Rioters Accused of Erasing Content From Social Media, Phones
Source: AP News
PHOENIX (AP) They flaunted their participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol on social media and then, apparently realizing they were in legal trouble, rushed to delete evidence of it, authorities say. Now their attempts to cover up their role in the deadly siege are likely to come back to haunt them in court.
An Associated Press review of court records has found that at least 49 defendants are accused of trying to erase incriminating photos, videos and texts from phones or social media accounts documenting their conduct as a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed Congress and briefly interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Bidens election victory.
Experts say the efforts to scrub the social media accounts reveal a desperate willingness to manipulate evidence once these people realized they were in hot water. And, they say, it can serve as powerful proof of peoples consciousness of guilt and can make it harder to negotiate plea deals and seek leniency at sentencing.
It makes them look tricky, makes them look sneaky, said Gabriel J. Chin, who teaches criminal law at the University of California, Davis...
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-capitol-siege-business-electoral-college-media-efe0ea1092bc11c6d3f42ea4ef752d98
- Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump scale the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File).
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)driven by more fear, hate and limited ability to think rationally.
Grokenstein
(5,722 posts)Justice matters.
(6,928 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,314 posts)Deleting it is the best you can do to avoid getting identified; yes, there are archives, but their first problem was people they knew, warning the authorities about the footage. Some of them thought their whole circle of friends and family thought the way they did; then they found out that Jan 6th was too far for some of them (or some would always have drawn the line at any criminal activity). So deleting it might have helped stop the honest contacts from seeing it.
Skittles
(153,160 posts)yes indeed
Comfortably_Numb
(3,806 posts)twodogsbarking
(9,741 posts)Volaris
(10,270 posts)pick form the List:
subpoenas
Tech
Facebook
computers
internet
THEIR OWN FUCKING LEGAL SYSTEM
elections? (nope NO FUCKING CLUE, apparently)
insurrections? they fuckered that up, too didnt they?
Lets start calling them what they REALLY are: FAILUERS. Just like their Dear Leader, its the First Truth they simply CANNOT cope with.
Uncle Joe
(58,361 posts)the short shrift in our society; education, "popular culture" etc.
While I'm not quite so fatalistic as George Carlin, I believe he put his finger on a fundamental truth.
But theres a reason. Theres a reason. Theres a reason for this, theres a reason education sucks, and its the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed. Its never gonna get any better. Dont look for it. Be happy with what you got. Because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. Theyve long since bought and paid for the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they dont want: They dont want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They dont want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. Theyre not interested in that. That doesnt help them. Thats against their interests. Thats right. They dont want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table to figure out how badly theyre getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They dont want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now theyre coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? Theyll get it. Theyll get it all from you, sooner or later, 'cause they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you aint in it. You and I are not in the big club. And by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted folks. The game is rigged, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people -- white collar, blue collar, it doesnt matter what color shirt you have on -- good honest hard-working people continue -- these are people of modest means -- continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who dont give a fuck about them. They dont give a fuck about you. They dont give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all -- at all -- at all. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.
― George Carlin
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/964648-but-there-s-a-reason-there-s-a-reason-there-s-a-reason
Trump's insurrection on the January 6th is the latest culmination of keeping too much of the general populace ignorant about critical issues affecting virtually all of our lives, making us easier to manipulate.
Trump knows his base is ignorant as does Kevin McCarthy and they damn sure don't want them to awaken to the truth or any higher ideal in regard to our common humanity across all racial lines.
That's why McCarthy will never support a committee to investigate the bloody insurrection of January 6th.
It's all about the war against critical thinking.
90-percent
(6,829 posts)to plagiarize a GWB era malapropism. I post this on DU and FB every six months or so.
"It's a big club and you ain't in it."
-90% Jimmy
paleotn
(17,912 posts)2Gingersnaps
(1,000 posts)so he introduced me to the work of George Carlin. Damn it! I hate when he is right about everything, Mike and George.
Evolve Dammit
(16,725 posts)90-percent
(6,829 posts)the supremes are hell bent on dismantling our Democratic Republic and turning America into a "only wealthy people deserve to lead happy prosperous lives. The LITTLE PEOPLE should be content with their ever shrinking portion of the American Dream. Constantly being only one paycheck away from bankruptcy will keep the lessers in line, who should work more hours so the morbidly wealthy can extract even more of the earnings."
They seem to prefer the Russian form of government to that of the country of their birth. Who's going to tell 230 plus years of American War dead that they were all suckers that died for a lost cause?
-90% Jimmy
PS - Sentence structure is something I'm not good at, obviously.. I call my writing style; "stream of unconsciousness"
Evolve Dammit
(16,725 posts)Add Thomas, Roberts and Alito and it is grim indeed.
littlemissmartypants
(22,656 posts)CrispyQ
(36,463 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,656 posts)oldsoftie
(12,534 posts)But its likely too late to help them now!
iluvtennis
(19,852 posts)There are backups of data so that users can retrieve it should they somehow lose it.
Even if you delete an account, your data persists for some time on backup servers. Investigators/prosecutors need simply issue subpoenas and the companies have to supply the data.
(years ago I worked at mobile device startup company that provided service where data (contacts, photos, chats, other) were backup'es and our legal eagles had to respond to subpoenas on a regular basis)
leftieNanner
(15,089 posts)The first lesson I taught my children when they started going on the internet:
Anything you post can be seen by lots of people and (here's the important part) it's on there FOREVER.
You may delete a post from your FB, but if anybody liked or commented on it, it's there.
OldBaldy1701E
(5,128 posts)"FOREVER! You send your (at the moment) girlfriend a pic of your naked body and it will be out there forever, being viewed and passed around by folks who you do not want to have your naked picture. There is no way to avoid this, no way to circumvent it. You post on a message board that so and so is a dog killer, and that will be something that you will be answering to when you are my age! It will never go away!" (I doubt they listened, but I tried to put the fear of diety into them).
leftieNanner
(15,089 posts)Some employers have, in the past, asked to see potential hires' FB pages.
Don't know if it's still legal, but that would be a big problem for some.
OldBaldy1701E
(5,128 posts)kairos12
(12,860 posts)SeattleVet
(5,477 posts)MarcA
(2,195 posts)Pas-de-Calais
(9,904 posts)My momma always said
Stupid is
as
Stupid does
SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)Lock up the traitors!
3Hotdogs
(12,375 posts)to save space on your hard drive?
Yes Agnes, its sarcasm.
RainCaster
(10,872 posts)After all, they are the PROUD BOYS.
(loud flushing sound...)
keithbvadu2
(36,796 posts)But they were so proud to be Trump's terrorists.
Grammy23
(5,810 posts)Was going to come to their rescue. They believed him when he said he had their backs. Im sure within a few days of Jan. 6th it began to dawn on them how screwed they were. And the great erase all the evidence work began, forgetting how social media works. Forgetting How many times their boasting had been shared. And the old adage about nothing ever being fully erased from the Internet never entered their minds. Until the arrests began. Then the nightmare of understanding what was in their future began to be revealed. I hope that as they are convicted and sent to prison for their folly and foolishness, that some of them will speak about how it feels to be betrayed by their hero, Donald tRump.
wnylib
(21,449 posts)would succeed in stopping Biden from being certified and inaugurated. Probably believed that Trump would reward them for ensuring him a second term.
myohmy2
(3,162 posts)...destroying evidence obstructing justice?
...
appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)have already claimed that wasn't why they were deleting their info., and they didn't know that--- umm, hmm.
It made me think of Rosemary Woods and the Nixon Tapes, Ha!