(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) In a leftist-driven lawfare attack that largely mirrors, on a smaller scale, the deep state’s efforts to disqualify former President Donald Trump, a far-left Obama judge sentenced former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley to 60 days in a federal prison for the misdemeanor crime of parading on Capitol grounds.
Kelley pleaded guilty in July to the charges that he had “rushed past U.S. Capitol police officers” and “used his hands to support another rioter who was pulling a metal bike rack onto the scaffolding” during the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising following then-President Donald Trump’s “Save America Rally.” He did not enter the Capitol.
The Justice Department boasts that more than 1,185 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Democrats in Congress last year allocated the DOJ a $2.63 billion operating budget—raising its expenses by $212.1 million—in order to defray the extra costs for the partisan witch hunt, NBC News reported.
Kelley, a real estate broker from Allendale Township, became a vocal activist in Michigan during the coronavirus pandemic, when he protested restrictions put in place by Whitmer.
During the early months of the pandemic, he organized a protest at the Michigan Capitol, inviting heavily armed militias to gather inside the statehouse, legally exercising both their 1st- and 2nd-Amendement rights. After the 2020 election, Kelley was a speaker at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Lansing.
But in July 2022, he experienced Democrats’ election-stealing forces firsthand as one of several candidates whom George Soros-backed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appeared to weaponize her government authority to eliminate prior to the November 2022 contest, in which she handily defeated Tudor Dixon.
Several GOP candidates—including the two top frontrunners—were disqualified after the state Bureau of Elections mysteriously rejected thousands of signatures at the last minute, rendering them ineligible for the ballot, the Detroit News reported.
Kelley’s disqualification may have been at least the second time the governor colluded with the FBI on a political smear attack. The agency also was accused of entrapment for framing Brandon Caserta and other victims in the April 2022 Whitmer kidnapping scandal. Many of them have since been exonerated in court.
Like many of the Jan. 6 dissidents, federal agents deployed a “shock and awe” strategy when arresting Kelley that terrorized his wife and five young children in the process.
Former MI GOP Gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley explains how the FBI raided his home and arrested him in front of his wife and 5 small children. pic.twitter.com/YHwySNS7cK
— PattyMI (@PattyLovesTruth) October 17, 2023
Despite having no criminal record, he was sentenced to hard time Tuesday by judge Christopher Cooper, one of the many D.C. District Court judges dubiously installed by Democrats during the Obama administration after then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid exercised the so-called nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster on federal judicial nominees.
Indeed, Cooper’s resume was filled with red flags, including a stint at the deep-state connected law firm of Covington & Burling and an advisory role on the Obama–Biden transition team. In the latter capacity, he may have recommended his own wife, lawyer Amy Jeffress, who became a top surrogate of Obama wingman Eric Holder in the Justice Department.
Since assuming the federal bench, Cooper’s dubious track record has been no better. In addition to handing extra time to J6 participant Chris Alberts for the crime of daring to defend himself in court, he ordered investigative journalist Catherine Herridge to divulge the name of a confidential source in a damning Fox News series that implicated the FBI and Pentagon.
Despite the fact that Cooper’s wife had ties to RussiaGate conspirator Lisa Page, the lovebird of “Crossfire Hurricane” agent Peter Strzok, Cooper also also presided over one of the two trials brought in connection with independent counsel John Durham’s investigation of the FBI-driven hoax.
The judge’s refusal to recuse himself was one of several points of criticism after Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann was found not guilty in the blaring example of two-tiered justice.
Similar to his reasoning in the Alberts case, Cooper suggested that Kelley’s refusal to suspend his gubernatorial campaign following his arrest offered the basis for his criminal conduct since he had failed to demonstrate sufficient “remorse” for his actions.
He cited citing fundraising appeals Kelley had made and his references to Jan. 6 as an FBI set-up, the Gateway Pundit reported.
Strong evidence—including a recent investigative series by Headline USA—suggests that the FBI likely did play a role in orchestrating some of the unruly behavior and that it has previously fomented violence at far-right demonstrations, including the 2017 riot in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Kelly, for his part, accepted responsibility for his actions during the trial, rejecting the notion that Trump had incited rallygoers.
“It’s not his fault, the former president, for my actions that day,” Kelley told the court. “He did invite us there, but my actions are my actions, and I own those.”
A GiveSendGo campaign has been established to support his family as he serves out his time as a political prisoner.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
