'They're victims of unequal justice,' the Republican congresswoman said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), in a video streamed lived on Wednesday, claimed that people who have been arrested in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol have been treated "like political prisoners."
Greene made her comment in a Facebook stream explaining her opposition to the proposal for a bipartisan commission to study the attack.
"These people that have been arrested are basically like political prisoners," said Greene. "They're victims of unequal justice, they're being held in prison, not being — not allowed to go to be bailed out, some of them are not being allowed to see their attorneys even once a week."
The Department of Justice has said that about 440 people have been arrested in connection with the attack. Charges include assault — about 140 police officers were assaulted — and using a deadly weapon, entering or remaining in a restricted building, among other charges.
Rioters who were arrested for storming the Capitol were released as early as Jan. 14 or before, just within a week of the attack.
Several of those who have been arrested have been connected to extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the Three Percenters.
Despite Greene's rhetoric about "political prisoners," none of the charges have been concerned with the alleged attackers political beliefs, but rather the arrests were triggered their decision to break into the U.S. Capitol in the hopes of overturning the legitimate result of the presidential election.
From a May 19 Facebook Live stream:
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: These people that have been arrested are basically like political prisoners. They're victims of unequal justice, they're being held in prison, not being – not allowed to go to be bailed out, some of them are not being allowed to see their attorneys even once a week.
They can't play any role in their own defense, they don't have regular access to tablets to communicate with their lawyers or their family members. In-person meetings and counsel is nearly impossible, conversations to have between the defendants and the lawyers are overheard by other defendants and prison guards. So they don't even have privacy to talk about their own defense with their own attorney.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
