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Brandon Fellows Demands Positive Reinforcement as an Accused Criminal, Before Confessing to More Crimes

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In a bond hearing yesterday, January 6er Brandon Fellows explained that he was on a mountain where he went to pray when the FBI came looking for him, but then his bus (in which he lived at the time) got stuck in a ditch. True or not, the claim is an apt metaphor for Fellows, who seems to be little more than a big-Trump narcissist stuck in a little-Trump life.

Fellows kept repeating a number of phrases to blame others for his woes in the hearing. “Not to throw anyone under a bus,” he’d say as he introduced some new claim about someone — all women as far as I could tell — who did him wrong. “It’s unfair,” he said over and over, as he offered some implausible excuse for why he was unable to meet release conditions that hundreds of other January 6 defendants, to say nothing of those prosecuted at disparate rates, could manage. He has made, “constant improvement,” in compliance with his release conditions he claimed, describing that by the time bail was revoked he was breaking fewer requirements at a lesser rate. He responds better to “positive reinforcement.”

Part way into the hearing, he even introduced that observation by citing what Fellows vaguely remembered was an article on Canada’s positive policing approach, and said he thought the US should adopt that approach. “I respond a lot more positively to positive reinforcement.”

He surely didn’t know it, but he was effectively adopting the goals of the Defund the Police movement, which he had seemed to attack in a partisan screed with which he launched his statements and returned to during his close. “January 6 has been a gaslighting tool by the opposition,” he said of an Administration supported by both the Electoral College and Popular Majority, though the claim seemed to arise from a belief there are two tribes in the US locked in combat. “I’m not like the Taliban and neither are other January 6ers.” He almost immediately moved on to ask to be treated like people sent to Gitmo since, he claimed, Joe Biden had freed all of them.

Along the way, though, Fellows admitted to virtually all the allegations that got his bail revoked. “Yeah, I did question [the pretrial service officers] rudely, are your hormones okay, disrespectfully,” he admitted. Yeah, he did call the mother of his pretrial services officer rather than the probation office.

Yes, he did indeed contact the wife of a judge presiding over a New York State case. He explained he was told there was a “loophole,” such that if a defendant had contact with a judge’s family, the judge had to recuse, resulting in a new judge taking the case. Fellows not only admitted doing that in New York, but he admitted he had proposed doing the same with Judge McFadden, only to have his then defense attorney, Cara Halverson, tell him that would get him arrested.  “You did not find a loophole, Brandon,” Fellows relayed what had been a privileged discussion,”I promise you, if you do this with Judge McFadden, you will be arrested.”

Sure enough, when McFadden announced his decision denying Fellows’ motion, the Trump appointee observed that it sounded like Fellows had obstructed justice in New York and had considered doing so in DC to disqualify him, McFadden.

After admitting to trying to game the process to pick his own judges, Fellows made a bigger mistake. He claimed, first, that he had a Tik Tok video proving — and later claimed there must be CCTV video not yet turned over to him showing — that a police officer had told him it was okay to enter the Capitol, so long as he “stopped at the statues.” In doing so, Fellows predictably opened himself to cross-examination about his actions on January 6.

On cross-examination, Mona Furst started and ended by getting him to accede that he had, in fact, committed the violations that had gotten his bail revoked, though most times, Fellows claimed that, “you’re missing lots of context” (citing things like his attempt to test the judge loophole and his inoperational phone), claiming that Furst was “lying by omission” every time she didn’t include his excuses for his own actions. After getting him to concede to virtually all the allegations that had gotten his bail revoked, Furst then turned to his claims he made about his arrest and the riot itself. The lawyer whose advice he claimed he followed when he wrapped his phone in tinfoil and put it on a candy rack next to the Kit Kats, was someone whose name he didn’t remember, who claimed to be a Constitutional lawyer and who had a radio show, his conversations with whom were filmed by a French film crew. Furst asked about his claimed jailhouse interactions with Zach Alam (the guy who broke the window through which Ashli Babbitt jumped) and whether Fellows was, in fact, claiming that Alam was Antifa. Furst got the name of Tighe Berry on the record, so she could compare Fellows’ claims about Berry’s serial Code Pink protests with the actual record.

Then Furst drilled down on Fellows’ claim that a cop told him he could enter the Capitol, so long as he didn’t go past the statues. After getting Fellows to describe precisely where he remembered that conversation happened, she then asked who told Fellows it was okay to climb into the Capitol through a broken window. Fellows responded by saying a longer camera angle would prove he was worried about going in. “What officer told you it was okay to climb in a broken window,” Furst persisted in response.

Furst closed her cross-examination by getting Fellows to, again, concede that the reason his bail had been revoked was that he missed a mental health appointment.

It was even worse than all that. Check out my live tweet for details of how Fellows attempted to call his former defense attorney, Halverson, to attest to his wishes to provide more of the excuses that he had in this hearing. Fellows made up some conspiracy theory about the CIPA filing he is getting, claiming that a National Security Advisor (really, an AUSA) was secretly charging him; McFadden assured Fellows that he had not gotten additional secret charges. Fellows admitted he cried when he got his GPS bracelet put on. He explained, “I smile because I don’t like to show my weaknesses.”

Predictably, Fellows even admitted that he thought it was a stupid decision to go pro se, but he felt at the time it would offer a way to get out of jail.

I did not want to go pro se. I feel like it was a stupid decision. I felt like I had to get out. A lot of ill treatment in jail [from people] who are not Jan 6ers. I would like opportunity to show the court, positive reinforcement, that I can follow the rules.

It was a stupid decision.

McFadden confirmed Furst’s contention that he had given Fellows this hearing even though he was not legally entitled to it, but that he had been permitted to do what, on afterthought, he had wanted to do earlier, testify. McFadden predictably denied Fellows’ motion to reconsider the bail determination, and established a record to note that he has detained defendants — naming Timothy Hale-Cusanelli — who (like Fellows) did not engage in violence on January 6. He described having given Fellows three chances to avoid jailing, which (McFadden claimed) he had never done before. Most importantly, McFadden mocked Fellows’ expressed preference for “positive reinforcement” and judged that Fellows had shown “contempt” to the criminal justice system and the court.

I understand it would have been nicer to get positive reinforcement. This is not community college. You’re facing serious felonies.

[snip]

You engaged in pattern that shows contempt to criminal justice system, to the court. I have no confidence you would follow my orders.

McFadden went on to opine that, in fact Fellows probably had obstructed justice in New York and considered doing so in this case.

The performance of Brandon Fellows yesterday exhibited every single one of Donald Trump’s worst traits. Consistently, he has tried to con his way both into and out of problems. When his own actions were described to be illegal or improper, he claimed it was fake news, and attacked others for failing to present his preferred “context.” And ultimately, he believed that if he could just tell his story himself, he’d be able to con his audience that he was just unfairly accused.

While McFadden has recognized how the January 6 attack has delegitimized democracy, he has also expressed a good deal of skepticism about the equity of the treatment of defendants as compared to other rioters. As he noted, he gave Fellows three chances to fuck up.

But McFadden also takes the authority of the court very, very seriously. And Brandon Fellows just made a mockery of it. This was an instance where McFadden saw, in his courtroom, how much bullshit is flying about January 6 and the aftermath.

Felipe Marquez’ Plugged-In Misdemeanor Guilty Plea

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Seven January 6 defendants are known to have pled guilty on Friday:

  • (Reportedly, though it hasn’t been docketed yet) Terry Brown, the last of a group of people arrested in the Capitol Visitor’s Center the day of the riot to plead out
  • Brandon Harrison and Douglas Wangler, who traveled to DC from Illinois together and, after Trump’s rally, walked to the Capitol and entered the East door after the Oath Keepers had already done so; they saw a pile of wood on the floor when they entered
  • Brandon and Stephanie Miller, an Ohio couple who bragged about witnessing history on Facebook
  • Cleveland Meredith Jr, who showed up — armed, but late — to insurrection but made credible threats against Nancy Pelosi (and did something else that remains sealed)
  • Felipe Marquez, who drove his Tesla Model 3 from Miami and claimed while inside the Capitol that, “we only broke some windows”

The Meredith plea — the only one that wasn’t a misdemeanor trespassing plea — was pretty interesting because his prosecutors still haven’t revealed the substance of some sealed filings that will be taken into consideration at sentencing. Plus, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was threatened by Roger Stone and some Proud Boys two years before they teamed up to set off an attack on the Capitol, seemed unimpressed with Meredith’s claims that his threats against Pelosi weren’t all that serious.

But the Marquez plea may be more interesting over time. At the very least, that’s because he may mark a decision by DOJ to let edge obstruction defendants plead down to 18 USC 1752, the more serious of the two misdemeanor trespassing charges.

As I’ve laid out repeatedly, DOJ has used 18 USC 1512(c)(2), part of the crime of obstruction, to charge those who allegedly expressed the clear intent to prevent the vote certification with a felony. Upwards of 200 people, total, have been charged with obstruction, including Marquez. But among those charged with obstruction, there’s a great range of actions taken on January 6. Those charged include those who participated in a conspiracy — like Graydon Young and Josiah Colt, Jacob Chansley, who left ominous comments for Mike Pence on his dais seat and blew off repeated orders to vacate the Senate Chamber, and Paul Hodgkins, who brought his Trump flag to the Senate floor but left when the cops instructed him to.

I laid out here how Hodgkins, after he was the first to plead guilty, was sentenced to 8 months in prison after getting a three level enhancement for significantly obstructing the vote certification. But since that happened, at least ten different defendants have challenged this application of obstruction, posing difficult decisions for a number of judges.

Indeed, in the last several days, a number of defendants charged with obstruction have explicitly waived Speedy Trial rights to await the outcome of these challenges. That’s going to create a backlog in the already enormous logjam of January 6 defendants.

So I wonder whether DOJ will begin let the edge 1512 cases plead down to 1752. Particularly given judges’ apparent willingness to jail the misdemeanor defendants, for defendants not given a “significant obstruction” enhancement like Hodgkins got, the sentencing guideline is not that different, with up to a year available under 1752 (and probation after that), versus a range of 8 to 14 months on obstruction (that in reality might be closer to 3 to 8 months). The primary (but nevertheless significant) difference would be the felony conviction.

To be clear, Marquez is not the first to plead down like this. Eliel Rosa pled to the less serious trespass charge, 40 USC 5104 after being charged with obstruction, but there may have been evidentiary reasons DOJ agreed to do that, and as an immigrant from Brazil, he risks deportation after his sentence in any case. Karl Dresch was charged with obstruction but pled to 5104 after serving six months in pre-trial confinement. Kevin Cordon, who was charged with obstruction but pled guilty at the same time as his brother — who was charged only with trespassing — pled to 1752 instead of obstruction, just like Marquez did.

In other words, in cases where there are other circumstances that make such a plea worthwhile to DOJ, they’re certainly willing to consider it.

Still, it’s possible that Marquez represents a shift on DOJ’s part to do that for more defendants, as part of an effort to avoid a big backlog pending the review of the 1512 charge.

Or, maybe not.

There were several other details of Marquez’ plea hearing of interest. The hearing started by talking about some kind of pretrial violation (possibly some kind of non-arrest run-in with law enforcement), which led to two new conditions being added to Marquez’s release, a mental health evaluation and a specific requirement to alert the government of any contact with law enforcement. That’s not how plea hearings usually start, but AUSA Jeffrey Nestler reaffirmed that DOJ wanted to go forward anyway. Judge Rudolph Contreras even asked whether the request for mental health evaluation raised questions about Marquez’ competency to plead guilty, though neither his attorney, Cara Halverson, nor Nestler, had any concerns about that.

Nestler, by the way, is one of the key prosecutors on the omnibus Oath Keeper case, and ably defended DOJ’s application of obstruction in that case in a hearing on Wednesday. Aside from that large group and cooperating Oath Keeper witness Caleb Berry, the only other January 6 case, besides Marquez’, that he is prosecuting is that of Guy Reffitt, who has ties to the 3%ers.

In addition to the oddities in Marquez’ plea hearing, there’s something not in his plea agreement that is standard boilerplate for all the plea agreements thus far: a cooperation paragraph. That paragraph is not a full cooperation agreement; rather, it simply requires the defendant to agree to be debriefed by the FBI. Here’s how it appears in Cordon’s plea agreement down from obstruction to 1752.

Your client agrees to allow law enforcement agents to review any social media accounts operated by your client for statements and postings in and around January 6, 2021, and conduct an interview of your client regarding the events in and around January 6, 2021 prior to sentencing.

Its absence suggests that Marquez has already been debriefed. Indeed, an April motion to continue the case described that the evidence against Marquez included, “social media data, cell phone extraction data, as well as custodial interview files,” suggesting he was interviewed on his arrest.

That Marquez may have already provided truthful information is of interest because he spent part of the riot in Jeff Merkley’s office. His statement of offense describes his actions there obliquely:

While inside the Capitol, Marquez entered the private “hideaway” office of Senator Merkley where he sat at a conference table with other rioters.

His arrest affidavit describes a video Marquez posted to Snapchat from his time there.

3:45 to 4:11 – This clip is from inside a conference room.2 Several people are seated and standing around a mahogany table. Some people say, “No stealing; don’t steal anything.” At 4:02, a hand is visible, holding a light-tan colored vape pen similar to the one MARQUEZ was holding in the car in the clip from 0:54 to 1:54. At 4:04, someone pushes over a table lamp and says, “Why would I want to steal this bullshit.”

4:11 to 4:20 (end) – In this clip MARQUEZ turns the camera lens to film himself. He is wearing a red “KEEP AMERICA GREAT” hat and has a yellow gaiter around his neck, similar to what he was wearing in the earlier clip from 0:54 to 1:54. MARQUEZ appears to still be indoors, with a distinctive blue piece of artwork – the same as seen in Senator Merkley’s hideaway office – on the wall behind him. This is a screenshot of MARQUEZ’s face from the video:

2 Based upon conversations with representatives of the United States Capitol Police, the conference room in which MARQUEZ is present appears to be Senate room S140, the private “hideaway” office of Senator Merkley within the U.S. Capitol. The artwork visible on the walls of the conference room in MARQUEZ’s Snapchat video is also visible on a video that Senator Merkley posted to Twitter on January 6, 2021, at 11:36 pm, documenting some of the damage to his office.

Still, none of these descriptions reveals what Marquez might have seen (and subsequently shared) while in Merkley’s office.

Presumably partly because there’s little to no security footage of what went down, the investigation into what happened in Merkley’s office is one of the most interesting subplots of the investigation. There have been a number of trespassers who seem to have been arrested just to get their footage of what happened.  There’s a defendant who has never been charged who was, nevertheless, given discovery on the laptop that got stolen from Merkley’s office. And in the last few weeks, Brandon Fellows (who like Marquez has been charged with just obstruction but spent time in Merkley’s office) got a CIPA notice, meaning the government wants to use classified evidence against him.

In short, we simply don’t know. There’s something interesting about this plea. But it’s unclear what that is.