I'll admit I am enjoying the fact that we now have judges who, facing the fundamental absurdity of most of what modern conservatism has come to believe about itself, are feeling free to be creative in the ways they’re telling people to pound sand. My latest fave-rave goes out to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who currently has before her the cases of several of the fools and vandals who cavorted through the Capitol a year ago. One of these is a guy named Anthony Williams, who came to Washington and who apparently hasn't stopped bragging about it since.
As a condition of his present status of Not Being In Jail, Williams has to request permission from the court to leave the country. And it seems that Williams asked the court to grant him permission to avoid the cold Michigan winter and go to Jamaica to join his girlfriend and her family for a spell.
(If you wish to take just a moment to admire the sheer brassness of the balls it takes to make such a request, feel free to do so.)
Anyway, Judge Howell was having none of it.
Defendant, while on pretrial release and facing charges including a serious felony offense, stemming from his alleged actions on January 6, 2021, wishes to leave the Michigan winter to spend ten days in the warmer climes of Jamaica to meet the family of a woman with whom defendant has been in a committed relationship for "more than a year."
Although such a meeting may be an important step in defendant's personal relationship, defendant surrendered his entitlement to unfettered international travel when, also "more than a year" ago, on December 30, 2020, he allegedly announced his intent to "Storm the Swamp," and one week later, on January 6, 2021, followed through by joining a mob at the Capitol that, in his words, "took [that] fucking building," an event he allegedly viewed as the "proudest day of [his] life."
This Court will not commemorate the one-year anniversary of this attack on the Capitol by granting defendant's request for non-essential foreign travel when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day...
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, dude. Judge Howell has nothing but your best romantic interests in mind.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
