DOJ "One Year Since the Jan 6 Attack" Report (link included)

Politics & Elections
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DOJ “One Year Since the Jan 6 Attack” report is here: One Year Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol

One thing that surprised me was that the DOJ has 40 people charged with (three types of) conspiracy.

My general assessment from reading the news and occasional glances at the George Washington University Extremism tracker (Capitol Hill Siege | Program on Extremism | The George Washington University) had the number of folks charged with conspiracy at around 15-16 and that they were mostly Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and maybe a few 3%ers.

A TL:DR version of the report:
725 arrests,
640 charged with entering restricted property,
75 of those had dangerous weapons,
70 have been sentenced,
31 have been sentenced to jail time, and
The FBI needs help identifying about 350 more individuals including 250 for assaulting a LEO.

The FBI link for help in identifying the further 350 is in the DOJ release for those who would like to have a look.

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But. . . But. . . but it hasn’t been a year yet!

A lot could change in 6 5 days!

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Yesterday was also the 47th anniversary of the convictions of Mitchell, Haldeman and Erlichman for the Watergate Coverup - 923 days after it began.

It took 623 days from the break-in to their indictment.

It took 533 days from indictment of the first, low level burglars to the indictment of the Mitchell, Haldeman and Erlichman and the others of the Watergate Seven.

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I kinda missed that the DOJ “One Year Since” report also has a link to a list of all those charged for Jan 6 shenanigans.

The DOJ list is different than the GWU list. The DOJ list: Capitol Breach Cases | USAO-DC | Department of Justice

Legal documents tend to follow a similar format- introduction, parties, venue, history, and then the interesting stuff. A lawyer on a legal podcast I occasionally listen to says he reads legal documents backwards because the “good stuff is at the bottom.” That’s pretty much true.

I was reading the case of a guy on both the DOJ and the GWU lists named Ballard only because he was from my state. It’s pretty entertaining. The TL:DR goes like this:

The guy, Ballard, went to DC and caused trouble by doing things such as striking a cop with a baton among other things. There are a couple of images of this act from different sources such as video gathered from other attendees, a LEO-worn body cam, etc.

Ballard’s image was posted by the FBI as someone they wanted help identifying.

Ballard was identified by “Witness-1”, which is probably someone with the group Sedition Hunters who uses the FBI’s “wanted” list to look for these Jan 6 “alleged” criminals.

“Witness-1” ran this FBI image through a “public facial recognition” program and identified Ballard’s YouTube channel.

Ballard’s YouTube channel also identified his Fort Worth area motorcycle repair business so “Witness-1” forwarded this to the FBI.

The FBI checked Ballard’s other social media accounts and saw that Ballard had repaired a tire for a Dallas-area law enforcement officer (LEO). That the LEO had thanked Ballard for the repair.

The FBI contacted this LEO and confirmed Ballard’s ID (name, business address, phone number). This LEO said that Ballard had also repaired the motorcycle of another LEO so the FBI interviewed that LEO who also confirmed Ballard’s ID.

The FBI obtained Ballard’s Texas ID and also confirmed that his social media accounts were all associated with the same name, address, and phone number, so they obtained Ballard’s Verizon phone records.

The FBI even interviewed Ballard’s letter carrier to confirm that that guy lived at that address!

Of course Ballard greatly helped the FBI by posting his Jan 6 exploits on his various social media accounts and now Ballard has 8 criminal charges pending.

I can’t tell by these document sources if Ballard is out or being held in jail. I hope he’s in jail. He seems like the kind of guy you don’t want walking around.

Both the DOJ list and the GWU list have the “statement of facts”.

But the GWU list also has the Indictment and the Detention Order. I can’t tell is Ballard is being held or out in the community. The detention order explains why he both could/should he held or could/should be released. I hope he’s being held. He seems like a bad guy (For example, he’s a felon who shouldn’t have a gun but had a gun.)

Anyway, I guess I’m just finding this stuff interesting and somewhat entertaining while hiding out from the 'rona these days.

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…seems like a lot of extra effort to establish that Ballard is indeed Ballard.

FBI Van: “A man matching the description of Ballard has just exited the home belonging to Ballard. We have dialed the cell phone of Ballard and observed the man answering his cell phone. The man entered a vehicle registered to Ballard and drove away. Do we think this might be Ballard?”
HQ: “Hold until we have further verification!”

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This one admitted to urinating on a column in the Capitol Cafeteria:

“(Snow) told agents that when he re-entered the Capitol Building he urinated on a column inside an area he thought to be a cafeteria and then exited once more.”

So he came back in specifically to pee? On something? What a weirdo. I was half-expecting an image of him “in the act” to be included as one of the pictures in this filing but it’s not.

I wonder when we will hear about the (person or persons) who smeared stool in a hallways. I guess the person used the restroom there but missed (?) the toilet, stepped in his or her own excrement, and then left “brown tracks” of poop in several halls. I wonder if their legal filing will include a DNA analysis to confirm the sooper-poopers ID. MSN

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Its my understanding that the FBI only indicts when they have enough evidence to convict. So maybe another year before the ringleaders get brought in.

I’ve been disappointed with the sentences so far. A few months at worst in prison for trying to overthrow the government. Garland implies the sentences will get worse now that the low level criminals have been charged, but we will see. This countries law enforcement has a long history of ignoring and downplaying terrorism committed by white supremacists. We will see if that is actually changing now.

This country has indicted and arrested senators, governors, speakers of the house. John Edwards was a VP candidate on a major ticket and he was arrested and tried for his crimes. But the US has never indicted an ex-president. I hope that changes, nobody should be above the rule of law just because their followers will throw a hissy fit.