaslighting garbage.”

Tucker Carlson struck a snide tone on Tuesday night to downplay the U.S. Capitol riot on the three-month anniversary of the deadly insurrection.

The Fox News personality attempted to spin the narrative on the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump — who were incited by the then-president ― as just “a mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes” protesting mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Carlson’s characterization of the violence contradicts videos showing the maurading mob. Five people, including a U.S. Capitol police officer, died. Trump supporters were caught on camera screaming, “Hang Mike Pence!” and stalked progressive lawmakers. Continue reading.

MAGA Riot Lawsuit Against Trump Keeps Getting Bigger

The NAACP’s expanded suit will include more members of Congress, and the amended complaint adds additional information regarding the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

A federal lawsuit alleging that former President Donald Trump, his lawyer, and far-right extremists at the U.S. Capitol conspired to deprive Americans of their civil rights by disrupting the count of Joe Biden’s electoral college victory with the Jan. 6 riot is expanding this week.

Lawyers for the NAACP, which brought the suit early this year on behalf of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), are set to file an amended complaint on Wednesday adding 10 new plaintiffs, two people familiar with the matter saie. The new plaintiffs will include other members of Congress, and the amended complaint is said to include additional information about the deadly Jan. 6 riot in Washington, D.C., which then-President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani are accused of inciting, the sources added.

The addition of new plaintiffs was first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday. Continue reading.

Trump is facing brand new lawsuits that could bankrupt the family business — here’s why

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One of America’s foremost constitutional law experts revealed why two lawsuits filed in Washington, DC may present the biggest legal threat facing former President Donald Trump.

Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe, who has argued three-dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, was interviewed Monday evening by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

O’Donnell questioned the constitutional law expert about a new column he wrote for the Boston Globe. In it, Tribe examined all of the legal jeopardy facing the former president and identified the legal strategy he thinks offers Trump the most peril. Continue reading.

Ex-officer texted ‘We stormed the Capitol’ during Jan. 6 riot, feds say, and tipsters turned him in

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A former Salt Lake City police officer was arrested Friday for allegedly taking part in the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, joining a growing list of current and former law enforcement officers charged in the riot.

Federal authorities said Michael Lee Hardin, 50, entered the building with hundreds of other pro-Trump rioters and posed for a picture in the Capitol Crypt, then bragged about his actions in text messages with friends and family.

Hardin, who served on the police force for nearly two decades before retiring in 2017, is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building, disorderly conduct, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Continue reading.

Capitol cop beaten with a skateboard by Florida music student during Trump’s insurrection: prosecutors

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Grady Douglas Owens, a 21-year-old music student in Winter Park, FL, remains held in jail on some of the most serious charges filed among the hundreds arrested in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot.

Boyle over the head with a skateboard during the melee at the Capitol. Boyle suffered a concussion and a finger injury from the attack, its report stated.

Owens was denied bail Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Irick. The FBI complaint shows that he faces charges of assaulting an officer, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, along with the trespassing and obstruction charges faced by other protesters. Owens faced up to 36 years in prison. Continue reading.

Oath Keepers founder, associates exchanged 19 calls from start of Jan. 6 riot through breach, prosecutors allege

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Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, his deputy and three members who guarded Roger Stone exchanged nearly 20 phone calls over three hours on Jan. 6, coinciding with the first assault on police barricades protecting the U.S. Capitol and spanning the time the three members breached the building, prosecutors charged Thursday.

In a new indictment adding previously charged Stone guards Joshua James, 33, of Arab, Ala., and Roberto Minuta, 36, of Prosper, Tex., to an Oath Keepers conspiracy case that now has 12 defendants, prosecutors bluntly laid a path to Rhodes and a person they said he put in charge of his group’s operations that day.

Prosecutors identified that individual only as “Person 10.” Rhodes in interviews has said he tapped a former Army explosives expert and Blackwater contractor nicknamed “Whip” as on-the-ground team leader. Continue reading.

Mother of injured DC officer unloads on the GOP after Trump claims Capitol rioters were ‘hugging and kissing’ police

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Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon this Monday, the mother of a DC Police officer who was brutally assaulted during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 said that she and her family are outraged at former president Donald Trump’s claim that the rioters posed “zero threat” and were even “hugging and kissing” police.”

“For us, for our family, and for each and every police officer that I know that Michael’s in touch with constantly, it’s outrageous. It’s so dehumanizing. It’s so devaluing,” Terry Fanone said.

“The thing that is so profound is after [Trump] made those statements, the silence that followed — and where was the outrage from other people who were there … and the silence to me implies indifference, and I could be wrong, but indifference and complicity,” she said. Continue reading.

Trump Lawyer Who Urged Executing Pence Seeks GOP Chair

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Lin Wood, the far-right, pro-Trump attorney who lost multiple lawsuits attempting to overturn the 2020 election, has announced he is running to be chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, the Post and Courier reported on Monday.

“My decision to run for the office was heavily influenced by my well known desire to reform local and state political parties and return power to the people,” Wood told the paper. “Here, I want to return power and control of the South Carolina Republican Party to the members of the party.”

Wood is now well-known for filing lie-filled legal challenges alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election, with zero evidence to back them up. Continue reading.

Accused Capitol rioter arrested in T-shirt reading ‘I was there’ with Trump’s photo, insurrection date

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When police showed up at Garret Miller’s Dallas home earlier this year to arrest him on charges that he had participated in the Capitol riot, his wardrobe spoke for itself.

The 34-year-old unemployed man, who allegedly forced his way into the U.S. Capitol building and threatened a congresswoman and a police officer, was clad in a T-shirt emblazoned with a photograph of former president Donald Trump and text declaring: “I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021.”

New details of his Jan. 20 arrest were revealed this week in court documents as prosecutors urged a judge not to release him before his trial, noting that he allegedly admitted to bringing a gun into the Capitol during the deadly insurrection. Police also found an array of weapons and gear in Miller’s house, prosecutors said, including a grappling hook, ropes, body armor, night vision goggles, a crossbow and arrows, and multiple firearms with ammunition. Continue reading.