In the Spotlight
By Jim Hoft Published December 22, 2021 at 8:00amComment
By Kelly Wilde
Democrats’ demonization of our military veterans knows no end. Among their targets is a 41-year-old former Army Sergeant and combat veteran with 12 years of service and multiple tours in Iraq, Jose Lino Padilla—who is now facing decades in prison on highly-contestable charges stemming from his involvement at the Capitol protest on January 6th.
Padilla has been held in pre-trial detention since the FBI terrorized his family in a raid of their Middle-Tennessee home on a cold morning in mid-February.
The raid involved an armored tank, overhead drones, and almost a dozen officers from four law enforcement agencies with their guns drawn at Padilla’s wife, who opened the door to red laser sights pointed at her head and full-body, still wearing her pajamas and disoriented by the intense and chaotic shouting over a loudspeaker.
Officers handcuffed Padilla’s wife and barricaded her from saying goodbye to her husband—the last time she would see him in what has now been almost a year—ransacked their home, and called in the Department of Child Services, who threatened to remove their three young boys from her custody in an ensuing three month investigation. Law enforcement did not announce their warrant until after Padilla had been escorted away in custody and they had entered his home.
Since the raid, his wife of 17 years has taken on three jobs to support their family in a nightmare that has not ended in the eleven months since the terror just described, including a sudden eviction by their landlord who rashly judged the incident despite years of good rental history.
** Please see the family’s GiveSendGo link here: https://givesendgo.com/G26PY
Padilla released a clear and urgent message to the American people from inside of the D.C. jail, which is published in full below.
Today is December 19, 2021. I have been detained pre-trial for two hundred and ninety-four days for crimes alleged to have occurred during the January 6, 2021 rally in support of then President Trump at our nation’s Capitol. I have no criminal history. I am not alleged to have injured a single person, I did not attempt to flee or hide after my initial encounter with the FBI, instead I sought legal consultation. Nor did I participate in any anti-government protests or potentially criminal behavior after January 6 until my arrest in late February. Despite these facts I was labeled a danger to society and denied bond.
Since my detention I have watched as the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice dismissed the cases of at least twenty one protestors who were arrested while assaulting Federal Agents in an attempt to forcibly gain entrance to a restricted Federal building in Portland, Oregon. Some of these dismissals were given to persons who were accused of permanently injuring Federal Agents
On October 11 2021, protestors in Washington D.C. violently assaulted agents guarding the perimeter of the White House. Video footage broadcast by ABC News 7 shows the protestors using metal crowd control barriers to assault the agents as the protestors attempted to breach the White House while the current President, Joe Biden, was in the residence. These protestors were given citations and fines. The very next day this same group of protestors assaulted Federal Agents as they forcibly entered the Department of the Interior and temporarily occupied the Federal building it resides in.
While I have been detained for almost a year with a trial date yet to be set and have been indicted on multiple felony charges, including the allegation that I assaulted Federal Agents with a dangerous or deadly weapon; these other protestors, many of whom were arrested while committing acts similar to what I am accused of, have received little to no jail time, dismissal of all charges, and slaps on the wrist as punishment despite some having lengthy criminal histories. Why?
These other protestors were protesting in support of left leaning causes. In Portland, Oregon, where there were nightly riots for over a year, these protests were in support of the “Social Justice” movement, while the October 2021 riots evolved from protests in support of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” climate agenda. These protestors were arrested while protesting in support of the issues embraced by the Leftist Democrats and their political machine. I was arrested for supporting then President Trump and other Conservative issues. This is more than just selective prosecution by a US District Attorney with an ax to grind, this is Political Persecution from the highest levels of the DOJ and Biden Administration.
Shortly after the adoption of the 14th Amendment to our Constitution, the Supreme Court of the United States declared that even if a law is just and fair on its face “…if it is applied and administered by a public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand, so as practically to make unjust and illegal discriminations between persons in similar circumstances…” it is the denial of equal justice and is unconstitutional. (Yick Wo v. Hopkins Wo Lee v. Same 118 US 356 6 S.Ct 1064, 30 L.Ed 220(1886))
Since 1886 our Supreme Court has held this disparate and discriminatory treatment as unconstitutional. This is not a new concept, yet it is not surprising that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department is denying equal justice to Republican and Conservative political protestors. One has but to look at the actions of the Biden Administration over the last 10 months since President Biden has taken office.
Mainstream media regularly paints Trump supporters and Conservatives as racist, xenophobic, and anti-LGBTQ. Parents who are concerned about what their children are reading and learning in school are labeled racist, potentially violent domestic terrorist, book burners. Energetic local School Board meetings organized by parent’s groups have led the Biden Administration and its enforcers from the FBI to form teams for the purpose of tracking and infiltrating these groups as if they were terrorist cells. An elections supervisor in Colorado who preserved the images of hard disks on electronic voting machines in her custody before they could be wiped had her home and office raided by the FBI for the crime of preserving data which by state law was meant to be preserved. Journalists reporting on the content of a diary abandoned by the daughter of President Biden at a drug rehabilitation facility years ago, and revealed disgusting, perhaps criminal behavior by the President, have had their homes and offices raided.
When Federal Courts said they thought vaccine mandates might be unconstitutional, President Biden told employers to ignore the courts and implement the mandate anyway. These are the actions of a tyrannical and authoritarian administration abetted by the Democratic national party and a complicit mainstream media. These are the actions of a regime that can in no way tolerate dissent. The detainment of political prisoners like myself, as well as the other actions I described above have only one meaning. They are meant to dissuade you from using your First Amendment rights to oppose the tyrannically authoritarian actions of the current Administration. How soon before those who do not toe the Democratic Party line find themselves laying on the ground surrounded by FBI agents looking as if they were storming the fortified and defended hideout of a global terrorist? To modify the opening lines of a famous poem…First they came for the Patriots.
What can you do to stop this? Speak up and out. It’s technically still legal. Thoughts, Prayer, and letters to those of us who are victims of this tyrannical Political Persecution are all well and good, but you should also be inundating your Federal Senators and Representatives with calls and letters telling them that the persecution of a person because of their beliefs, even if you find those beliefs to be offensive or distasteful, is not consistent with our beliefs as Americans, nor our Constitution.
Think about donating to the various GiveSendGo fundraising drives that have been established to help provide support for our families while we are unconstitutionally detained. Strongly consider donating to the Patriot Freedom Project’s legal defense fund so those of us detained can find good lawyers who aren’t afraid to take on the Federal Government.
These are just a few ways you can help support us and our fight to receive due process and equal justice. I understand that many of you reading this might not be in a place where you can offer support to us financially, or perhaps you live in a district where your elected representatives are complicit with the Biden Administration, and you’re afraid to receive the same treatment we have. You can still help. Share this message. If you have friends and family who are ignorant of the Political Persecution perpetrated in the freest nation in the world, share this message. Share it with your Church brothers and sisters. Share this message like it was a message in a bottle you found on the beach, because that is what it is. Thank you and God bless you, your Family, and the United States.
Jose Padilla, Jan 6er https://givesendgo.com/G26PY
Despite having no criminal history and causing no injuries that day, Padilla has been held without bond in a jail run by Deputy Warden Kathleen Landerkin, who made no secret of her hatred for Trump supporters in several dozen vitriolic Tweets that surfaced earlier this week.
Among them were statements such as:
“F*** everyone who supports Trump.” —posted on December 11, 2021“I can’t wait til you’re all extinct.”“White men are more dangerous than immigrants.”“If you are in the crowd behind Trump you are trash.”
And others too vulgar for publication.
A report from the office of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene published earlier this month by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) on the conditions at the jail, describes fecal residue on the walls, abundant black mold in cells, inadequate nutrition, punitive withholding of food, and water, assaults on inmates by guards, refusal of access to attorneys, and denial of basic hygiene and necessary medical attention—conditions for which Landerkin is responsible.
The U.S. Marshalls visit to the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility in November described the jail’s unacceptable living conditions, systemic failures, and human rights violations that resulted in the transfer of over 400 inmates—all but the January 6th men, who remain there under Landerkin’s watch today.
Despite the abuse that he and his family have endured, Jose Padilla’s love of country has not been shaken.
Please find it in your heart to help Jose and his family through this tough time.
** Please donate here: https://givesendgo.com/G26PY
