A California man accused of organizing a group of Jan. 6 rioters, participating in the riots and attempting to destroy evidence of his involvement was sentenced to more than four years in prison on Tuesday, the Justice Department announced.
Edward Badalian was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding in April. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison and was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors allege that Badalian used a Telegram group chat named “PATRIOTS45MAGA Gang” to encourage violence against political enemies, and at one point said he wanted to arrest President Biden.
That’s why these people don’t really scare me, they’re huge idiots.
They should. They came alarmingly close to overturning democracy. Imagine a round 2 where there’s more organization.
They didn’t though. They came alarmingly close to overturning a performative ceremony that has no actual bearing on the election. Do you really think Trump would have become president if they had succeeded in stopping the count? It had already been counted, just not officially. That’s how stupid these people are.
Saddam Hussein seized power by essentially doing this. If they’d gone in, captured Congress and executed anyone who disagreed that’s pretty much game over. I’m convinced the only reason we’re not in a full civil war today is that Trump was too lazy to lead the march over to the Capitol.
The votes were already counted. No number of congresspeople executed would change the results of the election. It would just put Trump in far, far, far more legal jeopardy than he’s in now and he’s in a lot.
Sure. If they lost the takeover attempt.
But there’s no magical authority that makes the election results matter. Coups happen all the time, and if they came correct and won, what then?
How would that have installed Trump as president? Who would recognize his authority? Certainly not the military.