Capitol rioters’ social media posts influencing sentencings

apnews.com ^ | December 11, 2021 | MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

[lowbridge]

For many rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, self-incriminating messages, photos and videos that they broadcast on social media before, during and after the insurrection are influencing even their criminal sentences.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson read aloud some of Russell Peterson’s posts about the riot before she sentenced the Pennsylvania man to 30 days imprisonment. “Overall I had fun lol,” Peterson posted on Facebook.

The judge told Peterson that his posts made it “extraordinarily difficult” for her to show him leniency.

“The ’lol’ particularly stuck in my craw because, as I hope you’ve come to understand, nothing about January 6th was funny,” Jackson added. “No one locked in a room, cowering under a table for hours, was laughing.”

Among the biggest takeaways so far from the Justice Department’s prosecution of the insurrection is how large a role social media has played, with much of the most damning evidence coming from rioters’ own words and videos.

FBI agents have identified scores of rioters from public posts and records subpoenaed from social media platforms. Prosecutors use the posts to build cases. Judge now are citing defendants’ words and images as factors weighing in favor of tougher sentences.

[9YearLurker]

It was a Reichstag Fire 2.0.

Maybe as impactful x global, too.

[Michael.SF.]

"No one locked in a room, cowering under a table for hours, was laughing." --- And many of those people were members of Congress. Cowards.

[bankwalker]

It was a riot.

well, I guess that's one way of seeing it ...

[kiryandil]

confirmed 97 to 0 - and she shouldn't even be on the federal bench.

This is our Uniparty.

[Sooth2222]

"Americans sentenced to jail time because Democrat judges don't like their social media posts"

This isn't dystopic or anything.

[kiryandil]

Freisler here attacked Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Roger Stone using her office as a partisan Democrat [she represented William "Freezer Cash" Jefferson, Louisiana CD2, in his corruption trial, and dismissed the Benghazi wrongful death suit filed against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton].

She has a pattern of partisan "decisions" in office.

Naturally, the DC Uniparty confirmed the Commie 97 to 0.

[kiryandil]

This isn't dystopic or anything.

She was a lawyer before Obamacommie and his Uniparty pals unanimously sleazed her onto the DC District of Stoogejudges Court.

At the Rittenhouse "trial", she would have been the first one in everyone's faces arguing that the previous felonies committed by the perps who attacked Kyle should not be in the court record.

She's a disgrace to American jurisprudence [remember, this is the one who railroaded Roger Stone].

[gspurlock]

Please go to James Lindsay’s New Discourses channel on youtube and look for his podcast on “repressive tolerance”. It’s not just bias, it is a deliberate strategy of the marxists in their quest to collapse the existing society so they can then take control.

[skeeter]

I will do that. I came to this conclusion as well. Racism is the new version of Marxist class struggle. Same end goals though.

[kenmcg]

So much for the first amendment. This country is dead!

[euram]

I’m sure there are tens of thousands of BLM and Antifa videos posted on social media, has the FBI taken even 5 minutes to look at any of them?

[The_Media_never_lie]

well, I guess that's one way of seeing it ...

---

If it was not a riot, then what was it?