Want a job with Trump? Add 'rioter' to your resume

DOJ hires a man accused of yelling 'Kill 'em' at Jan. 6 cop beaters, and that's supposed to be just fine

By Sam Bellamy

Donald Trump’s celebration of cop-beaters, vandals and all-around insurrectionists continues, adding to his joyous Inauguration Day pardoning of nearly 1,600 Capitol Hill rioters. The festivities remain so high-spirited, in fact, that one of those rioters has even joined the party planners.

Jared L. Wise, a former FBI agent accused of shouting “Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” to fellow rioters beating law enforcement officers on Jan. 6, 2021 has been hired by the Trump administration to serve as an adviser to a new “Weaponization Working Group” at the Justice Department.

The group is led by Ed Martin, Trump’s short-lived nominee for U.S. Attorney in Washington D.C., who withdrew his name following questions about, among other things, his association with a rioter who’s been known to wear a Hitler moustache and lament the failure of the Nazis to achieve world domination.

As a consolation prize, Trump quickly named Martin to direct the Orwellian weaponization group, which is ostensibly in charge of investigation allegations that the Biden administration engaged in politically motivated prosecutions but is actually drumming up politically motivated prosecutions of its own.

Martin, who also serves as Trump’s pardon attorney, regards Wise as perfect for his job. Wise is deemed to be so damned good, a source at the Justice Department told The New York Times, that Martin described Mr. Kill ’Em as being what that weaponization group would produce if “we could genetically design an adviser.”

That’s high praise, but let’s examine the man’s resume, shall we?

Wise was on trial for his role in the Jan. 6 riots when Trump issued his mass pardons, at the urging of Martin, who’d represented some of the accused as a private attorney.

Here’s how ABC News described the case: “Wise was charged in May 2023 and later indicted, with prosecutors pointing to videos showing him yelling ‘Kill 'em!’ repeatedly as rioters attacked police outside of the Capitol building. He also allegedly entered the building for roughly nine minutes and then continued shouting at police.

‘You guys are disgusting,’ Wise allegedly said in body camera footage recorded by law enforcement. ‘I’m former law enforcement. You’re disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can’t see it. … Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!’”

Seems like a nice fellow, no?

According to The Times, Wise had worked on public corruption and counterterrorism matters from the New York and D.C. offices of the FBI and took part in the Benghazi investigation. “Mr. Wise left the bureau after his supervisors in New York became unhappy with his work, and his career had stalled, a former senior F.B.I. official said,” The Times reported.

Wise then went to work at Project Veritas under the supervision of a former British spy recruited to the group by Erik Prince of Blackwater infamy “to train operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets,” according to The Times.

The paper reported that Wise trained at Prince’s ranch in Wyoming and later infiltrated teacher unions in several states. Prince’s sister, Betsy Devos, was secretary of education in Trump’s first term.

Now, it appears, Wise will be among Trumpers examining the events of Jan. 6. Attorney General Pam Bondi has described the weaponization group’s mission as, among other things, looking into “improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions.”

Right. It was, after all, quite unsporting for the government to videotape Trump supporters beating police officers so badly that four of them would soon commit suicide, vandalizing and stealing property at the Capitol and defecating and urinating in its hallways. Not to mention trying to stop the certification of Biden’s victory over Trump and trying, with zip ties in hand, to get to lawmakers desperately fleeing the scene.

This was, as Trump has said, “a day of love,” nothing more.

To make amends for the harassment and imprisonment of rioters, Bondi recently fire three career prosecutors who’d led cases against people like Wise and the Hitler moustache twirler.

NBC News spoke to former and current DOJ employees about the dismissals, which they said would have “a chilling effect on the Justice Department workforce and would leave career prosecutors and FBI officials hesitant to pursue cases against any Trump allies for fear of being targeted by the administration.”

Why ever would they get that idea?

Not every rioter has emerged unscathed from the day of love, however. Last week, a federal judge in Tennessee sentenced one of them, Edward Kelley, to life in prison for creating and distributing a “kill list” of three dozen FBI agents and others in law enforcement who’d investigated him for his role in the riots.

Prosecutors told the court last month that Kelley “is remorseless and has shown neither a capacity nor desire to rehabilitate. On the contrary, Kelley not only believes the actions for which he was convicted were justified but that his duty as a self-styled 'patriot' compelled him to target East Tennessee law enforcement for assassination.”

It should be noted that Kelley was among the people pardoned by Trump in January. But the get-out-of-jail card didn’t extend to his activities after the riot.

Given that Trump’s Justice Department allowed the “kill list” prosecution to move forward, one might reasonably conclude that Bondi and other officials supported holding Kelley accountable.

So, to recap, in Trump world, drawing up a list of law enforcement agents to kill is unacceptable, but actually beating the hell out of them or encouraging other rioters to do so is just fine.

Given the depravity of the Trump administration, though, it might be premature to conclude that Kelley won’t be pardoned for this, too.

And maybe even offered a job.