January 6 Insurrectionists Take Trump Pardons to Horrifying Level

Recently released January 6, 2021 insurrectionists are trying to argue that their presidential pardons should apply to separate crimes they were charged with while they were being investigated for storming the Capitol, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Edward Kelley, who was pardoned after assaulting police at the Capitol, is also hoping to overturn a conviction for conspiring to murder FBI agents who investigated him, forming a “kill list.” He allegedly planned to use drones to bomb the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee, branch, and thinks that conviction should be thrown out.

“In this instance, there can be no dispute that Kelley’s case in this court is related to the events of January 6th and is covered by the President’s executive action,” his lawyer Mark Brown wrote in a motion on January 27.

Fellow rioter Andrew Taake, who served six months in prison for spraying officers at the Capitol with bear spray, was released from prison on January 27 even though he still had outstanding charges for solicitation of a minor in 2016. It took Houston police more than a week to track him down.

The lawyer for David Daniel, who is facing child pornography charges, stated that “pretty much all” of the evidence of his client’s pornography crimes stemmed from Daniel’s house being raided due to his January 6 involvement, which, the attorney argues, means those charges should be null and void since he was pardoned for his actions on January 6 four years ago.

“Anything that flowed from that case, given the pardon, should be excluded and inadmissible at trial,” Daniel’s lawyer William Terpening told the Journal.

This is a frightening line of argument—a literal get-out-of-jail-free card for dangerous, vindictive people who already got one from President Trump. Time will only tell how their unearned reintegration into society will impact the country if their requests are granted

Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan is desperate for the Department of Justice to scrape up some reason he can go after Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for making people aware of their rights.

During an appearance on Fox News last week, Homan suggested that Ocasio-Cortez might be in trouble over a webinar she’d held about immigrants’ legal rights when dealing with ICE.

“At what level is that impedement? Is that impedement? I’m not an attorney, I’m not a prosecutor. Is that impedement?” Homan asked, sounding increasingly untethered.

“Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts? And if so, what are we going to do about it? Is she crossing the line? So, I’m working with the Department of Justice and finding out. Where is that line that they cross? So, maybe AOC’s gonna be in trouble now,” Homan said.

Ocasio-Cortez dismissed Homan’s prattling. “‘MaYbe shE’s goiNg to be in TroUble nOw,’” she wrote in a post mocking him on X. “Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start.”

In a statement, Homan insisted he had actually read the U.S. Constitution, in which case, he must be simply choosing to ignore it.

There is no legal problem with informing individuals of their rights, like the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, or the right to refuse ICE entry without a warrant signed by a judge. Still, the border czar doubled down on his comments when pressed on his threats against the New York congresswoman during CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

“Are you suggesting that she should be prosecuted?” asked CNN host Dana Bash.

“I’m suggesting that I would ask the Department of Justice, where’s that line on impediment, right? That’s a broad statute. So I know impeding, or someone stopping in front of me and putting their hands on my chest that you’re not coming in here to arrest that guy, that’s clearly impeding. But at what line—where’s the line on impeding?” Homan said.

“I’m asking the Department of Justice, who are the prosecutors and decide who they prosecute, and what the standards of that prosecution is. I simply says [sic], at what point is that impeding? Because you can call it ‘Know Your Rights’ all you want. We all know the bottom line is, the bottom line is how they evade law enforcement. Don’t open your door. Don’t answer questions.”

Unfortunately for Homan, and his plan to enact inhumane mass deportations, both of those methods are entirely legal.

During another appearance on Fox News Monday, Homan repeated his assertion that Ocasio-Cortez was trying to teach undocumented immigrants to “evade” ICE, and said that he’d request the DOJ let him know whether she’d crossed the “line.” Rather than requesting that she be investigated, it seemed that Homan was desperate for them to conjure some evidence that she had violated the law. Spoiler alert: She hadn’t.

In a rather pointless, sycophantic move, a New York member of Congress wants to make Donald Trump’s birthday a national holiday.

Republican Representative Claudia Tenney introduced the “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act” Friday, hoping to designate the president’s June 14 birthday as a new federal holiday.

“Just as George Washington’s Birthday is codified as a federal holiday, this bill will add Trump’s Birthday to this list, recognizing him as the founder of America’s Golden Age,” Tenney said in a press release.

“By designating Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day as a federal holiday, we can ensure President Trump’s contributions to American greatness and the importance of the American Flag are forever enshrined into law,” the release states.

June 14 is already commemorated as Flag Day in the United States, signifying the date in 1777 when the Continental Congress decided how the country’s flag would look. But, it is not an official federal holiday, and Tenney seems to see an opportunity to curry favor with the present based on the fact that it coincides with Trump’s day of birth in 1946. (Trump’s birthday is also five days before Juneteenth, which commemorates the official end of slavery and which Biden made a federal holiday in 2021.)

Why is Tenney prioritizing this blatant attempt of brown-nosery instead of more pressing issues for her constituents, such as Trump’s game of chicken with Canada? Her upstate New York district includes areas right on the Canadian border, and tariffs could have drastic effects on those regions and on the state overall. Not to mention the lack of congressional oversight over Trump and Elon Musk’s overhaul of the federal government.

Congress hasn’t passed much legislation since Trump was sworn in as president last month, aside from an extreme immigration bill, even though Republicans control both the Senate and the House, and they are currently struggling through agreeing on a budget bill. Will passing vapid bills such as Tenney’s be what constitutes actual business for Republicans in Congress?

Self-professed free speech crusader Elon Musk seems to be trying to censor users on his own platform.

Matt Binder of Disruptionist reports that the billionaire DOGE head has blocked Signal links from appearing on X, citing researchers from cybersecurity company Mysk, who noticed the issue on Sunday and reached out to Binder through direct messages. Signal is a popular messaging app that encrypts texts between users, often allowing them to talk about sensitive topics that could otherwise be surveilled or intercepted.

“Elon Musk’s X appears to be blocking links to directly contact users on Signal,” Binder wrote on X. “Signal, the encrypted messaging app, has recently become a major tool for government workers looking to blow the whistle on DOGE.” Journalists are also using Signal to solicit tips from unhappy federal workers.

If a user on X tries to access a previously posted Signal link, they are shown a page warning them that they are visiting an unsafe link, but can choose to ignore the warning and click a link on the page to proceed to the Signal web address.

This move appears to be further confirmation that the free speech Musk seems to be so chiefly concerned with only applies to online right wing edgelords and neo-Nazis. People that draw his ire, such as journalists and embattled federal workers, don’t enjoy the same privileges.

Donald Trump is urging a foreign government to relax restrictions on a right-wing influencer charged with human trafficking and rape.

Andrew Tate, the former kickboxer and self-described “misogynist” influencer, and his brother Tristan, have been the subject of a protracted legal battle in Romania after they were arrested in 2022 on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering, and organized crime, all of which they have denied.

The brothers were able to block their indictment in Romania for now, and they were freed from house arrest last month. They are still not allowed to leave the country as investigations continue, however, according to a court order. A Romanian court also ruled last year that after the court proceedings finish, the brothers can be extradited to the U.K., to face additional charges of sex crimes.

Tate’s name was first floated by a U.S. official during a phone call with the Romanian government last week, and then revisited by Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell, who spoke with Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu when he traveled to Munich last week, three people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

Another person said that a request was made for the brothers’ passports to be returned to them, and that they be allowed to travel while they wait for the court proceedings to conclude.

Hurezeanu declined to comment on his interaction with Grenell, but his spokesperson confirmed that a conversation took place. “Romanian courts are independent and operate based on the law, there is due process,” the spokesperson said, without getting into specifics.

The spokesperson said that Hurezeanu had initiated the conversation with Grenell, who he’d known since working together in Berlin during Trump’s first term.

Meanwhile, Grenell denied knowing Hureseanu at all. He “saw me in the hallway” in Munich and “asked for a meeting”, Grennel said, adding that the two had “no substantive conversation,” according to the Financial Times.

“I support the Tate brothers as evident by my publicly available tweets,” Grennell added.

Grenell had posted on X earlier this month claiming that programs funded by USAID had been “weaponized against people and politicians who weren’t woke,” adding that “Romania is the latest example.”

Tate is a central figure in the manosphere of contemptible internet chauvinists, a group of right-wing shills Trump was able to utilize in his run for the presidency. A 2023 study by Equimundo on the state of American men found that more of the youngest men trusted Tate than President Joe Biden.

Last month, Elon Musk expressed support for Tate’s strange bid to become prime minister of the UK. It’s possible that he thinks entering office could shield him from prosecution. Where have we seen that before?

Now, Trump seems to be searching for ways to pay back his staunch supporters—no matter how grotesque the accusations against them.