Judge demands answers after Jan. 6 defendant recants guilt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Politico

A Jan. 6 defendant’s boast in an interview this week that he had no regrets about his role in the Capitol riot — just days after he acknowledged his guilt in a federal courtroom — may upend the man’s efforts to resolve the criminal case against him.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta issued an order Friday instructing defendant Thomas Adams Jr. and prosecutors why the guilty findings the judge entered on Tuesday following a brief, “stipulated” bench trial should not be overturned in light of Adams’ comments to a reporter the following day.

"I wouldn't change anything I did," Adams told the State Journal-Register Wednesday outside his home in Springfield, Ill. "I didn't do anything. I still to this day, even though I had to admit guilt (in the stipulation), don't feel like I did what the charge is.”

In a brief order Friday morning, Mehta gave both sides one week to explain “why the court should not vacate Defendant's convictions of guilt in light of his post-stipulated trial statements” included in the article. The judge also attached a copy of the news report.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/judge-demands-answers-after-jan-6-defendant-recants-guilt/ar-AA174TZO

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The stupid party

[Ocelot II]

1. If you're pleading guilty you do it under oath.

You have to admit to all factual elements of the crime you're charged with. So if a week later you publicly claim you're innocent you will have a lotta 'splainin' to do in front of the judge.

[The Magistrate]

3. And Properly So, Ma'am

They read you out what you're acknowledging, nobody can pretend not to know.

[thesquanderer]

11. Maybe the defense is that he wasn't under oath for the interview...? n/t

[Ocelot II]

26. That's not a defense at all. What matters is that he was under oath when he pled guilty.

The fact that he bragged in an interview that he wasn't guilty goes to his state of mind and indicates that when he took the guilty plea he lied under oath. The judge has ordered him to come back and explain why his guilty plea shouldn't be vacated so he has to either go to trial or negotiate another, less favorable plea.

[SouthernDem4ever]

27. Hopefully it will teach a lesson to the other blowhard chest thumpers being charged

that think they can just spew shit all over the media and get without having to answer for it.

[Conjuay]

38. Why? Their leader does that ALL.THE.TIME.

[SouthernDem4ever]

42. he hasnt plead yet

[NullTuples]

35. Ignoring this particular case, that's a naive argument.

Every day people - typically ones having to depend on a public defender - plead guilty because they have been intentionally convinced that a plea deal is the only workable solution for them, whether they are guilty or innocent.

(by the way, I'm not saying YOU are naive!)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. You do not want to piss off a Federal Judge

Link to tweet

[Lunabell]

4. Fuck around and find out!

This judge is NOT playing.

[Justice matters.]

7. Looks like it WILL be 'wild' for that Qultist now, eh?

As it must be.

[jmowreader]

5. DU attorneys, this question is for you

I’m thinking here that the defendant made a plea bargain in which he would express remorse and plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence - say, twenty months rather than the ten thousand months these people all deserve. Well…240 months because sentencing someone to 833 years in prison might be unconstitutional.

Now that he’s admitted no remorse and basically said he pled guilty with his fingers crossed behind his back, they have to revoke their acceptance of his guilty plea so they can take him back to trial, let a jury find him guilty and then give him his 240 months.

Would this be correct?

[Sogo]

9. I join your question.

[ZonkerHarris]

14. not an attorney but know a little bit and yes that's what he just did to himself. Blew his deal

aside from everything else, the judge can also hold him in contempt of court right now for this too.

[GregariousGroundhog]

44. Not an attorney, but I don't mind reading through the federal sentencing guidelines

https://www.ussc.gov/guidelines/2021-guidelines-manual-annotated

First off, this all assumes he has no prior criminal history

If I'm reading the manual correct correctly, Obstructing Congressional or Administrative Proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1505), maps to section 2J1.2 of the sentencing manual (per Appendix A). Section 2J1.2 calls for a level 14 sentence, unless he threatened or used in violence, in which case it calls for a level 22 sentence. By accepting responsibility, he could have removed two levels from his sentence (per section 3E1.1). Level 12 calls for 10-16 months of imprisonment whereas level 14 calls for 15-21 months. Level 20 calls for 33-41 months, while level 22 calls for 41-51 months.

So this defendant likely earned himself an extra 5 months (if he merely followed people like a lemming) or 8-10 months (if he partook in violence) behind bars.

[temporary311]

6. If he wasn't sentenced to prison time before,

though everyone involved should've been, he definitely should be now.

[The Grand Illuminist]

46. That probably runs into double jeopardy zone.

nt

[Ray Bruns]

8. Thank god they are stupid.

[The Grand Illuminist]

45. Don't underestimate them.

nt

[lastlib]

10. So, Insurrection Boy, how much time do you want to do for perjury?

Don't piss off a federal judge if you want off easy.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. Oh, tough guy, eh?

Maybe he'll get a chance to prove it in a federal egg-scrambling prison now.

[ZonkerHarris]

13. Someone just lost their plea deal. Stupid fuck deserves it.

[IcyPeas]

15. saw another similar story today: sorry - not sorry

...Less than a year later, Evans is portraying himself as a victim of a politically motivated prosecution as he runs to serve in the same building he stormed on Jan. 6, 2021. Evans is now calling the Justice Department's Jan. 6 prosecutions a “miscarriage of justice" and describes himself on twitter as a “J6 Patriot."

"Some ppl have said I need to apologize and condemn #J6 if I want to win my election as the media will attack me," he tweeted recently after announcing his bid for a U.S. House seat in 2024. “I will not compromise my values or beliefs. That’s what politicians do. We need Patriots not politicians.”

Evans joins a series of Jan. 6 defendants who — when up against possible prison time in court — have expressed regret for joining the pro-Trump mob that rattled the foundations of American democracy only to strike a different tone or downplay the riot after receiving their punishment.

The very first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced apologized in court and then went on Fox News Channel shortly after and seemed to minimize the riot.

https://news.yahoo.com/sorry-not-sorry-1-6-104855119.html

[Sky Jewels]

30. Fixed this part of the article:

"...only to strike a different tone or downplay the ̶r̶i̶o̶t̶ violent attempt to overturn the election and stage a coup d'etat after receiving their punishment."

[louis-t]

41. They are trying to rewrite history

in the image of 'heroic patriots' who stormed the capitol to 'save America'. It's really a sickness.

[onecaliberal]

16. Well. Whatever your deal was, you can kiss it goodbye. He should also be charged with lying

In his plea, since he now says he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

[aggiesal]

17. What a Moran! nt

[Mr. Ected]

18. I've always understood that once a judge accepts a plea deal, it can't be revoked after the fact

Unless the plea included sanctions on the defendant that he didn't fulfil.

I don't think this guy is going to lose his deal. I think the judge is major pissed and just trying to shake him up.

Judge will ask, "you testified under oath that you acknowledged your guilt, then you went on the record shortly thereafter to say you didn't commit any crimes. What's it going to be? Do you understand or do you not?"

J6 punk will say: "I understand". And the judge will let him go.

And next week, he'll be a featured speaker at one of Trump's rallies.

Our criminal justice system cannot seem to cope with crimes related to politics. Too many escape routes for the insurrectionists.

[bluesbassman]

20. The judge can reverse the plea deal if you lie (commit perjury) in order to obtain a plea deal.

The judge in this case is giving the defendant a week to come up with an explanation. I doubt it'll fly.

[SouthernDem4ever]

28. Too many escape routes for the insurrectionists.

Especially when aided by people like the Orange Vomit.

[Plainsman1]

19. Insurrection crowd in the House is just encouraging these guys

As long as Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other insurrectionists in the House are blathering about their heroism and their mistreatment by the "man" most if not all of the GUILTY criminals will be crying in their beer ... and probably getting free drinks in the process.

[Mr. Evil]

21. Anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong.

If the defendant pleads guilty to any or all charges then whatever they say after the fact should be moot. Or, if they pleaded guilty to any or all charges and then lie about the charges they pleaded guilty to could, or should that effect their sentencing? If someone pleads guilty and then subsequently allocutes as to how they committed said crime, then what the fuck does it matter what they say the next day?

If I was the judge issuing their sentence I'd be inclined to issue the maximum. Spite really has no place in the law but, giving the maximum sentence allowed in a case like this seems to me to be the only way possible you can fix stupid. Oh, and remove 'stupid' from society.

[PJMcK]

37. We'll, the judge is demanding an explanation

That suggests that the judge still has jurisdiction over the case.

Stupid boy is about to find out

[ShazzieB]

22. Idiots gonna idiot! 🤣

[zipplewrath]

23. Unfortunately

All he has to do is say that in front of a judge he tells the truth and in front of friends he says what he wants them to hear.

[SouthernDem4ever]

29. It wasn't in front of his friends.

[FakeNoose]

24. I don't get why they offered him a plea deal

Only the early defendants were going to be offered a chance to turn state's evidence and get a deal. That's what they announced almost 2 years ago.

Now with so many trials under their belt, with so many convictions ... why would the DA's even care if a defendant is remorseful? It's too damn late for these guys to get any deal. Book 'em Danno! Try him and convict him.

[Raine1967]

25. A head scratcher quote from the article:

It is unclear how the article in the Illinois newspaper came to the attention of Mehta, who sits at the federal courthouse near the Capitol.

I have so many thoughts about this sentence. My first is wondering about the journalist. It was public information if it was published (in the article) in this newspaper:

https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/crime/2023/02/01/thomas-b-adams-jr-was-convicted-for-breaching-u-s-capitol-on-jan-6/69863729007/

The judge knew because it was public information, FCS.

[czarjak]

31. "I'd do it all over again, wouldn't change a thing" is only for Dick Cheney.

Sorry about that. Sucker.

[ShazzieB]

32. Sounds like this one really put his foot in it!

Judges handling Jan. 6 cases have been repeatedly and increasingly irked by defendants appearing to be apologetic and contrite in court, only to make public statements days later minimizing their guilt and sounding cavalier about their actions. And judges are loath to accept what effectively amounts to a guilty plea from any defendant who doesn’t sincerely believe in their own guilt.

[plimsoll]

33. I think we're overlooking something.

He doesn't think he's guilty of what he's charged with, and he'd do it a again. He basically just said that he was right to participate in an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. I have no idea if the judge can do anything about this if he entered it as an Alford plea, then he said upfront he is innocent and is only pleading guilty to reduce the penalties.

[RockRaven]

34. These guys never seem to "Find Out" quite as much as they ought to when they "Fuck Around"

but this guy might get closer than most.

[SunSeeker]

36. Take him to trial. Let the jury decide!

[oasis]

39. Toss his worthless ass back in the slammer. nt

[The Wizard]

40. Who's his lawyer

Giuliani?

[Sneederbunk]

43. Methinks he stepped in it MAGA style.

[ck4829]

47. K&R

[Emile]

48. MAGATS are not very bright!

[MissMillie]

49. When it comes to MAGA--never believe what they tell you

Thankfully, all you need to do is look at what they show you about themselves.

[truthisfreedom]

50. "The law does not apply to us"

These deluded trumplets.