Caffeinated Politics

The news of more pardons for criminals who tried to undermine a national election on January 6, 2021, does not come as a surprise. Really, does anything surprise us at this point when it comes to the absurdity of the Trump Administration? Or the Republican lie about law and order? Balanced budgets? Family values? (Does the latter start before or after the fourth wife?)

The Trump administration moved Tuesday to clear some of the last remaining convictions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as some still stood following President Donald Trump’s mass pardons last year.anaur 6, 2021

The filing, submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, asks the court to “vacate” the convictions of four members of the Proud Boys: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

The four were convicted in 2023 of multiple felony charges, and all but Pezzola were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Chances are good that these felons will be back in the news, even if the convictions are vacated. People of low character often are repeat criminals, that’s true. But what we also know to be factual is that the number of pardoned criminals from January 6th who have returned to committing heinous crimes, such as child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots, and charges related to a vicious dog attack, is markedly high.

One abuse of office that Trump engaged in was the clemency granted on the first day of his second term to everyone, including those who violently stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6th. He did not distinguish between rioters who were ‘relatively peaceful’ and perhaps only smeared their feces on the walls or urinated on the floor, from those who attacked police officers and were responsible for deaths. About 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters received a clean slate, regardless of their actions.

I have argued that pardoning the rioters undermined the deterrent effect of the justice system, a system that relies on the idea that consequences discourage future wrongdoing. Even the most woeful parent grasps that if a child does something egregious, but then is absolved of any punishment, it only leads to the likelihood of the child repeating the action. What we are witnessing from a segment of the lowlifes who turned their back on the nation and sided with Trump by attacking the Capitol on his command is that granting pardons has only emboldened them to test the limits of force. This layer of male trash in the nation believes they are shielded from accountability. To them, I say, though honestly they would not be able to digest the idea, that the stability of democratic institutions depends on the consistent application of law.

With that as a bit of background and the lay of the land as I see it, here is a list of what MAGA looks like when arrested and booked into jail. Thanks to the New York Times Editorial Board. Please note how many of these crimes were committed against children and women. I suspect the lines are exceedingly short when it comes to women lining up for the men below, saying, “I gotta get me some of that.”

• On March 5, a court in Florida sentenced Andrew Paul Johnson to life in prison for molesting a 12-year-old boy and a girl of the same age. To keep the children quiet, Mr. Johnson is said to have promised to bequeath to them part of a Jan. 6 restitution payment from the federal government that he claimed he would receive. He used the online gaming platforms Discord and Roblox to reach out to the children after Mr. Trump freed him from prison. On Jan. 6, Mr. Johnson entered the Capitol through a broken window and accosted police officers.

• In the past two months, Jake Lang destroyed an ice sculpture outside the Minnesota State Capitol, leading to a felony vandalism charge, and helped organize an anti-Muslim rally in New York City that turned violent. On Jan. 6, he was caught on camera storming the Capitol with a baseball bat and a riot shield, which prosecutors said he used to attack police officers.

• In May, Zachary Alam was arrested for breaking into a house in Virginia and stealing a tablet computer and a diamond necklace. On Jan. 6, he was among the first to enter the Capitol building from its west lawn and hurled items at police officers from a balcony. At his sentencing hearing, he was unrepentant: “Sometimes you have to break the rules to do what’s right.” He had previous convictions for auto theft and driving under the influence.

• Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys, scuffled with protesters at a news conference and was briefly detained on assault charges, a month after Mr. Trump freed him from a 22-year prison sentence. Mr. Tarrio was one of the leaders behind the Jan. 6 attack, but he was not in Washington on the day of the riot. He had been kicked out of the city after vandalizing a Black church after an earlier pro-Trump rally. An additional eight Jan. 6 rioters were out of prison when Mr. Trump pardoned them and have since been charged with new crimes:

• On March 25, a judge sentenced Daniel Tocci to four years in prison for possession of more than 110,000 child pornography images. During the Jan. 6 riot, he joined the mob as it broke into the Capitol and destroyed and took government property.

• On March 1, Bryan Betancur grabbed a woman’s hair on the Washington Metro, leading to a charge of assault and battery. At least two women have also accused him of stalking. He was already on probation for a burglary conviction when he stormed the Capitol and helped rioters circulate furniture that most likely was used as weapons.

• In October, Christopher Moynihan threatened to kill Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and pleaded guilty to a harassment charge over the incident. On Jan. 6, he was among the first rioters to breach police barricades and eventually broke into the Senate chamber.

• Robert Packer was arrested in September after his dogs attacked people, putting four in the hospital. He previously had a long criminal record that included theft and drunken driving, and during the Jan. 6 riot, he wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt.

• John Andries violated a legal order requested by the mother of his child by repeatedly following and confronting her, leading to a sentence in June of 60 days in jail and three years of unsupervised probation. On Jan. 6, he entered the Capitol through a broken window and pushed police officers once inside.

• Brent Holdridge was arrested in May for stealing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of industrial copper wire. On Jan. 6, he was scheduled to be in jail on separate drug-related charges, but he skipped his booking and joined the mob as it breached the Capitol.

• Jonathan Munafo was rearrested last year after he allegedly fled federal supervision imposed for dozens of menacing phone calls, including one in which he threatened to “cut the throat” of a 911 dispatcher. During the riots, he punched a police officer twice, stole his riot shield, and used a wooden flagpole to try to break a window.

• Days after he was pardoned, Matthew Huttle is said to have resisted arrest during a traffic stop, and a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed him. The police said he had a gun. On Jan. 6, he helped take over the Capitol and joined rioters in chanting, “Whose house? Our house.”

This list does not include at least 27 rioters who committed other crimes before they received their pardons. That group includes one woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing someone while driving drunk and a man who livestreamed a bomb threat while driving around Barack Obama’s neighborhood in Washington.