All posts tagged "Capitol Riots"

Oscar winner Sean Penn has planned to take a closer look at the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack in a new film that is expected to be "a nightmare" for President Donald Trump, The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.

Penn is slated to direct the untitled movie. He has spoken out against Trump, and the story will focus on a police officer "caught in the crossfire," The Beast reported. Academy Award-nominated actor Bradley Cooper is expected to star in the lead role, and the film will be produced by Warner Bros.

"Penn’s interest in writing such a narrative comes as little surprise," according to The Beast. "The One Battle After Another actor is not one to shy away from politics. And, in 2022, he attended a public hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol."...

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig was stunned by the Trump administration's decision to create a $1.8 billion fund that could be used to compensate right-wing rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, and what that could mean for two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol that day and have now filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The former federal prosecutor told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Wednesday the lawsuit filed by Officer Harry Dunn of the U.S. Capitol Police and Officer Daniel Hodges of Washington’s Metropolitan Police was aiming to halt the Trump administration from creating a $1.8 billion slush fund, and whether their case will have legal standing.

"On the one hand, every word that the officers write in this complaint is true," Honig said. "They start off by saying, this is one of the most egregious acts of corruption in presidential history. I think the big legal obstacle, though, is going to be what we call standing, meaning the plaintiff in this case, the officers have to show that they will suffer some concrete injury and that that injury will be caused by the defendant's actions here. The establishment of the funds."...

Critics of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurgency were dumbfounded to learn that the Trump administration had agreed to pay nearly $5 million to the family of slain rioter Ashli Babbitt, as first reported by The Washington Post.

An internal Justice Department investigation in 2021 under President Joe Biden cleared a U.S. Capitol Police officer of any wrongdoing for shooting Babbitt as she tried to breach the barricaded House Speaker’s Lobby, but the Trump administration reversed that ruling. President Donald Trump has framed Babbitt as a "martyr" and "patriot."

"Absolutely disgraceful," attorney Mark S. Zaid posted to X. "This will be an historical black stain - among so many others - on this Administration & those senior officials in Justice Department forever."...

Dozens of J6 rioters who were issued blanket pardons by President Donald Trump had violent criminal histories that judges considered when determining the severity of their sentences, according to new reporting from National Public Radio.

President Trump made good on his campaign promise on his first day back in office by granting clemency to everyone charged or convicted in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those found to have violently attacked police officers.

"While many people had no criminal record prior to committing crimes on Jan. 6, NPR has identified dozens of defendants with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes including rape, sexual abuse of a minor, domestic violence, manslaughter, production of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking," the news outlet reported....

Depending on who you ask, Donald Trump's return to office was either "fantastic or frightening," according to CNN anchor John King, who spoke to nearly 100 voters to gauge how the nation was feeling at the end of his first week. But even voters who said they were excited about some of Trump's policies worried that by Friday, the president seemed "like a bull in a China shop."

Predictably, most of the voters who identified themselves as Republicans found Trump's straight-out-of-the-gate style kicking off his second term, "refreshing," while at least one Democrat called him "unhinged."

Then there were the "middle-ground" voters King spoke with. He quoted one business owner from a Philadelphia suburb who cast her ballot for Trump because she liked his promises to cut taxes and reduce regulations....

MAGA World exploded on Sunday when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told NBC's Meet The Press that it was a "mistake" for President Donald Trump to given blanket pardons to the Capitol insurrectionists.

Host Kristen Welker said, "Even his own vice president said, 'If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn't be pardoned.' Do you believe that President Trump was wrong to issue these blanket pardons to the January 6th defendants?"

Graham answered, "Number one, he had the legal authority to do it, but I fear you will get more violence. Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that's an OK thing to do." ...