The feds have arrested roughly 500 people for the January 6 “deadly insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol. Because of the complete lack of death or insurrection, prosecution of these protesters has been underwhelming, with several cases already having been dropped. The feds did however score a major conviction by giving a grandma a suspended sentence and fining her $500. Democracy is finally safe.
ABC reports on what should be an embarrassment to the Department of Justice:
A grandmother from Indiana who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation for her participation in the riot, making her the first person sentenced in the attack.
Anna Morgan-Lloyd, a 49-year-old hair salon owner, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. Washington, D.C., District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered her to complete 40 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.
Hang on a second. How is parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building a crime? Don’t we kind of have a 1st Amendment right to do those things? No seriously, this woman was not charged with any sort of violence or destruction so her activities fall under freedom of speech and assembly.
Whatever, the feds got their grandma. It should come as no surprise that Morgan-Lloyd had a public defender who pressured her to plead guilty to peacefully walking around the Capitol building for 5 minutes. Even crazier, The Huffington Post reports that the public defender made Morgan-Lloyd read books and watch movies to check her white privilege.
[H. Heather] Shaner is one of many D.C. lawyers assigned to represent Capitol defendants who can’t afford their own attorneys, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and as laid out in the Criminal Justice Act. In addition to representing her clients in court, Shaner has seized an opportunity to try and educate them on the history their teachers glossed over.
Shaner regularly sends her clients who are incarcerated pretrial books to read: “They’re a captured audience, and it’s life-changing for a lot of them.”
“I’ve lived a sheltered life and truly haven’t experienced life the way many have. I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street,” said Morgan-Lloyd after reprogramming.
And finally, there is this curious little detail that destroys the liberal media narrative that Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to overthrow the government:
In a letter written to the judge in support of probation, Morgan-Lloyd said she “felt ashamed” that the riot had turned violent and apologized for the chaos that day. Morgan-Lloyd said that she is a registered Democrat who “found [herself] supporting Trump” in the 2016 election, which she “found hard to believe because we didn’t like him at all before.”
A registered democrat, who hates Trump, suddenly becomes a Trump supporter and storms the Capitol? Where have I heard that before?
Oh yeah, Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot to death by Capitol police, was also a democrat who voted for Obama and then suddenly became a hardcore Trump supporter just in time for the “deadly insurrection.”
Throw in the all of the Antifa and Black Lives Matter terrorists who were present on January 6 and it’s looking less and less like Trump supporters had anything to do with this. And don’t get me started on the FBI informants who were embedded in the crowd of “insurrectionists.”
Regardless, this conviction of a grandma for peacefully protesting isn’t the optics win the feds were hoping for. She wasn’t convicted of rioting or insurrection because there was no rioting or insurrection on January 6 at the Capitol.
