The Criminal Government Jails Another Innocent

If you have two standards of justice, spoiler alert, you have zero standards of justice.

Jazz Shaw:

Riley June Williams has been sentenced to three years in prison along with three years of supervised release and a $2,000 fine...

She was just 22 years old at the time. Prosecutors had done their best to throw the book at the young woman, asking for more than seven years in prison. Her attorney requested one year and one day. The judge apparently felt that three years was a compromise. But as with so many of these show trials, a closer look at what Williams was actually accused of and the charges where they managed to obtain convictions doesn't exactly paint the picture of a dangerous desperado.

[Associated Press:]

A Pennsylvania woman linked to a far-right extremist movement was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol, where she invaded then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office with other rioters.

Riley June Williams, 23, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was charged but not convicted of helping steal a laptop from Pelosi's office suite during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

A federal jury convicted Williams in November of six charges, including a felony count of civil disorder, after a two-week trial. But it deadlocked on two other counts, including "aiding and abetting" the laptop's theft.

She "invaded" the office.

I thought she was just an Undocumented Visitor, no?

She admitted stealing Nancy Pelosi's stupid gavel, which is a cheap implement that Jazz Shaw says would cost between $20 and $100, tops.

The prosecutors ginned up a case against her by claiming that her words were an "accelerant" for "mayhem."

So she was jailed for her words.

Riley entered the building through a door that had already been broken open by others. Once inside she allegedly "yelled at" some of the police officers. Prosecutors described her actions as "acting as an accelerant, exacerbating the mayhem." (Whatever that's supposed to mean.) She was also accused of "using men wearing helmets and body armor like a human battering ram," pushing them toward some of the Capitol Hill Police from behind. How much actual "pushing" of adult men the slightly-built young lady could manage was not explained.

...

At her trial, the jury didn't seem to be too impressed with the monstrous nature of Riley's crimes. They failed to convict her of "obstructing an official proceeding." That's the big ticket item that supposedly made the riot "an insurrection." They also refused to convict her of "aiding and abetting" the theft of a laptop from Pelosi's office. How does one even do that? How many people does it take to steal a laptop? Did she point at it and yell, "look! There's a laptop?"

In the end, Riley Williams was convicted of interfering with law enforcement officers, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers, disorderly conduct, and, of course, "parading." (They've charged everyone from the riot with parading.) And for that, the now-23-year-old Williams was sent to prison for three years. This is happening while actual rioters in California and Oregon who smash the windows out of stores and steal as much as $1,000 worth of retail merchandise are given probation if they are even pursued at all. It's one hell of a justice system we've got going here, isn't it?

Incredible.

Meanwhile, Julie Kelly reports on the FBI flooding more informants into the Proud Boys than there are actual Proud Boys.

Meanwhile, Antifa remains almost entirely unprosecuted by federal "law" enforcement!

Informants Everywhere

The shroud of secrecy surrounding the FBI's foreknowledge and engagement in the events of January 6 is disintegrating, no matter how hard Beltway lifers try to keep it intact.

By Julie Kelly
March 23, 2023

After nine weeks of testimony from multiple government witnesses, including FBI agents, the Justice Department finally concluded its case-in-chief in the Proud Boys' seditious conspiracy trial on Monday.

Five Proud Boys, including the group's leader, Enrique Tarrio, are accused of conspiring to "oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force" on January 6, 2021. It is Attorney General Merrick Garland's most consequential case related to January 6; convictions will help build a similar case against Donald Trump largely based on his infamous "stand back and stand by" remark to the Proud Boys during an October 2020 presidential debate.

Most of the evidence is nothing more than inflammatory, braggadocious chatter in group texts; Tarrio wasn't even present at the Capitol on January 6. Another defendant, Ethan Nordean, can be seen on surveillance video walking through an open door as Capitol police stood nearby.

Similar to other so-called "militia" groups tied to January 6, no one brought weapons to the Capitol that day; no one was charged with assaulting police officers or lawmakers. A key piece of evidence that prosecutors claimed was a road map for the "attack" on the Capitol wasn't produced by any Proud Boy but by a former intelligence asset who himself sent the plan to Tarrio through a third party.

But Tarrio is guilty of having an email account capable of receiving such criminal plans.

So everyone, if someone sends you something to your email box, the federal government believes that is evidence you yourself wrote it. Or should be construed as having written it.

The document represented just one more instance of how a government agent helped shape the government's narrative that the Proud Boys plotted in advance to carry out an "insurrection" on January 6. In fact, much like the FBI-engineered plan to "kidnap" Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, court proceedings confirm that FBI assets might outnumber criminal defendants.

At least 10 and possibly up to 15 FBI informants were embedded in the group months before and continuing after the events of January 6. Informants participated in numerous group chats, cozied up to leadership, and even accompanied the Proud Boys to Washington.

One known informant, according to a September 2021 New York Times report, was involved in the first breach of Capitol grounds and entered the building that afternoon.

But prosecutors and Judge Timothy Kelly have tried their best to prevent the public from learning the full scope of the FBI's involvement. The docket is littered with sealed hearings and filings; prosecutors presented to the defense team heavily redacted reports related to FBI informants just before the trial began.

"Everything has been done under cover," one defense attorney recently complained in court. A consortium of major news corporations also knocked Kelly this week for holding "sealed hearings and exclud[ing] the press and public from attending proceedings in this high-profile case."

Kelly also took the highly unusual and prejudicial step of requiring the defense to "pre-clear" questions with prosecutors before asking a witness about the use of informants--but information is slowly trickling as the defense finally gets their turn.

For the second time this month, Kelly suspended the trial on Wednesday after prosecutors confessed that a key witness for the defense, who was scheduled to testify on Thursday, had worked as an FBI informant during the entire investigation. Although prosecutors have known for months that the defense might call this person as a witness, they waited until the last minute to tell defense attorneys, who were blindsided by the news.

The DOJ "forgot" to inform the defense of the fact that they had an FBI spy in their ranks.

It got worse from there. A bombshell motion filed by the defense shortly after the disclosure revealed the informant cozied up to defendants and their attorneys for more than 20 months--from April 2021 until January 2023 when the trial began.

"During this period of time, the CHS (confidential human source) has been in contact via telephone, text messaging and other electronic means, with one or more of the counsel for the defense and at least one defendant," wrote Carmen Hernandez, the public defender representing Zachary Rehl. "During this period of time, the CHS also participated in prayer meetings with members of one or more of the defendants' families. The CHS also engaged in discussions with one of the defendant's family members about replacing one of the defense counsel. The above may not include all the communications that were initiated by or engaged in by the CHS."

The US Attorney overseeing the case said it's the defense counsel's fault for talking with an FBI informant.

Further, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves' office argued, the fact that "defense counsel chose to communicate with the CHS about matters related to this prosecution is a decision made by them."

As the trial drags on, Kelly has his hands full running interference for the Justice Department. (Kelly is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, the same office handling every January 6 prosecution.) The judge abruptly suspended the trial a few weeks ago amid the discovery of thousands of hidden messages exchanged between FBI agents that discussed doctoring a report about an informant, destroying evidence, and FBI surveillance of communications between Rehl and his former attorney.

...

Kelly this week similarly quashed a defense subpoena to compel testimony from another Proud Boy who also turned out to be an FBI informant. Proud Boy member Kenneth Lizardo, Kelly admitted in his order, "closely interacted" with the group, particularly Tarrio. Lizardo picked Tarrio up from jail on January 5--he had been arrested on charges of burning a Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020--and drove him to an underground garage where Tarrio met with Stewart Rhodes, the now-convicted head of the Oath Keepers.

Lizardo warned he would invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege to avoid potential criminal charges himself for his involvement with the Proud Boys and presence at the Capitol on January 6. So Kelly let him off the hook while noting Lizardo "has had a reporting relationship with the FBI."

That's one way to put it.

posted by Ace at 03:02 PM

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