Archive picture: Jose Luis Magana / FR159526 AP / dpa
In lawsuits against participants in the storming of the Washington Capitol, the prosecution and courts also add posts from social media. Many show that the troublemakers were ready to use violence, incited to it or even celebrated it.
“I had fun lol,” reads a Facebook post about the storming of the Capitol in Washington. The words were posted by a man from Pennsylvania who had to answer in court because of the violent protests against Joe Biden’s election victory. The sentence: 30 days imprisonment.
The defendant’s postings made it “extremely difficult” for her to show leniency, emphasized judge Amy Jackson when the sentence was announced. Above all, the “lol” (loud laugh) at the end of one post made her feel uncomfortable. “Because – I hope you have now understood that – there was nothing funny about January 6th,” she explained to the defendant. “Nobody who was locked in a room, crouched under a table for hours, had to laugh.”
Around 700 people were charged
In messages, photos and videos, many of those who joined the storm on the Capitol in January incited them to do so or celebrated themselves and the mob. Your postings are now also included in the criminal proceedings against you.
Around 700 people were charged in connection with the riots. So far, more than 50 have been convicted – and often the strongest evidence comes from the accused themselves: According to research by the AP news agency, the prosecution used social media posts in at least 28 of the cases that have so far been convicted in order to justify a stricter criminal claim.
Calls for hatred and violence, misinformation and conspiracy theories were spread before, during and after the storming of the parliament building. The Federal Police FBI tracked dozens of violent troublemakers on January 6th, the public prosecutor’s office used the postings for their indictment, and judges used them to weigh up their verdict.
Social media are the culprit’s undoing
In the case of the accused owner of a hairdressing salon in Indiana, it was a screenshot of a Twitter post that she distributed after the riots on January 6th: The woman had shown that she was in no way sorry for the riot, the judge said. “She’s celebrating and showing off that she was there for something that resulted in an attempted overthrow of the government.” Although the prosecution had requested a suspended sentence, the judge decided to go to prison for two weeks.
A man from Maryland had already posted on Facebook at the beginning of January: “Prepare for chaos, and I’ll be in DC on January 6th, 2021 to fight for my freedom!” Judge James Boasberg said when the verdict was pronounced, this contribution contributed to the fact that it was house arrest instead of mere probation. “The cornerstone of our democratic republic is the peaceful transfer of power after elections,” he said to the convicted man. “What you and others did on January 6th was nothing less than an attempt to undermine this system of government.”
41 months imprisonment for violent beating offenders
In the case of a Florida man, however, the court found evidence of serious mental health problems in the postings. House arrest and an obligation to receive psychological treatment were therefore ordered instead of the four-month prison sentence demanded by the prosecution. The man had made videos of himself and other rioters in the congress building and after the riots put a rap on YouTube that said: “We took selfies” and “We even hit the police with our fists”.
The owner of a fitness studio from New Jersey was filmed in front of the Capitol with such impact. The man’s Facebook and Instagram posts showed, according to the prosecutor, that he was ready for violence and did not regret his actions. “With the evidence I saw, you could not have won the trial,” Judge Royce Lamberth told the defendant. The sentence: 41 months imprisonment.
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