Iced Earth’s guitarist Jon Schaffer pleaded guilty a year and a half ago to his actions for partaking in the Capitol riot and now he is continuing to cooperate with authorities while being on pre-sentencing release.
According to blabbermouth.net a status report was filed last Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., where Schaffer‘s attorney Andrew C. Marcantel of Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm mentioned that Schaffer remained on release under the supervision of the District of Columbia Pre-Trial Services Department. Schaffer has agreed with pre-trial release conditions.
“The defendant’s cooperation plea agreement was the first plea of the several hundred Capitol Riot cases and has involved cooperation in the largest conspiracy arising out of the incident that has been indicted to date. He has remained cooperative with law enforcement since his release. Multiple defendants charged in the case in which the Defendant is cooperating have been presented before the Court; several are in the process of exploring case resolutions and a trial date has yet to be set.” said Marcantel
Also Marcantel has mentioned how he has reached out to counsel for the government’s Assistant U.S. Attorney Ahmed Baset multiple times in regards to filing a joint status report but Marcantel has not been able to reach Baset.
On April 2021 Justice Department’s press release stated Schaffer did acknowledged that he is a founding lifetime member of the right-wing Oath Keepers extremist group.
December of last year a lawsuit was filed in the federal court in Washington, D.C. which accused 31 members of Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and Schaffer of a conspiring to terrorize the District on January 6, 2021, calling their actions “a planned act of domestic terrorism. The lawsuit states the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which is a federal law created after the Civil War to protect civil rights and as District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine stated, “to protect against vigilantes and insurrectionists.”
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