Roger Stone protege Mark Caputo, inexplicably working at the Department of Health and Human Services as its chief spokesman in charge of public health messaging, is taking a “leave of absence” after a looney, rambling Facebook speech in which he told Trump voters to get armed because there’s going to be a revolution after the election. He also said that government scientists were committing sedition by slowing down the vaccine until after the election in order to hurt Donald Trump.
Here’s the Wikipedia definition of sedition:
Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or resistance against, established authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws.
You’ll note that Trump has been talking about insurrection quite a bit recently.
And lookee here:
Attorney General William Barr told the nation’s federal prosecutors to be aggressive when charging violent demonstrators with crimes, including potentially prosecuting them for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government, people familiar with the conversation said.
In a conference call with U.S. attorneys across the country last week, Mr. Barr warned that sometimes violent demonstrations across the U.S. could worsen as the November presidential election approaches. He encouraged the prosecutors to seek a number federal charges, including under a rarely used sedition law, even when state charges could apply, the people said.
The call underscores the priority Mr. Barr has given to prosecuting crimes connected to violence during months of protests against racial injustice, leading to major property damage, as President Trump has made a broader crackdown on the violence and property destruction a key campaign issue. U.S. attorneys have broad discretion in what charges they bring.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 200 people with violent crimes related to the protests, most of whom face counts of arson, assaulting federal officers, or gun crimes. FBI officials earlier this year described the perpetrators as largely opportunistic individuals taking advantage of the protests.
In more recent months, police officials say they are alarmed by the presence of armed fringe groups from both sides of the political spectrum. Mr. Barr has blamed much of the violence of leftist extremists including antifa, a loose network of groups and people that describe themselves as opposing fascism and which Mr. Barr has described as a movement advocating revolution.
In the call last week, Mr. Barr urged prosecutors to seek federal charges whenever possible, two of the people said. He listed a number of additional statutes they could potentially use, including one addressing conspiracies or plots to overthrow the government. Legal experts say the rarely used statute could be difficult to prove in court.
To bring a sedition case, prosecutors would have to prove there was a conspiracy to attack government agents or officials that posed an imminent danger, legal experts said. They added that there is a fine line between the expression of antigovernment sentiment, which could be protected speech under the First Amendment even if it included discussions of violence, and a plot that presented an imminent danger and could justify a charge of sedition.
Officials have also discussed using a statute that allows prosecutors to bring a federal case against someone who impedes or obstructs a law-enforcement officer responding to unrest, which experts said is also infrequently applied. That could potentially allow them to bring charges before an act of violence occurs, but hasn’t been tested much in the courts, leaving gray areas as to what behavior could be characterized as obstruction.
Barr is completely out of control now. We’ll have to see how many US Attorneys are part of the cult.
Whether Trump wins or loses the election, the post-election period is going to be … something.