Proud Boy newbie sentenced for role
A once-aspiring Proud Boy from New Jersey was sentenced Friday to two weeks of incarceration for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Lawrence Earl Stackhouse III, 33, of Blackwood, had texted a friend the week before the insurrection asking for an application to join the group. He was wearing a Proud Boys hoodie as he followed the mob past the smashed windows of the Capitol building and through the kicked-in door of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
“I ruined my life with my dumb decisions,” he told U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell during a court hearing in Washington. “I regret getting involved in politics at all. I regret allowing it to fry my brain.”
But Judge Howell showed little sympathy. She balked at Mr. Stackhouse’s explanation that he had no real interest in the Proud Boys and had only been wearing the organization’s regalia because the colors matched the beanie he was wearing that day.
The sentence she imposed — which also included a three-year term of probation, three months of house arrest and $500 in restitution — was less than half the 45day jail term that prosecutors had originally sought.
Navarro enters plea
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro pleaded not guilty in the criminal contempt case against him for defying a subpoena by the congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot.
Mr. Navarro, who appeared Friday in federal court in Washington, entered the plea to both counts the U.S. Justice Department brought against him. One was for declining to appear for a deposition. The other was for refusing to hand over documents in response to a subpoena from the House committee probing the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 and the events leading up to it.
At Friday’s hearing, Mr. Navarro’s attorney, John Irving, asked U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to hold off on setting a trial date. He said Mr. Navarro had just retained legal counsel and also needed time to promote a forthcoming book.
The judge noted a trial coming up of members of the right-wing Oath Keepers and the need to schedule Mr. Navarro’s trial along with others, and tentatively set it for Nov. 17.
Vets leader avoids jail
A Vets for Trump cofounder arrested after driving a Hummer containing weapons and ammunition to a site where votes were being counted in Philadelphia in November 2020 will remain free to await trial despite violating bail conditions.
A judge at a hearing Friday said that Joshua Macias had violated bail conditions through social media posts made under another name.
Common Pleas Judge Lucretia Clemons said she could have revoked bail but instead chose to warn Mr. Macias, 43, of Chesapeake, Va., to “stay off social media.”
Prosecutors say Mr. Macias and co-defendant Antonio LaMotta planned a mass shooting as the presidential election hung in the balance but were thwarted by an FBI tip about their travels.