Capitol breach grandma’s case highlights justice double standard

Have you ever wondered what our jails and prisons would look like had the Black Lives Matter rioters of 2020 been given the “January 6 treatment”? Well, it’s hard to envision such a parallel universe. We don’t have enough jail cells to house the tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of individuals who would be languishing in prison for years based on the January 6 standard of justice.

Alas, the judges in the D.C. federal circuit court have no standard of justice nor do they appear to possess a conscience.

We cannot allow these corrupt judges to hide their blatant perversion of justice forever.

On June 21, 2023, nearly two-and-a-half years after the Capitol breach, the FBI arrested New Hampshire grandma Cindy Young. CCTV footage showed her inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. What was her crime exactly? Reading the FBI complaint reveals no alleged criminal action other than being in the rotunda of a public building. The complaint includes innuendo about Young wearing American flag and pro-Trump paraphernalia. It alleges she was “seen holding a Trump ‘NO MORE BULLS**T’ flag.”

According to the FBI’s worldview, that is the crime.

In fact, the FBI included this picture from Getty Images on the second page of its criminal complaint, as if it’s somehow damning evidence.

Young engaged in no violence. She never even stepped outside the velvet ropes. She has had this prosecutorial sword hanging over her for three-and-a-half years. She’s bankrupt and faces up to four years in prison.

Now, try to imagine how many human beings were part of a crowd that engaged in not only disorderly conduct, trespassing, and vandalism, but also criminal mayhem, arson, and murder during the “summer of love” in 2020. That would easily number 100,000 people.

The people who engaged in the most egregious conduct during those weeks in the name of “justice” for George Floyd were under-punished and, in fact, benefited from calls for leniency from federal prosecutors.

Montez Terriel Lee Jr. was convicted in 2022 of burning down a private business in Minneapolis, resulting in the death of bystander Oscar Stewart. Imagine if a January 6 defendant had burned down a part of the Capitol and killed innocent people. Without question, he would be on federal death row right now — and rightly so. After all, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is currently serving 22 years in a federal prison for seditious conspiracy, and he wasn’t even at the Capitol. Others who engaged in pushing and shoving with police officers got 12 years, with no prior convictions.

But Montez was sentenced to only 10 years, despite a rap sheet that included past convictions for burglary and assault. He’ll be free in less than eight years.

Last week, Cindy Young’s attorney, Jonathan Gross, filed a motion to dismiss her case based on selective prosecution. He contrasted Young’s case with Lee’s to highlight the selective prosecutorial tone. Gross noted that, despite the Justice Department's sentencing memorandum showing Lee celebrating the death of an innocent victim, the government attorney called for leniency by invoking Martin Luther King. The lawyer wrote that Lee “appears to have believed that he was, in Dr. King’s eloquent words, engaging in ‘the language of the unheard,’” tacitly excusing his murderous behavior.

“The Government’s disparate treatment of January 6 defendants when compared to protestors of different viewpoints is undeniable,” Gross contended. “The Government’s argument boils down to its belief that the standard for selective prosecution is impossible to meet and the Government has unchecked power to decide who to prosecute and who goes free. That cannot be the law in a free country.”

Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey summarily dismissed the motion, noting he is “skeptical that such generalized, unsupported assertions” prove selective prosecution.

Well, what about the case of Bryce Williams? He literally led the burning of the Third Precinct Police Station in Minneapolis while dozens of cops were trapped inside. They could have easily been killed. He received just 27 months for the May 28, 2020, arson, which should have been charged as attempted murder. Judge Patrick Schiltz excused the man who tossed the Molotov cocktail into the station as a “good person who made a terrible mistake,” adding that it was “easy to understand” why George Floyd’s death had driven Williams to violence.

In its sentencing memo, the Justice Department excused Williams’ behavior, partially attributing it to his pursuit of “racial justice” for St. George. “The Government takes Williams at his word and does not believe that he came to the protest to commit crimes or wreak havoc,” referring to the lead perpetrator of a direct attack on an entire police precinct. Williams is already out of prison.

Incredibly, only four people were convicted for the attack that involved well over 100 people and did more than $12 million in damages — dwarfing the cost of the entire January 6 riot. Those addicted to selective prosecution and judgment based on political persuasion blithely ignore allegations of a double standard. They don’t see it as a double standard because they believe you are guilty based on your beliefs, regardless of your actions.

Both states and the federal government need to strengthen rules overseeing the judiciary in cases of selective prosecution. A jury, rather than a judge, should oversee motions on selective prosecutions. We cannot allow these corrupt judges to hide their blatant perversion of justice forever.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misidentified the victim of Montez Terriel Lee Jr.'s arson. He was a bystander, not the owner of the building.