Marine Corps Veteran James Burton McGrew
Guest post by Roger Stone
JAN. 6 VICTIM OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT: DC JAIL DENIES ACCESS TO EVIDENCE AND PUNISHES THOSE WHO KNOW TOO MUCH
Despite the fact that I did not attend the President’s speech on The Ellipse on January 6th, did not march to the Capitol, and was not at the Capitol the day of the Capitol riot, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and others have sought to baselessly link me to the illegal acts at the Capitol that day. Even the Washington Post reported that three different sources confirmed that I was not in a “War Room” in The Willard Hotel that was allegedly operating on January 6, but these legacy media outfits still want to accuse me of wrongdoing.
The main tactic that these fake news outlets have utilized to try to falsely tie me to the January 6th riot at the Capitol is “guilt by association.” The fact that I know and speak to President Donald Trump and that I have come into contact with members of either the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, proves nothing whatsoever.
Although I was subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee of the U.S. House, I responded to that subpoena by invoking my Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions or provide documents. I did this not because I have anything to hide, know anything about the illegal actions that day or have done anything wrong, but simply because I have first-hand experience with the House Democrats’ ability to take statements made under Oath that are innocuous, immaterial or irrelevant and twist them into a crime.
Because of this relentless effort to smear me, many of my own advisors and lawyers have urged me to remain silent about the injustices and lack of due process that those who have been arrested have been subjected to. With the level of physical abuse, lack of medical attention and treatment, and inhumane conditions the January 6th detainees are victims of, I cannot remain silent.
Lawsuits across the country are settling for millions of dollars in cases of police brutality during the summer riots in 2020. $14M jury award for protesters, dozens more still pending.
How quickly we forget that in our very own District of Columbia, during a presidential transition just one election cycle earlier, in 2017 a mob of leftists who during President Trump’s inauguration threw acid at citizens, bricks at police officer’s heads, and—armed with crowbars—organized to ‘disrupt the peaceful transition of power’ — were awarded $1.6M in damages for pain and suffering caused by both federal and DC police. This is just another example of the two-tiered justice system in which those on the left commit atrocious crimes but are not prosecuted while those on the right are prosecuted, vilified by the fake news media, and denied fair trial.
Yet these same brute police tactics were used against hundreds of American citizens on January 6th—igniting the chaos of the scene with flashbangs, rubber bullets, mace and batons against peaceful protestors that ultimately resulted in six citizens dead.
Antifa at the 2017 Inaugural Riot (Source: Twitter @submedia)
Rather than demanding equal justice and full investigations into the violence on Jan 6th (instead of Donald Trump’s phone records, please), weak Republicans and easily misled moderates across the spectrum have capitulated to the far left’s retributive “Let them Rot” zealotry which went from rewarding anarchists four years ago to today defending police violence for “Our Democracy.”
In fact, even though at least 20 internal reviews are being conducted by law enforcement agencies behind closed doors to determine whether excessive force was used on January 6th, the mainstream will not discuss the facts of the brutality that catalyzed most of the self-protective events that occurred in those chaotic hours on Capitol grounds.
In February, the Department of Justice issued a memorandum regarding the status of discovery stating that defendants would not be provided access to highly sensitive materials, including “allegations about officers’ use of force or complicity with riots.” This is a clear-cut example of the violation of due process.
Unfortunately, even non-sensitive materials are being withheld from defendants (or are cropped, altered, or plainly mis-attributed). Prosecutors in the case of James McGrew (a two time Iraqi combat veteran and American hero who was at the Capitol on Jan 6th and—despite prosecutor’s admission he injured no one—denied bail since his arrest last May), withheld a video of him handing a baton back to an officer who dropped it, prompting the officer to reply “Thank you,” according to court filings. McGrew only discovered the existence of that video because it was provided to lawyers for another defendant.
** Please help this US Marine with his legal battle, medical bills, and living expenses by donating to his GiveSendGo fundraiser here.
**Also see more on James McGrew at the American Gulag site here.
The same prosecutors in McGrew’s case submitted still images to the court in an attempt to say that he was part of a group “violently assisting” to move a ladder in the direction of police, when the video those images came from clearly show he didn’t even touch the ladder. He was actually 3-4 feet away from it. Prosecutors later admitted, in a correction to the court, that they hadn’t watched the video.
Help this US Marine with his legal battle, medical bills, and living expenses by donating to his GiveSendGo fundraiser here: https://www.givesendgo.com/G26SJ**
(In one court filing, his counsel chided, “Is it too much for a defendant to ask – and a Court to expect – for the government to recite facts accurately as reflected in Affidavits submitted by government agents?”). Those making such an assertion deserve to be disbarred.
The prosecution is now—across too many cases to ascribe to plain incompetence—aiding and abetting in the cover-up of excessive police force, which is a crime punishable by law that Federal juries are responding to favorably for victims across the country.
Here is a compelling letter that McGrew wrote to his mother:
My name is James McGrew, I am a January 6th defendant, United States Marine, and Wounded Combat Veteran. This is my testimony and plea to all Patriotic Americans.
On January 6th 2021, I went to the Stop the Steal rally in Washington D.C. in support of Donald J. Trump, my Country, and the Constitution which it was founded. It was my Honor to walk down Constitution Avenue towards the United States Capital alongside millions of Patriotic Americans and Veterans alike, to allow for our voices to be heard by Senators and Congress men and women whom we voted in office to represent us, a protected act in the Constitution of the United States under the 1st Amendment.
This was done with zero malicious intent on my heart at the request of the 45th President of United States, who I knew as the Commander in Chief from my time as a Combat Marine. President Trump said we should peacefully go down to the Capitol and cheer on our Representatives and allow for our voices to be heard. I did so willingly and with an open heart. Dr Martin Luther King Jr can be quoted as having said, “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with the willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
How true these words would burn in my heart on January 6th and peacefully standing up to injustices would be my cause. I truly had no idea at the horrific acts of violence upon American Citizens, by the Metropolitan Police Department and Capitol Police, I would be met with.
Approaching close to the United States Capitol the sights and sounds ever so familiar from my combat service to my Country as a United States Marine would be ever present and forever present in my mind today.The sounds of explosions one after another after another, my eyes fixated on the plumes of smoke that rose in all directions atop the United States Capitol and its hallowed grounds. These sights and sounds would become quickly evident as I entered into the panicked crowds thousands of American Citizens, Elderly, and Children begging for help as many gasped from the toxic fumes from deployed gas canisters. These canisters had been indiscriminately shot and tossed into the crowds of peaceful rally-goers—men, women, elderly, and children alike. Quickly and instinctively my training as a Marine would kick in as I found myself running to the front lines of this combat zone to try and peacefully persuade Metropolitan Police Officers and Capitol Policemen to stop injuring and inciting violence upon peaceful, patriotic, American families. The Marine Corps motto “Once a Marine Always a Marine” echoing in my mind.
I watched dozens of officer’s spray thousands of gallons of pepper spray into crowds filled with elderly and children, not caring or even giving second thought to who they hit. I watched them deploy gas canister after gas canister and rubber bullets filled with chemical deterrents shot from weapons in an effort to not disperse crowds, but to inflict pain and carnage. These weapons were used in such a quantity that even a trained combat veteran as myself wondered at times if I might die from respiratory distress. I was hit with so much of these toxic chemicals, I can remember looking at the sky and thinking it was raining and that the rain may never stop. I watched an Officer, who I now know as Metropolitan Police Officer Thai run to the front of the police line and blindly shoot five different tasers into the crowd never offering any commands merely inflicting carnage. I witnessed many in respiratory distress begging Metropolitan Police and Capitol Police to help them only to be met with the repeated strikes of shields and batons. I have heard many stories of horrors and atrocities in Tiananmen square. This was America’s Tiananmen square.
For my actions in helping my fellow Americans on January 6th, many whom I now call my friends and family, I am held captive in the District of Columbia, Department of Corrections, Gulag, quite literally by all accounts a Prisoner of War. As a combat veteran I use this most sacred of war terminology sincerely and respectfully, from my heart to never take away from the past men and women who suffered so very many atrocities during their time as POWs. Myself and our Country are forever indebted to their distinguished and Honorable service to their Country.
Since my illegal detainment, I have been held in deplorable conditions in a depilated facility. Cells with mold and feces on walls, plumbing that overflows as wastewater soaks floors and living spaces regularly, then forced to clean up flooded living quarters barefoot or in flip flops. Wastewater soaking our feet and legs splashing onto our bodies as the puddles are swept into showers covering the basins and splashing onto the walls. Exposed wiring in showers from lights that have been busted out, rodent infestations that you can quite literally count the mice and rats as they scurry across the floor in the middle of the night, until you fall asleep.
I have not been allowed to see my family for 10 plus months, not for lack thereof repeated request by myself and family.
I have been subjected to 23 and 22-hour-a-day lockdowns for the vast majority of my captivity, even as the Supreme Court has ruled in past cases this is cruel and unusual punishment for death row inmates. Why is this treatment considered fair by the Department of Justice for me? Why America?
I have been given inadequate and in most cases non-existent medical care, before my illegal detainment I was only a few weeks removed from a Department of Veterans Affairs Hospitals Intensive Care Unit and today suffer from severe pain from an ailment that goes untreated. I have been in this pain since before my captivity all well documented upon grievance forms and medical request here at the District of Columbia Gulag.
I have been subjected to diet that I could not by all means serve to my enemies in Iraq, who upon being detained I treated as I would want to be treated with respect and dignity. However, this is far from the motto of staff here at the Gulag.
I believe their motto is more along the lines of the hate speech that spewed from the mouth of the Gulag’s Deputy Warden Landerkin on her twitter account saying she hates all white men and they should be exterminated. This has been more in line with the treatment of myself and others January 6th Captives.
As an American Patriot and Veteran who loves his Country the United States of America deeply my heart bleeds at the slow strangulation and attempted murder of her values and as a member of the Armed Forces I cannot stand ideally by as my God given and Constitutional freedoms are trampled upon.
President Biden recently can be quoted as saying “he stands in the breach.” I am here to say the American Patriot also stands in this breach against your tyrannical regime and We The People, are the bedrock and founding pillars of the United States Of America. We The People, will no longer be silenced to the Injustices of tyrants. We are the breach that stands in the way of Communist and Marxist ideology.
I was recently heartbroken at the news of the death of Matthew Perna, an American Patriot and Hero. His pain echoes in my heart and mind daily. It infuriates me that our government, supposed democracy, and inherently unfair justice system let this young man down, as it also let down the families of Ashli Babbitt, Roseanne Boyland, Ben Phillips, and Kevin Greeson.
- Roseanne Boyland was brutally beat to death by Metropolitan Police Officer Lila Morris.
Ashli Babbitt was shot in cold blood by Michael Byrd who has profited thousands of dollars from her death.
Ben Phillips was hit in the head with a concussion grenade and the District of Columbia Medical examiner would have you believe he died of natural causes.
Kevin Greeson was hit by a concussive chemical irritant grenade District of Columbia Medical Examiner would also like you to believe he died from heart disease.
These are the facts America and there are thousands of hours of video and witness testimony to back this up.
In Matthew Perna’s obituary his family said “many were quietly supportive of him.” While I am very thankful Matthew had this support, I am here to tell you it is not enough.
STAND UP AMERICA!! Stop being quietly supportive. Vocalize your support to the world, get involved. If not for us, for American values, for your faith, your community, your children’s education for our flag, our Country, and most importantly stand up for the God Given Rights of all people.
America Your Country Needs you, Stand up and Fight
Go Peacefully and Wholeheartedly into the World.
James McGrew is an American war hero who has been unjustly incarcerated for 313 days, withheld necessary medical treatment (in the wake of a 10-day stint in ICU for complete renal failure, and other issues cascading from battle-sustained injuries), and denied bail despite every legal and moral indication that it should be granted.
Although the courts have overlooked plain police violence, prosecutorial misconduct, and the bounds of legal process, McGrew’s writing from the confines of a 6×9 cell speak of a love for his country.
The abuse of the January 6th detainees, which is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, must be exposed and rectified.
** Please help this US Marine with his legal battle, medical bills, and living expenses by donating to his GiveSendGo fundraiser here.
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