Trump supporters behaving like the bags of ass that they are

[blackbull1970]

Four Proud Boys members found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 trial

A fifth member of the group, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted on the seditious conspiracy count, but found guilty on other charges, including assaulting officers on Jan. 6.

By Ryan J. Reilly
May 4, 2023, 10:16 AM EDT / Updated May 4, 2023, 3:29 PM EDT

Four Proud Boys members found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 trial

A fifth member of the group, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted on the seditious conspiracy count, but found guilty on other charges, including assaulting officers on Jan. 6.

www.nbcnews.com

WASHINGTON — Four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization were found guilty Thursday of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl were found guilty on the rare charge of seditious conspiracy under a Civil War-era statute. Dominic Pezzola, another member of the group, was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy. Tarrio, Biggs, Nordean and Rehl were also found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, while U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly declared a mistrial on that count for Pezzola after the jury said it could not come to an agreement.

All five Proud Boys members were charged on nine counts in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, while Pezzola — who was caught on video smashing in a window with a Capitol Police shield during the breach, and who admitted to his behavior on the stand — was separately charged with a tenth count of stealing the police shield and found guilty Thursday.

Pezzola was also found guilty of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, while the other four defendants were acquitted on that charge.

The jury reached only a partial verdict and Kelly declared a mistrial on several other counts on which the jury did not come to a conclusion.

The trial unfolded over the course of four months, with jury selection beginning in December 2022 and opening arguments starting in early January. The Proud Boys trial was the third seditious conspiracy case to go before jurors since the Capitol attack: Six members of the far-right Oath Keepers group, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were convicted on that charge across two trials in November and January.

Jeremy Bertino, a high-level member of the Proud Boys who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in October, testified for the prosecution in this latest trial as part of a plea deal, telling jurors that Proud Boys believed they "had to do anything that was necessary to save the country."

Prosecutors argued that the Proud Boys were "thirsting for violence" on Jan. 6 and had organized in advance to stop certification of President Joe Biden's win by "any means necessary, including by force."

Defense attorneys countered that the Justice Department was using the group as a scapegoat for the real person to blame for Jan. 6: Donald Trump.

Two defendants testified during the trial: Rehl, the head of the organization's Philadelphia chapter, and Pezzola, a floor installer from New York whom members of the organization called "Spaz." Just before Rehl was set to be cross-examined, online sleuths surfaced videos that appeared to show him deploying a can of pepper spray toward officers; Rehl denied it at trial and was not charged with assaulting police. Pezzola got heated on the stand, bringing up conspiracy theories about another Jan. 6 participant, Ray Epps, and ranting about the “fake” charges and the “phony” trial.

The biggest challenge prosecutors faced in the trial was convincing a jury that Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, was a part of the conspiracy, given that he spent Jan. 6 at a hotel in Baltimore after being banned from Washington, D.C., the day before. Tarrio, in encrypted messages revealed during the trial, acknowledged receiving a message from someone who wanted to "storm the Capitol" but didn't directly endorse that plan, and prosecutors seemed to concede that much of what happened on Jan. 6 happened spontaneously. What they were able to show was that Tarrio said he wanted a "spectacle" on Jan. 6, and celebrated the attack on the Capitol after it happened, giving the Proud Boys credit for the breach.

Several other Proud Boys have pleaded guilty for their actions on Jan. 6, and another went to trial while the larger seditious conspiracy trial was underway. Joshua Pruitt, a D.C. bartender who joined the Proud Boys and stormed the Capitol, was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in August. Nicholas Ochs, the founder of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, was sentenced to four years in prison in December.

Judge Kelly will ultimately sentence the defendants.

(Clockwise from left) Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola​

 

[lightbright]

Proud Boys members, ex-leader Enrique Tarrio guilty in seditious conspiracy trial

BY ROBERT LEGARE
UPDATED ON: MAY 4, 2023 / 12:31 PM / CBS NEWS

Proud Boys members, ex-leader Enrique Tarrio guilty in seditious conspiracy trial

A fifth defendant, Dominic Pezzola, was found not guilty of the most serious charge, seditious conspiracy.

www.cbsnews.com

Washington — The one-time president of the far-right Proud Boys group Enrique Tarrio and three subordinates were convicted of numerous felonies including seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C. found Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Joseph Biggs guilty of conspiring to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden and using force and prior planning to hinder the 2020 presidential election certification.

There was no verdict for Dominic Pezzola on the most serious charge, seditious conspiracy, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. After the reading of the partial verdict, Judge Timothy Kelly sent the jury back to deliberate on these charges and several other felonies that they did not come to verdict on.

All five were found guilty of several other felonies, including obstructing an official proceeding; obstructing Congress; conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and aiding and abetting and destruction of government property.

But Tarrio, who arrested on Jan. 4, 2021, and not at the Capitol, was found not guilty of assaulting officers. Only Pezzola was found guilty of that charge.

They now likely face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors had argued the defendants had conspired to unlawfully use force — and the crowds gathered in Washington, D.C. — to keep former President Donald Trump in office.

Soon after the election, investigators alleged Tarrio began posting on social media and in message groups about a "civil war," later threatening, "No Trump…No peace. No Quarter."

Proud Boys leaders saw themselves as "a fighting force" that was "ready to commit violence" on Trump's behalf, the government alleged.

According to charging papers, Nordean, Rehl, Biggs and Pezzola gathered with over 100 Proud Boys near the Washington Monument on Jan. 6, 2021, around the time that Trump was speaking at the White House Ellipse. They allegedly marched to the Capitol grounds and communicated by radio.

Prosecutors said the defendants were among the first wave of rioters to breach Capitol grounds over police barricades and lead the mob toward the building.

Some defendants – like Pezzola – were accused of breaking windows at the Capitol, while others roused the mob and pushed through metal barricades and police lines to enter the Capitol.

Tarrio wasn't in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 because he had been arrested for unrelated charges a day earlier. Still, the Justice Department alleged his planning before the attack, support for the rioters during the assault and comments afterward were sufficient to charge him with seditious conspiracy.

"Make no mistake, we did this," Tarrio wrote on social media during the riot.

"The spirit of 1776 has been resurfaced and has created groups like the Proud Boys. And we will not be extinguished," Nordean allegedly wrote in Nov. 2020. "Hopefully the firing squads are for the traitors that are trying to steal the election from the American people," Rehl posted.

Prosecutors said Tarrio exhorted protesters to violence, posting before Jan. 6, "Let's bring this new year in with one word in mind: revolt." In text messages, he later compared Proud Boys' actions that day to those of George Washington, Sam Adams and Benjamin Franklin.

Defense attorneys countered that the Proud Boys were just a glorified "drinking club" where men shared their anger, and they contended Tarrio and others had no explicit plan to resist the election results or obstruct Congress. Tarrio was merely exercising his constitutional rights, his lawyer argued.

"Did Enrique Tarrio make comments that were egregious? Absolutely," Tarrio's attorney rhetorically asked the jury in closing arguments last week. "You may not like what he said, but it is First Amendment-protected speech."

The trial, which began on Jan. 12, dragged from winter into spring with dozens of witnesses called by both sides and thousands of exhibits. Witnesses included a documentary filmmaker who followed Tarrio around after the 2020 presidential election, numerous FBI agents who investigated the case, Secret Service employees, and former Proud Boys.

Only two of the five defendants — Rehl and Pezzola — testified in their own defense. Rehl said he knew of no plans for violence and encouraged no one to engage with police.

Prosecutors showed video of Pezzola using a stolen police shield to smash a window and smoking a "victory cigar" inside the Capitol. He said he acted alone and testified he was not part of any criminal enterprise. Pezzola's attorney, Steve Metcalf, called the government's case a "fairy dust conspiracy,"

Matthew Greene — a former Proud Boys member — testified as a government witness and told the jury he first joined the group to defend against ANTIFA.

He testified there had been no explicit call to violently resist Joe Biden's presidency, but a "collective expectation" that they were to respond if provoked.

"I can't say it was overtly encouraged, but it was never discouraged," Greene said of violence, "And when it happened, it was celebrated."

Greene, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and entered into a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was pressed by the defense about whether the violence on Jan. 6 was planned. He said the crowd was angry, but the violence seemed "spontaneous." However, he testified the mob's actions were "either implicitly or overtly accepted and encouraged by the Proud Boys" on Jan. 6.

Another cooperating witness at trial, 43-year-old Jeremy Bertino, was considered to be Tarrio's top lieutenant and pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy last year. Like Tarrio, Bertino wasn't at the Capitol during the attack.

Bertino told the jury the Proud Boys nearly unanimously believed the 2020 election results were stolen from Trump as part of a broad "conspiracy." He testified that the Proud Boys saw themselves as the footsoldiers of the right, calling themselves the "tip of the spear" in the fight.

And after the attack, Bertino, who was recovering from an injury, messaged Tarrio, "I wanted to be there to witness what I believed to be the next American revolution…I'm so proud of my country today."

But he also told the court under cross-examination, "I didn't have conversations with anybody about going into the Capitol building." In closing arguments, Tarrio's lawyers questioned Bertino's reliability as a witness.

They blasted Bertino as a liar and alleged his testimony had been affected by his agreement with the government.

Prosecutor Conor Mulroe countered the defense argument that the seditious conspiracy had to be explicitly planned to be criminal.

"A conspiracy is nothing more than an agreement with an unlawful objective," Mulroe said of the law, "A conspiracy can be unspoken. It doesn't have to be in writing, hashed out around the table, or even in words. It can be implicit."

"They were there to threaten and if necessary use force to stop the certification of the election and that is exactly what they did," he told the jury.

Defense attorneys disagreed.

"If you don't like what some of them say, that doesn't make them guilty," said Rehls' attorney, Carmen Hernandez.

The trial was expected to last a few months, but squabbles between attorneys, sealed hearings, and shifting court schedules hampered efforts to expedite the proceedings.

"We're learning to work together. We have seven very different personalities," defense attorneys cautioned Judge Kelly in January as the trial began.

At times, the judge's patience particularly with defense attorneys appeared to wear thin as he attempted to stem the tide of objections, sidebars, and interruptions. "For God's sake," he pleaded with one defense attorney as they attempted to speak last month. "Goodness gracious," the judge said, exasperated during closing arguments. The days of testimony limped on.

The verdict came less than a month before Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes will be sentenced for a conviction of seditious conspiracy. A jury in Washington, D.C., found him and codefendant Kelly Meggs guilty of the high crime but acquitted three others of the charge.

A group of four more Oath Keepers was separately convicted of the seditious conspiracy count earlier this year, all in spite of efforts by defense attorneys to argue the charge is too extreme and Washington, D.C. jurors too biased.

Defense attorneys in the trial consistently laid the blame for the riot at the feet of Trump himself, many mentioning the former president in their opening and closing arguments.

Tarrio's attorney, Nayib Hassan, was even more explicit, telling the jury in closing arguments that "it was Donald Trump's words, it was his motivation, it was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6."

"They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power," Hassan said.

 

[blackbull1970]

Florida man charged with setting off explosive device in Capitol tunnel during Jan. 6 riot

Daniel Ball of Homosassa is the only Jan. 6 defendant charged with setting off an explosive device during the attack on the Capitol.

By Ryan J. Reilly
May 2, 2023, 11:29 PM EDT

Florida man charged with setting off explosive device on Jan. 6

Daniel Ball of Homosassa is the only Jan. 6 defendant charged with setting off an explosive device during the attack on the Capitol.

www.nbcnews.com

DocumentCloud

www.documentcloud.org

Daniel Ball and the explosion in a U.S. Capitol tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021.​

WASHINGTON — The FBI on Tuesday arrested a Florida man who federal authorities say set off an explosive device in a Capitol tunnel during a fierce battle between Trump supporters and law enforcement officers on Jan. 6.

Daniel Ball of Homosassa is charged with 12 counts, including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon; using an explosive to commit any felony; and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.

He is the only Jan. 6 defendant charged with setting off an explosive device during the attack on the Capitol.

Authorities say Ball, 38, "worked with other rioters to violently push against fully uniformed police officers attempting to keep individuals out of the Capitol Building" and then "threw an explosive device into the entranceway."

Several officers suffered effects from the explosion, the FBI said. One described “hearing impairment lasting months”; another described the pain of his ears ringing as a 10/10 on the pain scale and said that he temporarily lost his hearing and that his hearing was affected for at least two days. Another officer reported ringing in the ears for nearly three hours, while another said the ringing lasted far into the next day, according to the FBI.

“For many other officers that were interviewed, it was the most memorable event that day,” an FBI affidavit said. “Some officers who were defending the tunnel at the time of the explosion reported feeling the pressure of the blast. Some thought it was a fragmentation grenade and anticipated pain or significant injury. Some thought they were going to die. Some officers suffered psychological trauma from the explosion.”

An FBI explosives and hazardous devices examiner in the Explosives Unit at the FBI laboratory in Huntsville, Alabama, was "not able to conclusively identify the precise dimensions, charge size, or whether the explosive device thrown was improvised or commercially manufactured," according to the FBI, but concluded it was "capable of inflicting damage to surrounding property as well as seriously injuring persons in the vicinity of the resultant explosion."

Daniel Ball gestures toward Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.​

In the affidavit, the FBI said that a few months after the Capitol attack, Ball was arrested in Florida and accused of battery against five civilians and two law enforcement officers. The FBI said he was convicted in connection with the incident and sentenced to five years' probation.

The FBI said Ball’s probation officer confirmed his identification for Tuesday's arrest, which appears to have been made with the help of facial recognition technology. “That’s Daniel Ball,” the probation officer said upon being shown a photo, according to the FBI. The probation officer added that Ball still owned the jacket he was wearing on Jan. 6, 2021, authorities said.

Ball's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

The use of explosive devices by the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6 was extremely rare.

David Lee Judd lit what appeared to be a firecracker, but it did not explode. He was sentenced to more than 2½ years in federal prison for his role in the attack on the Capitol.

The FBI is still looking for the person or people who left pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees on Jan. 6. Shortly before the second anniversary of the riot, the FBI boosted the reward to $500,000 for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved with planting the pipe bombs, which did not explode.

 

[Casca]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/04/poli...n-mocked-school-shooting-survivors/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/04/poli...n-mocked-school-shooting-survivors/index.html

 

[playahaitian]

 

[darth frosty]

 

[playahaitian]

Yoooooo....

 

[phanatic]

Does this dude have mange? What's up with that shitty facial hair?

 

[blackbull1970]

Jan. 6 rioter in pink beret identified after ex spotted her in a viral FBI tweet

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me. I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

By Ryan J. Reilly
May 6, 2023, 9:45 AM EDT

Jan. 6 rioter in pink beret identified after ex spotted her in a viral FBI tweet

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me. I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

www.nbcnews.com

WASHINGTON — The breakthrough in the FBI investigation started inside a Joann Fabric and Crafts store. Last weekend, a clothing designer was standing in the checkout line waiting to purchase a needle for his sewing machine when his buddy saw something funny on his phone.

It was a tweet from the FBI’s Washington Field Office featuring two striking images of the 537th person added to the bureau’s U.S. Capitol Violence webpage, which has functioned as a “most wanted” list of Jan. 6 participants since the investigation began more than two years ago.

No. 537 on the FBI list is a woman wearing a white coat and black gloves, carrying a black Dolce & Gabbana purse, who has been the subject of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories. In one image, with her eyebrow arched, she looks dead at the camera like she’s Jim from “The Office.” In another, she’s standing near the Capitol, appearing to direct rioters with a stick.

Atop her head: a pink beret.

“I stopped dead in my tracks,” the designer, who asked not to be named to avoid harassment and threats, recalled in an interview with NBC News. “I’m like, ‘That’s Jenny.’”

He sent in a tip to the FBI. On Monday, he said he got a call from the bureau, confirming they were investigating Jenny. By Friday, a law enforcement official confirmed to NBC News that the bureau had identified “Pink Beret” as the clothing designer’s ex, Jennifer Inzuza Vargas, of Los Angeles.

Vargas did not respond to requests for comment.

The designer had dated Vargas four years ago and was able to identify her to the FBI thanks to the tweet’s popularity. Recent posts from the FBI Washington Field Office on Twitter have gathered 10,000 to 20,000 views. The tweet about the woman in the pink beret received more than 7.2 million. Among those millions of viewers was his friend in Joann Fabric.

The images did not show what the woman did at the Capitol, so many on Twitter assumed she didn’t do anything serious. Some Donald Trump supporters pounced, calling this another instance of FBI overreach, a reason to defund the bureau.

The jokes flooded in, too. One Twitter user dubbed the woman “Insurrection Eva Braun,” another compared her to Carmen Sandiego. Someone called her “fascist Matilda,” and several users made jokes about her being a character from a Wes Anderson movie. “Emily in-carceration,” read one of the joke tweets referring to the show “Emily in Paris.” There were a couple of comparisons to April Ludgate, the character played by Aubrey Plaza in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.”

The clothing designer’s friend was among them: “He’s always on Twitter, and he said something like, ‘Yo, check out this chick.’”

That night, after tipping off the FBI, the clothing maker took to his own Twitter account, quote-tweeting the FBI’s post.

“I use to date this girl in 2019 LOL,” he tweeted, attaching an old picture of Vargas, wearing a red ski hat. After his tweet began to pick up steam, he started getting harassment and worried if could escalate to threats. He decided to delete the tweet, saying that things were getting “crazy.”

To the “Sedition Hunters” — the online sleuths who have spent the last 800+ days compiling and organizing open-source materials to help identify Jan. 6 rioters — Vargas was known as #PinkBeret. While the sleuths had aided in the cases against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants and identified hundreds more Jan. 6 rioters who the FBI had not yet been arrested, Pink Beret remained elusive, despite being captured in a variety of videos and photos that day.

Online sleuths had mapped out Pink Beret’s day, and she seemed to be everywhere. There she was, captured in photos and videos taken at the initial breach of the police line, by the Peace Monument. There she was, on the front lines of the attack, on video cheering on as rioters tore apart a black fence so they could chuck the pieces at the police line. There she is, in photos and video, holding the door open for other rioters at one breach point, entering the building, then entering the building again from a second breach point. There she is inside as men in military gear chase police officers under a roll-down emergency door. There she is, smoking a cigar, on the east side of the Capitol. There she is, moving a large black bag from the pile of media equipment that rioters were hellbent on destroying. “Traitors get the f---ing rope,” someone yells repeatedly as rioters smash equipment and Pink Beret looks on in high heels.

They had attacked it from all angles, but no luck. One sleuth said he had searched for pink berets so much that he began to get targeted ads for the caps, including a pink one adorned with small white puffs.

That all changed last weekend when the sleuths saw the clothing designer’s tweet. They said they ran a facial recognition check, got a match, found more photos and found plenty of material to confirm the ID, including a post in which she appears to have sold a (slightly damaged) Dolce & Gabbana purse that looks like the one Pink Beret wore to the Capitol.

The clothing designer, who’s based in Los Angeles, met Vargas, who’s from Sacramento, online and they hit it off “really well” in late 2018. In early 2019, when they were in their early 20s, Vargas flew down to L.A. “We weren’t, like, trying to get married or anything,” he said. “We were hooking up for a few months.”

Toward the end of those months, the designer said, Vargas posted on his Discord that she was reading Hitler’s 1925 manifesto. They got into a discussion about it that revealed more of Vargas’ far-right politics, he said.

“I was just instantly turned off, like, ‘Yo, I don’t think this is going to work out,’” he said. “You’re, like, reading ‘Mein Kampf,’ you think immigrants don’t deserve X, Y, Z.” (One of the social media accounts linked to Vargas, which was viewed by NBC News, also makes references to Hitler.)

After their relationship fizzled, Vargas stuck around in the Los Angeles area, the designer said; the account that sold the Dolce & Gabbana bag is based in Beverly Hills, and an Instagram account that appears to belong to her has posted from Los Angeles.

They kept in touch, occasionally exchanging messages even though their interests diverged. “She’s super into politics, and I didn’t know anything besides the fact that Trump lost,” the designer said. But he knew she was in Washington on Jan. 6 and did some research. He even asked her if she was on the “no fly” list in a message he wrote to her a few days after the attack, on Jan. 10, 2021, which he shared with NBC News.

“Nope, cause I didn’t go into the [Capitol],” she wrote, despite extensive video evidence later viewed by NBC News that does appear to show her inside the building.

“But you still crossed state lines to riot,” he replied.

“I was there to support the president. Not to partake in that riot. I support the police,” Vargas responded.

In the months that she remained unidentified, some speculated that Pink Beret was an “agent provocateur,” part of a pattern of Jan. 6 defendants and their supporters attempting to deflect responsibility for their actions by suggesting fellow rioters were working on behalf of the government to entrap Trump supporters during the attack.

Kira West, an attorney for Jan. 6 defendant Darrell Neely, has questioned the government about Pink Beret, who is seen on video holding hands with Neely inside the Capitol. West wrote in a memo this year that it was “hard to believe the government doesn’t know who she is and even harder to understand why they haven’t charged her with crimes like everyone else.”

West, in a filing in February, wrote that “Mr. Neely’s entry into the Capitol was directed by Pink Beret. Mr. Neely needs to know who she is and why she was there. He also needs to understand if he was targeted by her that day and for what purpose.”

Pink Beret was “central to Mr. Neely’s defense,” and the court should allow a “robust cross examination of government witnesses about Pink Beret girl, her possible connection to law enforcement and her role in the events of January 6, 2021,” West wrote.

The government has sought to have Neely’s defense team banned at trial from raising questions about whether Pink Beret was a member of law enforcement unless they could offer any evidence for that assertion, writing, “the Government is unaware of any evidence to support that contention.”

With hundreds of cases waiting in the pipeline, months and even years have gone by between the time rioters have been identified and when they’ve been arrested. But with Neely’s trial set to begin on May 22, the government may need to produce the new evidence it collected last weekend about Vargas’ identity expeditiously.

Asked this week about Pink Beret being identified by her ex, West said she wanted answers from the FBI months ago. “The FBI is late,” West told NBC News. “I have no idea if she has a connection to [law enforcement]. They won’t tell us.”

Vargas isn’t the first Jan. 6 rioter to be turned in by a former romantic partner. Richard Michetti was turned in by his ex after he called her a “moron” at the Capitol because she didn’t believe Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election. Last year, he was sentenced to nine months in federal prison.

The clothing designer said he thinks it’s important to get to the bottom of things and figure out if Vargas was working with any extremists on Jan. 6. But he said his “heart hurts” for Vargas.

“She’s clearly, like, a lost person,” he said, but added there needs to be accountability for people who stormed the Capitol.

He said he was struck by the sheer randomness of learning that an ex-girlfriend was on the FBI’s wanted list because of viral Twitter jokes.

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me,” the designer joked. “I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

Jan 6 Rioter Jennifer Inzuza Vargas​

 

[Pack Rat]

 

[phanatic]

Jan. 6 rioter in pink beret identified after ex spotted her in a viral FBI tweet

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me. I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

By Ryan J. Reilly
May 6, 2023, 9:45 AM EDT

Jan. 6 rioter in pink beret identified after ex spotted her in a viral FBI tweet

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me. I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

www.nbcnews.com

WASHINGTON — The breakthrough in the FBI investigation started inside a Joann Fabric and Crafts store. Last weekend, a clothing designer was standing in the checkout line waiting to purchase a needle for his sewing machine when his buddy saw something funny on his phone.

It was a tweet from the FBI’s Washington Field Office featuring two striking images of the 537th person added to the bureau’s U.S. Capitol Violence webpage, which has functioned as a “most wanted” list of Jan. 6 participants since the investigation began more than two years ago.

No. 537 on the FBI list is a woman wearing a white coat and black gloves, carrying a black Dolce & Gabbana purse, who has been the subject of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories. In one image, with her eyebrow arched, she looks dead at the camera like she’s Jim from “The Office.” In another, she’s standing near the Capitol, appearing to direct rioters with a stick.

Atop her head: a pink beret.

“I stopped dead in my tracks,” the designer, who asked not to be named to avoid harassment and threats, recalled in an interview with NBC News. “I’m like, ‘That’s Jenny.’”

He sent in a tip to the FBI. On Monday, he said he got a call from the bureau, confirming they were investigating Jenny. By Friday, a law enforcement official confirmed to NBC News that the bureau had identified “Pink Beret” as the clothing designer’s ex, Jennifer Inzuza Vargas, of Los Angeles.

Vargas did not respond to requests for comment.

The designer had dated Vargas four years ago and was able to identify her to the FBI thanks to the tweet’s popularity. Recent posts from the FBI Washington Field Office on Twitter have gathered 10,000 to 20,000 views. The tweet about the woman in the pink beret received more than 7.2 million. Among those millions of viewers was his friend in Joann Fabric.

The images did not show what the woman did at the Capitol, so many on Twitter assumed she didn’t do anything serious. Some Donald Trump supporters pounced, calling this another instance of FBI overreach, a reason to defund the bureau.

The jokes flooded in, too. One Twitter user dubbed the woman “Insurrection Eva Braun,” another compared her to Carmen Sandiego. Someone called her “fascist Matilda,” and several users made jokes about her being a character from a Wes Anderson movie. “Emily in-carceration,” read one of the joke tweets referring to the show “Emily in Paris.” There were a couple of comparisons to April Ludgate, the character played by Aubrey Plaza in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.”

The clothing designer’s friend was among them: “He’s always on Twitter, and he said something like, ‘Yo, check out this chick.’”

That night, after tipping off the FBI, the clothing maker took to his own Twitter account, quote-tweeting the FBI’s post.

“I use to date this girl in 2019 LOL,” he tweeted, attaching an old picture of Vargas, wearing a red ski hat. After his tweet began to pick up steam, he started getting harassment and worried if could escalate to threats. He decided to delete the tweet, saying that things were getting “crazy.”

To the “Sedition Hunters” — the online sleuths who have spent the last 800+ days compiling and organizing open-source materials to help identify Jan. 6 rioters — Vargas was known as #PinkBeret. While the sleuths had aided in the cases against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants and identified hundreds more Jan. 6 rioters who the FBI had not yet been arrested, Pink Beret remained elusive, despite being captured in a variety of videos and photos that day.

Online sleuths had mapped out Pink Beret’s day, and she seemed to be everywhere. There she was, captured in photos and videos taken at the initial breach of the police line, by the Peace Monument. There she was, on the front lines of the attack, on video cheering on as rioters tore apart a black fence so they could chuck the pieces at the police line. There she is, in photos and video, holding the door open for other rioters at one breach point, entering the building, then entering the building again from a second breach point. There she is inside as men in military gear chase police officers under a roll-down emergency door. There she is, smoking a cigar, on the east side of the Capitol. There she is, moving a large black bag from the pile of media equipment that rioters were hellbent on destroying. “Traitors get the f---ing rope,” someone yells repeatedly as rioters smash equipment and Pink Beret looks on in high heels.

They had attacked it from all angles, but no luck. One sleuth said he had searched for pink berets so much that he began to get targeted ads for the caps, including a pink one adorned with small white puffs.

That all changed last weekend when the sleuths saw the clothing designer’s tweet. They said they ran a facial recognition check, got a match, found more photos and found plenty of material to confirm the ID, including a post in which she appears to have sold a (slightly damaged) Dolce & Gabbana purse that looks like the one Pink Beret wore to the Capitol.

The clothing designer, who’s based in Los Angeles, met Vargas, who’s from Sacramento, online and they hit it off “really well” in late 2018. In early 2019, when they were in their early 20s, Vargas flew down to L.A. “We weren’t, like, trying to get married or anything,” he said. “We were hooking up for a few months.”

Toward the end of those months, the designer said, Vargas posted on his Discord that she was reading Hitler’s 1925 manifesto. They got into a discussion about it that revealed more of Vargas’ far-right politics, he said.

“I was just instantly turned off, like, ‘Yo, I don’t think this is going to work out,’” he said. “You’re, like, reading ‘Mein Kampf,’ you think immigrants don’t deserve X, Y, Z.” (One of the social media accounts linked to Vargas, which was viewed by NBC News, also makes references to Hitler.)

After their relationship fizzled, Vargas stuck around in the Los Angeles area, the designer said; the account that sold the Dolce & Gabbana bag is based in Beverly Hills, and an Instagram account that appears to belong to her has posted from Los Angeles.

They kept in touch, occasionally exchanging messages even though their interests diverged. “She’s super into politics, and I didn’t know anything besides the fact that Trump lost,” the designer said. But he knew she was in Washington on Jan. 6 and did some research. He even asked her if she was on the “no fly” list in a message he wrote to her a few days after the attack, on Jan. 10, 2021, which he shared with NBC News.

“Nope, cause I didn’t go into the [Capitol],” she wrote, despite extensive video evidence later viewed by NBC News that does appear to show her inside the building.

“But you still crossed state lines to riot,” he replied.

“I was there to support the president. Not to partake in that riot. I support the police,” Vargas responded.

In the months that she remained unidentified, some speculated that Pink Beret was an “agent provocateur,” part of a pattern of Jan. 6 defendants and their supporters attempting to deflect responsibility for their actions by suggesting fellow rioters were working on behalf of the government to entrap Trump supporters during the attack.

Kira West, an attorney for Jan. 6 defendant Darrell Neely, has questioned the government about Pink Beret, who is seen on video holding hands with Neely inside the Capitol. West wrote in a memo this year that it was “hard to believe the government doesn’t know who she is and even harder to understand why they haven’t charged her with crimes like everyone else.”

West, in a filing in February, wrote that “Mr. Neely’s entry into the Capitol was directed by Pink Beret. Mr. Neely needs to know who she is and why she was there. He also needs to understand if he was targeted by her that day and for what purpose.”

Pink Beret was “central to Mr. Neely’s defense,” and the court should allow a “robust cross examination of government witnesses about Pink Beret girl, her possible connection to law enforcement and her role in the events of January 6, 2021,” West wrote.

The government has sought to have Neely’s defense team banned at trial from raising questions about whether Pink Beret was a member of law enforcement unless they could offer any evidence for that assertion, writing, “the Government is unaware of any evidence to support that contention.”

With hundreds of cases waiting in the pipeline, months and even years have gone by between the time rioters have been identified and when they’ve been arrested. But with Neely’s trial set to begin on May 22, the government may need to produce the new evidence it collected last weekend about Vargas’ identity expeditiously.

Asked this week about Pink Beret being identified by her ex, West said she wanted answers from the FBI months ago. “The FBI is late,” West told NBC News. “I have no idea if she has a connection to [law enforcement]. They won’t tell us.”

Vargas isn’t the first Jan. 6 rioter to be turned in by a former romantic partner. Richard Michetti was turned in by his ex after he called her a “moron” at the Capitol because she didn’t believe Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election. Last year, he was sentenced to nine months in federal prison.

The clothing designer said he thinks it’s important to get to the bottom of things and figure out if Vargas was working with any extremists on Jan. 6. But he said his “heart hurts” for Vargas.

“She’s clearly, like, a lost person,” he said, but added there needs to be accountability for people who stormed the Capitol.

He said he was struck by the sheer randomness of learning that an ex-girlfriend was on the FBI’s wanted list because of viral Twitter jokes.

“It’s just going to be one of those things for me,” the designer joked. “I dated this girl that was on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

Jan 6 Rioter Jennifer Inzuza Vargas​

What was she fighting for? Designer bags and has enough disposable income to fly across country for a day. What part of her life was being threatened?

 

[blackbull1970]

One of the 'most violent and aggressive' January 6 rioters got the longest sentence of any insurrectionist yet after using stolen pepper spray to attack cops​

A judge sentenced Peter Schwartz to fourteen years in prison.

January 6 rioter with 38 past convictions gets 14 years in prison

Prosecutors said Peter Schwartz boasted about his role in the riot, claiming he threw a chair that broke the police line and allowed rioters inside.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[blackbull1970]

Former Navy reservist who admired Hitler is sentenced to four years over Jan. 6 riot
Hatchet Speed of Vienna, Virginia, had a security clearance and was working for a defense contractor at the time of the Capitol attack.

Former Navy reservist who admired Hitler sentenced to over Jan. 6 riot

Hatchet Speed of Vienna, Virginia, had a security clearance and was working for a defense contractor at the time of the Capitol attack.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Walter Panov]

Nazi state

 

[phanatic]

Former Navy reservist who admired Hitler is sentenced to four years over Jan. 6 riot
Hatchet Speed of Vienna, Virginia, had a security clearance and was working for a defense contractor at the time of the Capitol attack.

Former Navy reservist who admired Hitler sentenced to over Jan. 6 riot

Hatchet Speed of Vienna, Virginia, had a security clearance and was working for a defense contractor at the time of the Capitol attack.

www.nbcnews.com

That's a fucking cool as name. Too bad he's a number now, because he listened to a fat, make up wearing asshole that couldn't take an L.

 

[darth frosty]

 

[blackbull1970]

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes says his creation of group entitles him to ‘time served’ for seditious conspiracy conviction for Jan. 6

MARISA SARNOFF
MAY 8, 2023 6:26 PM

Oath Keepers leader says his creation of group entitles him to 'time served' for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy conviction

The brief describes the Oath Keepers as having a "history of community in involvement and volunteerism in times of natural disasters and civil unrest." Its leader was convicted of conspiring to use force against Congress to keep Donald Trump in office.

lawandcrime.com

The leader of a right-wing antigovernment militia-style group who was convicted of leading a seditious conspiracy against the U.S. — culminating in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — has asked a judge to issue him a sentence of time served.

Stewart Rhodes, who founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, was convicted in November of plotting to use violence to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win in order to keep Donald Trump in power on Jan. 6. At trial, prosecutors had presented jurors with evidence a plan between Rhodes and his co-defendants — Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs, Ohio State Regular Militia founder Jessica Watkins, retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Thomas Caldwell, and Florida Oath Keepers member Kenneth Harrelson — to stockpile a cache of weapons in a hotel room in Arlington, Virginia, and tried to procure a boat to ferry them across the Potomac River to the Capitol.

The Capitol riot did stop Congress from its certification of the results, which is mandated by the Constitution, and forced lawmakers and staffers to either flee or spend hours sheltering in place as members of the pro-Trump crowd violently raged through parts of the building.

Rhodes and Meggs were convicted of seditious conspiracy, widely seen to be the most serious charge in the federal government’s expansive prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters. They were also convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, which, like the seditious conspiracy charge, carries a potential 20 years behind bars. Meggs, Harrelson, and Watkins were found guilty of conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties, which carries a potential six years in prison, while Rhodes, Meggs, Harrelson, and Caldwell were all convicted of tampering with documents or proceedings, a 20-year felony charge that Watkins did not face.

Four more co-defendants, who were tried separately, were all convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges. Edward Vallejo, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, and David Moerschel were additionally convicted of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress, and conspiring to obstruct an officer from discharging duties.

Rhodes has been in custody since his arrest in Jan. 2022.

Left: Stewart Rhodes booking photo (via Collin County (Tex.) Jail). Right: Rhodes outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 (via DOJ).​

 

[woodchuck]

 

[Casca]

 

[darth frosty]

Someone needs to do a marketing campaign aimed at young voters that's a take on the intro to ice cubes no vasiline with these stories with the here's what they think about you line.

 

[blackbull1970]

Let me guess.

He never heard of the 26th Amendment of The US Constitution.

Good chance his ignorant ass never read it.

 

[Pack Rat]

They know they are losing the college vote so they are looking at different options to suppress their vote.

 

[Casca]

 

[darth frosty]

 

[phanatic]

You know why this is scummy? He knows the Fox audience is way past that age, and could never pass a civics test. Why not make it that anyone over the age of 40 has to pass a test too?

 

[phanatic]

I'm sure more adult men showed up to a van that is advertising candy and videogames.

 

[Casca]

CNN the new FOX?

https://boingboing.net/2023/05/12/t...cnn-told-them-not-to-boo-only-to-applaud.html

 

[Casca]

https://apple.news/AA2M72rc4QlO7kV5dBr5HxQ

 

[Casca]

 

[Casca]

 

[Casca]

 

[woodchuck]

"Here we go again!" - Chuck D.

 

[DC_Dude]

 

[DC_Dude]

"Here we go again!" - Chuck D.

They need to march in the opposite direction down PennAve and head towards SE over the River.....Bring that energy East of the River....

 

[phanatic]

They need to march in the opposite direction down PennAve and head towards SE over the River.....Bring that energy East of the River....

Philly warmed those dudes up last time they came to an area with people who weren't trying to hear that bullshit they're talking.