City Desk
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ButteNews.net
Sept 27, 2023
Defendants Pushed Bike Rack Against Police Outside U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON - A Montana man and a Pennsylvania man were sentenced in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, on several felony and misdemeanor charges, including assaulting law enforcement, related to their actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Their actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.
Craig Michael Bingert, 32, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 96 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Isaac Steve Sturgeon, 34, of Dillon, Montana, was sentenced to 72 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced both Bingert and Sturgeon. Judge Lamberth convicted the pair following a bench trial on May 24, 2023, of seven charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; civil disorder, all felonies; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; and engaging in an act of physical violence in the grounds or any of the Capitol buildings.
According to evidence presented at trial and court documents, Bingert and Sturgeon traveled separately from their respective hometowns to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and later marched toward the U.S. Capitol building. Acting independently, the two made their way onto the restricted grounds of the Capitol and joined the mob on the West Front at the base of the inaugural stage. Soon, the mob reached its full strength, violently breaking down the police line and forcing the officers to retreat. After the officers were forced up the southwest stairs under the scaffolding, Bingert and Sturgeon followed only minutes later.
The duo then climbed through the inaugural stage scaffolding, up the southwest stairs, and made their way to the front of the mob at the top of the stairs, where police had formed a line behind a row of bike racks being used as a barricade to defend the Capitol. At approximately 2:45 p.m., Bingert and Sturgeon stood side-by-side directly in front of the bike racks and police at the top of the southwest stairs. The pair and others grabbed the metal bike rack in front of them and pushed it hard against the police, resulting in injury to at least one officer. Both men remained on the Upper West Terrace for at least two hours after this assault, watching the brutal attacks on the police occurring on the Lower West Terrace below them. They both remained on restricted grounds until police forcibly removed them.
This case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of New York.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Bingert as AFO #105 and Sturgeon as AFO #104 on their seeking information photos. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI’s Philadelphia and New York Field Offices, the Joint Terrorism Task Force Kenya, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police.
In the 32 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,100 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 396 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
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By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Conservation groups are suing to stop a logging project along the Continental Divide that would clear-cut almost 6,000 acres of the Custer-Gallatin National Forest and carve nearly 60 miles of logging roads into the wilderness near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. Comments from Mike Garrity, executive director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
Mark Moran
September 27, 2023 - Three conservation groups have sued to stop a large logging project near Yellowstone National Park they say threatens endangered species in Montana.
The South Plateau Project would clear-cut 5,500 acres of trees, burn more than 16,000 acres, and carve 56 miles of logging roads into the Custer-Gallatin National Forest near Yellowstone Park, close to the Continental Divide.
Mike Garrity, executive director of the Helena-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which worked with the Center for Biological Diversity to file the suit, said the logging project would be genetically devastating for grizzlies near Yellowstone, because it proposes to slice through a corridor which allows Yellowstone grizzlies to mix with bears further north as they work their way back from the endangered list.
"Grizzlies, once again, need one connected population so they have healthy genetic interchange," Garrity emphasized. "Grizzlies that are isolated are at risk for inbreeding. Once inbreeding sets in, they are sunk."
Garrity added most grizzlies are killed within one-third of a mile of a logging road - evidence, he said, that humans are threatening the already threatened species in the state. The U.S. Forest Service, which would oversee the logging project, has declined to comment due to the pending litigation.
Beyond providing vital habitat for grizzlies and Canada lynx, which are known to avoid forest clear-cuts for as long as 50 years, Garrity pointed out halting the project would preserve close to 17,000 logging trucks worth of timber, and prevent a devastating ecological impact on the climate.
"Forests are tremendous carbon sinks," Garrity stressed. "National Forests absorb about 12% to 15% of all the carbon the United States produces in a year. They're going to cut down all these trees and disturbing all the soil because trees also pump carbon into the soils, and bulldozing all these new logging roads is going to release a ton of carbon into the atmosphere."
Garrity argued the Forest Service has not analyzed the environmental impacts of the project, which is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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PNS - Wednesday, September 27, 2023 - House Speaker McCarthy aims to pin a shutdown on White House border policies, President Biden joins a Detroit auto workers picket line and the Supreme Court again tells Alabama to redraw Congressional districts for Black voters.
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PNS - Wednesday, September 27, 2023 - Progressives call push to change Constitution "risky," Judge rules Donald Trump defrauded banks, insurers while building real estate empire; new report compares ways NY can get cleaner air, help disadvantaged communities.
