Judge in Dr Gold case applauded anti-free speech socialists disrupting SCOTUS

Eliyahu Tulshinski

June 21, 2022

Political judge tells Jan 6 protestors 'enough of this nonsense'
Says their politics are irrelevant as he berates them for having the wrong political beliefs
Gaslights defendants, telling them he's not considering their politics as he considers their politics
Told defendant to go to different news sites
But applauds illegal protests by political allies
Light sentences for protestors connected to Marxist aligned movement
Harsh sentences for Free Speech advocates

Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, has a mantra he repeats as he sentences January 6th protestors:

You’re not being singled out for your political views.

Biased? Not me

Is one to suppose that this self-promoting statement inoculates Cooper from charges that, as a judge, he acts on his long time connection to Left-wing politics, as an advisor to the Obama administration who was married by the Biden administration's attorney general to a woman who represents the disgraced FBI agents who led an anti-Trump sting operation as an “insurance policy” to “stop” Trump’s election.

Your politics are irrelevant, but don't go to those news sites any more

Appearing to assume impunity, Cooper goes on to prove the no-bias claim to be false, immediately following up his mantra by blasting defendants for the very political views he had just claimed not to consider.

“You’re not being singled out for your political views or anything like that,” Cooper said. “It’s how and where you decided to express them” ... At the end of the hearing, Judge Cooper also advised [Texas businesswoman Jenna] Ryan to think about what sources she relied upon for her news in the future.

Believe what you want, but don’t believe that

In the case of New Yorker Traci Sunstrum, Cooper specifically discussed her political views after calling them irrelevant:

Cooper said he was not punishing her for her political views or personal associations, but he expressed concern whether some conspiracy theory would cause her "to answer this kind of call again."

"In light of her statements for being there because ‘my POTUS called me to be there,' it seems to me those facts warrant a period of probation or supervision to ensure that she is free from these sorts of influence going forward," Cooper said … The judge noted Sunstrum was wearing a QAnon hat during the riot.

Judicial gaslighting

A former city councilor from West Virginia, Eric Barber, received a special kind of self-contradictory sentencing speech from Cooper - in sandwich form, getting berated for his political views both before and after being told that his political views were irrelevant, effectively gaslighting the defendant with an impossible paradox he’s expected to either accept or think he’s lost his mind because he can’t understand the judge’s implausible reprimand; “it’s about your political nonsense, it’s not about that, it is about that.”

The judge also offered the former elected official a reality check.

“You’re too old and you’re too accomplished and you’re too smart to get involved in nonsense like this,” Cooper said after he handed down the sentence.

“This is not about the First Amendment. You are free to express your views. You’re free to support any political candidate or positions or issues that you want. I encourage that. But enough of this nonsense, OK?”

AFLDS founder gets Cooper “sandwich” treatment

Cooper likewise told America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) founder Dr. Simone Gold that her politics did not affect the two-month jail sentence he gave her for the misdemeanor of being present in the Capitol, in between statements about … her politics!

Your organization is leaving people with the misimpression that this is a political prosecution or that it's about free speech. It ain't about free speech. January 6 was about a lot of things, but it wasn't about free speech or Covid vaccinations... the only reason you are here is where and when and how you chose to express your views…

Cooper continued with an offensive against the voluntary member donations made to the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Dr. Gold.

I find it unseemly that your organization is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for its operations, including your salary.

“It ain't about free speech” but you mustn’t use it!

Cooper thus attacked Dr. Gold for using her first amendment right to free speech to discuss her prosecution while immediately afterwards telling her, “It ain't about free speech.” Cooper's publicly expressed outrage stemmed from the fact that, after getting fired from her emergency room position for her political views, her first amendment protected website expressing those political views remains successful.

“It ain't about free speech” but you can use it!

In a very similar but very different case, protestors who disrupted a Supreme Court hearing appeared before the same, but different sounding, Judge Cooper:

US District Judge Christopher Cooper said on Monday that he did not doubt the sincerity of the defendants' beliefs, and that he applauded their commitment to participating in the political process ... However, they were not in court because of their beliefs, Cooper said... "We are here for one reason and one reason only, which is where and when and how you chose to share those views."

The same mantra given to the Jan 6 defendants, but only after Cooper “applauded” their politics.

Which politics did Cooper “applaud?”

Ironically, the “applauded” demonstrators were anti-free speech activists protesting a Supreme Court decision striking down a law that infringed upon the First Amendment right to post political ads.

Light sentences for comrades

Judge Cooper did not just take a different verbal approach to the anti-free speech protestors. He followed up his supportive rhetoric with quite different sentencing. While confining Dr. Gold to prison for two months, Cooper found a one-weekend jail term appropriate for four of those protestors, with a fifth defendant spending two weekends behind bars.

This despite their involvement with a group that carried out a year-long “coordinated” effort to disrupt Supreme Court proceedings. These particular protestors interfered “with the right of lawyers to argue on behalf of their clients without having to worry if there would be another disruption.”

Socialist protestors need not express remorse?

Cooper accused Dr. Gold of not expressing remorse for mistakenly entering an open building and not expressing sadness at the deaths of policemen which never happened on that day, despite the fact that,

Gold … said she deeply regrets entering the Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and didn’t intend to get involved in an event that was “so destructive to our nation.”

“It’s the opposite of who I am,” she told Cooper.

Cooper did not seem to have a problem, though, with the lack of remorse expressed by one of those protestors that he sentenced to just one weekend for disrupting SCOTUS, who proudly proclaimed to Cooper's face:

. . . if protests were an annoyance, "it’s an annoyance in the same sense that a fire alarm is."

The progressive social movement organizing those protests was founded by socialist Kai Newkirk in the “wake of Occupy,” a revolutionary, Marxist aligned, movement.

Cooper’s other sentences

Please check back as we look at Judge Cooper’s sentencing history and also see the official AFLDS press release on Dr. Gold’s sentencing as well as the previous articles in our series on the politicization of police, prosecutors and judges: