The DOJ is Guilty!
The U.S. Department of Justice Attorneys are guilty of entrapping three defendants tagged as “Oath Keepers” to sign off on a pre-determined narrative. The charges of “Obstruction of Congress” and “Conspiracy” were chosen to fit that narrative. Two of the three defendants who plead guilty were not even charged – they simply waived all their pre-trial rights. Worse, the narrative forced by DOJ is to legitimize the presidential election of 2020.
Feeling like you’ve been caught in a flat spin? Me, too.
Let’s Walk Through the Basics.
News broke yesterday afternoon of the unsealing of a third defendant, labeled by DOJ as an “Oath Keeper,” who had reached a plea deal for Obstruction of Congress and Conspiracy. Caleb Berry, age 20 of Florida, signed a plea deal and a “Statement of Offense” that significantly mimics the claims found in the deals reached by DOJ with Mark Grods and Graydon Young. Grods, age 54 from Alabama, likewise, was under seal. Young, age 54 from Florida, had been arrested, charged, and released earlier this year. Young is discussed in my new book and is part of prior case tracking sheets.
I’ve substantially updated the case tracking sheet, and it’s now available for free download.
I’m linking you to Grods' papers on the DOJ website for sake of simplicity.
The Plea Bargain Letter Terms.
Berry, Grods, and Young have each signed plea bargain offer letters, roughly 13-pages long, single-spaced, containing highly-technical legal language. As part of their pleas, each man has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. government without limit or expiration, including, but not limited to:
“participate in covert law enforcement activities”
“providing sworn written statements”
“taking government-administered polygraph examination(s)”
“testify…at any and all trials of cases or other court proceedings in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, at which [your] testimony may be deemed relevant by the Government.”
Even under the terms of the deal, each still faces the possibility of several years in prison plus probation and restitution of up to $200,000-$250,000.
These Three Men Waived All Pre-Trial, Trial, and Appellate Rights.
Berry and Grods waived any pleading against them and waived their right to a grand jury. Berry, Grods, and Young all waived their right to remain silent, and are indicated to have engaged in interview(s) with the government. They also waived their right to be presented with exculpatory evidence, to go to trial and challenge any evidence and witnesses presented, as well as to present witnesses and evidence of their own. Plus, they waived their right to a jury trial and to any appeals.
The “Statement of Offense” Each Man Signed.
Each of the three men also signed and approved a substantially-similar “Statement of Offense.” The document, drafted by DOJ attorneys, purportedly sets out what the men did that meets the legal requirement of the charges to which they plead. The narrative these three men signed off on is that they “intended” to interfere with the electoral college certification on January 6, 2021 by coordinating, in advance, with others for that purpose.
No specifics are provided to support this narrative for Berry and Grods, nor were allegations made back in February against Young that would support this narrative. There’s just a pile of vague statements, more poorly written even than the earlier complaints and indictments back in February/March.
What is Going On Here?
Three guys caved under pressure. And the Attorneys at the DOJ took advantage of it. The DOJ Attorneys began the “shock and awe” campaign to charge as many individuals as possible by the inauguration. From the starting block of the afternoon of January 6, the DOJ has made sure that “the Oath Keepers” have been synonymous with that day. It doesn’t appear to matter to the DOJ Attorneys that the narrative doesn’t fit their own allegations. It doesn’t appear to matter to the DOJ Attorneys that they are having laymen sign documents filled with phraseology like
“At the time Mr. Berry unlawfully entered the building, Mr. Berry believed that he and the co-conspirators were trying to obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, that is, a proceeding before Congress, specifically, Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote as set out in the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and the statutes listed in sections 15 through 18 of title 3 of the U.S. Code.”
I’m willing to bet a good sum of money that if you put Messers Berry, Grods, and Young in the US Supreme Court library that they couldn’t find title 3 of the U.S. Code, nor could they convince any of the nine Justices that statute 3 USC §§15-18 was on the men’s minds if and when they stepped onto the Capitol grounds on January 6. To make it even easier to flunk, how many Americans – including you - had ever read the Twelfth Amendment prior to 1 pm on January 6, 2021?
According to the DOJ paperwork, at best, these three men went to the Capitol approximately 90-minutes after it was breached, walked upon the grounds, and entered the building for anywhere from four minutes to fourteen minutes, damaged nothing, hurt no one, stole nothing, and then left on their own two feet.
None of the paperwork establishes any of these three men as “members” of the Oath Keepers, nor does it set forth how one becomes an “Oath Keeper” by its By-Laws.
But, oh by gosh by golly the formal Press Release documents issued by the US Department of Justice in the first sentence of each PR pegs each man as being a “member” or an “affiliate” of the Oath Keepers. These PRs morph the DOJ’s own definition of the “Oath Keepers” to tightly pin the words “Oath Keepers” to the word “militia.”
Is There Anything That Can Be Said?
Yesterday was an incredibly sad day for Justice. I was up last night until 1 am, and then hit this again today, all day, to study all the new documents, do the statutory cross-reference, dig back into Graydon Young’s prior documents, check the DOJ website for every one of the (now) 19 defendants in my study focus and make the updated case tracker sheet for you, and to consider how the mass media is generating the melee that the US DOJ so craves in this horrible, horrible chapter of its office history. I also took time to consider my own status as an attorney, and to look up the defendants’ attorneys and learn about their careers.
It may be that Kevin said it best this time around: these guys just want their lives back.
There’s no evidence Berry, Grods, and Young were activists prior to January 6 for the Second Amendment or any other cause. All 19 men and women are just ordinary Americans, aged 20-70, from several states, married, unmarried, transgender, working, self-employed, retired, parents and grandparents, plus one minister. The attorneys have day jobs; none are in-house for any 501(c)(3) or list board membership on a Second Amendment organization.
The elephant in the room remains. Is any one among the remaining 16 defendants going to challenge the constitutional validity of a law that makes it illegal for an American to set foot on Capitol grounds? Will any one of them make the government prove its case, including present admissible evidence obtained through a warrant? Will any one cross-examine the government’s witnesses or call witnesses of their own? Is any one other than me going to shout “there were NO firearms involved,” including having a fit when the Washington Post puts such a thing, incorrectly, in a July 3 headline, and then publishes a tiny July 5 “correction” of oops! Moerschel isn’t really alleged to have been armed at the Capitol?
Everything I laid out in my new book remains true and accurate and nothing but amplified by the new defendants and developments. Grab the book. Grab the updated case tracker. Pull out the vodka.
It’s just that it’s a day that I so hate being right. I want to believe that at least the lawyers will fulfill their oath of admission when they conduct themselves with the power of the federal government behind them. Let the politicians be damned, we’ll count on the lawyers!
Oh the 2021 irony of asking “Who will be our Stalingrad?”
