Dr. Simone Gold, founder of America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) received a sentence of 60 days in prison in addition to 12 months of supervised release and a $9500 fine after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of "entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds." She will also pay $500 in restitution. Gold is known for the viral video of her July 2020 appearance on the steps of the United States Supreme Court.
According to reports from the courtroom, Judge Chris Cooper did not feel she was remorseful.
"Sitting here today, I don't think you have truly accepted responsibility," said Judge Cooper. "Your organization has used your notoriety to raise money to garner support for you in connection with the sentencing and for its general operations by mischaracterizing what this proceeding is all about ... telling your supporters that this is a political prosecution of a law-abiding physician that's designed to threaten and intimidate any American who dares to exercise their First Amendment rights."
"It is obvious from the video that we watched today that you were part of an angry and aggressive, I would say mob, a crowd of people intent on getting past law enforcement and entering the East Rotunda through those doors," he said. "Regardless of how the door got opened, the police were obviously trying to keep people out."
Gold and colleague Dr. John Strand, who has also been charged, allegedly entered the building through an open door. According to a report on the AFLDS website, "police waved protestors in or stood by open doors." She delivered an impassioned speech in Statuary Hall on health freedom relating to her concerns that the American people were unnecessarily fearful about COVID-19 and were not seeing all the "expertise" and treatment options available to treat COVID-19 because of social media censoring and other suppression tactics.
Gold was invited to D.C. to speak at a Jan. 6 rally on health freedom. She delivered a speech on Jan. 5 but the Jan. 6 rally speeches were canceled. On Jan. 6 she walked up to the Capitol building as did many that day. She entered the Capitol building, moving to a "restricted area" where she delivered a speech on medical freedom. When asked to leave by the Capitol police, she did. She told the court that she regrets having mistakenly entered a restricted area. The AFLDS website explains her actions as non-violent and service-oriented:
"In Dr. Gold’s case, the charge was not sexual assault or any other kind of violence. The FBI and prosecutors combed through vast footage, much of which has not been shared with Dr. Gold and other January 6th defendants, but failed to find even one instance of aggressive behavior by Dr. Gold, let alone violence or vandalism. That concords with Dr. Gold’s non-aggressive life devoted to the service of her patients."
A press release issued after her sentencing states that she believes she, "[l]ike most January 6 defendants... is a victim of selective prosecution—the defining feature of corrupted governments." Prosecutors in the case said she should have known what she was doing was illegal.
“Gold, having attended a premier law school, could be expected to have been amply aware that entering the US Capitol with a forceful mob, and rushing past broken windows to do so, was illegal. Gold could be expected to have had an understanding that breaking into the House Chamber on the very day that, under established law, the United States Congress certifies the results of the presidential election, would have particularly harmful consequences for our democracy. Yet Gold joined a mob that attempted to do exactly that.”
Gold believes she is the victim of "concerted" efforts to cancel physicians who speak against the official narrative being communicated by the CDC, FDA, and government officials like Dr. Fauci. She has been concerned about a number of policy decisions associated with the pandemic including what she believed to be unnecessary nationwide lockdowns. She wrote a letter on the subject of lockdowns to President Trump on May 19, 2020. She stated national lockdowns were the cause of a "mass casualty event."
SbTDtGHlhpFScMSAyymD4A
Gold's organization was the subject of an October 2021 U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis investigation "into online entities pushing Coronavirus misinformation and selling unproven treatments." According to some studies, the treatments referenced—Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine—have helped to mitigate the more serious complications from COVID-19 when administered early.
Gold and her colleagues at AFLDS believe that "the attempted silencing of this one doctor was just a preamble for what is to come throughout the nation." In fact, the website references California Assembly Bill 2098 just passed in the House there. The bill, says AFLDS, effectively "puts a gag order on doctors in exchange for a California medical license." The legislation "would designate the dissemination or promotion of misinformation or disinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or “COVID-19,” as unprofessional conduct." The Senate has not yet voted on the bill.
