Friend of mine is a retired Federal Prosecutor, talked to him this weekend after listening to Andy McCarty (retired US Attorney General from NY) on a podcast realted to J6 Pardons.
Both had pretty much same takes:
- 98% if not all were over-charged most of which would get overturned on appeal (sedition part)
- over 500were charged for offenses that are normally not prosecuted (trespassing and related)
- Too much resources were allocated to charge the minor offenses (resources were being pulled from everywhere to concentrate on J6 investigations)
- Anyone charged was done, they had handpicked the Judges to hear the cases and no way they were going to get a fair shake with a DC Jury
- Suspects charged were getting the top tiered heat from Feds - raids, heavy pressure to plead, going after licenses and related
- Both felt the Trump team should have pulled aside the most egregious offenses (50 or so) and given them reduced sentences / time served VS Full Pardons
- In most every case they reviewed the maximum sentence was given and this is almost NEVER done in the DC district
They did not get into a case by case basis but both had reviewed many of the charges and compared to normal sentencing guidelines. Nothing earthshattering above but falls in line with what most of us suspected.
