DOJ: Capitol rioter threatened to "assassinate" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
23 January 2021
A Texas man who has be charged with storming the U.S. Capitol in the deadly Jan. 6 siege posted death threats against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the Department of Justice said.
The big picture: Garret Miller faces five charges in connection to the riot by supporters of former President Trump, including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and making threats. According to court documents, Miller posted violent threats online the day of the siege, including tweeting “Assassinate AOC.”
- Miller’s lawyer told CNN Saturday that his client “regrets what he did.”
- The lawyer also said “a lot of the comments, as viewed in context, are really sort of misguided political hyperbole.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has faced death threats in the past, responded to the charges and a selfie allegedly posted to Facebook by Miller in which he said, "Just Wanted to Incriminate Myself a Little LOL."
- "Well, you did!" Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday night.
- "On one hand you have to laugh, and on the other know that the reason they were this brazen is because they thought they were going to succeed," she added.
- In an Instagram live video on Jan. 12, Ocasio-Cortez also said she had a “very close encounter where I thought I was going to die.” The congresswoman added she could not divulge the details “due to security concerns.”
Go deeper: 2 Virginia police officers charged over Capitol riots
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.