Within the newest twist in a authorized saga that’s dragged on for almost six years, a federal choose in Orange County granted bail Tuesday to the accused founding father of a violent white supremacist group — however the order is not going to take impact for a minimum of 4 days pending a evaluate by the next court docket.
Throughout a listening to that lasted greater than an hour, U.S. District Decide Cormac J. Carney questioned the federal government’s use of sources on the case earlier than granting bail to Robert Rundo, who spent almost a yr as a fugitive till he was extradited from Romania final yr to face conspiracy and rioting fees.
Carney has twice dismissed the federal government’s case towards Rundo and different members of a now-defunct white supremacist group generally known as the Rise Above Motion, or RAM. The choose has acknowledged that Rundo and others had been being selectively prosecuted, whereas “far-left extremist teams” weren’t.
“I perceive worldwide, harmful folks, and with all due respect to Mr. Rundo, he was a knucklehead who was misguided,” Carney stated on Tuesday. “This isn’t the felony of the century. I don’t have any proof that anybody was significantly damage, even Antifa, not to mention harmless civilians.”
After Carney dismissed fees towards Rundo in February, Rundo was launched for a short while over objections from prosecutors, who appealed the choice. Rundo was later taken again into custody in San Diego County.
The ninth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals later dominated that any future district court docket resolution to launch Rundo be mechanically stayed for a minimum of 4 days.
In a written order Tuesday, Carney known as the prosecution’s conduct within the case “fairly troubling” and stated the federal government “simply doesn’t appear to care concerning the Structure.”
“We’re prosecuting people related to a militant white-supremacy group,” U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada stated in a press release after the listening to. “As federal prosecutors, we do all the things we are able to to guard our neighborhood, and we accomplish that ethically and in conformity with the Structure.”
In court docket, Asst. U.S. Atty. Solomon Kim described Rundo, wearing a white jail uniform, as “a world fugitive who has evaded legislation enforcement systematically and repeatedly through the years.” He stated Rundo had traveled to a minimum of seven nations, booked greater than a dozen flights and assumed totally different aliases as a part of that effort.
In a written opposition to Rundo’s request for bail, prosecutors described him as “harmful and violent,” citing a 2010 case the place Rundo was sentenced to 2 years in jail for repeatedly stabbing an individual.
“No matter what this court docket or protection counsel could consider associated as to whether or not the defendant was selectively prosecuted, that doesn’t change the very fact of the defendant’s flight and the hazard that he poses to the neighborhood,” Kim stated.
Inside Rundo’s house in Huntington Seaside, which he shared with a fellow Nazi-sympathizer, prosecutors stated, he saved Nazi paraphernalia, together with “drawings of swastikas and a Nazi eagle decoration” in his bed room and “a framed portrait of Adolf Hitler in the lounge.”
The case towards Rundo dates to 2018, when he and three others had been charged with violating federal conspiracy and riot statutes tied to their actions with the Rise Above Motion. A federal indictment alleged that Rundo and different defendants recruited new members to the group, coordinated coaching in hand-to-hand fight, and traveled to political rallies to assault protesters at occasions throughout the state.
The indictment alleged that members participated in assaults at political rallies in Huntington Seaside on March 25, 2017; in Berkeley on April 15, 2017; and in San Bernardino on June 10, 2017. Afterward, they allegedly educated for future occasions and celebrated by posting images on-line of RAM members assaulting folks.
Rundo was accused of organizing the violent confrontations and in addition attacking protesters and law enforcement officials. After Rundo was ordered by police to cease attacking a “defenseless particular person” in the course of the Berkeley protest, he allegedly punched an officer twice within the head, in response to an arrest warrant.
In his written order, Carney stated Rundo and different defendants had been “not the true menace to democracy on the rallies,” as an alternative blaming the anti-fascist motion generally known as “Antifa.”
“Antifa, not Mr. Rundo and his co-defendants, went to the rallies to close them down by demeaning, pepper spraying, assaulting and injuring the folks in attendance,” Carney wrote. “Mr. Rundo and his co-defendants’ clear function in attending the rallies, however, was to battle Antifa and forestall Antifa from hurting the folks in attendance.”
In the course of the Tuesday listening to, Carney questioned whether or not Kim believed they’d “get 12 folks in Orange County to unanimously agree that Mr. Rundo and three different folks conspired to commit violence towards harmless counterprotesters.”
“We do,” Kim stated.
“I’ve been doing this — lawyer and choose — for 36 years and my sense is Orange County folks don’t like Antifa demeaning disabled veterans, they don’t like them desecrating our flag, they don’t like them pepper spraying center aged girls who’re simply arguing what they consider,” Carney stated. “I feel you’re going to have an issue.”
