”Multiple lawyers defending individuals accused of participating in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot are blaming misinformation and conspiracy theories for their clients’ actions,” The Hill reported on Sunday, May 30, 2021 (here).
For example, “Albert Watkins, who is representing so-called QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley, 33, compared misinformation regarding the election to brainwashing or a cult. ‘He is not crazy,’ Watkins said of his client. ‘The people who fell in love with [cult leader] Jim Jones and went down to Guyana, they had husbands and wives and lives. And then they drank the Kool-Aid.’”
Sounds to me like Watkins just admitted he is. What else can you call a Kool-Aid drinker?
Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, is facing multiple felony charges in connection with the Capitol riot. “On March 8, 2021, federal judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Angeli should not be released from jail, saying his lawyer’s arguments were ‘so frivolous as to insult the Court’s intelligence,'” according to Wikipedia (here). Watkins is the same lawyer who represented the St. Louis couple who threatened Black Lives Matter protesters with guns.
After Angeli tried and failed to get a pardon from Trump, he attempted to bargain for leniency by offering to testify against Trump in his second impeachment trial, which caused Trump supporters to turn against him and brand him as a Black Lives Matter and “antifa” agent. Now, nobody likes him — not federal prosecutors or judges, nor the news media, not even his own former friends.
If you ask me, he’s not all there, but sane enough to stand trial.
The problem with using any kind of insanity defense is it is difficult, even when the client is insane. His client is not that, arguably his client wanted to be America’s next reality TV sensation. He probably should not be in jail awaiting trial. The question should be whether the defendant is a flight risk or dangerous. He should be out of jail and on bail (which should be $500) and helping his attorney with his defense. I think he should get time served and a fine and the Judge telling him don’t do it again and never be in my courtroom again. Or are we now really into show trials, and we are going to have several hundred? There is the issue of whether the Capitol is a public or private place. Must it be open to the public? Is it the people’s house? Maybe it is not. [This comment has been edited. Some extraneous and inappropriate material has been removed.]
For this defendant, the howling-at-the-moon defense is as good as any, and might work to distinguish him from those who assaulted police officers and stockpiled guns in motel rooms. But for now, he’s in jail because the judge concluded he’s (a) dangerous, and (b) a flight risk. You’d let him off, and I would too — if he’s acquitted. But it’s ridiculous to argue these are “show trials.” The people who stormed the Capitol to overthrow our duly elected government are terrorists. Stop making excuses for them. What they did is inexcusable.