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According to a consultant who advises clients on what they can expect if they are convicted and sentenced to jail time, a substantial number ofparticipants in the Jan 6th insurrection whom he has been consulting with have been surprised to find out that jail time is almost a certainty.
In an interview with Business Insider, Federal Prison Time Consulting founder David Wise said he heard from a number of indicted Capitol rioters after they had been taken into custody and indicted, and more than a few asserted that they thought their case would "blow over" and they would walk with just a slap on the wrist.
According to Wise, he quickly disabused them of the notion.
Speaking with Insider's Sophia Ankel, Wise recalled, "A lot of them really thought nothing was going to happen. They were like: 'No, this is going to get blown over. I just wanted to have a quick call with you to see what you thought.'"
He added he advised his clients, "It's not going to blow over. This is too public," before stating, "I've let them know that."
Ankel adds, "The charges most of his clients face are mainly misdemeanors, such as parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, although some also face obstruction charges."
Wise added that, once he set his clients straight about what they might face, they grew frightened.
"Many of them are feeling really scared about it," he conceded.."There is a big difference between the people that showed up and the people that stormed the Capitol. Pretty much all of my clients are remorseful about what happened."
You can read more here.
Leak: White supremacists planned to implicate girlfriends in attacks to keep them quiet
According to a report from the Daily Beast, 17 hours of leaked recordings of white supremacist Patriot Front members revealed that they were not only planning acts of vandalism but also discussed ideas for making sure their girlfriends didn't rat them out to authorities afterward.
The Beast's Kelly Weill reports that the audio recordings, obtained by media non-profit Unicorn Riot, included conversations about upcoming protests, plans to recruit as well as conversations about their personal lives.
As Weill wrote, conversations about their girlfriends and how they might react to their antics were a major concern.
The Beast report notes, "The leaked chats and audio recordings give more insight into the group, including plans to target Black and LGBT artwork, and to 'blackmail' members’ girlfriends participating in hate sprees," withe Weill adding, "The vandalism was also intended to keep Patriot Front members’ partners from turning on the group, the leaks suggest. In the recordings, a group leader tells members to bring their girlfriends to graffiti events, so that they would be less likely to report them to authorities in the future."
RELATED: ‘Having sex with women is gay’: White nationalist praises involuntary celibacy
In a back-and forth in the leaked recordings, one unidentified Patriot Front member told an associate, "She knows the second she says anything or if I get in trouble, she goes down the shitter, too,” to which his colleague answered, "A blackmail situation,” earning a "Pretty much" reply.
The Beast also reported, "Another said he had taken his ex on a graffitiing excursion “and I think that’s part of the reason she won’t dox me, cause like, if she says anything, it’s like well to be fair, you did white supremacist activism, too, at one point.”
"In the latest leaked recordings, the group’s leader said he anticipated attending more March For Life events in 2022. (The recordings came before a draft document showed that the Supreme Court was likely to overturn Roe v. Wade.)" the Beast report added.
You can read more here.
Republicans' decision to ignore Jan 6th subpoenas will come back to haunt them: legal expert
During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance called the move by the House committee investigating the Jan 6th insurrection to subpoena six key Republican House members a "win-win" whether they appear or not.
On Thursday, in a major move, the committee issued subpoenas for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), along with three of their colleagues seeking their testimony on the events surrounding the insurrection following the 2020 presidential election, and, reportedly, none of them are expected to appear.
Speaking with host Phang on Saturday morning, Vance stated their refusal to appear would hand investigators a powerful weapon for the June hearings that they wouldn't have if they simply showed up and testified.
According to Phang, there are calls to have marshals round up the lawmakers and bring them to the hearing, asking Vance, "Is this too much of an extreme position to take to obtain compliance in this case?"
"This is one of the old powers that has not been used for 100 years and it would not work well with private citizens" she replied that "... it has more vitality when it has members of Congress."
"Here is why, in some ways, the subpoena situation is a win-win for Democrats, whether the test they testify or not," she continued. "They already have volumes of testimony from staff and others, they have tapes, they really know what was going on in large part. If these essential members of Congress refused to comply with the subpoenas, in the hearings, the committee will have the opportunity to tell the American public the story of what happened and to make the point that these witnesses refused to testify."
"Katie, you know like I do, from trying criminal cases, in this setting, prosecutors are forbidden to mention that they refused to make a statement or to comment on a defendant's failure to testify; the inference is so incriminating," she elaborated. "If you have a legitimate story to tell, they would tell it. In the congressional hearings there is no restriction on what the interlocutors can tell the public. They can comment on the fact that these five did not comply with the subpoenas as well as others. They can tell the people that they can draw negative inferences from that, and essentially it will come down to how powerfully the committee can use this failure by these members to convince the American people about the truth of their version of what happened on January 6t."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
MSNBC 05 14 2022 07 17 32 www.youtube.com
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