“A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote,” The Guardian reports.
“Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January. She was granted a new trial in February after the Guardian published a document showing that had not been given to her defense ahead of the trial.”
“A Florida man has been arrested for allegedly pepper spraying officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and who law enforcement officials say then allegedly made a menacing call to the FBI special agent investigating his role in the riot,” NBC News reports.
“Barry Bennett Ramey, who officials say was affiliated with the Proud Boys, was arrested in Florida on Thursday.”
“In Donald Trump’s final hours as president in January 2021, he pardoned his onetime chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, who faced charges that he had conspired to swindle donors to a private group that promised to build a wall along the Mexican border,” the New York Times reports.
“But three men charged with Mr. Bannon were not pardoned, and two of them are expected to plead guilty on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, court filings show.”
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South Carolina’s highest court on Wednesday issued a temporary stay blocking the state from carrying out what was set to be its first-ever firing squad execution, the AP reports.
“A California man who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection was arrested after his Uber driver tipped off the FBI,” Axios reports.
“Jerry Daniel Braun allegedly told the Uber driver during a trip to his hotel on Jan. 6, 2021 that he tore down a barricade at the Capitol. The encounter was recorded by the driver’s dashboard-mounted camera; the footage ultimately allowed the FBI to track him down.”
“Federal prosecutors appear to have made their biggest breakthrough yet in their sprawling investigation into the violent riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A high-ranking Proud Boy has flipped, agreeing to testify in any and all cases where his testimony might be ‘deemed relevant by the government,'” Vice News reports.
“It’s the latest example of the government strengthening its case against the far-right street-fighting gang that’s become a national household name since its leaders and dozens of members have been charged in relation to the Capitol riot.”
“Ed Buck, once a fixture of West Hollywood’s political scene, was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison for drug and sex crimes that included providing lethal doses of methamphetamine to two men,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“To the outside world, Buck was a champion of causes such as fur bans and AIDS awareness, and a donor to Democratic officeholders.”
“But behind the walls of his Laurel Avenue apartment was a nightmare. For nearly a decade, the wealthy, white Buck lured young Black men at the lowest points in their lives — homeless, addicted, resorting to subsistence-level sex work — into what he called ‘party and play’ sessions.”
“A January 6 rioter who claimed he was following ‘presidential orders’ when he stormed the US Capitol and stole liquor and a coat rack was convicted Thursday on all charges by a jury in Washington, DC,” CNN reports.
Politico: “The signs of the Democratic Party’s evolution on crime are everywhere — and go beyond defeats suffered by the ‘defund the police’ movement in Minneapolis and elsewhere last year. As the midterm elections pick up, Democrats are calling for more police funding and attempting to co-opt traditionally Republican talking points on crime…”
“The adoption of firmer postures on law and order come after a spike in murders nationally in recent years, including in some of the nation’s largest, most heavily Democratic cities. The change of tone also comes in anticipation of attacks from Republicans about “defund the police” in this year’s midterm elections.”
“A federal judge declined Wednesday to dismiss special counsel John Durham’s case against a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer accused of lying to the FBI during its investigation of potential Trump-Russia collusion,” CNN reports.
“Two residents from The Villages confessed to voter fraud charges after filing two ballots in the 2020 Presidential election,” the Orlando Sentinel reports.
“Across the country, Democratic candidates are sprinting to claim the tough-on-crime mantle,” Politico reports.
“The signs of the Democratic Party’s evolution on crime are everywhere — and go beyond defeats suffered by the ‘defund the police’ movement in Minneapolis and elsewhere last year. As the midterm elections pick up, Democrats are calling for more police funding and attempting to co-opt traditionally Republican talking points on crime.”
“If 2020 was the year progressives reordered the traditional politics of crime and policing, 2022 looks like the year centrists are regaining their footing and nullifying those gains.”
Body camera footage from police officers who arrested New Jersey congressional candidate Ian Smith (R) on charges of intoxicated driving reveal Smith’s defiance during the arrest, with the Republican asking one officer whether the officer was arresting him for money, the New Jersey Globe reports.
New York Times: “As more motorists seemed to be firing guns last year, the Dallas Police Department began tracking road rage shootings for the first time. The results were alarming: 45 people wounded, 11 killed.”
“In Austin last year, the police recorded 160 episodes of drivers pointing or firing a gun; this year, there have been 15 road rage shootings, with three people struck. (Two others were stabbed in altercations stemming from road rage.)”
“The prevalence of such violence, not just in Texas but around the country, suggests a cultural commonality, an extreme example of deteriorating behavior that has also flared on airplanes and in stores. It is as if the pandemic and the nation’s sour mood have left people forgetting how to act in public at the same time as they were buying millions more weapons.”
A jury in Washington, DC found an ex-Virginia police officer guilty on all six charges he faced for his actions around the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, CNN reports.
Politico: “The result was a boost for the Justice Department, which has now won both Jan. 6-related jury trials that have been completed to date.”
The District Attorney who charged a Texas woman with murder for a “self-induced abortion” is dropping the charges.
From the statement: “The issues surrounding this matter are clearly contentious, however based on Texas law and the facts presented, it is not a criminal matter.”
A 26-year old Texas woman was arrested and charged with murder for having a self-induced “illegal abortion,” the McAllen Monitor reports.
In a newly filed statement of offense, prosecutors said that Proud Boys leader Charles Donohoe — who took a plea deal earlier today — “understood that the purpose of the rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, was to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote,” the Washington Post reports.
Key passage: “Donohoe was aware that members of MOSD leadership were discussing the possibility of storming the Capitol. Donohoe believed that storming the Capitol would achieve the group’s goal of stopping the government from carrying out the transfer of presidential power. Donohoe understood that storming the Capitol would be illegal.”
Donohoe has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.