Bugaluu :: News

Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,

Currently, there is a fierce debate raging in Germany about whether the country should supply long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, with the national children’s channel KIKA now wading into the debate in a clip that is being slammed by critics.

KIKA, which is run by public media giants ARD and ZDF, both funded by German taxpayers, ran a segment entitled “No TAURUS for Ukraine” featured on the children’s news program “Logo!”

The segment chides Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine while using crude language in the 54-second clip.

In one scene, the Taurus missile is speaking, saying: “We need to give Olaf Scholz a real run for his money with cruise missiles… He refuses to extradite me to Ukraine.”

The Taurus addresses other missiles in the clip, including the Storm Shadow from Great Britain and the SCALP from France. When the Taurus complains that he is not being sent to Ukraine, the Leopard tank chimes in, saying it was the same story with him. Scholz notably denied Germany would send the tanks to Russia before later agreeing to, with the main battle tanks now routinely seen on the battlefield.

“Huh, screw you, the Ukrainians will get me,” says the SCALP to the Taurus, at which point the Taurus answers: “No wonder they want me. I’m clearly the better cruise missile!”

The SCALP answers: “Let me guess, you are not allowed to go to Ukraine because your chancellor is hesitating and hesitating again?”

The Storm Shadow also refers to the Taurus as an “ass missile,” as the missiles bicker throughout the video.

The bizarre piece of propaganda, which appears to target Scholz for his hesitancy to send long-range missiles to Ukraine, received sharp criticism from users on Youtube.

One user stated: “The editor responsible for this should be fired immediately.”

Another user said she used to work for Germany’s public media and was shocked by the video.

“Incomprehensible! I once wrote scripts for the children’s channel, for “Bernd, das Brot.” At that time, the editor deleted the word “dead” in my script, which rhymed wonderfully with “bread” but wasn’t intended to scare the children. Today, there are advertisements for weapons in the same network,” she wrote in a popular comment.

Another user wrote: “I can’t believe I’m forced to pay for these people to make cartoons about weapons of mass destruction, lol.”

All Germans are forced to pay for ZDF and ARD public media, which receives hundreds of millions in fees every year.

Logo! responded in the comments section of the video, writing:

“Thank you for your feedback. We understand that some of you have concerns about the depiction of weapons in our video and take your criticism seriously. We also discussed how the video could be played out within our editorial team. Un.logo! is a comedy format on TikTok that is aimed at teenagers and young people aged 13 and over. Here, topics are deliberately exaggerated using satirical means. Un.logo! stands out clearly from our Logo! content. We will take your comments into account in future discussions about topic setting.”

Read more here…

Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Biden administration has been accused by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government of conducting unlawful “broad” surveillance of citizens’ private financial data without a warrant and with no evidence of any crimes being committed by the individuals.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan in Washington on Nov. 7, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

In a new interim report released on March 6, and an accompanying press release, the committee claims to have uncovered “startling evidence,” proving the federal government pried into the private transactions of American consumers without specific evidence of any criminal conduct.

According to the report, federal law enforcement, including the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI, colluded with large financial institutions in the United States, such as Barclays, U.S. Bank, Charles Schwab, HSBC, Bank of America, PayPal, and many others in what boiled down to a “fishing expedition for Americans’ financial data.”

“Tactics included keyword filtering of transactions, targeting terms like MAGA and TRUMP, as well as purchases of books, religious texts, firearms-related items, and recreational stores, like Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, and Dick’s Sporting Goods,” the report said.

“This surveillance extended beyond criminal suspicion, likely encompassing millions of Americans with conservative viewpoints or Second Amendment interests.”

Led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the committee said FinCEN characterized these Americans as potential threats and subject to surveillance despite these transactions having no criminal nexus.

Surveillance Targets Identified Using General Terms

The interim report also detailed the existence of a web portal run by the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), a public-private partnership led by the FBI’s Office of Private Sector and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

“This portal appears to have shared intelligence products with financial institutions that were used to identify individuals who fit the profile of criminal and domestic violent extremists, often because of their conservative political views or other constitutionally protected activity,” the committee said.

“Federal law enforcement used these reports and other materials they shared with financial institutions to commandeer their databases and conduct sweeping searches of individuals not suspected of committing any crimes, without a warrant, in order to identify individuals making certain suspicious transactions.”

Other surveillance targets were identified using other terms and specific transactions that concerned core political and religious expression.

According to the report, law enforcement “derisively viewed American citizens,” who expressed opposition to firearm regulations, open borders, COVID-19 lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the “deep state” as potential domestic terrorists.

“In other words, according to the FBI, an American citizen’s opposition to firearm regulations, open borders, or COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates, all of which are viewpoints protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, feed into an existing narrative many Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE) actors subscribe to regarding the U.S. government’s exercise of power,” the report said.

“Put another way, expressing a belief in the existence of the deep state, support for typical conservative policies with respect to firearms or immigration, or doubt about the conventional narrative may result in an individual being labeled by the FBI as a DVE Actor and Likely to Pose an Increasing Threat.”

The committee labeled it “disturbing” that the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency would consider views widely held by millions of Americans to be signs of DVE.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Washington on Feb. 15, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Helping Law Enforcement Find Jan 6 Protestors

Earlier this year, the Treasury Department admitted to helping law enforcement identify and arrest people involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. It urged banks to comb through customers’ private transactions using terms like “MAGA” and “Trump.”

In January, allegations were also leveled at FinCEN, claiming the agency engaged in “pervasive financial surveillance” by circulating materials to banks that listed keywords that could be used to flag private financial transactions of potential Jan. 6 suspects. The materials also allegedly included instructions for banks to use indicators, including “the purchase of books” and subscriptions to media containing “extremist views.”

“Federal law enforcement agencies, including FinCEN and the FBI, treated lawful transactions as suspicious and shared information with financial institutions through backdoor channels, often circulating materials exhibiting a clear animus towards conservative viewpoints,” the committee report said.

“In addition, FinCEN and the FBI relied on Zoom discussions, private and online government-run portals, as well as sweeping searches of financial institutions’ records to conduct its investigation. Given the important civil liberties at stake, federal law enforcement’s overreach and political bias is alarming.”

Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump are seen from behind scaffolding as they gather outside the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Further revelations from the report reveal that FinCEN relied heavily on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for guidance on what “relevant terms” and symbols could relate to racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE), which they say may “have application to the capitol riots and related activity.”

The report calls the ADL a “notorious anti-conservative activist group” and says hate symbols” that ADL recommended monitoring included the “Celtic Cross,” the “Okay Hand Gesture,” “Pepe the Frog,” and “White Lives Matter.”

The committee said it “should alarm Americans that FinCEN approved of and distributed a link to a database that considers symbols of faith such as the Christian Celtic Cross and other images opposing Antifa, a violent left-wing anarchist group, as hate symbols.”

“This practice is reminiscent of the FBI’s disdain for ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholics,’ and the FBI’s reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center another far-left activist group as an authoritative source on the Catholic Church,” the report said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the FBI, Treasury Department, and the White House for comment.

The Biden White House is so desperate to provide further immediate funding to Ukraine, with the House still firmly blocking the sought after $60+ billion, that it is considering a move to try and tap $200 million from US Army funding.

While $200 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the total Ukraine aid still being sought, it would be hugely symbolic, showing that Biden is ultimately willing to put Ukraine’s defenses first – while taking from America’s domestic defense budget to do it.

Drawing on Pentagon reserves would free up funds to replenish critically low supplies at a moment Ukraine is by and large retreating from front lines in the east, however, Bloomberg has reported that the final decision hasn’t been made yet.

Bloomberg noted that the “Debate over utilizing a small amount of Pentagon reserves underscores the furious effort at the White House to find any possible support for Ukraine.”

“The White House is focused on urging the US House to pass the national security supplemental, and aides continue to believe that if the speaker were to put the bill to a vote, it would pass overwhelmingly, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said,” the report added. Biden renewed his call during Thursday night’s State of the Union address.

Meanwhile, some small European nations are stepping up in an attempt to fill a huge gap in the wake of the US arms stoppage.

“A Czech-led plan to buy 800,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine to fight Russia’s invading forces has secured enough funding, with contributions from 18 countries,” Czech President Petr Pavel described Thursday.

According to more from Reuters, “The most pressing need for Ukraine two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion began has become artillery ammunition, which is running low as the sides use heavy cannon fire to hold largely static, entrenched positions along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line.”

The European Union a year ago promised to deliver one million ammunition rounds by now but has failed to do it, as European defense companies are being pleaded with by EU government leaders to expand infrastructure and production.

LIVE FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

Senator Ron Johnson: Ukraine can’t ask us for money when they’ve got no plan

“Enough of this fantasy. If you want any funding for Ukraine, tell me how you’ll spend it to try to bring the war to an end.”

Source: My Panel on @ZeroEdge pic.twitter.com/Yy5SOE1U64

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 7, 2024

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Zelensky is still pledging ‘victory’ against Russia, but he’s still recently admitted that his forces are running woefully low on weapons and ammunition, and that if more ammo doesn’t come from the US “within a month” – it will spell disaster for Ukraine’s efforts to pushback the invasion.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Israel isn’t planning to send early warning systems to Ukraine out of solidarity but is really trying to curry more favor with the US as its war with Hamas reaches the endgame, though Tel Aviv is disguising its true intentions as a signal of displeasure with Moscow’s balancing act between Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN announced late last month that his country is “working to provide Ukraine with early warning systems”, which was followed by a hardline lawmaker promising that “Israel will take a more aggressive stance against Russia.” This came after the new Israeli Ambassador to Russia caused a scandal in early February by misportraying Russia’s regional policy, which readers can learn more about in this analysis here that hyperlinks to nearly two dozen relevant pieces about it.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted to this development by lamenting “The fact that people in the region, especially Israeli politicians, perceive and follow the path imposed on them by the ‘exceptionalists’ – the US”, which has “exacerbated and brought closer this catastrophic situation in the region, given it an eerie momentum, provoked it.” Although Israel is still legally considered a “friendly” country by Russia, that could soon change depending on what it does.

So long as it refrains from sending offensive arms, however, then it might not make that list. Even if it does, then Russia might still keep it off of there for now in order to explore whether diplomacy can result in reaching a “new normal” between them before tensions spiral out of control, similar in spirit to why Russia didn’t designate Turkiye despite it sending Ukraine attack drones. Relations with Ankara remained manageable and mutually beneficial for the most part so ties with Tel Aviv might end up the same way.

Nevertheless, this shift in Israel’s approach towards NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine – which is already an undeclared but limited hot war after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz inadvertently revealed that Western troops are secretly on the ground there – isn’t being done out of solidarity with Kiev. Rather, it superficially appears to due to Israel’s displeasure with Russia’s balancing act between it and Hamas but is really an attempt by Tel Aviv to curry favor with Washington as its war with Hamas reaches the endgame.

Two detailed reports from American media in late November can be interpreted as an evolution of the Biden Administration’s pressure campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. The Washington Post informed their audience how he let Qatar fund Hamas, while the New York Times claimed that Israel was allegedly aware of Hamas’ sneak attack plans more than a year before its early October sneak attack. Both are damning and could fuel more protests against him once the conflict ends.

About those, the Biden Administration was already implicated in the unprecedented nationwide ones that rocked Israel last spring, which were analyzed here as being motivated by its ruling liberal-globalists’ ideological opposition to the self-professed Jewish State’s conservative-nationalist government. Anticipating a repeat of those events upon the conclusion of another ceasefire ahead of Ramadan, it’s very possible that Bibi sought to preempt more meddling by agreeing to send those systems to Ukraine.

In his mind, this desperate move could potentially alleviate some of the expected grassroots pressure upon him in that scenario by influencing the US to exercise a greater degree of self-restraint by not involving itself as much in any forthcoming round of Color Revolution unrest. The public pretext upon which these early warning systems are being sent is Israel’s displeasure with Russia’s balancing act between it and Hamas in order to deflect scrutiny from his real motives.

After all, there’s no credence to the claim that Russia supported Hamas’ sneak attack, whether militarily or politically. The Kremlin has repeatedly condemned it as an act of terrorism but also condemned Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians in response. Moscow’s hosting of Hamas’ political wing is solely intended to revive peace talks and secure the release of the hostages, the latter task of which “is under the personal control of the president of the Russian Federation” according to a senior diplomat.

However much Israel might dislike this policy due to its desire that all countries take its side over Hamas’ per the zero-sum choice that it’s pressured them to make, this could continue to be conveyed through conventional diplomatic means instead of escalating matters by unilaterally sending such systems to Kiev. The reason why Israel’s export of this early warning equipment is so concerning to Russia is because it could lead to “mission creep” whereby air defense systems and possibly offensive arms soon follow.  

Any significant Israeli-backed improvement of Ukraine’s air defense capabilities could lead to a symmetrical Russian-backed improvement of Syria’s, though this analysis here argues that Moscow won’t risk a wider war to stop Tel Aviv’s increasingly frequent strikes against Damascus. At any rate, these two might slip into a dangerous security dilemma since each might accuse the other of obstructing their strikes against what they consider to be legitimate military targets in those neighboring nations.

The consequences could see Russia and Israel ramping up their respective strikes in Ukraine and Syria so as to more effectively break through these new defenses there. That won’t change the military-strategic dynamics of the Ukrainian Conflict but could risk a worsening of the West Asian Crisis if Iran feels comfortable enough to attack Israel from Syria under its host’s Russian-supplied umbrella. In that event, Israel could either react with a ground operation or might even launch one preemptively.

From Bibi’s self-interested political perspective, widening the war to Syria in any ground or special forces capacity could perpetuate the West Asian Crisis to his domestic and international benefit. On the home front, he’ll likely be able to exploit that move to remain in power and avoid (possibly politically driven) corruption charges, while the foreign one could see the US alleviating potentially impending Color Revolution pressure upon him due to Israel more directly containing Iran in Syria per their joint interests.

It’s unclear whether he’s gamed everything out this far, and even if he did, it can’t be taken for granted that events will evolve in that direction and not be offset by some hitherto unpredictable variables. Regardless of whatever his plans may be and however far he’s looking into the future, the fact of the matter is that Israel’s partial compliance with the US’ anti-Russian demands risks ruining ties with Moscow, and this could quickly reverberate throughout West Asia depending on the scenario trajectory.

Authored by Marrjorie Dannenfelser via RealClear Wire,

At the State of the Union address this week, President Biden and the Democrats intend to leverage a tragic situation involving a woman who suffered a medical emergency during her pregnancy in order to advance their own abortion agenda. My heart goes out to this mother and any other mother experiencing a similar situation. It is heartbreaking to lose a child under any circumstances. But while President Biden exploits this tragedy for political gain, one critical piece of information you won’t hear during his address is that all state pro-life protections have provisions to protect mothers experiencing medical emergencies.

Unfortunately, Biden and the Democrats think it is more politically expedient to scare women into believing they cannot access the care that they need than to roll up their sleeves and help the majority who want to parent. Peer-reviewed research found nearly 70% of post-abortive women describe their abortions as inconsistent with their own values and preferences, with one in four describing their abortions as unwanted or coerced. What are Biden and the Democrats doing to address this epidemic? They are peddling ever more abortion for any reason, past the point at which unborn children can feel pain and indeed at any time during a pregnancy. Theirs is North Korea and China-style abortion policy – and it utterly fails to align with the compassion and aid Americans desire for women facing difficult pregnancies.

Meanwhile, the pro-life community has quietly built a vast network of charitable organizations across the nation that exist to address the needs of pregnant women who want to keep their babies but lack resources. In 2022 alone, pregnancy resource centers met with clients over 16 million times and delivered services with an estimated total value of at least $358 million. They saw almost 975,000 new clients and provided pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting education programs, baby diapers, wipes, formula, clothing, and much more – all at no cost. These pregnancy resource centers not only meet the material needs of women, they can quite literally save their lives.

That is what happened in the case of survivor Jean Marie Davis, who had been trafficked for nearly three decades in 33 states when an unintended pregnancy became the impetus for her escape. With no money and running from a pimp who was trying to kill her, Jean Marie had almost nowhere to turn. After endless calls, she was finally connected to a pregnancy resource director who changed everything. Jean Marie ultimately escaped a life of drugs, violence, and serial abuse, without sacrificing the son she loves, and today she helps women in similar circumstances by running a pregnancy resource center of her own.

Hundreds of maternity homes across the nation also provide pregnant women in need with long-term housing and the material, medical, educational, and emotional resources to transform their lives and live their dreams. Rachel already had a young child, but her partner had turned abusive toward her, and then she found out she was pregnant again. She knew for the sake of her children she had to leave but had no vehicle and nowhere to turn until she found a maternity home which agreed to help. That home provided a safe and loving environment – plus all the resources Rachel needed to heal and thrive. While there, she pursued her education in the medical field and is now a registered nurse working at a local hospital. 

Now if Biden and the Democrats have their way, the charitable organizations that stepped in to help Jean Marie, Rachel, and the countless other women who come to them because they want to keep their children would no longer exist. From overt calls to “shut them down,” to an HHS proposal to revoke any public funding for these centers, to the DOJ’s refusal to protect them from the massive wave of disturbing pro-abortion violence post-Dobbs, the message is clear: For Democrats, abortion is the only option.

While the president and Democrats say they care about women, their actions speak otherwise.

Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and author of “Life is Winning: Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and Their Mothers.” 

Just hours after the last shooting injuring four and killing one involving mass transit in Philadelphia was reported, yesterday it hit the wires that another “mass shooting” took place near a SEPTA bus in Northeast Philadelphia.

One teen is “fighting for his life” while 7 other teens are recovering, NBC Philadelphia reports. 

The incident occurred at around 3 p.m. near Northeast High School at Cottman and Rising Sun avenues, where students were waiting for a bus. Three assailants opened fire, shooting over 30 rounds from across the street, wounding eight teenagers.

Surveillance captured them exiting a blue Hyundai Sonata and attacking as a bus arrived, then fleeing. The victims, aged between 15 and 17, included seven boys and a girl; two are critically injured.

Descriptions of the gunmen have been released. The shooting prompted a lockdown at a nearby elementary school and hit two SEPTA buses without injuring passengers.

Police have impounded a car believed to be involved in the shooting, seizing a blue Hyundai Sonata found parked on Roselyn Street in the Olney area of the city on Wednesday night. The vehicle, now at a local impound lot, is said to match the description of the dark blue 2019 Hyundai Sonata identified as the getaway car in surveillance footage.

Mayor Cherelle Parker commented: “The purpose of our being here today is to inform you all that enough is enough. That every law enforcement partner that we have here in the city of Philadelphia is actively engaged in working together to ensure that every resource that is needed is readily available so that the work can be done to solve crimes.”

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel added: “It’s hard to sit here in three days and have 11 juveniles shot who are going and coming from school. The cowardly acts that we’ve seen over the last three days are unacceptable, The downstream impacts if we do not address gun violence and we do not address guns is what we see today.”

“We cannot ignore what we’re seeing over the last three days. I will not sit here and people call me and tell me what I should or should not be doing,” Bethel continued.

“This is what we see when we give guns in the hands of juveniles and what they do with them. Telling kids they should not carry guns because they’re scared. Really? This is the end results of what we see. So we’re going to work hard and continue with the men and women behind me and my team to get these guns off the street and stop this from happening.”

This marks the fourth recent shooting near SEPTA properties, with 11 juveniles shot in the city this week. Other incidents involved fatal shootings and arguments, with no arrests made yet.

WANTED for shooting 8 juveniles on 3/6/24 at 7300 Rising Sun Ave. Suspects armed and dangerous – do not approach. If you have information on these suspects -please call or 215-686-TIPS(8477) or 911 pic.twitter.com/cspPIL5LLv

— Philadelphia Police Department (@PhillyPolice) March 7, 2024

Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The pace of FBI arrests and the opening of new Jan. 6 criminal cases quickened so much in late 2023 and early 2024 that District of Columbia federal courts could bend under the weight.

In the past two months, 93 people have been arrested and charged, according to Department of Justice (DOJ) reports.

At the current rate, some 445 new cases could hit the docket in 2024—more than in 2022 and 2023, according to one estimate.

In total, up to March 6, at least 1,358 people have been arrested by the FBI and criminally charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for crimes related to Jan. 6.

If the current trend is to hold, total arrests could be 2,150 by the time the statute of limitations on Jan. 6 crimes expires in early 2026, according to Jacob Rugh, associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Mr. Rugh and researcher Isabella Felin have been publishing Jan. 6 statistics and data visualization on X and Instagram since August 2022.

William Shipley, a former federal prosecutor who has represented more than 50 Jan. 6 defendants, said he noticed an upswing in cases starting in September 2023.

“Within the past two months, three months, it seems like you’re seeing six, eight, 10 a week,” Mr. Shipley said on Feb. 23 during an Epoch Times panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

“Every day, every day you see two or three more,” Mr. Shipley said. “My own view: it’s a political operation. Just my personal opinion. I think the Department of Justice, the Biden administration, is committed to continuing to keep this story front and center for purposes of the campaign.”

Mr. Shipley said there was a six- to eight-month pause in arrests and prosecutions starting in early 2023 due to the strain Jan. 6 cases put on D.C. federal courts.

“You’ve got a five-year statute of limitations, you don’t need to arrest everybody and prosecute them in the first 18 months, and there was a pause,” Mr. Shipley said. “There was a clear period of time where there weren’t arrests of any significant number happening.”

The top arrest states include Florida (129), Texas (104), Pennsylvania (93), California (90), New York (80), Ohio (71), and Virginia (67). Together they comprise nearly 50 percent of all Jan. 6 defendants, according to research by Mr. Rugh.

About 63 percent of Jan. 6 criminal cases have been adjudicated and defendants sentenced, according to DOJ figures. About 58 percent of defendants were given jail or prison time, 19 percent received home detention, and another 3.5 percent received a combination.

Of the 769 defendants who pleaded guilty to charges, 69 percent were for misdemeanors and 31 percent for felonies, the DOJ reports.

Some 1,276 defendants were charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and 486 were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.

More than 350 were hit with the controversial “corruptly obstructing, influencing or impeding an official proceeding” charge. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 16 on a challenge to how the DOJ has used 2002-era corporate fraud statutes to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants for interrupting the counting of Electoral College votes.

Perfect Conviction Rate

Perhaps the most remarkable Jan. 6 statistic comes from jury boxes in the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington D.C.

Every one of the more than 100 Jan. 6 defendants who chose a jury trial were found guilty of at least some of the charges. That’s a perfect 100-percent conviction rate for federal prosecutors, a statistic cited repeatedly in change-of-venue motions. One hundred percent of those motions have been denied.

Mr. Shipley told The Epoch Times that the DOJ’s historical conviction rate in the District of Columbia is about 65 percent, lower than the 90 percent that is “more typical” in other federal court districts.

(Top) The Department of Justice in Washington on Jan. 14, 2020. (Bottom L–R) Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Oversight Project, Sarah McAbee, wife of Jan. 6 defendant Ronald Colton McAbee, and William Shipley, defense attorney, at the congressional screening and premiere of The Epoch Times documentary “The Real Story of January 6, Part 2: The Long Road Home,” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 9, 2024. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

He said, “The way the question needs to be framed today and put before the judges again is, ‘How many trials and how high a conviction rate is necessary before the judges start to consider maybe it’s not the evidence but the jurors?’”

District of Columbia jurors seated on Jan. 6 cases “are simply not open to listening to explanations from defendants who testify, or accept any of the ‘progress’ against the evidence made by defense counsel in cross-examination,” Mr. Shipley said.

The DOJ has stated since Jan. 6 that finding, arresting, and prosecuting those who were at the U.S. Capitol is a top priority, carried out at “unprecedented speed and scale.” The FBI launched the largest investigation in its history in response to Jan. 6.

Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, paints Jan. 6 in the dramatic tones of warfare as he pledges prosecutors will continue their work unabated into 2024 and beyond.

“In scenes often reminiscent of a medieval battle, officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat with members of the invading force, many of whom carried dangerous weapons including firearms, chemical sprays, tasers, stabbing weapons and makeshift weapons across the Capitol [grounds] and in the Capitol itself,” Graves said on Jan. 6, 2024.

Jan. 6 was “likely the largest single-day mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history,” Mr. Graves said.

The preamble to the DOJ’s monthly statistical update on Jan. 6 cases states: “The Department of Justice’s resolve to hold accountable those who committed crimes on January 6, 2021, has not, and will not, wane.”

Mr. Shipley said the pace of arrests helps perpetuate the idea that supporters of former President Donald Trump comprise a threat to society.

“They want to continue to have that argument that some portion of the political opposition is actually a criminal element,” he said. “They use the branding of all these J6 defendants to say, ‘See that sliver of the MAGA movement, they’re insurrectionists, they’re foes of democracy.’”

The prosecution posture was set early on.

Prosecution Machine

Not even three weeks after the Jan. 6 incursion, the DOJ named senior prosecutors to go after the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and other alleged “white nationalist” groups, according to internal documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

A document dated Jan. 25, 2021, named assistant U.S. attorneys to investigate and prosecute white nationalists and militias, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, founder of the Oath Keepers who in 2023 was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges, was named as an early target in a DOJ list obtained by Judicial Watch.

Mr. Rhodes was added to the target list on Jan. 11, 2021, and his case assigned to FBI special agent Michael Palian, who testified against Mr. Rhodes and other defendants in the first Oath Keepers trial in 2022. Mr. Rhodes was not indicted and arrested until Jan. 13, 2022.

(Top) Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III appears on a screen during a hearing on the Jan. 6 investigation in Washington on July 12, 2022. (Bottom) Members of Proud Boys rally against the results of the 2020 presidential election, in Washington on Dec. 12, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker, Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

“I’m not at all surprised that I was added to the target list on Jan. 11, 2021, long before there could have been any actual substantive investigation into me,” Mr. Rhodes told The Epoch Times in an email. “Goes to show that ‘show me the man, I’ll show you the crime’ was exactly their M.O.”

Mr. Rhodes said the media set the tone for such a focus on the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

“The fixation on the Oath Keepers came first from the mass media, which immediately in the hours and days after the Trump supporters entered the Capitol began to highlight the row of Oath Keepers walking up the steps and breathlessly calling it a ‘military stack formation’ and alleging that the Oath Keepers were leading the crowd,” Mr. Rhodes said.

“Total nonsense. But since Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were already the two groups the leftist media loved to demonize and focus on,” Mr. Rhodes said, “no surprise those two groups became the focus of print and cable ‘news’ coverage of Jan. 6, spinning the false narrative that Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were ‘central’ to the events of Jan. 6 or were the ‘leaders.’”

Rapid Indictment Team

According to the DOJ draft plan, a branch would be established for “Priority Incidents and Subjects,” including the Jan. 6 pipe bombs, the shooting of Ashli Babbitt outside the Speaker’s Lobby, the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, use-of-force allegations against Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers, and assaults on federal officers by rioters.

Another branch was to be established for priority investigations and rapid indictments and prosecution of Jan. 6 subjects. A branch would be established for “Advanced Litigation Support,” including mass data collection, discovery for defendants, and technology support to “store, process, analyze, and produce the unprecedented amount of data.”

Judicial Watch obtained the plan as part of a 2021 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DOJ.

“These documents detail a troubling and unprecedented deployment of federal resources to prosecute Americans caught up in the January 6 disturbance,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The documents seem to describe a massive political and spy operation masquerading as a law enforcement operation.”

Treniss Evans, a former Jan. 6 defendant and founder of the legal advocacy group Condemned USA, said the prosecution efforts are squarely aimed at harming President Trump.

Read more here…