During court proceedings this week, federal Judge Thomas Hogan rhetorically smacked down a Capitol rioter’s lawyer over their self-confident promotion of the lie that government infiltrators spurred on the riot at the Capitol back in January. Although this idea has been promoted by allies of the former president as prominent as Fox News host Tucker Carlson, it has no basis in reality. There is no legitimate evidence that government agents worked to propel the riot forward in order to try and make Trump supporters look bad — or for any other reason.
The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings, and this lawsuit is yet another attack.
Mr. Trump doesn’t get to dictate this investigation. We will continue undeterred because no one is above the law.— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) December 20, 2021
As Hogan put it, referring to the infiltration claims:
‘We’re getting a false narrative being produced that’s not appropriate to be relied upon… I’m not going to rely on anything about that in this case.’
"I’m not going to rely on anything about that in this case," Hogan says as Nichols' attorney Joseph McBride, argues for his release from pretrial detention in DC jail.
McBride has pushed that narrative on Tucker Carlson's series. https://t.co/FOnx0RQDHk
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 20, 2021
An individual cited by that lawyer (who’s named Joseph McBride) as “clearly” an infiltrator is actually a known individual from St. Louis who supports Trump and has no apparent connections to law enforcement. The conspiracy theory fell apart under ever-so-slight scrutiny — McBride claimed that the person in question, who wore distinctive red face paint while at the Capitol, was “clearly a law enforcement officer,” but HuffPost confirmed details of the individual’s identity and life that show that — well, he’s not any sort of law enforcement officer. Interestingly, when presented with evidence by HuffPost showing that the person under scrutiny wasn’t an infiltrator, McBride eventually said that he doesn’t “give a shit about being wrong,” which doesn’t seem like a great look for a lawyer.
Trump has issued a lie-filled statement saying Jan. 6 was a "completely unarmed protest" (entirely false) and that the "CAUSE" was that the election was "rigged" (entirely false).
(I've ignored almost all of his post-presidency nonsense, but FYI he is still doing the nonsense.)
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 21, 2021
Judge Hogan criticized McBride’s promotion of false claims about government connections to the Capitol violence amid detention proceedings for his client, Ryan Nichols, who the judge ultimately opted to leave in jail, where he’s been in pre-trial detention since January of this year. In a video that had been broadcast live to Facebook and was presented during those proceedings, Nichols proclaimed that he “stands for violence.” His charges in connection to the Capitol violence are serious, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, and assaulting or impeding certain officers, all of which come with hefty potential sentences, if convicted. Recently, the longest riot-tied prison sentence so far was handed down, with Florida resident Robert Palmer receiving over five years behind bars for assaulting police.
Breaking: The Jan. 6 select committee is requesting an interview with Republican Scott Perry — the first known effort to talk to a member of Congress about helping Trump in his efforts to overturn the election. https://t.co/nJJ7ANYZJ3
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 20, 2021
