Jan. 6 conviction vacated by Court of Appeals is 'a sense of justice being served,' former deputy says



While having his entire Jan. 6 conviction and criminal case tossed out is a “step in the right direction,” former sheriff’s deputy Colt McAbee says he must rebuild his life amid ongoing cries of “insurrection” from the left.

In a per curiam order March 17, a special three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated McAbee’s Jan. 6 criminal conviction and remanded the case to the U.S. district court, where the same day, it was dismissed as moot.

Both actions were based on McAbee’s appeal filed in March 2024 and a U.S. Department of Justice now under the control of President Donald J. Trump.

'I was genuinely helping people there.'

“At the end of the day, it’s just words on paper,” McAbee, 31, of Unionville, Tenn., told Blaze News. “People still have their own opinions. The Democrats still call us insurrectionists and domestic terrorists, even though it’s their party that destroyed our cities and is now destroying our vehicles.”

McAbee was released from the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., on Jan. 20, hours after President Trump issued a pardon declaration covering more than 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants. He walked out into the minus-18-degree cold to hear a shout of “FREEDOM” from his waiting wife, Sarah, and her mother, Kim.

“Since I was released, I’ve been looking for a new career and a way to take care of my family financially,” McAbee said. “It’s still a struggle. I’m still fighting for the restoration of my rights in Tennessee.”

McAbee was one of the most high-profile Jan. 6 defendants, based on the government’s claim that he was a lawless law officer who came to Washington, D.C., that day to commit violence against police.

Chronicled extensively by Blaze News, the case was described as a “manifest injustice” by McAbee’s onetime defense attorney, William Shipley.

Colt McAbee on his way home after a pardon from President Trump. Photo courtesy of Sarah McAbee

As detailed in a Blaze News investigation, federal prosecutors lied, twisted evidence, and withheld material from a judge in order to keep McAbee behind bars. A careful review of video evidence shows that McAbee never assaulted Metropolitan Police Department Officer Andrew Wayte as alleged. He shielded him and helped him get back to the police line.

A jury found McAbee guilty on five criminal counts in October 2023. He had earlier pleaded guilty to slapping one police officer who cross-checked McAbee’s broken shoulder with a riot stick. McAbee received a 70-month prison sentence on Feb. 29, 2024.

McAbee said having the entire case dismissed shows he was trying to help people in front of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, including Officer Wayte and a dying Rosanne Boyland, who was unconscious and being ignored by police.

Speaking out

“I feel a sense of justice being served,” McAbee said. “It shows that I was genuinely helping people there. ... It’s a step in the right direction.”

The McAbees have been vocal about his case and the weaponized criminal justice system since he returned to Tennessee.

'I pray that everything goes back to normal.'

“I’ve used my experience to speak out. I’ve done several appearances and speeches since then, and it’s amazing that people still don’t know the truth of what happened that day,” McAbee said. “Of course, people are amazed about the atrocities that happened on the inside.”

McAbee filed suit against the District of Columbia Department of Corrections and former Lt. Crystal Lancaster for an incident in September 2022 in which McAbee said he was repeatedly hit with a stream of pepper spray for removing his COVID mask in order to take medication.

“I’ve been pretty vocal about it and won’t stop until everything is over,” McAbee said. “More and more is coming out, thanks to [Blaze Media investigative journalists Joe Hanneman] and Steve Baker. The truth will come out in full!”

For now, McAbee said he faces an uncertain future.

“I don’t know what the future holds,” he said. “I just hope that it works out for all of us.

“I pray that everything goes back to normal, but what is normal?”

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Jan. 6 case dismissed 40 days after judge found Luke Coffee guilty of 'assault' on Officer Lila Morris



Texas filmmaker Luke Coffee took a direct blow to the left arm from Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris on Jan. 6, 2021, yet it was Coffee who was found guilty of assaulting the notorious D.C. officer who seconds later savagely beat Rosanne Boyland with a hardened walking stick, multiple videos viewed by Blaze News showed.

Forty days later, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the case dismissed with prejudice on a motion from the U.S. Department of Justice — now controlled by President Donald J. Trump — drafted by acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin.

“This journey has been about so much more than ourselves,” Coffee told Blaze News after his case was dismissed. “It has been about standing firm for truth, even when the odds seemed insurmountable. It has been about shining a light on the humanity and dignity of the 1,500-plus J6ers who have endured unimaginable struggles.

“For four years, our lives were turned upside down, and yet, through it all, God has been working — restoring, redeeming, and preparing us for this very moment.”

'Luke Coffee might be dead today, but by the grace of God he was pulled to safety.'

Hero or perpetrator?

At a Dec. 13 hearing to announce the verdicts in Coffee’s bench trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mindy Deranek lionized Morris as a “hero,” a “victim,” and a “valued member of the community” who was honored by the U.S. government for her Jan. 6 actions.

Deranek claimed that Boyland died of an “overdose.”

She failed to mention that the medical examiner’s cause of death — acute amphetamine intoxication from a legal Adderall prescription for ADHD — is hotly contested by the Boyland family. The Boylands’ forensic pathologist ruled that the death was caused by compression asphyxiation and said the amphetamine salts in her system from the prescription medication did not cause her death.

Three hundred twenty-four days after his bench trial before Judge Contreras ended, Coffee was found guilty of civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; trespassing with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Coffee, 45, of Dallas, was found not guilty of disorderly conduct in a capitol building. Two other charges had been previously dropped by prosecutors.

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris winds up with a wooden walking stick to strike protester Luke Coffee and a lifeless Rosanne Boyland outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Department of Justice/Metropolitan Police Department body cam

One of Coffee’s defense attorneys, Carolyn Stewart, said the DOJ moved to have Coffee immediately taken into custody Dec. 13, but Judge Contreras refused.

“The vindictive AUSA Deranek said she wanted to ‘put lies to bed’ while instead further defaming and lying about Lila Morris’ illegal use of lethal force against Boyland and Coffee,” Stewart told Blaze News. “Appallingly, she said the dishonorable Morris was a ‘hero’ who was ‘honored by the government’ for her heroic fighting.

“I felt like vomiting at the lies that the murderer Morris is being called a hero,” Stewart said.

Morris was one of three MPD officers feted as Jan. 6 heroes by the National Football League at Super Bowl LV in Tampa — along with Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

“Yes, the lying, unscrupulous DOJ calls the cowardly murder of the woman driven to unconsciousness by the MPD’s illegitimate use of OC [pepper] spray and tear gas in a confined space with no escape route — where the MPD caused a stampede and Morris then beat the unconscious Rosanne — as ‘heroic,’” Stewart said.

Morris and the officers who employed gas in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel about 4:20 p.m. should be tried for murder in Boyland’s death, Stewart said.

“Luke Coffee might be dead today, but by the grace of God he was pulled to safety after being sprayed into unconsciousness by murderers,” she said.

'Stacked two-three deep'

Nearly four years later, Boyland’s death still looms over Jan. 6 like a storm cloud.

She had just wandered into the tunnel at 4:18 p.m. when police released a gas that bystanders said sucked the oxygen out of the air. An officer just inside the doors at the back of the tunnel started firing high-velocity projectiles, including pepper balls — one of which struck Boyland and caused her to fall, witnesses and her parents have said.

The panic from the gas and an aggressive push-out by police with shields caused protesters to spill from the tunnel like a waterfall, with many tumbling down the concrete steps, only to be crushed by layers of bodies, video shows.

“I put my arm underneath her and was pulling her out, and then another guy fell on top of her, and another guy was just walking [on top of her],” Boyland’s friend Justin Winchell told an Atlanta television station in 2021. “There were people stacked two-three deep … people just crushed.”

Capitol Police security video and open-source video from those who surrounded the mouth of the tunnel showed that Coffee stepped front and center and implored police to stop. He had earlier faced the crowd and repeatedly implored them to “Stop!” and “Pray!”

Luke Coffee was repeatedly doused with pepper spray by police outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Capitol Police CCTV/Blaze News Graphic

Coffee was targeted with heavy streams of pepper spray at least eight times, according to defense attorneys Stewart and Anthony Sabatini.

Morris, who had worked her way to the front of the tunnel and was crouched behind a bystander trying to escape, picked a wooden walking stick from the ground and used it as a weapon rather than employ her department-issued riot stick, video showed.

Morris used a two-handed overhead swing — a defense attorney described the swing “as if using an axe” — to strike Coffee in the left elbow with the walking stick, video showed. She swung at Coffee again but missed.

Then, inexplicably, Morris turned her fury on the lifeless Boyland, who was turning purple from hypoxia. With a two-handed overhead swing, Morris delivered three blows to Boyland’s body in quick succession, striking her head, face, and ribs, video showed.

The beating was so furious that the walking stick flew out of Morris’ hands during the fourth swing, bounced off the top of the archway, and see-sawed onto the ground six feet away.

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris strikes protester Luke Coffee at the mouth of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Video shows Morris then used the wooden walking stick to attack unconscious protester Rosanne Boyland.Metropolitan Police Department: Officer Lila Morris body cam

During cross-examination at Coffee’s trial, Morris said Coffee did not assault her. She said she was trying to defend herself against a man behind Coffee and to his left who wielded a “long stick.”

“Did the man in the center with the cowboy hat ever strike you?” defense attorney Stewart asked.

“Not that I recall,” Morris replied.

Stewart asked the officer how she was trained to use a riot stick.

'I can make sure she is never forgotten.'

“Are you ever trained to hold it like a bat and strike it over somebody's head?” Stewart asked.

“No,” Morris answered.

After she lost the walking stick, Morris turned her back on the crowd and was shortly pulled inside by other MPD officers, video showed. She was carried, kicking and flailing, into the Capitol basement hallway, saying, “I can’t breathe!” bodycam video and Capitol CCTV recordings showed.

Morris was approached by MPD Officer Anthony Walsh, who said, “Take a minute to catch your breath. … Were you pulled out into the crowd?”

“I was in the front. They were pulling me, but they kept jabbing my face with something, hit me, and I couldn’t … I lost my breath and couldn’t breathe,” Morris said just prior to 4:34 p.m., according to Walsh’s bodycam video.

Video showed that no one attempted to pull Morris into the crowd, but a man wearing orange ski goggles repeatedly attempted to smack her with what appeared to be a long wooden dowel. One of the thrusts struck Morris in the face shield, video showed.

Protester Luke Coffee of Dallas holds up a crutch in what he says was an attempt to create a separation between police and the crowd outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

Coffee twice held up his hand in a “stop” gesture. Coffee picked up a 1.6-pound aluminum crutch and held it over his head. He said it was an effort to make himself as large as possible to be a barrier between police and the crowd.

Security video showed Coffee held the crutch over his head for nine seconds before lowering it to waist level and pushing into the police line like a snowplow. He drove the entire line of officers back and stayed pressed against the front line for 20 seconds, according to prosecutors. After he slipped and fell, Coffee “charged” the line a second time, the DOJ argued.

The body cam of MPD Officer Steven Sajumon shows that once Coffee got back on his feet, he took what appeared to be two quick steps toward Sajumon with the crutch held in front. Coffee said he was blind from being doused with pepper spray. The officer put his right hand on Coffee’s head, pushed him back, and said, “We’re good.”

Coffee said he then tried to switch the crutch into his left hand. Prosecutors claimed it was a “swing” at Sajumon that constituted assault. The officer’s body cam shows his right hand on the tip of the crutch when he said, “We’re good, we’re good.” Judge Contreras found the interaction constituted felony assault by Coffee.

Coffee told Blaze News that Officer Sajumon snapped him out of fight-or-flight mode when he patted him on the head and said, “We’re good.” Coffee then stumbled away, collapsed, and fell unconscious to the ground.

Aaron James and Isaac Westbury help Luke Coffee of Dallas after Coffee fell inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A short time later, Coffee collapsed and was dragged down the stairs.Metropolitan Police Department body cam

Bodycam video shows Coffee in a supine position being dragged down the steps from the tunnel at 4:29 p.m. Coffee said he was unconscious during this time, until bystanders helped to revive him.

Lindsey Graham, a social media influencer who is known as the Patriot Barbie, testified in Coffee’s trial that when she encountered Coffee at the bottom of the steps, his eyes were swollen shut and he was in serious pain.

“He appeared to me somewhere within a few feet of me, with his face kind of red and swollen and his eyes closed, and he looked in need of help,” Graham said, according to the court transcript. “… What made me notice him was that he looked like he was in distress. He was sweating and crying, and his eyes were closed and his face was red and inflamed.”

Graham said she found bottled water that Coffee used to rinse his eyes, but that didn’t bring relief. Blake McAlavy offered Coffee a bottle of thick green juice to use as a rinse, she said.

“Blake had some kind of green juice in his pocket that he had brought, and he gave Luke some green juice, hoping to help him as well.”

Coffee never struck Officer Morris

Officer Morris testified that Coffee did not touch her with the aluminum crutch, but she felt squeezed in the crowd of officers and had trouble breathing.

At trial, defense attorney Stewart asked, “So the crutch does not hit you?”

“No, it doesn’t hit me,” Morris said.

“Okay,” Stewart replied. “I wanted to check here, because we’re, we’re charged with contact assault.”

At the Dec. 13, 2024, verdict reading, Judge Contreras found Coffee guilty of seven counts, including felony assault on two police officers with the aluminum crutch he picked up off the ground. He found Coffee not guilty on one misdemeanor charge.

'Let’s put these lies to rest right now.'

Judge Contreras ruled that the aluminum crutch qualified as a dangerous weapon and asserted that it was Coffee’s intent to injure officers by pressing them back with the crutch.

Contreras said he did not believe Coffee acted out of concern for Boyland, and he claimed Coffee did not help Boyland get moved to safety after she was struck by Officer Morris.

“Other rioters moved Ms. Boyland out of the tunnel area seconds before Mr. Coffee charged the officers in the tunnel,” Contreras said, “thus highlighting that his attack on the officers in the tunnel was not reasonable or necessary with respect to defending Ms. Boyland, who, by that time, was out of the tunnel and off to the side, well out of harm’s way.”

Luke Coffee holds up a crutch to create separation between police and protesters while bystanders pulled an unconscious Rosanne Boyland to safety outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Metropolitan Police Department body cam

Video shows, however, that bystanders who rescued Boyland after the beating by Morris pulled her to safety simultaneously to Coffee raising the crutch over his head.

The judge did not mention the beating that Morris doled out to the dying Boyland.

Judge Contreras allowed prosecutor Deranek to put her arguments into the record as to why Coffee should be jailed.

Deranek ripped Coffee and social media commentators for claiming Morris caused Boyland’s death. Deranek contended that online discussion of Morris’ actions made the officer a victim again, in addition to Coffee’s alleged assault on her.

“Let’s put these lies to rest right now,” Deranek said, according to the trial transcript. “Officer Morris had nothing to do with Roseanne [sic] Boyland’s death. Roseanne Boyland was not killed by Officer Morris or any of the other officers defending the Capitol that day. She died of a tragic overdose.”

Deranek then blamed Coffee for the fact that police did not render aid to Boyland. Relying on a New York Times video analysis, Deranek said, “It was in fact the defendant’s actions that prevented the officers from rendering her aid as she lay dying.”

The only contact any police officer had with Boyland before she was pulled into the Capitol was Morris and the wooden walking stick she used to strike the unconscious Boyland in the head, face, and ribs, video showed.

Luke Coffee rinses out his eyes after being doused with pepper spray by police in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Coffee said even though he wore sunglasses, his eyes and the skin around them sustained especially painful burns.Photos by Blake McAlavy (1986-2022)

Bodycam video, CCTV, and video from media and bystanders showed that no police officers moved to aid Boyland that afternoon, even when bystanders begged and pleaded and said Boyland was dying. Officers pushed more people from the tunnel on top of Boyland, who was crushed under the pileup, bodycam video showed.

Sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee repeatedly pointed at Boyland when he stepped in front of the police line just before Coffee arrived.

“Quit f**king trying to kill that girl!” McAbee shouted at officers, according to MPD bodycam video. “F**king stop!”

The same argument used on Coffee was made against McAbee: that he prevented police from helping Boyland. Video from police body cameras, Capitol Police CCTV, and bystanders showed, however, that McAbee repeatedly tried to get officers to help Boyland, who lay a few feet from police.

The DOJ contention only added to the pain McAbee still experiences over Boyland’s death.

“Her name will live on as long as there is breath in my lungs,” McAbee wrote to Boyland’s parents just after his trial. “There will be justice for her. I couldn’t bring her back, but I can make sure she is never forgotten.”

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Exclusive: How the Capitol Police were set up to fail on January 6



As part of Blaze Media’s three-part mini-documentary series “A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn,” we continue to update readers on how we arrived at this point in our “Truth About January 6” series. You can find part one here.

Despite denials from the U.S. Capitol Police and some congressional investigators, evidence quickly emerged after the January 6, 2021, protests and riots that Capitol Police officers were intentionally under-deployed.

Testimonies from Capitol Police officers in various Jan. 6 trials, along with radio transmissions and whistleblower statements, have provided many answers. These findings also suggest a coordinated cover-up to keep this information from the American public.

If the Capitol Police had been fully deployed that day, the breach likely would not have occurred. Ashli Babbitt and Rosanne Boyland might still be alive, and the Department of Justice’s 1,500 prosecutions — ranging from trespassing to seditious conspiracy — might never have happened. Additionally, members of the Capitol Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police, and several convicted Jan. 6 participants might not have died by suicide in the aftermath.

Although I have long suspected that trained provocateurs manipulated the events of January 6 under the watch of the Capitol Police command center, many believe that frontline, uniformed Capitol Police officers were knowingly complicit and even initiated the violence. Video evidence contradicts that claim.

Here’s a sample of the social media comments that followed my initial blog series — written before my time at Blaze Media — in which I referred to the Capitol Police as “sacrificial pawns” on January 6:

“The Capitol Police were willing participants by following those D.C. fascists’ orders. I have no sympathy for them or their families.”

“Don’t sign up to collect a paycheck defending a corrupt government.”

“They’re a disgrace to the uniform and America. How f***ing dare they.”

“You’re being played.”

These comments came from the political right, but the left wasn’t silent either. Some were quite bloodthirsty, suggesting that every Capitol Police officer should have replicated Lt. Michael Byrd’s gunshot and left us with “a thousand more Ashli Babbitts.” Many who called for defunding the police after George Floyd’s death in 2020 suddenly became strong supporters of “Back the Blue” following the events of January 6, 2021.

In my January 6 writings, I’ve often stressed that I had to reassess some of my initial assumptions as more evidence surfaced. For example, in my first article about January 6, published on January 13, 2021, I misidentified the officers in “fluorescent-sleeved jackets racing down steps toward the first upper tier above street level” as Capitol Police. They were actually members of the D.C. Metropolitan Police.

This may seem like a minor distinction — especially to the “all cops are bastards” crowd — but these details are crucial as we work to uncover and present the full truth of that day. Most importantly, who in the command chain set up or allowed these events to unfold?

When it comes to the many unanswered questions, odd circumstances, and unindicted figures, we don’t need to agree on every detail. We also don’t need to agree on each event, video, or police officer’s actions to find common ground on one key point I’ve emphasized about January 6: I saw bad people doing bad things, good people doing good things, and even otherwise good people doing really stupid things.

This observation applies to both individual protesters and police officers. There were heroes and villains on both sides of that thin blue line on January 6.

My questions about the Capitol Police’s deployment, orders, and actions on January 6 began with my first published article. From the moment my Uber driver dropped me off at the Washington Monument around 9:30 a.m. until I reached the lower west terrace of the Capitol Building at exactly 1:19 p.m., neither I nor my camera saw a single law enforcement officer.

My video captured no police presence at the Washington Monument lawn on January 6.Screenshot/Steve Baker

As the crowd swelled from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, it was hard to imagine not seeing any police presence among such a massive group in the nation’s capital. Police and Secret Service officers heavily guarded the Ellipse stage, where President Trump was set to speak, but the crowd’s density kept me from entering that area. When I eventually started walking from the Washington Monument lawn toward the Capitol Building again, I still didn’t see or capture on camera a single police officer.

As I approached the Peace Monument, sirens signaled the arrival of D.C. Metro Police units. At the Reflecting Pool, I finally spotted Metro Police officers in fluorescent jackets streaming down the Capitol steps toward the lower west terrace.

I then heard the first flash-bang grenades and saw tear gas released on the lower west terrace. No barricades or police lines blocked my way — initial agitators and provocateurs had removed them about 20 to 25 minutes earlier — so I ran to the terrace and began recording the violence at exactly 1:19 p.m., just three minutes after President Trump left the Ellipse stage, more than a mile away.

A screenshot from my video as I approached the Capitol on January 6, 2021.Screenshot/Steve Baker

For a year, I publicly asked: "Why wasn’t there a police presence on the Washington Monument lawn? Why didn’t I see any police on the mile-long walk to the Capitol?" and "Why were so few Capitol Police officers on duty at the Capitol, considering the planned rallies, marches, and legally permitted events on the Capitol lawn that day?"

I initially estimated that fewer than 200 Capitol Police officers were at the Capitol on January 6. A year later, on the anniversary of the event, I returned to D.C. to seek answers. I asked patrolling Capitol Police officers those questions, and I also wanted to know what orders they received that day. I was particularly interested in what seemed like a "stand-down" or "pull-back" order at around 2:00 p.m.

None of the officers I approached on the streets or at the Capitol would answer. At the time, I didn’t know about the nondisclosure agreements Capitol Police had signed under Yogananda Pittman during her seven-month tenure as acting chief of police.

On December 16, 2021, Forbes made a convoluted attempt to answer the question about Capitol Police deployment on January 6:

USCP documents show that at 2 p.m. on that day, only 1,214 officers were “on site” across the Capitol complex of buildings. Congressional investigators concluded, however, that USCP could only account for 417 officers and could not account for the whereabouts of the remaining 797 officers.

In late 2022, when I first met with former Capitol Police officer turned whistleblower Lt. Tarik Johnson, he confirmed that my initial estimate of “fewer than 200” Capitol Police officers at the Capitol Building during the first wave of violence on January 6 was accurate.

Johnson explained that during previous protest events, the standard operating procedure required an “all hands on deck” approach for Capitol Police. On those days, officers working the night shift were required to stay and work a double shift through the next day. But on January 6, Capitol Police command sent those officers home after their shifts, treating it like a routine day at the office.

In a follow-up phone conversation, Johnson revealed more about the deceptions Capitol Police leadership spread regarding force deployment on January 6. Addressing internal department and congressional investigations that claimed officials “could not account for the whereabouts of the remaining 797 officers,” Johnson said, "It's a bald-faced lie, and you can quote me on that."

Johnson explained that all Capitol Police officers clock in and clock out electronically at the start and end of each shift. Once clocked in, each officer is tracked throughout the tour of duty, making it impossible for their commanders not to know their whereabouts. This information should still be available in the computer logs — assuming the logs haven’t been erased.

When asked why Capitol Police leadership would cover up information about force deployment, Johnson responded, “Because they don’t want to tell you where the officers were or what they were doing. They don’t want anyone to know how many of our officers were on administrative leave that day.”

My investigations, which include interviews with Capitol Police officers and congressional investigators, revealed further embarrassment, as several officers went into hiding once the violence began, locking themselves in offices and closets.

Another key issue involves the “diversion events,” when two pipe bombs were coincidentally discovered within minutes of the first provocateurs breaching the west side Capitol barricade. The pipe bombs were found at both the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters — two of nearly 20 buildings under the Capitol Police’s security purview.

Johnson couldn’t estimate how many officers were diverted to the RNC and DNC after the bombs were discovered. However, he emphasized that the emergency response still doesn’t account for the missing whereabouts of 797 officers. He noted that exact records of how many officers were diverted, and precisely who, should be easily retrievable from Capitol Police computer records.

Set up to fail?

The first Oath Keepers trial featured the testimony of Stephen Brown, a Florida-based event planner hired by the controversial figure Ali Alexander, a Trump supporter and founder of Stop the Steal. Brown’s job was to secure permits from the Capitol Police for an event on the Capitol grounds. He was also responsible for organizing the rental of the staging and public address system and coordinating the scheduling of VIP speakers and stage security, handled by members of the Oath Keepers.

Brown testified that he had previously planned many protest events in the nation’s capital, with attendance ranging from as few as 5,000 to as many as 300,000 protesters.

Under direct examination by Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs’ defense attorney Stanley Woodward, Brown described the surprisingly small presence of Capitol officers during the delivery and setup of the staging and PA system. He noted that at previous events he’d organized on Capitol grounds, he had seen “three, four, even five times the size of police presence, including SWAT teams,” compared to what was present on January 6.

The inconvenient truth is that my camera, Stephen Brown’s testimony, and statements by Lt. Johnson and other Capitol Police officers suggest a deliberate under-deployment of officers that day — a day in which we now know, and as I have previously written:

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, Asst. Chief Yogananda Pittman, head of protective and intelligence operations, the D.C. Metro Police, the United States Park Police, the White House, the Pentagon, the National Guard, both the Senate and House of Representative Sergeants-at-Arms, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, the FBI, and other federal agencies all knew that tens of thousands of protestors would be descending upon the Capitol grounds that day.

An unnamed Capitol Police officer, just days after the melee, told the Associated Press, “During the 4th of July concerts and the Memorial Day concerts, we don’t have people come up and say, ‘We’re going to seize the Capitol.’ But yet, you bring everybody in, you meet before. That never happened for this event.”

According to the Washington Post, only a week after the Capitol was breached, “an FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and ‘war,’ according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post.”

Instead of “all hands on deck,” frontline Capitol Police officers were somewhere between one-tenth to one-fifth strength when it came time to respond to what was coming their way. Whether an operational failure or deliberate under-deployment, this set up the circumstances enabling the breach of the Capitol Building by a relatively small number of aggressive and violent rioters.

Ultimately, it remains inexplicable why only 200 to 300 violent perpetrators wielding sticks, flagpoles, clubs, and bear spray were able to overpower two fully armed law enforcement agencies, the tactical units of nearly every three-letter federal agency, and an unknown number of undercover law enforcement assets to breach what is supposed to be one of the most secure government facilities in the world.

Unless, of course, they were set up to fail. Most Capitol Police officers on duty that day believe that to be the case.

This would explain why Capitol Police union members gave then-acting Chief Yogananda Pittman a 92% “no-confidence” vote only five weeks after her curiously absent leadership from their command center on January 6.

Family of woman who died at US Capitol riot releases heart-wrenching statement about Trump



A family member of a woman who died at the rioting at the U.S. Capitol released a heart-wrenching statement to reporters on Thursday.

The family of Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, said that she either collapsed at the rioting or was trampled when she died on Wednesday. She was among the three who were reported to have died from medical conditions, in addition to Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed.

Boyland's brother-in-law Justin Cave read a statement from the family to WAGA-TV.

"As we watched these awful events unfold, we hoped that Rosanne was not among the crowd," he said.

"Tragically she was there, and it cost her life. We have little information at this time and we're waiting with the rest of the world to uncover the specifics. Our family is grieving on every level for our country and for the families that have lost a loved one or suffered injuries and for our own loss. We appreciate your prayers and ask for everyone to respect our privacy as we mourn her death," he continued.

He then added his personal comments.

"On a personal note, Rosanne was very passionate about her beliefs, like I'm sure a lot of people that were present at this event yesterday were," said Cave.

"But it is my own personal belief that the president's words and rhetoric incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans," he added.

Heartbreak. Exclusive reaction from Rosanne Boyland's family after finding out the 34-year-old Kennesaw woman was l… https://t.co/pyi0wyvhuA
— Aungelique Proctor (@Aungelique Proctor)1610062521.0

"And I believe that we should invoke the 25th Amendment," Cave concluded.

Some critics of the president have called for Trump administration officials to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him before the inauguration. Others have questioned whether that would be an inappropriate use of the power.

In an interview with the Daily Mail another relative said that Boyland really loved Trump and decided to go to the rally after hearing one of his speeches. She said that her other family members begged her not to go.

Here's more about Boyland's death:

Kennesaw family mourning loss of loved one during pro-Trump mob takeover of capitolwww.youtube.com