Feds Use Right-Wing Militias Video to Prosecute Trump Protesters

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/feds-use-right-wing-militias-video-to-prosecute-trump-protesters

Feds Use Right-Wing Militia’s Video to Prosecute Trump Protesters
The DOJ has introduced an Oath Keeper video of Inauguration Day demonstrations as evidence to convict protesters of felony rioting, punishable by up to 75 years in prison.
Kelly Weill
10.11.17 5:00 AM ET


Federal prosecutors want to use a far-right militia’s YouTube video to convict anti-Trump protesters and a journalist of riot.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. is attempting to convict nearly 200 people—including a journalist—of participating in an Inauguration Day protest where some people broke windows and damaged vehicles. Defendants stand to serve up to 75 years in prison if convicted. And some of those high-stakes cases might come down to trial by YouTube video, The Daily Beast has learned. In September, the U.S. attorney moved to introduce a series of videos ripped from right-wing and conspiracy theorist YouTube channels, including a video produced by the far-right militia the Oath Keepers.

The video names listed in the filing match those of dubious YouTube videos boasting of “INSANE Protests Riots Compilation,” or far-right internet videos claiming to show “Mayham” {sic} in the streets.

And one of those videos—an audio file overlaid with a slideshow of protest pictures—was uploaded as part of an “operation” by a right-wing militia.

Court documents list the video as “The_DC_Police_Allowed_the_Inauguration_Chaos.mp4”. That file appears to have been ripped from a YouTube video of the same name by the Oath Keepers, a far-right, gun-toting group that has been accused of racism, anti-government extremism, and peddling conspiracy theories. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on the video’s origins.

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The Oath Keepers, who did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment, garnered headlines when they urged members to “monitor” polling places during the 2016 presidential election, leading to accusations of voter intimidation. The group also made news for showing up heavily armed to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, as well as for offering a “security detail” to protect anti-gay marriage county clerk Kim Davis from arrest, and for members’ conspiracy theory-tinged writings on Muslims, Black Lives Matter, and the left in general.