DEVOUT TRUMP SUPPORTER BEGINS TRIAL FOR THE CAPITOL RIOT

 

                          …Just another picture of the Capitol Riot on January 6^th

 

Brendan Hunt, the Trump supporter on trial was a former employee of the New York state’s court system

The evidence against the former U.S. President Trump just continues to show just how bad this guy still is today.

Now that one of his devout supporters is on trial for the January 6^th Capitol Riot, we are learning just how far from being the appropriate president he should have been.

If it was up to Brendan Hunt, who is the one on trial,  according to Hunt’s father, Hunt has suggested that Trump should override the election results and declare the United States a dictatorship.  Just as Adolf Hitler did in Germany many decades ago.  Additional evidence presented by federal authorities in the Brooklyn courtroom this week suggests that Trump himself espoused Nazi ideals.

 

                                   …Brendan Hunt, the Trump supporter on trial

Evidence in the Trump supporter’s trial suggests that Hunt was fixated on extremist ideas and conspiracy theories.  Those theories included that Democrats falsely portrayed Covid-19 as a deadly epidemic to gain political advantage over Trump.  That was when Hunt on Jan. 8, he posted a video titled: “KILL YOUR SENATORS: Slaughter them all.”

The evidence also shows that the reason for the attack on the Capitol was to prevent Congress from counting the electoral college votes affirming his defeat.  It was seen as a test of how far free speech can go before it violates constitutional protections. 

Hunt is charged with threatening to assault and murder a U.S. official. His targets, prosecutors say, included Senate Majority Leader Charles (Chuck) Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

During the opening arguments, Hunt’s defense lawyer, said that her client’s Internet rants amounted to constitutionally protected speech and were not intended to be serious. Hunt’s lawyer sought to distance Hunt from the hundreds of other Trump supporters whom the Justice Department has charged in connection with the insurrection.

Hunt’s alleged obsession with Nazism was evident in text messages presented to the jury during the testimony of FBI Special Agent Jacqueline Smith.

“Trump should just declare martial law, cancel the transfer of power and round up the domestic enemies of our Republic,” Hunt told his father, John Hunt, a retired Queens family court judge, in one text message in November while the election result was not yet final. “The military and the American people will back him.”

In the same conversation, he told his father that Hitler took over Germany because “it was necessary” and said Trump needed to overtake the government to keep Democrats from taking power “or they will throw his family in jail and destroy the country.”

His father offered measured responses, according to evidence presented in court.

“All of these election issues have to and will be resolved through the legal process,” the elder Hunt said, according to messages that Agent Smith and the prosecutor read aloud during her testimony.

In a video discussing the Capitol riot, Hunt called the elected officials whose lives were in danger “cowards” and in a mocking tone asked why “if this Covid stuff was so deadly” they weren’t “evacuated in full-body condoms or something like that?”

Hunt, 37, filmed and posted heavily slanted amateur news analysis videos the day of the riot. In one clip, he stated in footage from the scene, describing it as “apparently documenting the shooting of an unarmed peaceful female Trump supporter by the D.C. police.”

That was a reference to Air Force veteran woman, Ashli Babbitt who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to breach barricaded doors inside the Capitol during the insurrection. Federal prosecutors in Washington said earlier this month that the officer who shot Babbitt would not be charged.

According to prosecutors, Hunt’s postings encouraged an armed militia to return to Washington on Jan. 20, the day President Biden was inaugurated.  They were there to challenge the transfer of power by violently overthrowing the government,

“It’d be funny if Pence got a nice fat bullet to the head,” Hunt wrote on social media Jan. 18, a disgusting reference to the former vice president, who oversaw the election certification process that the insurrectionists attempted to stop.

Hunt posted his extremist views on Facebook as well as on other social media platforms that specifically cater to conservatives and individuals on the far right.

According to an exchange presented at the trial, at least one fellow user warned Hunt that his comments would get him arrested.  The fellow user also criticized Hunt for “giving them warning of when you might attack” in his Inauguration Day call to arms.

However, that January 20 event transpired peacefully, with Washington having been heavily secured.

At the time of his arrest, Hunt was an employee of New York’s state court system, but he has since been fired. He was also known to be an actor and a filmmaker.

Hunt’s attorney argued in the opening statements that his comments did not amount to real threats and noted that he did not possess any weapons. The lawmakers targeted by her client’s alleged threats did not even know about his social media posts, the attorney said.

Hunt was arrested on Jan. 18.

Smith, the FBI witness, testified that investigators came across a Ninja Turtles sweatshirt, toys and beer bottles in Hunt’s apartment as they looked for the electronic devices they were authorized to seize.

This is just more evidence as to how mentally sick, both the former president and his devout supporters have been.

Copyright G. Ater 2021