For the second time this year, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney has claimed that the Department of Justice is “selectively” charging White supremacists and not prosecuting “far-left extremist groups, such as Antifa.”
Tyler Laube, 27, pleaded guilty to “punching a journalist at a pro-Trump rally in 2017.” Carney sentenced Tyler Laube to time served, his 35 days in pretrial custody.
In his plea agreement, Laube admitted to associating with members of the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which represented itself as a “combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement.” …
Laube admitted to attending a combat training event in San Clemente on March 15, 2017. Later that month, on March 25, Laube, who was on probation for an armed robbery, and several other RAM members attended the Huntington Beach rally, organized by Trump supporters.
Laube assaulted Frank Tristan, who was covering the rally for the Orange County Weekly. According to the then editor, “Tristan was being beat up by someone else [when] Laube rushed him, grabbed him by the jacket and pummeled his head and face.”
The prior case is related
In February, Carney dismissed charges against White supremacists Robert Rundo and Robert Boman; they had been charged with conspiracy to violate the Anti-Riot Act and rioting. Carney claimed the Anti-Riot Act, under which they were charged, was “unconstitutionally over-broad.”
Rundo “is alleged to be a founding member” of RAM. Rundo fled the country to escape prosecution; the U.S. extradited him from Romania, according to the LA Times.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals immediately blocked Carney’s release order. They also determined parts of the Anti-Riot Act were constitutional.
Laube, Rundo and Boman were initially charged in 2018.
Then, as last week, Carney has railed against unequal prosecution. Just south of his court, in San Diego, state prosecutors are wrapping up “the first ever prosecution alleging an ‘antifa’ conspiracy.”
Carney’s background is checkered
President George W. Bush nominated Carney to the federal bench, the Los Angeles-based Central District of California, on January 7, 2003.
Carney objected to Covid-19 restrictions on trials and dropped five criminal cases for lack of “speedy” trial. The 9th Circuit Appeals Court disagreed. Again.
Carney served as Chief Judge of the Central District of California from June 1, 2020 – June 26, 2020. He stepped down due to racially charged remarks to a 35-year employee of the court. He told Kiry K. Gray, the top clerk and executive for the courts, “it was not like I was the police officer standing on your neck.” The Central District of California is the largest federal court jurisdiction in the country.
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