Judge Refuses To Dismiss Alleged Proud Boys Leaders' Charges
Source: AP
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Charles Donohoe — are charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.
Kelly said the defendants had many non-violent ways to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election. “Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests," Kelly wrote in his 43-page ruling. “Moreover, even if the charged conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost whatever First Amendment protection it may have had." Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe were indicted in March on charges including conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. All four of them remain jailed while they await a trial scheduled for May.
Defense lawyers also argued that the obstruction charge doesn't apply to their clients' cases because Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote was not an “official proceeding." Kelly disagreed. Earlier this month, another judge in the District of Columbia's federal court upheld prosecutors’ use of the same obstruction charge in a separate case against two riot defendants. The case against Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Donohoe is a focus of the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates, including at least 16 defendants charged with conspiracy. Last Wednesday, a New York man pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene is the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. He agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Read more: https://hosted.ap.org/thetimes-tribune/article/e4f8af8134fdd80bb62c9efa41291b54/judge-refuses-dismiss-alleged-proud-boys-leaders-charges
Good.
Docket - US vs ETHAN NORDEAN et al., (includes Rehl) (PDF) - https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2021cr0175-263
ETA - I first saw this as a breaking news from the Philly Inquirer since Zachary Rehl in charge of the Philly chapter -
by Jeremy Roebuck
Published an hour ago
The First Amendment does not protect the head of the Philadelphia Proud Boys from criminal prosecution for his alleged role in organizing and participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, which comes nearly a year after the attack that delayed the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, cleared the way for prosecutors to proceed in their conspiracy case against Zach Rehl, 36, and three other leaders of the far-right organization.
In doing so, the judge rejected arguments from Rehl and his codefendants — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Charles Donohue, the leaders of Proud Boys chapters in Washington, Florida and North Carolina — including that they were being selectively targeted for prosecution because of their political beliefs. Kelly determined that all four men had been properly charged with conduct that isn’t protected by the Constitution, including conspiring to obstruct Congress, trespassing and destruction of property.
“Quite obviously, there were many avenues for defendants to express their opinions about the 2020 presidential election, or their views about how Congress should perform its constitutional duties on January 6 without resorting to the conduct with which they have been charged,” the judge wrote in his 43-page opinion. The ruling by Kelly — an appointee of President Donald Trump — is the latest in a string of similar decisions from Washington D.C. judges handling the cases of more than 700 accused Capitol rioters, 66 of whom hail from Pennsylvania.
In it, the judge distinguished the alleged actions of Rehl and his fellow Proud Boy leaders from other forms of constitutionally protected, if controversial, demonstrations. He noted they had not been “charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands or participating in mere sit-ins or protests.” His decision handed the Justice Department a significant victory in one of the most prominent prosecutions against leaders of militant far-right organizations who have been accused of playing an organizational role in the attack and are now facing conspiracy charges.
https://www.inquirer.com/news/zach-rehl-proud-boys-trial-capitol-riot-opinion-first-amendment-20211228.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
From Roebuck article:
"His decision handed the Justice Department a significant victory in one of the most prominent prosecutions against leaders of militant far-right organizations..."
So...why does this not also apply to followers?
by Oona Goodin-Smith
Published Dec 14, 2021
Federal prosecutors Tuesday unsealed charges against three more members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, after agents uncovered photos of the men flashing hate symbols inside a U.S. senator’s office and posing on the steps of the Capitol during the riot.
The three men — Isaiah Giddings, 29, of Philadelphia; Brian Healion, 31, of Upper Darby; and Freedom Vy, 36, of Philadelphia — were arrested Friday, and have been charged in federal court in D.C. with unlawful entry on restricted buildings or grounds, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Giddings’ attorney did not immediately return a request for comment. It was unclear whether Healion or Vy had obtained lawyers.
The new charges against the Philadelphia Proud Boys members come after prosecutors have pointed to the chapter’s president, Zach Rehl, as having a top-tier leadership role in strategizing the group’s plan of attack on Jan. 6. And it was, in part, a search of Rehl’s phone that led agents to charge the other three. In a group chat on Jan. 5 — which authorities found on Rehl’s phone after his March arrest — the men swapped information about their blood types and emergency contacts with an unnamed person before carpooling to Washington, court documents say.
According to the charging documents, contact information for Giddings, Healion, and Vy in Rehl’s phone all included the letters “PB,” and other messaging content led investigators to believe the men knew each other, at least in part, due to their affiliation with the Proud Boys. Investigators have described the Proud Boys, a militant nationwide organization whose members were among Donald Trump’s most vocal and violent supporters, as one of the primary instigating forces behind the Capitol attack.
(snip)
https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-proud-boys-capitol-riot-20211214.html
I am guessing from all the many sleuths out there providing photo evidence of who was where, they have had to systematically comb through thousands of images, ID them, track them, and bring charges (including through a grand jury if necessary) if they hadn't already been arrested for other on-the-scene charges, and then go about getting the cases into the court system.
A tweet had pics of Rehl and his hoodlums in Jeff Merkley's office -
Link to tweet
@DianthaSol
Isn't this PB Zach Rehl INSIDE the office too with #NinjaRaphpb? #SeditionHunters @TwittsnTweets @capitolhunters @nine_niall @Detrumpify_org @1600PennPooch @CTExposers
Image
Image
3:38 PM · Feb 25, 2021
Interesting from the above pics how they were eager to "document" their criminality (one guy is holding what looks like a (am guessing digital) SLR type camera with a flash up on a mount or something up on the mount).
Excellent job keeping up on this.
I'm beginning to grow a bit weary of the kid gloves with which most are being treated.
This sustains me for another day 
Thousands on the grounds and upwards of 800 who may have entered the Capitol building.
Here is what the FBI has been doing (there are over 500 on this list alone) - https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence-images
I suppose someone should take out a full page ad in the papers to list every name of someone arrested for breaching the Capitol since the arrests have been reported in the local media from the places where they came from but hasn't been "consolidated enough" and trumpeted daily on M$M enough for DU. 
Goes to show one can't judge a book by its cover.
Thanks for the great info!
Section 1.
The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.
(snip)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii#section1
And of course the "President of the Senate" is the VP (at that time, Pence).
And for my state - this was PA's official certification that was transmitted (6 copies) -
and so they keep doing it. 
punishments.....enough is enough....
but it also gives the bank the right to call the cops and gives cops freedom to say "hands up, you're under arrest."
KYEG........ .......
