Like Joe Biggs, the Hughes Brothers Also Conducted a Pincer from the East
There’s a slightly interesting detail in the government’s opposition to Jerod Wade Hughes’ bid to relax his release conditions (in part, to ditch his location monitor) submitted last week. Like Joe Biggs, he was among the first people to enter the Capitol, but then left, walked around the outside, and reentered via the East door right next to the Oath Keeper stack.
Jerod and his brother Joshua Calvin Hughes were arrested in January a few weeks after they identified their own Be On the Lookout pictures to the FBI. They entered the Capitol just after Dominic Pezzola broke open the window.
Jerod then kicked open the door from the inside, allegedly doing more than $1,000 in damage (and so vastly increasing his potential criminal exposure).
The Hughes brothers were then both part of the confrontation that Officer Eugene Goodman lured them into.
Their original January arrest affidavit explained that they “found their way” to the Senate floor.
Upon leaving the atrium, JOSHUA CALVIN HUGHES and JEROD WADE HUGHES found their way onto the Senate floor – which had since been evacuated while this confrontation took place. While on the Senate floor, JOSHUA CALVIN HUGHES, JEROD WADE HUGHES, and other rioters sat in Senators’ chairs, opened Senators’ desks, and reviewed sensitive material stored therein.
An unsuccessful March bid to revoke Jerod’s pretrial release likewise described only that the brothers had made their way to the Senate floor, not how they got there.
Upon leaving the atrium, Defendant JEROD WADE HUGHES and JOSHUA CALVIN HUGHES found their way onto the Senate floor – which had since been evacuated while this confrontation took place.
In April, prosecutors cited texts obtained by exploiting Jerod’s phone suggesting that they had breached the building twice.
Person Four told Defendant that the news coverage suggested that Chansley led rioters into the Capitol, to which Defendant responded “He might have been involved in the front door breach. Didn’t see him when we breached the first time.” Whether or not Defendant re-entered the Capitol as he suggested to Person Four, he did have an image on his phone of he and co-Defendant Joshua Hughes in the senate gallery – indicating that their activity in the Capitol was more extensive than Defendant suggests.
The response submitted last week describes that after leaving the Capitol after the Goodman confrontation, the Hughes brothers (like Biggs) walked around the Capitol only to be among the mob that pushed through on the East side.
The defendant then left the Capitol Building through the northeast Senate Carriage door at approximately 2:18 p.m. As he left the U.S. Capitol building, the defendant likely witnessed several U.S. Capitol Police officers being assaulted by rioters.2
Despite having already been instructed to leave the Capitol building, the defendant instead ignored officer commands and re-entered the Capitol Building through the East Rotunda Door at approximately 2:40 p.m. As he re-entered, the defendant rubbed shoulders with U.S. Capitol Police officers who were actively working to shut the doors that had been broken open by rioters only moments prior.
Prosecutors make no mention of the Oath Keepers (or Biggs), but the image included shows Jerod entered along with the tail end of The Stack.
It’s only at that point that the Hughes brothers went (like Biggs) first to the Senate gallery and then from there to ransack desks on the Senate floor.
The defendant proceeded up the stairs to the third floor of the U.S. Capitol building, where he entered the Senate gallery. He then traveled back downstairs and walked on to the Senate floor, where he remained for approximately two minutes. The defendant eventually left the Capitol Building through the northeast Senate Carriage Door – the same door from which he had previously been ordered to leave – at approximately 2:51 p.m., nearly 40 minutes after he first entered the building.
Months ago, I argued that the QAnoners had the most success at placing bodies where they mattered. But with this new detail of the Hughes’ actions, they appear not only to have matched the QAnon success, but to have done so in concert with two separate organized militias.
I don’t think this was entirely coincidental, and perhaps the Epik breach may yet yield some unofficial confirmation and/or template of the overall plan plus Stone and Bannon being involved in it. I can dream…
I don’t think that this means much in terms of pre-planning. They could easily have heard someone talking about going around to the other side.
That they re-entered at all, though, is not going to help with their sentencing.
You’ve shown that the Hughes brothers were motivated and personally organized enough (maybe “focused” is a better word) to be among the first to get into the building, and clearly knew to go out and around to the other side, to facilitate the double-sided attack. And Jerod did some significant damage in the process, although early on he claimed they did “no vandalism.” Yet, unlike Biggs, et.al. the Hughes brothers remain in pretrial release. I can see that their having turned themselves in within days would be a factor in that. Is another reason that, despite knowing where to go and what to do, they haven’t been tied to any of the bigger conspiracies?
Incineration before trial is supposed to be for those who are a danger to society and for whom no other conditions will suffice.
Not to mention incarceration!
Pre trial sucks, but not quite as a bad as burning alive!
Lol.
😀
Although I prefer pre-trial incineration for some of the insurrectionists, and especially for a few of the as-yet-unindicted co-conspirators, I fear the logistics of such a move would be difficult. The act of incineration would need to be extremely quick, lest it run afoul of the Eighth Amendment. That would almost certainly require either a thermonuclear explosion or a meteor strike.
In regard to pre-trial incarceration, I know that, and you know that, and most certainly bmaz knows it. The Hughes brothers have managed to convince their judge that detention is unnecessary, and, as I said above, it’s obvious that their having turned themselves in was a factor in that decision. My question was whether their apparent lack of involvement with any of the conspiring groups may have also been a factor. And you’ll notice I said “apparent.”
Pre-trial incineration would no doubt violate some environmental regulations. Might require an EPA waiver. 🔥
Ooooo! That too!
Probably counts as toxic waste.
Perhaps, but this is where the Epik breach gets interesting, because almost all of the RWNJ sites banished from other platforms ended up there. So, to your and sub’s point I would not be surprised to find real-time communications now available to mine for info. Preplanning covers part of the job, and it will be interesting as well to see how the four invitees (plus Stone) are documented as well.
Neither would I be surprised. In fact, it’s something I expect, although I’m concerned about how acceptable hacked information would be to a trial judge. But right now it’s just tantalizing speculation.
Somewhat OT. Marcy and others, do you have any ideas why DOJ waited until today to unseal Samuel Lazar’s (Ephrata, PA) indictment and arrest him? From the charges and statement, it looks as though he was definitely a bad actor in this. Sedition Hunters gave him the moniker “Face Paint Blowhard.”