Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jerome Corsi uses a June 10 WorldNetDaily article to tell a one-sided story:
The U.S. attorney who warned last week that “inflammatory speech” against Islam could violate civil-rights laws was the prosecutor who brought firearms charges against a Navy veteran who challenged the validity of President Obama’s birth certificate.
[...]
The Navy veteran, Darren Huff, came on the federal government’s radar in 2010 when another Navy veteran living in Tennessee, Walt Fitzpatrick, attempted to file criminal actions in court charging President Obama with treason. The veterans claimed Obama assumed the presidency while refusing to prove he was born in Hawaii by presenting to the American public a 1961 original long-form Hawaii birth certificate that could be independently authenticated by court-recognized document experts.
According to the Department of Justice website, Huff, on April 20, 2010, traveled from his home in Dallas, Ga., to Madisonville, Tenn., upset at the refusal of the grand jury in Monroe County, Tenn., to indict Obama for treason. He allegedly carried with him a .45 caliber handgun and an AK-47 with ammunition for both weapons and subsequently was arrested.
“Huff told people that day that he had 300-400 rounds of ammunition with the AK-47,” the DOJ website said. “During a traffic stop by a Tennessee State Trooper on his way to Madisonville, Huff stated, ‘I’ve got my .45 because ain’t no government official gonna go peacefully.’”
Huff was sentenced in U.S. District court to serve four years in prison following a criminal conviction for transporting firearms across state lines with the intent to cause a civil disorder. He currently has currently some 22 months of his prison sentence.
Sharon Rondeau, editor of The Post and Email, who has reported on the case since 2010, contends Huff was framed.
“Huff was stopped by the Tennessee state police trooper for allegedly running a stop sign on his way to Madisonville on April 20, 2010, and was allowed to continue on his way after locking his legally-owned firearms in his truck toolbox,” Rondeau argued in an email to WND.
“Huff arrived in Madisonville unarmed and had lunch at a restaurant, then returned home uneventfully. No one was arrested or named as having carried a gun into town that day. Surprisingly, he was arrested ten days later on two federal firearms charges. There has been no police footage showing that Huff was doing anything wrong. There were no plots or accomplices. It was all fabricated by the government.”
The Post and Email is a very birther-friendly website, so it makes sense that Corsi would trust it without question. Because Corsi has chosen to trust such a clearly biased source, he leaves out certain pertinent details.
As we detailed the last time WND came to Huff's defense, Talking Points Memo reported that Huff had intended to take over a county courthouse in Tennessee and conduct citizens arrests on local judges and politicians. Since he clearly declared his violent intent, whether or not he actually carried it out is irrelevant, because declared intent to carry out a violent act is itself a crime. Huff was convicted of transporting firearms across state lines with the intent to cause a civil disorder, which is clearly what he did.
Corsi also writes:
Rondeau said Huff “was framed by an FBI agent’s affidavit which was based only on hearsay evidence emanating from unnamed Monroe County officials; by members of The Fogbow, who called in false threats to the Madisonville mayor that Huff had planned to ‘take over the courthouse’ on April 20, 2010; and a massive deployment of FBI, local police, sheriffs’ departments, TBI, a SWAT team and snipers present on April 20.”
That is a demonstrable lie. Huff was not "framed" on "hearsay evidence," but due largely to a video of the traffic stop in whcih he stated his intent:
Jurors also heard at length from Huff thanks to a dashboard camera video taken after he was stopped and given a warning for driving too closely. In the tape, Huff chatted for an hour about religion and guns with officers, volunteering many details about what he was planning to do in Tennessee.
"I like y'all," Huff told the officers in the recording.
He said he was motivated to go to Madisonville by Walter Fitzpatrick, a Navy retiree who has had a beef against the federal government since he faced a court martial decades ago.
Fitzpatrick was facing charges in the eastern Tennessee town about halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga because he tried to use a citizen's arrest warrant to take into custody local officials who wouldn't pursue a legal case to oust Obama. Fitzpatrick's warrant called the local officials "domestic enemies" and Obama an "illegal alien, infiltrator and impostor."
Huff said in the video that he and others were ready to help carry out the citizen's arrests Fitzpatrick wanted.
"I've got my .45 because ain't no government official gonna go peacefully," Huff told the police.
Corsi describes Huff only as a "Navy veteran," but he fails to mention that Huff is also a member of a militia-style called Oath Keepers (which WND has insisted is not a militia).
(Corsi also fails to mention, as Wonkette did, that according to the FBI’s “Returned Property” document, the items that were given back to Huff after his arrest included a "one (1) pink dildo with remote," "one (1) DVD containing pornographic material 'Tranny Hunter'," "four (4) condoms," and "one (1) bottle of KY Gel.")
Following up on Rondeau's mention of the Fogbow -- an anti-birther message board -- Corsi writes:
Radical Obama supporters known by their critics as “Obots,” or “Obama Robots,” bragged that some of their colleagues had worked behind the scene to inflame the Huff case. The operatives fed to law enforcement authorities concerns that Fitzgerald and Huff were not patriotic veterans concerned about the Constitution, but right-wing radicals who aimed to incite armed rebellion or acts of violence against the government.
In June 2011, WND reported that William L. Bryan, posting under the username “PJ Foggy,” had created the pro-Obama website Fogbow.com. On the site, various Obots bragged that they promoted Obama birth certificate documents known to be fraudulent.
They also boasted they were responsible for having some 100 armed law enforcement officers, including FBI and DHS agents along with state and local police, present in Madisonville, Tenn., on April 20, 2010, prepared to imagine Fitzgerald and Huff were arriving to implement an armed insurrection.
P.J. Foggy posted on the Fogbow.com website a self-introduction in which he claimed, “We’re the ones who got more than 100 cops ready for Cdr. Walt Fitzpatrick, when he showed up on April 20 with a group of armed men who thought they’d take over the Monroe County courthouse.
Fogbow members have spent a lot of time pointing out Corsi's lies and shoddy reporting. Perhaps that's why Corsi considers them "radical."
What does all of this have to do with criticizing Obama supposedly being punishable? Nothing, really, aside from that silly grand jury that wouldn't indict Obama for treason. As we've previously noted, Fitzpatrick was mostly upset that the same guy has been heading the county's grand jury for 27 years (and wouldn't indict Obama for treason, as if such a claim by a county-level court would be legally binding).
No, Mr. Corsi, Huff and Fitzpatrick weren't punished for criticizing Obama. They were punished for expressing threats of violence and interfering with the government.
