January 6 Rioters Claim They Were “Punished,” Demand Restitution

A group of defendants prosecuted for their actions in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection are suing the federal government, claiming that their rights were violated. 

One defendant, Lisa Eisenhart, claims that she was “targeted, arrested, prosecuted, and punished because of her constitutionally protected expressive and associational activity as a member of the protesters who gathered at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”  

That claim belies the fact that the January 6 rioters did more than just exercise their First Amendment rights. Police officers were assaulted, windows were broken, congressional property was stolen, and offices in the Capitol were extensively vandalized. 

Eisenhart, a former nurse from Georgia who wore a tactical vest that day, got further inside the Capitol than most of her fellow rioters, and allegedly encouraged rioters to fight with police. She was joined by her son, Eric Munchel, a Nashville, Tennessee, bartender who became known as “zip-tie guy” because he was carrying plastic wrist restraints that he likely took from a police checkpoint inside the building. He also was wearing black tactical gear. 

Munchel was sentenced to 57 months in prison, while Eisenhart got 30 months. In her lawsuit, she says that the federal government, “through retaliatory prosecution, discriminatory detention practices, deliberate indifference to plaintiff’s health and safety, and other unlawful conduct…violated [her] constitutional rights and caused severe physical, emotional, reputational, and economic injury.”

President Trump ended up pardoning every single January 6 participant shortly after he was sworn into office in 2025, including Eisenhart and her son. But now, she and other January 6 rioters are demanding money and restitution. Evidently facing consequences for their actions was a step too far.

President Donald Trump once again struggled to keep his eyes open Monday, just moments after unveiling a plan to build a new $15 billion steel plant in eastern Iowa.

As Energy Secretary Chris Wright launched into an explanation of the administration’s industrialization agenda and new partnership with Mesabi Metallics, Trump’s eyes shut and his head drooped forward.

Rewant Ruia, the chairman of Mesabi, expressed his excitement about the project, while Trump kept his eyes closed and neck slack. As Ruia spoke, Trump angled his face toward the executive, but his eyelids continued to flutter open and closed.

When answering questions from reporters, Trump sounded truly exhausted. The president’s responses were quiet and short, and his speech was slurred.

In addition to falling asleep during some major announcements, Trump has also appeared to nod off during signing ceremonies, Cabinet meetings, Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, and the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon, to name a few.

For years, Trump’s entourage has boasted about the president’s supposedly endless supply of energy, but over the course of his first two years back in office, the president has repeatedly exhibited bizarre conduct in the public eye. Not only does that include taking naps during public events, but also erratic behavior, slurred speech, appearing lost or disoriented, and sporting mysterious bruises. Trump’s behavior has spurred calls for health examinations from medical experts, politicians, and voters fearful of the president’s apparent cognitive decline.

President Trump had an even more extreme plan to restrict mail-in voting before the Supreme Court intervened, according to reporting from ProPublica.

Several sources familiar with the plan told ProPublica that Trump planned to require all ballots to be delivered through certified mail. That means anyone who wanted to vote by mail would be required to personally sign to receive their ballots—potentially penalizing the voting rights of millions of Americans simply for not being home.

This was a core tenet of one of the earlier versions of the president’s restrictive executive order, which was blocked by the Supreme Court in August. The final version omitted the certified mail requirement, instead simply requiring the U.S. Postal Service to vet mail-in voters through a massive national database.

The certified mail rule was given up on after internal opposition from postal service officials. The rule would have deputized postal workers, ultimately giving them the final decision as to who should and shouldn’t get a ballot based on whether or not they answered the door to sign for their ballot. For some reason, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would have had control over the effort.

This comes in the wake of reports that Postmaster General David Steiner wants to resign, as he seems unwilling to be at the center of Trump’s baseless election fraud crusade ahead of November midterms.

House Speaker Mike Johnson cares so little about Americans that he’s pretending that public opinion is really the result of brainwashing by the Chinese government.

Speaking on Fox Business Monday, Johnson agreed with host Cheryl Casone’s assertion that the public pushback to artificial intelligence data centers was “coming from China” and being seized on by Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

“This is what Democrats do. Every election cycle they find something to glom onto and say that this is doom and gloom and everyone will die if we don’t win,” Johnson said. “Don’t buy it. This is a Chinese psyop. I really believe that. That’s not a conspiracy theory.”

Both Chinese and Russian actors have reportedly tried to inflame public discourse around AI data centers. Jessica Brandt, a former official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who tracked foreign influence efforts during the Biden administration, previously told The New York Times that this doesn’t make Americans’ concerns any less real.

“Foreign actors aren’t manufacturing American debates over the future of AI, they are exploiting them,” Brandt told the Times, adding that the objective was to “deepen our divisions in order to dent our appeal and weaken us from within.”

Nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose data center construction in their communities, while half believe that the construction of new data centers is a bad thing for the country, according to a recent YouGov poll.

The results of that public opinion have been tangible. Over the past six months, the United States has seen a massive mobilization against data centers. Nearly 120 projects valued at an estimated $198 billion were blocked or delayed as states and communities nationwide imposed moratoriums on data center development, according to Data Center Watch.

Johnson has made it pretty clear that he’s not willing to have any daylight with President Donald Trump, an outspoken supporter of the AI industry. Meanwhile, in the Louisiana Republican’s home state, Amazon and Meta plan to spend a combined $72 billion on the construction of new AI data centers. A local health official warned that the projects threaten to increase the harmful toxic exposure from gas-fired plants required to power them.

For all their browbeating about election fraud, it turns out that Donald Trump’s MAGA acolytes aren’t following election laws.

Gaea Powell, a Moms for Liberty activist and loyal Trump supporter who ran for the clerk-recorder position in San Luis Obispo County, California, earlier this year, is facing up to eight years in prison after she was found guilty on nine counts of election fraud last week. That included lying about her place of residence, unlawfully registering to vote, and fraudulently voting, according to SFGate.

The charges stemmed from Powell’s previous bids for high office, when she ran for mayor of Arroyo Grande in 2022 and 2024. At the time, Powell campaigned on some of Trump’s own election conspiracy talking points, honing in on the “integrity of local elections.”

Yet at the same time, Powell had lied to local officials about her true place of residence. In campaign filings—and under penalty of perjury—she swore that she lived inside the Arroyo Grande city limits, as required of local mayoral candidates. She did not.

Powell also failed to follow local laws regarding campaign earnings above $2,000. On June 30, 2022, Powell pledged that she did not intend to raise or spend more than that sum. Then she took an “active role” in raising and spending more than that on campaign mailers, without notifying local officials, according to a press release by the district attorney’s office.

Despite the jury verdict (and just like the president), Powell has refused to acknowledge the evidence or admit wrongdoing.

“I respect the jury’s role. But I am deeply disappointed by today’s verdict,” Powell said in a statement obtained by the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “I have maintained from the beginning, and I maintain today, that I did not knowingly deceive anyone and did not act with fraudulent intent.”

She still intends to appeal the verdict.

“I may have lost this battle. But this is not the end of the legal fight,” Powell continued. “I intend to pursue every appropriate post-trial remedy and to appeal this case. And just as importantly, another chapter is only beginning.”