An Army reservist charged with storming the US Capitol was a well-known White supremacist and Nazi sympathizer at the Navy base where he worked as a contractor, and was even rebuked for sporting a distinctive “Hitler mustache,” prosecutors said in new court filings.
Federal prosecutors revealed Friday that the Navy conducted its own internal investigation into Timothy Hale-Cusanelli that uncovered numerous incidents where he promoted racist and sexist views. The Naval Criminal Investigation Service interviewed 44 of his colleagues and 34 of them said he held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women.”
Hale-Cusanelli, 30, was charged with seven criminal counts, including obstructing congressional proceedings, civil disorder and disorderly conduct in the Capitol. He hasn’t yet entered a plea.
His defense attorney declined to comment Sunday about the new details of the Navy’s probe, but has noted in court filings that Hale-Cusanelli maintains that he isn’t a White supremacist.
Colleagues told Navy investigators that Hale-Cusanelli made near-daily comments against Jews, advocated for killing newborn babies with disabilities and had “issues with women,” according to court filings. Prosecutors said they found racist memes on his phone, including one with the n-word, one that compared Black people to animals, and one insulting George Floyd.
A federal magistrate judge in New Jersey ordered his release shortly after he was arrested in January, but the Justice Department convinced a more senior judge in Washington, DC, to block his release pending further review. A detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
A trail of hateful comments
Hale-Cusanelli worked as a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle near Colts Neck, New Jersey. He held a “secret” security clearance as part of his job, prosecutors said.
The Navy launched its own internal inquiry after Hale-Cusanelli was arrested in January, and nearly three dozen of his colleagues shared stories of his alleged racist and bigoted comments. Prosecutors highlighted the Navy’s findings in a filing advocating for his continued detention.
One of Hale-Cusanelli’s supervisors told investigators that he would walk up to new colleagues and ask, “You’re not Jewish, are you?” A petty officer claimed they heard him say, “Jews, women, and Blacks were on the bottom of the totem pole.” Another contractor at the base said Hale-Cusanelli told them that Jewish people “are ruining everything and did not belong here,” according to the filing.
In a shocking revelation, prosecutors said Hale-Cusanelli came to the base last year sporting a distinctive mustache that resembled the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. One of his supervisors told the Navy investigators that they confronted Hale-Cusanelli about his apparent “Hitler mustache.”
Another naval officer recalled that Hale-Cusanelli said, "Hitler should have finished the job."
Prosecutors also found evidence that they said proved Hale-Cusanelli’s extremist views after searching his phone. They found a video where he allegedly pushed the conspiracy theory that “the Jews did 9/11,” and another clip where he allegedly said, “I hate immigrants…intensely.”
On the day of the Capitol insurrection, prosecutors say Hale-Cusanelli recorded a video of himself shouting an obscene vulgarity at a female police officer who was protecting the building.
Defense attorney pushes back
His attorney, Jonathan Zucker, has said in court filings that Hale-Cusanelli is not a violent man and that he can be safely released into the custody of his close associates in New Jersey.
“Mr. Hale-Cusanelli is charged with crimes stemming from entering and remaining on Capitol grounds, principally offenses analogous to trespass,” Zucker wrote in a court filing. “He is not charged with crimes of violence nor destruction. He never assaulted nor threatened anyone.”
In an interview with FBI agents, Hale-Cusanelli denied being a Nazi sympathizer or holding White supremacist views, according to defense filings. His attorney acknowledged that his client’s social media posts are “controversial” but claimed they are primarily focused on local politics.
One of Hale-Cusanelli’s supervisors at the Navy base where he worked submitted a letter defending Hale-Cusanelli and attacking the press. He refuted allegations that Hale-Cusanelli is a White supremacist by noting that “he would frequently buy breakfast” for a Black colleague.
“I was appalled at how he was slandered in the press in regards to him being a ‘white supremacist,’” Sgt. John Getz wrote to the judge. “I have never known him to be this way.”
Getz said he was “proud to have someone like (Hale-Cusanelli) serve under me.” (Since his arrest, Hale-Cusanelli has been barred from the Navy base where he worked with Getz.)
But prosecutors told the judge that this glowing comment “directly contradicts” what Getz told Navy investigators. Getz told the Navy that Hale-Cusanelli was a Holocaust denier who made racist remarks in a “joking but not” way, and that he confronted Hale-Cusanelli about his behavior.
When FBI agents interviewed Getz about the discrepancy, he said he wasn’t personally offended by Hale-Cusanelli’s conduct and wanted to “speak positively” about him to the judge.
Hale-Cusanelli was in the Army Reserves at the time of the Capitol siege, but has since been discharged, according to court documents. The Pentagon said he was a reservist since 2009.
And the Justice Department just now charges two people with the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sitrick.
The Justice Department has charged two men in the assault on Brian D. Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died the day after he fought rioters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the case and court documents.
The F.B.I. on Sunday arrested George Pierre Tanios, 39, in West Virginia and Julian Elie Khater, 32, in New Jersey on charges of assaulting officers, including Officer Sicknick, with bear spray.
The arrests came weeks after investigators pinpointed one of the men in a video of the riot, in which he was seen attacking several officers with the spray, according to two law enforcement officials. The Justice Department has said in earlier court filings that rioters were recorded on video talking about attacking officers, including Officer Sicknick.
It is not clear whether Officer Sicknick died because of his exposure to the spray. On Jan. 7, the day that he died, the Capitol Police said in a statement he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” at the riot a day earlier and then “returned to his division office and collapsed.” He later died at a hospital.
George Tanios, 39, of WV, and Julian Khater, 32, of PA, have been arrested and charged with spraying Officer Brian Sicknick in the face with bear spray, which investigators now believe may have lead to his death.
The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.
Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly-confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.
The supreme court justice was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford and faced several other allegations of misconduct following Ford’s harrowing testimony of an alleged assault when she and Kavanaugh were in high school.
Kavanaugh denied the claims.
Bob Woodward story on Kavanaugh’s veracity ‘pulled’ during Senate hearings
The FBI was called to investigate the allegations during the Senate confirmation process but was later accused by some Democratic senators of conducting an incomplete background check. For example, two key witnesses – Ford and Kavanaugh – were never interviewed as part of the inquiry.
Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence.
“This was unique behavior in my experience, as the Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,” Whitehouse said.
He added that, once the FBI decided to create a “tip line”, senators were not given any information on how or whether new allegations were processed and evaluated. While senators’ brief review of the allegations gathered by the tip line showed a “stack” of information had come in, there was no further explanation on the steps that had been taken to review the information, Whitehouse said.
“This ‘tip line’ appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster,” he said.
He also criticized FBI director Chris Wray, who Joe Biden has elected to remain in place, for not answering questions about the investigation.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
While it is unclear whether the FBI would re-open an investigation into Kavanaugh, who is now one of nine justices on the supreme court, the letter could push Garland to force the DOJ to respond to questions about the investigation into Kavanaugh.
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Whitehouse said he is seeking answers about “how, why, and at whose behest” the FBI conducted a “fake” investigation if standard procedures were violated, including standards for following allegations gathered through FBI “tip lines”.
Trump’s CFO’s ex-daughter-in-law is cooperating with prosecutors and ‘refuses to be silenced,’ her lawyer says
- Jennifer Weisselberg is cooperating with an investigation into Trump’s finances, her lawyer says.
- She’s the former daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Org CFO the DA wants to “flip.”
- “Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer,” her lawyer told Insider in a statement.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
An attorney representing the former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization’s CFO, Allen Weisselberg, says she’s cooperating with prosecutors conducting an inquiry into Donald Trump’s finances and “refuses to be silenced.”
Jennifer Weisselberg “is committed to speaking the truth, no matter how difficult that may be,” her attorney, Duncan Levin, told Insider in a statement. “She will continue to cooperate fully with the various law-enforcement agencies that are investigating her ex-husband’s family and the very powerful interests they represent.”
“Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer by those who are conspiring to prevent her from sharing what she has learned over the past 25 years,” Levin added.
Levin’s comments come in response to a request for comment Friday about a New Yorker story on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s investigation into the former president and the Trump Organization. The story includes an anecdote from Jennifer Weisselberg, who told The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer she met Trump at a shiva and he shared photos of naked women at the Jewish mourning ceremony.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into Trump and his company. Court filings suggest prosecutors are focusing on whether they illegally kept two sets of books — one that painted a rosy financial picture to obtain favorable loan terms, another featuring grim data to pay less in taxes.
A major subject of the investigation is Allen Weisselberg, who for decades has been the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization and the personal bookkeeper of the Trump family. The Washington Post has reported prosecutors are trying to “flip” Weisselberg into cooperating with the investigation.
Jennifer Weisselberg divorced Allen Weisselberg’s son Barry in 2018. The couple received an apartment as a gift from Trump when they married in 2004, but Barry Weisselberg may have skipped out on paying taxes on it by categorizing it incorrectly in his tax filings, according to Bloomberg News. That apartment — as well as other numerous financial entanglements between the Weisselberg and Trump families — appears to be at the center of the effort to flip Weisselberg into cooperating.
Vance appears to be approaching the final stages of his investigation into Trump. He will retire at the end of 2021, he announced Friday.
“I’m sure he is absolutely pressing to have a decision made on whether to prosecute anyone, whom to prosecute, and for what charges, by the end of the year,” Daniel R. Alonso, a former top Vance deputy, told Insider on Friday.
More confirmation on who was behind the scenes in the 2020 election and trying to influence it.
Russia and Iran both sought to influence the 2020 U.S. election, but no foreign government attempted to change votes, alter ballots or reporting results, the intelligence community said Tuesday.
The document by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the first U.S. government report on the matter since November’s election, supports earlier assessments by U.S. officials.
It confirmed what was widely reported last year — that there were no efforts by any foreign government to mount the sort of broad campaign to influence American voters that the Russians attempted in 2016 by hacking and releasing Democratic Party emails and by circulating divisive ads on social media.
While foreign disinformation and interference was a major concern heading into the 2020 campaign, domestic efforts to disrupt the race — including by then-President Donald Trump and his allies — turned out to be of far greater significance.
Last August, the then-top U.S. counterintelligence official, William Evanina, issued a statement saying that Russia was using a range of measures “to primarily denigrate” Trump’s opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, and significantly, that a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker, Andriy Derkach, also was seeking to undermine Biden’s candidacy.
Trump Tower Chicago Is Under Investigation For Using Vaccines Meant For Minority Communities
Trump Tower in Chicago is under investigation for vaccinating employees at the luxury hotel through a program intended to help minority communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Block Club Chicago, “Loretto Hospital on the West Side vaccinated workers at Trump Tower Downtown, officials acknowledged Tuesday — but the hospital’s story about how the event happened directly contradicts what a Trump executive said happened.”
The report notes that the small hospital that supplied the vaccines serves a part of Chicago that has been hit hard by the virus and where access to shots has been limited.
The incident is under investigation by the Chicago Department of Public health, but it’s currently unclear why Trump Tower employees were able to get vaccinated at a time when workers at other hotels are not eligible.
More from Block Club Chicago:
Chicago Department of Public Health officials said they are investigating the March 10 vaccination event. It’s unclear why workers at former President Donald Trump’s namesake, luxury hotel were prioritized for vaccines — where one of Loretto’s chief executives owns a condo — while similar hotel workers have not been allowed to get the shots.
The vaccination event at the Downtown tower, 401 N. Wabash Ave., comes as many in Chicago who are eligible to be vaccinated and most at risk from COVID-19 are still struggling to find an appointment and get their shots.
Another investigation with Trump’s name on it
While there is no indication that Donald Trump himself is involved in what happened at his namesake in Chicago, the investigation is just the latest in a series of probes with the former president’s name on it.
From New York – where Trump appears to be in the most legal jeopardy – to Georgia, the former president is facing legal woes that will likely grow in the months and years ahead.
Wherever the Trump name appears, investigations seem to follow.
Police raid home of former GOP lawmaker who bragged about planting no-party candidate
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article249999979.html
The latest shoe to drop in a long-brewing Florida political scandal came crashing down Wednesday when authorities raided the Palmetto Bay house of former Republican state senator Frank Artiles.
Artiles is believed to be tied to a state investigation involving a sham no-party candidate who likely swayed the outcome of a key 2020 Miami-Dade state Senate race.
After months of scant information and little public focus, questions over Artiles’ involvement in the race reached an all-time high as the public corruption task force for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office executed a morning search warrant, seizing box loads of items.
The whereabouts of the former senator were unknown. Artiles did not respond to requests seeking comment, and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office said it could not “confirm or deny the existence of any possible investigation.”
No one answered the door after law enforcement left and reporters approached the house.
A copy of the search warrant, which officers executed before 9 a.m., was not immediately available on Wednesday afternoon. Generally, search warrants are not made public until they are filed in court along with a list of what was seized.
Artiles’ defense lawyer, Greg Chonillo, said late Wednesday that his client has been “fully cooperative” with prosecutors, and has provided documents and other evidence to investigators.
“As you can understand, the ongoing criminal investigation limits us in what we can say,” said Chonillo, who would not say if he expects Artiles to be charged or when.
“If this matter is going to be litigated in court, we shall defend him in court — and not in the media,” Chonillo said.
The no-party candidate
While details remain sealed, the Miami Herald found last December that Artiles got involved in Miami-Dade’s Senate District 37 race when he recruited and boasted about planting Alex Rodriguez, an auto-parts dealer who lives in Boca Raton, to run in the race.
Rodriguez was on the ballot as a no-party candidate, shared the same surname as the incumbent Democrat, and his mysterious candidacy has been under investigation since November by Fernandez Rundle’s office.
Rodriguez had never been a political candidate and had been a registered Republican just days before he filed to enter the race. Two days after Miami-Dade state prosecutors opened an investigation into his candidacy, [Rodriguez retained Miami attorney William Barzee](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/Miami attorney William Barzee.), who did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Rodriguez’s candidacy is in question after he listed a Palmetto Bay house as his address on his sworn candidate oath, though he lived in a rented a house in Boca Raton. Rodriguez also appeared to be struggling financially.
His landlord told the Herald his rent was often paid late, with cash or, in one instance, a bounced check. The money woes added a layer of curiosity as to how he could afford the $2,000 he loaned to himself to cover the cost of appearing on the ballot.
Rodriguez received no political contributions, reported $15,000 in credit-card debt and had no money in the bank, campaign finance records show. He paid the $1,187.88 qualifying fee with a City National Bank check, but his financial disclosure forms show no bank account or liabilities tied to that bank.
When asked by the Herald last November about his involvement in the no-party candidate’s presence in the race, Artiles did not respond. Sources with direct knowledge, however, have indicated that Artiles’ involvement in launching Rodriguez’s bid was extensive.
Juan Carlos Planas, an election attorney and former Republican state lawmaker who represented the incumbent senator during the Senate District 37 recount, suspects the case may come down to money.
“At the heart of this is the misrepresentation of funds and the possibility of Alex Rodriguez being paid to run,” he said.
Election night boasting
Miami Republican Ileana Garcia won the race after a three-day recount by just 32 votes out of more than 215,000 cast. She beat Democratic incumbent Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, helping cement the GOP majority in the Florida Senate for years to come. Alex Rodriguez, the no-party candidate, received more than 6,000 votes.
Over drinks at an election night party in Central Florida for another candidate, Artiles publicly bragged about planting Alex Rodriguez, a longtime acquaintance and Facebook friend, to run in the race. His involvement in launching Rodriguez’s bid was extensive, sources with direct knowledge indicated to the Herald last December.
“That is me, that was all me,” Artiles told a crowd at Liam Fitzpatrick’s restaurant in Lake Mary, where state Sen. Jason Brodeur was holding his election night party, according to a person who was there and who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
Artiles has been a scandal-plagued politician for years. He resigned from the Senate in disgrace in 2017 amid two parallel scandals. The first was an alcohol-fueled rant in which he called two Black lawmakers a racist slur in a Tallahassee bar. The second involved the hiring of a former Hooters “calendar girl” and a Playboy model with no political experience as “consultants” using funds from his political committee.
Senate Republican leaders have distanced themselves from the allegations raised against Artiles since the Herald broke the story.
Erin Isaac, a spokeswoman for the political committee that ran Republican campaigns in the Senate, in December said she was not aware of Artiles’ involvement in the race, and she said that Senate President Wilton Simpson, who heads the political committee, was also unaware of any role Artiles may have played.
As news of the raid broke on Wednesday, Isaac reiterated that neither the committee nor Simpson were aware of Artiles’ involvement.
In an interview on Wednesday, Garcia said she did not know who Artiles was until the Herald reported his ties to her race.
“I never met Frank Artiles,” the Miami Republican said. “I didn’t know of him until this happened. And I hope he doesn’t get offended if he ever sees this because I just really didn’t.”
Garcia said Miami-Dade prosecutors have “never” reached out to her, either, and said news about Artiles “has been cumbersome in the aspect where you are on pins and needles and you don’t know why.” She added that she didn’t speak about it publicly before because she is not involved.
“I can’t attest, I can’t say and I can’t answer for someone I don’t know and for something that I haven’t done. I am not the focal point of this,” Garcia said, noting that she just wants to focus on the 2021 legislative session, which is currently underway.
Dark money in the spotlight
Alex Rodriguez was one of three no-party candidates running in key Senate races who did no independent campaigning yet were featured in political mail advertisements, paid by dark money. The ads promoted the candidates and progressive ideals in an apparent attempt to reach Democratic voters and divert some votes from the Democratic candidates in those races.
The mailers did not feature photos of any of the candidates and, in one case, misled voters using stock images of a Black woman when the no-party candidate was white. The identity of the mystery donor behind the $550,000 dark-money campaign remains unknown, and its name changed in campaign finance reports after the November election.
Artiles has not been linked to the dark money effort, only to one of the candidates who was promoted by the mailers.
Not yet 100 days into the new Congress, the legislative branch has become an increasingly toxic and unsettled place, with lawmakers frustrated by the work-from-home limits imposed by the coronavirus and suspicious of each other after the Jan. 6 riot over Donald Trump’s presidency.
Particularly in the House, which remains partly shuttered by the pandemic and where lawmakers heard gunshots ring out during the siege, trust is low, settled facts about the riot are apparently up for debate and wary, exhausted members are unsure how or when the “People’s House” will return to normal.
One newer congresswoman said it’s “heartbreaking” to see what has become of the institution she cherished, in the country she has taken an oath to defend from enemies foreign and domestic.
“You know, I do sometimes just close my eyes and, like, picture this place in the way that it used to be, and how welcoming it was,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., first elected in 2018.
An immigrant from Somalia, she said she draws on the coping skills she learned as a child in wartime to enter the razor-wire fenced Capitol, now with armed members of the National Guard, to “try to pretend that that’s not what it is.”
The first months of the year have laid bare the scars from the historic, unprecedented events. The fallout extends far beyond the broken windows and gouged walls of the Capitol to the loss that comes from the absence of usual routines and visitors that were the daily hum of democracy. With virtual meetings and socially distanced votes, lawmakers have fewer opportunities to talk to each other, share ideas and ease fears in the aftermath of the riot.
“The mood is toxic,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill. “I mean, it really sucks to be in the minority, but it’s really worse when there’s just such a high partisan temperature.”
It came to a pressure point this past week when a dozen Republicans voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to law enforcers who defended the Capitol, in part because the resolution mentioned the “insurrectionists” who attacked the “temple” of American democracy. Democrats were stunned.
Possible sedition charges coming towards some of the very organized members of the Jan 6th riot on Capitol Hill. Buckle up…way more to come.
WASHINGTON — Evidence the government obtained in the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol most likely meets the bar necessary to charge some of the suspects with sedition, Michael R. Sherwin, the federal prosecutor who had been leading the Justice Department’s inquiry, said in an interview that aired on Sunday.
The department has rarely brought charges of sedition, the crime of conspiring to overthrow the government.
But in an interview with “60 Minutes,” Mr. Sherwin said prosecutors had evidence that most likely proved such a charge.
“I personally believe the evidence is trending toward that, and probably meets those elements,” Mr. Sherwin said. “I believe the facts do support those charges. And I think that, as we go forward, more facts will support that.”
The last time federal prosecutors brought a sedition case was 2010, when they accused members of a Michigan militia of plotting to provoke an armed conflict with the government. They were ultimately acquitted, and the judge in the case said the Justice Department had not adequately proved that the defendants had entered a “concrete agreement to forcibly oppose the United States government.”
The statute on seditious conspiracy also says that people who conspire to “oppose by force the authority” of the government or use force “to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States” can be charged with sedition.
The government has charged some defendants in the Jan. 6 case with conspiring to derail the final certification of President Biden’s electoral victory.
Mr. Sherwin witnessed the crime as it unfolded. After he dressed in his running clothes and entered the crowd at the rally near the White House, he observed a “carnival environment” of people listening to speeches and selling T-shirts and snacks.
“I noticed there were some people in tactical gear. They were tacked up with Kevlar vests. They had the military helmets on,” he said in the “60 Minutes” interview. “Those individuals, I noticed, left the speeches early.”
“Where it was initially pro-Trump, it digressed to anti-government, anti-Congress, anti-institutional,” Mr. Sherwin said. “And then I eventually saw people climbing the scaffolding. The scaffolding was being set up for the inauguration. When I saw people climbing up the scaffolding, hanging from it, hanging flags, I was like, ‘This is going bad fast.’”
From the start, Mr. Sherwin oversaw the investigation as the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, a role that he ceded to a new interim leader in early March. He stepped down from leading the investigation on Friday and returned to Miami, where he had been a line prosecutor.
Mr. Sherwin told “60 Minutes” that the government had charged more than 400 people. Among them are hundreds accused of trespassing and more than 100 accused of assaulting officers, including Brian D. Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died after fighting with rioters.
Mr. Sicknick and two other officers were sprayed with an unidentified chemical agent that one of the assailants said was used to repel bears.
A medical examiner has not determined how Officer Sicknick died, Mr. Sherwin said, so two suspects were charged with assaulting an officer instead of murder. But that could change, he said.
“If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death,” Mr. Sherwin said, “in that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case.”
Mr. Sherwin said that only about 10 percent of the cases so far dealt with more complicated conspiracies planned and executed by far-right extremists — including members of the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys — to organize, come to Washington and breach the Capitol.
He reiterated assertions he made shortly after the attack that prosecutors were examining the conduct of former President Donald J. Trump, who had told his supporters to attend the rally on Jan. 6 and egged them on with baseless claims that he had won the election.
“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to D.C. on the 6th. Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?” Mr. Sherwin said.
“We have people looking at everything,” he said.
Former interim U.S. attorney Michael R. Sherwin, of Washington, reiterated Sunday that he thinks charges of seditious conspiracy could be brought against certain defendants in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, a rarely invoked charge for those who use violence to hinder the execution of federal law.
In a “60 Minutes” interview aired on CBS two days after he stepped down from supervising the investigation, Sherwin said, “I personally believe the evidence is trending toward that, and probably meets those elements.”
“I believe the facts do support those charges. And I think that, as we go forward, more facts will support that,” he said.
Sherwin’s comments echo those he made Jan. 26, when he said, “We are closely looking at evidence related to the sedition charges. . . . We are working on those cases. I think the results will bear fruit very soon.”
Since that time, prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for District of Columbia, which has led the inquiry, have charged about 20 members of the Proud Boys — a far-right group with a history of violence — with leading some of the earliest and most aggressive efforts to breach the Capitol.
On Friday, authorities unsealed the latest indictment, charging four Proud Boys leaders from Washington state, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania with conspiracy to aid and abet the obstruction of Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 presidential election and police attempts to protect the Capitol from rioting that led to five deaths and 130 police assaults.
Prosecutors and the FBI also have accused 10 members and affiliates of the Oath Keepers with conspiring to obstruct Congress. The Justice Department is now looking at whether a larger conspiracy case can be made, including against senior figures in the group, which recruits military, law enforcement and first-responder personnel and claims authority to disobey government orders that some think are part of a conspiracy to strip Americans of their constitutional rights.
Postal Service finds no evidence of mail ballot fraud in PA case cited by top Republicans
Letter carrier Richard Hopkins told federal agents he “assumed” supervisors discussed backdating ballots and then recanted his claim, inspector general’s report says
U.S. Postal Service investigators found no evidence to support a Pennsylvania postal worker’s claim that his supervisors had tampered with mail-in ballots, according to an inspector general’s report — allegations cited by top Republicans to press baseless claims of fraud in the presidential election.
Richard Hopkins, a mail carrier in Erie, alleged in November that he overheard the local postmaster discussing plans to backdate ballots received after the Nov. 3 vote and pass them off to election officials as legitimate. Working with Project Veritas, a nonprofit entity that seeks to expose what it says is bias in the mainstream news media, Hopkins publicly released a sworn affidavit recounting those allegations.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) cited Hopkins’s claim in a letter to the Justice Department in November calling for a federal investigation into election results in Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump by more than 81,000 votes, and Democratic candidates outperformed GOP challengers in votes submitted by mail.
Graham and many other congressional Republicans refused to accept the outcome of the election for weeks, even after states audited and certified results.
Then-Attorney General William P. Barr subsequently authorized federal prosecutors to open investigations into credible allegations of voting irregularities and fraud before results were certified, a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy.
But Hopkins soon recanted, officials from the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General told members of Congress on Nov. 10, and the new investigation confirmed. In an interview with federal agents, Hopkins “revised his initial claims, eventually stating that he had not heard a conversation about ballots at all — rather he saw the Postmaster and Supervisor having a discussion and assumed it was about fraudulent ballot backdating,” the report states.
Hopkins “acknowledged that he had no evidence of any backdated presidential ballots and could not recall any specific words said by the postmaster or supervisor,” according to the report, which was published by the inspector general’s office in late February and posted Monday to the blog 21st Century Postal Worker.
The Erie postmaster, Rob Weisenbach, called the allegations “100% false” in a Facebook post in November and said they were made “by an employee that was recently disciplined multiple times.”
“The Erie Post Office did not back date any ballots,” Weisenbach wrote.
Hopkins’s name is redacted in the investigative report, but the document refers extensively to his claim and involvement with Project Veritas and the group’s founder, James O’Keefe.
Hopkins has been suspended without pay since Nov. 10, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential personnel matters. A disciplinary letter to Hopkins from a Postal Service supervisor states that Hopkins’s “actions may have placed employees and yourself as well as the reputation of the U.S. Postal Service in harm’s way,” the person said.
In a statement through Project Veritas, Hopkins called the investigative report “vague and deceptive” and said it “underscores the importance of recording conversations. I wish I hadn’t stopped recording.”
Representatives from Graham’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Agents of the inspector general visited the Erie County Courthouse to interview election officials and review ballots processed at the local post office. “Both the interview of the Erie County Election Supervisor and the physical examination of ballots produced no evidence of any backdated presidential election ballots at the Erie, PA Post Office,” the report states.
On Nov. 11, Project Veritas published a two-hour recording of Hopkins’s interview with investigators. Hopkins in that recording said he made “assumptions” based on overheard snippets of conversation and said he never heard his supervisors utter the word “backdate.”
Hopkins and Project Veritas asserted that agents pressured the postal worker into backtracking. O’Keefe, in a statement on Wednesday, said agents “coerced and twisted Hopkins to water down his allegations.” The claims, however, are not supported by their recording. Hopkins did not respond directly to requests from The Washington Post for comment.
Federal agents repeatedly reminded Hopkins that his cooperation was voluntary, the recording shows, and Hopkins agreed to sign a document stating that he was not coerced.
Asked by an agent whether he had legal representation, Hopkins said Project Veritas had a lawyer on retainer “in case there’s anything that happens.” The agent told Hopkins that if he had a personal lawyer, “I would make whatever efforts possible to have that person here.” Hopkins said he didn’t have a lawyer.
Hopkins also repeatedly expressed regret for signing the initial affidavit because it overstated what he knew and had witnessed, according to the recording.
He told agents the affidavit was written by Project Veritas. In an emailed statement to The Post in November, a spokesman for the group said that the “affidavit was drafted with Mr. Hopkins’ input and requested revisions.”
Project Veritas and far-right activist groups have continued to hold up Hopkins’s disproved allegations and those of other postal workers to support claims of ballot fraud among mail service employees, though no evidence has surfaced to validate those assertions.
Trump amplified fraud claims on his now-suspended Twitter account and called Hopkins “a brave patriot” in a Nov. 10 tweet. He spent the next several weeks filing dozens of lawsuits — losing all but one — to overturn the election results. Trump and other speakers at the Jan. 6 “Save America Rally” in Washington repeated false claims about mail ballot fraud.
Soon after that speech, Trump supporters rioted at the Capitol. Five people were killed, including Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick.
Hopkins has raised more than $236,000 on GiveSendGo, a Christian online fundraising platform, in a campaign that falsely describes the nature of his claim. His crowdfunding page says donations would be used to support him and his family while he is on unpaid leave.
O’Keefe in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February brought Hopkins onstage, along with former employees of Google, Facebook, CNN and Pinterest who have collaborated with Project Veritas, to a standing ovation and chants of “USA!” from attendees.
“I just couldn’t let it happen the way it was going down. It bothered me,” Hopkins said, at times overcome by emotion. “It at least needed to be known. Whether people believe me or not, I wanted you to know. And now you know.”
New tape from NYT of the timeline on the Jan 6th insurrection -
The Times obtained District of Columbia police radio communications and synchronized them with footage from the scene to show in real time how officers tried and failed to stop the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Footage from the January 6 riot at the US Capitol shows a close ally of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene inside the building.
CNN previously reported that Anthony Aguero, a conservative live-streamer, activist and associate of Greene, said on video following the riot that he had been among those who entered the building.
At the time of that February report, Aguero declined to answer if he had been inside when pressed by CNN. He claimed videos later posted to social media accounts from both inside the Capitol and outside were not his, but screen recorded from others.
The publicly posted videos of the riot reviewed by CNN’s KFile are now the first visual confirmation that Aguero went inside the building. Aguero previously confirmed to CNN that he was at the Capitol on January 6 and said he was an “independent journalist” there reporting the events.
Aguero, however, appears to have never uploaded any footage he took inside the Capitol to Facebook or Instagram. And in videos previously reported on by CNN, he can be heard chanting “heave ho” as rioters were attempting to break in on the West Side of the Capitol. In a comment, Aguero wrote “MAGA” under the video. Later, Aguero can be heard chanting “our house” among the Capitol mob on the East Side of the building.
In a video immediately filmed following the riot, Aguero said “a message was sent.” He later described those who broke in as “patriots,” and commented “#PatriotsSaveAmerica2021! Not Antifa/BLM!!!” in a since-removed comment made immediately following the ransacking of the Capitol by rioters.
The FBI said last month that it had received nearly 200,000 digital tips from the public related to the Capitol riot, mainly from people who documented it. The FBI previously declined to comment on whether it was investigating Aguero in an email to CNN.
Aguero declined to comment and Greene’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Interesting argument against Sydney Powell’s defense. She throws everything out- her initial claims which we know is one big lie. And now she/defense lawyer expect us to consider that.
More video evidence about how Capitol Police Officer Sitrick was attacked and later died.
New videos obtained by The New York Times show publicly for the first time how the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died after facing off with rioters on Jan. 6 was attacked with chemical spray.
The officer, Brian D. Sicknick, who had been guarding the west side of the Capitol, collapsed later that day and died the next night. Little had been known about what happened to Officer Sicknick during the assault, and the previously unpublished videos provide new details about when, where and how he was attacked, as well as about the events leading up to the encounter.
Heard it called the “Tucker Carlson Defense”, can anyone link to an evidence of it?
Would love it!
Biden’s Press conference today - Look at the hate spewing from the R’s when black reporter Yamiche Alcindor for PBS asks Biden a 4 part question.
And to her defense