Page 25 - CLT020121
P. 25

NEWS                                       FEBRUARY 1, 2021 ¦ 25

attorney’s office decided not to                                   witness claimed that Pezzola was
bring charges—and was a member                                     in a group whose members said
of the trial team that lost at trial in                            they would kill have killed then-
the case against Gregory Craig,          For the U.S. attorney’s   Vice President Mike Pence if given
the former Obama White House             office in Washington,     the chance.
counsel and partner at Skadden,          it has required an all-
                                                                     Kenerson was on the team that
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.             hands effort, pulling in  handled the case against Maria Bu-

The surge of cases stemming prosecutors with varied tina, a young gun activist who was
from the insurrection is expected expertise and backgrounds sentenced in 2019 to 18 months in
to also tax the courts and the feder-                              prison after admitting to acting as
al defender’s office. In initial court   bringing cases over       a covert Russian agent. Kenerson
hearings, many of the charged                                      has also prosecuted a Portuguese
participants in the riot have been        everything from bank     engineer for conspiring to help
deemed eligible for public defend-       robbery and sanctions     an Iranian company obtain U.S.
ers for lack of personal finances.       violations to espionage   technology and a Singaporean

                                                and murder.

In the aftermath of the rioting,                                   for acting in the U.S. as an illegal
federal investigators have mined                                   agent of China.
photographs and videos and taken                                   Another prosecutor on the Bu-
in thousands of tips to identify participants. Court tina case, Jolie Zimmerman, has been tasked with
filings so far have included photographs of maskless the case against Christine Priola, who was photo-
participants, along with incriminating social me- graphed carrying a sign that read “The Children Cry
dia posts and comments to news reporters, placing Out for Justice” in the Senate chamber. Priola was
them inside the Capitol on Jan. 6.             arrested in Ohio on charges she unlawfully entered
An Arkansas man, Richard Barnett, was shown in the Capitol while Congress was certifying the elec-
a widely shared photograph with his feet on the desk toral victory of President Joe Biden.
of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He was charged ear- Zimmerman, a former counsel at Wilmer Cutler
lier this month with unlawfully entering the Capitol Pickering Hale and Dorr, joined the U.S. attorney’s
and looting Pelosi’s office. His case is being han- office in 2018 after stints as a federal prosecutor in
dled by Mary Lyle Dohrmann and Nicole McClain, Los Angeles and trial attorney for the Justice De-
whose previous experience includes the prosecution partment’s national security division.
of a slashing at a bus stop and the burglarizing of The case against Jacob Chansley, the Arizona who
four elementary schools in the District of Columbia. was photographed in a horned headdress inside the
Kevin Seefried, the Delaware man photographed Capitol, is being prosecuted by Kimberly Paschal, a
carrying a Confederate flag through the Capitol, is former litigation associate at Winston & Strawn who
being prosecuted by Liz Aloi, an assistant U.S. at- joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2016. Known as
torney in the public corruption section. Aloi has the “QAnon Shaman,” Chansley stood out in pho-
specialized in prosecuting fraud in government tographs of the insurrection with a getup that also
contracting and brought charges last year against a featured red face paint and a six-foot spear.
Federal Aviation Administration employee accused In her four years at the U.S. attorney’s office, Pas-
of using information stolen from the agency in a chall has prosecuted an attempted shooting of a
scheme to extort foreign officials.            police officer and an armed kidnapping.
The case against Dominic Pezzola, a member of                                                      ¦

the Proud Boys accused of breaking a window with C. Ryan Barber, based in Washington, covers
a Capitol police shield, is being handled so far by government affairs and regulatory compliance.
Erik Kenerson, a prosecutor specializing in national Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @
security cases. In court papers, prosecutors said a cryanbarber

                                                                                            CONNECTICUT
                                                                                             Law Tribune
   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30