By Julie Kelly
“Our office prosecutes all acts of violence, regardless of political motivation, the same.”
So said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves—under oath, mind you, and with a straight face—during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee earlier this month.
Representative Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) questioned Graves’ disparate treatment of Black Lives Matters rioters who terrorized Washington, D.C., in 2020 versus Trump supporters involved in the events of January 6, 2021.
Although the start of both incidents was a mere seven months apart, they are a world away in terms of accountability.
In what Graves calls the “Capitol Siege” investigation, more than 1,000 Trump supporters have been criminally charged. Graves, a Biden appointee, has promised to double that caseload before he’s finished. His office announces new arrests every week.
That, however, is not the case for rioters who caused far more violence and inflicted far more damage in the nation’s capital in 2020. The rioting that began on May 29, 2020 at Lafayette Square prompted the lockdown of the White House; Donald Trump, his wife, and teenage son were ushered to an underground bunker for their safety as looters and arsonists repeatedly tried to scale the fence and break through police barricades erected outside the White House.
And what started that night in 2020 didn’t just last a few hours, as was the case with the Capitol protest. On June 1, rioters burned part of St. John’s Church, an historical landmark across from the White House, and set ablaze other areas of the public park.
Chaos continued throughout the summer with the president, his family, and White House staff under constant threat. Police arrested 11 people at Lafayette Square in July 2020 for various offenses including assault of a police officer. “The Tuesday night incidents that stretched over hours are the latest confrontations to transpire near the White House, where protesters have been gathering daily for more than a month to protest for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police,” the Washington Post reported on July 8, 2020.
After Trump accepted the GOP nomination for president on White House grounds in August 2020, rioters chased Republican lawmakers, including Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his wife, leaving the event. Some assaulted police in an attempt to get near members of Congress; Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who lost both legs and a finger in Afghanistan, was surrounded and shouted down by Black Lives Matter protesters as he tried to get home.
Elected officials weren’t the only targets of rage-filled activists occupying the heart of the nation’s capital that year. Trump supporters, including young families with children, were attacked by BLM and Antifa rioters during pro-Trump rallies in November and December 2020.
But the violent demonstrations at Lafayette Square represent the closest comparison to January 6: clashes between federal police and protesters on federal property. An Interior Department inspector general report detailed the turbulent situation at Lafayette Square that endangered police and the president for days
[The] Treasury Annex building was vandalized; officers were assaulted with projectiles, such as bottles and bricks; and a brick struck a [U.S. Park Police] officer in the head, resulting in the officer’s hospitalization. USPP officers reported that some protesters threw projectiles, such as bricks, rocks, caustic liquids, frozen water bottles, glass bottles, lit flares, rental scooters, and fireworks, at law enforcement officials. Overall, 49 USPP officers were injured during the protests from May 29 to May 31, including one who underwent surgery for his injuries. The Secret Service—also reported injuries to their personnel during this time. On the evening of May 30, individuals at the protests threw projectiles at the officers and ultimately breached the first row of bike-rack fencing, thereby eliminating the buffer between the protesters and law enforcement officers.
Dozens of people were arrested, including a man who jumped over two barriers in an attempt to enter the White House. Yet only a handful of protesters faced federal charges—in sharp contrast to January 6 protesters who all face federal counts even for low-level offenses such as “parading” in the Capitol. Nearly all the charges initially filed by the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office were dropped. (Graves did not take over the office until November 2021.)
Despite his claim his office is “prosecuting a number of individuals in connection with the incidents of the summer of 2020,” that simply does not appear to be the case, particularly since Graves further confirmed to Gosar that the office “declined a number of arrests presented to it under the leadership of the prior administration.”
Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder! Former President. GWB says repeatedly the ‘BLm are good folk and J6 are bad insurrectionists. One direct, verbatim quote – I can get more for sleazy GWB lovers –
GWB is sleazy; not his lovers. I know not his lovers; I have known “Dubya” for decades – he was a leftist 40 years ago; is a leftist today!
“Bush, who has been relatively quiet on the political scene since he left office in 2009, let loose in a rare TV appearance, saying the Jan. 6 insurrection ‘made me sick’ and was a ‘terrible moment in our history’ that taints the image of the United States around the world.”
Liberals like GWB say “justice has been served”!\Conservatives, I, say there has bee not justice!
BELATED DISCLAIMER
I have loved America almost 80 years. Voted Ronny 9 times. NEVER VOTED FOR SLEAZY GWB. CLEARLY IAM BIASED. I ADMIT PRO AMERICA BIAS.
BLM/ANTIFA were acting on the orders of the DNC, or at least advised they would get a free hand. They had no fear of prosecution; Kamala would bail them out. The left has fully endorsed terrorism and violence as viable political tools.
January 6th got out of hand because the left instigated it that way. They made sure there was no security and imbedded instigators throughout the crowd. Of course the protesters were pissed; the nation had just been shit on by the Democrats. It took very little to incite the violence, but the Capital police had to use violence to incite violence.
While those who assaulted police with intent to kill and burned buildings in 2020 skated, the fascist DOJ overcharges January 6th protesters to send the message that the fascist totalitarian police state of the Democrat party is not to be opposed.