The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: PeteS in CA on March 31, 2021, 12:45:21 am
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Politico: Capitol Hill Riot Prosecution Might “Embarrass The Biden Administration†In The End
https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2021/03/30/politico-capitol-hill-riot-prosecution-might-embarrass-biden-administration-end/ (https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2021/03/30/politico-capitol-hill-riot-prosecution-might-embarrass-biden-administration-end/)
If so, the embarrassment will result only because the media and some prosecutors wildly inflated expectations. As violent and disturbing as the Capitol Hill riot was, only a small minority of the rioters took parts in specific, prosecutable assaults. The rest, Politico reports today, likely will get charged with misdemeanors … and never see the inside of a prison:
Americans outraged by the storming of Capitol Hill are in for a jarring reality check: Many of those who invaded the halls of Congress on Jan. 6 are likely to get little or no jail time. …
In recent days, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys have all indicated that they expect few of these “MAGA tourists†to face harsh sentences.
There are two main reasons: Although prosecutors have loaded up their charging documents with language about the existential threat of the insurrection to the republic, the actions of many of the individual rioters often boiled down to trespassing. And judges have wrestled with how aggressively to lump those cases in with those of the more sinister suspects.
In plainer, more blunt, English, the prosecutors went political and made the tactical error of over-charging most to the degree that they had nothing to lose by defending themselves in court rather than taking a no-lo plea to a lesser charge.