Court proceedings are about to begin for Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr., whom prosecutors say texted "War time" on the day of the insurrection after receiving a message "Pence blew it."

I'll cover it live, @LawCrimeNews.

Previously,
via @AlbertoLuperon

This is what prosecutors say authorities found in Meredith's vehicle at the time of his arrest, in a brief seeking his continued pre-trial lockup.
There is a delay in the proceedings owing to the defendant to participate in the hearing from jail.

Stand by.
Judge Harvey calls the case.
AUSA Ahmed Baset argues for the United States.

Defense counsel is Ubong Akpan.
Prosecutor Baset is up first for the government.

He begins by arguing that interstate threats are a crime of violence, warranting continuing detention.
Some of those threats flagged in my colleague @AlbertoLuperon's recent coverage of the case. https://t.co/Rfmn96koyi
Judge Harvey indicates that he intends to rule in the government's favor in keeping Cleveland Meredith detained before trial.
Prosecutor:

Meredith drove from Colorado to D.C. "to participate in a violent insurrection" on Jan. 6, which he called one of the most "hellish" days in the history of our nation's capitol.
Prosecutor Baset:

Meredith wanted to use "armor piercing bullets," and it "just so happened" that this ammunition was found in his truck.

"Clearly this is someone who relished in the carnage," Baset said. "He relished, even after seeing what had happened."
Prosecutor Baset warns that releasing Meredith "is not a risk we can take in terms of danger to the community."
Harvey describes the "oddity" of the case being that Meredith did not participate in the insurrection.

The magistrate asks why.

Prosecutor: "His car malfunctioned, and he got here late."
Prosecutor:

"The texts speak for themselves."

"Frankly, the evidence that was recovered from his trailer further substantiates his mindset."

Govt exhibit
Prosecutor:

"He acknowledged drug use, even on the night of his offense."

Over the course of 24 hours in the city, Meredith assaulted a resident out of a "road rage issue" and called someone the N-word, the prosecutor adds.

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This article by Jim Spellar for @LabourList misses the point about why Labour needs to think seriously about constitutional reform - and have a programme for it ready for government.


The state of our constitution is a bit like the state of the neglected electric wiring in an old house. If you are moving into the house, sorting it out is a bit tedious. Couldn’t you spend the time and money on a new sound system?

But if you ignore the wiring, you’ll find that you can’t safely install the new sound system. And your house may well catch fire.

Any programme for social democratic government requires a state with capacity, and a state that has clear mechanisms of accountability, for all the big and all the small decisions that in takes, in which people have confidence.

That is not a description of the modern UK state.

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The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.