(The Epoch Times)—A man facing charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol can attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, a federal judge ruled on Jan. 7.
William Pope “is authorized to travel to Washington, D.C. from January 19, 2025, through January 21, 2025, for the Presidential Inauguration,” U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said in a one-page order.
Pope, under a 2021 order, had been barred from traveling to Washington except for court hearings, although he had previously received exceptions to view video footage from Jan. 6 that was made available by Congress for in-person viewing, and for an evidentiary tour of the U.S. Capitol.
Pope is facing charges including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.
In a recent motion for permission to attend Trump’s inauguration, Pope—who is representing himself—said he had been invited to attend the event on Jan. 20 and that he would be “entirely peaceful” if he were allowed to go.
Federal prosecutors in response said that Pope “presents a danger to the D.C. community, including the very law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and continue to serve the citizens of the District.”
They added later: “Allowing William Pope to return to Washington, D.C., specifically the Capitol building, could put him face to face with the officers that he resisted four years ago and place him in the same circumstance in which he already demonstrated a disregard for the law.”
Pope in a reply to the response noted that he was not charged with assault and that in his two visits to Washington since being charged, he had “nothing but positive interactions with Capitol Police.”
Contreras in his order said that he was granting Pope’s motion in part because Pope had not been charged with assault or vandalism-related charges.
At least one other defendant has been granted permission to attend Trump’s swearing-in. U.S. District Judge previously approved a request from defendant Eric Lee Peterson.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
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Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
