Dominic Pezzola, left, of Rochester, N.Y. and William Pepe of Beacon, N.Y, are accused of working together to obstruct law enforcement officers who were protecting Congress on Jan. 6: U.S. Department of Justice
By Glynn Wilson –
The New York Times is now reporting that the first “conspiracy” to obstruct Capitol Police and Congress charges have been filed against two members of the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys as of Friday night, according to federal prosecutors investigating the violent riot and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The charges, which had still not appeared in the Washington federal court database as of Saturday morning, accuse the two members of conspiring together to obstruct and interfere with law enforcement officers protecting Congress during the final certification of the Electoral College votes for the winner in the 2020 presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden.
In a brief news release according to the Times, which we did not receive in the usual flood of emails from the Department of Justice and the F.B.I., it says that indictments were filed against two members of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, of Rochester, N.Y., and William Pepe, of Beacon, N.Y.
Ad: The press release finally showed up by email on Monday afternoon.
Pezzola, a former boxer and Marine, and Pepe, an employee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, already had been facing lesser charges connected to the Capitol attack. While more than 170 people have been charged in the deadly assault on the Capitol, most have been accused of relatively minor crimes such as disorderly conduct and unlawful entry.
The only other serious conspiracy charges in the inquiry have been brought against three members of the right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers, who are accused of preparing for the rally in Washington as early as a week after the election on Nov. 3, 2020.
The Proud Boys, a self-described “western chauvinist” group that has a long history of bloody street fights with the activists known as Antifa, according to the Times, have drawn the attention of investigators because they are one of the extremist outfits that had a large presence on Capitol Hill during the assault.
What the Times does not report is that video evidence shows the Proud Boys planned to dress in black like Antifa. The plan was to blame the leftist group Antifa for the violence at the Capitol, even though our EXCLUSIVE reporting shows that they were more than 1,000 miles away in a Florida campground and were standing down along with Black Lives Matter protesters because they knew a month in advance that the violent attack to breach the Capitol was planned.
Anti-Fascist protesters wear black, body armor and carry shields when standing in the way of neo-Nazis at protests: Google
The Proud Boys dress in black to blame Antifa for violence. Antifa dresses in black, wears body armor and stands in the way of Neo-Nazis wherever they show up to protest: Google
The video on Parler is no longer available, but other news outlets reported on it.
The so-called Proud Boys, made famous by former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate last year when he was pressed and refused to repudiate violence on the part of white supremacists and seemed to signal his support by telling its members to “stand back and stand by,” has maintained links with both overt white supremacists and more mainstream Republicans, according to the Times, and had been a vocal — and often violent — advocate for the 45th president.
It appears that Justice Department investigators are making it a priority to explore the extent to which the Capitol attack was planned in advance.
Earlier this week, Michael Sherwin, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said that prosecutors were focused on bringing “more complicated conspiracy cases related to possible coordination among militia groups” and “individuals from different states that had a plan to travel” to Washington before the rally and march called up by Trump, his campaign staff, White House staff and other members of the Republican Party, including Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks and Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville.
Related Coverage
But because the new indictment remained under seal on Friday night, the Times reports, it remained unclear precisely how prosecutors believed that Pezzola and Pepe conspired together to obstruct law enforcement.
Pezzola, 43, has been a particular focus of the sprawling investigation into the Capitol attack almost from the moment it began.
Court papers released on Friday morning said that he was in the first wave of rioters to enter the building, shattering a window with a plastic police shield. After climbing through the window, prosecutors said, Pezzola joined a mob that confronted a Capitol Police officer, Eugene Goodman, in a stairwell near the Senate floor. Someone in the mob called out, “Where they meeting at? Where they counting the votes?”
Federal prosecutors argued that there was substantial evidence against Pezzola, including images showing him using a police shield to smash through a window at the Capitol on Jan. 6: U.S. Department of Justice
Prosecutors said that Pezzola later posted a video of himself online, smoking a cigar inside the Capitol. In the video, court papers say, he refers to the cigar as a “victory smoke,” adding that he knew the mob would be able to take over the building if the rioters “tried hard enough.”
That video also appears to have been deleted from YouTube.
When F.B.I. agents searched Pezzola’s home near Rochester after the riot, prosecutors said, they found a thumb drive with several PDF files, some suggesting he had been studying bomb-making techniques. The computer files, court papers said, had titles like “Advanced Improvised Explosives,” “Explosive Dusts” and “Ragnar’s Big Book of Homemade Weapons.”
Michael Scibetta, Pezzola’s lawyer, told a reporter for the Times on Friday night that he had not yet seen the new conspiracy charges and complained that the authorities were not letting him see his client, who is now in custody in Washington.
“The matter is evolving,” Scibetta said, adding that prosecutors were depriving Mr. Pezzola of “his constitutionally guaranteed right of assistance of counsel.”
Pepe’s lawyer, Susanne Brody, did not respond to an email from the Times seeking comment.
The prior charges against Pepe, a 31-year-old Metro-North Railroad worker, were only scantly described. In a criminal complaint issued on Jan. 11, prosecutors said that he had used a day of sick leave to attend a “Stop the Steal” protest in Washington and was subsequently photographed inside the Capitol. At a hearing earlier this week, prosecutors made a cryptic reference to an ongoing investigation involving Pepe, but never fully explained what it was at the time.
At least four other members of the Proud Boys have been charged so far in connection with the Capitol attack, including a top-ranking leader of the group, Joseph Biggs, a U.S. Army veteran, who stands accused of leading a group of about 100 Proud Boys on an angry march toward and into the Capitol.
Other Reporting
The Washington Post on Saturday is reporting that FBI agents around the country are working to unravel the various motives, relationships, goals and actions of the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. Some inside the bureau have described the Capitol riot investigation as their biggest case since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a top priority of the agents’ work is to determine the extent to which that violence and chaos was preplanned and coordinated.
Investigators caution there is an important legal distinction between gathering like-minded people for a political rally — which is protected by the First Amendment — and organizing an armed assault on the seat of American government. The task now is to distinguish which people belong in each category, and who played key roles in committing or coordinating the violence.
Also in the Saturday Washington Post, the criminal complaint against two Montana brothers and a detention memo against a prominent member of the Proud Boys help explain how, the government believes, one segment of a mob overran “a small, poorly defended line of Capitol Police officers.” In these and other filings, prosecutors trace the actions of possible key instigators in the storming of the Capitol, including members of the Proud Boys — a far-right nationalist and nativist group with a history of violence — and other right-wing extremist groups.
We at the New American Journal take issue with the framing of this planned seditious insurrection as an out of control mob overrunning “a small, poorly defended line of Capitol Police officers.”
As we first reported on the Monday after the attack, this was an inside job. The rioters had help in planning and execution and framing this story in this way appears to be an official part of the coverup to protect the former president, his family, his campaign and White House staff and members of the Republican Party in Congress who were clearly complicit in this attempted coup, as well as Capitol Police officers, the Sergeant at Arms for the House and Senate, along with acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, a recent appointee of the former president who had not been through the confirmation hearing process in the United States Senate.
If you need more evidence, The Post is also reporting this on Saturday.
Woman charged in Capitol riot said she wanted to shoot Pelosi ‘in the friggin’ brain,’ FBI says
While the little fish get charged with crimes, the real criminals get to act as JURORS for Trump-great system we have or what?