The ordeal of Brady Knowlton
Here’s another January 6th defendant story that will chill your blood:
Brady Knowlton entered the U.S. Capitol building at 2:35 p.m. on January 6, 2021. Like hundreds of other people that day, he walked the halls of Congress — first the Rotunda, then the lobby, then the Senate chamber gallery.
A 40-year-old law student, Knowlton and a friend gained access to the Capitol through the Upper West Terrace doors. To do so, they and others passed several police officers walking in their opposite direction, according to footage and discovery materials reviewed by The Daily Wire. Knowlton told The Daily Wire that an officer said, “You can go in, as long as you don’t break anything.” He says he watched police shake hands with protestors. He broke nothing, and left after 18 minutes.
He now faces about 20 years in prison. His law degree has been withheld, his lawyers say, Airbnb has banned him and his wife, and, for reasons that remain undisclosed, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stripped his Global Entry access…
“He went to Washington to exercise his First Amendment right to petition the government for what he believed was a redress of grievances,” Alan Dershowitz, an attorney for Knowlton, told The Daily Wire in an interview. “And he’s been lumped together with people who caused damage or who intended to obstruct. He wasn’t intending to do that. He just intended to protest.”
The whole thing is well worth reading. But sadly, it’s a now-familiar story.
What have we become? I think I know the answer, and it’s not good.
“What have we become? I think I know the answer, and it’s not good.”
It’s been said countless times, both here and elsewhere: what we have become, I do not recognize, but it sure is not USA as (was once widely) advertised. God help us.
This is a very sad story indeed, as was the melancholy tale of Matthew Perna, whose young life ended by suicide (“a broken heart”) through the relentless zealotry of the prosecution, which was, of course, nothing more than ideologically-driven persecution. All are encouraged to read (on the SubStack of Bari Weiss) “The Takeover of America’s Legal System” by Aaron Sibarium, yet another warning about what has been happening to our system of (in)justice, currently presided over by the truly ghastly Garland and, sadly, unlikely to be reformed even should the Republicans prevail in the fall.
Again, the DC judiciary is colluding with an abusive prosecutors office in these cases. Every defendant should be pardoned, every prosecutor fired, and the courts responsible stripped of their geographic jurisdiction and henceforth paid in potatoes, once a year.
Every prosecutor and responsible ‘judge’ imprisoned with revocation of their citizenship, no possibility of parole and upon having served their full sentence, immediate deportation.
Or we could just execute them for sedition.
One way or another, cancerous cells must be expelled from a body.
I think part of the reason for the overreaction of the left to January 6th is based on their own guilt at having stolen the election and gotten away with it. Of course after doing what they did they would expect some sort of pushback. If Trump had done to them what they did to Trump, our cities would be in flames and there would be calls to get rid of Trump by any means necessary.
Hardly anybody is covering the story of the abuse of the January 6th prisoners. If you mention the fact that prisoners have been deprived of their rights, most people think you’re a conspiracy nut and that the prisoners are getting what they deserve. There are so many people in positions of power who are complicit in this abuse that it’s hard to imagine anyone ever being held accountable.
All of this is really hard to believe. This is the rawest and most unfair use of political power I’ve ever seen in America. I’d expect something like this in China.
A retired Admiral is running against Chuck Grassley. He claims that the 1-6-21 “insurrection” inspired him to run and that five people were killed.
There’s a video of Chewbacca guy talking with police inside the Capital (in the rotunda maybe, not the House chamber) where the police say, “keep calm, don’t break anything” and he repeats/yells the same thing to the people around him. As opposed to looting a Walmart, which is just income redistribution. We’re operating on the Beria principle: show me the person and I’ll find you the crime.
Related (from Victor D. Hanson):
“Conspirators in Their Own Words;
“Noble left-wing ends always justify odious means, in this case projecting one’s own conspiracist efforts by smearing innocent others as conspiracists.”—
https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/20/conspirators-in-their-own-words/
H/T Powerline blog.
– – – – – – – –
“I’d expect something like this in China.”
Indeed.
It’s classic, “Biden”-style cross-cultural “enrichment”.
I think part of the reason for the overreaction of the left to January 6th is based on their own guilt at having stolen the election and gotten away with it.
They’re psychopaths who do not experience guilt.
A retired Admiral is running against Chuck Grassley.
Grassley is 88 years old and has been in Congress for 47 years. It is beyond stupid that he is running for reelection; a man his age has a life expectancy of 4.8 years and will commonly spend a portion of that cognitively impaired. Our side is in danger of losing the seat because Grassley cannot imagine himself an ordinary citizen.
Agree that Chuck shouldn’t have run for re-election. Stupid. But that’s Iowa.
If these are the facts this is an immense travesty.
@ Barry > “Conspirators in Their Own Words”; by Victor Hanson.
I read that earlier today. A very articulate and relatively brief summation of all the conspiracy theories that turned out to be true.
Useful if you know any waverers who might be open to reading the truth for a change.
God help us? Western society has turned it back on God. Abortion, sexual perversion, sloth, the list goes on and on. Even without a belief in the God of the Bible there are natural consequences to these actions.
@ Art & Cornhead > “Grassley is 88 years old and has been in Congress for 47 years”
I generally respect the right of people to elect whoever they choose (stupid is as stupid does), and don’t favor term limits per se, but a mandatory retirement age for anyone in government (elected, appointed, employed) really needs to be added to the Constitution.
If some people are all that valuable, they can always be used as a pro bono adviser to the President or Congress, with no more authority than any other person he/she/it might be inclined to consult for advice.
Why don’t they retire voluntarily? Would you?
https://ballotpedia.org/Changes_in_Net_Worth_of_U.S._Senators_and_Representatives_(Personal_Gain_Index)
I recently read either a post or comment where someone proposed (perhaps in lieu of term limits or mandatory retirement) that the wealth and/or income of all Congresscritters (and I would add their spouses*) had to be publicly displayed on a permanent website, with a graph showing the yearly increase through their time in office.
Might persuade some voters to at least look for a reset, although the supporters of Bernie the Socialist weren’t put off by his three mansions that he didn’t feel needed to be redistributed to the workers.
One option to tame the lust for a long run in the House and Senate is to reduce access to the vast amount of money flowing through their hands (hah), or the pelf available to those who know how to find it.
This should have been a good start (2012), not that any of them have been or would be punished under it; and, having written in the necessary loopholes themselves, probably wouldn’t even be indicted. Like most of their self-limiting acts (Pay as you go, for instance), they can set the provisions aside at will and there is no effective enforcement.
They are suggestions, not commandments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act
“Analysis in 2021 by Business Insider shows fifty four members of Congress[7] and numerous staffers violating the STOCK Act.[8]”
From [8]: “Compounding the problem, ethics watchdogs say, is a secretive enforcement process. Both lawmakers and their staff work out any breaches of the law in private. Few are open with the public about why they failed to disclose their stock trades properly or how they worked to fix the issue.”
Here’s the most recent follow-up, from a link in [7], Updated Mar 19, 2022 in some way.
https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9
“While lawmakers who violate the STOCK Act face a fine, the penalty is usually small — $200 is the standard amount — or waived by House or Senate ethics officials. Ethics watchdogs and even some members of Congress have called for stricter penalties or even a ban on federal lawmakers from trading individual stocks. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are now seriously debating such a ban.”
I wish them good luck with that ban, but don’t expect it to be enforced any more than the old law is.
Another option for encouraging more turnover would be to change their pensions (defined benefit for tenure IIRC) into plain 401(k)s, so there is no more advantage to being in Congress than to being in business, or as talking heads on ABCNNBCBS.
* * *
I can’t find the post now (of course). Sometimes I think Brave is laundering my bookmarks – I know I read, during the last few days, about Feinstein’s husband’s investments in China while she was pumping CCP deals in Congress, but I can’t find anything there or even in a DDG search.
However, this 2000 post is the sort of thing I’m talking about, and Feinstein’s name is just the one stuck in my head.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Husband-invested-in-China-as-Feinstein-pushed-3051244.php
The two of them never talked to each other about his business or her votes, of course.
I also found out he died on Feb 27 this year, which I hadn’t seen. RIP Mr. Blum.
The country’s in trouble. Massive trouble.
All of “Biden”‘s distractions—including Ukraine—are meant to conceal this.
Just one massive coverup after another….
But it cannot be concealed. Whether on campus, in the law schools, in K-12, in hospital, in corporations, in stores or in the swimming pools of the nation….
Fundamental Transformation(TM) is the order of the day. That cold, feral, noxious belief is “blowin’ in the wind” everywhere across the land of the once-free.
Obama is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams….
“The Takeover Of America’s Legal System”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/takeover-americas-legal-system
Art Deco on March 21, 2022 at 5:05 pm said:
Geoffrey Britain on March 21, 2022 at 6:09 pm said:
Did you two really just agree with each other??!
Of course, it is a subject worthy of consensus, but still….
Recent threads have made me glad that we can’t unfriend each other on Neo’s blog (only She Who Holds The One Apple has that power).
Barry and I were apparently racing for the post; read his link for that Consensus Subject.
“They’re psychopaths who do not experience guilt.”
Exactly right. Moreover they accuse their opponents of being guilty of the crimes which they themselves committed—and/or plan to commit. (I’m not even sure this can be labeled “projection” anymore, since it is a CONSCIOUS strategy with “malice aforethought”.)
And it’s a huge, huge problem because it’s propelling the nation towards the law of the jungle. Worse, actually, since there’s a rhyme and reason for the law of the jungle….
Rather, 1984: The Democrats are pushing the country into a situation of pure power-lust for the sake of power.
Hence one can understand the accommodation—or at least the initial accommodation—between “Biden” and the Mullahs, and especially, between “Biden” and Putin. Regarding the latter, if the rhetoric is to be believed, the carefully choreographed accommodation may have gone off the rails…but that’s a big IF.
We shall see….
Just another coverup (in our ever-increasing, Democratic-Party-foisted “reality”):
“‘A lot of hiding’: Senators kept from seeing Sentencing Commission records on Supreme Court nominee;
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin is “hiding” records from Ketanji Brown Jackson’s time as vice chair of the Sentencing Commission, where she championed leniency for child predators, says Michael Davis, former chief counsel for the committee.”—
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/ex-top-senate-judiciary-attorney-says-durbin-hiding-ketanji-brown-jacksons
Which segues “nicely”—i.e., disturbingly—with this link (from above):
“The Takeover Of America’s Legal System”—https://www.zerohedge.com/political/takeover-americas-legal-system
File under: Go TRIBAL and leave the driving to us….
Plus, this…monstrous proof of the country this has become (or at least, its capital…):
“Jan. 6 Suicide Victim Was Told ‘He Would Not Receive A Fair Trial In This Town'”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jan-6-suicide-victim-was-told-he-would-not-receive-fair-trial-town
“Did you two really just agree with each other??!”
Heh…. Clearly a case of:
“The Democratic Party: bringing the country together….”
it is not “we” — it is our government and the mindless criminals who run it and work for it.
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime;” Lavrentiy Beria
And folks, that is where we are today in the USA (a now gone Constitutional Republic).
For those not familiar with Beria, you should look him up; he was one of Stalin’s good pals.
John Tyler–
You’re doubtless familiar with the account of Beria’s behavior in 1953 when other members of the Politburo came for him after Stalin’s death: he begged for his life before he was shot in the forehead after being tried and found guilty by a special tribunal: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/lavrenti-beria-executed
Perhaps our contemporary Berias need a refresher course in history.
Pingback:The Crazy Prosecution Of January 6th Protestors | Tai-Chi Policy
Here’s the latest from Julie Kelly, about the swampy J6 prosecutor:
https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/21/a-trump-hating-backer-of-bidens-supreme-court-nominee-is-married-to-the-top-j6-prosecutor/
Plus, this…monstrous proof of the country this has become (or at least, its capital…):
“Jan. 6 Suicide Victim Was Told ‘He Would Not Receive A Fair Trial In This Town’”—
No Republican or conservative would receive a fair trial in DC. DC juries are notorious. The courts are dominated by Obama appointees. It was a DC grand jury that named Nixon “an unindicted coconspirator” in Watergate. The kid from Kentucky was wise in suing CNN in Kentucky, not DC.
Pa + Cat;
Russian govt. officials killing people seems to be a prerequisite for a high powered govt. job in Russia; at least since about 1917.
If Russian leaders and their associates are not killing each other, they just find other targets; like Ukrainians, Georgians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, E.German workers , dissidents living in the UK, or just enemies of the state , etc.
Every once in a while they take a break from this sort of behaviour when a totaly out of character leader emerges (e.g. see Gorbachev , Yeltsin), but this is just temporary as those just under the radar – the more ambitious – regroup, wait around a bit, and then get appointed as president for life.
Then they resume their normal behaviour;
“Let’s see, which nation should we invade today?”
(don’t forget to blame NATO, Trump, Hitler, Zelensky, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, etc)
” Time to eliminate Ivan or Natasha – how are our ricin supplies holding up?”
“Will the accidental fall be from the 5th floor balcony or the 10th? ”
I know we are all greatly relieved that during these troubled times that Joe Biden and the incomparable Kamala Cackling Harris are piloting the ship.
By way, the ship’s name is the Titanic; Joe and Cackling Kamala decided to switch from the USS Enterprise because it was upsetting for the LGBT community, Iran and Putin.
The two of them never talked to each other about his business or her votes, of course. I also found out he died on Feb 27 this year, which I hadn’t seen. RIP Mr. Blum.
She ran for re-election in 2018 (at age 85); her husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. Recall that Louise Slaughter remained in Congress with her cancer-stricken husband back home. After his death in 2014, she ran for re-election twice more and was planning a 3d campaign when she keeled over dead unexpectedly at the age of 88. This is just pathological, and we need to set up screens to discourage pathological people and mechanisms to eject them.
As a rule, all elective offices should carry four year terms. If you want to stand for a supralocal office, you should be required to be between your 39th and 72d birthday. And if you’ve held a given office for 14 of the last 16 years or will hit that wall in the term to be contested, it should be required you stand down. With regard to judges, you might prescribe 12 year terms and ditch the rotation-in-office rule, but debar anyone from standing in an election or retention-in-office referendum past the calendar year in which they reach their 72d birthday and require they relinquish office on a standard date the calendar year they reach their 76th birthday, without regard to how far along in their term they might be. And cut down the number of elective offices. We can get along passably without electing the county clerk or the state treasurer and we can get along without elective or semi-elective understudy offices.
We should attempt to staff our elective offices with people who have for half-a-generation or more earned their living doing something else and are not bound and determined to stay in office for decades on end.
No Republican or conservative would receive a fair trial in DC. DC juries are notorious. The courts are dominated by Obama appointees. It was a DC grand jury that named Nixon “an unindicted coconspirator” in Watergate. The kid from Kentucky was wise in suing CNN in Kentucky, not DC.
Again, abolish the jurisdiction. Have about 50 federal trial jurisdictions composed of counties assembled according to commuting patterns and containing a baseline share of the country’s personal income flow. The staffing of such jurisdictions would be according to case load metrics assessed decennially. If the metrics indicated a sufficient increase in caseload, a new position would be created automatically. If the metrics showed a sufficient decline, a position would be permitted to disappear via attrition.
In the case of the district around Washington, it could include DC, a half dozen counties in Maryland, 20-odd counties and stand-alone municipalities in Virginia, and a scatter of counties in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. In contrast to other federal jurisdictions, the caseload metrics could include those from DC analogous to a state court’s caseload; you could also incorporate into federal law a requirement that such cases be heard by a jury drawn from all over the jurisdiction, not just DC.
As for the appellate courts in DC, have one for administrative tribunals, one for specialty federal courts, and one for the geographic trial courts to be found in Washington, Richmond, &c.
All this could be accomplished with statutory law.
There is another issue that must be solved somehow, the exposure of jurors to the almost certainty of retribution for politically incorrect decisions.
We face the almost certainty of endless riots after the coming GOP takeover. Jurors in deep Blue areas put their futures at stake by finding them guilty. The mob will create a few terrible examples of ruined businesses, careers, lives, etc. and trial by jury will be an historic artifact.
I don’t know the answer.
OTOH it is good to see the reaction starting to manifest. Bari Weiss is a favorite example. There are many more like her getting up to speed.
A new online magazine just came to my attention. Here is a summary of an article: “Today’s experts are open in their belief that they deserve to rule over ordinary people.” Lee Smith is a featured columnist. https://compactmag.com/
The Marxists, some in disguise, are taking over. Have 4 books on the election and all eye opening.
Afraid their only hope is first change in Congress to look into their railroading
Second a Republican President to commute their sentence sadly 4 years too late if that happens in 2024.
I have to agree with Neo and Geoffrey Britain. This kind of conduct is nothing less than evil. Even if for the purpose of argument you DID want to argue that Knowlton was really an evul insurrectionist/domestic terrorist what have you,…. how on Earth would this justify THIS kind of treatment of him?
FFS, we treated the Blind Sheikh better than we did him. Like, if he WERE guilty, charge him and sentence him in accordance with the law. But that’s obviously not what they wanted.
A lot of people have cited Beria and rightfully so.
I have felt for some time now that my country is lost. I come to this blog and a few others and read the NY Post and WSJ and argue a bit with my dear husband who holds out hope our country will be somehow restored but I truly do not believe it. Unfortunately, where can we go? There was always just one America.
Jeanne:
It is indeed a very depressing and difficult time. Sometimes I get very low. But I remind myself that we can’t see the twistings and turnings of the future.
This kind of “justice” does not deserve a defense against foes.
I was reading the inspector general report, when BLM protesters were burning the “President’s church” and they hurt several secret service employees, and the President had to be taken to the bunker under the White House.
That report has all the laws the DOJ, would have to follow to arrest those protesters, the Capital Police, and FBI, and DOJ have ignored all the laws that group was protected by.
At a more local level, the Jan 6 incident makes it clear that nothing a uniformed police officer says is the truth. “It’s OK to”….. is a lie. Anything you do, even with an Officer’s permission, is grounds for persecution.