“Team Kennedy” really wants those lunatic MAGAt voters so much so that his campaign sent out an email referring to the J6 terrorists as, “activists” who have been “stripped of their Constitutional liberties.” Now, he’s trying to walk back that statement.
In the appeal sent to supporters, signed by “Team Kennedy,” the campaign called for the exoneration of “political prisoner Julian Assange,” the founder of WikiLeaks, suggesting he and Jan. 6 defendants are victims of prosecutorial abuse.
"This is the reality that every American Citizen faces — from Ed Snowden, to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties. Please help our campaign call out the illiberal actions of our very own government," the fundraising email read. NBC:
After publication of this piece, Kennedy spokesperson Stephanie Spear told NBC News that the language was an “error.”
“That statement was an error that does not reflect Mr. Kennedy’s views. It was inserted by a new marketing contractor and slipped through the normal approval process,” she said.
Kennedy’s email echoes recent comments made by Donald Trump calling January 6th insurrectionists “unbelievable patriots” and “hostages,” despite their attack on the Capitol that injured hundreds of police officers. Trump posed for a photo op at a slain NYPD officer’s funeral wake this week, which outraged the family of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick who was killed on January 6th.
Meet some of the violent Jan. 6 rioters Donald Trump keeps calling ‘hostages’
A NBC News review of hundreds of cases against Jan. 6 defendants found that just 15 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack are currently being held pretrial at the order of federal judges. That number of pretrial detainees has decreased in recent months, as more and more Jan. 6 defendants have taken plea deals or been found guilty, and as federal judges have been hesitant to hold new arrestees in pre-trial custody more than three years after the attack.
More than 1,350 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and prosecutors have secured more than 950 convictions. Low-level defendants routinely receive sentences of probation, but about 500 have received periods of incarceration.
- Two have killed other people in the past, which factored into their detention.
- One is charged with setting off an explosive in a tunnel full of police officers.
- One is charged with firing a weapon.
- One is charged with conspiring to kill the FBI employees who worked on his case, a plot that allegedly unfolded after his initial pretrial release.
