Global Courant 2023-05-21 18:47:37
Gina Bisignano – Credit: United States Attorney’s Office/Department of Justice
The first time Gina Bisignano ran afoul of the law in Washington, D.C., she was recorded standing on a ledge in front of a broken window on the West Terrace of the US Capitol Building adorned with a Louis Vuitton sweater and Chanel boots. “We humans can’t take it anymore. You’re not going to take our Trumpy Bear! the beautician of beverly hills roared through a megaphone on January 6.
“Everyone, we need gas masks. We need weapons. We need strong, angry patriots to help our boys, they don’t want to leave. We need protection,” she yelled, her mascara oozing with tear gas.
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Two years and multiple criminal charges later, Bisignano returned to Washington on March 1 of this year — and promptly ran afoul of the law again. Bisignano’s return trip to D.C. included a deal she made with prosecutors in which she pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts and two felonies and agreed to cooperate with investigators and the Justice Department in exchange for special sentencing considerations.
Bisignano, who was nominally in D.C. to testify against a former associate, detoured to a vigil near the prison where several dozen alleged insurgents awaited trial. There, she shared details of her testimony in an ongoing trial, spoke to a convicted Jan. 6 felon, and admitted associating with other Jan. 6 participants.
These were all violations of the terms of her parole, and they were all caught on camera – again. But despite her actions on January 6 and her violations of the preliminary agreement, Bisignano is not in prison. Instead, she’s on a particularly lenient version of house arrest as she awaits trial after withdrawing her guilty plea to the felony of obstruction of official proceedings. She has already pleaded guilty to six charges, including civil disturbances, and awaits sentencing after her felony trial concludes.
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The alleged unjust treatment and persecution of January 6 participants has become the core of the prevailing conservative counter-narrative surrounding the violent riot, an account that characterizes the participants as “political prisoners.” But contrary to the allegations of heavy-handed political prosecution, cases like Bisignano show how, in some cases, the justice system has provided January 6 defendants with a much more judicious trial than standard federal criminal defendants. And indeed, many pundits believe the insurgents have been treated much softer than one would expect for their attempt to storm the Capitol to block the certification of a presidential election.
“As a general trend, especially given the violent nature of their protest, the people of January 6 came off pretty lightly in terms of the charges they face (and) the average sentence they will receive if they plead guilty and/or are found guilty ,” says Wadie Said, a former federal public defender who studies national security prosecutions at the University of South Carolina School of Law. “That doesn’t mean the outcome is always in their favor or that they don’t get punished, just that their claims are definitely being heard more and their point of view certainly seems to be a little bit more understood.”
Early indications suggest that insurgents actually get off easy. Data examined by Slate found on the first anniversary of the uprising that on January 6, defendants received significantly lighter sentences than prosecutors had asked for. They also enjoyed, at least after a year, a much higher rate of parole — 70 percent — than other federal defendants, only 32 percent of whom received parole.
Even outside the immediate political context, other demographic factors may play a role in the disparate treatment, says Georgetown Law Professor Vida Johnson. Federal criminal defendants are disproportionately young, male people of color, and largely face charges related to drug and immigration violations — crimes that are themselves highly racialized — while 93 percent of indicted January 6 participants are white, according to the University of Chicago project on security and threats.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, citing the ongoing case. Responding to a request for comment, Charles Peruto, Bisignano’s attorney, tells Rolling Stone: “Any comment I make would only add to the overexposure this defendant has received. That’s why I feel it’s best to do all my talking in court.”
For obvious reasons, Bisignano received almost immediate and arguably disproportionate attention after the Capitol breakthrough. In an interview with The Beverly Hills Courier after the riot, she said she was initially unaware of any plans to breach the Capitol. “I didn’t know we were storming the Capitol,” she recalled, thinking. “I should have dressed differently.”
This sartorial claim of innocence did not seem to convince investigators, and Bisignano was soon arrested and charged with six felonies and two felonies.
Among the first wave of insurgents to be charged for their actions, Bisignano faced both a public and legal system at the height of its outrage and concern over the attack. With the indictment of more central actors such as the Proud boys And Oath keepers more than a year away, Bisignano seems to have initially thrown the book at her. A magistrate judge placed her on $170,000 bail, and even after she posted bail, a federal judge ordered her back into custody, where she spent the next month.
But Bisignano’s fortunes improved as January 6 went from a source of shame among the judges to a cause célèbre.
The legal tide turned for her in August 2021 when she reached a deal with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to six of the counts, including two felonies, and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and investigators. In court before Judge Carl J. Nichols, Bisignano expressed remorse for her actions on the day. At the time, she was waiting between 41 and 51 months in federal prison, hoping to get a lighter sentence for aiding her.
But relations between Bisignano and the prosecutors quickly deteriorated audio leaks in February 2022 of a conversation she had with supporters in which she spoke out against her plea deal and backtracked on her apology to Judge Nichols. Her lawyer soon filed for her guilty plea to be reversed on the felony of obstructing an official proceeding.
But even with questions about Bisignano’s cooperation, during a May 4 hearing on her violations of the trial and plea agreement, Judge Nichols allowed Bisignano to withdraw from the guilty plea for misdemeanor obstruction of an official proceeding. Bisignano’s usefulness as a witness had also been questioned, with the judge presiding over a separate case in which she gave testimony describing Bisignano as a “hot gangand one of the worst witnesses she had ever seen took the stand.
Said characterizes the ruling as “unusual”, explaining that defendants have a high burden of overturning a guilty plea.
Ironically, the apparent leeway afforded Bisignano by her judge has now placed her in more legal jeopardy, with a guilty verdict potentially carrying a higher sentence than she would have received as part of her deal with prosecutors.
Nichols’ verdict on her plea of guilty came along with a hearing into Bisignano’s many pre-trial violations that stemmed from what prosecutors called the “January 6th Block Party.”
Bisignano had long adopted a liberal interpretation of her provisional release agreement, which explicitly forbids “communication with anyone who was at the event on January 6, 2021,” speaking about the case with anyone but her “lawyer, (the) government and people directly related to your case”, and staying present on social media. In addition, the terms urge her to “avoid any contact, direct or indirect, with any person who is or may be a victim or witness in the investigation or prosecution.”
Her visit to Washington wasn’t even the first time Bisignano had rallied on behalf of the January 6 participants.
One year to the day after the uprising, on January 6, 2022, Bisignano—her face partially obscured by a pink Louis Vuitton scarf—appeared at a Beverly Hills rally honoring Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police while trying to get closer to lawmakers. At least one other participant from January 6 attended the rally. Bisignano also went to a May 2022 rally hosted by a convicted Jan. 6 attendee, Brandon Straka, and was caught on camera speaking to Siaka Massaquoi, an actor who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.
It is unclear whether prosecutors are aware of these incidents. Although prosecutors cite two documents that refer to other violations, they remain limited to the public.
But Bisignano didn’t have the same luck when she went to Washington’s March block party this year.
Broadcast every evening via livestream, the festive vigil with live music, barbeque and cake — and even once got a call from Donald Trump, who claimed that January 6 inmates are being “treated very, very unfairly” — an increasingly common refrain among conservative politicians and their backers.
Capitalizing on the growing influence of the insurgents, a MAGA rapper joined the vigil on March 1 to film a music video featuring Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by Capitol police when she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby. (“They left blood on the steps of the Capitol, yes, they framed us / Patriots fight for freedom, yes, we won’t let go / I’m a God-fearing soldier, I hold up my guns / Can’t stop no needle in my arm, for I am a pure blood.”)
Bisignano herself makes several appearances in the music video. On the event’s live stream, she addresses the crowd and tearfully proclaims Ashli Babbitt “a fallen hero,” goes against the “one world agenda” and offers a lengthy recap of the testimony she gave earlier that day in the court had made. Later that night, she talks over speakerphone to Shane Jenkins, a January 6 rioter convicted of smashing a window with a tomahawk and throwing items such as a desk drawer at the Capitol Police.
All of this was obviously in violation of her preliminary release agreement – a fact that Bisignano herself is caught acknowledging on camera. “I’m on remand, I shouldn’t be here,” she tells another participant, a meat skewer in hand.
“My family is mad at me for hanging out with people from January 6 and I’m on remand,” she adds, apparently admitting to more pre-trial violations.
“All the other January 6 people do that too,” the participant responds sympathetically.
In the end, Bisignano paid a price for attending the meeting, though not particularly high: Judge Nichols reinstated Bisignano’s house arrest, confining her to her Beverly Hills condominium except for work, church, and doctor’s appointments.
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