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Prosecutors charge that Pezzola stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6 by breaking a window with the shield of a Capitol police officer, ultimately "allowing the first group of rioters to stream through."In other arrests regarding the Capitol breach:
"The defendant's actions show planning, determination, and coordination," the court documents state. "His stated desire to commit further acts of violence, combined with his access to weapons-and-bomb-making manuals, is extremely concerning."
At the time of Pezzola's arrest on Jan. 15, the FBI executed a search warrant at Pezzola's home and discovered a thumb drive with hundreds of PDF files, including a "significant" sum that "provided detailed instructions for making homemade firearms, poisons, and/or explosives," the court papers state.
Prosecutors are seeking to have the court order the pre-trial detention of Pezzola.
Two Pennsylvania women were arrested Friday for allegedly storming the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 breach and expressing intent to kill Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.Additional threats were forthcoming:
Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith are facing three charges of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
In a Friday affidavit, an FBI special agent described how cellphone footage, apparently filmed by Bancroft, show the pair exiting the Capitol.
"We broke into the Capitol...we got inside, we did our part," Bancroft, who wore a MAGA ski-cap, says in the video. "We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain but we didn't find her."
But when prosecutors interviewed Santos-Smith, who is also depicted in the affidavit wearing a red MAGA baseball cap, on Jan. 20, she denied ever entering the building. They later showed her a video of the two of them in the Capitol, at which point she allegedly admitted she "lied" and said they didn't "have a pre-planned agenda."
Santos-Smith also said that when she and Bancroft approached the Capitol, they heard other pro-Trump supporters yelling, "They're letting us in," which she claimed to interpret as being "allowed" in. Though she and Bancroft tried to enter at various locations, they climbed through a broken window.
Santos-Smith told prosecutors that she "knew that they should not be going inside the building" and alleged that neither of the women entered any offices or either chamber. She claimed the pair of them left "approximately 30 seconds to one minute" after entering the building through the same window they came in.
Bancroft, who took the video, sent the footage to her children but then deleted it and advised them to do the same. She provided the authorities with additional footage and images she took from the day.
Pezzola was later seen on video inside the Capitol with a cigar, having what he called a "victory smoke," and boasting that he "knew we could take this" over. The remarks showed Pezzola "invested a significant personal effort to take over the Capitol and that he did so in coordination with others."
An unidentified witness told the FBI that Pezzola was with a group at the Capitol whose members said they would have killed anyone they got hold of, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, according to prosecutors. The witness added that people in the group said they'd return on the "20th" and kill everyone they could. The presidential inauguration was Jan. 20.
Pezzola, 43, served six years stateside in the Marines as an infantryman and was discharged in 2005 at the rank of corporal, service records show. His lawyer has said his client is self-employed and a family man.
Pepe, 31, was photographed inside the Capitol and later identified as a Metro-North Railroad train yard laborer who had called in sick to go to Washington for a Jan. 6 protest by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to a Jan. 11 criminal court complaint. Pepe, who lives in Beacon in New York's Hudson Valley, has since been suspended without pay from his job at the New York City-area commuter railroad.
These appear to be in contrast to anti-lockdown protests that have been taking place in Israel, usually by Orthodox Jewish settler families...
"The current regulatory environment demands strong compliance leadership, and Henry will play a key role in driving our ongoing commitment to continually strengthen our global compliance and risk management functions."Facebook has faced increasing pressure from lawmakers and other regulators globally on issues of privacy, competition and taxes.
Facebook has reportedly been preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for months, an allegation that the company is forcing developers to follow App Store rules that its own apps don't have to abide by. According to The Information, if Facebook decides to file suit, its complaint could also target Apple's refusal to allow third-party apps from becoming the default messaging service on its devices instead of iMessage. Apple has said that it's bringing in the policy to protect user privacy.Comes around... A West Virginia newspaper publisher is suing both Google and Facebook:
The potential litigation would follow an antitrust suit that Epic Games brought against Apple last year. The developer is seeking changes to Apple's business practices, including its cut of app sales and in-app purchases. Facebook and several other companies joined Epic in criticizing Apple's "unfair" policies.
Like Epic, Facebook could ask for changes to App Store rules rather than monetary damages from Apple. Apple claims its App Store rules reduce the risk of malware and scams.
Recently, WhatsApp accused Apple of having a double standard when it comes to data privacy labels on iOS.
When Facebook reported its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, CFO Dave Wehner suggested that Apple's plan to limit cross-site and cross-app tracking for advertising purposes, which should come into effect early this year, could have an impact on ad revenue.
Zuckerberg took a swing at iMessage for storing "non-end-to-end encrypted backups of your messages by default unless you disable iCloud." He claimed that WhatsApp was "clearly superior" when it comes to protecting people's messages.
The Federal Trade Commission and most state attorneys general sued Facebook last month. They accused it of anti-competitive practices by scooping up rival companies Instagram and WhatsApp and hope to undo those acquisitions. Apple, meanwhile, is the subject of a European Union antitrust investigation and is reportedly part of another probe by the Department of Justice.
A West Virginia news publisher has filed an antitrust suit against Google and Facebook, who together receive roughly half of all digital ad dollars in the U.S. and are facing antitrust charges from federal and state authorities. The company, HD Media, owns several papers in the state, including the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington and the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
HD Media claims Google has so monopolized the online ad market that "it threatens the extinction of local newspapers across the country." The suit also alleges that Google and Facebook conspired to further their dominance with a secret agreement, referring to a suit filed by 10 Republican attorneys general in December.
The company claims it has hurt its ability to "effectively monetize its content" because Google is enabled to take an uncompetitive share of the news publisher's ad revenues.
It's the first antitrust lawsuit against a tech platform focused on news publishing, said David Chavern, head of the news trade group News Media Alliance.
HD Media filed in federal court in West Virginia and asked for a jury trial.
Comment: Sadly, they're soon going to learn that the stock market, like the ballot box, will forevermore be stacked against them. This GameStop Rebellion is - and will hopefully continue to be - great fun, for a while, but we're in the Age of Tyranny now, and pathocrats HATE being made fun of.
On CNBC talking-head Sorkin's palaver about r/WallStreetBets investors 'hurting pension funds that invest through hedge funds', commentator Louis Rossmann has reported on the fact that the day traders' 'reckless activity' has so far saved at least one major pension fund: