4/8/21
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday defended Eric Munchel, who prosecutors identified as the man pictured during the Capitol riot in the Senate chamber in tactical gear with zip-tie handcuffs. The image - alongside a second figure said to be his mother Lisa Eisenhart - became one of the defining scenes of the unrest on January 6. The two were arrested together. In a monologue Tuesday night, Carlson criticized a decision by a judge to hold the pair in custody until their trial because they were deemed dangerous. The decision was later overturned by a different judge, and the two were freed under house arrest last week. "Neither Lisa Eisenhart or her son damaged any property in the Capitol or committed any violence, they just walked in to what we used to refer to as 'The People's House,'" said Carlson. "And yet somehow Joe Biden's Justice Department convinced a federal judge that Lisa Eisenhart was quote 'a threat to our Republic' and her son was a 'would be martyr.' Keep in mind, these are people whose crime was trespassing in the Capitol. We're not endorsing that, but some perspective please." Both Munchel and Eisenhart have been charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds, conspiracy and civil disorder. They deny the charges. Federal agents had been investigating whether Munchel or others carrying zip-tie restraints had planned on taking hostages. No evidence of such plans has emerged publicly, The Washington Post reported.
Munchel has claimed in court filings he found the zip-tie handcuffs on a table inside the Capitol building and took them to ensure they weren't by police used to restrain protestors, and did not enter carrying them. According to the AP, prosecutors allege that Munchel and Eisenhart wore bulletproof tactical vests while storming the Capitol, that Munchel carried a stun gun and that the pair stashed weapons in a bag outside the building before entering. Carlson has long sought to portray the reaction to the January 6 violence as overblown, and the Biden administration's push to clamp down on far-right extremism as a covert bid to persecute ordinary conservatives. Michael Sherwin, a federal prosecutor who led the investigation into the riots until March, told CBS News that the Justice Department was pursuing 400 criminal cases in relation to the Capitol riots. He said that of those defendants, "the majority of those, 80, 85%, maybe even 90" had been charged with non-violent offences, with 100 charged with violence against police, 25 with destroying federal property, and more than 25 with conspiracy.