Jack Cashill served up yet another round of whitewashing of Capitol rioters in his Dec. 4 WorldNetDaily column:
On Tuesday of this week, I received an email from Laura Lavrenz, daughter of Rebecca Lavrenz, a great-grandmother whose plight I recount in my book “Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6.”
“I’ve been thinking on justice the past 24 hours since news broke out that President Biden declared a pardon over his son, Hunter Biden,” wrote Laura. Thousands of other J6ers and their family have surely been doing the same.
“It seems so unjust that my mom continues to wear a monitor around her ankle,” Laura continued, “unable to leave her house outside of the allotted time granted to her by the federal government, restricted from accessing the internet and paying an outrageous fine.”
Unjust it is – across the board. Of the 10 women I profile in “Ashli,” the eight who survived thay [sic] day, randomly selected, all have been incarcerated.
A quick rundown of the “crimes” these women committed and the punishments they received serves as useful sample of the injustice doled out to 1,500-and-counting other J6ers.
Rebecca Lavrenz walked in through an open door on the east side of the Capitol, prayed for 10 minutes, and walked out. Punishment: six months of house arrest, no internet and a $103,000 fine.
But Cashill has previously admitted that there is “no dispute as to what Rebecca did to earn these charges” — which means that Lavrenz should just shut up, face the music and admit her crime. He then tried to whitewash another rioter:
Dr. Simone Gold had a permit to speak about medical freedom on the steps of the Capitol. When the east side door opened from the inside Dr. Gold and her partner, John Strand, were swept in with the crowd.
In the Rotunda, Gold stood on the base of a statue to speak. Strand hovered nearby protecting her. Following her five-minute speech, Gold took questions.
A police officer then informed the small crowd that it was now possible to leave through the east doors. Gold and Strand thanked him for the info and headed toward the doors.
Punishment: Gold, two months in a maximum security facility; Strand, who refused a plea deal, 32 months in prison.
In fact, “prosecutors say she entered the Capitol immediately after a law enforcement officer was assaulted and dragged to the ground in front of her. Gold also joined a mob that was trying to break into the House chamber and later ignored police commands to leave Statuary Hall so she could finish giving a speech, according to prosecutors.” Prosecutors also said Gold “hasn’t shown remorse or accepted responsibility for her actions,” and that she has been scamming people to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in purported legal costs, unusual since “she pleaded guilty — in the face of indisputable, readily identifiable evidence — without filing a single motion.” And contrary to Cashill’s claim about her speech inside the Capitol:
Strand was filming as Gold gave a speech in Statuary Hall about her opposition to coronavirus vaccine mandates and government-imposed lockdowns. After police escorted her out of Statuary Hall, Gold delivered another speech in the Rotunda using a bullhorn while standing on a statue of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Gold and Strand spent nearly an hour inside the Capitol before leaving.
Cashill then racked up another deceptive sob story:
Lisa Eisenhart entered the Capitol through an open open door with her son Eric Munchel who recorded their half-hour journey through the Capitol.
Munchel can be heard saying to a couple of rowdy young guys, “Don’t vandalize anything, we aren’t Antifa,” and then, more forcefully, “You break sh**, I break you.”
When Eisenhart picked up a pile of zip-ties lying loose and shared them with Munchel, she marked herself and her son, at least in the eyes of the prosecutors, as likely hostage takers.
After spending 11 weeks in pre-trial detention, Eisenhart was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Munchel, 33 and a newlywed, was sentenced to four and a half years.
Cashill failed to mention that Eisenhart told a reporter a day after the riot that she was ready for further violence if necessary: “I’d rather die as a 57-year-old woman than live under oppression. … I’d rather die and would rather fight.” An appeals later vacated her felony convictions. Munchel is better known as the “Zip Tie Guy,” and he also carried a Taser holstered on his hip; both mother and son wore tactical vests and encouraged fellow rioters to fight with police.
Here’s the next whitewash candidate:
Sara Carpenter, a medically retired NYPD officer, drove to D.C. by herself on a whim. A Capitol police officer waved Carpenter over to an open door, and she entered peacefully.
Inside, Carpenter got caught up in a scrum and appears to have had something of a panic attack. She soon found herself in front of a row of police in tactical gear with a crowd of Trump supporters and/or provocateurs pushing her from behind.
“The cops were giving no vocal commands,” said Carpenter. “I was waiting for them to act like cops.” When she confronted the police, one officer pushed her, and she pushed back.
“I was antagonized, brutalized, entrapped,” said Carpenter. She was sentenced to 22 months in prison.
In fact, according to prosecutors:
Carpenter entered the Capitol through the Upper West Terrace emergency exit doors while shaking a tambourine ignoring a blaring alarm.
Once inside the Capitol building, Carpenter rallied other rioters in the Rotunda to follow her into the Old Senate Chamber hallway. There, Carpenter made her way up to the front of a mob and faced another line of officers, screaming at them: “I am a f-ing animal,” “it ain’t stopping,” “do you hear me back there?” Carpenter’s actions ignited the crowd behind her, who pushed against the police to get past them. During the confrontation, Carpenter slapped away the arm of an officer, who was trying to push her back, with her tambourine. Other rioters even tried, unsuccessfully, to hold her back and dissuade her from further violence.
The evidence at trial showed that Carpenter refused direct orders from police to leave the building. As the mob pushed, Carpenter continued to say, “This is my house” and “no” as officers attempted to force her back. Officers eventually deployed pepper spray to disperse the crowd. While many of the rioters retreated, Carpenter did not. Carpenter remained, telling the police, “This ain’t nothing,” when referring to the spray. And, despite the violence and the pepper spray, Carpenter remained inside the Capitol until she was pushed out through the Rotunda Doors by police. In total, Carpenter spent over thirty minutes inside.
As Carpenter exited the building, she raised her tambourine in triumph, celebrating what she believed was her success in stopping Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election result. On the steps of the East Rotunda Doors, Carpenter rejoiced, announcing, “The breach was made, and it needs to calm down now. Congress needs to come out, they need to certify Trump as president, and this is our house.”
Next bogus whitewash candidate, please:
Christine Priola entered the Capitol from the east side through open doors. Wandering alone into the vacated Senate chambers, Christine was photographed with a sign reading, “The Children Cry Out for Justice.”
Priola’s fellow educators in the Cleveland School District promptly ratted out their pro-life colleague to the FBI. Agents raided her home on Jan. 8 and arrested her.
Priola pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced 11 months in prison. Upon arrival at West Virginia’s highest security prison for women, officials put Priola in the SHU, the secure housing unit, better known as “the hole.”
Priola made her way to the U.S. Capitol grounds, carrying a large sign expressing her views. Once on the grounds, she illegally entered the restricted area on the east side of the Capitol Building.
Priola joined the front lines of the riot, climbed the steps, and entered the Capitol Building through the East Rotunda Doors. She went inside soon after the first rioters overcame law enforcement officers guarding the entrance. She moved to the Senate chamber and entered the restricted floor area. While in the chamber, she carried the sign. She was in the Senate chamber for about 10 minutes. All told, she was inside the Capitol Building for approximately 30 minutes.
Sometime between Jan. 6 and Jan. 12, 2021, Priola deleted from her cellphone data for photos, videos, chats, and messages from approximately Jan. 4 through Jan. 7, 2021.
Next, please:
Having gotten separated from her husband in a crowd surge, Yvonne St Cyr entered the Capitol through a broken window and made a live-streamed video of herself once inside.
Rejecting a plea deal, St Cyr went to trial, was convicted and was sentenced to 36 months in prison. Last we spoke, St Cyr was being held at a Minnesota prison, a 22-hour drive from her husband and her Idaho home.
According to the evidence presented at trial, St Cyr, a former Marine Corps drill instructor, traveled from Idaho to Washington, D.C., to attend a rally on Jan. 6, 2021. After leaving the rally, St Cyr went to the U.S. Capitol building, where she joined a crowd of rioters who occupied the Lower West Plaza. When she arrived at the Capitol, St Cyr forced her way to the front of the crowd and pushed her body against the police line barricades on the Lower West Plaza. Despite orders from police, St Cyr remained there for more than fifteen minutes, disobeying police commands to move.
When the crowd ultimately overwhelmed the police officers in that area, St Cyr was one of the first rioters to break through the fence line. She then marched forward, eventually making her way into the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, where she witnessed vicious acts of violence against police officers. St Cyr entered the Tunnel twice and eventually climbed onto a ledge overlooking the crowd of rioters, which she filmed with her phone and shouted at the crowd, “We need fresh people” and “Push, push, push.”
After leaving the Tunnel, St Cyr climbed through a broken window, entering a Senator’s hideaway room adjacent to the Tunnel. Once inside, St Cyr helped another rioter enter and made a livestreamed video of herself while occupying the room.
And one more:
On paper, the charges leveled against Victoria White seem more serious than those against any of the women cited above.
White allegedly raised her fist and cheered as “rioters” pushed a flagpole into an entryway. She helped hoist a protestor onto a ledge. Finally, the police apprehended her and sent her out into the freezing night without her shoes, her phone, or even a coat.
For her crimes, White was sentenced to only 10 days in prison and three months of home confinement. Unlike the others, she had leverage.
A video surfaced that showed two police officers dishing out to the bloodied White what was arguably the most severe police beating of a female ever recorded.
As we documented, White fought with officers, even stealing one of their riot shields to block police batons. White also violated the terms of her pre-sentencing release by traveling to Washington to attend congressional hearings and post for pictures that she posted on social media, even though she was forbidden by those terms from visiting the city except for scheduled court hearings. She was hardly the innocent Cashill wants you to think she is.
Cashill also thinks that a woman who has kids has some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card: “The one woman who committed something resembling an actual crime – the breaking of a window – was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. The fact that Rachel Powell has eight children did not soften the judge.” In fact, Powell very much earned her prison sentence — she confronted police and encouraged other rioters to attack them, and she used a bullhorn to instruct others on how to gain control of the Capitol. After the riot, Powell continued to call for political violence, repeatedly bragging about the aggressive behavior of rioters, their violence towards law enforcement, and the eventual retreat of officers. As we’ve noted, When police raided her home, they found bags loaded with duct tape, rope, cell phones, throwing stars and other weapons.
In other words, Powell doesn’t appear to care much about her kids, despite Cashill’s suggestion. Still, he tried to serve up one more bit of misleading fluff:
Biden could preserve a shred of his “legacy” were he to pardon all these women, all the J6ers for that matter.
Pardons, of course, will come too late for the two women killed that day – Ashli Babbitt and Rosanne Boyland. It is not too late, however, for Biden’s DOJ to tell the truth about how these good patriots died.
They came to overthrow the government. They were not “good patriots.”