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Holiday paper greetings from defendants awaiting proceedings connected charges related to the Capitol riot bespeak their presumption arsenic symbolic martyrs for the Republican base.
Dec. 23, 2021Updated 2:59 p.m. ET
A lad precocious received a Christmas paper signed by much than 2 twelve of his heroes. Many of them took the clip to adhd tiny notes reflecting the sentiments of the season.
“Have a jolly Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas! #45 Won.”
“Merry Christmas Patriot!”
“Let’s Go Brandon!”
The boy’s sanction is Joshua, not Brandon. (The Brandon notation is codification for a vulgar put-down of President Biden.) And the paper did not travel from the boy’s favourite sports team, but from a detention halfway successful Washington, wherever these vacation well-wishers await proceedings connected charges stemming from the Jan. 6 onslaught connected the Capitol.
A photograph of the Christmas paper precocious appeared connected a website that portrays the Jan. 6 defendants arsenic wrongly imprisoned patriots. It is some a seasonal greeting and a governmental artifact — a reflection of their presumption arsenic symbolic martyrs who embody the beliefs and resentments present ascendant wrong the Republican Party, animated by erstwhile President Donald J. Trump’s baseless assertion that the 2020 predetermination was stolen from him.
The recasting of the self-described “1/6ers” arsenic American-style Nelson Mandelas is playing retired successful the courts, successful Congress and online. Stephen K. Bannon, a erstwhile advisor to Mr. Trump, often asks listeners of his podcast to enactment the ineligible defence of these “political prisoners,” portion Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, precocious produced a streaming special, “Patriot Purge,” that suggested the defendants were victims of a “false flag” cognition orchestrated by their ain government.
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The day of the Jan. 6 riot is 2 weeks away, but the Justice Department’s sprawling probe continues apace, with much than 700 arrests for crimes ranging from misdemeanor trespassing to felony assault. The astir 50 defendants sentenced truthful acold person received small oregon nary situation time, with notable exceptions.
The defendants inactive successful custody mostly look the astir superior charges, including conspiracy to obstruct the operations of Congress and assaulting constabulary officers — though immoderate of those detained person not been accused of violence.
With trials related to the Capitol riot scheduled passim the contentious midterm predetermination twelvemonth of 2022, however the Jan. 6 defendants are perceived — peculiarly the 3 twelve held for months successful the Washington jailhouse — whitethorn go different divisive run issue.
A stark illustration of the martyrdom effort is simply a drafting by Jon McNaughton, a Utah illustrator who specializes successful demonizing Democrats (Speaker Nancy Pelosi arsenic a witch) and celebrating Republicans (Mr. Trump arsenic Mount Rushmore-worthy). It depicts a shivering Jan. 6 inmate connected a grey compartment floor, his bare feet shackled, his look obscured by a reddish MAGA hat.
These were not rather the conditions that Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a Republican provocateur from Georgia, recovered during a November sojourn to the Washington jail’s alleged Patriot Wing, wherever the detainees are held. No bare feet, nary shackles. But successful a follow-up study called “Unusually Cruel,” she asserted that the detainees were being kept successful “inhumane” conditions and had been denied basal needs due to the fact that of their governmental beliefs.
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Ms. Taylor-Greene’s study makes nary effort to disguise her sympathies for the defendants, noting that she and Representative Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, signed their Bibles and copies of the Constitution. At the extremity of her tour, she gathered the inmates successful a ellipse and led them successful prayer.
Around the aforesaid clip arsenic Ms. Taylor-Greene’s visit, 2 of the inmates, Ryan Nichols and Robert Morss, sent a national justice a database of 77 grievances astir a installation they described arsenic a “pale dungeon of quality rights violations.”
Both Mr. Nichols, a erstwhile Marine from Texas, and Mr. Morss, an Army seasoned from Pennsylvania, are charged with being astatine the fore of the battle connected constabulary officers protecting the Capitol. Mr. Nichols was recorded connected video shouting done a bullhorn, “If you person a weapon, you request to get your weapon!”
Now, from prison, the 2 men claimed that they had been force-fed captious contention mentation propaganda and near to beg for water, aesculapian assistance and mercy. The lone happening not taken from them yet, they wrote, “is our souls which laic wrong the weakened bones of our famished chests.”
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Washington’s jails person agelong been a root of section shame and outrage. The U.S. Marshals Service precocious reported uncovering sewage and h2o leaks astatine the jail, arsenic good arsenic instances of corrections officers withholding nutrient and h2o arsenic punishment. But the much utmost conditions were not successful the conception of the jailhouse wherever the Jan. 6 defendants are held.
Karl A. Racine, Washington’s lawyer general, said last month that the squalid conditions successful the jailhouse — wherever astir inmates are Black — had “received small attraction until they were raised by mostly achromatic defendants accused of perpetrating the Jan. 6 insurrection.”
In tribunal filings and accounts shared by supporters, though, the incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants person utilized these conditions to augment their portrayal of themselves arsenic oppressed but resolute prisoners of war. Every nighttime astatine 9 p.m., they basal to salute an American emblem and sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
But determination person been cracks successful this solidarity.
Steven A. Metcalf, a lawyer who represents 2 of the inmates — Edward Lang, a self-described societal media influencer from Newburgh, N.Y., and Dominic Pezzola, a subordinate of the far-right Proud Boys from Rochester, N.Y. — said helium believed the authorities was purposely keeping the accused rioters together. “To spot who is simply a leader, who is simply a follower and who mightiness cooperate,” helium said.
But Mr. Metcalf said that an unhealthy situation had developed, with inmates successful the “Patriot Wing” increasing suspicious of who among them mightiness beryllium a authorities informant. He said that erstwhile 1 suspect mentioned different successful a tribunal filing, a fistfight broke out.
Key Figures successful the Jan. 6 Inquiry
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Questions person besides arisen astir creating a hothouse of sedition by keeping unneurotic like-minded inmates who are charged with attacking the spot of government.
In October, a lawyer for Thomas Sibick — a Buffalo, N.Y., antheral facing charges that see stealing an officer’s badge and vigor — told a national justice that his lawsuit wanted to flight the Jan. 6 unit’s “almost cultlike” situation truthful overmuch that helium had opted for solitary confinement. The justice released Mr. Sibick to the custody of his parents, successful portion due to the fact that she disquieted that the unit’s “toxic environment” mightiness pb to further radicalization.
Last period different accused rioter, Robert Gieswein, besides sought his merchandise by citing the jail’s expected “Groundhog Day” dynamic. A self-proclaimed militia subordinate from Colorado, Mr. Gieswein had travel to Washington successful January talking astir ridding the Capitol of each politicians beholden to the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds.
The justice denied Mr. Gieswein’s petition for freedom. Shortly afterward, the inmate signed the Christmas paper to the lad named Joshua arsenic “Machine Gun Bobby.”
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A photograph of the Christmas paper is featured connected the Patriot Freedom Project website, which was created by Cynthia Hughes, an aunt of 1 of the Jan. 6 prisoners, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, described by prosecutors arsenic an “avowed achromatic supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.”
The website managed by Ms. Hughes, who declined to comment, provides links truthful radical tin donate to defence funds and offers ways to “adopt a ⅙ family” oregon constitute letters of enactment to immoderate of the inmates. Merchandise is besides for sale, including “Due Process Denied” gait signs and “Free the ⅙ers” hoodies.
In a abbreviated enactment accompanying a photograph of the Christmas card, Ms. Hughes said that a mates and their 3 children sent letters and drawings to “our J6ers” each time “just to enactment a grin connected their faces.” The Jan. 6 inmates showed their gratitude, successful turn, by sending backmost Christmas cards.
The cards were signed by, among others, Cleveland Meredith Jr. of Georgia, charged with threatening to sprout Ms. Pelosi and Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington successful the head; Alan Byerly of Pennsylvania, charged with menacing officers with a Taser and assaulting a quality photographer; and Kyle Fitzsimons, a butcher from Maine who wore a achromatic apron arsenic helium racked up 10 transgression charges, including assault.
Some who signed the paper took pains to see their nicknames. In summation to “Machine Gun Bobby,” determination were “So-Cal Patriot” (David Dempsey, a Los Angeles-area Proud Boy), charged with spraying officers with a chemic cause and utilizing a metallic rod and a crutch arsenic weapons; “The Ginger Ninja” (Shane Jenkins), charged with utilizing respective objects — including a flagpole, a metallic rod, and a table drawer — to onslaught officers; and “Gator 1” and “Gator Six” (Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson), accused of being portion of an Oath Keepers militia contingent intent connected searching for Ms. Pelosi and disrupting the certification of the election.
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Other defendants managed to support authorities retired of Christmas successful their vacation wishes to the boy. Among them: Peter Stager, a long-distance motortruck operator from Arkansas facing respective felony charges, including that helium utilized a rod bearing the American emblem to bushed a constabulary serviceman being dragged down the outdoor steps of the Capitol.
All Mr. Stager wrote was: “Have a Merry Christmas and God bless your house.”
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