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What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2025 7:41 pm
by Joe Guy
Prosecutors placed on leave hours after describing Jan. 6 attack as a ‘mob of rioters’
Two federal prosecutors have been placed on administrative leave just hours after describing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as perpetrated by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” according to two people familiar with the move who were granted anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
The accurate description of the attack came in a sentencing recommendation for Taylor Taranto, who was among those pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the riot. But Taranto had also been charged for unrelated threats and firearms crimes for which he is slated to be sentenced Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White urged U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to sentence Taranto to more than two years in prison for a hoax threat against the National Institute of Standards and Technology and for driving through former President Barack Obama’s neighborhood with a van full of firearms and ammunition.
In their 14-page memo, the prosecutors briefly note Taranto’s involvement on Jan. 6 and indicate that after the riot “Taranto returned to his home in the State of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.”
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who leads the Washington, D.C., office prosecuting Taranto, also declined to comment on the personnel move.
“While we don’t comment on personnel decisions, we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously," Pirro said in a statement. "We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”
Valdivia and White noted that after Taranto returned to Washington, D.C., in June 2023, he made livestreamed threats to blow up his van outside the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“The next day, on June 29, 2023, then-former President Donald Trump published on a social media platform the purported address of former President Barack Obama,” the prosecutors noted. “Taranto re-posted the address on the same platform and thereafter started livestreaming from his van on his YouTube channel. Taranto broadcast footage as he drove through the Kalorama neighborhood in Washington, D.C., claiming he was searching for 'tunnels' he believed would provide him access to the private residences of certain high-profile individuals, including former President Obama.”
The memo also describes an incident the same month in which Taranto visited an elementary school in Maryland while seeking Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a top Trump adversary.
“Taranto’s menacing rhetoric harms public discourse and encourages others to use threats and violence to advance their views or silence their perceived political opponents,” the prosecutors wrote.
It’s unclear which portion of the memo triggered the move by Justice Department officials to place Valdivia and White on leave. However, they’re the latest Jan. 6 prosecutors to face punishment for their involvement in related cases. Dozens of others were either terminated or demoted. One of them, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon, is suing over his termination.
Taranto was among a slew of Jan. 6 defendants who argued that Trump’s pardon also covered crimes unrelated to the Capitol attack. Though the Justice Department sided with the defendants in several cases, Taranto was one of the few in which prosecutors said the pardon did not apply. Nichols, a Trump appointee, ultimately agreed.
source
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2025 8:03 pm
by BoSoxGal
What’s going on?
This administration has been firing honorable prosecutors from the DOJ en masse for months now, for having the temerity to follow the law and do their jobs. See also agents of the FBI fired for doing their jobs.
He’s been doing a lot of shit so it’s hard to keep up, but this one area where I focus intensely. It will take decades for the DOJ and FBI to fully recover, especially if he continues doing it because the best and brightest in US law schools will eschew the DOJ honors program and a career in federal law enforcement.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2025 9:07 pm
by ex-khobar Andy
BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 8:03 pm
What’s going on?
This administration has been firing honorable prosecutors from the DOJ en masse for months now, for having the temerity to follow the law and do their jobs. See also agents of the FBI fired for doing their jobs.
He’s been doing a lot of shit so it’s hard to keep up, but this one area where I focus intensely. It will take decades for the DOJ and FBI to fully recover, especially if he continues doing it because the best and brightest in US law schools will eschew the DOJ honors program and a career in federal law enforcement.
I agree BSG - and I don't think we
have decades for the DOJ and FBI to fully recover. And if Trump finds some manufactured legal rationale for running again in 2028, who will stop him? SCOTUS - he seems to have them sewn up. And of course Thomas and (probably) Alito will retire during the next couple of years and Trump will appoint some 40-somethings to maintain the bias of the court. Even if SCOTUS rules against him, how will they enforce it? US Marshals handcuff Trump and lead him away? Won't happen.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2025 9:48 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 9:07 pm
Even if SCOTUS rules against him, how will they enforce it? US Marshals handcuff Trump and lead him away? Won't happen.
“I have exercised all the power which the Constitution and laws confer on me, but that power has been resisted by a force too strong for me to overcome"
Spot the "Justice" who wrote that.
(And yes I know he was not in this famous case writing on behalf of SCOTUS but in his capacity as a Federal judge)
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2025 10:55 pm
by BoSoxGal
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 12:21 am
by Burning Petard
I just read that someone has been digging a big hole in the WhiteHouse lawn and demoing part of the building--and nobody can find any permits on file or on display. Sure glad we have a conservative GOP in charge of all this stuff so we know they are against changes and strict enforcement of all laws.
snailgate.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 12:48 am
by MajGenl.Meade
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 12:53 am
by BoSoxGal
Surely you agree that what Lincoln did was right and necessary for the preservation of the Union, in a time when there was an actual enemy within?
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 1:37 pm
by Big RR
Of course, that's the excuse every tyrant gives. Even Trump is saying he's doing what he has to do to save our country. It depends who you believe.
I'm reminded of the scene in Judgment at Nuremberg when the judge said something like it could have been very different if they had only lived up to their responsibility and enforced the laws from the beginning. I will always trust the laws over the man, and when people turn their loyalty over to the man, it's always a big danger.
FWIW, I am no fan of Taney, he issued some pretty horrendous opinions, but I do think he was right here. And I do think we lucked out with Lincoln (as history shows), but that does not make his actions proper or legal. FWIW, John Brown was right too, but that doesn't make his actions proper or legal. And I do think that if everyone caves to the whims of the asshole in chief currently in power, we may all be forced to make the same sort of decisions Brown had to make.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 2:57 pm
by Sue U
Big RR wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 1:37 pm
FWIW, I am no fan of Taney, he issued some pretty horrendous opinions, but I do think he was right here. And I do think we lucked out with Lincoln (as history shows), but that does not make his actions proper or legal. FWIW, John Brown was right too, but that doesn't make his actions proper or legal. And I do think that if everyone caves to the whims of the asshole in chief currently in power, we may all be forced to make the same sort of decisions Brown had to make.
Spot on.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 7:03 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 12:53 am
Surely you agree that what Lincoln did was right and necessary for the preservation of the Union, in a time when there was an actual enemy within?
Specifically, as to Merryman, no I do not agree. Once Congress authorized his imposition on grounds of national emergency, that's a different matter.
Lincoln's statement [“Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the Government itself go to pieces lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken if the Government should be overthrown when it was believed that disregarding the single law would tend to preserve it?”] is utterly specious.
Allowing Merryman the Constitutional right to be openly charged with a specific crime in a court of law and defend against whatever Lincoln imagined had nothing to do with allowing "all the laws but one to go unexecuted". Nor would the government fall to pieces if Merryman had his day in court. Taney's correct decision implicated nothing whatsoever about allowing all the laws but one to go unexecuted. They were all still living in the United States of America and all the laws remained intact even if Merryman's habeas corpus was allowed.
The laws of the United States had already gone to pieces in 11 states before June 1861 and Maryland was not one of them. Gov. Hicks had ensured the Assembly would vote against secession in May 1861 by moving deliberations to Unionist Frederick. They also voted to cut rail links between DC and the North and for Lincoln to remove Union troops - both points were moot (and they knew it full well) - the state was saturated in Federal forces. Merryman's day in court was no threat to the Union and Lincoln well-knew it.
His open suppression of newspapers and arresting of journalists and editors in the loyal states of the Union was significantly different to Trump's current campaign against the free expression of contrary opinions
only in that it was "open". Otherwise, it's hard to split the difference between each man's withdrawal of legal rights and freedom of speech from people they did not wish to enjoy them.
Both were politically motivated (Lincoln had no pressing legal and valid reason for his position on Merryman) and both remained unimpressed by judicial opposition, although we are bound by circumstances (much as Lincoln believed he was) to sympathize with the character of his dilemma and decisions whereas Trump is merely exercising criminal tendencies on personal grounds.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 9:40 pm
by BoSoxGal
Joe Guy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 7:41 pm
Prosecutors placed on leave hours after describing Jan. 6 attack as a ‘mob of rioters’
Two federal prosecutors have been placed on administrative leave just hours after describing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as perpetrated by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” according to two people familiar with the move who were granted anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
The accurate description of the attack came in a sentencing recommendation for Taylor Taranto, who was among those pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the riot. But Taranto had also been charged for unrelated threats and firearms crimes for which he is slated to be sentenced Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White urged U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to sentence Taranto to more than two years in prison for a hoax threat against the National Institute of Standards and Technology and for driving through former President Barack Obama’s neighborhood with a van full of firearms and ammunition.
In their 14-page memo, the prosecutors briefly note Taranto’s involvement on Jan. 6 and indicate that after the riot “Taranto returned to his home in the State of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.”
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who leads the Washington, D.C., office prosecuting Taranto, also declined to comment on the personnel move.
“While we don’t comment on personnel decisions, we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously," Pirro said in a statement. "We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”
Valdivia and White noted that after Taranto returned to Washington, D.C., in June 2023, he made livestreamed threats to blow up his van outside the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“The next day, on June 29, 2023, then-former President Donald Trump published on a social media platform the purported address of former President Barack Obama,” the prosecutors noted. “Taranto re-posted the address on the same platform and thereafter started livestreaming from his van on his YouTube channel. Taranto broadcast footage as he drove through the Kalorama neighborhood in Washington, D.C., claiming he was searching for 'tunnels' he believed would provide him access to the private residences of certain high-profile individuals, including former President Obama.”
The memo also describes an incident the same month in which Taranto visited an elementary school in Maryland while seeking Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a top Trump adversary.
“Taranto’s menacing rhetoric harms public discourse and encourages others to use threats and violence to advance their views or silence their perceived political opponents,” the prosecutors wrote.
It’s unclear which portion of the memo triggered the move by Justice Department officials to place Valdivia and White on leave. However, they’re the latest Jan. 6 prosecutors to face punishment for their involvement in related cases. Dozens of others were either terminated or demoted. One of them, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon, is suing over his termination.
Taranto was among a slew of Jan. 6 defendants who argued that Trump’s pardon also covered crimes unrelated to the Capitol attack. Though the Justice Department sided with the defendants in several cases, Taranto was one of the few in which prosecutors said the pardon did not apply. Nichols, a Trump appointee, ultimately agreed.
source
So what happened was that the references in the sentencing memo which acknowledged Donald Trump’s nexus to this criminal behavior were redacted from the sentencing memo that was re-presented to the court today.
The two suspended prosecutors attended the court hearing today and were lauded by the federal judge, who acknowledged them as two of the finest attorneys who have practiced in the court. The judge then sentenced the defendant to the maximum sentence they had recommended he serve.
Presumably they will nevertheless be out of jobs in short order.
I’d mentioned before the DOJ honors program; it is highly competitive and draws recent law graduates from the best law schools around the country. Many of these folks are the product of families in public service, not families with silver spoons. Many of them graduate law school with a quarter million or more in student loan debt and are willing to take government jobs that don’t pay very high salaries - they are reasonably good salaries with good benefits and pensions, but they aren’t anything like associate salaries at white shoe law firms, nevermind the earning potential once achieving partnership at such a firm. And now these jobs can be pulled out from under them in the blink of an eye, arbitrarily and capriciously, because they followed their oaths of office.
I hope they all land well but I can imagine the devastating effects of having one’s career blown up by scum like Trump and his cabinet tools.
Re: What's Going On Here?....
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2025 1:58 am
by MajGenl.Meade
Taranto, a Navy veteran with two children, has since returned home to Washington state. He will be required to serve three years of supervised release, undergo a mental health assessment, and to avoid firearms and controlled substances.
Oh the horror! I bet he's laughing all the way to the appeals process.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols noted that Taranto had no criminal history — partly because the Justice Department had previously moved to dismiss several charges related to Taranto's participation in the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"partly"?????? Even if the evil bastard had previously lived crime free, his current clear record is SOLELY because his actual crimes have been whitewashed by the fascist shit in the White House and his handlers.
