In the status of unknowns nowadays, one major blank space is how AG Merrick Garland and the DOJ will prosecute/or handle the asshole-MAGA hatters arrested from off the Jan. 6 insurrection/riot at the US Capitol — and the look of the situation is not really encouraging.

Time is of the freedom-loving essence: ‘Attorney General Garland should have already appointed a special prosecutor to investigate possible criminal charges against Donald Trump. What’s he waiting for? This is not about playing politics. This is about defending democracy.‘

So today, a federal judge in DC asked DOJ prosecutors WTF:

Judge Beryl Howell: "The governments reasons are almost schizophrenic"

Federal prosecutor: "Certain members of the riot were not leading the riot….. they were not doing the destruction of property portion of the riot"

Judge; Does govt view it as mere trespassing?

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) October 28, 2021

Story via Politico this afternoon:

A federal judge thrashed the Justice Department on Thursday for offering “petty offense” plea deals to Jan. 6 defendants who she said tarnished America’s reputation in the world and enabled violent rioters to threaten the peaceful transfer of power — even if they committed no violence themselves.

Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the federal District Court in Washington, D.C., said prosecutors appeared “almost schizophrenic” in describing the insurrection in extreme terms but then settling for second-tier misdemeanor plea agreements with dozens of defendants.

“This is a muddled approach by the government,” said Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
“I’m trying to make sense of the government’s position here.”

Howell then made clear that she considered all participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach — which the Justice Department now estimates at 2,000 to 2,500 people — enablers of an assault against the republic.

“The damage to the reputation of our democracy, which is usually held up around the world … that reputation suffered because of Jan. 6,” Howell said, noting that the mob chased lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence into hiding, and sent staffers ducking under their desks for cover.

“The rioters attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 were not mere trespassers engaging in protected First Amendment conduct or protests,” Howell added.
“They were not merely disorderly, as countless videos show the mob that attacked the Capitol was violent. Everyone participating in the mob contributed to that violence.”

Howell’s harsh words for the Justice Department came as she sentenced Jack Griffith of Tennessee to three years probation for breaching the Capitol for about 10 minutes on Jan. 6 amid the broader attack.
Prosecutors had asked for a three-month jail term for Griffith, who faced a maximum of six months on the charge he pleaded guilty to, of “parading” or demonstrating inside the Capitol.
…
“After all that scorching rhetoric … the government goes on to describe the rioters who got through the police lines and got into the building as ‘those who trespassed,’” Howell said.
“This was no mere trespass.”

The judge indicated she considered the sentence she imposed on Griffith relatively light, but said it was the result of prosecutors’ decisions to resolve his case and others.
Howell said there was a disconnect between the nearly apocalyptic language prosecutors have used in court filings about the Jan. 6 attack and what she called the “most minimal” charges the government settled for in plea deals.
…
Howell noted that even if every rioter paid the $500, it would amount to about $300,000, which she called “barely a drop in the bucket.”
She estimated that the total cost of the riot — based on government spending to reimburse law enforcement agencies and repair damage to the Capitol — exceeded $560 million.

At one point, the judge asked whether officials as high as Attorney General Merrick Garland had weighed in on the sentences to be pursued in Capitol riot cases.

“I’m not aware of the specifics of how plea agreements have been run up the chain. I know they have been,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Carter said.

Garland doesn’t seem to have the legal cojones for justice or something. A real and even expected great-fright is Garland and his boys will back off prosecuting T-Rump, his followers, members of Congress, and others for what Judge Howell noted was ‘no mere trespass,’ but an assault on the republic.

America has a hard row to hoe in the immediate future.
And yet, here we are once again…

(Illustration out front is of a New York state high-school student exhibit: ‘The piece was displayed during student-driven art show at Shenendehowa High School. It consisted of at least 12 identical black-and-white pictures of Donald Trump. There was also a sign above the pictures that read, “Draw on Me.” Using markers from the art classroom, some students opted to scribble critical messages and profanities on the pictures‘ — and found here).