After appellate reversal, white supremacist leader pleads guilty in political rioting case
After appellate reversal, white supremacist leader pleads guilty in political rioting case
Prosecutors have agreed to recommend Robert Rundo serve no more than two years in federal prison when he's sentenced, currently scheduled for Dec. 13 in Los Angeles.
White supremacist leader Robert Paul Rundo pleaded guilty on Friday to a felony charge related to violence at political rallies that a federal judge previously blamed on left-wing activists.
Prosecutors have agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than two years in prison, followed by no more than two years of probation. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton in Los Angeles scheduled sentencing for Dec. 13.
Rundo, 34, remains in custody. He was briefly free in February after the previous judge on his case, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, granted a dismissal motion brought by Rundo’s public defenders that argued he was being selectively prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice because left-wing activists engaged in violence at political rallies and haven’t been prosecuted.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordered Rundo returned to custody, then in July reinstated his criminal indictment and said Carney “compared apples to oranges” when he compared Antifa and far-left groups to Rundo and his co-defendants. The three-judge panel also said in a separate order that Carney “clearly erred” when he said Rundo doesn’t endanger public safety and is unlikely to flee.
By then, Carney had moved to senior inactive status and was no longer hearing cases. Rundo’s case was assigned to Staton, who requested a status report in August. Attorneys said on Aug. 29 they were “discussing resolution of the case,” then prosecutors filed the plea agreement on Sept. 4.
Rundo admitted to conspiring with members of his violent white supremacist group Rise Above Movement to attend rallies “with the intent to provoke and engage in violent physical conflicts.” He and his co-conspirators shared photos on social media of training sessions “accompanied by statements such as “When the squad[’]s not out smashing commies,” “#rightwingdeathsquad,” and “#goodnightleftside,” according to the agreement.
The 17-page plea deal says the conspiracy occurred between March 2017 and May 2018. It describes violence at rallies in Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino in 2017 and cites online messages posted afterward that include photos. Rundo was charged with two counts, but he agreed to plead guilty to only one: conspiracy to riot. Prosecutors will ask Judge Staton to dismiss his other charge of rioting when he’s sentenced.
They agreed to a base offense level of 14 under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, with two additional points for “more than minimal planning.”
Prosecutors and Rundo did not agree to his criminal history, which includes a 2010 conviction for attempted gang assault in Queens, New York. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but his sentencing range could be 21 months to 27 months if he’s in the first criminal history category, or 24 months to 30 months if he’s in the second category.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend he “be sentenced to a term of imprisonment no higher than 24 months’ imprisonment followed by a term of supervised released no higher than 24 months.”
Staton scheduled Friday’s change-of-plea hearing last week. Rundo appeared before her Friday morning with Deputy Federal Public Defender Erin Murphy. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anna Boylan and Kathrynne Seiden are to file a memorandum detailing their sentencing recommendation no more than two weeks before the Dec. 13 hearing, as is Murphy.
Federal officials announced Rundo’s guilty plea in a press release Friday that stated his maximum prison sentence is five years but did not mention that prosecutors have agreed to recommend no more than 24 months.
Rundo wasn’t the only defendant affected by the 9th Circuit’s reversal of Judge Carney’s dismissal order. Robert Boman’s charges were reinstated, too, and still are pending.
Boman struck a plea deal with prosecutors last year, but he never actually entered his guilty plea. Instead, Carney said after hearing a prosecutor read the factual basis for Boman’s plea that he didn’t believe a guilty plea would be legally valid. Carney then reversed U.S. Magistrate Judge Alka Sagar’s order detaining Boman, and Boman was released on $5,000 bond. He was still out of custody when Carney dismissed the indictment in February, and he wept in the courthouse hallway when approached by a reporter.
“You know, it says in the scripture that God gave Jesus Christ all authority over all authority and all power,” Boman said then.
Boman has yet to appear in court since the 9th Circuit reinstated his charges.
Another defendant, Tyler Laube, pleaded guilty last October to interference with a federally protected right without bodily injury, as part of an agreement with prosecutors related to him punching a journalist at the March 25, 2017, Huntington Beach rally. He did not seek to withdraw his guilty plea after Carney dismissed Rundo’s and Boman’s charges and was instead sentenced in April to 35 days already served in jail, probation for one year and a $2,000 fine. He’s currently on federal probation in Arizona.
I commented a while back on Twitter that Rundo would have been wise to plead guilty to both counts while Judge Carney was on his case, because Carney surely would have imposed a non-custodial sentence, and Rundo would be free today. Instead, his lawyers spent an enormous amount of time and energy defending Carney’s dismissal order at the 9th Circuit in what was obviously a losing battle. Now Carney is off the case, and Rundo is guilty. What a waste.
Previous articles:
Feb. 29: 9th Circuit rejects Rundo's release request amid another discharge order from Judge Carney
March 14: 9th Circuit stays future release orders for neo-Nazi Robert Rundo amid dismissal appeal
April 4: Judge cites Antifa when rejecting prison for white supremacist’s former associate
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