Closing summary
A federal judge ordered Proud Boys militia group member Dominic Pezzola to spend 10 years in prison for his violent actions on January 6, a sentence less than the 20-year term prosecutors requested. Ethan Nordean, a leader in the far-right group, is also scheduled to receive his sentence later today, and prosecutors have asked that he be jailed for 27 years following his conviction on seditious conspiracy and other charges.
Here’s what else happened today:
Georgia Republicans may decide to go after Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney in the Atlanta area who last week indicted Donald Trump and 18 others on election subversion charges.
An effort by Trump foes to bar him from running from president because of his involvement in the January 6 insurrection was rejected by a federal judge.
What does Ron DeSantis fear? A 15-year-old politics junky, apparently.
House Republicans will make security camera footage recorded on January 6 available to reporters, non-profit organizations, defendants in criminal cases and those injured in the attack. House speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier in the year gave conservative commentator Tucker Carlson access to the video, who used it to downplay the severity of the insurrection.
Dylan Quattrucci told police to “go hang yourself” on January 6. Now he works for the Trump campaign in New Hampshire, according to a report.
NBC News reports that 22-year-old January 6 defendant Jord Meacham has died:
Jan. 6 defendant Jord Meacham has died, according to a court filing. A funeral for the 22-year-old is scheduled for tomorrow, according to an obituary. pic.twitter.com/UyW43TEdpJ
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 1, 2023
"His passing has also been confirmed by Pretrial Services and defense counsel." pic.twitter.com/msyP7hasge
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 1, 2023
Meacham was arrested recently, and facing relatively minor charges that usually have not resulted in jail time, NBC reports:
Nejourde Meacham was arrested less than a month ago, and faced the four basic misdemeanors that often result in plea deals and probationary sentences. pic.twitter.com/gEz2yDfiki
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 1, 2023
Earlier this year, Republican speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy provoked outrage by handing over footage from the January 6 insurrection recorded by Capitol security cameras to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson – who, predictably, used it to downplay the severity of the insurrection.
McCarthy later said the footage would be “slowly” released to networks other than Fox News, and today, Politico reports House Republicans have released the rules by which the footage can be accessed:
New: House GOP (through Loudermilk’s Admin subcommittee) rolls out access policy for Jan. 6 Capitol security footage pic.twitter.com/yUHkfOz7T1
— Jordain Carney (@jordainc) September 1, 2023
Access is restricted to media organizations, non-profits, defendants in criminal cases related to the insurrection, their attorneys and people who were injured that day. People interested in the footage can view it on terminals set up in the Capitol complex, and request access to footage no longer than 10 minutes in length.
The conservative-dominated supreme court surprised Democrats earlier this year when it ordered Alabama to draw a second majority-black congressional district. But as the Guardian’s Sam Levine and Andrew Witherspoon report, the state’s Republican lawmakers are doing everything they can not to obey the ruling:
Just a few months ago, the US supreme court issued one of its most surprising rulings in recent memory.
In a 5-4 decision in Allen v Milligan, the court said Alabama’s congressional map violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it diluted the influence of Black voters, who make up about a quarter of the state’s population, but comprise a majority in just one of Alabama’s congressional districts. The justices upheld a lower court’s decision ordering Alabama to redraw its map “to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it”.
It was widely seen as a major win for the Voting Rights Act, a statute that the US supreme court has significantly hollowed out over the last decade. It was a victory that was supposed to give the Black belt, a historically Black region in the state that is among the poorest in the US, better representation in Washington.
The statute, a landmark of the civil rights movement, has been critical in increasing Black representation at all levels of government across the US.
But when Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature convened just a few weeks later, they ignored the mandate. Their new map still included just one majority Black district. It increased the percentage of Black voters in a second district to be around 41% Black, but continued to crack the Black belt, a historically Black region that stretches across the middle of Alabama, into multiple districts. Now, it is asking a federal court to approve that map and, if they don’t, the case will probably return to the supreme court.
When the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, many conservatives welcomed the decision with the argument that abortion access should be decided on a state-by-state basis. But as the Guardian’s Carter Sherman reports, Texas Republicans are trying to override the will of local voters to ensure the procedure remains restricted throughout the country’s second most-populous state:
After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, district attorneys from major counties in Texas vowed not to vigorously prosecute people under the state’s anti-abortion laws.
Now, Texas has a plan to punish them if they don’t fall in line.
On Friday, Texas will enact Senate Bill 20, a law that forbids prosecutors from adopting a “policy” of refusing to prosecute particular types of crimes, such as abortion cases. Under the new law, these policies constitute “official misconduct” and could lead to prosecutors being removed from office.
This kind of legislation flies in the face of prosecutors’ normal ability to choose whether and how to pursue cases, said Miriam Krinsky, executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, an organization that works to support local prosecutors. Krinsky called the new law “scare tactics”.
“This is not about seeking to see enforcement of laws,” said Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor. “This is about trying to erode the rights of individuals to make choices around their own personal healthcare. And that is incredibly sad, because the collateral damage of that political agenda is the erosion of democratic principles.”
Laws like Senate Bill 20 are the latest volley in a long series of battles about the role of small government in regulating abortion. Before the supreme court overturned Roe and abolished national protections for abortion rights, opponents of the procedure had long argued that states should be allowed to write their own abortion laws. Now, however, some powerful anti-abortion groups like Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America are calling for federal abortion restrictions, such as a 15-week ban.
Texas is far from the only state where prosecutors have said that they will refuse to go after people for violating abortion bans. Within days of Roe’s overturning, 90 elected prosecutors released a statement – organized by Fair and Just Prosecution –publicly announcing that they would “refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions”. (US abortion bans typically penalize individuals who provide abortions or help others get the procedure, rather than abortion patients.)
The Guardian’s Maya Yang reports on how Canadian LGBTQ+ rights and civil liberties organizations are speaking out about the rise in hostile laws and hate crimes in the United States.
Earlier this week, the Canadian government warned LGBTQ+ Canadian citizens about the risks of visiting the US due to a growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
In an updated travel advisory, the government wrote that “some states have enacted laws and politics that may affect [LBGTQ+] persons. Check relevant state and local laws.”
It warned LGBTQ+ Canadians to “watch for laws that criminalise same-sex activities and relationships”, as well as laws that “criminalise people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics”.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest US LGBTQ+ advocacy group, as of May, more than 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills had been introduced in state legislatures. More than 220 bills specifically targeted transgender and non-binary youth while a record 70 anti-LGBTQ+ laws had been officially enacted.
Speaking to the Guardian, Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, one of the country’s leading LGBTQ+ organizations, said: “We’re pleased that our government has issued this advisory. “I think it’s important for members of our LGBTQ community here in Canada to understand the issue …
“It is somewhat alarming when the neighbor is imposing and enacting these pieces of legislation. I would encourage people to be very aware of where they’re going and what the laws are in those states. If they don’t have to go, go somewhere else.”
A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to rule Donald Trump ineligible for a second term in the White House, for his role in the 6 January insurrection.
The district court judge Robin Rosenberg, an Obama appointee, said in a written ruling that the plaintiffs, including Florida attorney Lawrence Caplan, lacked standing to bring the suit, according to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
Caplan told the paper he was “not surprised” and didn’t plan to appeal “because that’s not going to go anywhere”.
The suit, in district court in Palm Beach county, where Trump resides, said the 14th amendment to the US constitution barred those who had engaged in insurrection against the US from holding elected office.
Many legal scholars say the argument is sound, though some believe it was implemented only to prevent Confederates on the losing side in the civil war from holding office again.
ABC News reported on Friday that similar lawsuits are being prepared in several swing states, including Arizona, Michigan and New Hampshire.
Richard Luscombe reports on the Proud Boys January 6 sentencing hearing in Washington today:
A member of the far-right Proud Boys militia group who took part in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol with the intention of keeping Donald Trump in the White House was sentenced to a lengthy prison term on Friday, as another waited to learn his fate.
Dominic Pezzola, who attacked a police officer and was filmed using the officer’s shield to smash a window, received 10 years from the federal judge Timothy Kelly in Washington DC, following his conviction in May for assault and obstructing an official proceeding. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term.
Ethan Nordean, described by prosecutors as a leader of the extremist group, was to be sentenced later for crimes, including seditious conspiracy, committed when thousands of Trump supporters overran the Capitol building.
The pair, described by prosecutors as “foot soldiers of the right [who] aimed to keep their leader in power”, were part of a mob seeking to disrupt the certification by a joint session of Congress of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides.
Sentencing Pezzola, Kelly said: “You were the one who smashed that window and let people begin to stream into that Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers. It’s not something I would have ever dreamed I would have seen in our country.”
Pezzola told the court he was “a changed and humbled man”, his “sorrow and regret … unimaginable”.
His sentence was among the lengthiest handed down to those convicted of offences linked to the Capitol attack, in which 140 police officers were injured.
Pezzola, of Rochester, New York, posted to social media a profanity-laced video of himself inside the Capitol, smoking a cigar.
Prosecutors asked for a 27-year term for Nordean, of Auburn, Washington.
Read on:
Some interesting nuggets – of news rather than reconstituted chicken – have emerged from an interview between Tucker Carlson, once of Fox News, and Dave Portnoy, still of another controversial rightwing outlet, Barstool Sports.
Last week, Carlson’s interview with Donald Trump played as counter-programming to the first Republican presidential primary debate, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trump has saluted the success of that gambit, and indeed remains miles ahead in the polls. But, it turns out, Carlson thinks both that Trump should have debated and that, at 77, the former president is too old to return to the White House.
Part of Carlson’s interview with Portnoy on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, now Carlson’s home, went like this:
Portnoy: “To me, if you’re voting on the president you want to hear him debate. He’s brilliant. He’s the best to ever play the political game. So to become president, I think it was the right move not to do it. But for the betterment of country, I think you should be on it.”
Carlson: “I kind of agree. I like the debates, personally.”
Portnoy: “I mean, how else are people gonna decide?”
Carlson: “The problem is that the news companies that host the debates” – Fox News hosted the first one, four months after letting Carlson go – “are so rotten and corrupt, and everybody knows it. The whole thing’s wrong. The whole thing is rotten through.”
Portnoy: “… I mean, to be honest, I think both Trump and Biden are too old … I don’t think you should be able to be that old to be president.”
Carlson: “I agree 100%.”
It’s not quite at the level of the Carlson text messages that were revealed in the Dominion lawsuit over Fox News’ broadcast of Trump’s election lies – “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” the host wrote, “I truly can’t wait. I hate him passionately” – but it might still land with a bit of a damp thud at Trump campaign HQ.
The day so far
A federal judge has ordered Proud Boys militia group member Dominic Pezzola to spend 10 years in prison for his violent actions on January 6, a sentence less than the 20-year term prosecutors requested. Ethan Nordean, a leader in the far-right group, is scheduled to receive his sentence later today, and prosecutors have asked that he be jailed for 27 years following his conviction on seditious conspiracy and other charges.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Georgia Republicans may decide to go after Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney in the Atlanta area who last week indicted Donald Trump and 18 others on election subversion charges.
What does Ron DeSantis fear? A 15-year-old politics junky, apparently.
Dylan Quattrucci told police to “go hang yourself” on January 6. Now he works for the Trump campaign in New Hampshire, according to a report.
After sentencing Dominic Pezzola to spend 10 years in prison for his actions on January 6, Politico reports federal judge Timothy Kelly took a moment to point out the difference between the attack on the Capitol and the violence that sometimes occurred during racial justice protests in the summer of 2020:
KELLY briefly addresses comparison between Jan. 6 cases and other riot/protest cases such as BLM or Portland related cases.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
He says comparisons are often inapt because Jan. 6 has a constitutional element — a fraught moment during transfer of power — that was unique.
Most of the protests that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020 were peaceful. However, allies of Donald Trump have often invoked instances of looting or fighting that occasionally happened during the nationwide demonstrations to downplay the severity of the attack on the Capitol months later.
Updated
Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola receives 10-year prison sentence - report
Federal judge Timothy Kelly has sentenced Proud Boys militia member Dominic Pezzola to spend 10 years in prison for his actions during the January 6 attack, Politico reports:
KELLY sentences Pezzola to *10 years* in prison for his role on Jan. 6.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
The sentence is less than the 20-year term prosecutors had proposed. During the insurrection, Pezzola was captured on video using a stolen police riot shield to break a window at the Capitol. He was convicted of several crimes, including assaulting a police officer and obstructing an official proceeding.
Federal judge Timothy Kelly is now addressing Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola at his sentencing hearing, Politico reports:
KELLY: "That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power, which is among the most precious things we had as Americans. Notice I said ‘had’ because …our tradition of unbroken peaceful transfers of power, that string has been broken."
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
KELLY: "You were the one who smashed that window and let people begin to stream, into that Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers. It’s not something I would have ever dreamed I would have seen in our country.”
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
Politico reports that Dominic Pezzola is addressing the court as a judge in Washington DC weighs how long he should spend in prison for his actions on January 6.
Pezzola was convicted of several crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting an officer, and prosecutors have recommended he receive a 20-year prison sentence.
As defendants in these case often do, Pezzola expressed remorse when addressing the judge:
PEZZOLA now addressing Judge Kelly, says some of his remarks may be "tough to get through."
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
"I stand before you today as a changed and humbled man."
PEZZOLA now addressing his family, regretting missing his daughter's high school graduation, getting her driver's license.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
“To my beloved wife Lisa. I have broken this family and crushed your heart. My sorrow and regret is unimaginable.”
PEZZOLA acknowledges the dark stain on history that his actions helped cause, apologizes to the officer he assaulted, Mark Ode, and says "I never should have crossed the barrier at the Capitol that day."
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
Assistant US attorney Erik Kenerson reminded the judge of Pezzola’s actions during the attack, particularly how he broke into the Capitol with a stolen police riot shield, a now-famous image from the insurrection:
AUSA Kenerson says when Americans have anxiety during transfer of power in 2024, "The image of Mr. Pezzola breaking that window" will be among the ones "that many Americans think of when that wave of fear hits them."
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
We’re expecting Joe Biden to soon speak about the government’s August employment report that came out a few hours ago, which shows employment growth remaining steady in the world’s largest economy, despite the sting of high interest rates, as the Guardian’s Lauren Aratani reports:
The US jobs market is holding steady as interest rates sit at a 22-year high, with US employers adding 187,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The number of new jobs added in August is the same as the number of new jobs in July, showing that the labor market, down to levels seen before the pandemic, is resilient even with high interest rates.
The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring the jobs market and other indicators that point to whether the economy is slowing down and inflation is dropping toward their target level. The Fed in July raised interest rates for the 11th time in under two years, bringing rates up to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, making mortgage rates and other loans more expensive.
Even at the beginning of this year, employers were adding as many as 517,000 jobs a month, as seen in February. But over the last few months, the number of new jobs has started to slow.
In August, the unemployment rate was 3.8%, the highest it’s been in over a year. The unemployment rate has been holding relatively steady over the last year, reaching a record low of 3.4% in February and then coming down again during the spring and summer.
As we await the sentencing of Proud Boys militia group member Dominic Pezzola, former Washington DC police office Michael Fanone shared his thoughts on the prison terms handed down yesterday against two other members of the group.
Fanone was beaten by the mob on January 6 as he attempted to defend the Capitol, and has since become outspoken against Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to downplay the insurrection. Here’s what he had to say about yesterday’s sentences, from CNN:
Officer Fanone weighs in after two leaders of the Proud Boys were sentenced to 17 and 15 years in prison today, some of the longest sentences stemming from the Capitol attack. pic.twitter.com/rASACcevbR
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 1, 2023
DeSantis security followed, blocked questions from 15-year-old - report
Security guards for Ron DeSantis followed and physically blocked 15-year-old politics enthusiast Quinn Mitchell from speaking with the Florida governor during campaign events in New Hampshire, the Daily Beast reports.
Since 2019, Mitchell has shown up to presidential events in the Granite State to ask candidates questions, and has often received a positive response from politicians who admire his civic mindedness. But after asking DeSantis whether Donald Trump “violated the peaceful transfer of power” – and getting a nonresponse in return from the governor – Mitchell says his security singled him out at campaign events:
Speaking about it for the first time in an interview with The Daily Beast, Mitchell says that he was grabbed and physically intimidated by DeSantis security at two subsequent campaign stops, where the candidate’s staffers also monitored him in a way he perceived as hostile.
The experience, Mitchell said, was “horrifying” and amounted to “intimidation.”
At a Fourth of July parade DeSantis attended, Mitchell was swarmed by security and physically restrained after a brief interaction with the governor—with his private security contractors even demanding Mitchell stay put until they said so.
With his mother alarmed, the situation escalated to such a degree that the candidate’s wife, Casey, spoke directly with her—but to suggest her son was being dishonest about what happened, according to Mitchell.
Then, at an August 19 event—where Mitchell was tailed closely by two security guards—an attendee told The Daily Beast they saw a staffer for DeSantis’ super PAC, Never Back Down, take a photo of the teenager on Snapchat before typing out an ominous caption: “Got our kid.”
Seven other sources corroborated Mitchell’s version of events, either by sharing contemporaneous communications with the family or recounting what they witnessed in person at DeSantis events, including the Fourth of July parade. The teenager and his family say they have yet to receive any kind of apology from DeSantis.
The DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down did not return multiple requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
“Really stupid in a small state like New Hampshire,” Mitchell deadpanned about the guards’ behavior. Indeed, the story has the potential to create an avoidable headache for DeSantis, whose campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is going far worse than expected. Despite early momentum and strong fundraising, most polls in the state and nationwide show the Florida governor in a very distant second place to Trump among GOP voters.
The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that former allies are turning their backs on Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate who was last week indicted in Georgia for trying to overturn its 2020 election result:
As he attempts to meet mounting legal fees incurred in large part through his work for Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani will reportedly not get “a nickel” from one billionaire who backed his campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination – or, apparently, much from many other previously big donors.
“I wouldn’t give him a nickel,” the investor Leon Cooperman told CNBC. “I’m very negative on Donald Trump. It’s an American tragedy. [Rudy] was ‘America’s mayor’. He did a great job. And like everybody else who gets involved with Trump, it turns to shit.”
Brian France, a former Nascar chief executive, was slightly more conciliatory. But he told the same outlet his wallet was staying shut: “I was a major supporter of Rudy in 2008 and at other times. I’m not sure what happen[ed] but I miss the old Rudy. I’m wishing him well.”
Donald Trump happened to Rudy.
Giuliani, now 79, was once a crusading US attorney who became New York mayor in 1993 and led the city on 9/11 and after. Capitalising on the resultant “America’s mayor” tag, he ran for the Republican nomination to succeed President George W Bush. Briefly leading the polls, he raised $60m but flamed out when the race got serious.
When Giuliani struggled with drink and depression, his former wife has said, Trump gave him shelter. When Trump himself entered presidential politics, in 2016, Giuliani became a vociferous surrogate. When Trump entered the White House, Giuliani failed to be named secretary of state but did become the president’s aide and attorney.
In that capacity his actions fueled Trump’s first impeachment, over attempts to find dirt on opponents in Ukraine, and he helped drive the hapless attempt to overturn Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, which has spawned numerous criminal charges.
Republican politicians have a long record of claiming to be the party that supports the police, but as NBC News reports, a man who told officers to “go hang yourself” on January 6 is currently working for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
“If you are a police officer and are going to abide by unconstitutional bulls---, I want you to do me a favor right now and go hang yourself, because you’re a piece of s---,” said Dylan Quattrucci, the deputy state director of Trump’s campaign in New Hampshire, in a video he recorded on January 6 near the Capitol. “Go f--- yourself.”
Quattrucci’s position makes him the number-two figure in Trump’s campaign in the state, which is the second to vote in the GOP’s nominating process. Trump is currently the frontrunner is most polls of Republican primary voters, both nationwide and in New Hampshire.
The video was first posted on Twitter by “Sedition Hunters”, an online group focused on tracking down participants in the January 6 attack. NBC News reports there’s no evidence Quattrucci entered the Capitol itself, though on his Twitter account, he does have a picture of himself posing with Trump at a New Hampshire campaign office.
Updated
Sentencing begins for Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola
The sentencing hearing for Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys militia group convicted of serious charges related to the January 6 insurrection, has begun in Washington DC, Politico reports:
HAPPENING NOW: Proud Boy Dominic PEZZOLA, who committed one of the most memorable acts on Jan. 6 when he smashed a Senate window with a stolen police riot shield — and then lit up a victory cigar in the Capitol — is in the courtroom and prepared to face sentencing. pic.twitter.com/oL7akLJxcp
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2023
Prosecutors are requesting a 20-year prison sentence for Pezzola, which, if granted, would be the longest handed out to any defendant related to the attack on the Capitol.
There’s no telling how the state and federal cases against Donald Trump and others for trying to overturn the 2020 polls will end, but as the Associated Press reports, the environment for election workers nationwide has grown much more hostile in recent years:
More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a justice department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote.
Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, secretaries of state and experts warn. Some point to Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen and spreading conspiracy theories about election workers. Experts fear the 2024 election could be worse and want the justice department to do more to protect election workers.
The justice department had created the taskforce in 2021 led by its public integrity section, which investigates election crimes. John Keller, the unit’s second in command, said in an interview with the Associated Press the department hoped its prosecutions would deter others from threatening election workers.
“This isn’t going to be taken lightly. It’s not going to be trivialized,” he said. “Federal judges, the courts are taking misconduct seriously and the punishments are going to be commensurate with the seriousness of the conduct.”
More people are expected to plead guilty on Thursday to threatening election workers in Arizona and Georgia.
Georgia Republicans could target DA who indicted Trump for election subversion
Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp yesterday rejected a call from a handful of rightwing lawmakers to convene a special session of the state legislature with the intention of removing Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who indicted Donald Trump and 18 others for trying to overturn the state’s elections three years ago.
But as the Guardian’s Jewel Wicker reports, Willis may not be out of the woods yet:
Republicans at the state and federal levels are calling for multiple tactics to unseat Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, even if their legal standing is murky and they lack the support of Georgia’s Republican governor.
Steve Gooch, the Georgia senate majority leader, and Clint Dixon, a state senator, have said they plan to use a commission designed to discipline and potentially remove rogue prosecutors to investigate Willis following her indictment of Donald Trump for attempting to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
In May, Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill, SB92, that makes it easier to remove elected district attorneys. Under the law, a prosecuting attorneys qualifications commission has the power to investigate complaints and discipline or remove district attorneys whom the appointed commissioners believe are not properly enforcing the law.
Kemp on Thursday dismissed talk of using the commission or the legislature to remove Willis from office, but said the decision was not his. “Up to this point, I have not seen any evidence that DA Willis’s actions or lack thereof warrant action by the prosecuting attorney oversight commission, but that will ultimately be a decision that the commission will make,” the governor said.
The commission will begin receiving complaints on 1 October 2023, and earlier this month Burt Jones, the Republican lieutenant governor, announced three appointments to the eight-member group. Jones, who served as one of Georgia’s fake electors when he was a state senator in 2020, recently criticized Willis’s prosecution of Trump and said her treatment of the defendants like criminals is “very disturbing”.
Here’s more from Reuters on the two Proud Boys who are being sentenced today, and what they were found guilty of:
The first Proud Boy to face sentencing on Friday morning, Dominic Pezzola, did not play a leadership role in the group and was the only defendant of five to be acquitted of seditious conspiracy. He was convicted of other felonies including obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting police.
The second defendant, Ethan Nordean, was a leader of the group who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol following a speech in which the Republican falsely claimed that his November 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Trump has continued to make those false claims even as he leads the Republican race for the 2024 nomination to challenge Democrat Biden.
Five people including a police officer died during or shortly after the riot and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.
The sentencing of Pezzola and Nordean follows U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly on Thursday ordering two other former Proud Boys leaders, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, to serve 17 years and 15 years in prison, respectively.
Biggs’ term is just one year less than the 18 years former Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes received earlier this year.
The sentences for Biggs and Rehl were far less than the 33-year and 30-year terms sought by federal prosecutors.
The government is seeking a 20-year prison term for Pezzola and a 27-year term for Nordean.
Although Pezzola was found not guilty of sedition, prosecutors said his assault on former Capitol Police Officer Mark Ode, in which he stole Ode’s riot shield and used it to smash at a window at the Capitol, helps to justify a lengthy prison term.
“Pezzola’s actions and testimony leave no doubt that he intended to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. “He committed crimes of terrorism on January 6.”
Pezzola’s attorneys are asking for their client to be sentenced to around five years in prison, and said in their sentencing memo that he has already served about three years in jail awaiting trial.
Nordean’s attorney, Nick Smith, plans to argue for a lower sentence within the range of 15-21 months.
“Nordean walked in and out of the Capitol like hundreds of Class B misdemeanants,” Smith wrote. “When the government does distinguish Nordean’s actions from any other January 6 defendant’s, it relies on characterization, not facts.”
Two more Proud Boys face sentencing on January 6 charges
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today, two more members of the Proud Boys militia group will be sentenced by a federal judge on charges related to the January 6 insurrection. Prosecutors are requesting a 27-year prison sentence for Ethan Nordean, a chapter president in the group, after his conviction for seditious conspiracy and other crimes, and a 20-year sentence for Dominic Pezzola, who was acquitted of that charge but convicted of other offenses related to the violent attack on the Capitol.
Yesterday, a judge sentenced former Proud Boys organizer Joseph Biggs to 17 years behind bars, and handed a 15-year sentence to Zachary Rehl, a leader of the group. Both men were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a civil war-era offense that is rarely brought. Their sentences were the second- and third-longest handed down from the attack on the Capitol, and two other members of the group, including its former leader, Enrique Tarrio, are scheduled to be sentenced next week.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Just-released government data shows better-than-expect hiring in August but the unemployment rate ticking up to 3.8%. Joe Biden will speak about the report at 11.15am eastern time.
More defendants in the Georgia election subversion case may opt to skip next week’s in-person arraignment and enter their pleas in writing. Donald Trump did so yesterday, as did his former lawyer Jenna Ellis.
The White House is asking Congress to allocate an additional $4b to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for the response to recent disasters, including the wildfire that destroyed Lahaina in Maui and Hurricane Idalia in Florida and other southeastern states.
Updated
