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Key Proud Boys members convicted of sedition in Jan. 6 Capitol attack, but threats from far-right remain
- New York Times: Four Proud Boys Convicted of Sedition in Key Jan. 6 Case: Four members of the Proud Boys, including their former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted on Thursday of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep President Donald J. Trump in power after his election defeat by leading a violent mob in attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The fifth defendant in the case, Dominic Pezzola, was found not guilty on the sedition charges, although he was convicted of other serious felonies. The verdicts, coming after seven days of deliberations in Federal District Court in Washington, were a major blow against one of the country’s most notorious far-right groups and another milestone in the Justice Department’s vast investigation of the Capitol attack.
- Washington Post: Proud Boys revealed: Videos, secret chats show how Jan. 6 plot unfolded: To convict Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and three close allies of seditious conspiracy, prosecutors pulled from thousands of videos and text messages indicating that by Jan. 6, 2021, the right-wing group’s anger and aggression toward government authority had been growing for weeks. The Proud Boys were mobilized by President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud and by their own frustration with D.C. police, whom they saw as failing to protect them during street clashes with far-left protesters in late 2020. When Trump called for a “wild” rally in D.C. on Jan. 6, prosecutors said, Tarrio created a hand-picked “Ministry of Self Defense” or MOSD to lead the Proud Boys that day.
- New York Times: After Jan. 6 Sedition Convictions, Far-Right Threats Remain: The guilty verdicts on Thursday against four leaders of the Proud Boys on charges of seditious conspiracy were arguably the most significant victory the Justice Department has won so far in its vast investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors took a victory lap, with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland noting that along with the similar convictions of six members of another extremist group — the Oath Keepers militia — a major blow had been struck against two of the country’s most prominent far-right organizations. And yet on April 23 — one day before closing arguments took place at the Proud Boys trial — fliers blaming Jews for “the rise in transgenderism” were found in the driveways of several homes in suburban Atlanta. One week later, as the Proud Boys case went to the jury, a neo-Nazi group flying a swastika flag protested a drag show in Columbus, Ohio.
- Washington Post: After latest Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy convictions, Trump says Justice Dept. is ‘destroying lives’: A day after federal prosecutors won their latest high-profile cases against leaders of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, former president Donald Trump lashed out in a social media post at the Justice Department, claiming it and the FBI are “destroying the lives of so many Great American Patriots.” “Back in the USA, but sadly I see so many really bad things happening to our Country,” Trump, who broke ground earlier this week on a golf course in Scotland, wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Supreme Court ethics crisis: Justice Thomas revelations expose weak rules amid resistance to reform
- New York Times: Tightening Supreme Court Ethics Rules Faces Steep Hurdles: The drumbeat of revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose lavish gifts and significant financial arrangements with a billionaire Republican donor has put a spotlight on the fact that the Supreme Court has the weakest ethics rules in the federal government. But it is far less clear that anything can be done about it. Justice Thomas’s behavior has underscored that financial disclosure rules for justices are porous and that the court has no binding code of ethical conduct like the one that governs lower-court judges. The court has shown no interest in adopting one, and proposals in Congress to force one upon it face steep political and constitutional hurdles.
- Washington Post: Senate panel asks Crow for full accounting of gifts to Thomas, other justices: The Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter Monday asked billionaire Harlan Crow to provide a full accounting of the free travel and other gifts he has made to Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas or any other justice, marking an escalation of the powerful committee’s efforts to convince the Supreme Court to adopt stricter ethical standards for itself. Judiciary Committee Chair Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and the committee’s 10 other Democrats signed on to the letter asking Crow to provide an itemized list of gifts worth more than $415 that he’s made to Thomas, any other justice or any justice’s family member, as well as a full list of lodging, transportation, real estate transactions and admission to any private clubs Crow may have provided. The Judiciary Committee is now the second Senate committee to target Crow after ProPublica reported that the Republican donor invited Thomas on pricey vacations, bought his mother’s house, and provided Thomas’ grandnephew with private school tuition, most of which were not disclosed by the justice.
- Washington Post: The brazen explanation for concealing the Ginni Thomas payment: Clarence Thomas’s argument for accepting billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow’s largesse over the years and not disclosing it leans heavily on the claim that Crow didn’t have business before the court. That defense isn’t going to cut it when it comes to the news that conservative judicial activist and Thomas family ally Leonard Leo proactively obscured a payment to Thomas’s wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas. So Leo has gone with a different and rather blunt explanation. Effectively it’s: Yes, I did it, because I wanted to hide it. The Washington Post reported late Thursday that documents show Leo in 2012 instructed GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit he advises and pay Ginni Thomas $25,000. He also told her, “No mention of Ginni, of course.”
In The States
GEORGIA: At least eight of Georgia’s ‘fake electors’ have received immunity deals in the 2020 election probe
- Washington Post: At least eight Trump electors have accepted immunity in Georgia investigation: At least eight of the 16 Georgia Republicans who convened in December 2020 to declare Donald Trump the winner of the presidential contest despite his loss in the state have accepted immunity deals from Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating alleged election interference, according to a lawyer for the electors. Prosecutors with the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) told the eight that they will not be charged with crimes if they testify truthfully in her sprawling investigation into efforts by Trump, his campaign and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, according to a brief filed Friday in Fulton County Superior Court by defense attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow. Willis has said that the meeting of Trump’s electors on Dec. 14, 2020, despite Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s certification of Biden’s win, is a key target of her investigation, along with Trump’s phone calls to multiple state officials and his campaign’s potential involvement in an unauthorized breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County, Ga.
MINNESOTA: Governor signs omnibus elections bill, Democracy for the People Act, into law
- CBS Minnesota: Walz signs “Democracy for the People Act” allowing automatic voter registration, pre-registration for teens: Minnesota’s Democrat Gov. Tim Walz on Friday signed the “Democracy for the People Act” into law, a sweeping bill aimed at expanding access to the polls that includes long-sought after provisions from voting rights advocates. The legislation implements automatic voter registration, allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, and creates a permanent absentee voter list that will automatically send people who sign up a ballot each election. “Today is a great day for Democracy,” Walz said. “The ballot is the most powerful thing we have. Your voice is in your ballot. And if you don’t have access to that or it’s made more difficult, your voice is stifled.”
MICHIGAN: False election claims and culture wars still playing out across the state
- Michigan Advance: A GOP claim that Michigan purposely tried to encourage voter fraud doesn’t fit with facts: Republicans at a recent congressional hearing accused Michigan’s chief election official of deliberately leaving tens of thousands of dead voters on the rolls in order to encourage illegal voting. Even at a time of intense partisan conflict over election policies, it was a strikingly direct charge against a sitting official — and one made not by a Twitter activist or even on the campaign trail, but before Congress. And it comes at a time when election officials are already facing a wave of harassment and threats stemming from false claims about voting. But a closer look at the facts makes clear the allegation that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson knowingly kept dead people on the rolls to allow for fraud deserves extreme skepticism. A federal judge has ordered mediation in a lawsuit brought by a conservative voting group alleging Benson, a Democrat, is violating federal law by keeping the voters on the rolls. But the suit stops well short of claiming that Benson deliberately aimed to encourage fraud — in contrast to the claim aired at the congressional hearing.
- MLive: Michigan voters rejected extremism at the polls, but culture wars still loom large: When it comes to supporting causes backed by the far-right, it doesn’t appear average Michigander is biting. From Algoma Township voters deciding their library should remain within the Kent District Library system to Hillsdale County residents ousting a township clerk who cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 elections, a number of causes supported by grassroot conservative efforts were shot down during the May 2 elections. But ask Dave Dulio, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Oakland University, whether it’s an indication these causes are losing steam with the average voter and he’ll tell you: That remains to be seen. “Trying to extrapolate much of anything from a May election in Michigan is really, really difficult, simply because the salience of the May election day is low … When you’ve got a small number of votes cast in total, the winning side doesn’t need to do much work,” Dulio said.
What Experts Are Saying
Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI: “Four of the five Proud Boys members found guilty Thursday for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a rare and gravely serious federal charge. Those seditious conspiracy convictions, combined with earlier ones against the leader of the Oath Keepers and his close associate, represent strategic victories in the Department of Justice’s continuing battle to preserve democracy and are worthy of celebration. But convictions against groups of bad actors sometimes lead to a far greater possibility of attacks carried out by lone actors. That’s why caution is warranted. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers convictions could be good, bad and ugly all at the same time.” MSNBC Op-Ed: Applaud the Proud Boys verdicts. Just don’t breathe a sigh of relief.
Oren Segal, the vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism: “‘The sedition trials were important for bringing a sense of accountability and for showing that actions have consequences,’ said Oren Segal, the vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. ‘But that doesn’t mean that we have moved past the right wing’s antidemocratic moment.’” New York Times
Michael Jensen, a senior researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, based at the University of Maryland: “‘[T]he Proud Boys have remained very active since Jan. 6,’ said Michael Jensen, a senior researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, based at the University of Maryland. ‘They really haven’t missed a beat,’ Dr. Jensen said, in part by pivoting from supporting Mr. Trump’s denial of the 2020 election results to cultural grievances over issues such as gay rights.” Wall Street Journal
Jon Lewis, a researcher at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism: “Proud Boys and the broader far right have adapted to pursue a more localized campaign of violence and intimidation against new targets, including the LGBTQ+ community[.]” Wall Street Journal
Sam Jones, head of communications at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project: “One nonprofit that monitors extremism, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, recorded 143 incidents of Proud Boys political violence or protest activity in 2022. ACLED says that was a decrease from the 166 incidents it recorded in 2021 but an uptick compared with the 128 logged in 2020…‘Proud Boys activity actually increased after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot compared with 2020,’ said ACLED communications head Sam Jones. ‘Our data indicate that they remain one of the most active—and most violent—far-right groups in the country.’” Wall Street Journal
Robert Pape, a scholar of political violence at the University of Chicago: “has been studying a group that has traditionally been ignored by experts in his field: the more or less ordinary people who took part in the violence that day [on January 6]. One of his key findings was that those who joined in the riot were likely to have come from places with a declining white population and were awash in fears that the rights of minorities and immigrants were crowding out the rights of white people.‘There is tremendous anger and anxiety coming from these huge demographic shifts that are, and will be, affecting the country for years,’ Mr. Pape said. ‘That anger can be focused, amplified and accelerated by political elites and entrepreneurs.’” New York Times
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Bloomberg/Washington Post: ‘We Just Want Someone Sane’: What Happens When a Small Town Goes MAGA
Intelligencer: Reporting from Trump’s America, Jeff Sharlet finds a slow-motion civil war
New York Times: Under the Radar, Right-Wing Push to Tighten Voting Laws Persists
Trump Investigations
ABC: In closing argument, attorney for E. Jean Carroll says she was ‘exactly’ Trump’s type
January 6 And The 2020 Election
NBC: Jan. 6 rioter in pink beret identified after ex spotted her in a viral FBI tweet
Washington Post: Behind Trump’s musical tribute to some of the most violent Jan. 6 rioters
New York Times: Jan. 6 Rioter Gets 14 Years for Police Attacks, Longest Sentence Yet in Inquiry
Washington Post: Oath Keepers founder Rhodes asks for leniency in sedition sentence
Opinion
New York Times: Tucker Carlson’s Dark and Malign Influence Over the Christian Right
The Hill: To protect democracy from machines, Congress must modernize our constitutional right to petition
New York Times: Supremely Arrogant
The Hill: There’s only one way to fix gerrymandering (and it’s not through the courts)
New York Times: E. Jean Carroll Must Be Going Through Hell
The Hill: To testify or not to testify: Trump’s fateful choice
In the States
Truthout: Texas House Passes Bill to Allow Election Workers to Carry Guns at Polling Sites
NPR: Advocates in Florida clamor for a fix for the formerly incarcerated who want to vote
NBC 6 South Florida: Judge Recommends Tossing Miami District Maps Because of Likely Racial Gerrymander
