Judge orders Capitol rioter to stay in jail — because of social media posts warning he'd do it again

On Thursday, a judge in Washington, D.C. denied a request by Karl Dresch, a participant in the Capitol riot on January, 6th, to be released from jail ahead of trial.

Dresch, a man from Michigan, has not been proven by federal prosecutors to have been violent or to have engaged in destruction of property. However, the judge still deemed him to be a threat — because he had essentially vowed on social media to riot all over again if former President Donald Trump gave him the say-so.

"On January 7, 2021, defendant commented on someone else's Facebook post, 'Mike Pence gave our country to the communist hordes, traitor scum like the rest of them, we have your back give the word and we'll be back even stronger,'" noted the order. "Defendant's promise to take action in the future cannot be dismissed as an unlikely occurrence given that his singular source of information [Trump] continues to propagate the lie that inspired the attack on a near daily basis." As evidence, the judge cited Trump's blog.

Trump has faced blame for propagating the conspiracy theories that drove the Capitol riot. In the immediate aftermath, he was impeached for incitement, with a handful of Republicans voting with Democrats both to impeach and, unsuccessfully, to convict.