(LifeSiteNews) — A new documentary on the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 disturbance at the U.S. Capitol brings into great relief the violence of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) two-tiered justice system, including a tyrannical deprivation of fundamental Constitutional rights against conservative citizens, freedom of speech, the right to due process, and the principle that one is considered innocent until proven guilty.
Released on the third anniversary of this infamous event earlier this month, The Long Road Home (LRH) is a sequel to The Real Story of January 6th, which was also produced by The Epoch Times and released in July 2022.
The original documentary unveiled and examined multiple facts indicating that day’s events were part of a deliberate plan by federal authorities to violently provoke the massive crowd into behaviors that would provide officers a pretense for the use of disproportionate (and even criminal) force with an ability to make widespread arrests of the pro-Trump protesters.
Following such impactful reporting, including early and consistent coverage of these events by LifeSiteNews and Tucker Carlson’s exposé on newly released Capitol surveillance video in March 2023, a Rasmussen Poll found in April that “65% of U.S. likely voters think it is likely that undercover agents provoked the Capitol Riot,” and “46% now say VERY LIKELY.” Additionally, only one-quarter (26 percent) believe it is not likely the feds provoked the Capitol riot.
Joseph Hanneman, lead investigative reporter of The Long Road Home, told LifeSiteNews the purpose of this latest documentary is to examine “the hidden costs and tragedies [of that day] which don’t make the headlines.” These include “families terrorized by FBI raids after being turned in by neighbors or friends, FBI whistleblowers punished for objecting to the tactics being used against people who are not a threat to society, and a justice system that seems set up so defendants simply cannot win.”
DOJ, FBI utilize terrorist tactics against misdemeanor suspects
The film covers the egregious policy of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s DOJ of utilizing SWAT-type raids to arrest the Biden administration’s conservative enemies, even for minor offenses such as misdemeanor trespassing. And yet excessive force by law enforcement remains a crime, and a violent crime.
Additionally, given the targets of these raids have included hundreds of January 6 Trump supporters, pro-life activists, and medical freedom advocates, all mostly composed of conservative Christians — and especially in the absence of prosecutions of much more serious leftist crimes — many have reasonably concluded with certainty that such astronomical and widespread abuses have been politically motivated.
In such a context, it is important to recognize the general term used to describe acts of violence utilized, especially against civilians, for political purposes. This term is “terrorism,” with those who commit such acts naturally being called “terrorists.”
In examining this DOJ and FBI policy of utilizing terrorist tactics against the Biden administration’s political enemies, The Long Road Home featured former FBI Special Agent and whistleblower Steve Friend, who was suspended in September 2022 for expressing concerns to his superiors about “overzealous” treatment of Americans investigated in connection with January 6 and for refusing to participate in a SWAT raid against a Jacksonville, Florida suspect, who was accused only of a misdemeanor, on moral and constitutional grounds.
In his 12-year career at the FBI, Friend affirmed in the film, “I’ve arrested over 150 violent criminals [and] never had to use SWAT,” a method “that really is [reserved for] the utmost highest level” of dangerous criminals.
Friend contends that raids and their preceding investigations violate both the FBI’s policy as well as the suspect’s rights under the Sixth and Eighth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution regarding a fair trial and cruel and unusual punishment.
Defense attorney and former federal prosecutor William Shipley affirms in LRH, “In my 21-plus years with the Justice Department, I never saw a dynamic entry or even an arrest warrant used on a misdemeanor. We don’t put first-time offenders in jail for misdemeanors. We give them probation,” he said. Garland’s DOJ “abandoned that rationale with the January 6th cases.”
Christian family designated ‘domestic terrorists,’ subjected to government spying, death threats, hate mail, loss of employment
Also featured in LRH is the Munn family of Borger, Texas, that was subjected to SWAT raids on three houses simultaneously in two states after their attendance at the Stop the Steal rally with President Donald Trump and the subsequent procession with the crowd to the Capitol.
As has been reported in many places, including LRH, upon the Capitol grounds were what appeared to be agents-provocateurs standing on chairs or other elevations yelling variations of “Forward! Do not retreat! Forward!” J. Michael Waller, a senior analyst for the Center for Security Policy who was present that day, explained these operatives were attempting “to corral people as an unwitting follow-on force behind the plainclothes militants tussling with police,” putting the entire crowd in physical danger from tear gas and the crush of the throng.
In LRH, Dawn Munn, the mother of the family, explained how once they were present on the grounds, “the crowd just kept pushing” until “you almost got kind of like tunneled into what would have been a broken window.” Her husband Tom “went through the window and assisted the kids through” as well and said, “let’s just find a safe place for the kids.”
For this offense, like hundreds of other Americans, the Munn family was arrested with dramatic SWAT raids covered broadly in news reports. Soon after, the family was imperiled by death threats, hate mail and the loss of employment. They were also designated “domestic terrorists” by the DOJ and FBI, putting them on watchlists and subjecting them to government spying with a tracker placed on their internet router, and black SUV vehicles surveilling their house.
Juries dominated by DC democrats indicate ‘hatred’ for J6 defendants, convict all, acquit none
Another American terrorized by an FBI SWAT-type raid was John Strand, who was providing security to Dr. Simone Gold from American Frontline Doctors on January 6. Like the Munns, he testified in the film that he “physically had no ability to not enter” the Capitol building, having been “crushed inside” doors that were opened from the inside, with police officers allowing people in.
As part of what is now referred to as “January 6 Jurisprudence,” defendants in cases, usually supporters of Trump, are required to face trial in Washington, D.C., where, as Hanneman points out in LRH, “upwards of 98% voted for Joe Biden” in 2020. This anomaly makes it “really impossible” for such defendants to get a fair jury trial, with change of venue filings being both universally requested and continually denied.
According to reporter Julie Kelly, as of late last year, these D.C. juries had convicted at least 130 January 6 defendants and acquitted none, with hundreds being “sentenced to prison time ranging from seven days to 22 years.”
Recalling his trial, Strand related that jury selection the first day “was shocking,” because it was clear that the people being selected for the jury harbored a hatred for him, and what he represented to them. “And that hatred was so unmistakable and so inappropriate in a court of law,” he said.
Following what he considered to be outstanding and compelling representation by his attorney to competently demonstrate his innocence during his trial, Strand was still convicted on five charges and sentenced to 32 months in prison.
After pledging to continue unpacking what happened on January 6, Hanneman wrote in an email correspondence that in viewing LRH he hopes “viewers come away with a healthy skepticism of government narratives” and that the film will “prompt them to look deeper because the truth is often hidden, suppressed, and ultimately, denied.”
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