J6er Convicted after Entering Capitol for 3 Minutes
A Jan. 6 protestor who committed no violence and entered the Capitol for a mere three minutes is now facing jail time.
Raymond Chambers of Virginia has been convicted on four counts, according to The Epoch Times. He is accused not of violence but of “disorderly or disruptive conduct” to interrupt government business in a restricted area. Unlike the pro-Palestinian protestors who disrupted a Congressional hearing, Chambers is being targeted with the full weight of federal government ire. This is not about justice, it is political persecution. Murderers and other violent criminals are daily released by soft-on-crime Democrats, but peaceful J6 patriots face unrelenting lawfare and incarceration.
Three other men who went to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have been convicted also in what Epoch called a stipulated bench trial. An Obama-appointed judge found both Patrick Montgomery of Colorado and Brady Knowlton of Utah “guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding.” Gary Wilson was convicted on theft of government property; he took a bag from the Senate floor (too bad he weren’t a BLM protestor, or he could have taken whatever he wanted with impunity).
Knowlton did not use any violence or force on Jan. 6, and, indeed, law enforcement held the door open for him as he entered the Capitol! Epoch noted that Montgomery did kick an officer and try to take his baton, but the circumstances are not completely clear. There is evidence of repeated police brutality on Jan. 6. Rosanne Boyland and Ashli Babbitt were murdered, and many others injured.
Montgomery’s lawyer Roger Boots called the J6 legal persecution a “national disgrace” in a comment to Epoch Times. “Mr. Montgomery and his codefendants had many viable defenses which might have resulted in acquittal in any other jurisdiction. But the D.C. jury pool is so extremely pro-government that no January 6 defendant has an opportunity for a fair jury trial.” Boots is certainly correct there; a recent poll found extreme bias against Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 political prisoners among the DC jury pool.
Reportedly, 93 more people have been arrested in connection with Jan. 6 this year, bringing the J6 arrests to 1,358+ as of March 6.
Epoch Times provided more details about peaceful protestor Chambers:
“Raymond Chambers entered the Capitol at 3:01 p.m., according to the government, which offered surveillance footage. Once inside, Mr. Chambers walked to the Rotunda and took some photographs. He ‘immediately exited the building’ through the Rotunda doors at 3:04 p.m., prosecutors said…
Mr. Chambers was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. He pleaded not guilty.“
Nevertheless, Chambers was convicted on all counts and faces fines and up to three years of jail.
This is Marxist political persecution, plain and simple. When leftist protesters riot, they are praised or ignored or released by Democrat authorities. The Jan. 6 protesters are being so abused in jail and so targeted in the courts and media only because their political opinions do not coincide with those of the Biden administration.