Chris Wray’s explanation of why the FBI’s Jan. 6 probe differs from the bureau’s response to last summer’s riots is worth a watch. His main (somewhat obvious) points:
1) An attack on the U.S. Capitol triggers more federal laws.
2) The Jan. 6 crowd gave the FBI a lot of layups.
You can see why he gets interrupted there: It’s a thorough and logical explanation that guts a key talking point on the right.
The notion that the feds treaded lightly last summer is really just plainly inaccurate. More than 300 defendants were charged in the course of four months. Some of the approaches were pretty experimental.
LIke what they did with this guy:
Amid the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against antifa, federal authorities in Tennessee have leveled charges against the bassist of an anarchist rock band after he posted Facebook images of himself holding a fake Molotov cocktail during a photoshoot back in May.
Justin Coffman, a 29-year-old from Jackson, is facing a federal charge of being a drug user in possession of firearms after a police raid on his home in June turned up two guns and Coffman allegedly admitted to smoking one or two grams of marijuana per day.
The Justice Department has used the same charge to go after white supremacists and neo-Nazis whose conduct didn’t constitute an obvious violation of any other federal statutes. That federal charge is relatively rare: One federal judge declared it “unusual,” and a federal public defender said he never saw federal prosecutors move forward on it during his entire 30-year career.
Coffman was also indicted by a Madison County grand jury and is facing several state charges: “possession of a hoax device,” which is a felony, and six misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. DOJ’s press release, which describes the mock Molotov cocktail as a “glass bottle containing a liquid substance,” makes clear it lacked the critical component: an accelerant.
The investigation began because Coffman “was posting photographs to his Facebook page and another page titled ‘The Gunpowder Plot’ that depicted him holding a Molotov cocktail near Jackson City Court building,” according to a federal affidavit by Jackson Police Department Officer Ashley Robertson, who is also a task force officer with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Coffman “was also seen at two protests against police violence in the day leading up to the investigation,” the affidavit states.
The Gunpowder Plot is Coffman’s band. Its Facebook page reads, “Punk rock that makes government buildings crumble from beneath.” A video features members in Guy Fawkes masks, and the page is generally supportive of anarchists and pokes fun at conspiracy theories about antifa. One meme using a popular “Distracted Boyfriend” format features a man (“conservatives”) lustfully staring at “made up stuff about Antifa” while ignoring “tangible proof of violent white supremacists.” Posts by the band, and by Coffman, are critical of both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
A judge threw the case out saying that we don’t jail people for exercising their First Amendment rights. But they tried. Oh how they tried.
Originally tweeted by Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) on June 10, 2021.