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      in US Politics

      Chauvin trial: use-of-force defense witness says ‘I felt Derek Chauvin was justified’ – live

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      Key events

      Show

      5.27pm EDT
      17:27

      Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake is back on the job

      2.16pm EDT
      14:16

      Brooklyn Center mayor calls for more community-based policing, names new acting chief

      1.44pm EDT
      13:44

      Police chief and officer resign over fatal shooting of Daunte Wright

      11.54am EDT
      11:54

      Floyd was ‘very’ startled when police pointed gun at him, witness tells Chauvin jury

      10.39am EDT
      10:39

      The Chauvin prosecution rests

      8.55am EDT
      08:55

      Proceedings to resume in Chauvin murder trial

      Live feed

      Show

      5.27pm EDT
      17:27

      Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake is back on the job

      Joanna Walters

      Around three months after it was announced that the officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back last summer would not face criminal charges, the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, announced that the officer is back on the job.
      Without mentioning Blake’s name or details of the shooting last year, beyond referring to a “use of force incident” the Kenosha Police Department put out a statement via Twitter this afternoon.

      Kenosha Police Dept.
      (@KenoshaPolice)
      Media Release pic.twitter.com/wdq5QaNNyk

      April 13, 2021

      Blake said in January of this year that he feared becoming the “next George Floyd” if he had allowed himself to fall down last August when he was shot multiple times in the back and side next to his car after a confrontation with police.T he shooting has left him paralyzed from the waist down.
      The police statement today on behalf of the chief, Daniel Miskinis, said that the incident “was investigated by an outside agency, has been reviewed by an independent expert as well a the Kenosha county district attorney.”
      Officer Rusten Sheskey returned to work with the Kenosha PD on March 31.
      ”Officer Sheskey was found to have been acting within policy and will not be subjected to discipline,” the statement said, adding: “Although this incident has been reviewed at multiple levels, I know that some will not be pleased with the outcome however, given the facts, the only lawful and appropriate decision was made.”

      5.18pm EDT
      17:18

      Testimony from Barry Brodd, who took the stand for Derek Chauvin’s defense as a use-of-force expert, has come to an end.
      Judge Peter Cahill has sent jurors home for the day, and lawyers on both sides are now discussing legal matters.

      5.02pm EDT
      17:02

      The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland is reporting from Minnesota on the death of Daunte Wright, who was killed by police during a traffic stop Sunday in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Wright’s death comes as the trial for Derek Chauvin nears a conclusion, heightening tensions in a city that’s on edge about its outcome.
      Laughland writes:

      As court broke for lunchtime recess, members of George Floyd’s family held a joint press conference with members of Wright’s family.
      It was bitterly cold, with snow pounding the assembled group. Both Wright’s mother, his aunt, cousin and girlfriend addressed reporters along with two of George Floyd’s brothers.
      Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is now representing both families, spoke about the Wright case just as news broke that the Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon and officer Kim Potter who shot and killed the unarmed 20 year-old had resigned. He expressed disbelief that the Wright shooting had occurred while the Chauvin trial was going on.
      “It is unbelievable, something I cannot fathom, that in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a suburb ten miles from where the Chauvin trial regarding George Floyd was taking place that a police officer would shoot and kill another unarmed black man,” Crump said.
      He continued: “If ever there was a time where nobody in America should be killed by police, it was during this pinnacle trial of Derek Chauvin. What I believe is one of the most impactful civil rights police excessive use of force cases in the history of America.”
      Wright’s mother, Katie, told the story of how she had been on the phone to her son as he was apprehended by law enforcement. She spoke through tears and watched as his aunt lead the crowd in a now familiar chant.
      “Say his name!,” she shouted.
      “Daunte Wright”. The group replied.

      Oliver Laughland
      (@oliverlaughland)
      Daunte Wright’s mother Katie is talking about the phone-call she had with her son as he was pulled over by Brooklyn Center police. She’s speaking through tears as the snow continues to fall, flanked by members of the Floyd family. pic.twitter.com/pwE2KyXSLE

      April 13, 2021

      4.47pm EDT
      16:47

      The prosecution has pressed Barry Brodd, a defense expert witness on use-of-force, about whether the crowd surrounding George Floyd’s arrest constituted a threat to police officers.
      Their line of questioning stems from the fact that Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, has claimed the crowd was a distraction and potential threat to officers. Prosecutors are questioning Brodd about this because he has previously said a crowd could change the dynamics for officers, thus impacting what constitutes a “reasonable” use-of-force.
      The prosecution is playing body camera video that shows a crowd gather, over time, as police subdue Floyd. In a video from the beginning of Floyd’s subdual, there are only a few people on the sidewalk.
      Prosecutors, through their questioning, point out that there are a “handful of onlookers on the sidewalk”—not the street, not near police. They also point out that the initial crowd is comprised of an elderly man and two teenage girls.
      “They don’t appear to be making any noise at all at this point,” the prosecution says.
      “Not that I can hear, no,” Brodd says.
      “And [they] certainly would not have distracted the defendant?”
      “That I cannot say,” Brodd replies.
      “Well, they’re not doing anything and they’re not saying anything,” the prosecution prods.
      “I think they could have been aware of their presence, and started to plan for it.”
      The prosecution plays another video of the crowd, when more observers have gathered on the sidewalk, some of whom are making statements about the arrest.
      “Was this crowd a threatening crowd?”
      “No,” Brodd concedes.

      Updated
      at 4.49pm EDT

      4.05pm EDT
      16:05

      Amudalat Ajasa

      One of our correspondents in Minnesota, Amudalat Ajasa, has been on location today and yesterday in Brooklyn Center, the suburb of Minneapolis where Duante Wright, 20, was shot dead on Sunday by the police and where people outraged. She’s running around reporting for a forthcoming article, so for now your blogger brings you some of her reportage.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Despite frigid temperatures and snow, people have gathered to mourn the death of #DaunteWright at the new fist monument on 63rd and Kathrene in Brooklyn Center. pic.twitter.com/5uNiE5yLMa

      April 13, 2021

      There has been a particularly raw sense of solidarity-in-tragedy in the area, given that Brooklyn Center is only around 15 miles from the junction in south Minneapolis, now known as George Floyd Square, where Floyd, 46, was killed last May by the police.
      Outside the Cup Foods corner store where Floyd was pinned to the street by now-ex officer Derek Chauvin, who’s standing trial for murder, statements of support have been written for Duante Wright.
      And the original Black power fist sculpture, made out of wood, that graced the intersection until it was replaced recently with a metal one, was quickly transported to Brooklyn Center and appeared at a vigil for Wright yesterday.
      Protest has been constant since Sunday.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside of the Brooklyn Center police department to protest the death of #DaunteWright for the second day in a row. pic.twitter.com/3HgmiazxYe

      April 12, 2021

      They’ve faced police in riot gear. Munitions were fired at protesters last night.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Officers in riot gear are trying to push the protesters into the street. #DaunteWright pic.twitter.com/OxqbLbh7A1

      April 12, 2021

      Protesters chant Wright’s name.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Protesters chant #DaunteWright’s name at the Brooklyn Center police department with a little over an hour before the 7 PM curfew. pic.twitter.com/jMFKe5amno

      April 12, 2021

      And here’s the moment yesterday when some activists outside the Brooklyn Center police and mayoral press conference heard the explanation that the officer Kim Potter, who has since resigned, had meant to draw her Taser to stun Wright but drew her gun by mistake and shot him dead.

      Amudalat Ajasa
      (@AmudalatAjasa)
      Activists and reporters just watched as the body cam video of #DaunteWright is revealed inside the Brooklyn Center police department. The police chief claims the officer accidentally shot her gun instead of her taser. pic.twitter.com/3vOINE9gxj

      April 12, 2021

      Updated
      at 4.09pm EDT

      3.41pm EDT
      15:41

      The prosecution is now cross-examining Barry Brodd, a defense witness called to testify about use-of-force. One thing that Brodd has said earlier was that the prone restraint position isn’t inherently a use-of-force. Derek Chauvin kept his knee against George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes when he was prone against the ground.

      Danny Spewak
      (@DannySpewak)
      Defense witness Barry Brodd says that “maintaining of the prone control, to me, is not a use of force,” and that there were “valid reasons” to keep Floyd face-down because of “space limitations.”

      April 13, 2021

      The prosecution’s questioning of Brodd has made him seem a bit inconsistent. They ask Brodd whether his opinion would change—whether he would consider the prone position a use of force—if it caused an arrestee pain.
      “If the pain was inflicted through the prone control, I would say that is a use of force,” he says.
      Prosecutors ask Brodd whether he thinks it’s “unlikely that orienting yourself on top of a person on the pavement, with both legs, is unlikely to produce pain?”
      “It could,” Brodd says.
      By pressing Brodd on his statement that the prone position doesn’t necessarily cause pain—which does not make much sense—he doesn’t come across as the most reliable witness.

      3.02pm EDT
      15:02

      It hasn’t taken long for Chauvin’s attorney to try casting George Floyd as unpredictable drug user whose behavior changed the playing field for appropriate use-of-force. Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, has asked use-of-force expert Barry Brodd whether substance use can affect use-of-force requirements.
      “It has quite a large impact, in my opinion,” Brodd replies. People on drugs might not “be hearing” what officers ask them to do.
      “They may have erratic behavior. They don’t feel pain.”
      “They may have superhuman strength,” he also says. “They may have an ability to go from compliant to extreme non-compliance in a heartbeat.”
      Brodd also says that the prone position might be “safer” for an arrestee who’s handcuffed, because they can’t run off and injure themselves. It might also prevent an arrestee from choking on their own vomit, he claims. More

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      in US Politics

      Washington shaken after officer and suspect killed in attack at US Capitol

      by

      Washington woke on Saturday shaken by another deadly attack at the US Capitol, an incident which left a police officer and a suspect dead and stirred memories of 6 January, when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the building in an attempt to overturn the election.The incident on Friday was on a much smaller scale but it still spread confusion and fear. Early in the afternoon, a man rammed his vehicle into two Capitol police officers standing in front of a barricade. Exiting the vehicle, the suspect then lunged at officers with a knife. He was shot dead.Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of Capitol police, told reporters two officers were taken to hospital after the attack. One, William “Billy” Evans, an 18-year department veteran and the father of two young children, died from his injuries.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Evans a “martyr for democracy”.“America’s heart has been broken by the tragic and heroic death of one of our Capitol police heroes,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Once again, these heroes risked their lives to protect our Capitol and our country, with the same extraordinary selflessness and spirit of service seen on 6 January.“On behalf of the entire House, we are profoundly grateful.”A neighbour of Evans, Bob Epskamp, told the Washington Post he was a “loving and caring father”. After the insurrection at the Capitol, he said, he told Evans he “was glad he was fortunate enough not to be on duty that day”.Police did not immediately name the suspect and the motive remained unclear. Multiple news outlets, however, named the attacker as Noah Green, who was 25 and from Indiana.Friends and family members told news outlets they had been concerned about Green’s mental health in recent years, especially after he posted disturbing comments to social media.Green’s Facebook profile was public until it was suspended on Friday. Two weeks before the attack at the Capitol, he reportedly wrote: “These past few years have been tough, and these past few months have been tougher.“I have been tried with some of the biggest, unimaginable tests in my life. I am currently unemployed after I left my job partly due to affiliations, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey.”Green reportedly grew up in Virginia and played football in college. Andre Toran, a former team-mate, told USA Today he was a “really quiet guy” who would occasionally crack jokes with the team but mostly just smiled when listening to conversations.“I know people say this all the time, but the guy who I played with is not the same person who did this,” Toran said.[embedded content]According to other friends and family members, Green became paranoid after alleging he had been drugged with Xanax by former room-mates. The experience, he claimed, made him addicted to the drug and led to withdrawal symptoms.Toran showed USA Today a Facebook post he said Green wrote during the pandemic, in which Green said that withdrawal symptoms included seizures, a lack of appetite, paranoia, depression and suicidal ideation.Green’s brother told the Washington Post Green moved around after college, going from Virginia to Indianapolis and even to Botswana. Green moved in with his brother two weeks before he attacked the Capitol, his brother said, and in the hours before the attack sent a text message that read: “I’m sorry but I’m just going to go and live and be homeless. Thank you for everything that you’ve done. I looked up to you when I was a kid. You inspired me a lot.”On his Facebook page, Green claimed to be a follower of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, and said his faith in Farrakhan and the extremist group was “one of the only things that has been able to carry me through these times”.The Nation of Islam is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, for its “deeply racist, antisemitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leader”.On Friday, acting chief of the Metropolitan police Robert Contee said the attack did not appear to be terrorism-related, though police were still investigating.Only three months have passed since the Capitol breach on 6 January by hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump. Then, lawmakers, staff members and journalists were forced to hide as rioters roamed the building, allegedly looking for politicians to kidnap and even kill, until police were able to clear the building.Five people, including a US Capitol police officer who confronted rioters, were killed. At least 350 people have been charged in relation to the attack.Security around the Capitol was greatly increased. A tall fence now surrounds the building, and thousands of members of the national guard have been stationed in the area. The national guard plans to stay at the Capitol until May at the request of US Capitol police, whose small force struggled to handle the January riot.While Friday’s attack was much smaller in scale, it renewed concerns over the Capitol being a target for violence.Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, was at the Capitol on Friday despite most representatives and senators being away for Easter.He told MSNBC: “The question we have to ask is what is happening in our country, where we have people coming in, trying to use violence and knives and arms [at] the heart of American democracy.” More

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      in Elections

      Trump still being investigated over Capitol riot, top prosecutor says

      by

      Federal investigators are still examining Donald Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol.Michael Sherwin, the departing acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, confirmed that the former president is still under investigation over the 6 January putsch in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.“Maybe the president is culpable,” he said.Sherwin also said there were now more than 400 cases against participants in the riot and said that if it is determined Brian Sicknick, the Capitol police officer who died, did so because he was hit with bear spray, murder charges would likely follow.“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to DC on 6 January,” Sherwin said. “Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?“…Based upon what we see in the public record and what we see in public statements in court, we have plenty of people – we have soccer moms from Ohio that were arrested saying, ‘Well, I did this because my president said I had to take back our house.’ That moves the needle towards that direction. Maybe the president is culpable for those actions.“But also, you see in the public record, too, militia members saying, ‘You know what? We did this because Trump just talks a big game. He’s just all talk. We did what he wouldn’t do.’”Trump addressed a rally outside the White House on 6 January, telling supporters to “fight like hell” to stop Congress certifying his election defeat by Joe Biden, which he falsely claims was the result of voter fraud. A mob broke into the Capitol, leading to five deaths, including a Trump supporter shot by law enforcement.Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted when only seven Republican senators could be convinced to vote him guilty.Lawsuits over the insurrection, one brought by the Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, are among proliferating legal threats to Trump now he has lost the protections of office.More than 100 police officers were allegedly assaulted during the riot. Sicknick died the next day. Cause of death has not been released. But two men have been charged with assaulting the 42-year-old officer with a spray meant to repel bears.Asked if a determination that Sicknick’s death was a direct result of being attacked with the spray would lead to murder charges, Sherwin said: “If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death, yeah. We have causation, we have a link. Yes. In that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case.”[embedded content]He also said: “That day, as bad as it was, could have been a lot worse. It’s actually amazing more people weren’t killed. We found ammunition in [one] vehicle. And also, in the bed of the vehicle were found 11 Molotov cocktails. They were filled with gasoline and Styrofoam. [Lonnie Coffman, the man charged] put Styrofoam in those, according to the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], because when you throw those, when they explode, the Styrofoam will stick to you and act like napalm.”He also said pipe bombs placed near the Capitol by an unidentified suspect were not armed properly.“They were not hoax devices, they were real devices,” Sherwin said.Sherwin also said sedition charges, as yet not part of cases against participants in the riot, were likely.“We tried to move quickly to ensure that there is trust in the rule of law,” he said. “You are gonna be charged based upon your conduct and your conduct only.“… The world looks to us for the rule of law and order and democracy. And that was shattered, I think, on that day. And we have to build ourselves up again. The only way to build ourselves up again is the equal application of the law, to show the rule of law is gonna treat these people fairly under the law.” More

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      in US Politics

      Atlanta spa shootings: Georgia hate crimes law could see first big test

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      A hate crimes law passed in Georgia amid outrage over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery could get its first major test as part of the murder case against a white man charged with shooting and killing six women of Asian descent at Atlanta-area massage businesses this week.Prosecutors in Georgia who will decide whether to pursue a hate crimes enhancement have declined to comment. But one said she was “acutely aware of the feelings of terror being experienced in the Asian American community”.Until last year, Georgia was one of four states without a hate crimes law. But lawmakers moved quickly to pass stalled legislation in June, during national protests over racial violence against Black Americans including the killing of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was pursued by several white men and fatally shot while out running in February 2020.The new law allows an additional penalty for certain crimes if they are motivated by a victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or mental or physical disability.Governor Brian Kemp called the new legislation “a powerful step forward”, adding when signing it into law: “Georgians protested to demand action and state lawmakers … rose to the occasion.”The killings of eight people in Georgia this week have prompted national mourning and a reckoning with racism and violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. The attack also focused attention on the interplay of racism and misogyny, including hyper-sexualized portrayals of Asian women in US culture.Many times Asian people are too silent, but times changeRobert Aaron Long, 21, has been charged with the murders of six women of Asian descent and two other people. He told police the attacks at two spas in Atlanta and a massage business near suburban Woodstock were not racially motivated. He claimed to have a sex addiction.Asian American lawmakers, activists and scholars argued that the race and gender of the victims were central to the attack.“To think that someone targeted three Asian-owned businesses that were staffed by Asian American women … and didn’t have race or gender in mind is just absurd,” said Grace Pai, director of organizing at Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Chicago.Elaine Kim, a professor emeritus in Asian American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “I think it’s likely that the killer not only had a sex addiction but also an addiction to fantasies about Asian women as sex objects.”Such sentiments were echoed on Saturday as a diverse, hundreds-strong crowd gathered in a park across from the Georgia state capitol to demand justice for the victims of the shootings.Speakers included the US senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and the Georgia state representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American in the Georgia House.“I just wanted to drop by to say to my Asian sisters and brothers, we see you, and, more importantly, we are going to stand with you,” Warnock said to loud cheers. “We’re all in this thing together.”Bernard Dong, a 24-year-old student from China at Georgia Tech, said he had come to the protest to demand rights not just for Asians but for all minorities.“Many times Asian people are too silent, but times change,” he said, adding that he was “angry and disgusted” about the shootings and violence against Asians, minorities and women.Otis Wilson, a 38-year-old photographer, said people needed to pay attention to discrimination against those of Asian descent.“We went through this last year with the Black community, and we’re not the only ones who go through this,” he said.The Cherokee county district attorney, Shannon Wallace, and Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, will decide whether to pursue the hate crime enhancement.Wallace said she could not answer specific questions but said she was “acutely aware of the feelings of terror being experienced in the Asian-American community”. A representative for Willis did not respond to requests for comment.The US Department of Justice could bring federal hate crime charges independently of state prosecutions. Federal investigators have not uncovered evidence to prove Long targeted the victims because of their race, two unnamed officials told the Associated Press.A Georgia State University law professor, Tanya Washington, said it was important for the new hate crimes law to be used.“Unless we test it with cases like this one, we won’t have a body of law around how do you prove bias motivated the behavior,” she said.[embedded content]Given that someone convicted of multiple murders is unlikely to be released from prison, an argument could be made that it is not worth the effort, time and expense to pursue a hate crime designation that carries a relatively small additional penalty. But the Republican state representative Chuck Efstration, who sponsored the hate crimes bill, said it was not just about punishment.“It is important that the law calls things what they are,” he said. “It’s important for victims and it’s important for society.”The state senator Michelle Au, a Democrat, said the law needed to be used to give it teeth.Au believes there has been resistance nationwide to charge attacks against Asian Americans as hate crimes because they are seen as “model minorities”, a stereotype that they are hard-working, educated and free of societal problems. She said she had heard from many constituents in the last year that Asian Americans – and people of Chinese descent in particular – were suffering from bias because the coronavirus emerged in China and Donald Trump used racial terms to describe it.“People feel like they’re getting gaslighted because they see it happen every day,” she said. “They feel very clearly that it is racially motivated but it’s not pegged or labeled that way. And people feel frustrated by that lack of visibility and that aspect being ignored.” More

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      in Elections

      Four Proud Boys leaders charged over alleged roles in US Capitol attack

      by

      Four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group have been charged in the US Capitol riot, as an indictment ordered unsealed on Friday presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.At least 19 leaders, members or associates of the neo-fascist Proud Boys have been charged in federal court with offenses related to the 6 January riot, which resulted in five deaths.The latest indictment suggests the Proud Boys deployed a much larger contingent in Washington, with more than 60 users “participating in” an encrypted messaging channel for group members created a day before.The Proud Boys abandoned an earlier channel and created the new Boots on the Ground channel after police arrested the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio, in Washington. Tarrio was arrested on 4 January and charged with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December. He was ordered to stay out of the District of Columbia.Tarrio has not been charged in connection with the riots but the latest indictment refers to him by his title as Proud Boys’ chairman.Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, two of the four defendants charged in the latest indictment, were arrested several weeks ago on separate but related charges. The new indictment also charges Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe.All four defendants are charged with conspiring to impede certification of the electoral college vote. Other charges in the indictment include obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and disorderly conduct.Nordean, 30, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and member of the group’s national Elders Council. Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl, 35, of Philadelphia, and Donohoe, 33, of North Carolina, are presidents of local Proud Boys chapters, according to the indictment.A lawyer for Biggs declined to comment. Attorneys for the other three men didn’t immediately respond to messages.Proud Boys members, who describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “western chauvinists”, have engaged in street fights with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.The Proud Boys met at the Washington Monument around 10am on 6 January and marched to the Capitol before then president Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, the indictment says. Several Proud Boys entered the Capitol building after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors.At 3.38pm, Donohoe announced on the “Boots on the Ground” channel that he and others were “regrouping with a second force” as some rioters began to leave the Capitol, according to the indictment.“This was not simply a march. This was an incredible attack on our institutions of government,” assistant US attorney Jason McCullough said in a recent hearing for Nordean’s case.Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making them difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop.After Tarrio’s arrest, Donohoe expressed concern that encrypted communications could be “compromised” when police searched the group chairman’s phone, according to the new indictment. In a 4 January post on a newly created channel, Donohoe warned members that they could be “looking at Gang charges” and wrote, “Stop everything immediately,” the indictment says.“This comes from the top,” he added.A day before the riots, Biggs posted on the Boots on the Ground channel that the group had a “plan” for the night before and the day of the riots, according to the indictment.In Nordean’s case, a federal judge accused prosecutors of backtracking on their claims that he instructed Proud Boys members to split up into smaller groups and directed a “strategic plan” to breach the Capitol.“That’s a far cry from what I heard at the hearing today,” US district judge Beryl Howell said on 3 March.Howell concluded that Nordean was extensively involved in “pre-planning” for the events of 6 January and that he and other Proud Boys “were clearly prepared for a violent confrontation”. However, she said evidence that Nordean directed other Proud Boys members to break into the building is “weak to say the least” and ordered him freed from jail before trial.On Friday, Howell ordered Proud Boys member Christopher Worrell detained in federal custody pending trial on riot-related charges. Prosecutors say Worrell traveled to Washington and coordinated with Proud Boys leading up to the siege.“Wearing tactical gear and armed with a canister of pepper spray gel marketed as 67 times more powerful than hot sauce, Worrell advanced, shielded himself behind a wooden platform and other protestors and discharged the gel at the line of officers,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.Defense attorney John Pierce argued his client wasn’t aiming at officers and was only there in the crowd to exercise his free speech rights.“He’s a veteran. He loves his country,” Pierce said. More

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      in Elections

      FBI releases new Capitol attack footage as it seeks to identify 10 suspects

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      The FBI has released new footage of the deadly 6 January US Capitol insurrection as it seeks to identify 10 suspects involved in what the agency says were “some of the most violent attacks on officers”.Law enforcement are still pursuing more than 100 suspects from the attack on Congress, which Donald Trump was accused of inciting and led to his historic second impeachment. Hundreds have been arrested after the violent mob invaded the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.But the 10 suspects highlighted this week by the federal authorities are considered amongst the most dangerous still at large.Each of the clips posted to the FBI’s Washington field office website shows the suspects allegedly in the act of assaulting the officers, alongside closeups of their faces, several of them masked but many not.“The FBI is asking for the public’s help in identifying 10 individuals suspected of being involved in some of the most violent attacks on officers who were protecting the US Capitol and our democratic process on January 6,” Steven M D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, said in a statement accompanying the footage.“These individuals are seen on video committing egregious crimes against those who have devoted their lives to protecting the American people.”The FBI said it had already received “hundreds of thousands of tips” following the riots that claimed five lives when a mob stormed the Capitol and invaded the US Senate and House of Representatives.At a rally earlier in the day, the former president incited his followers to march to the Capitol building and “fight like hell” in support of his false claims that the election was stolen from him.The massive investigation that ensued led to the arrest of more than 300 individuals, of whom 65 were arrested for assaulting law enforcement officers, the FBI said.The most recent came this week as the agency arrested and charged two men, Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, with assaulting Brian Sicknick, a US Capitol police officer who died in hospital after the attacks.Khater was seen in social media footage discharging a spray he referred to as “bear shit” into the 42-year-old officer’s face, court papers allege. The cause of death is not yet known, although investigators believe Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance, possibly bear spray, that may have played a role.Earlier this month, Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, called the riots “domestic terrorism” in congressional testimony.“That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism,” Wray told the Senate judiciary committee.“The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a number of years now, and it’s not going away any time soon,” he added, although analysis has concluded that most of the 6 January rioters were unconnected to any extremist group.The alleged assaults captured in the new FBI footage take place in a variety of locations around the capitol. All the suspects are male, and several are wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps that became a signature of Trump’s supporters during his tumultuous presidency.“We’re grateful to the members of the public who have already been a tremendous help in these investigations,” D’Antuono said.“We know it can be a difficult decision to report information about family, friends, or co-workers, but it is the right thing to do.” More

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      FBI arrests two men for 'bear spray' assault on Capitol officer who later died

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      Two men have been arrested and charged with assaulting Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January in support of the former president’s attempt to overturn election defeat by Joe Biden.
      Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, were arrested by the FBI on Sunday and expected to appear in federal court on Monday.
      They were charged with assaulting Sicknick with a “toxic spray”, thought to be bear spray, which Khater was allegedly seen discharging into the officer’s face in footage of the riot. It is not yet known if it caused Sicknick’s death.
      Sicknick, 42, was one of five people to die as a direct result of the assault, which Donald Trump incited when he told supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause. The officer died in hospital on 7 January. A police statement said he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” and “returned to his division office and collapsed”.
      His body lay in state at the Capitol. The cause of his death is still not known. Initial statements that he suffered blunt force trauma after being hit with a fire extinguisher were walked back. Investigators now believe Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance, possibly bear spray, that may have played a role in his death.
      Court papers stated: “Officers Sicknick, Edwards and Chapman suffered injuries as a result of being sprayed in the face with an unknown substance by Khater. The officers were temporary blinded by the substance, were temporary disabled from performing their duties and needed medical attention and assistance from fellow officers.”
      In social media footage, Khater is seen spraying Sicknick and others with a spray he refers to as “bear shit”, according to the court papers. The spray has not been directly linked to Sicknick’s death. More