January 6: Where Are They Now?

A moment of silence for the 174 injured Capitol police officers, and democracy.

Never forget.

Can you believe it’s been five years since more than 2,000 people stormed the Capitol? And that Donald John Trump not only escaped all consequences, but went on to be awarded the highest office in the land? We still can’t wrap our heads around it, and surely never will. Rioters put up a gallows for Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, and were looking for him so they could use it, while Trump Tweeted that he had it coming! They smeared poop on the walls! And, of course, it was a premeditated plot long before that day, what with that whole fake electors scheme, and Steve Bannon announcing on his show the day before that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

We will never understand how January 6 was not the end of Trump’s existence outside of prison for the rest of his life, much less his political career. But we never understood how mocking a disabled reporter, the pussgrab tape, the six bankruptcies, stanning for Russia, the more than 25 women who accused him of being a sex pest, or screaming that Hillary Clinton should be LOCKED UP were each not the end of his political career either! But, The Groceries, we guess. And that Harris lady liked to laugh.

Since January 6, and Trump’s pardon or sentence commutation of 1,570 rioters, at least 33 people charged went on to re-offend, and some of their crimes are hair-raising. Like plotting the murder of FBI agents in retaliation for investigating the case. There’s also violent assault, like Alan St. Onge, who allegedly punched a woman in the throat, then kicked a man and stomped on a man’s chest at an Asheville bar after the woman rejected his advances. Three of the pardonees were arrested for rape, and six were charged with child-sex crimes, including child rape and/or possession of child pornography.

Other charges racked up by rioters since their pardons or commutations include reckless DUI homicide, regular DUIs, drugs, firearm and other weapons charges, and stealing copper wire, and one Daryl Johnson admitted to secretly recording women undressing in a tanning salon. And Trump even pardoned one of the January 6 defendants for a second time, one Dan Wilson, who first was pardoned after he pleaded guilty to impeding or injuring an officer, and then again over weapons charges related to the illegal arsenal police found in his Kentucky home when they came to arrest him in 2023 for the first charges.

And there’s more! Notes CREW:

Christopher Moynihan was charged with a felony for threatening to murder House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in October. John Andries was convicted in June for violating a peace order by following the mother of his child in violation of a court order. Brent Holdridge and Zachary Alam were charged in May with burglary and breaking and entering, respectively.

And one defendant was also killed by police during a traffic stop in Indiana, allegedly after an armed altercation with police. Because no shit, just like daddy, these people never had any respect for the law to begin with; more than 22 percent of them already had criminal records before January 6.

But, as Pete Hegseth’s former work husband Will Cain said on Fox News, the only law now is the law of the jungle. RIP civilization! There is no law in Trumplandia other than what Dictator Day One decrees it is.

And Republicans have been coming to where they are — the full embrace of a white-supremacist dictatorship — from the get-go. The common thread is a belief that white men can and should just go out and take whatever they want, like a bunch of Cliven Bundys. Maybe that’s why they like Putin so much! He’s just getting his bag. Or as Stephen Miller put it to Jake Tapper on CNN, referring to Venezuela:

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

Sounds like the last thing you hear from a mugger who dropped out of Sarah Lawrence, right before he runs off with your wallet.

Never forget how fucking sick it all was. Never forget it was Trump’s plan all along. John Eastman even admitted it on national television! (He’s disbarred now.)

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John Eastman Clarifies: I Wanted Mike Pence To Break The Law. Wait Hold On. Ohhhhhhhh Fiddlesticks Again!

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And Steve Bannon said so right out loud.

“That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner. Here’s the thing. After then, Trump never has to go to a voter again […] He’s gonna say ‘Fuck you. How about that?’ Because […] he’s done his last election.”

Roger Stone too, right in front of a Danish film crew: “the key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is nine tenths of the law, no, we won.”

Those two managed to weasel out of consequences for whatever their parts in the planning also, though Bannon served four months in prison for contempt of Congress over refusing to testify. And Stone was sentenced to 40 months, but for lying to the Mueller investigation, after being convicted of felonies that included witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding, and making false statements, though Trump commuted his sentence right before Stone was set to report to serve, and later pardoned him and Bannon too, for whatever.

Never forget how when rioters broke into the Capitol (and no, police did not “let them in,” one Michael Sparks of Kentucky smashed a window, and it is all on tape) Trump repeatedly ignored lawmakers’ pleas for help. And when Trump was informed of the violence and that they were trying to hang Mike Pence, he sipped a Diet Coke and Tweeted out that Pence had it coming.

Five years ago-ish, even fellow Republicans thought the failed coup spelled the end for Trump. Karoline Leavitt called Pence a “hero” then deleted her Tweet; Elise Stefanik condemned the violence and called January 6 a tragic day, then pretended like she never said that and went full election-denial crazy. Ted Cruz called it a “violent terrorist attack,” then later claimed he “misspoke.” Nancy Mace called the violence “heartbreaking” and lamented the day after, “everything that he’s worked for ... all of that — his entire legacy — was wiped out yesterday.”

But after Trump failed to be impeached for a second time, all of them got back on board, and the narrative changed, to ANTIFA and FBI plants did it, then “peaceful tourists,” and finally to Trump’s full embrace of his January 6 mob as his literal chorus, who were just there for a “day of love.”

But peaceful tourists they were not. And in case you forgot that, here is a thread of clips to get re-traumatized by.

At least 174 Capitol police officers were injured, seven people died, and about $2.7 billion in damage was done. And Mike Johnson still refuses to hang the plaque commemorating that day, even though it was mandated in a 2022 bipartisan government funding law.

What will the next five years bring in this lawless jungle? Shit, we don’t even want to think about the next five days.

But here we are, and here we shall be!

[CREW / Washington Post gift link]

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