A former federal prosecutor who is now representing January 6th defendants sent out a Twitter thread exposing the DOJ’s treatment of one man arrested for his involvement on January 6th.
According to the lawyer — William Shipley — the DOJ made an error in the Lucas Denney case when they accused of him of “planning” an assault that day.
The lawyer claims that the only plan Denney had was to attend the rally that day.
It is because of this error and the fact that the DOJ is embarrassed that the DOJ is denying Denney the same sentencing disposition as other Jan 6th defendants, according to the former federal prosecutor.
Filed a Notice of Appeal today for Lucas Denney. He was sentenced last month to 52 weeks in custody even though he his conduct on Jan 6 did not injure any officer, and he never went inside the Capitol building.
The Gov’t sought and obtained a +2 level enhancement for “planning” an “assault” even though the only “planning” he was alleged to have engaged in was “planning” to attend the rally on Jan 6. I objected at sentencing I strongly believe this was a legal error by the Court.
Luke also received a +4 enhancement for use of a “dangerous instrument” during the assualt. While a closer call than the “planning”, I think we have a strong argument that this enhancement was erroneous as well.
Even though Luke pled guilty to the only charge against him, other Jan 6 defendants are being offered better dispositions in plea agreements where there is no debate over the fact that Luke’s conduct was less egregious.
The DOJ made an error with Luke, they were called out for it, they made second error in obtaining an out-of-time indictment, and were embarrassed a second time. In retribution they are denying him the same sentencing disposition they are giving to other Jan 6 defendants. I can’t go into too much detail on this issue here, but earlier today it was communicated to me that the Gov’t would not agree to an accommodation I requested that would bring his case into line with the policy they Govt has adopted on other Jan 6 defendants. So there is much left to do on his behalf.
Shipley goes on to describe another January 6th case he’s working on:
In addition, rescheduling of some matters — including the upcoming Oath Keeper Trial No. 2–has me staring at a schedule that looks like it will keep me in Wash. DC from Nov. 6 to Jan 15–with a couple weeks in there to be with family. TEN weeks of temporary housing/hotels, and three sets of plane tickets.
My client in the second Oath Keeper case is Roberto Minuta, a married father of two young kids who went to DC without any weapons on Jan 6. He took some medical supplies based on some medical training he has. He was part of what the Gov’t calls “Stack Two” — which should be called “Crock Two”. More on that late.
The only thing he did different than other OKs who have not been charged with anything was to go into the Capitol for a few minutes. That’s it.
There are others who did ALL THE SAME things — but didn’t walk into the Capitol — and they are UNCHARGED.
Roberto went into the Capitol and he’s charged as a “Seditious Conspirator” and faces 20 years.That is LITERALLY the only thing Roberto did different. Not hyperbole. Roberto has sold every spare asset he had to defend himself, but its simply not enough to cover the expense of a 5 day a week trial in Washington DC.
Why isn’t the media covering injustice?