Judge Frees J6 Prisoner Once He Denounced Trump and Promised Not To Watch TV News
Thomas Sibick had to agree not to watch “any news programs or political programs or talk shows” and not to attend any “political rallies”
“I object, Your Honor! This trial is a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of two mockeries of a sham!”
Fielding Mellish, in Woody Allen’s 1971 film Bananas, could easily have been talking about the treatment of Jan. 6 defendants in D.C. district court judge Amy Berman Jackson’s courtroom.
Last week, Jackson entertained a motion by 35 year-old Buffalo, New York native Michael Sibick for bail release.
Unlike most other Jan. 6 detainees – who are accused of glammed-up trespass and disorderly conduct offenses – Sibick faces heavy-duty charges.
Sibick was arrested on March 12 for assaulting and robbing a Metropolitan Police Department officer of his police badge and radio during the Jan. 6 melee. He stands indicted on 10 counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, robbery, and engaging in physical violence on the Capitol grounds.
He was denied bail soon after his arrest, a decision that was affirmed by the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Sibick’s case was assigned to Judge Jackson – an Obama-appointee and outspoken Trump antagonist who presided over the prosecutions of several of the former president’s loyalists, including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Roger Stone.
President Trump was a vocal critic of Jackson, calling her out for allowing her perceived left-leaning politics to interfere with her jurisprudence. For example, Trump highlighted that she put Paul Manafort in solitary confinement, “something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure.”
And as Roger Stone infamously posted on Instagam, Jackson “dismissed the Benghazi charges against Hillary Clinton and incarcerated Paul Manafort prior to his conviction for any crime.”
Recently, Sibick renewed his application for bail release. But this time, he presented the court with something he didn’t offer during the first go-around: a written denunciation of President Trump.
In a letter to Judge Jackson, Sibick wrote:
“January 6th was a disgrace to our nation that left a scar Trump is ultimately responsible for, but we are strong and we will heal from it. While many praise Trump, I loathe him. His words and actions are nefarious causing pain and harm to the world. He is not a leader and should be ostracized from any political future, what he honestly needs to do is go away!”
Despite the gravity of the offenses with which Sibick is charged – and despite the DOJ’s strong opposition to his motion to be released on bail – his polemic against Trump was the open sesame needed to get Judge Jackson to set him free. Leftists prize conformity.
But Jackson also wanted to set conditions on Sibick’s release. To be sure, if the release of a pretrial detainee may endanger the safety of others, the judge is empowered under federal law to set conditions on the defendant that are “reasonably necessary” to “assure the safety” of the community.
But the conditions that Jackson imposed on Sibick in exchange for his freedom are deeply troubling. She ordered that to gain release, Sibick had to agree not to watch “any news programs or political programs or talk shows” and not to attend any “political rallies” – constitutionally protected activities.
#Breaking: Jan 6 defendant Thomas Sibick who famously buried Officer Fanone’s badge in his backyard is being released by DDC Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who tells his father not to put on FOX *or* MSNBC. Inner City Press is live tweeting: https://t.co/Tr8yPyr1pa
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) October 26, 2021
In the name of protecting community “safety,” however, Judge Jackson used her vast governmental power to forbid Sibick from being exposed to ideas that political television shows and rallies might communicate.
But the Supreme Court has stated unequivocally that the protection of political speech lies “at the heart of the First Amendment.” And where the Constitution prohibits the government from directly imposing a particular ban, the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine provides that it can’t make the ban the price of pre-trial release.
Yet that’s exactly what Judge Jackson did.
Such an abuse of judicial authority should concern all Americans, regardless of party affinity and irrespective of their opinions about the former president.
It is but a short leap for a court to next ban the writings of Fyodor Dostoevsky or Thomas Paine – or any author, for that matter, who the ruling class considers not bien pensant – because it disagrees with the messages they impart. Our justice system would become a partisan thought police no different than the Soviet Cheka that banished Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to the gulag for his dissident beliefs.
The left decries the treatment of Alexei Navalny in Russia and Roman Protasevich in Belarus, both of whom have been jailed for criticizing their autocratic and repressive governments. But those who think that Jackson’s treatment of Sibick is somehow different are fabulists at a costume ball. This is tyranny masquerading in a black robe.
It’s exactly the sort of thing we’d expect to see in a Third World Banana Republic like the one in Woody Allen’s movie.
Cue Fielding Mellish: it’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
And how is this not an updated version of Soviet Show Trials?
Exactly,he has now successfully completed reeducation camp required by the Commiecrats.
TY Leslie,,, filed under more unconstitutional judicial bs. That file is growing by leaps and bounds.
Another example of Leftist policies. Everything is about control, everything, all the time. This is another attempt to control thoughts.
This disgraceful judge’s “jurisprudence” is firmly grounded in Maoist “struggle session” principles — if the defendant is publicly shamed and denounces and renounces his/her alleged ideological transgressions, he/she may be allowed to rejoin the proletariat peasant rabble and live in peace.
“”he/she may be allowed to rejoin the proletariat peasant rabble and live in peace.””
More like, be allowed to be executed by a bullet behind the ear instead of being tortured to death.
How Lavrenity Beria of them.
Can we just skip to the part where we show them what we mean? They can’t throw us all in jail and toss the key.
Trump was our focal point, and brought large numbers of support. Too bad the Republicans wanted no part of him, except Graham….and he needed Trump to get reelected so he could continue to stab us in the back, with a dagger on the Ides of March.
We are no longer a nation bound by the rule of law.
This judge is following the lead set by Biden. Who is openly and brazenly ignoring court orders and the Constitution whenever he thinks he can get away with it. And Biden is following the lead of Obama and his gang of American Marxists.
The rationale presented to the peasants is the asserted ‘greater good’. And that Trump is so evil that extraordinary, extralegal, and extra-Constitutional actions are in order. To ‘save our democracy’.
This is all right out of the Nazi playbook. And Judge Freisler’s addendum.
NAZI playbook? Heck, it’s out of the playbook written sometime back around the founding of Babylon, and used by every single authoritarian since then when he has to wrest control from the rightful hands.
Hopefully more folks are paying attention to the specifics of these Jan 6 defendants and the seeming ideological collision between some DoJ prosecutors, some fed Judges and some public defenders to elicit these statements denouncing DJT. This is not acceptable in any way.
The days of collegial ‘go along, get along’ Senate treatment of Presidential Nominees to both the CTs and executive branch positions are past due for elimination. Until we achieve a tipping point in the Senate of Tea Party/MAGA Senators through our own efforts to identify, fund, organize and elect candidates opposed to the establishment we will not get the results we desire.
<ORE EVIDENCE THAT WE LIVE IN A TOTALITARIAN STATE
Pretty convincing evidence of a political prosecution.
Interesting….when he finally admits to loving Big Brother he will receive the merciful release of a bullet to the back of the head.
And i used to make fun of the soviet union when i was a kid
So… what do we do about this?
Sit back and wait for Republican politicians to… work on their handicaps?
Instead of passively sitting around, waiting and hoping that r politicians take an interest how about instead we contact our two Senators and our Congressman? For that matter how about educating others on this? Maybe organizing those other folks to demand a response from our own Congressional Delegation?
If they don’t or won’t respond then identify a candidate to oppose them in the primary. Organize support for the candidate, volunteer, fund raise for them. Work to get them elected instead of the establishment choice of any party. Participatory democracy is hard work. Casting a ballot isn’t enough. No one is going to do the work for us. We must be willing to expend time, resources and energy to elect the most MAGA candidates that our State and CD can accept.
So he was in prison without trial for a thought crime? We have become the USSR
He has been reeducated and cured of his wrongthink. But, he will be watched henceforth.
Sibick taking the knee and denouncing Trump had nothing to do with what he was charged with.
It was purely political. He wasn’t charged with insurrection but was coerced, essentially, into pleading guilty to Insurrection-Lite, expressing remorse, and promising not to think impure political thoughts — which might be prompted by watching Foxnews, for example — in the future.
In Orwellian terms, the judge wanted Sibick to give the desired answer to how many fingers she was holding up. He gave the correct answer. Convinced her it is what he really, really believed. And was released.
I read the letter. I can easily see somebody trapped in the hellhole of a DC prison writing this out while blinking H-O-S-T-A-G-E in Morse code.
(He has beautiful cursive handwriting, but several grammar errors that any FBI agent would have caught before dictating it to him, so I’m of the opinion that it is legit, but coerced, most probably with the cooperation of his lawyer. All he is missing is a paper cone hat with Chinese characters on it expressing his regret at criticizing the State.)
At what point does judge jackson face a charge of Judicial impropriety??
Brought by whom? These people now control the system.
The Gulags will be opened up on our present course soon enough, and no bowing to the state God will save you other than getting a 20 year instead of execution.
The real question here is that when a Judge issues a blatantly unconstitutional ruling how do you get that Judge immediately pulled from the bench?
Impeachment. The only problem is that Constitutionalists need to be in control fo the House and Senate for that to happen.
Every candidate for the House and Senate needs to be asked in the Primaries about their positions on impeaching judges another officials who overstep their Constitutional authority?
“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP should issue a statement “To all those wrongfully imprisoned by the illegal Biden Administration for their actions on Jan. 6th : It’s OK for you to denounce ME or the Jan 6th events if it will gain your freedom. Please, for the sake of your sanity and your families, DENOUNCE ME! I will understand. The decent people of the United States of America will understand! Do it so you can be home with your loved ones for the Holidays! It pains me to announce this, but truly, we understand! God Bless You All and God Bless the USA”!
Political prisoners