Judge Refuses To Dismiss Alleged Proud Boys Leaders' Charges [View all]
Source: AP
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe — are charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.
Kelly said the defendants had many non-violent ways to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election. “Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests," Kelly wrote in his 43-page ruling. “Moreover, even if the charged conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost whatever First Amendment protection it may have had." Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe were indicted in March on charges including conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. All four of them remain jailed while they await a trial scheduled for May.
Defense lawyers also argued that the obstruction charge doesn't apply to their clients' cases because Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote was not an “official proceeding." Kelly disagreed. Earlier this month, another judge in the District of Columbia's federal court upheld prosecutors’ use of the same obstruction charge in a separate case against two riot defendants. The case against Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe is a focus of the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates, including at least 16 defendants charged with conspiracy. Last Wednesday, a New York man pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene is the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. He agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Read more: https://hosted.ap.org/thetimes-tribune/article/e4f8af8134fdd80bb62c9efa41291b54/judge-refuses-dismiss-alleged-proud-boys-leaders-charges
Good.
Docket - US vs ETHAN NORDEAN et al., (includes Rehl) (PDF) - https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2021cr0175-263
ETA - I first saw this as a breaking news from the Philly Inquirer since Zachary Rehl in charge of the Philly chapter -
by Jeremy Roebuck
Published an hour ago
The First Amendment does not protect the head of the Philadelphia Proud Boys from criminal prosecution for his alleged role in organizing and participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, which comes nearly a year after the attack that delayed the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, cleared the way for prosecutors to proceed in their conspiracy case against Zach Rehl, 36, and three other leaders of the far-right organization.
In doing so, the judge rejected arguments from Rehl and his codefendants — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Charles Donohue, the leaders of Proud Boys chapters in Washington, Florida and North Carolina — including that they were being selectively targeted for prosecution because of their political beliefs. Kelly determined that all four men had been properly charged with conduct that isn’t protected by the Constitution, including conspiring to obstruct Congress, trespassing and destruction of property.
“Quite obviously, there were many avenues for defendants to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election, or their views about how Congress should perform its constitutional duties on January 6 without resorting to the conduct with which they have been charged,” the judge wrote in his 43-page opinion. The ruling by Kelly — an appointee of President Donald Trump — is the latest in a string of similar decisions from Washington D.C. judges handling the cases of more than 700 accused Capitol rioters, 66 of whom hail from Pennsylvania.
In it, the judge distinguished the alleged actions of Rehl and his fellow Proud Boy leaders from other forms of constitutionally protected, if controversial, demonstrations. He noted they had not been “charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands or participating in mere sit-ins or protests.” His decision handed the Justice Department a significant victory in one of the most prominent prosecutions against leaders of militant far-right organizations who have been accused of playing an organizational role in the attack and are now facing conspiracy charges.
https://www.inquirer.com/news/zach-rehl-proud-boys-trial-capitol-riot-opinion-first-amendment-20211228.html
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