Food for thought, Pence saying "I'm not getting in that car." Here in America with our secret service.

 

'He wanted violence': Historian suggests Trump was ready to 'sit by' during congressional assassinations

Matthew Chapman
October 14, 2022



Trump gestures as he addresses a press conference at the Lotte Palace Hotel. (Shutterstock.com)


On Friday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat," historian Michael Beschloss outlined how the new evidence emphasizes how former President Donald Trump was actively rooting for violence on January 6.

This comes after the last scheduled public hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the attack revealed new footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calling to ask for help from the National Guard from inside the Capitol as rioters began to breach the complex.

"I think the biggest question here is ... you've got Schumer and Pelosi begging the governors of Virginia and Maryland — it's not even their jurisdiction — to send in armed forces to restore public safety to the United States Capitol because the president of the United States wouldn't do it," said Beschloss. "He was sitting in the room off the Oval Office. He was watching TV. and by most accounts, enjoying the violence and enjoying the fact that so many people seemed to be demonstrating on his behalf."

"Here's the question," said Beschloss. "If you would have this kind of riot, this kind of violence at the Capitol, an obvious attack on Congress and the Capitol building, and the lives of Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Pence, members of Congress were in imminent danger. They were a couple of minutes from being killed ... they were a few minutes away from a hostage crisis. Where they could have taken leaders of Congress in and put them on TV and said, we're not going to let this person out until Donald Trump is reinstated as president and serves for the next four years. You don't know what was going to happen."

READ: Manhattan congressional candidate Mike Itkis releases sex tape in push to legalize sex work

No other president could ever have dreamed of doing this, said Beschloss, citing George H. W. Bush as an example: "Let's say there had been an attack on Congress in the Capitol when he had been president, would he have been hands off?"

"Donald Trump is the only president in the history of the United States who if this had happened, would have been so hands off and perfectly fine with letting the danger of imminent assassinations and a hostage situation," said Beschloss. "He didn't do it because he didn't want those things to happen, he did it because he wanted violence, because he thought that was a way of staying in office."

Watch below or at this link.



https://www.rawstory.com/trumps-incites-violence/

 

Judge's 'astonishing' ruling shows 'an ongoing course of criminality' between Trump and Eastman: legal analyst

Brad Reed
October 20, 2022



White House photo


MSNBC analyst and University of Alabama School of Law professor Joyce Vance on Thursday argued that a recent decision by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter marks an unprecedented step toward holding former President Donald Trump legally accountable for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.

In a Twitter thread, Vance argued that Carter's "astonishing" ruling showed that there was "an ongoing course of criminality" conducted by both Trump and attorney John Eastman.

"Trump signed a verification to the [federal] lawsuit attesting that the information in it was correct to the best of his knowledge," Vance writes, summarizing Judge Carter's findings after reading through Eastman's emails. "That’s serious, because before the federal case was filed, Eastman communicated that the numbers were made up junk."

In other words, if Trump were told that his claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election were false but he insisted on keeping them in a lawsuit aimed at delaying the certification of the results, that could go a long way toward proving the former president knowingly attempted to defraud the United States.

RELATED: Newly unearthed texts reveal Marjorie Taylor Greene's failed attempt to recruit Kelly Loeffler on Jan. 6 plan

Vance also argued that Carter "could have gone farther" in his "careful and deliberate" ruling on the emails, but she nonetheless concluded that it will be "deeply damaging to Trump."



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-eastman-emails/

 

New Secret Service documents reveal shocking knowledge of Jan. 6 threats well before the Capitol attack

Sarah K. Burris
October 25, 2022



Secret Service agent outside Doanld Trump's vehicle (Photo by Thomas Samson for AFP)


The U.S. Secret Service is continuing to come under fire for its behavior around the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol and the overall efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In new documents obtained by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) it was revealed that the Secret Service failed to notify the Capitol Police for over an hour of an assassination plot against Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who serves as the Senate Majority Leader.

The right-wing channel Newsmax was left a voicemail before 4 p.m. on Jan. 6 suggesting Schumer would be shot. Schumer was already in an undisclosed location with other members by that time. However, around that same time, as the Capitol was still flooded with attackers, Trump was filming his video that he would release on Twitter asking them to "go home." It was tweeted out by 4:17 p.m. and rioters began to leave the Capitol.





Trump tweet announcing the Jan. 6 protest


Later that day, at 2:40 p.m. a parade permit was submitted

Schumer was't the only one. The Secret SErvice also knew of threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President-elect Joe Biden and Mike Pence, all well in advance.

"A Newsmax editor emailed the voicemail to the Secret Service at 3:59 pm, indicating the timestamp at which the threat was made," said CREW. "The Secret Service forwarded the message to the agency’s Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division (PID) approximately 10 minutes later. US Capitol Police did not receive the voicemail from PID until more than an hour after Newsmax had sent it. The records do not show how explicit the threat was made in the voicemail."

IN OTHER NEWS: Kanye West plummets from billionaire list with loss of Adidas deal

It isn't clear what took the PID so long to flag it for police.

In the post Trump presidency book "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, Vice President Mike Pence is quoted telling his Secret Service chief that he wasn't getting in the car to leave.

Tim Giebels told Pence to get into one of the armored Secret Service vehicles.

“I’m not getting in the car, Tim,” Pence said, according to the book. “I trust you, Tim, but you’re not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.”

WATCH: 'You say it's your body': Marjorie Taylor Greene battles Georgia woman over abortion rights

Pence had said that he didn't want to be seen fleeing the scene, which might give more power to the attackers trying to get to him. However, when speaking about the issue, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) suggested that there could have been a greater danger afoot.

"I wondered if he could trust the Secret Service to take him to a safe place," said Pelosi last week. "I don't know. But I do know that he was in danger in the Capitol and I wanted to be sure that he was protected. He was the vice president of the United States. We owe him -- I mean, it seems self-evident that the president should have been making those statements, but he wasn't."

Already the agency was under fire for its chummy relationship with Donald Trump and his administration. A former Secret Service agent ended up serving as deputy chief of staff, returning to the Secret Service after Trump was out of office.

Then, when the Secret Service was told by Congress to retain documents pending an investigation, they were suspiciously deleted. But the most recent public hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack revealed that the Secret Service had ample warning about what would unfold on Jan. 6. They never flagged it for the Capitol Police, the DC Metro Police, or the DC mayor.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg must be very, very careful with what he says on the stand — here’s why

The documents obtained by CREW raise more questions about the information the Secret Service had ahead of the Jan. 6 attack that they didn't reveal to anyone other than the White House. There's a reason for that, however. The Secret Service was moved under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, a Cabinet-level position that was added after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Secret Service was sounding the alarm to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, who abruptly left on Jan. 12, 2021, after pledging to stay in office until Jan. 20. Wolf was never confirmed by the Senate for the post.

Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli both were found to have deleted text messages around Jan. 6, 2021. It raises questions about whether Wolf was given the information by the Secret Service and if he passed it onto the White House, the Pentagon, Congress or any other law enforcement agencies.

"You know what's going through my mind is what about the Capitol Police who were having to fight for their lives to protect us and another branch of law enforcement knew what was going to happen? It just leads to a lot more questions," Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) told Raw Story outside of the committee hearing room during the break of the final hearing.

As one example of the information given to CREW a screen captures obtained by the Secret Service, a Twitter user named @PJA_tour, which is still active today, tweeted, "Great speech today Mr President," with fist emojis. "The terrific protest afterwards reminded me when the French stormed the Bastille - The Naval Observatory next and then wherever Sleepy Joe sleeps #MAGA"

"I hate to be the Christmas Grinch but please see below information on a potential large demo on January 6, 2021," wrote one Homeland Security Bureau Intelligence Branch official in a Dec. 19, 2020 email at 10:45 a.m.

"Credit goes to [redacted] for finding the initial post. We've found some corroborating information on open source. I have also sent to USPP, USSS and USCP for their awareness. At this time, no one is tracking any permit applications but it looks like this just materialized early this morning so they may start showing up this week," the email then links to a story by the conspiracy website Gateway Pundit. "I know the author of this article and have reached out to her to see how much traction this article and event is getting."

They were completely unaware that just three minutes before that email and after the Gateway Pundit article, Trump announced the Jan. 6 rally on Twitter.

Later that day, at 2:40 p.m. a parade permit was submitted announcing a march from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol. It was only weeks later that the permits were all amended to say that it would be a rally, not a parade. Via text message, however, organizer Kylie Kremer sent a text message to Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow saying they'd be doing the march anyway.

“This stays only between us, we are having a second stage at the Supreme Court again after the Ellipse. POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol," she said.

Far-right activist Ali Alexander also knew the march was still happening. In one text message, Alexander wrote, "Ellipse then US capitol. Trump is supposed to order us to capitol [sic] at the end of his speech but we will see."













Read more about the documents from CREW and see all of them here.



https://www.rawstory.com/secret-service-january-6-documents/

 

This is something I have actually been thinking about ever since J6 and it just keeps getting worse and worse. Is the Secret Service just the most incompetent federal agency we have or are they actual traitors to the United States of America.


'They let us down': Former intel official has questions after Secret Service dropped the ball on Jan. 6

Sarah K. Burris
October 25, 2022



Secret Service guard near The White House, Washington D.C. / Shutterstock.


New documents from the Secret Service given to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) revealed that the department's investigative bureau knew long before Jan. 6 that violence was coming. To make matters worse, their documents also show that they dropped the ball for at least an hour when it came to threats against protectees like then-Vice President Mike Pence, President-elect Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace also recalled that Donald Trump's protection detail was in contact with the Oath Keepers chief Elmer Stewart Rhodes.

Frank Figliuzzi, the former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, said that he expects the Secret Service will give an excuse of it was just an hour or so before they emailed the threat to the Capitol Police at a time of absolute chaos.

"But what is increasingly clear to us is that law enforcement did not work as it should on Jan. 6th or the days preceding it," Figliuzzi explained. "It's also increasingly clear that the threat level should have been raised. Now, I can hear the Secret Service saying, look, we did leave a message with the Capitol Police. We notified them, and Schumer, by 4:00 p.m., was moved to an off-site location. We can see that with the video footage of Nancy Pelosi and Schumer, and others that day in a secure location. But it's broken. right? And while we do tend to pile on to the Secret Service and maybe deservedly so, they protect the president and vice president, they don't protect the other folks. The Capitol Police should get an equal or greater amount of questions. What happened with the threat against Schumer? Did the Capitol Police responsible for his protection and investigating threats against him? Did they follow up? Did they arrest somebody? I've not heard of it."

He went on to say that the FBI should also be facing questions, even confessing that the bureau "let us down."

"They let us down with the amount of threats we know they communicated throughout law enforcement that apparently did not result in hardening the Capitol for what, in my opinion, should have been designated a national security special event," Figliuzzi. "We do it for the Super Bowl. We don't do it for the peaceful transition of power in our Congress, and if we don't learn from these lessons or the Jan. 6th committee doesn't piece together the various dropped balls and worse than dropped balls. Maybe even intentional ignorance of threats because they just couldn't see them as threats or somebody was ordering them to look the other way, from a higher level. If the committee does not address those, then the committee has not helped us with a greater understanding of where things went wrong."

See the conversation below or at this link.


https://www.rawstory.com/hot-off-the-wires/secret-service-fbi-official/

 

How are you betting. Will Trump's sycophants be willing to go to prison for him? Personally I have my doubts. They tend to have two traits. Lie for Trump and cowardice. And I think the latter is their most powerful instinct.


DOJ moving quickly in 'secret court proceedings' in Trump Jan. 6 probe

Igor Derysh, Salon
October 26, 2022



US Attorney General Merrick Garland (AFP)


Investigators are ramping up efforts to penetrate the "privilege firewall" former President Donald Trump has used to avoid scrutiny of his Jan. 6 discussions in "secret court proceedings" in D.C., according to CNN.

The Justice Department last week asked a federal judge to force Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin to testify despite Trump's efforts to block them from answering questions before a grand jury.

Trump has cited executive and attorney-client privilege to prevent disclosures and delay criminal investigations but the DOJ has already been successful in breaking through the privilege firewall, according to the report.

Prosecutors over the past three weeks have scored "significant court victories" in secret proceedings, securing answers from former Mike Pence advisers Greg Jacob and Marc Short. Jacob's testimony on October 6 is the "first identifiable time" that Trump's privilege firewall has been pierced in the criminal investigation, according to CNN. Short had his own grand jury appearance a week later.

All four former officials previously declined to answer some questions about discussions they had with Trump before the former president quietly lost court battles related to testimony from Jacob and Short before the chief judge of the trial-level U.S. District Court in D.C. last month, according to the report. Judge Beryl Howell refused to put the two men's testimony on hold while Trump's lawyers appealed, though the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is still considering legal arguments surrounding the privilege claims.

Jacob, who testified before the House Jan. 6 committee, has been particularly vocal in condemning Trump's actions after the election and his scheme with attorney John Eastman to block the certification of President Joe Biden's win on Jan. 6, calling the lawyer a "serpent in the ear" of the president. After Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Jacob wrote to Eastman, "thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege."

"There is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person would choose the American President, and then unbroken historical practice for 230 years, that the vice president did not have such an authority," Jacob testified to the House panel in July.

Prosecutors are now seeking to compel testimony from Cipollone and Philbin, who had extensive discussions with Trump leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Cipollone previously appeared before the House panel but declined to disclose his discussions with Trump, citing privilege. The two men's roles in the White House counsel's office raise questions about whether Trump can "claim confidentiality over the legal adviser they gave him" and whether a former president can invoke executive privilege to "hold off criminal investigators," CNN reported.

The federal grand jury has also subpoenaed former White House officials Mark Meadows, Eric Herschmann, Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller as well as campaign adviser Boris Ephsteyn, who could also cite privilege to decline to answer questions in the probe. Trump has similarly used both executive and attorney-privilege claims to impede other probes, like the House Jan. 6 investigation, the FBI investigation into national security documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence and the Fulton County, Georgia district attorney's investigation into election meddling. Some privilege questions have remained unresolved and could eventually reach the Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly declined to assert executive privilege over Jan. 6 related information and federal prosecutors who investigated former Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon were also able to overcome attorney-client privilege claims for White House counsel.

The DOJ is "getting A LOT done in under-seal proceedings," tweeted CNN legal reporter Katelyn Polantz.

"In a lot of ways, this is the ballgame for the January 6th criminal prosecutions and the grand jury investigation around Donald Trump and after the election," Polantz said on CNN, noting that investigators have gotten some answers from former officials but Trump is still "trying to block those final answers" from the grand jury.

Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who served on special counsel Bob Mueller's team, said the report was a sign that the DOJ is pressing ahead in its probe of Trump's actions.

"Really important development," tweeted former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman, adding that the DOJ could also turn to the "biggest prize who has dodged testimony to date based on executive privilege argument: Mark Meadows," Trump's former chief of staff.

"Litigating privilege issues is some serious effort by DOJ to get to Trump's conversations with his inner circle," wrote former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade. "You don't do this unless you're determined to turn over every stone."




https://www.rawstory.com/trump-doj-investigation-2658508250/

 

I guess now the best kept secret isn't such a secret any more now is it? Either rawsewage is so full of shit everything about them is dark brown, or there's a lying sack of shit at the DOJ that should be criminally charged and sent to prison... My guess is rawsewage is more full of shit than there being a lying sack of shit at the DOJ...

 

@toniter "Did you know that, generally speaking, predators have eyes close together in the front of their head, while prey (ie rabbits) have eyes more to the sides of their head."

What does that do with his statement about DOJ being lying shits?

 

A judge sentenced a Capitol rioter to more than 7 years in prison, saying he'd assaulted Officer Michael Fanone like 'he was your prey'

A judge sentenced a Capitol rioter to more than 7 years in prison, saying he'd assaulted Officer Michael Fanone like 'he was your prey'
C. Ryan Barber
Thu, October 27, 2022 at 10:10 AM

• 
  A judge said a Capitol rioter treated Officer Michael Fanone as "prey" and a "trophy" on January 6.
  
  
• Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced the rioter to more than 7 years, or 90 months, in prison.
  
  
• Prosecutors had recommended an 8-year sentence and showed pictures of Fanone's scarred neck.
  

Calling him one of the "most serious offenders," a federal judge on Thursday sentenced Capitol rioter Albuquerque Cosper Head to more than 7 years in prison for pulling then-police Officer Michael Fanone into the pro-Trump mob during the January 6, 2021 attack.

"He was your prey, he was your trophy," said Judge Amy Berman Jackson, as she ordered Head to serve 90 months in prison, with credit for the time he's served since his arrest in April 2021.

Under a plea agreement in May, Head admitted to joining in the brutal assault on Fanone, who resigned from the Washington, DC, police force and later testified publicly before the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Prosecutors alleged that Head grabbed hold of a riot shield during the January 6 attack and used it against police officers protecting the Capitol. When he lost control of the shield, he wrapped his arm around Fanone's neck and yelled out, "I got one," as he dragged the police officer into the crowd outside the Capitol.

Following his arrest, Head claimed that he had been trapped in the Lower West Terrace tunnel by the crowd. His lawyer, in a court filing, said Head "became entangled" with Fanone.

But Jackson said that claim was belied by video footage that showed Head's enthusiastic participation in the assault.

Head, she said, "had to want to get there."

"When you grab someone by the neck, you are the actor, you are the initiator," Jackson added.

In the aftermath of the January 6 attack, Fanone has emerged as one of the highest-profile police officers who protected the Capitol that day. With a "Blue Lives Matter" flag swirling overhead, Fanone was stunned with a Taser during the attack, with members of the mob yelling, "Kill him!" and "Get his gun!"

"Kill him with his own gun," another member of the crowd yelled, according to court papers filed by the Justice Department.

Ahead of Head's sentencing, prosecutors recommended that he receive an 8-year prison term. Prosecutors included a photograph of burns marks from the Taser that left scarring on the back of Fanone's neck. Fanone has said he suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury during the assault.


Prosecutors showed scarring on Michael Fannone's neck in a court filing recommending an 8-year prison term for Albuquerque Head.US attorney's office in Washington, DC
On Thursday, Jackson described the prosecution against Head as "one of the most serious cases there is" stemming from the January 6 attack.

Of Fanone, she said, "It was unmissable. He was in uniform. He was on duty, and he was doing his job."

"He was protecting America," the judge added. "That's who Officer Fanone was, that's what Officer Fanone was doing."

This is a developing story.

Read the original article on Business Insider


https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-sentenced-capitol-rioter-more-161031514.html

 

Wanna know why Lake is a despicable propaganda target?
11 points. That's why.

<iframe width="677" height="381" src="" title="Katie Smollet" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Its all just fun and games until the feds show up and you are looking at prison.

Key Proud Boys leader pleads guilty in deal to testify in seditious conspiracy trial: report

Bob Brigham
October 28, 2022



Shutterstock


An attorney for former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio said that a co-conspirator had pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors.

"Details of the plea emerged in a pretrial hearing as the government ratchets up pressure against Tarrio and four other defendants who face trial in December on a charge of seditious conspiracy," The Washington Post reported. "During the hearing in federal court in Washington, Tarrio defense attorney Sabino Jauregui said that John Charles Stewart, 44, of Carlisle, Pa., pleaded guilty in June. Prosecutors interjected, and U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly immediately halted the public session to go behind closed-doors, which after resuming made no further mention of Stewart."

Earlier in October, Jeremy Bertino pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in a deal with federal prosecutors in a deal that requires his ongoing cooperation.

"The disclosure by Tarrio’s defense aligns with court records showing that prosecutors on June 10 charged a defendant who was expected to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators in a case related to Tarrio and four top lieutenants, who stand accused of planning in advance to oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force," the newspaper reported. "The unidentified defendant was charged with conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress, according to the records — initially posted publicly by the court but removed from public view. The charge is the same crime admitted to by Matthew Greene, of Syracuse, N.Y., and Charles Donohoe, of Kernersville, two other cooperating Proud Boys who were previously charged with Tarrio or one of his co-defendants."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough revealed on Friday that all five Proud Boys co-defendants had been offered plea deals.

The Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 12.

Read the full report.


https://www.rawstory.com/seditious-conspiracy-proud-boys/

 

I'm gonna say that shooter doesn't know the context of Biden saying those words, but he'll sure use them to scare people.

 

With Trump thee is a lot to hate.

Right wing posters who are incapable of composing their on comments are tiresome.

 

Speaking of propaganda... Katie Smollett?

 

And didja see?
Liz Cheney thought her opinion would count in Arizona and told Arizonans not to vote for Lake.

Lake attributed the record contributions that started coming in after that to Cheneys "unendorsement".

Gotta ask; is cheney that arrogant or that stupid?

 

Pence Connects Trump’s Election Denial to Jan. 6 In New Book: ‘The Seeds Were Being Sown for a Tragic Day in January’
By Jackson RichmanOct 31st, 2022, 12:39 pm
106 comments




Former Vice President Mike Pence connected former President Donald Trump, whom he served under, and his election denial to the Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.


In his book So Help Me God, which is scheduled to be released on Nov. 15, Pence recalled an Oval Office meeting with Trump following the 2020 election, which Trump lost, in which there was a dispute between campaign lawyers and Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, according to Axios, which obtained an excerpt from the book, on Monday.

“After the campaign lawyers gave a sober and somewhat pessimistic report on the state of election challenges, the outside cast of characters went on the attack … Giuliani told the president over the speakerphone, ‘Your lawyers are not telling you the truth, Mr. President,’” wrote Pence.


“Even in an office well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates, it was a new low …. [and] went downhill from there,” he wrote.


“In the end,” wrote Pence, “that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy … The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January.”

Despite Trump calling for Pence to overturn the election results and in the aftermath of rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” the then-vice president refused to cave and instead oversaw the congressional certification of the electoral college, which Joe Biden won.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/pence...-were-being-sown-for-a-tragic-day-in-january/

 

Feds serve right-wing Parler a warrant for data on Proud Boys: report

Matthew Chapman
October 31, 2022



Prpud Boy Enrique Tarrio (Photo by Chandan Khanna of AFP)


On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that new court filings reveal federal investigators served search warrants to Parler, a right-wing social media platform billed as a Twitter alternative, as part of their investigation into Enrique Tarrio and other members of the Proud Boys.

"A new evidence list in the Proud Boys January 6 trial shows that feds executed search warrants on Parler, the right-wing social media site, in connection with leader Enrique Tarrio and other Proud Boys who hyped up calls for violence ahead of the Capitol attack," reported Kelly Weill. "Five Proud Boys — including Tarrio, the group’s former leader — are each facing nine or more charges for their alleged actions on Jan. 6. Prosecutors say the group engaged in seditious conspiracy when they allegedly plotted to storm the Capitol and prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden’s election."

According to the report, the filing suggests a broader, "sweeping" investigation into the activities of the Proud Boys, a self-styled "Western Chauvinist" group known for its links to white supremacists and its violent street brawls.

"Some of the defendants have fought to block evidence in the case, arguing that internal Proud Boys documents are irrelevant or that they paint the group in a bad light," said the report. "In filings late last week, prosecutors argued that it’s the Proud Boys’ own fault if they look bad in the internal messages, pointing to a defendant who used a racist slur in his username."

In addition to the conspiracy charges, Tarrio is facing a civil suit accusing him of fomenting violence in the attack on the U.S. Capitol — a case in which he plans to represent himself.

RELATED: 'Fire Pelosi' organizer agrees the right wing has 'gone too far'

Parler, one of many right-wing Twitter clones including Gab, GETTR, and former President Donald Trump's own Truth Social, was already useful in helping geolocate the movement of many of the rioters as they traveled from Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally on the National Mall to the Capitol Complex. Pro-Trump rapper Kanye "Ye" West, known recently for his outspoken anti-Semitic rants, agreed to buy Parler earlier this month, but the deal is already riddled with problems.


https://www.rawstory.com/parler-search-warrant/