Who is Jon Schaffer?
Born on March 15, 1968, Jon Schaffer grew up in Franklin, Indiana, United States. The musician s bio on Iced Earth s website lists out a couple of things that he s passionate about. “My passions are studying history and current events, and in consequence, standing against, and exposing, tyranny,” reads the segment.
The website also reveals that he s inspired by a lot of politicians including the Founding Fathers of the United States Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry. Other names also include former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, former US Representative Ron Paul, author, and conspiracy theorist G Edward Griffin, businessman and political activist Aaron Russo amongst other people.
Even more, the plea talks are the first and farthest along of any Capitol Riot defendant. On Jan. 6, supporters of former President Trump attacked the historic Washington, D.C., meeting place of the U.S. Congress. Rioters forcibly breached security in failed attempt to prevent the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden s 2020 election victory. More than 300 of the insurrectionists have since been charged with crimes.
But only Schaffer has gotten to this stage in a plea bargain agreement. Still, the fact that the public even knows Schaffer s cooperating with the government is only due to a recent court filing being accidentally made public, BuzzFeed News reported.
Last month, Schaffer was ordered by a federal judge to be held without bond until his trial. The musician was arrested on Jan. 17 in his home state of Indiana after appearing on the FBI s Most Wanted list following the guitarist s participation in the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6. His likeness there was captured both in photographs used by authorities and in alleged amateur video. He s facing six federal charges following the incident.
But rather than wait out the time until trial in a jail cell, Schaffer s attorneys argued the musician should be released in the interim. Now, an April 6 court date has been set to consider such a proposal, as MetalSucks reported. Schaffer s lawyer Marc Victor listed the Iced Earth member s reasons for such a request in a motion to amend detention from March.
The latest evidence evincing Iced Earth guitarist and songwriter Jon Schaffer s involvement in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol arrived this week in the form of video footage. In a clip, it appears that the musician participates in charging police officers at an entrance of the Capitol Building.
The previously unseen footage aired during a CNN broadcast on Monday (Feb. 15), as Blabbermouth reported. The video first emerged in materials presented by the House of Representatives managers in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump that concluded last week.
Watch the clip down toward the bottom of this post.
Peggy Noonan excoriated “coward” Republicans who are unwilling to vote to convict former President
Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial in a scathing
Wall Street Journalop-ed, writing: “Those who acquit are voting for a lie.”
In Noonan’s view, the House Impeachment Managers made their case most effectively when they argued, not with emotional appeals, but “through time-stamped videos and close argumentation, and their timeline linked in an undeniable way the statements of the president on 1/6 and the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol.”
She claimed that she could not see how Trump’s lawyers could argue his “innocence,” and instead expected that the defense would engage in whataboutism and argue “extenuating circumstances Democrats now speak violently too, and they didn’t care when cities exploded in violence last summer.”