Gay Insurrectionist Brandon Straka's Plea May Be In Jeopardy
A federal judge is not having the post-sentence behavior of a gay insurrectionist who pled guilty to participating in the January 6 Capitol attack.
U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich questioned Brandon Straka's public comments at a hearing last week, calling them "inconsistent" with what he had stated in court previously, NPR reports."He's losing more and more credibility by the moment," Friedrich said of Straka at the court's hearing via teleconference.Judge Friedrich said that Straka was putting himself at risk of prosecution over potential lies to investigators. "What he needs to appreciate is he is potentially incriminating himself for [18 U.S.
Code Section] 1001 prosecution," Friedrich explained. That reference is to the law against providing "materially false" statements to the government, NPR notes.Friedrich is a Trump-nominated federal judge.
He became agitated discussing Straka's comments."To the extent, he's making claims that are inconsistent with what he said to federal agents, he needs to understand that this definitely is not in his best interest," Friedrich said to the right-wing influencer's attorney Bilal Essayli.When the riot broke out on January 6, Straka filmed on his smartphone while moving with the crowd to the Capitol steps.
