DEFENDERS OF THE CAPITOL RIOTERS WILL SOON DESCEND ON WASHINGTON
On September 18, a pro-Trump group is set to host a Washington, D.C., rally in support of the January 6 rioters who are now being prosecuted for storming the Capitol. The “Justice for J6” organizers have claimed that their demonstration will be peaceful but some in Washington are now fearing the worst. “I think they should take it very seriously,” former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe said during a Monday interview on CNN. “In fact, they should take it more seriously than they took the same sort of intelligence that they likely saw on January 5.” McCabe, who is now a CNN contributor, did note that Donald Trump is no longer “fanning the flames” from the White House as he did on January 6. “They seem to be taking the intelligence very seriously,” he added, “which raises a question as to whether or not they did on January 6.”
The “Justice for J6” demonstration is being organized by Look Ahead America, which is a nonprofit led by former Trump campaign operative Matt Braynard. In late January, Look Ahead America penned a letter to the Department of Justice and the FBI requesting that the entities “drop all charges against non-violent protestors from the January 6th rally at the U.S. Capitol.” Braynard, who authored the letter, defended the hundreds of people charged with federal crimes during the riot by accusing Joe Biden’s law enforcement officials of “[persecuting] the peaceful Trump supporters who entered the Capitol with selective prosecutions based on their political beliefs” and went on to suggest “non-violent” protesters “reasonably believed they had permission” to enter the Capitol complex.
As for the security concerns posed by the “Justice for J6” event, Capitol Police chief Tom Manger noted in a statement that he and his team are “planning accordingly” and “confident the work we are doing now will make sure our officers have what they need to keep everyone safe.” According to WJLA, the tall metal fencing that surrounded the perimeter of the Capitol complex for several months after January 6 may go back up prior to the “Justice for J6” rally.
Democratic representative Eric Swalwell recently characterized the upcoming rally as Republicans going “to the Capitol to celebrate cop killers” during an interview on CNN. (One Capitol Police officer reportedly died from strokes suffered after the attack: Four additional officers who responded to the attack later died by suicide.) “These unmasked individuals celebrating cop killers, creating more and more [COVID-19] mutations that are threatening our kids will be in Washington, D.C.,” he added. “We just have to make sure that if they are ready to get violent that we’re ready again in a better way than on January 6 to defend the Capitol.”
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