“We stormed the Capitol! We shut it down! We did it!”…and now he walks
On Jan. 6, 2021, Philip Sean Grillo, a former Republican district leader in Queens, jumped through a broken window at the U.S. Capitol with a megaphone. He pushed his way past a line of Capitol Police officers and opened the exterior doors of the Rotunda to allow other rioters to enter the building and trash it. “We stormed the Capitol!” he exulted on video, and was seen smoking marijuana and high-fiving other Donald Trump supporters who were fighting the police. “We shut it down! We did it!”
Nearly three years later, a federal jury convicted Mr. Grillo of multiple offenses. But he did not lose heart: Last month, when he was sentenced to a year in prison, he had a special taunt for the federal district judge who sentenced him, Royce Lamberth.
“Trump’s going to pardon me anyways,” he yelled at the judge, just before he was handcuffed and led away.
He was right. On Monday evening, several hours after President Trump was inaugurated, he fulfilled a promise he had repeatedly made to pardon nearly all the rioters who attacked and desecrated the Capitol in 2021 to prevent Joe Biden’s victory from being certified. Mr. Grillo and about 1,500 other rioters received full pardons from Mr. Trump, while 14 others received commuted sentences…NY Times
“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos, pictures. You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” — Rep. Andrew Clyde of GA
“I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history…”
— U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, upon sentencing a J6 insurrectionist one year ago on January 25, 2024
The Court is accustomed to defendants who refuse to accept that they did anything wrong. But in my thirty-seven years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream. I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness. I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved “in an orderly fashion” like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as “political prisoners” or even, incredibly, “hostages.” That is all preposterous. But the Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.
The Court cannot condone the shameless attempts…to misinterpret or misrepresent what happened. It cannot condone the notion that those who broke the law on January 6 did nothing wrong, or that those duly convicted with all the safeguards of the United States Constitution…are political prisoners or hostages.
So let me set the record straight, based on what I’ve learned presiding over many January 6 prosecutions, hearing from dozens of witnesses, watching hundreds of hours of video footage, and reading thousands of pages of evidence. On January 6, 2021, a mob of people invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, using force to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power mandated by the Constitution and our republican heritage. This was not a protest that got out of hand. It was a riot; in many respects a coordinated riot…Although the rioters failed in their ultimate goal, their actions nonetheless resulted in the deaths of multiple people, injury to over 140 members of law enforcement, and lasting trauma for our entire nation. This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism. — U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, upon sentencing a J6 insurrectionist one year ago on January 25, 2024
Judge Lamberth expands on George Orwell’s prescience: “I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history…”
Imagine Judge Lamberth’s gastric distress over the blanket pardons of even the most egregious plotters and rioters…Imagine the fury of FBI agents and DOJ lawyers who spent hundreds of thousands of hours ferreting out and building cases against these thugs. And I wonder how he feels about the prospect of election-denier Pam Bondi heading up DOJ and the despicable Ka$h Patel at FBI (see Kash Patel: Embodiment of the Incompetent, Unqualified and Corrupt Sycophants Trump Would Ensconce at the Top of our Government)…
Imagine the discouragement — and anger — of the thousands of loyal citizens who identified many of these thugs from their stupid Facebook posts or video footage…Sometimes it was actually family members who turned in the thugs. Here is a story of a son who now fears for his life…you MUST listen to his interview here.
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“…ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse…” — RNC
Green-lighting the Brownshirts of 2020’s America
This pardon was not just about rewarding those who “fought like hell” on his behalf. No, it is much more insidious than that. It’s a signal to all of his supporters that he’ll have their back…another “Stand back and stand by” if you will.
The point of these pardons, clemencies, and commutations is to recreate the street armies on which Trump leaned in his first term…public violence was one of the hallmarks of the Trump years. Paramilitary organization like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers frequently marched in American cities, engaging in violence and intimidation.
But as the convictions from the January 6th insurrection piled up, many of these groups receded. Trump’s entire 2024 campaign took place under a notable absence of open paramilitary support.
Yesterday, the Proud Boys marched in the nation’s capital for the first time since the insurrection. A few hours later, their leader, Tarrio, was set free. The message is unambiguous: Trump wants supporters who engage in street violence on the loose. He wants a paramilitary arm for which he has plausible deniability…Freeing those convicted of violence is a go-ahead signal for future violent acts and an implicit promise that Trump will take care of those who fight on his behalf.
Vaughn Hillyard of NBC News captured a group of Proud Boys demanding “Free Our Boys” as Trump was inaugurated….YEAH, THOSE GUYS, THE ONES TRUMP TOLD TO “STAND BACK AND STAND BY.”
Members of the far-right Proud Boys march in Washington, D.C., in support of President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. Credit: Ford Fischer/News2Share
The “Proud Boys” of a century ago…The Sturmabteilung (“Storm Detachment”) played a significant role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
So, yeah, folks, stand by and be ready to stand up…as SUPERMAN did all those years ago, “For Truth, Justice, and the American Way!”
MORE, FROM THE ARCHIVES…
A GOP congressman compared Capitol rioters to tourists. Photos show him barricading a door. — https://wapo.st/40qbReY
RESOLUTION TO FORMALLY CENSURE LIZ CHENEY AND ADAM KINZINGER AND TO NO LONGER SUPPORT THEM AS MEMBERS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY — Republican National Committee https://prod-static.gop.com/media/2-RESOLUTION-TO-FORMALLY-CENSURE-LIZ-CHENEY-AND-ADAM-KINZINGER.pdf
Judge 'shocked' by efforts to 'rewrite history' of Jan. 6 attack, those who label perpetrators 'hostages' – ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-shocked-efforts-rewrite-history-jan-6-attack/story?id=106705677
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