Posted on 03/31/2021 6:37:41 AM PDT by Heartlander
In one of the most iconic photographs of the January 6 Capitol melee, Eric Munchel, wearing tactical gear, is seen holding up a fistful of zip ties in the Senate gallery. Munchel, the media quickly concluded, brought the flex cuffs to arrest lawmakers attempting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. The woman photographed with him later was identified as his mother, Lisa Eisenhart.
The top federal prosecutor who handled the first two months of the Justice Department’s Capitol breach probe recently bragged that Munchel was one of the first protestors targeted in the agency’s unprecedented 50-state manhunt for alleged “insurrectionists.”
Former U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin told “60 Minutes” that he authorized the arrest of more than 100 people prior to January 20 in a display of “shock and awe” to intimidate Americans who planned to protest Joe Biden’s inauguration; he specifically referred to the detention of the “the zip tie guy” as a way to send a message. “We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.”
Munchel and Eisenhart, once they realized they were under investigation, turned themselves in to law enforcement a few days after the Capitol protest. Government prosecutors successfully fought to keep both behind bars pending their trial although they committed no violent crime and had remained in the building for less than 15 minutes; on January 24, the D.C. federal judge presiding over the Capitol investigation ordered both defendants transported from Tennessee to a Washington jail to await their day in court.
Prosecutors darkly warned in late January the two Americans could be the first Capitol defendants to be charged with sedition, a crime almost never applied to U.S. citizens.
And that’s when the case against Munchel and Eisenhart began to fall apart. In fact, several cases now face an uphill battle as the Justice Department’s abusive overreach related to January 6 is exposed in federal court.
In a major blow to both prosecutors and judges who’ve signed off on dozens of orders to deny bail to Capitol breach defendants—including nonviolent offenders such as Munchel and Eisenhart—the D.C. Court of Appeals on March 26 asked a lower court to “consider anew the government’s motion for detention” for the pair.
The three judges carefully deconstructed the charges against mother and son, noting neither has been accused of violence such as assault or destruction of property. One judge argued the detention order should be reversed, not revisited. In his partial dissent, Judge Gregory Katsas took aim at the Justice Department’s exaggerated case.
“While there, they attempted neither violence nor vandalism,” Katsas wrote. “They searched for no Members of Congress, and they harassed no police officers. They found plastic handcuffs by chance, but never threatened to use them. Munchel’s threat to ‘break’ anyone who vandalized the Capitol was intended to prevent destruction and was addressed to no one in particular.”
Katsas detailed how both defendants fully cooperated with authorities, both were employed at the time of surrender—Eisenhart has been a nurse for 30 years—and neither has a criminal record with the exception of Munchel’s two marijuana possession charges from several years ago.
The only felony the government could come up with to charge Munchel and Eisenhart—who are being charged together—is “obstruction of an official proceeding,” which is an enhancement count filed against defendants charged with misdemeanors.
After the court’s spanking, the government withdrew its detention order on March 29: Munchel and Eisenhart will now live under the same home detention rules a Tennessee judge ordered more than two months ago and that the government successfully appealed.
The appellate court order had a quick impact on other cases. That same day, another federal judge, citing the court’s opinion, challenged the Justice Department’s pre-trial detention motions for two members of the Oath Keepers, a group facing conspiracy charges for its role in the Capitol breach.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ordered the release of Donovan Crowl and Connie Meggs. (On March 24, Mehta released Laura Steele, a defendant in the Oath Keepers case, and on March 12, Mehta released an ailing 66-year-old veteran prosecutors accused, without evidence, of helping Oath Keepers plan to storm the building.) The government then withdrew its detention request for another Oath Keeper, Graydon Young, on March 29.
Despite heavy-handed threats and braggadocio about pending “sedition” cases, nearly three months later, the Justice Department has nothing even close to this boast—and their mouthpieces in the media are getting nervous.
“But as the sprawling investigation has unfolded, prosecutors have sometimes struggled to maintain a consistent narrative and had to walk back statements made in court hearings or in papers,” the Associated Press warned this week. “It has created an opening for defense attorneys to try to sow doubt in the case.”
Prosecutors had to walk back early claims of assasination plots against elected officials. The Justice Department is having a hard time building its conspiracy case against ten Oath Keepers. More than 300 people have been arrested but no one yet faces a charge of sedition.
Politico reporters just dropped the bad news that most protestors won’t face jail time.
“Although prosecutors have loaded up their charging documents with language about the existential threat of the insurrection to the republic, the actions of many of the individual rioters often boiled down to trespassing,” Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney admitted in an article published Tuesday, an observation American Greatness has been pointing out for weeks. “Justice Department prosecutors sent expectations sky-high in early statements and court filings, describing elaborate plots to murder lawmakers—descriptions prosecutors have tempered as new details emerged.”
The government also will have to contend with the long-term legal consequences of continuing to pursue obstruction charges that will criminalize future political dissent. As I explained in this column, the vague charge, initially aimed at white-collar criminals not political protesters, has been applied to more than 130 defendants so far.
But any conviction would codify its use against anyone who disrupts a government meeting or ceremony. “While violent assaults in the Capitol are rare, protests and acts of civil disobedience—such as disrupting congressional hearings or even House and Senate floor sessions, are more common,” Politico admitted. “That means prosecutors and judges will have to weigh how much more punishment a Trump supporter who invaded the Capitol during the Electoral College count deserves than, say, an anti-war protester chanting at a CIA confirmation hearing or a gun-control advocate shouting in the middle of the State of the Union address.”
No kidding.
The Capitol probe investigation has been a vengeful crusade from the start. Democrats, the news media, and many Republicans quickly jumped on early narratives that were later revealed to be untrue, such as tales about an “armed insurrection” or how a Capitol police officer died.
The thoughtcrime of doubting the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election has been cited in charging documents and during detention hearings, another clear indication the probe is about retribution and silencing rather than justice. Homeschoolers, gun owners, and veterans have been mocked and persecuted by their own government.
Top Biden Administration officials are weaponizing the events of January 6 in an attempt to depict all Trump supporters as “domestic violent extremists.”
But although these Americans have been tried and convicted as “insurrectionists” in the news media, the government has created, by their own overheated hyperbole, a nearly insurmountable obstacle to proving their initial accusations in court. It’s a legal stretch to get from amped-up protestor to seditionist—and it looks like the Justice Department has a long way to go.
[In]Justice Department prosecutors should be charged with prosecutorial misconduct.
the UniParty is always quick to accuse everyone else exactly of that which they themselves are guilty.
The coup, (the real “insurrection” in DC) and the “impeachment” is because Donald Trump upended THE largest, multi-trillion dollar industry in America.
The selling of American Congressional Legislation. The primary industry in DC.
THE issue that binds Red and Blue together in the UniParty is the issue of electoral fraud.Its why certain precincts have voted Red or Blue for over 100 years. Its the means by which Congress and K St lobbyists can guarantee “product delivery” to interests that pay enough.
Various “intelligence agencies” are the enforcement arm. Prolly different ones (there are 17 of them afterall!) supporting different “service lines”
Its mutually assured destruction if either side starts to betray the long-standing inter-generational process.
Whenever the issue starts to bubble too close to the surface we all start getting entertained with “pizza parties” and “SRA” issues/trafficking stories etc.-and other Red-Blue “trigger issues” intended to distract us-but these are only incidental to the business at hand-the selling of the votes and legislation of the most powerful legislative body in the world.
These “trigger issues” are intended to remove our eyes from what is going on right before our very eyes!
These “trigger issues” are the stick the Deep State uses to marshal the votes they need to deliver product.
The contemporary information-digital communications technology has the ability to put an end to all of this -which is why the “information war” on the American electorate. Why “us” versus “them” is finally crystallizing.
Its why they barricaded Capitol Hill, The White House and The Supreme Court
I predict that these two days will remain entrenched in US history as “the beginning”:
April 12, 1861
January 6, 2021
I see both as not the end but the beginning, especially noticing what I’ve seen since January 6th. I’ve been “cancelled” not only in secular sites, but now a Christian site, for politely sharing information they simply don’t like regarding the virus, complete with links and analysis - while others spewing ad-hom attacks against me simply for disagreeing with the official message are allowed to carry on boldly.
i.e. it’s getting much worse.
I’m so glad I now live in the sticks.
Glad to hear. Days after, there were talks of 20+ year sentences. If you were simply walking inside the Capital.
Worst. Insurrection. Ever.
But it accomplished the task, pretty much destroyed Trump’s chances in 2024.
They can’t risk destroying the narrative by actually going through with the trials and letting the truth come out.
Even the one gallows was, what, quarter scale?
So VP Harris is helping?.................
The fact is that the investigators are looking down too many patriot blast tubes.
The same thing should occur for the entire federal government, although with permanent dismantling of about 80%.
I have to wonder if the Federal Government can be sued for damages? They were held denied bail.
Can the prosecutor and judges be disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct like the Duke Lacrosse case?
Was there any media slander/defamation?
Here’s the thing: They government doesn’t care. They are going to spend all the money they can to punish them financially and socially. They will fight them every inch of the way.
Yes, three at a time.
Political theater.
Fake outrage used as an argument.
Politicized investigation.
The embarrassment isn’t what happened 6 January. It’s the DOJ’s reaction. The DOJ is a political tool, an instrument and not objective or impartial. Ask the DOJ how many election fraud cases they have open and how many arrests they made regards that since November 3, 2020? This combined with Holders inaction when the New Black Panthers were engaging in outright blatant voter suppression and they ordered law enforcement to stand down. Want to see something funny, just Google “New Black Panthers elections 2008.” Then you had Comey protecting HRC with her unsecure server at home -AT THE SAME TIME- they were busting a US Navy officer that dared take some pictures for himself of where he lived and worked inside a submarine (not right, but didn’t do any real damage unlike HRC). Then you had collection on the Trump Tower in 2016 based on bogus evidence, lied about, then disclosed as true after all... But no worries, they have a lot of “diversity” events, so all is OK.
***The DOJ has humiliated itself once again,*** but they don’t even see it. At this point, the public has zero trust in the DOJ (regardless of how inclusive and diverse they try to be), and rightfully so.
The heads of all government agencies and departments are political appointees. Two levels down, all you get are sucks trying to please these political commissars. These agencies are concerned more about their budget (controlled by the House), and making decisions which grow their budget/personnel strength and scope of power than they truly are in pursuit of their defined mission. Do they do good, yes, on any issue that does not have some sort of political connection. Anything that becomes political, forget it-
That right there is pretty shocking. I wonder if the media would complain if a Trump appointee arrested 100 Dem supporters to intimidate them out of protesting Trump's inauguration...
This sounds eerily like the mass arrests of the Waco bikers.
The Biden Administration is like Joe himself — a lot of bluster with little follow-thru. Probably will prove to be the least effective Democrat administration in history. That’s good for the safety of the Republic.
Overzealous patriots, some egged on by Antifa instigators, others actually invited in, others just following along...trespassing for a few at the worst.
No insurrection occurred. That’s a lie and a politically motivated media description, as false as if they said the only reason George Floyd died is because the officer restrained him.
Funny how zip ties are a felony but Ashli Babbits supposed murder is “nothing to see here folks!” Sue the hell out of them and get all these bastards disbarred! Facists shouldn’t practice law.
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