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Ex Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6

Posted: November 21, 2022 at 3:18 am

Former Wisconsin Proud Boy member saw bigotry and bullying

Daniel Berry joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys in search of camaraderie, but instead found racism, antisemitism and sadistic bullying.

Jasper Colt, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON A former leader of the Proud Boys extremist group pleaded guilty Thursday to seditious conspiracy in connection with the group's efforts to halt the certification of the 2020 election.

Jeremy Bertino, 43, acknowledged his role in helping to plan the Proud Boys'participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and also agreed to cooperate in the government's continuing investigation.

Five other members of the Proud Boys, including former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, also have been charged with sedition and are awaiting trial.A sixth member of the group, Charles Donohoe, 34, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting andresisting officers.

In addition to the sedition charge, Bertino also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of firearms related to a March search of his home where authorities recovered six guns, including an AR-15 rifle and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition. Bertino had been barred from possessing firearms andammunition due to a previous conviction.

In the weeks prior to the Jan. 6 assault, according to court documents,Bertino participated in encrypted chats and other communications with members of the group's so-called "Ministry of Self-Defense," in which leaders asserted that the "presidential election had been stolen."

At the time, the members discussed traveling to Washington on a mission to "stop the certification of the Electoral College Vote, and that the MOSD leaders were willing to do whatever it would take, including using force against police and others, to achieve that objective."

Monitoring activities outside of Washington, while recovering from a stabbing, Bertino allegedly encouraged his Proud Boy colleagues on Jan. 6 to "form a spear" and continue the fight.

DO NOT GO HOME. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION," Bertino wrote to his colleagues, later celebrating the group's effort with Tarrio.

You know we made this happen," he wrote.

According to court documents, Bertino joined the Proud Boys in 2018 and for a time served as the vice president of the Proud Boys chapter in South Carolina.

In a videotaped deposition before the House committee investigating the Capitol assault, Bertino told lawmakers that membership in the Proud Boys group had "tripled," after then-President Donald Trump urged members to"stand back and stand by" during a 2020 presidential debate.

Bertino faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and up to 10 years in prison for the firearms charge.

The guilty pleacomes as five members of the para-military group Oath Keepers, including leader Stewart Rhodes, stand trial on sedition charges in a Washington, D.C., federal court.

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Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy, agrees to …

Posted: at 3:18 am

Jeremy Bertino, a Proud Boys leader from North Carolina, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and gun charges on Thursday, becoming the first member of the far-right group to admit to seditious conspiracy the toughest charge prosecutors have filed in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot investigation and the first Proud Boys leader to plead guilty to any charges. He agreed to cooperate with the government in its seditious conspiracy case against five other Proud Boys leaders, set for trial in December.

Bertino, 43, formally entered his guilty plea at a court hearing in Washington, D.C., down the hall from where Stewart Rhodes and other leaders of the Oath Keepers militia are being tried for seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurgency. U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly accepted Bertino's guilty plea.

The charges he admitted to carry maximum jail terms of 30 years, but "in a sign of the sensitivity and potential importance of Bertino's testimony, prosecutors agreed that in exchange for 'substantial cooperation,' they could seek leniency at sentencing and enter Bertino into a Justice Department witness protection program," The Washington Post reports. They said they would recommend a sentence in the four- to five-year range.

The five Proud Boys members facing trial for seditious conspiracy conspiring to forcibly overthrow the government, impede its laws, or seize its property are former national chairman Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Dominic Pezzola.

Neither Tarrio nor Bertino were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 Tarrio had been arrested on other charges two days earlier and barred from the capital, and Bertino was recovering from a stab wound he got at a bar fight in D.C. in December. Encrypted text messages showed both men were involved in planning an attack, as Bertino's plea deal says, to "stop the certification of the Electoral College vote" on Jan. 6, even if it involved "using force against police and others."

Four people affiliated with the Oath Keepers have also pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, and two Proud Boys have pleaded guilty to lesser Jan. 6 conspiracy charges. In all, the Justice Department says, more than 870 people have been arrested for Jan. 6related crimes, and "the investigation remains ongoing."

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Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy over Jan. 6 …

Posted: at 3:18 am

Tarrio is set to go on trial in December, along with Proud Boys Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, who was the first member of the Jan. 6 mob to breach the Capitol when he shattered a Senate-wing window with a police riot shield.

Prosecutors say Tarrio and his allies developed a plan to besiege the Capitol, relying on and in fact organizing and spurring on members of the mob to help break through police lines and get inside the Capitol. It was part of an effort that prosecutors say was intended to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Kelly accepted Bertinos plea after asking Bertino a series of standard questions to ensure, under oath, that Bertino entered it voluntarily and without being threatened or coerced.

The seditious conspiracy charges against the Proud Boys leaders are the gravest leveled by the Justice Department against any of the more than 850 defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Bertino was briefly featured during video testimony aired by the Jan. 6 select committee during its first public hearing in June. He described a surge in Proud Boys membership after then-President Donald Trump urged the group to stand back and stand by during a debate against Joe Biden.

Would you say that Proud Boys numbers increased after the stand back, stand by comment? an investigator asked.

Exponentially. Id say tripled probably, Bertino replied.

Several leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, are currently on trial for seditious conspiracy as well, just down the hall from where Bertino entered his plea. Prosecutors say they spent the weeks after Election Day fomenting an armed rebellion against the government and seizing on the opportunity created by the Jan. 6 mob to disrupt the transfer of power.

In documents accompanying his plea, Bertino joined the Proud Boys in 2018 and admitted to attending Washington, D.C., rallies with the group after the 2020 election. He was one of a handful who was stabbed during civil unrest at a Dec. 12, 2020, event which he describes as the reason he wasnt present on Jan. 6.

Bertino was on an encrypted chat with other Proud Boys leaders, including Tarrio, in the weeks before Jan. 6, and he says in his plea documents that he believes the groups plan was to stop the certification of the Electoral College Vote on Jan. 6, even if it involved using force against police and others.

Hours after the attack on the Capitol, Bertino messaged Tarrio saying You know we made this happen and 1776 motherfucker.

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Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy

Posted: at 3:18 am

A high-ranking leader of the right-wing Proud Boys pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, court documents revealed Thursday, making him the first member of the group to do so as its leader awaits trial.

Jeremy Bertino was a lieutenant to Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, who along with four other members of the group is awaiting trial in December for seditious conspiracy related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

The plea dealwould give the Justice Department a key witness against Tarrio and the others.

The agreement says Bertino did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with the plans of the other Proud Boys to to oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States and to delay by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of power.

A seditious conspiracy convictioncarriesup to 20 years in prison. While a judge will determine Bertinos sentence, the government recommended a roughly five-year prison term for Bertino, as well as a fine totaling anywhere from $20,000 to $200,000.

Bertino, who is barred from owning firearms due to a prior conviction, separately pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm after authorities found six such weapons when they searched his home, including an AR-15 style gun. That charge carries up to 10 years in prison.

Tarrio was initially indicted in March with four other members of the group: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

The government has accused them of having directed, mobilized, and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol.

The Proud Boys describes itself as a pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.

The plea deal for Bertino comes as the Justice Department had opening arguments this week in its first seditious conspiracy case to go to trial. Far-right militia group leader Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, is on trial along with four other members of the group.

Bertino and Tarrio, like Rhodes, never entered the Capitol that day. While Rhodes remained on the Capitol grounds, Tarrio had been ordered to remain outside of D.C. after having been arrested just a few days prior, and Bertino was also not in the city, as he had recently been stabbed during a brawl.

Bertino continued to participate in planning sessions as he recovered from his injures. At least as early as Jan. 4, 2021, he received encrypted chat messages indicating that members of MOSD leadership were discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol, the Justice Department wrote in a press release announcing the deal.

On Jan. 6, Bertino monitored activities through mainstream and social media, as well as posting in the (Ministry of Self Defense) MOSD chats. He posted messages himself to MOSD leaders and members to encourage and assist in the operation, such as advising those on the grounds of the Capitol to form a spear. Similarly, Bertino posted to his public social media account, DO NOT GO HOME. WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF SAVING THE CONSTITUTION.

Bertino previously spoke with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, telling the panels investigators in a video clip played in one of their hearings that the Proud Boys membership tripled after former President Trump told the groups members to stand back and stand by during a 2020 presidential debate.

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Penn State refuses to cancel a speech by Proud Boys founder – NPR

Posted: October 13, 2022 at 1:05 pm

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is slated to speak at Penn State University later this month an event that has sparked protest plans and a petition. He's seen here in 2019. Stephanie Keith/Getty Images hide caption

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is slated to speak at Penn State University later this month an event that has sparked protest plans and a petition. He's seen here in 2019.

Penn State University says Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes spouts "hateful and discriminatory" rhetoric but the school also says a student group has the right to bring McInnes to speak on campus this month, at an event paid for with thousands of dollars in student fees.

Students have launched a petition and plan to protest the Oct. 24 event, seeking to block McInnes and another controversial far-right figure, Alex Stein, from speaking in State College, Pa.

Free-speech guarantees, warns the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, should not entail "platforming fascists and promoting hateful, meritless disinformation with thousands of student-fee dollars."

But the university's leaders on Tuesday rejected calls to cancel the engagement or ban McInnes and Stein from campus. As they did so, Penn State officials stressed that the school doesn't agree with what it deemed the speakers' "repugnant and denigrating rhetoric."

The event's organizer, the conservative student group Uncensored America, says McInnes and Stein will use comedy to provide "a unique perspective" on issues such as immigration (McInnes is Canadian), political correctness and gender roles.

As it made its case to bring McInnes to campus, Uncensored America compared him to "many great comedians that have come before," according to the minutes of the group's meeting with the University Park Allocation Committee, thestudent-led group that considers requests to use student-derived funds for events.

The organizers cited McInnes' willingness to "push the boundaries of comedy in a thought-provoking manner" to change how people think.

But his many detractors say there's nothing funny about McInnes or the Proud Boys, whose members call themselves "Western chauvinists" and who have repeatedly been involved in violence. More than two dozen Proud Boy members, including several leaders, have been named in federal charges over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including accusations of seditious conspiracy.

"McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: claiming to reject white nationalism while espousing a laundered version of popular white nationalist tropes," says the Southern Poverty Law Center, which labels the Proud Boys a hate group.

Uncensored America has sought to de-emphasize McInnes' ties to the Proud Boys, saying he "stepped down and veered away" from the movement. But it also gave the upcoming event the provocative title, "Stand Back and Stand By" emphasizing the Proud Boys by quoting former President Trump's famous 2020 message to the group.

General admission to the event is free on a first-come basis, with students getting priority. But attendees can also buy tickets including a $99 "Royalty" package that guarantees a spot up front and includes a chance to have dinner with McInnes and Stein.

The allocation committee approved $7,522.43 in funds for the "Stand Back and Stand By" event, including airfare for McInnes and Stein and a combined $6,500 in honorarium payments for the pair.

Discussing the funding request, the committee chair noted that their task was to focus on the budget, not the speakers' content or ideology. While the event is "clearly catered toward a particular demographic," they added, "It is not our job to infer what the implications of funding this event are going to be. It is just our job to use the information we have been given to inform our funding decisions."

On Oct. 24, the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity plans to hold a protest outside the building where McInnes and Stein will speak. The university is encouraging people on campus to attend alternate events celebrating unity and propaganda awareness, including a speech by Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute titled, "Fighting Truth Decay: How and Why Fakers Fake."

Penn State has dealt with similar uproar over guest speakers before, including an appearance last November by Milo Yiannopoulos, who was also brought in by Uncensored America.

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Proud Boys gather outside of Drag Queen Story Hour in Wheaton – BethesdaMagazine.com

Posted: at 1:05 pm

Wearing skeleton-face masks and carrying signs, members of the extreme right-wing group Proud Boys showed up Saturday to protest at an outdoor session of Drag Queen Story Hour at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton.

The group of men, wearing baseball caps with the Proud Boys insignia, lined up outside the visitors center at the gardens in Wheaton Regional Park and carried signs that included the phrases Science is Real Boy or Girl and Groomer crossed out with a red X, according to a photo posted on Twitter by Washington Post columnist and deputy editorial page editor Karen Tumulty.

Peak 2022. On my walk this morning at a local park, I happened to come across Proud Boys awaiting the beginning of Drag Queen Story Hour, Tumulty tweeted Saturday.

In an interview with Bethesda Beat, Tumulty said she was going for a walk at the park with a friend when she saw the group of men wearing black T-shirts that read American Proud Boy. She said there was about 20 in total. Drag Queen Story Hour is part of an international program in which performers read stories to children in libraries, schools and bookstores. The event had been a regular occurrence at Brookside Gardens

DManda Martini, Saturdays performer, tweeted about the interruption to the story hour. Another @DQSHtweets interrupted by protestors. This time with giant signs & masks. They followed me to my car, got pics & videos of me & my car and shouted ugly things the whole time as I was being escorted out, Martini wrote.

Martini followed with another tweet that said, The families that came to listen to stories were absolutely lovely. I hope they truly enjoyed the books that I read today. The organizers did everything they could to keep me as safe as possible.

In a third tweet, Martini wrote, Unfortunately even with police & employee escort did not stop the mask wearing, giant sign holding, slur shouting cowards who came from taking my picture, pictures of my car, and verbally assaulting me.

When asked Monday about the protest, Montgomery Parks released the following statement:

While we respect the rights of people to peacefully protest, the safety of program attendees, park users, and staff is our number one priority. Each event is staffed with Montgomery Parks Park Police to help prevent any incidents. Montgomery Parks is pleased to host Drag Queen Story Hour, an inclusive program to help children understand the world around them in a fun way that uses storytelling and imagination.

In recent months, anti-LGBTQ protesters have disrupted a number of the story hours across the country. In Montgomery County, protesters have shown up at local story hours, including a session earlier this summer at Loyalty Bookstore in downtown Silver Spring.

In August, in anticipation of a possible protest, local LGBTQ activists gathered at Brookside Gardens for a session of Drag Queen Story Hour. Families were greeted by activists who held up rainbow flags and colorful sheets as they lined a sidewalk.

Kristin Mink, a community organizer and the Democratic candidate for County Council District 5 who helped organize LGBTQ activists for the August event, called on activists to again show their support.

What weve seen today is that the LGBTQ+ community is under attack even here in liberal MoCo. So we cannot let our guard down. And we wont. I know that whatever it takes to make clear that this is a place where we protect & celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, we will do it, she wrote Saturday on Twitter.

Tumulty said she spoke on Saturday to some parents at the event who have brought their children to other Drag Queen Story Hour sessions and told her there had never been an incident like Saturdays protest.

Martini declined to comment.

Contact information for a local representative of the Proud Boys could not be immediately determined.

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‘Clear and present danger’: Jan. 6 committee to describe lingering Trump threat – POLITICO

Posted: at 1:05 pm

The panel intends to focus on evidence that Trump has consistently and increasingly been using rhetoric that we knew caused violence on Jan. 6, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told reporters recently. Cheney cited recent comments by U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in which she upbraided elected Republicans for continuing to indulge one man, who knows full well that he lost, instead of the Constitution he was trying to subvert.

The select committees closing pitch to Americans will draw on all aspects of its more than yearlong probe. Its expected to feature evidence that Trumps allies were pushing him to declare victory on Election Day 2020 even before the votes were counted, and that Trump was warned of the unfolding violence at the Capitol before he tweeted an inflammatory attack on then Vice President Mike Pence.

By contending that even amid the wreckage of Jan. 6, Trump continued to plot ways to remain in power, the hearing will also function as a segue of sorts to the criminal case that federal prosecutors are piecing together bolstered by the recent issuance of dozens of grand jury subpoenas and court-authorized searches of some of Trumps top allies.

The committee has long emphasized its distinct mission from prosecutors to inform the public and develop legislative recommendations to prevent future attacks on the peaceful transfer of power but has used its platform to press the Justice Department to pursue potential crimes among Trumps inner circle.

The panel won a hard-fought court ruling in March in which a federal judge contended Trump likely entered a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the presidential transition, an effort the judge described as a coup in search of a legal theory. That ruling became a centerpiece of the committees public hearings and legal arguments in the subsequent months.

We think we very, very much proved the case in a compelling way by the end of that hearing series, select panel member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said in a recent interview. And now, frankly, on the criminal side, because were not the criminal committee, its up to the DOJ. They have the torch, and well see where they go with it.

Since leaving office, Trump has used his megaphone to promise pardons to many of those jailed for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 and has leaned on state legislators and members of Congress to embrace impossible proposals to unravel the 2020 election including an explicit call to be reinstated as president.

Hes also suggested that if he runs and wins another term, he might pardon the rioters who sought to keep him in power, and hes put pressure on figures like Wisconsin House Speaker Robin Vos to support measures to decertify election results in that state. Vos told Trump it was impossible, and the select committee has subpoenaed him to obtain testimony about his interactions with Trump in recent months.

The hearing had been scheduled to take place originally on Sept. 28, but the select committee postponed it as Hurricane Ian bore down on Florida; the delay may turn out to be a boon for the panel. In the intervening two weeks, the committee obtained testimony from Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. And last week, Jeremy Bertino, a North Carolina leader of the Proud Boys who also interviewed with the select panel, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

Thursdays hearing is likely to feature some of the select panels evidence obtained after its summer hearings, like interviews with Trump Cabinet members about internal discussions concerning the potential invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove him from power. Its also set to include documentary footage of longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, who was followed around by a camera crew in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6.

The Stone footage, provided by a Danish film crew and obtained by CNN, includes audio of Stone one day before Election Day telling an associate, Fuck the voting, lets get right to the violence, while laughing.

Select panel Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has also described a significant trove of documents and messages recently turned over by the Secret Service. Investigators have viewed the agency with skepticism after learning that thousands of messages sent among senior officials including on and around Jan. 6, 2021 were erased in what the agency described as a tech upgrade.

Two Secret Service officials have previously testified to the panel: Robert Engel, the head of Trumps detail, and Tony Ornato, who held an unusual post as a political appointee in Trumps White House. Ornato retired from the Secret Service at the end of August. But select committee members have suggested that both men said they couldnt recall key details about the events surrounding Jan. 6 and sought follow-up interviews with them.

The committee is likely to flick at some of the links between pro-Trump extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys and Stone. Investigators have eyed the voluminous connections between Trump and those who facilitated nearly every aspect of the former presidents push to subvert the election, even though theres been little evidence of Stones direct involvement in those efforts.

Yet several figures in Stones orbit were among the most significant players in the events of Jan. 6: Ali Alexander, founder of the post-election Stop the Steal activism; pro-Trump InfoWars broadcaster Alex Jones; Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio; and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

Stone also hired several members of the Oath Keepers to perform security for him on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021 among them, Kelly Meggs, who is charged alongside Rhodes with seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the breach of the Capitol. Another Oath Keeper who guarded Stone, Joshua James, has already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

The hearing will play out alongside the Justice Departments most significant criminal trial yet stemming from the Jan. 6 attack. Just across the street from the Capitol, five leaders of the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, are beginning their trial on seditious conspiracy charges.

The select committee is also deeply immersed in the process of writing its final report and conclusions. Though interviews and aspects of the investigation remain ongoing, the panel is seeking to produce a final document in December that sums up its sprawling investigation before the current Congress ends. Investigators are also weighing the timing of the release of hundreds of witness transcripts and interview recordings that federal prosecutors have indicated interest in.

Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.

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7 Ways Roger Stone Was Connected to the January 6 Attack Mother Jones – Mother Jones

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The night before the January 6 attack on Congress, Roger Stone danced on a stage in Washingtons Freedom Plaza to a rap song featuring his own money-raising slogan: Roger Stone did nothing wrong. Minutes later, the longtime Trump adviserclad in a pinstriped suit and tan fedoradeclared that the fight to keep the defeated president in power represented an epic struggle for the future of this country between dark and light, between the godly and godless, between good and evil.

I will be with you tomorrow, shoulder to shoulder, he told an estimated 2,000 supporters of Donald Trump.

In fact, as Trump fans stormed the Capitol the next day, Stone was in a downtown DC hotel, from which he hightailed it back to his Florida home. Ever since, Stone has pointed to his absence from the protests that day as evidence that he had no role in, or advance knowledge of, the insurrection.

This is sort of Stones schtick. Beginning with hisglancing involvement in the Watergatescandal as a 19-year old, he has publicly promoted himself as a plugged-in operator, a self-proclaimed agent provocateur involved in a long list of controversial GOP machinationseven as he has scrambled to avoid legal consequences. He seeks notoriety but also deniably. He courted attention in 2016, when he told the public and the Trump campaign thathed had a hand in WikiLeaks release of Democratic emails hacked by Russian agents. When the investigation started, Stone claimed hed overhyped his role. Convicted of lying extensively to Congress and witness tampering, Stone dodged prison when Trump commuted his sentence. Then, while Stone was promoting the Big Lie, Trump pardoned him. After January 6, Stone reportedly asked a Trump lawyer to help him secure another, preemptive pardon in case he was charged in connection with his efforts to overturn the election.

Stone has danced on the edges of the January 6 scandal for nearly two years. But he may now be getting the kind of attention he dislikes. Two separate investigations appear be homing in on him. On Thursday, the congressional committee investigating the attack will hold a hearing that will reportedly feature footage and other material detailing Stones links to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two far-right groups accused of plotting to attack the Capitol.

Stone has also come up repeatedly in the ongoing seditious conspiracy trial of five Oath Keepers, including the groups founder, Stewart Rhodes. A chat called Friends of Stone on the encrypted app Signalwhich included Stone and 46 or so of his allieshas become a key source of evidence for prosecutors seeking to show that Rhodes was planning violence as soon as Trump lost. The final defense is us and our rifles, Rhodes told the group, after news outlets called the election for Joe Biden. Trump has a duty to stand, but so far, her [sic] hasnt. As Roger Stone said. Its not clear what statementof Stones Rhodes might have beenreferencing.

Stone has not been charged with a crime related to January 6 or the 2020 election. Nor is there clear evidence that he played a role in planning the attack or coordinating Trumps broader effort to retain power. Stone denies wrongdoing. Any claim, assertion, implication, or accusation that I knew in advance about, participated in, or condoned any illegal activity on January 6 at the Capitol is categorically false, he said in a statement sent by his lawyer. Nor did I play any role whatsoever in the efforts to delay the certification of the electoral college.

But Stone had a striking number of links to people charged with taking part in the attack on Congress, along with ties to Trump and others who helped chart Trumps legal and political maneuvers. He was a nexus. Stone appears to have acted, at least, as an early adopter of outlandish election fraud lies and as a connector and cheerleader for extremists interested in helping Trump hold on to power.

Here is a partial rundown of Stones activities surrounding the election:

Years before Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee, Stone coined the name of the movement that would falsely claim Trump won in 2020. In 2016, Stone launched a nonprofit called Stop the Steal to raise money to prevent the Republican Party from denying Trump the GOP presidential nomination at its convention. In 2020, Ali Alexander, working with Stone, adopted that name for his effort to overturn Bidens victory. A Stone associate set up new group called the Committee to Stop the Steal, and Stone relaunched a previously dormant Stop the Steal webpage,which was updated to argue Biden had not legitimately won.

During a September 10,2020, call to a show hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Stone said that Trump could only lose through election fraud. Stone suggested Trump declare martial law or invoke the Insurrection Act to stop it. In the ensuing months, the Insurrection Act became a preoccupation for many right wingers who argued Trump could use it to take emergency measures to expose imaginary fraud and cling to power. In their ongoing trial, Rhodes and other Oath Keepers have pointed to the law to justify acts that prosecutors say constituted a seditious conspiracy. The defendants say their actionssuch as assembling arsenals of weapons near DCwere legal because they were anticipating Trump invoking the Insurrection Act and calling them into action.

In an indication of how much he relishes attention, Stone granted extensive access to a Danish documentary crew, even as he was discussing how Trump could remain in power if he lost. The filmmaker provided footage to the January 6 Committee, including video from November 1, 2020, in which Stone, speaking to Trump fans, seemed to anticipate Trumps plan to prematurely declare victory. Noting the results would likely be too close to call on election night, Stone said: The key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

This statement was similar to Steve Bannons private comments, just a day earlier, in which Bannon said Trumps strategy was to declare victory early on Election Day, even if he was losing. As Mother Jones reported, Bannon said: With like 20 percent of the vote counted, Trumps just gonna walk in and go, Im the winner.' Trumps plan, as Bannon explained, was to use an early victory declaration to suggest mail-in ballots, which would tilt heavily toward Biden, were fraudulent, priming backers to believe the election was stolen. This is precisely what Trump did, falsely declaring, Frankly, we did win this election, while the votes were still being counted. Stones words are more evidence that Trump had a preexisting plan to use lies to try to retain power and that various Trump advisers knew about it.

In another video, also provided by the filmmakers to theJanuary 6 committee, Stone anticipated violence after Election Day. Fuck the voting, Stone said. Lets get right to the violence. Shoot to kill. See an antifa, shoot to kill. Fuck em. Done with this bullshit. Stone then added that he was kidding.

Reacting to news reports about this footage, Stone said it might be fake. Commenting on these matters is completely within my free-speech rights, although it is not clear that the clips provided by the film director to the Committee are not selectively edited or otherwise manipulated, he said.

As it became clear that Biden had won, Rhodes and other extremists began plotting how to stop him from taking office, according to the Justice Department. And the Signal group bearing Stones name was a key venue.

Trump has one last chance right now to stand. But he will need us and our rifles too. But will he finally act? Rhodes told the Friends of Stone group, as news outlets called the election for Biden. So will you step up and push Trump to FINALLY take decisive action? Thats what we must do now. And then if he still refuses to do his duty, we will still have to do ours. And we will. According to prosecutors, Rhodes also sent the group a step-by-step action plan based based on an obscure Serbian academics account of a mass protest in 1999 that ousted Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic. One of those steps: Storm parliament.

In mid-December, Rhodes pushed for Trump to claim emergency powers. People keep saying invoking the Insurrection Act is a last resort,' Rhodes wrote to the group. Trump cannot wait til after Jan 6 to expose all the traitors. He must do it NOW.

Stone said in December 2020 that he was advising Trump on how to ensure that he continues as our president. Rhodes seems to have hoped Stoneor other Trump associates would pass on his thoughts. Rhodes told other Oath Keepers he was busy on back channel working groups trying to advise the president. Stone could have helped with that,but there is no evidence that he actually did so. Its not clear how much attention Stone was paying to these messages. The Washington Post has reported that Stone told an aide to monitor the Friends of Stone group. Did Stone send the group any messages? None have emerged publicly.

The Friends of Stone group included Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the neofascist Proud Boys. Like Rhodes, Tarrio has been charged, along with four other senior Proud Boys, with seditious conspiracy. Stone has longstanding ties to Tarrio and the Proud Boys. Stone has said he hasadvised them since 2018. Notably, the January 6 Committee has even aired video showing Stone reciting an oathfeaturing the phrase Im a Western chauvinistthat reputedly is part of the Proud Boys initiation process.

Oath Keepers began providing security for Stone in the fall of 2020. The presence of Oath Keepers guarding Stone in Washington on January 5 and 6,2021, has been widely noted. Mother Jones has reported, moreover, that Stone began interacting with members of the Oath Keepers, including several who later stormed the Capitol, weeks earlier in Florida. In a December 13, 2020 photo posted on Facebook,Stone posed outside his Fort Lauderdale home with Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Oath Keepers Florida chapter.Meggs now faces sedition and other charges.The photo also includes another Oath Keeper who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy over his role in the attack on Congress.

On December 19, 2020, Meggs wrote in a Facebook messagewhich was revealed last year by prosecutorsthat he and the leader of the Proud Boys, presumably Tarrio, had organized an alliance between the Oath Keepers and the two groups. We have decided to work together and shut this shit down, Meggs wrote. In another message, Meggs said he had orchestrated a plan with the proud boys for January 6, which he said entailed beating the hell out of antifa. Its not clear if Stone was aware of these interactions between the two groups.

Stones security detail in DC included a rotating cast of Oath Keepers, including several, like Meggs, who were ultimately charged with playing a key role in the attack on Congress. Two Oath Keeperswho are nowfacing sedition charges, Joshua James and Roberto Minuta, evidence shows, were part of Stones security detail on January 6, before they raced to the Capitol to join in the insurrection.

In a December 19 tweet, Trump summoned supporters to Washington on January 6. Be there, will be wild! he wrote. Stone joined in the preparations, updating the Stop the Steal site to solicit money for private security at every one of our events, as well as funds for permits, staging, transportation, and legal fees. Funding was required, Stone declared,becauseGeorge Soros provides the funding for the attacks on our peaceful patriots.

Stone has never said how much money he raised or what he did with those funds. Oath Keeper members who provided security for Stone and for others in DC have insisted that they worked as volunteers and that, as a policy, they did not accept payment for these services. So what did Stone do with the money he raised? He has declined to say.

Stones remarks in Freedom Plaza on January 5 were among a series of similar speeches he delivered calling for listeners to take action to keep Trump in power. Nothing is over until we say it is, Stone said outside Washingtons JW Marriott, with Proud Boys looking on, on December 12, 2020. We will fight until the bitter end for an honest count of the 2020 election. Never give up. Never quit. Never surrender and fight for America.

Stone has defended his remarks by insisting he urged listeners to engage in peaceful protest. That is untrue. While Stones calls to fight can be defended as nonliteral, he did not specially call for nonviolence in the public remarks he gave in this period. In a statement regarding his January 5 remarks, Stone also said: I am certainly entitled to my apocalyptic view of Americas future as expressed in my speech.

Stone tends to defend his conduct ahead of January 6 in legal terms. As with Trump, this argument limits questions of moral responsibility to criminal liability. If there is no charge, then everything is okay. It remains to be seen if Stone, Trump, and many others who sought to overturn to election will ever be prosecuted for their actions. But they are also defendants in a civil lawsuit, brought by Capitol Police officers, where liability may be more broadly assessed.

For its part, the January 6 committeehas a far moreexpansive mandateto investigate the attack and, at least in theory, to expose the truth. For Roger Stone, the truth could be a problem.

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7 Ways Roger Stone Was Connected to the January 6 Attack Mother Jones - Mother Jones

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Contompasis convicted in 2021 stabbing of two Proud Boys – Times Union

Posted: October 8, 2022 at 4:00 pm

ALBANY A jury quickly convicted Alexander Contompasis of first-degree assault and all other charges Friday for stabbing two members of the far-right Proud Boys outside the state Capitol during a rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

Contompasis, who has been identified on Facebook as an independent journalist and poet, faces the possibility of 40 years in prison after being convicted of the stabbing the menat a "Stop the Steal" rally held in East Capitol Park. It was held the same day that other supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, including Proud Boys members, stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., as Congress prepared to certify President Joseph Biden's victory.

After deliberating roughly three hours and re-watching a video of the incident multiple times in slow motion the jury convicted the 39-year-old Albany manof first-degree assault, which carries up to 25 years in prison;attempted assault in the first degree, which carries up to 15 years in prison;second-degree assault and felony possession of a weapon following a week-long trial before acting Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough.

Assistant District Attorneys Bryanne Perlanski and Marissa Olsen prosecuted the case, while attorney Jasper Mills represented Contompasis.

Contompasis claimed he was defending himself. Mills said he believed his client was the victim of an organized attack. It all came down to the video, he said.

Watch a video analysis of the melee:

"It boggles my mind. ... It kind of saddens me a little bit that people would see stuff like that and just not think that it was a big deal, or at least not big enough a deal to warrant some kind of self-defense," Mills told the Times Union. "But that's what they did."

Both victims testified, as did Contompasis. In a pre-trial hearing, the prosecutors highlighted Facebook posts that tied Contompasis to antifa, the decentralized movement of anti-fascist groups. The defendant had said he is not a member of any antifa group.

The judge made it clear last week he did not want the case to be about politics.

Ill tell both sides right now: This case is not going to be tried as a pro-Trump, anti-Trump case," McDonough said. "Its not going to be tried as an antifa, Proud Boys case. Its going to be tried on the facts.

The judge ordered Contompasis detained in the Albany County Jail as he awaits sentencing, which is scheduled for Nov. 18.

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Synthego Launches Engineered Cell Libraries to Validate Targets with Speed and Accelerate Drug Discovery – Brazosport Facts

Posted: August 2, 2022 at 3:13 pm

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Synthego Launches Engineered Cell Libraries to Validate Targets with Speed and Accelerate Drug Discovery - Brazosport Facts

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