Quote of part of the article which needs to be read in full:
Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Joseph Biggs, and Dominic Pezzola have been incarcerated under pretrial detention orders since early 2021 on various counts, including conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. By the time jury selection began in December, the defendants had been in jail for almost two years awaiting trial. Rehl, Pezzola, and Biggs are military veterans with no criminal history. Biggs is a Purple Heart recipient. Enrique Tarrio, the groupâs leader, was arrested on similar charges in March 2022.
All government shenanigans are condoned in the courtroom of Judge Timothy J. Kelly who has acted as an extra prosecutor, giving the government near carte blanche discretion in this case. Nearly every ruling leading up to the trial favored the prosecution.
He repeatedly denied the defendantsâ release from jail at the Justice Departmentâs request. As evidence mounted that Trump supporters cannot get a fair trial in the most Democratic city in the country, Kelly refused to move the trial to another jurisdiction.
When the Justice Department belatedly disclosed the existence of multiple FBI informantsâthe government stipulated that the bureau had at least eightâin the Proud Boys, Kelly ordered the defense to âpre-clearâ any questions about the role of individual informants with prosecutors. He also refused to compel the testimony of a key FBI informant who worked as Tarrioâs driver.
Kelly also ran interference for FBI agents. A member of the defense team uncovered explosive messages exchanged between FBI case agents that discussed doctored reports, destroyed evidence, and violations of attorney-client privilege. But Kelly abruptly ended defense questioning of the FBI agent, dismissed the jury, and gave prosecutors time to make up an excuse for the damning communications.
Which, of course, they did. And despite the governmentâs unsubstantiated claims as to the nature of the messages, Kelly bought it hook, line, and sinker. The jury never saw the incriminating messages.
During the trial, Kelly expressed open hostility to defense attorneys, frequently overruling their objections while sustaining those made by prosecutors. Kelly seated a politically biased jury.
Now, the fate of five men who [just] supported Trump and protested Joe Bidenâs election on January 6 lies in the hands of those same jurors.
If they had called themselves Pride Boys instead of Proud Boys they would never have been charged.