Court Rules “All I Did Was Watch” NOT A Jan. 6 Defense

Today is the third anniversary of the insurrectionist riot Trump and his allies organized and fomented in their failed coup. There is so much that happened, all of which the GOP is trying to explain away. We have only recently begun seeing some of the top people who took part in the storming of the Capitol get not just convicted but get lengthy prison sentences. Not enough people and even the handful who’ve gotten ten years or more in prison haven’t gotten the punishment they deserve. And those, Trump and his advisors he chose to listen to (because unlike some who told him the truth, that he’d lost and lost fair & square) because they told him what he wanted to hear have yet to be held to account. It took thousands of people pressing forward to overwhelm even an understaffed LE presence at the Capitol that day but they breached the barriers and then the Capitol itself. People including well over a hundred defenders were injured (some quite severely) and even killed. Same with the insurrectionist rioters.  Once the main people bent on the most mayhem had gotten in others decided to head inside and join in the action, albeit in comparison fairly passively. They think because they “only observed” they are blameless. It turns out they’re wrong.

I saw a story from Fox News of all places detailing a shiny new federal court ruling that says so:

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that trespassers in the Capitol during the riot did not need to be acting “disorderly” or “disruptive” to be found guilty of disorderly conduct, because such definitions “are nebulous but time has given them concrete contours in two ways important here.”

Ok, I’ll admit I’m stunned. Not that Fox reported this but rather that the tone of the article is pretty neutral. From Fox one would expect at least a fair amount of “How could they” whining about the “unfairness” of this. But it sticks to the facts and discusses the appeal of J6 defendant Russell Alford who was convicted of four misdemeanors for his actions that day. Alford think because he was a “passive observer” inside the Capitol he didn’t really do anything wrong. However, his conviction and it now being upheld by the appeals courts says he did! To which I say to Alford you damned sure DID do wrong, broke the law and should be punished.

Alford knew from the moment he passed through the first line of barricades outside he was walking into space he wasn’t supposed to be. It had been well publicized that the Capitol was closed that day to all except Congress Critters and others who had to be there to complete the Constitutional process of counting the Electoral Votes. Just getting past those outer barriers took a crowd of thousands who’d been summoned to DC by Trump, then wound up by him and others in the even at the rally which included calls to “fight like hell or you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Common sense would tell anyone, even a dumbass MAGA goober that those barriers, and LE behind them were a clear indication that any space inside that outer barrier was off limits. So there’s that.

Alford had to see what took place to breach those barriers. He also had to see the effort that went into breaching additional LE defensive lines and the Capitol building itself. There’s no effing way he didn’t know he was trespassing. Committing crimes! The linked article notes the court’s discussion of how “circumstances” play a role and cites an example of their reasoning. However, the decision boils down to this:

“A rational jury could conclude that Alford’s actions were disruptive because his presence in the Capitol contributed to the Congress’s multi-hour delay in completing the electoral certification,” the court document reads.

It adds, “There was ample evidence for the jury to conclude that Alford knowingly entered the Capitol without authorization.”

Alford has been sentenced to twelve months in prison. He needs to STFU, do his time then get deprogrammed from the Trump CULT so he can go forth and sin no more.

We can only hope this ruling will be applied to numerous others who trespassed that day. Due to the pre-coup planning far too many were allowed to leave not just the Capitol but the Capitol grounds. Fortunately the government, aided by private sleuths have been hard at work identifying J6 criminals so they too can be brought to justice. And now a whole new crop of seditionist criminals won’t be able to rely on a “All I did was walk around and watch” defense. From the first step they took past the outer line of barricades they were committing a criminal act. Trespassing on federal property. Every damned one of them should be charged, convicted and sent to jail!