Court Digest

Georgia
Court: Lawyer boasted about storming Pelosi’s office
AMERICUS, Ga. (AP) — The FBI says a Georgia attorney accused of joining the attack on the U.S. Capitol riot bragged on social media that he was among the first rioters to break into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and said she “probably would have been torn into little pieces” if they had found her there.
William McCall Calhoun Jr., of Americus, Georgia, made his first court appearance on Friday after his arrest on charges including violent entry or disorderly conduct, tampering with a witness and entering a restricted building, news outlets reported. He remains jailed pending another hearing this week.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, a citizen told the Federal Bureau of Investigation about social media posts Calhoun made before, during and after participating in the Jan. 6 riot.
Calhoun wrote he was going to D.C. “to give the GOP some back bone” as the House and Senate met to certify the November election won by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. He boasted about pushing past police barricades and being in a group that broke into Pelosi’s office.
The Jan. 12 affidavit also cites Calhoun’s interview with the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in which Calhoun described his actions as “patriotic” acts of “civil disobedience.”
“Anyone who claims it was anything other than civil disobedience was not there, and they did not see it and they do not know,” he said. “I would freely admit that I trespassed, but I did it for the love of my country.”
Civil disobedience is by definition a non-violent form of political protest, in which participants peacefully violate a law they feel is unjust and then willingly submit to the penalty in order to demonstrate that the law should be changed. Calhoun, for his part, wrote on Parler in a post cited by the FBI that “we’re all coming back armed for war.”
Calhoun described himself as a practicing attorney in Americus for 30 years who primarily handled criminal defense cases.
More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the violent insurrection led by supporters of President Donald Trump at the Capitol, where a Capitol police officer and four others were killed.

Ohio
Self-described militia members jailed on Capitol riot charges
CINCINNATI (AP) — Two self-described militia members facing federal charges that they participated in the assault on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month were jailed Tuesday.

Jessica Watkins and Donovan Crowl, both from Ohio, are being held at a county jail in Dayton, after being arrested Monday. Federal documents identify them as members of the Ohio State Regular Militia, dues-paying members of the Oath Keepers. The FBI complaints call the Oath Keepers a paramilitary group that believes in a “shadowy conspiracy” to strip Americans of their rights. It often recruits current and former military, police or other first responders.

Federal investigators used social media posts and news media interviews the suspects gave to help identify them. They each face three charges: entering a restricted building or grounds; violent entry or disorderly conduct, and obstruction of an official proceeding. No information was available immediately on whether they had attorneys yet.

They are among more than 125 people arrested so far on charges related to the Jan. 6 violent insurrection led by supporters  of President Donald Trump, where a Capitol police officer and four others were killed. U.S. authorities last week announced arrests of a Cleveland woman and a Wilmington man on related charges.

The FBI stated in charging documents that Oath Keepers wearing helmets, protective vests and items with the group’s name were seen to “move in an organized and practiced fashion and force their way to the front of the crowd gathered around a door to the U.S. Capitol.”

Watkins, a 38-year-old self-described commanding officer of the Ohio State Regular Militia, posted video and comments Jan. 6 on the Parler social media site, investigators said.

“Yeah. We stormed the Capitol today. Teargassed, the whole, 9. Pushed our way into the Rotunda. Made it into the Senate even. The news is lying (even Fox) about the Historical Events we created today,” she allegedly wrote. Watkins also posted that entry was forced through the back door of the Capitol.

Minnesota
Judge orders company to take 3M’s trademarks off N95 masks
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a Florida company accused of selling counterfeit N95 face masks with 3M’s name on them to stop using the Minnesota company’s trademarks and representing itself as a distributor or authorized retailer for 3M.

3M sued Nationwide Source Inc. in late December, accusing the company of selling more than 10,000 of the counterfeit respirators to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. The hospital allegedly paid more than six times above 3M’s standard price for the mask used by medical workers and others to help protect against the coronavirus.

U. S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright on Friday granted 3M’s request for a preliminary injunction. Officials with Nationwide Source, located in Delray Beach, Florida, declined to comment, the Star Tribune reported.

3M, based in Maplewood, has tripled production of its N95 respirators since the start of the pandemic. It also has investigated over 10,000 cases of fraudulent N95 sales, leading to 29 lawsuits and numerous injunctions and restraining orders.

3M is among the largest global producers of the N95 mask, which has been approved by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and is considered the gold standard in protection against the coronavirus.

New Jersey
Army reservist, Navy contractor charged in riot
COLTS NECK, N.J. (AP) — An Army reservist from New Jersey who works as a Navy contractor with a “Secret” security clearance is facing federal charges in connection with the riot at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, authorities said.

A criminal complaint filed by a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service accuses Timothy Hale-Cusanelli of unlawfully entering the Capitol, disrupting government business, violent entry and disorderly conduct as well as demonstrating in a Capitol building and obstructing law enforcement.

Authorities said the Colts Neck resident is an Army reservist and works as a contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle “where he maintains a ‘Secret’ security clearance and has access to a variety of munitions,” according to the criminal complaint.

Authorities allege that Hale-Cusanelli told an informant that he had entered the Capitol and showed him cellphone videos depicting the defendant making “harassing and derogatory statements” toward Capitol police inside and outside the building. The informant alleged that he is a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer who posts online videos with extreme political views, and before the rally wrote “Trust the plan, it’s the final countdown.”

In a recorded conversation with the informant, authorities allege, Hale-Cusanelli admitted entering the Capitol and encouraging the mob to “advance” — giving voice and hand signal directions. He told the informant that with more men they could have taken over the entire building, federal authorities alleged.

Hale-Cusanelli also said he took a flag and flagpole that he saw another rioter throw “like a javelin” at a Capitol police officer, which the defendant described as a “murder weapon” and said he intended to destroy or dispose of it as soon as possible, authorities allege.

Court documents don’t list an attorney for Hale-Cusanelli and a message couldn’t be left at a number listed for him.

Washington
Federal court strikes down major Trump climate rollback
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court struck down one of the Trump administration’s most momentous climate rollbacks on Tuesday, saying the administration acted illegally in issuing a new rule easing federal regulation of air pollution from power plants.

The Trump administration had cited a “fundamental misconstruction” of the Clean Air Act in carrying out the rollback, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled. The decision is likely to give the Biden administration a freer hand to regulate emissions from power plants, one of the major sources of climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions.

Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Molly Block called the agency’s handling of the rule change “well-supported.”

“The decision risks injecting more uncertainty at a time when the nation needs regulatory stability,” Block said.

The ruling was on a court challenge by environmental groups, some state governments, and others to the Trump administration’s so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule, or ACE rule, for the power sector.

The decision came on the last full day in office for the Trump administration. Under President Donald Trump, the EPA has rolled back dozens of public health and environmental protections. The Trump administration has sought to cut regulation overall, calling much of it unnecessary and a burden to business.

Trump, who campaigned in 2016 on a pledge to bring back the U.S. coal industry, repealed the Obama administration’s plan to reduce emissions from the country’s electric-power generating plants.
Called the Clean Power Plan, it was one of President Barack Obama’s legacy efforts against climate change.

The Trump administration substituted the Affordable Clean Energy plan, which left more of the decision-making on regulating power plant emissions to states.

Market forces have continued the U.S. coal industry’s decline, however, despite those and other moves by Trump on the industry’s behalf.


Kansas
Audubon sues over water rights at Quivira Wildlife Refuge
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Audubon of Kansas has sued over water rights at a wildlife refuge in central Kansas.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday by the environmental group against the U.S. Department of the Interior and various federal and state officials alleges they have failed to protect the senior water rights belonging to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.

The lawsuit contends the 22,135-acre refuge  is a wetland of international importance that provides sanctuary to a wide variety of waterfowl, shorebirds and other wetland species, several of which are listed as threatened or endangered. Migratory waterfowl, including the endangered Whooping Crane, rely on the refuge as a key stopover in the Central Flyway.

Quivera has suffered from a water shortage because of groundwater pumping upstream in the Rattlesnake Creek basin by irrigators, who the lawsuit contends have junior water rights than the refuge.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would ensure the refuge has sufficient water supplies by ordering the defendants to protect the refuge and its water right.

Massachusetts
2 residents charged in U.S. Capitol riot
BOSTON (AP) — Two Massachusetts residents, including a town meeting member who organized buses to take Trump supporters to Washington ahead of the siege at the U.S. Capitol, were arrested Tuesday in connection with the riot, authorities said.

Suzanne Ianni, a 59-year-old Natick town meeting member, and Mark Sahady, 46, of Malden, were arrested by federal agents at their homes, the FBI said. They are charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, authorities said.

Authorities said Ianni is involved with Super Happy Fun America, a group that organized a “straight pride” parade in Boston in 2019 that was meant to be a counterpoint to gay pride parades. She worked with the group to organize buses to take people to Washington ahead of the rally and riot on Jan. 6, authorities said. Sahady is the group’s vice president, authorities said in court documents.

Both of them were identified in a picture of a group of people that Super Happy Fun America posted on Twitter with the caption: “Bus 1 of 11 coming to Washington DC See you there!” authorities said.
They were also photographed together inside the Capitol, authorities said.

An email seeking comment was sent to Ianni’s lawyer. An attorney for Sahady declined to comment.