If you listen to Democrats and anti-Trump liberal Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Liz Cheney, you’d think that nothing was being done about the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Never mind the FBI’s all-out hunts and raids across 44 states. Never mind the continued detention of an unknown number of pro-Trump supporters. Never mind the more than 2,000 criminal charges brought by federal prosecutors against nearly 500 Americans arrested over the past four months.
Nope. Absolutely nothing is being done, the gaslighters insist, so these partisan opportunists are pushing forward with their witch-hunt commission to uncover the “facts.”
Republicans are right to oppose this charade and the continued weaponization of Jan. 6. It’s not about finding the truth. It’s about foisting the same old false narratives about conservatives on the public. It’s about holding every Republican and Trump supporter accountable for the violent or reckless actions of a few.
Patriots should be united in demanding answers about the murder of Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt. GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is leading the way on that and has called for the feds to “release the tapes” in her case and others. American Greatness editor Julie Kelly reports there are some “14,000 hours of footage” being suppressed by Washington, D.C., prosecutors and judges. Republicans should also be united in raising the alarm over abusive treatment of detained Jan. 6 protesters held in solitary confinement, which even Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin have criticized.
Defense attorney Marty Tankleff, who represents two Jan. 6 detainees being held in the Washington jail and is aiding in the defense of a third, has raised the alarm over the un-American conditions of solitary confinement imposed on MAGA rally-goers. “These are individuals who are only accused of crimes,” he told me, “being held in 23-hour lockdown” and denied basic amenities.
If there is one lawyer in America who understands what it’s like to endure human rights violations in prison, it’s Tankleff. At age 17, the New York lawyer and adjunct professor at Georgetown University was himself wrongfully accused and convicted of the murder of his own parents. He spent nearly 18 years clearing his name and amassing evidence and witnesses that his father’s former business partner had orchestrated a hit on his parents. Tankleff’s conviction was overturned in 2007; he won two multimillion-dollar wrongful conviction civil suits, earned his law degree and was sworn in to practice law in New York in 2020.
“I’ve lived it,” Tankleff told me. He survived abuse by prisoners and guards, withstood administrative segregation, and overcame psychological and physical torture in prison. “I rarely like to bring it up,” he points out, “but I was charged with double murder, and I was out on bail,” while his clients and other Jan. 6 defendants remain locked up in an American gulag. He understands firsthand the frustration of Jan. 6 defendants whose public protestations in the courtroom have been used against them. “When you see some of the outbursts in court, you can understand it. I can feel their frustration. If you can’t see your attorney, you can’t review the materials against you, it’s troubling to me.”
Tankleff is also keenly aware of the inflammatory rhetoric against the accused that deprives them of due process and a fair trial. “To me, it’s clear that we have created an environment where when people describe what happened on Jan. 6, they’ve described it as a riot or an insurrection, and they attach those labels to people who have been accused. We’re in an environment where none of these people have been convicted of a crime. When you start labeling a riot or insurrection to what happened at the Capitol to individuals, you’re already prejudicing the public. You’re already tampering with the jury pool for anyone who wants to have a jury trial.”
But for Tankleff, “the biggest issue is the inability of those who are incarcerated to aid in their own defense. There’s hundreds of hours of video, and there’s no way the Department of Corrections is going to allow either lawyers to sit there for hours after hours or those who are incarcerated and denied bail to get laptop computers (which has been done in cases throughout this country) where you can actually provide all the discovery on laptops. To me, none of the individuals should be denied.”
There is no good reason to keep these defendants locked up pending trial. “There are plenty of safeguards that could be implemented to protect the return to court of many of these individuals,” Tankleff argues. “And if they were granted bail, they would have an opportunity to go to their lawyers’ offices, aid in their own defense, review the discovery and really understand the accusations against them.”
We don’t need a Kabuki commission. We need action: Release the tapes. Free the Jan. 6 defendants. Shut down the American gulag.
Michelle Malkin’s email address is [email protected]. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
I maintain that their fear is that they are well aware that a majority of the American public is fed up with every one of them and their insanity and that a true insurrection may one day occur at which time they will have to answer.
I can’t WAIT for that to happen..
The “Socialist Democrat Party State” political officers, Gestapo, Woke and Cancel Culture are just getting started. You will obey, be loyal and support the “Socialist Democrat Party State” or you will be classified as
“Enemies of the State”.
24 Aug. 2020 – Monday on MSNBC’s “Live,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
referred to President Donald Trump and his Republican allies as “domestic enemies” and “enemies of the State”.
We the People need to Stop and Destroy this current socialist Democrat Party which has become our country’s most destructive and deadliest ENEMY.
The despicable human that shot Ashli Babbit should be outed immediately., and tried. If it was a rush on the Capital by BLMs to defend the Biden administration the media would have outed him the next day, and demanded the cop be prosecuted. This guy cound have shot her with his knee on her neck and the media or the Biden administration would not have said a word. She apparently was of the wrong political party and the wrong skin color to be judged worthy of Justice in her murder.
The dishonest, divisive, and hate-mongering Democrats have set a deadly precedent in their pursuit of injustice for members of the political opposition. As the tragic death of Ashli Babbitt has demonstrated, it appears that the Democrats have given their officers in federal law enforcement the legal protection and authority to summarily execute on the spot any unarmed, peaceful political opponent who dares to trespass on the Capitol grounds or possibly commits any other minor offense that does not meet with the approval of our ruling party. The Biden-Harris administration and its leaders in the congress have sunk to a new low since only in a communist nation like North Korea would such an egregious violation of human rights be allowed by the government.
YOU CAN bet, had it been a white cop, who shot a BLACK protester, we would ALREADY KNOW who he was, AND what charges he’d be facing..
Michelle Malkin, Great commentary. The Department of No Justice and the FBI refusing to release videos of the incident. Cover everything up / censor everything so you clowns can railroad people. Oh, don’t identify the police officer who murdered Ashli Babbitt, cover it all up. The Soviet Gulag, the Stasi and the Gestapo. Soviet justice in America.
BUT the Fbi/doj, can’t seem, to keep any of these antifa/blm rioters, UNDER ARREST, let alone get charges on them.. ALSO they seem to ALWAYS GET bailed out less than 24 hrs after being arrested.. BUT THOSE from the 6th, are often being held WITOUT BAIL….
That goes to show, WHO’S SIDE THEY ARE ON< and its certainly NOT WE THE PEOPLEs.
We are a Third World Banana Republic having all the trappings of a great world power with aircraft carriers and ICBMs, but a jackal in an Armani suit is still a jackal. True American patriots are all hanging their heads in shame.