We reported last month about how a crew from the Stephen Colbert show was arrested by the Capitol Police in the Capitol complex in the Longworth House Office Building — one of the offices for members of the House.
Capitol Police responded to a disturbance call on the sixth floor of the building at 8:30 p.m. on June 16. There, the police found the Colbert crew who were unescorted (you have to be escorted by Congressional staff if you’re in the building). They had been ordered to leave the building earlier in the day, so they were charged with unlawful entry.
According to Fox’s Chad Pergram in a thread on Twitter, they had gotten interviews with some members of Congress earlier in the day, including Schiff and Auchincloss. Then an aide to Auchincloss allegedly let them back into the building at around 4 p.m. But then, instead of leaving, they roamed the hallways, unattended, for hours. They were arrested, ultimately, near Boebert’s office
They were originally let in by Rep. Adam Schiff’s staff, but then got back in the building later in the day and were reportedly walking around unescorted for hours, taking pictures outside the doors of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and banging on the doors of members of Congress.
But now, the word is in from the U.S. Attorney’s Office as to whether they will be prosecuting the case against the Colbert crew — and you probably could have predicted the answer to that question from the minute you heard about the case and the people who were involved.
Statements by the U.S. Capitol Police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia on the declination of prosecution against the members of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert who had been arrested last month for alleged unlawful entry at the U.S. Capitol. pic.twitter.com/GAdlcwOxLq
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) July 18, 2022
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In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. said that they could not move forward with charges because those detained “were invited by Congressional staffers to enter the building in each instance and were never asked to leave by the staffers who invited them, though, members of the group had been told at various points by the Capitol Police that they were supposed to have an escort.” [….]
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that to prosecute, “the office would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these invited guests were guilty of the crime of unlawful entry because their escort chose to leave them unattended. We do not believe that it is probable that the office would be able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges.”
So let’s review.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) had constituents visit him in his office building on Jan. 5, 2021, his staff showed them around, they took pictures, and left. They were not in the Capitol Building and they left when they were done. They were not caught in the building after hours and they were not banging on the doors of members of Congress or harassing anyone. But the Democrats falsely accused Loudermilk of letting people in to do reconnaissance, for which there was no evidence. But Democrats’ visitors are okay apparently to wander at will and pound on the doors.
On Jan. 6, some of the defendants argued they were let in by the police, and at least one person was acquitted on that basis. He entered but had not done anything else. As far as I know, we haven’t seen the DOJ decide not to prosecute any of the Jan. 6 people on that basis.
Can we say two systems of justice? It would seem so.
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