OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump did not mince words when he learned last week of recent findings by Republican investigators in the House involving the former Jan. 6 Committee that was hand-picked by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump leveled fresh criticism at former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and the rest of the committee, which she co-chaired with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), over omissions and misrepresentations by the panel that led to false narratives about him and false allegations against him.
“She should go to jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” he wrote in response to a report from Just the News.
Trump’s comment came in response to a Just the News report indicating that Cheney attended the deposition of a Secret Service agent who provided a firsthand account of Trump’s presence in the limousine leaving the Stop the Steal rally on January 6. Instead of heading to the Capitol as promised to his supporters, the limousine took Trump to the White House.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, who was brought before the House Jan. 6 select committee at the behest of Cheney to speak out against Trump, alleged that she overheard Secret Service agents discussing an altercation involving Trump attempting to seize control of the presidential limousine’s steering wheel from the back seat.
“The driver testified that he specifically refuted the version of events as recounted by Hutchinson,” the report released by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the House Administration subcommittee on Jan. 6, noted. “The driver of the SUV testified that he ‘did not see him reach [redacted]. [President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel.
“I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,'” the agent testified, refuting Hutchinson’s account.
“Cassidy’s testimony was already on shaky ground, as the report was second-hand knowledge. Called hearsay, it’s usually not permitted in court proceedings as evidence,” Newsmax reported.
However, Democrats and two anti-Trump members on the committee, Cheney and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., used it nonetheless. Both were voted out of office as the committee’s activities ceased when Republicans regained the House majority.
Earlier this month, in a decision that could have far-reaching implications for perhaps hundreds of people arrested following the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol Building, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled that at least some of them were “improperly” sentenced.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit determined that defendant and former Air Force officer Larry Brock’s sentence was flawed as it wrongly incorporated charges of “interference with the administration of justice.” Circuit Judge Millett, the author of the court’s opinion, stated that interference with Congress’ certification of the electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election does not warrant a sentence enhancement.
“Brock challenges both the district court’s interpretation of Section 1512(c)(2)’s elements and the sufficiency of the evidence to support that conviction. He also challenges the district court’s application of the three-level sentencing enhancement for interfering with the ‘administration of justice,’” Millett wrote.
The appeals court affirmed Brock’s conviction but disagreed with how he was sentenced, noting: “As for Brock’s sentence, we hold that the ‘administration of justice’ enhancement does not apply to interference with the legislative process of certifying electoral votes.”
While other aspects of Larry Brock’s conviction were upheld, the higher court nevertheless ruled it would “vacate Brock’s sentence” while remanding the case back to the district court to resentence the single “interference” charge.
Other Jan. 6 defendants received longer sentences under the same enhancement, and now those cases could potentially be overturned as well.
“Larry Brock participated in the violent January 6th riot at the United States Capitol that forced the evacuation of members of Congress and their staff and prevented Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election until the next day. After a bench trial, the court convicted Brock of six crimes, including corruptly obstructing Congress’s certification of the electoral count under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2),” Judge Millet wrote.
“At sentencing, the district court applied a three-level sentencing enhancement to Brock’s Section 1512(c)(2) conviction on the ground that Brock’s conduct resulted in ‘substantial interference with the administration of justice,’” he added.
The enhancement led to a two-year prison sentence, which the court appeared to find excessive.
