The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has politicized J6 to such an extent that it has effectively withheld exculpatory evidence from J6 defendants and their attorneys. As Mike Davis, former Chief Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, pointed out, a lawyer should not have to go to a "room in the basement of the Capitol during COVID" to find a needle in a haystack.
There are allegedly over 40,000 hours of J6 footage that have not yet been made public. Tucker Carlson "destroyed the insurrection narrative" on Monday's show with video excerpts from the event. Carlson commented, "Taken as a whole, the video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim. You would never have known from the media coverage." President Trump praised McCarthy and Tucker Carlson for the release of the footage.
Hundreds of people are still being mistreated and held in jails without a trial for entering the Capitol. Many did nothing more than look around. Carlson showed video evidence of Jacob Chansley being escorted around by the Capitol police. According to the DOJ, he is currently serving 41 months in prison "for criminal conduct" that amounted to his wandering around with a Viking hat, a megaphone, and an American flag. His lawyer thinks he may be released soon.
On Tuesday, Davis commented on the DOJ handling Chansley's case on Bannon's War Room. Davis states
"[The] Justice Department has an obligation under the Constitution to provide to defendants exculpatory evidence. Tucker's video showed clear exculpatory evidence that Jacob Chansley should not be in prison for 41 months."
Davis explained that "it's not good enough" just to tell attorneys that video footage is available. "There is this constitutional case called Brady where the prosecutors have to turn over to the defense attorneys exculpatory evidence. They didn't do that here."
Meanwhile, Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer are condemning Carlson's "shameful hour" on the Senate floor while asking Fox News to stop releasing the January 6 videos. He says Carlson and others are "lying about the J6 protests" by saying it was not an insurrection.
CNN featured commentary from documentary producer Ken Burns, who said Carlson is "rewriting history at the most dangerous level. It's a huge threat to our republic." Burns alleges Carlson is lying and evokes Nazi Germany's Potemkin villages to conceptualize how Carlson's narrative is merely a façade for the facts. "It's terrifying; it feels like a Soviet system, the way the Nazis might build a Potemkin village," said Burns.
Adam Kinzinger said Fox is "knowingly lying to its viewers," but raw video evidence is hard to dispute. Even Elon Musk is beginning to piece the truth together.
Julie Kelly Has Done Her Homework on J6
Investigative journalist Julie Kelly has faithfully reported on the facts of the J6 defendants, digging through thousands of pages of evidence and lawsuits and attending court hearings. She says most of the attorneys for J6ers were "forced to sign" requests from the DOJ to protect the department from releasing "most evidentiary material before gaining access to discovery." Chansley was one of those required to sign the DOJ's protective order.
And for those who adamantly maintain there is nothing to see here, "it's all public," they say—Kelly shows evidence of the "strict rules" related to video with "highly sensitive material" that cannot be shared. Kelly first reported on Chansley's "peaceful interaction" with the nine Capitol Police officers in May 2021.
The facts are that some did vandalize property on January 6. Damage to the Capitol allegedly "required the expenditure of more than $1.4 million dollars for repairs." However, as a whole, the protest cannot be called a violent insurrection, nor was it comparable to 9/11, as Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi might have you believe.
It seems as though MAGA protestors were the only ones who died that day—some, like Roseanne Boyland, were violently beaten. It has been extraordinarily difficult to get the word out that Officer Brian Sicknick was not "beaten with a fire extinguisher" but, in fact, died the following day of natural causes. Newly released footage shows "Sicknick walking around after the time the Democrats said he was murdered."
There is little doubt that officers were unprepared and overwhelmed by the crowd on January 6. President Trump authorized reinforcements for the Capitol Police, but Mayor Bowser and Pelosi turned him down. Kash Patel was the Chief of Staff at the time and confirmed the blocked request as early as 2021.
There is evidence the DC Police "broke rules and police policy" on January 6, throwing flash bombs into the crowd and, at times, tasering innocent people. @NoVA_Campaigns posted an excellent thread of officer bodycam documenting some of the actions of the DC police that day.
If all footage is released, the videos may tell the story of Feds and Antifa operating as instigators on January 6, as explained by Rep. Thomas Massie.
J6ers Sentenced, Antifa Not So Much
The fate of most J6 defendants starkly contrasts with the fate of most Antifa rioters who continue to burn autonomous zones in cities nationwide and go unprosecuted. There seems to be a rampant politicization of justice regarding the J6 defendants. AG Merrick Garland says he applies the law equally, but many Antifa rioters don't get time because they operate at "night, in the dark. They are clever, and they are doing it in secret."
Most of the J6 defendants were charged with things like disorderly conduct, being loud, and "parading" in Capitol buildings, according to the Capitol Breach cases page on the DOJ website. "18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(l) and (2), states that an individual "(1) knowingly [enters or remains] in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do; and (2) knowingly, and with intent to impede the orderly conduct of Government business."
Another common charge is U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(D) and (G), "which makes it a crime to willfully and knowingly (D) utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress; and (G) parade, demonstrate, or picket in any of the Capitol Buildings."
A table of J6 sentences with penalties and jail time is listed here on the DOJ website. So far, there are 49 pages of sentences. The punishments range from probation with community service and home incarceration and smaller fines to long periods of incarceration with thousands of dollars in fines. A few individuals have received sentences of 120 months of prison time. A gallery sampling of some of the sentencing is pictured below:
[gallery type="slideshow" size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="DOJ Sentences J6ers" ids="49763,49764,49765,49766,49767"]
Plea Deals are Common Because of Fear of D.C. Courts
Many protestors agreed to plea deals because of fears of longer sentences or fear from politicized DC courts and juries. #WalkAway founder Brandon Straka pleaded guilty under duress for disorderly conduct even though he never entered the building and was merely recording the crowd. Dr. Simone Gold from America's Frontline Doctors was imprisoned for 60 days with 12 months of supervised release and fined $9500 for speaking inside the East Rotunda.
Kelly's thread inviting J6 defendants to tell their stories is heartbreaking. They speak of FBI raids, unduly harsh sentences, and suicides of J6 prisoners who gave up hope of ever receiving a fair trial.
Derrick Evans Confirms Justice System is Politicized
UncoverDC interviewed Derrick Evans in July when he was released on bond. He was one of the first to be arrested. He was initially charged with misdemeanors with "prison time of zero to six months." Still, he was later told the DOJ was removing a verbal plea offer only to "charge him on the same day a 1512 obstruction of official proceeding charge. I went from thinking that this was almost over with a misdemeanor to facing 24 years in prison in one phone call."
UncoverDC spoke with Evans again on Tuesday, and he explained what he sees happening to J6ers. Evans says the 1512 charge was recommended for President Trump and is "used for most of the J6 defendants." Evans explains:
"1512 is the felony charge they are slapping on most J6ers because it comes with a possible 20-year prison sentence. Basically, any nonviolent, non-destructive J6er who is not playing ball with them, if you will, or whatever they want them to do for whatever reason—the courts slap them with a felony charge.
One judge recently dropped the charge because he knew it didn't fit. Just to give you some insight. On that charge—that code was created during the early 2000s surrounding the insider bank trading with Enron. What was happening is as people were coming to testify before Congress, people were tampering with those witnesses. They were either bribing them or they were threatening them or they were destroying evidence surrounding those while they were getting ready to testify before Congress. So the 1512 obstruction of official proceeding is under the title of tampering with a witness.
Nobody on January 6 tampered with a witness. That's why one of the judges correctly threw it out. But some of the other judges are liberal activist judges at this point. They're upholding it because that is what they are using to basically force the nonviolent, non-destructive people into plea deals. We know we're not going to get a fair trial in D.C. and you either go to trial and stay 24 years in prison or you take the plea deal for a lesser charge."
Evans agreed to a lesser charge in a plea deal in early 2022. Judge Lamberth sentenced Evans in June 2022. He battled for 18 months while on supervised release and was then imprisoned for three months. He currently serves another "three years of supervised release, which means they track your phone, social media accounts, bank accounts, everything."
He had just been sworn in as a delegate from Wayne County when he boarded the bus for D.C. on Jan.5. He resigned from W. Virginia's legislature "under pressure on January 9" without serving in office a single day. He is currently running for Congress in W. Virginia.
Evans told UncoverDC he "ultimately decided to swallow his pride" and take the final plea deal. He had a wife and four young kids at home and no money to pay the mounting legal fees. At the time of his arrest, his wife was nine months pregnant. He spent only a few hours in jail that day. Evans tried to fight the charges but ran out of money. He was told, "he made too much money to be eligible for a public defender."
Evans said he never planned to enter the building, but "everything kind of happened in that moment. It's really kind of surreal." He remembers the police being very friendly; one even gave him a "fistbump" while Evans was inside. He is heard below talking to the officer and asking people not to vandalize property.
Evans also pointed out that most J6 defendants who received longer sentences were given time because of what they said on social media or in text messages. In many cases, a conviction was not because of behavior that constitutes a violent felony. In speaking with individuals in the J6 community, Evans believes "90% of the people who have been charged and convicted—it is based on words, things that we said either leading up to January 6 or at January 6. It's not the things and the actions that we did on that day. It's only the things we said. It's really sad and scary."
