You’d suppose White Home deputy chief of employees Stephen Miller’s plate can be full, what with cosplaying Slenderman and making an attempt to cowl up his ever-receding hairline. You’d additionally suppose he’d be pleased, as his lifetime dedication to xenophobia and racism is lastly paying off because the Trump administration gears as much as deport tens of millions.
White Home deputy chief of employees Stephen Miller
However Miller is just not pleased since you individuals gained’t cease whining about how Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to a Salvadorean jail, is entitled to due course of. You recognize who didn’t get due course of, in response to Miller? The Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
Right here’s Miller over at X, Elon Musk’s Nazi bar: “If you were an American falsely accused of wrongdoing on January 6th it wasn’t merely difficult to get ‘due process,’ it was impossible. The entire system was rigged against you. All of it. Those persecuted Americans could only dream of the ‘due process’ afforded illegal aliens.”
Hoo boy. The place to even begin? Let’s rely the myriad ways in which the kidnapping of Abrego Garcia is just not remotely much like something that occurred to the Jan. 6 rioters.
1. The Jan. 6 rioters have been really charged with crimes.
Abrego Garcia was deported regardless of there being no expenses in opposition to him. The Trump administration has already admitted he was deported in error, a factor they’re now making an attempt to stroll again. In distinction, the Jan. 6 insurrectionists have been criminally charged as a part of the biggest investigation in FBI historical past. That investigation led to the arrest of at the least 1,583 individuals.
That’s not proof of some nefarious plot to deprive the insurrectionists of due course of. In reality, it’s the other. There have been roughly 10,000 individuals on the Capitol grounds that day, that means almost 85% of the rioters by no means even confronted arrest, a lot much less a trial or a conviction or a deportation.
2. The insurrectionists received trials and plea offers.
Out of these 1,583 arrests, 1,270 have been convicted, with 1,009, or 79%, pleading responsible. 200 twenty-one of the Jan. 6 defendants have been convicted after a trial, with a further 40 convicted after stipulated trials, the place a defendant admits to info with out agreeing they represent a criminal offense. That variety of plea offers may appear excessive, however it’s decrease than the everyday price in federal courts, the place 89.5% of defendants pleaded responsible in fiscal 12 months 2022.
Abrego Garcia has not been arrested. He has not been convicted. He didn’t get to have a trial. He didn’t get to make a plea deal. He was deported illegally, and the administration refuses to carry him again. Miller is aware of full properly these items aren’t remotely comparable.
3. No person manufactured proof in opposition to the Jan. 6 criminals.
It’s not simply that Trump posted a doctored {photograph}, photoshopping “MS-13” onto Abrego Garcia’s knuckles. There’s additionally White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s now-routine behavior of straight-up mendacity to justify the administration’s actions. Earlier this month, Leavitt referred to as Abrego Garcia a “leader” of MS-13, however when requested to supply particulars, couldn’t be bothered, saying, “There’s a lot of evidence, and the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have that evidence, and I saw it this morning.”
Final week, Leavitt accused Abrego Garcia of being detained on suspicion of human trafficking, when the truth was that he was stopped for rushing and veering out of his lane.
In distinction, there was no must manufacture proof in opposition to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. A whole bunch of them filmed themselves rioting on the Capitol. Loads bragged about it on social media. And, after all, the nation watched all the things unfold in actual time.
4. Many Jan. 6 rioters already had prison information.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, proper, speaks with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
No less than 159 convicted insurrectionists had earlier prison information. We’re not speaking one thing like jaywalking right here. NPR discovered that dozens had expenses or convictions for critical crimes like manslaughter, rape, drug trafficking, home violence, sexual assault of a minor, and manufacturing of kid sexual abuse materials.
Abrego Garcia has no prison document in the US or El Salvador. He was arrested as soon as in 2019 by a now-disgraced cop who later pleaded responsible to misconduct. That cop’s proof for Abrego Garcia’s membership in MS-13? He had a Chicago Bulls cap, which the officer stated was “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.” After all, it’s additionally indicative of liking the Chicago Bulls, which isn’t really a criminal offense.
5. The Supreme Courtroom gave a whole bunch of the Jan. 6 rioters a bit deal with.
Roughly 350 of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists have been charged beneath a federal prison legislation that makes it a felony to hinder official proceedings. You’d suppose {that a} riot that attempted to dam the certification of electoral votes and despatched members of Congress into hiding would rely as an obstruction of an official continuing, however you’d be mistaken. In 2024, the Supreme Courtroom dominated that the supply utilized solely to proof tampering, not rioting.
Enjoyable reality: This was additionally {one of the} expenses in opposition to Trump, not that it issues anymore.
6. Republicans have been very involved about jail circumstances for the insurrectionists.
Led by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican members of Congress made a 2023 pilgrimage to see 20 insurrectionists housed on the D.C. jail. Greene howled a few “two-tier justice system” and declared the 20 have been “political prisoners,” which is identical nonsense pushed by Trump. These weren’t individuals who have been being persecuted for his or her beliefs. And 17 of these 20 have been charged with assaulting legislation enforcement officers.
Greene additionally ostentatiously anxious in regards to the circumstances on the jail, saying that inmates had been threatened and denied medical care. She’s right that circumstances on the jail have been dangerous for a very long time, however her ardour for truthful therapy of the incarcerated extends solely to Jan. 6 protesters.
In relation to Abrego Garcia’s wrongful imprisonment in a notoriously violent international jail, Greene’s stance is that it’s “dangerously close to treason” for individuals to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s return. So, it’s treason to demand that the federal government comply with the legal guidelines and provides Abrego Garcia the due course of to which he’s entitled, however it’s not treason to attempt to overturn an election with violence. Bought it.
7. The Jan. 6 rioters had Trump of their nook.
On the marketing campaign path in 2024, Trump made no secret of the truth that if he have been elected, he’d pardon the rioters, who he stated have been “hostages.” He confirmed up at fundraisers on their behalf. He described the violence perpetrated by his supporters as a show of “spirit and faith and love,” and stated he’d by no means seen something like “the love in the air” that day.
Trump was so smitten that he joined the Washington, D.C. jail inmates in music, kind of. Trump recited the “Pledge of Allegiance,” which was then layered over the “J6 Prison Choir” singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” FBI Director Kash Patel produced this monstrosity, however when he was requested about it throughout his affirmation hearings, he all of a sudden couldn’t recall a factor about his involvement.
8. The Jan. 6 insurrectionists have been pardoned.
One among Trump’s first official acts of 2025 was to pardon his merry band of treasonists, together with individuals who had violently assaulted cops. So, not solely did they obtain all of the due course of owed to them as prison defendants, however in addition they acquired the reward of a clear slate.
For some defendants, that clear slate was extra-generous. A number of had been charged with extra, unrelated crimes, reminiscent of weapons expenses, that turned up throughout investigations into their actions on Jan. 6. In at the least seven circumstances, the DOJ then argued that Trump’s pardon coated the unrelated crimes, because the crime wouldn’t have been found however for the Jan. 6 investigation. Fairly the deal!
9. The rioters weren’t shipped off to a most safety jail in El Salvador.
Apart from the half the place they’re now not burdened with any prison expenses, the Jan. 6 rioters are, properly, right here. They weren’t transported to El Salvador at the hours of darkness. They’re not being stored in El Salvador in defiance of a Supreme Courtroom order. And in contrast to what the White Home is saying about Abrego Garcia, senior officers within the Biden administration didn’t mock Jan. 6 prisoners and brag that they have been by no means coming residence.
It’s actually unclear what extra due course of Miller thinks the Jan. 6 defendants ought to have acquired. His actual criticism is that he doesn’t imagine they need to have ever been charged, whatever the proof. In relation to Abrego Garcia, nonetheless, Miller doesn’t imagine in due course of in any respect.
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