Tag Archives: DOJ

Boise’s NBC News affiliate reports: A Nampa man who forced his way into the U.S. Capitol Building and assaulted officers during a failed coup to stop Congress from certifying the result of the 2020 presidential election was sentenced Friday to four years and three months in federal prison. The sentence imposed on 68-year-old Duke Wilson is among the longest yet …

Politico reports: Prosecutors at the first criminal trial over the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, showcased their most compelling evidence on Thursday: testimony from defendant Guy Reffitt’s teenage son about his father’s radicalization in the months leading up to the historic attack. Jackson Reffitt, 19, took the stand Thursday afternoon in the federal case against his father, …

Law & Crime reports: The North Carolina man who claimed to be an independent journalist “on the front lines of the assault on the [C]apitol” will be allowed to carry a concealed firearm while awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges. Stephen Ethan Horn, 24, was seen in a photo posted by the New York Times Magazine among the crowd inside the …

Law & Crime reports: Matthew Perna, 37, entered the Capitol after the doors had already been breached by riotous Donald Trump supporters who overran police and swarmed the building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden‘s win in the 2020 presidential election. According to prosecutors, Perna stayed in the building for about 20 minutes in the Senate …

From the Justice Department: A federal grand jury in San Diego returned an indictment today charging the founder of BitConnect with orchestrating a global Ponzi scheme. BitConnect is an alleged fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform that reached a peak market capitalization of $3.4 billion. According to court documents, Satish Kumbhani, 36, of Hemal, India, the founder of BitConnect, misled investors about …

First, a September 2021 report from NBC News: The attorney for Matthew Perna has filed a motion asking the United Probation Office to prepare a pre-plea guideline analysis that would give Perna an idea of what penalties he would face if he pleads guilty to the indictment handed up against him. Perna of Sharon, Pennsylvania, is charged with witness tampering, …

Axios reports: A U.S. Capitol rioter was sentenced to 75 days in prison on Thursday for directing a mob toward the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021. Jeffrey Register, 39, of Jacksonville, Florida, was also fined $500 following his guilty plea last October to parading, demonstrating and picketing in a Capitol building, per a Justice Department statement. Register had been …

From the Justice Department: Beginning in 2017, MULLINS devised a scheme to fund his personal expenses through SBA dollars. Specifically, MULLINS charged his personal credit card for, among other things, hundreds of high-end meals, clothing, jewelry, home appliances, and a relative’s college tuition. MULLINS then submitted, typically by email, fraudulent and inflated expense reports to the Treasurer of the SBA, …

The Associated Press reports: A gluten-free TV chef from Dunedin was arrested Wednesday on charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, officials said. Carol Kicinski, who presents monthly episodes on the nationally syndicated “Daytime” show, and Jon Heneghan, who lives with Kicinski at a Dunedin home, were arrested and charged with four federal offenses that …

From the Justice Department: Three men pleaded guilty today to crimes related to a scheme to attack power grids in the United States in furtherance of white supremacist ideology. According to court documents, Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Indiana, and of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, …

Law & Crime reports: A Michigan militia member stole a baton from a police officer guarding the U.S. Capitol and used it to assault other cops on Jan. 6, 2021, federal prosecutors claim. Arrested on Tuesday, Matthew Thomas Krol describes himself as an executive officer of the Genesee County Volunteer Militia. The affidavit is filled with screenshots from the footage …

NBC News reports: A Donald Trump supporter who entered the U.S. Capitol through a broken window and declared “this is war” on Jan. 6 was sentenced to 45 days behind bars on Wednesday. Mariposa Castro, also known as Imelda Acosta, went live on Facebook on Jan. 6 when she was at the western front of the Capitol, where some of …

From the world’s most famous liar: The National Archives did not ‘find’ anything, they were given, upon request, Presidential Records in an ordinary and routine process to ensure the preservation of my legacy and in accordance with the Presidential Records Act. The Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax turned out to be a Democrat inspired fake story to help Crooked Hillary Clinton. …

CNN reports: Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes will be held in jail while he awaits trial, a federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled on Friday after prosecutors revealed new Signal app messages where Rhodes allegedly called January 6 “the final nail in the coffin of our republic” and instructed his followers to prepare for violence. The messages from the encrypted …

The New York Times reports: The National Archives confirmed on Friday that it had found classified information among documents that President Donald J. Trump had taken with him to his home in Florida from the White House and that it had consulted with the Justice Department about the matter. The agency “has identified items marked as classified national security information …

Law & Crime reports: A Marine Reservist currently facing charges for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been named in an indictment accusing him and a nurse of making and selling fake Covid vaccination cards. Federal prosecutors say that Steven Rodriguez, 27, a nurse at a healthcare clinic on Long Island, and Jia Liu, 26, a member of …

From the Justice Department: A Portland man is facing federal charges after attempting to open an emergency exit on a commercial airline flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to Portland. Michael Brandon Demarre, 32, has been charged by criminal complaint with threatening to interfere and interfering with a flight crew and attendants. According to court documents, on February 11, 2022, …

From the Justice Department: A Los Angeles man was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least $650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad. Zachary Joseph Horwitz, 35, of the Beverlywood …

Law & Crime reports: A New York man who recorded himself smoking what appeared to be marijuana inside the Capitol Rotunda after having breached the building on Jan. 6, 2021, has pleaded guilty to ten charges. Greg Rubenacker, 26, appeared before Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday and pleaded guilty to all ten counts against him. Three are …

Law & Crime reports: The Washington state man who punched two police officers during a standoff at the Capitol on Jan. 6 has been sentenced to six months in prison. Mark Leffingwell, 52, pleaded guilty in October to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers. He faced off against police inside the Capitol building as officers struggled to …