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A West Virginia state lawmaker has resigned after he was arrested after filming himself inside the U.S. Capitol during Wednesday'sviolent siege.
Republican Derrick Evans, a newly elected member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, was charged with illegal entry, the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office said during a press call with reporters on Friday.
The federal criminal complaint listed two charges: knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds.
Evans was released on a personal recognizance bond after appearing before a federal judge in Huntington, West Virginia, court records show.
PHOTO: West Virginia House of Delegates member Derrick Evans is given the oath of office in the House chamber at the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va., Dec. 14, 2020. (Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislature via AP)
He resigned from the West Virginia House of Delegates on Saturday, saying in a statement that he takes "full responsibility for my actions."
"The past few days have certainly been a difficult time for my family, colleagues and myself, so I feel it's best at this point to resign my seat in the House and focus on my personal situation and those I love," Evans said.
Related: Nationwide manhunt intensifies for pro-Trump rioters in deadly Capitol breach
WE DO KNOW THAT WITH SO MANY INVESTIGATIONS UNDER WAY
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Evans livestreamed video on his Facebook page of himself and other protesters inside the Capitol after a pro-Trump mob forced its way in. Members of Congress were in the process of certifying the results of the November presidential election.
In the since-deleted video, Evans can be heard shouting over the crowd, "We're in! We're in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!"
Evans allegedly was "joining and encouraging a crowd unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol," according to the criminal complaint, which included a breakdown of the approximately five-minute video.
PHOTO: West Virginia Republican state Del. Derrick Evans exits the courthouse after being arraigned in Huntington, W.Va., Jan. 8, 2021. (Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch via AP)
"He was exercising his First Amendment rights to peacefully protest and film a historic and dynamic event," Bryan said. "He engaged in no violence, no rioting, no destruction of property, and no illegal behavior."
Bryan maintained that Evans was "wholly detached from the tragic events which occurred that day" and that the lawmaker also thought the crowd was "being allowed by law enforcement into the Capitol."
Approximately 40 people were arrested and charged in D.C. Superior Court in connection with the riot, authorities said Friday. Offenses included unlawful entry, curfew violations and firearms-related crimes, authorities said.
Additionally, 13 people were charged with federal crimes, including Richard Barnett, who allegedly broke into Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office, authorities said.
In the wake of the violent attack on the Capitol, West Virginia House of Delegates Minority Leader Doug Skaff called for Evans to not be seated as a member on Jan. 13.
In a letter to House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, Skaff alleged that Evans "committed several illegal acts, clearly memorialized through his own Facebook broadcast, in an attempt to disrupt this constitutionally mandated process."
"His actions unequivocally disqualify him from holding public office in this state and make him ineligible to be seated as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates," Skaff wrote.
PHOTO: Newly elected West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans livestreamed video of himself with Trump supporters as the mob broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Derrick Evans via Storyful)
"Delegate Evans was unfortunately a part of the events this week that threatened what has historically made America a beacon for the rest of the world: the peaceful transfer of power," Hanshaw said in a statement Saturday. "Earlier today, Delegate Evans made the decision to resign from his position in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Now, we return to the work of rebuilding our nation's political climate.
"In announcing his resignation, Delegate Evans said he accepted responsibility for his actions and apologized to those he's hurt. In this time of overheated, hyperbolic political rage, I think that's a good first step for us all to take right now," he added.
ABC News' Meg Cunningham and Alex Mallin contributed to this report.
Op Ed: This is not a job for Superman, Wonder Woman or Mighty Mouse. This is not even a job for Captain America or Batman. This is a job for Captain Cancel Culture and General Guillotine.
Trump's Treasonous Rioters
who stormed US Capitol
now face backlash at work
JOSEPH PISANI and CATHY BUSSEWITZ
NEW YORK (AP) — A printing company in Maryland saw the photo on Twitter Wednesday night: an employee roaming the halls of the U.S. Capitol with a company badge around his neck. He was fired the next day.
Others are facing similar repercussions at work for their participation in Wednesday's riot at the U.S. Capitol. Some business owners are being trashed on social media and their establishments boycotted, while rank-and-file employees at other businesses have been fired.
The printing company, Navistar Direct Marketing, declined to name the worker but said it can’t offer employment to people “demonstrating dangerous conduct that endangers the health and safety of others.”
More than 90 people have been arrested since Wednesday when loyalists to outgoing President Donald Trump disrupted lawmakers as they met to confirm the Electoral College results and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. People on social media have been trying to identify rioters photographed or filmed at the Capitol Wednesday, pressuring companies that employ them to fire them.
At a data analytics firm in suburban Chicago, the employee in question was the top boss. Cogensia fired CEO Bradley Rukstales Friday night for his participation in the riot.
“This decision was made because Rukstales’ actions were inconsistent with the core values of Cogensia," said newly-named acting CEO Joel Schiltz in a statement. "Cogensia condemns what occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, and we intend to continue to embrace the values of integrity, diversity and transparency in our business operations, and expect all employees to embrace those values as well.”
Rukstales, who was arrested for unlawful entry, told a local CBS news channel that he had entered the Capitol and apologized for his role in the events. Calls and emails to Rukstales weren’t returned.
A Cleveland school occupational therapist resigned from the district after her alleged involvement in the riot. A spokeswoman for a fire department near Orlando, Florida said one of its firefighters was being investigated for his participation. Sanford Fire Department firefighter Andy Williams has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome, said spokeswoman Bianca Gillett.
Most private employers can fire workers for attending protests, since First Amendment rights only prohibit people from being punished by the government for their speech, not by a private employer, said Susan Kline, an Indianapolis-based labor and employment attorney at law firm Faegre Drinker.
There are some exceptions: Those who work for the government may be more legally protected, and so too are many unionized workers, who typically have a contract listing the reasons for which they could be fired. And some states may have laws that protect workers' free speech.
But “what people did at the Capitol Wednesday was rioting, not protesting,” said Aaron Holt, a labor and employment attorney with law firm Cozen O’Connor. “When someone violates the law, that’s almost never going to be protected, and a private employer is going to be within their rights to discipline or take some kind of action in response to that that might go against their fundamental core values.”
Small businesses are also facing backlash on online review sites such as Yelp, which flagged at least 20 businesses for unusual review activity related to Wednesday’s rioting.
One business, Becky’s Flowers in Midland, Texas, is owned by Jenny Cudd, a former mayoral candidate who posted a video on Facebook bragging about breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. By Friday, Cudd’s flower shop was flooded with dozens of one-star reviews in which she was called a traitor and domestic terrorist, along with photos of her inside the Capitol.
Cudd later said in a video message to The Associated Press that she didn’t personally go into Pelosi’s office or see people break down the door, and that when she said “we,” she meant all of the people who were at the Capitol. She said she didn’t do anything violent or destroy any property.
“I walked through an open door into the Capitol along with several hundred other people,” Cudd said.
She added that she had “received several death threats along with thousands of one-star reviews from across the country of people who have never frequented my business."
DO NOT HARASS THIS PERSON OR DO ANYTHING UNLAWFUL. You can call her and try to reason with her but good luck with that. She's a traitor and a Trumper.The contact info in the above links makes me think they are two separate people.
Yelp has flagged businesses for unusual review activity following less egregious but still controversial events. Reviewers raged on the Yelp page of Virginia restaurant The Red Hen after it booted former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders from its establishment a few years ago. And commenters from the left and right bombarded Big Apple Pizza’s Yelp page with political beliefs after former President Barack Obama was enthusiastically hugged by a customer there.
Social media has outed people for their involvement in activities outside of the workplace, landing them in trouble with their employers. In 2017 after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, many posted photos on social media of those who participated, leading in some cases to their firing.
In Louisiana, customers said they would boycott supermarket chain Rouses Market after retired owner Donald Rouse was shown in a photo at Wednesday's riot. Rouse said in an email statement that he attended the rally as a supporter of the president but left before the violence began.
“I’m horrified by the violence and destruction we saw yesterday and the pain it has caused so many,” Rouse said. “Our country desperately needs to come together to heal, and I will do everything I can to be a part of that process.”
The Krewe of Red Beans, a group which organizes parades, posted on Instagram that it would return $20,000 in donations it received from the market.
___
Associated Press Writers Don Babwin in Chicago and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.
OpEd: We have firing squads for a reason. Traitorous punk Josh Hawley knew the election was not rigged but like other Republican scum he pretended to believe it was in order to appeal to the trash in Missouri. That's what traitorous punks do and this is why moral nations kill traitors. The GOP is infested with traitors and the only cures for treason is prison and death.
While it is doubtful it Hawley and his co conspirators will face a trial let alone a firing squad, We the People can hound him for all his days and force him out of the country. Like other Republicans, Hawley is probably mobbed up with gangsters far above him for which he serves as their errand boy.
Missouri is called the show me state but with its dangerously depraved electorate and it corrupt prick licking politicians Missouri is now the blow me state. Missouri needs to be severely punished for electing trash like Josh Hawley. Let's hope COVID-19 and tornadoes play a role.
If it were a judge, I would sentence Josh Hawley to death by firing squad and I'd have the squad use BB guns so that it would take days.
Sen. Josh Hawley is being branded a traitor for his clinched-fist salute to President Donald Trump 's supporters before they stormed the U.S. Capitol Building Wednesday afternoon.
Josh Hawley looked like he had seen a ghost. It was more than a little ironic then that the man who let the genie out of the bottle was suddenly condemning what that genie did.
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 7, 2021 But while Hawley has an extensive legal background, many Twitter users pointed out that his angry, spiteful tweet suggested he had little understanding about the First Amendment, which applies to restrictions by the government, not from private businesses.
WASHINGTON — One of his most important early backers now says supporting him "was the worst mistake I ever made in my life" anda top donorcalled for him to be censured by the Senate.
That's just some of the condemnation that's come Sen. Josh Hawley's way since the Missouri Republican became the first senator to announce he would object to the counting of Electoral College votes and then moved forward with his plan even after a pro-President Donald Trump mob had stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
The largest newspapers in his home state called on him to resign. His publisher canceled its contract with him for an upcoming book. He's been pilloried by both Democrats and Republicans for leading the futile objection effort.
And a viral photo of Hawley entering the Capitol before the riot, showing the senator in a slim-fitting suit, hair perfectly coiffed and raising his fist toward the gathered crowd, has already become a lasting image of a day that won't soon be forgotten.
"It was like a Dukakis-on-the-tank moment," one Republican strategist told NBC News in reference to a famous attack ad on the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, "in that he just looked phony and out of place and like a doofus."
At 41, Hawley is the youngest sitting senator and is thought of as a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Since his election to the Senate in 2018, he's carved out a space for himself as the leading Republican critic of the tech giants — a policy area that had generated him a substantial following and coverage in the press. That's now been overshadowed by his objection effort.
Following the riot, Hawley condemned the violence at the Capitol and said he was simply objecting to the electors to give voice to his constituents in Missouri, a state that went to Trump by 15 points in 2020.
"I don't think blaming him for what happened...is the right person to point the finger at," a senior Republican aide told NBC News. "I think Trump was the one at the rally right before, firing everyone up. Trump is the one who's been doing all this for weeks, since the election. He's been getting everyone fired up, and I think the reason Sen. Hawley did what he did was pressure from his constituents."
Yet Hawley's counterpart, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., was not among the handful of Republicans to make any objections. Nor were others from states where Trump won resounding victories in November, like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who condemned the effort. Congress ultimately counted President-elect Joe Biden's electors, setting the stage for his inauguration later this month.
"I mean, did he have to do that?" the aide asked of Hawley. "That's up for debate."
Image: Michael Dukakis (Michael E. Samojeden / AP)
Before any violence took place at the Capitol, Hawley was under fire from colleagues, whether it'd be the likes of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who told MSNBC last week she believed his effort "borders on sedition or treason" or Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah., who said the objections were simply an act to "enhance the political ambitions of some," alluding to possible 2024 presidential aspirations.
Speaking on the Senate floor after the riot, Hawley said violence will "not be tolerated" but an investigation into claims of voter fraud was necessary.
There has not been any evidence presented of widespread voter fraud that would affect elections in any of the swing states Trump lost, and the belief that there was such fraud has taken root among Republican voters with the president and others having promoted them.
Hawley specifically objected to Pennsylvania's electors because he believed a 2019 law expanding mail-in voting there violated the state constitution. Yet, as Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said in defending the state's election, such constitutional objections to the law — which was passed by a Republican-controlled legislature — only came about after Trump lost.
"We witnessed today the damage that can result when men in power and responsibility refuse to acknowledge the truth," Toomey said. "We saw bloodshed because a demagogue chose to spread falsehoods, and sew distrust of his own fellow Americans. Let's not abet such deception. Let's reject this motion."
Hawley "is talking about Pennsylvania because he wants to come here & run for President some day," Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., tweeted. "The lies he told inspired today's violence. He is still telling those lies. Pennsylvania will never forget."
Rick Tyler, who was communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz's 2016 campaign (the Texas senator led his own objection to the electoral results), said the criticism coming Hawley's way is "well deserved."
"Members of Congress do have a right to challenge electors but doing so must be carefully weighed against substantial evidence of malfeasance," Tyler said. "In Sen. Hawley's case, no such evidence existed to suggest the electors were not legitimate. It is not good enough to say you are representing the voters who believe the election was rigged when that assertion was based on lies and conspiracies that were thoroughly disproven by election officials, recounts, court cases and absence of credible evidence."
"Sen. Hawley’s job was to represent the truth," he added. "Instead, he chose to go along with the president and others, namely Senator Cruz, to incite an insurrection."
Amid Hawley's objections, comments he made during the president's impeachment trial last year began to resurface. At the time, Hawley said impeachment amounted to "overturning a democratic election because you don't like the result, because you believe that that election was somehow corrupted, when, in fact, the evidence shows that it was not." He called it "crazy, frankly."
Hawley's ascension in GOP politics has been swift. He was elected to the Senate less than two years into his first term as Missouri attorney general, the first elected office he held. He was not someone who dominated headlines then, though he did draw attention for blaming human trafficking on the sexual revolution of the late 1960s.
The senator holds establishment credentials, having earned degrees from Stanford and Yale, where he attended law school, and having clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, which is where he met his future wife, Erin Morrow, herself a fellow Roberts clerk.
In the days since his formal objection, the outrage aimed at him has snowballed, though it remains to be seen how this will affect his standing with Republican voters.
"Supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life," former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., and a mentor to the senator, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday. "It is very dangerous to America to continue pushing this idea that government doesn't work and that voting was fraudulent."
Soon after that remark, Simon & Schuster, which was set to publish his upcoming book "The Tyranny of Big Tech," announced it was canceling its contract with Hawley, pointing to the "deadly insurrection."
Additionally, an increasing number of congressional Democrats have called for his immediate resignation while Biden said Hawley and Cruz were perpetuating "the big lie."
Hawley has hit back at critics, blasting what he deemed a "woke mob" at the book publisher and saying Biden's remarks were "undignified, immature and intemperate."
His office did not return a request for comment from NBC News on the blowback to his efforts. But in a statement to Missouri TV outlet KSDK, Hawley said he "will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections."
Zack Roday, a former senior House Republican aide and spokesman for former House Speaker Paul Ryan's campaign, said some show of contrition could be beneficial for Hawley.
"Admitting he chose the wrong or, at best, flawed course to voice his election concerns would be a sign of character, confidence and ultimately strength," Roday said.
Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist, told NBC News he thinks it's "a stretch to call a procedural objection as a senator to be 'incitement.'"
"But he should have ended his objection to the electors after what happened," he added. "He will likely be ineffective in the Senate now, at least for a while. It’s a shame because he's impressive and courageous. But who knows where things are headed right now?"
Op Ed: As evil as Trump is, his MAGAts are worse. 70 million of the voted for Trump. These animal hate facts logic and reason. As I write this they are storming the capital building and shots are being fired. Foolishly the capital Police thought they could deescalate Trump's marauding mobs of MAGAts. Deadly forces is the only option there is when dealing with the anti-Christ. The only good Trumpers are dead Trumpers. If I were in charge I would have deployed snipers and created a kill box and laid waste to these animals.
The media attacks Trump and they are right do do so but they seem to forget that Trump supporters AKA MAGAts are sub-human and America has 70 million of them and every single one of the is dangerous.
Patriots have access to the voter rolls. Patriots know who they and where they are. Patriots can employ cancel culture techniques on some of them, terrorize some of them, and kill most of them. Patriots can employ the tactics of General William Tecumseh Sherman and burn their houses and shoot them as they came running out.
Patriots should be terrorizing them. Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country
Patriots could be poisoning them when the opportunity arises. Cooks in restaurants can slip toxins in their food that will slowly kill them and make it impossible for doctors to determine where and when they were poisoned.
Patriots can vandalize their property if they are not ready to kill them.
Patriots can throw fire bombs through their windows.
Patriotic snipers can put bullets through their black hearts.
Patriots can call child protective services on them and accuse them of child abuse.
Patriots can hack their bank accounts.
Patriots can expose their criminal records.
Patriots can jump a MAGAt at night, throw a blanket over its head and beat it with baseball bats until they are crippled for life.
Patriots should spay and neuter Trump supporters.
Partisans defend leaders. Patriots defend nations. If worse comes to worse, kill em all and let God sort em out.
Every summer many homes get an ant infestation and to deal with it home owners put out ant traps. The ants go into the traps and bring the poisoned bait back to the rest of the ants. Eventually, the ant problem ends.
MAGAts are a lot like ants. The mindless accept their futile roles. They have a programed hive mentality. Unlike other species such as the honey bee, MAGAts and ants have no useful purpose.
Like ants, MAGAts seek their own kind and they will spread disease to their own kind. The death toll from the Christmas surge has yet to be counted. The surge is a purge.
Hospitals should be turning MAGAts away and place their priorities on patients who are sick and injured through no fault of their own.
The terrorizing of Florida's truth telling data scientist by the governor sending armed thugs shows just how depraved the GOP in Florida is and that depravity goes to the base.
Let the MAGAts spread the virus and the variants to each other.
There have only been around COVID-19 3500 deaths in Japan in spite of the fact that President Abe never ordered lockdowns. Most credit this totally to Japanese culture but not me. Most non Trumpanzees aka humans care about the well being of others and have the morals and judgement to delay their pleasure for the public good. MAGAts are like Trump and only care about themselves. Do you want more of them in the US or less of them?
Mar a Lago is a major pain in the ass for the nearby residents who don't want Trump and his criminal mob there. Yes it is a nuisance. It is also a tough target to defend from an attack. Mar A Lago is a security nightmare so if Trump's enemies wanted to get him and his mob members Mar A Lago would be a prime target and given the fact that the Secret Service hates his guts it puts him at even greater risk. Who'd take a bullet for a known traitor.
Let's hope Trump doesn't become a martyr but that could happen. Then again, even if Trump dies of natural causes his MAGAt will make up all sorts of insane conspiracy theories. If a foreign foe such as Iran were to follow through with their threats and decide to whack Trump, they have the means to do so. They probably have sleeper cells in the US and they also have 24 submarines that could launch cruise missiles. Since Trump has treated our armed forces like they were a Russian hooker and pissed all over them, the US Navy and Coast Guard may turn a blind eye to a submarine or submarines heading to the Florida coast.
Iran, probably won't do it for fear of a massive retaliation from the US but you'll never know for certain. Iran has a very high asshole quotient. Iran is not the only party that wants justice. Trump has pissed off nearly everyone. Mar A Lago can be easily attacked by air, land and sea. Iran and other Trump foes have the have the capability of doing it.
Why Trump may have Lindsey Graham to blame for Raffensperger call recording
Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his advisers were prepared for President Trump to press him on overturning the state's presidential election results during a Saturday phone call, so they decided to record the conversation, which they eventually leaked after Trump mischaracterized the exchange. But the decision was also inspired by a previous phone call Raffensperger had with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in November, Politico reports.
Raffensperger accused Graham of asking him whether he had the power to toss out all mail ballots in Georgia counties found to have higher rates of non-matching signatures, a claim the senator denied. Either way, the call apparently prompted Raffensperger to remain on high alert if he found himself in similar situations. "Lindsey Graham asked us to throw out legally cast ballots," one of Raffensperger's advisers told Politico. "So yeah, after that call, we decided maybe we should do this."
As it turns out, Graham's attempt to help Trump win the election wound up backfiring on the president down the line. Read more at Politico.
Op Ed: Leningrad Lindsey has always been a scumbag but at least in 2015 and 2016 he called Trump a racist, zenophobe and a religious bigot but suddenly Lindsey started sucking Trump's dick and lying for him. Lindsey is queerer than a three dollar bill and in South Carolina being gay will spell doom for any public figure.
Lindsey is probably a pedophile and Trump probably has proof of that. Lindsey. Being one himself, Trump is an expert on pedophiles. Lindsey Graham is not the only person Trump has blackmailed. Graham is just one of many dirty Republicans.
Lindsey Graham asked Brad Raffensperger to break the law and throw out legal votes. Trump has his hooks in Lindsey Graham deep. It looks like Trump is blackmailing Lindsey Graham.
