Secret Court, Secret Sentencing
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https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-secret-sentencing-3c4ffcc5ebeaff6fd6aa279d0ce888ad
Hundreds of rioters have been charged, convicted and sentenced for joining the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Unlike their cases, Samuel Lazar’s appears to have been resolved in secret — kept under seal with no explanation, even after his release from prison.
Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles, and used chemical spray on officers who were desperately trying to beat back the angry Donald Trump supporters.
There is no public record of a conviction or a sentence in Lazar’s court docket.
But the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that the man was released from federal custody this week after completing a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer. Lazar was sentenced in Washington’s federal court on March 17 to 30 months in prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons, but there’s no public record of such a hearing. He had been jailed since July 2021.
Questions about Lazar’s case have been swirling for months, but the details of his conviction and sentence have not been previously reported.
The Justice Department has refused to say why the case remains under wraps, and attorneys for Lazar did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press. The judge overseeing Lazar’s case in May rejected a request from media outlets — including the AP — to release any sealed records that may exist.
The case is raising concerns about transparency in the massive Jan. 6 investigation — the largest in Justice Department history. Court hearings and records — including sentencing hearings and plea agreements — are supposed to be open and available to the public and the press unless there’s a compelling need for secrecy.
Lazar was transferred in July from FCI Fort Dix — a federal lockup in New Jersey — to “community confinement” overseen by the Bureau of Prisons, which means he was either in home confinement or a halfway house, according to a prisons system spokesperson.
George Washington University criminal law professor Randall Eliason, who spent 12 years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, said he couldn’t remember any case during his Justice Department tenure in which a sentencing hearing and sentence were placed under seal. Eliason said it’s possible that “either there’s some kind of security concern about him personally, or maybe more likely that he’s cooperating in some respect that they don’t want the people he’s cooperating against to know about.”
But many Jan. 6 defendants have cooperation deals with the government, and their cases haven’t been resolved in secret. Defendants who agree to cooperate with prosecutors often get their sentencing hearings delayed until they finish cooperating.
“The fact that he also got sentenced, went to prison and is already out, that whole situation is just unusual,” Eliason said.
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Court hearings and sentencing should be public record.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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Wait, so a guy that comes in tactical armor and physically assaults officers is out but another guy that wasn’t even there is sentenced to 22 years?
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It seems to me the major injustice here is that the filthy magat is out of jail already.
Read his story, skip page 1 and part of 2.
https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/Samuel Lazar Statement of Facts.pdf
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@jon-nyc said in Secret Court, Secret Sentencing:
LD and I made the same point just used different language.
Yes.
It would appear that one of the sentences in unjust. The question is, which one. With Lazar's case under wraps, we might never know.
Perhaps Ray Epps has some thoughts.
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Seems weird that this one "random" guy would have a secret trial and secret jail compared to all of the others.
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At a sealed proceeding in March 2022, Lazar pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, as well as aiding and abetting, and he agreed to cooperate with the government, according to the joint filing unsealed Monday. Lazar was sentenced to 30 months, or 2½ years, in federal prison on March 17, 2023, the filing said.
NBC News first reported on Lazar's sentencing the day it happened after it spotted members of his family at the courthouse. Lazar's family members would not say what happened during the proceeding and what sentence Lazar received. The Justice Department declined to comment on Lazar's case at the time.
The filing was released after a petition was filed by a media coalition, which includes NBC News. The coalition filed a motion to unseal in April and a renewed motion last week after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied the initial request.
The extent of Lazar’s cooperation with the government is unclear.
Video shows Lazar on Jan. 6 yelling, "Let's get their guns! Let's get their guuuuuuunnnns!" over a bullhorn as rioters fight with police on the west side of the Capitol. Video from later in the day shows Lazar, accompanied by his sister, talking about assaults on law enforcement officers. “They maced us, those tyrannical pieces of s---, and we maced them right the f--- back," he said in video cited by the Justice Department. There is no evidence Lazar entered the Capitol.
Federal Bureau of Prisons records had indicated that Lazar was set to be released in September 2023, and the bureau told The Associated Press last month that he had been released after having served a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer. The joint filing unsealed Monday confirmed Lazar was released on Sept. 13, having served his 2½-year sentence after credits for good behavior were factored in.
