Speculation is rampant about the impact of the capitol security footage aired by Tucker Carlson. Will defendants and those convicted be able to use it to appeal?

More importantly, we are reminded people are still in jail waiting trial two years later. Miranda Devine writes in the NY Post: An eggregious denial of due process:

[defense lawyer] McBride says the J6 committee’s deceptions and pejorative comments about “MAGA Republicans” from President Biden “have poisoned the DC jury pool beyond repair,” which also is grounds for appeal.

“It is egregious the way these people have been treated, for as much as two years pretrial, before any finding of fact. When people find out what has been going on in the DC gulag, it is going to shock the American conscience forever,” the lawyer said.

Is pretrial confinement justified for people charged with “parading,” and trespassing? Even those charged with assault are routinely let out on bail to await trial. And if these “deplorables” really are poor dumb rednecks and hillbillies from MAGA Country, does anyone really believe they have the financial means to be a flight risk?

Chris Hedges: Lynching the Deplorables

There is little that unites me with those who occupied the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Their vision for America, Christian nationalism, white supremacy, blind support for Trump and embrace of reactionary fact-free conspiracy theories leaves a very wide chasm between their beliefs and mine. But that does not mean I support the judicial lynching against many of those who participated in the Jan. 6 events, a lynching that is mandating years in pretrial detention and prison for misdemeanors.

Once rights become privileges, none of us are safe. (Chris Hedges)

Hedges, a self-described socialist, has a history of criticizing US law, and he brings his critical eye to the US Justice Department abuses of the Jan 6th defendants:

There are six convictions and four guilty pleas on charges of “seditious conspiracy.” This offense is so widely defined that it includes conspiring to levy war against the government on the one hand and delaying the execution of any law on the other. 

Joseph McBride, a defense attorney and former public defender who gave free legal advice to OWS protesters, is now representing J6 defendents. He sees a domestic ‘War on Terror’ shaping up:

“The post 9/11 model is being applied to American citizens,” McBride told me when I reached him by phone.

The same thing is happening, except it’s being applied to a new group of people, primarily white Christians, Trump supporters, for now.” 

Poisoned Jury Pool

“The D.C. jury pool is poisoned beyond repair,” McBride said. “When you just look at what the January 6 Committee did alone, never mind President Biden’s speeches about ‘insurrectionists,’ ‘MAGA Republican extremists’ and all this stuff, and if you just consider the fact that D.C. is very small, that people who work in the Federal Government are all by definition, kind of victims of January 6 and what happened that day, their institutions and colleagues were ‘under attack.’ How can anybody from that town serve on a jury pool? They can’t. The bias is astounding.”

A Horrible Legal Precedent

The Jan. 6 protestors were not the first to occupy Congressional offices, including Nancy Pelosi’s office. Young environmental activists from the Sunrise Movement, anti-war activists from Code Pink and even congressional staffers have engaged in numerous occupations of congressional offices and interrupted congressional hearings.

What will happen to groups such as Code Pink if they occupy congressional offices with Republicans in control of the White House, the Congress and the courts? Will they be held for years in pretrial detention? Will they be given lengthy prison terms based on dubious interpretations of the law? Will they be considered domestic terrorists? Will protests and civil disobedience become impossible?

It is clear government is acting with malice and extreme prejudice against the ‘insurrectionists’ in order to teach a harsh lesson to them and anyone else who dares march on the capitol with unapproved grievances.

Please read Chris Hedges’ essay and tell us what say you?