Sovereign Citizen 2

see previous -ty

Sovereign Citizen 2

see const sheriffs

see agenda 21, tea party, wise use, JBS, christian, militia

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an 10 24

no lnx

alternet

Busted: Armed man arrested at rally tied to Trump's 'secretary of retribution'

Ivan Raiklin takes the stage to speak at a New Hampshire Election Security Seminar presented by the New Hampshire Voter Integrity Group in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., November 19, 2021. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Jordan GreenandRaw Story October 21, 2024

The man arrested with guns outside Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, Calif. on Oct. 12 had spoken about assassination attempts against the former president less than two weeks earlier with a retired Army lieutenant colonel who calls himself Trump’s “secretary of retribution.”

Vem Miller, a 49-year-old former music video director who now produces conspiracy-driven documentary films, interviewed retired Lt. Col. Ivan Raiklin, known for circulating a “Deep State target list” against Trump’s political enemies. The interview was produced for the America Happens Network, a company co-founded by Miller that describes itself as “the anti-thesis of what the mockingbird media has to offer.”

“You know, you inspire me,” Miller told Raiklin during the interview, which was posted on the video platform Rumble on Oct. 1. “This episode’s actually going to be called, ‘What are we going to do once they steal the election,’ because that’s certain, 100 percent certainty that they’re going to steal this. And we need to be prepared.”

“I already have a plan,” Raiklin responded. “I have the counter-strategy. I’ve already war-gamed basically their next 15 moves. I got 30 moves ahead of it. I’m doing worse-case [sic] scenario. And if worse-case [sic] scenario doesn’t happen, we win, right? But I’m always planning for the worse case [sic] scenario that they can do, both within their law, legal authority, and beyond of what they’re capable of.

“So, the categories of what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna continue to try to assassinate Trump,” Raiklin continued. “I already got a plan in response to that and what should take place.”

“Tell me that,” Miller interrupted. “Say it.”

“No, no, no,” Raiklin responded. “I don’t need to put it out. Because if I put it out, people are going to think I’m trying to advocate for that to take place. I’m not. But you always have to have someone planning out worst case already in advance that has already thought through it, so that immediate action takes place. I’ve already thought through that deliberately. I got a response for that. It’s going to be worse for them if that takes place.”

Vem Miller (right) speaks with Ivan Raiklin during a taping of his show "Blood Money," which was posted to Rumble on Oct. 1.(Screengrab / America Happens Network)

Raiklin added that he had already explained his thinking during an appearance on InfoWars with conspiracy trafficker Alex Jones in February 2024.

During that exchange, Raiklin told Jones: “This is a message directly to every single person on the Deep State target list. My assessment — Ivan Raiklin’s assessment that if you assassinate any political presidential candidate, whether it’s RFK, whether it’s Trump, guess what? America will do the following: Immediately, they will respond in kind.

“If they do that, option 2 behind Trump is going to be so much better for us, and so much worse for them,” Raiklin continued.

“I was about to say, if they kill him that’s best-case scenario,” Jones agreed. “From a sick level, from a sick level medium, oh, please kill him. It’s so good after that.”

Raiklin added: “It’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I assess with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, himself a fervent Trump supporter, told reporters during a press conference that a deputy arrested Miller when he stopped his vehicle at the inner perimeter of the rally. Miller had been allowed to drive through the outer perimeter, Bianco said, because it appeared that he was either a VIP or press.

But at a checkpoint for the inner perimeter, the sheriff said the deputy noticed that the “interior of the vehicle was in quite disarray.” The deputy also noticed a homemade license plate that led him to conclude that the driver was a sovereign citizen. Bianco said the deputy found multiple driver’s licenses and passports with different names. Eventually, the deputy also found a loaded handgun and a shotgun, the sheriff said.

The arrest took place before Trump arrived at the rally. Bianco said Miller was arrested for illegal firearms.

"If you're asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt," Bianco said.

Miller denied that he had any intent to assassinate Trump, calling himself “100 percent a Trump supporter” in an interview with Fox News. He also denied that he is a sovereign citizen or that he was carrying fake documents.

Mindy Robinson, one of Miller’s partners at the America Happens Network, angrily posted on X that Miller’s arrest was retribution from the “Deep State.” Miller and Robinson released a six-hour documentary, which opens with an apocalyptic assessment of current events centered on the first assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pa. before moving to its main subject: the armed standoff in 2014 that pitted the Bundy family and their supporters against the FBI.

“Vem just exposed a huge Deep State coverup involving the feds and the Bundy ranch scandal,” Robinson wrote on X on Sunday. “So, I firmly believe this is 100% some kind of setup in retribution for exposing it. That, or Trump’s security team is a bunch of dips---s trying to make up for how badly they failed in Pennsylvania with any kind of ‘win’ they can get, fake or not.

“There isn’t a universe his intention was to kill Trump,” Robinson continued. “He’s worked too hard in this movement to expose the Deep State and all the people against him. If he had guns in his car that were illegal, whooptie-f---ing do As a pro-2A advocate, ask me if I give a s--- about a good guy with a gun in an unsafe s---hole like California. It doesn’t even make sense why his passes would be fake either when we’re both usually invited as media to these things.”

Raiklin’s response to the news of his associate’s arrest was uncharacteristically muted.

“My hunch is there will be lots of retractions,” he posted on X on Sunday. “And the sheriff will have egg on his face as his stunt will be the end of his gubernatorial run before it even started.”

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tdb

no lnx

Armed ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Arrested Outside Trump Rally Has Bizarre Explanation for Why He Was There

Vem Miller claims he’s “very close” with Donald Trump’s family and first met the former president at the premier of one of the sequels to the Wesley Snipes vampire movie Blade.

Sean Craig

Reporter

Published Oct. 14, 2024 12:50PM EDT

Vem Miller

Vem Miller/Rumble

The armed sovereign citizen who was arrested Saturday outside a Trump rally in Coachella, California offered a bizarre reason for what he was doing there.

Vem Miller—who local officials initially implied was “probably” trying to assassinate former president Donald Trump—claimed that he is actually “very close” with the Republican nominee’s family.

“I've talked to Don Jr., I've talked to Eric Trump,” he said, in a video posted to conservative-friendly streaming site Rumble. “I know a lot of people within the Trump family and the extended family, and I have been integrally involved.”

‘Sovereign Citizen’ Cuffed Outside Trump Rally: I’m Innocent

WHO, ME?

Zachary Folk,

Brett Bachman

Donald Trump

Miller claimed he is also well known to the Trump campaign, and said he has been issued passes to campaign events 20 or more times for a conservative online media network he runs.

He said he has a long track record of “going to Trump rallies, covering Trump rallies, being very close with individuals in the Trump extended family, multiple individuals,” which he said could be confirmed by checking his social media accounts.

Miller’s Instagram account features selfies with former Trump advisors Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, as well as a litany of conservative figures like Nigel Farage, Lou Dobbs, Jordan Peterson. He also posted a video of Don Jr. taken at the Republican National Convention in July.

“I should note that I met the president on multiple occasions,” Miller said, describing the president as “very cool.”

He then claimed the first time he met Trump was at the New York City premiere of one of the sequels to the Wesley Snipes vampire action movie Blade.

“First time I met him was at the Blade premiere,” Miller claimed. “I believe it was Blade II or Blade III in New York City,” Miller said. Blade II was released in 2002, while Blade: Trinity—the name of the third film in the series—was released in 2004.

In his video, Miller asserted that he has been a “staunch supporter” of Trump for nearly eight years, although said he doesn’t identify with “any political party except for one that supports our freedoms, our constitutional rights, our medical freedoms and gets rid of the corrupt politicians that are plaguing our nation.”

A self-styled “producer, dj, lawyer, vision guy,” he is a registered Republican and ran for the state assembly in Nevada in 2022 before losing in the primary, according to the San Bernardino Sun.

Miller was arrested Saturday after passing through an initial security checkpoint by stating he had VIP and media passes. Police stopped his black SUV around 5 pm on Saturday, roughly half a mile from the site of the Trump rally.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco later told a press conference that a deputy noticed his vehicle had an “obviously fake” license plate. Police allege they found driver’s licenses and passports with different names, an unregistered loaded handgun and shotgun, and an ammunition magazine in the vehicle.

Bianco said markings on the license plate suggested Miller is a member of “a group of individuals that claim to be sovereign citizens.” Sovereign citizens are a loose network of conspiracy theorists who wrongly believe they are not under the jurisdiction of the government and claim they are exempt from U.S. law.

“We probably stopped another assassination attempt” Bianco told the San Bernardino Sun.

After he was arrested, Miller was booked on firearms charges and released on $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear at the Indio Larson Justice Center in January.

The US Secret Service, FBI and the Department of Justice said in a joint statement that Trump “was not in any danger.”

Miller suggested he plans to sue the local police for making “defamatory, nonsensical statements” and that he could win “hundreds of millions.”

“We thank law enforcement for securing the rally site and helping ensure the safety of President Trump,” the former president's campaign said in a statement. “We are aware of news reports about the arrest and are currently monitoring the situation and gathering more information.”

Sean Craig

Reporter

sean.craig@thedailybeast.com

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.

===

an 10 24

Revealed: Bundy collaborator fueled FEMA conspiracy in Hurricane Helene aftermath

Clockwise from upper right: Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox, Pete Santilli, Jon Ritzheimer, Ryan Payne, Joe O'Shaughnessy

Jordan GreenandRaw StoryOctober 14, 2024

Only 30 minutes after billionaire Elon Musk began publicly accusing the federal government of blocking his company from delivering the satellite internet components to the disaster zone in western North Carolina, another extraordinary claim popped up on X.

“NC State Police issue statement that they will start arresting any federal employees trying to hinder rescue operations,” an Arizona man named Joseph O’Shaughnessy wrote on X Oct. 4.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, quickly disputed the claim from Musk, who owns both SpaceX and the social media platform X and would speak at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa. the following day. But O’Shaughnessy’s claim piggy-backing off Musk's post added a new layer to manufactured intrigue: a potential clash between state and federal authorities in a region traumatized by the staggering loss.

The statement is completely false, and it comes from someone with a history of armed confrontation with the FBI and other federal agencies. O’Shaughnessy served prison time for his role in the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 and was also charged in the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014.

Prior to his involvement in the Bundy ranch standoff, O’Shaughnessy had been arrested for disorderly conduct, domestic violence and drugs, according to federal prosecutors.

“If you tie back to this guy, you’ll see that nothing reliable comes from that guy,” First Sgt. Christopher Knox, a public information officer for the N.C. State Highway Patrol, told Raw Story. “That’s not a trusted source of information. That information is not true in any way, shape or form.”

Knox pointed out that North Carolina doesn’t even have an agency called “NC State Police.” The claim is even more dubious if one considers that State Highway Patrol in North Carolina is under the command of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, an ally of Vice President Kamala Harris. From a purely partisan standpoint, it is unlikely the two agencies would end up in an adversarial position with one another.

O'Shaughnessy responded to an inquiry from Raw Story by sending an AI-generated GIF of Trump dancing through a direct message on X.

While O’Shaughnessy’s post was quickly shot down by X users who pointed out that no such agency exists in North Carolina, it landed within a matrix of false claims by Trump allies that has created a mutually reinforced narrative, belied by the facts on the ground, that the federal government is abandoning the people of western North Carolina.

O’Shaughnessy’s post was reshared 18,000 times, including Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has a long history of promoting conspiracy theories despite a professional background that requires an ability to separate fact from fantasy astutely.

Before joining the Trump administration, Flynn held the highest military intelligence position as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, re-shared O’Shaughnessy’s post, writing: “Finally, some good news!”

Flynn, who has persistently used his X account to push apocalyptic messages about the impending breakup of the United States, has also pushed misinformation related to the disaster. During an Oct. 4 interview with right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, Flynn said there were “reports” about “illegals” raping children, while describing the flood-ravaged region as a “warzone.”

Flynn also could not be reached for comment for this story.

Johnson, who interviewed Flynn on his show, was recently employed by a media company alleged by federal prosecutors to be a front for a Russian influence operation. Johnson and other conservative influencers linked to the company have said they were victims of the scheme. During his interview with Flynn on Oct. 4, Johnson echoed many of the same themes as his guest during his opening monologue for the segment, claiming that the federal government has “chosen” immigrants over Trump supporters.

“Our federal government has left you to die in whatever small, inconsequential town that you come from because you are a Trump voter, because you support MAGA, because you are America first,” he said.

Flynn wasn’t the only one who greeted O’Shaughnessy’s bogus claim about a state law enforcement agency challenging the federal government.

Gianna Miceli, who co-hosts a podcast that promotes sovereign citizen ideology, enthused: “Now we have a jurisdiction war happening! What a great time for people to learn some lessons about who is the government and who is not.”

“Exactly,” O’Shaughnessy responded.

In another reply to O’Shaughnessy’s thread, Miceli falsely claimed: “FEMA is a private for-profit corporation. It is not government.”

O’Shaughnessy’s false claim that a state agency in North Carolina is threatening to arrest federal agents in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election fits a pattern with not only his involvement in the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff and 2016 Malheur occupation, but also the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Bundy ranch, Malheur occupation and Stop the Steal 2020

O’Shaughnessy was described in a federal indictment in response to the Bundy ranch standoff as a “mid-level leader and organizer of the conspiracy who, among other things: organized gunmen and other followers; led gunmen and other followers in the assault and extortion of federal law enforcement at the impound site; organized protection for members of the criminal enterprise; and organized armed patrols and security checkpoints.”

Similarly, federal prosecutors would later describe O’Shaughnessy as a “mid-level organizer” of the Malheur occupation. In a video interview during the occupation, according to the criminal complaint, O’Shaughnessy said: “I’m right now in the process of trying to set up a constitutional security protection force to make sure these federal agents and these law enforcement don’t just come in here like cowboys.”

O’Shaughnessy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede federal officers for his conduct during the Malheur occupation, but the government dismissed charges in the Bundy ranch case. O’Shaughnessy was sentenced to time served, and reportedly spent one year and nine months in custody for the two cases.

O’Shaughnessy has described Roger Stone, a political consultant and longtime confidant of Trump, as a “hero and a mentor.” Like Flynn, Stone was pivotal in mobilizing a pressure campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Immediately following the 2020 election, Stone privately strategized with Flynn, the Washington Post reported.

O’Shaughnessy’s Instagram account shows that he was with Stone during a dinner in Florida with Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander in November 2020. Another post shows dated Dec. 11, 2020, the eve of the pro-Trump Jericho March rally in Washington, D.C. includes a photo that shows Stone drinking with InfoWars conspiracy trafficker Alex Jones.

It is unclear what, if anything, O’Shaughnessy discussed with Stone, Jones and Alexander when they met on those two occasions.

A false claim that evolved out of Elon Musk’s dustup with FEMA

In his false post about state law enforcement threatening to arrest their counterparts last week, O’Shaughnessy appears to have taken a cue from Nick Sortor, a right-wing videographer who spent the past week in the Asheville area delivering Starlink terminals while producing media assailing the federal government response to the disaster.

In an Oct. 3 X post, Sortor thanked Musk and SpaceX “for bringing us another truckload of Starlinks. A photo in the post shows an officer wearing a North Carolina State Highway Patrol uniform holding a box labeled “Starlink,” while a video shows police vehicles that appear to be providing an escort for Sortor down a winding mountain road.

The following day, Sortor replied to Musk’s post accusing FEMA of preventing his engineers from allowing him to deliver supplies. In his reply, Sortor appears to reference the State Highway Patrol, while using the same misnomer that O’Shaughnessy would later use.

“Let me know where the blockades are and we’ll have the NC State Police move them out of the way,” Sortor wrote. “Already did it once, which is one reason why we have an escort now. FEMA has zero jurisdiction.

“Trust me,” he added. “They’re not going to win this one.”

Twenty-four minutes later, O’Shaughnessy made his post claiming that the “NC State Police” were prepared to start arresting federal agents.

Challenged to substantiate his claim, O’Shaughnessy responded to one detractor by writing, “Calm down stranger danger, my boys were one of the 1st on-scene to bring aid…. I am the source.”

O’Shaughnessy didn’t identify his “boys” on the ground in North Carolina, but on Sunday he praised Sortor for delivering the Starlink terminals, writing, “And everyone, please follow @nicksortor. He’s the one who made it happen.”

Manufacturing a fake turf war between FEMA and state law enforcement doesn’t help the residents of western North Carolina, Christopher Knox, the State Highway Patrol spokesperson, told Raw Story. Instead of relying on dubious accounts on X, Knox recommended that people seek information about the recovery effort from trusted sources such as the NC Department of Public Safety.

“There’s a lot of people hurting and a lot of people looking for resources,” Knox said. “We hate that there’s stuff out there slowing the response. Getting people to the right sources is a big goal of the state of North Carolina.”

NOW READ: The Purge is real: Inside the GOP's 2024 playbook to disenfranchise voters

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June 20, 2023

Frederick Clarkson @ Salon: “Unfriending” America: The Christian right is coming for the enemies of God — like you and me.
Adam Gabbat @ The Guardian: Well-funded Christian group behind US effort to roll back LGBTQ+ rights.
John E. Finn @ Talking Points Memo: Conservatives Are Now Trying To Create ‘Constitutional Counties,’ Which Happen To Be Unconstitutional.
Beth Reinhard and Josh Dawsey @ The Washington Post: Gov. Ron DeSantis used secretive panel to flip state Supreme Court.
Stephanie McCrummen @The Atlantic: The Woman Who Bought A Mountain For God.
Justin Baragona @ The Daily Beast: MAGA Melts Down Over Hunter’s Plea Deal: We’re ‘Controlled by COMMUNISTS!’
David Gilbert @ Vice News: Inside Moms for Liberty’s Close Relationship With the Proud Boys.

Tags: Leonard Leo Ron DeSantis Round-Up Seven Mountains Alliance Defending Freedom Moms for Liberty Proud Boys

year in hate

https://www.splcenter.org/year-hate-extremism-2022/trends-and-threats#sheriffs

the no lnx nice grsf

Sheriffs Working to Subvert Democracy

By Rachel Goldwasser

A smattering of county sheriffs across the U.S. tested the limits of democracy in 2022, with an assist from extremist law enforcement groups.

These constitutional sheriffs are devoted members of an antigovernment extremist movement that believes sheriffs are the highest authority in the country, above even the president. They usurp the duties of the Supreme Court by personally deciding which U.S. laws are legitimate and whether to enforce them.

These sheriffs are actively damaging the nation’s rule of law and attempting to shape the U.S. into a country where fringe law enforcement officers determine what human, civil and property rights they will enforce.

In the U.S., where the justice system already perpetuates great inequities that disproportionately effect people of color, these members of law enforcement further undermine equal justice under the law.

In 2022, constitutional sheriffs’ ideology intruded into another facet of democracy: elections. Members melded their extremist positions with their law enforcement authority to investigate rogue, conspiratorial allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election and brought doubt into the legitimacy of the 2022 midterm elections.

Two extremist law enforcement groups, Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) and Protect America Now (PAN), led these efforts.

CSPOA radicalizes sheriffs and the public through law enforcement training, presentations to lawmakers and civilians, online media and books written by the group’s founder Richard Mack. The organization is linked to extremists, including Oath Keepers, sovereign citizens, neo-confederates and white nationalists.

PAN was founded by political operatives and is less outspoken about their constitutional sheriff beliefs, but most of their advisory board and members are constitutional sheriffs whose ideology has shaped the organization at large. PAN has focused its attention on immigration issues, supporting the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) in its efforts to demonize migrants and lobby for policies that reflect this.

Beginning in the summer of 2022, both organizations worked with election conspiracy group True the Vote, whose founders participated in the film 2000 Mules, which promotes the “Big Lie,” the conspiracy theory parroted by former President Trump that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

The Sheriffs Alliance Interfering with U.S. Elections

Graphic connecting individuals and groups with efforts to interfere in U.S. elections

Photos credits: Donald Trump: James Devaney/GC Images; Michael Flynn: Chris Kleponis/AFP via Getty Images; Sidney Powell: Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Catherine Engelbrecht: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; Lin Wood, Mark Lamb, Richard Mack: Gage Skidmore; Gregg Phillips: CNN Screen Shot via Texas Tribune

CSPOA posted a press release to its website on May 24, 2022, calling on local law enforcement agencies to investigate the 2020 election. The organization’s leaders and member sheriffs repeated the claim on July 12 at a CSPOA press conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sheriffs that were investigating and those considering it spoke publicly about their efforts and repeated themselves a day later at the Libertarian Freedom Fest in Las Vegas.

True the Vote announced its partnership with PAN on June 22, calling it ProtectAmerica.Vote. The group advertised that the effort was intended to teach sheriffs about their state election laws and provide them with grants to investigate alleged voting violations. The partnership included a plan to build a “National Election Integrity Voter Hotline” that would be linked to sheriffs’ offices and promote their cause in an informational campaign starting Aug. 1.

Multiple sheriffs affiliated with CSPOA and PAN spent the year attempting to investigate the 2020 election or interfering in the 2022 midterm elections. A group of devout constitutional sheriffs from Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin were the most egregious.

ARIZONA’S CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFF PROBLEM

Mark Lamb, sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, and PAN leader acted as the face of the PAN True the Vote partnership. In an interview published in the right-wing media source American Greatness on July 20, Lamb claimed that he was “disturbed” by talk of a law enforcement focus on domestic violence threats, that the feds had no jurisdiction over his county and that if they tried to push what he called unconstitutional mandates, “We would stop them,” Lamb said.

David Rhodes, Sheriff of Yavapai County, Arizona, has been linked to CSPOA and the Oath Keepers, and most recently an Oath Keepers offshoot organization, the Yavapai County Preparedness Team (YCPT). YCPT and the group Lions of Liberty formulated a plan to stake out and film Arizona ballot drop boxes for cases of fraud. At a July 23 YCPT meeting, group leader Jim Arroyo told members, “We have already coordinated with Sheriff Rhodes, and he told us if we see somebody stuffing a ballot box, and we get a license plate, they will make an arrest, and there will be a prosecution. Bottom line.” YCPT and Lions of Liberty eventually halted monitoring after a lawsuit was filed against them by Protect Democracy on behalf of the League of Women Voters asserting the group was engaging in voter intimidation.

MILITIAS, ELECTIONS AND PLOTS IN MIDWEST

Dar Leaf, Sheriff of Barry County, Michigan, is a lifetime member of CSPOA. He received the group’s Sheriff of the Year award in 2017. On May 18, 2020, Leaf appeared at a protest alongside members of theMichigan Liberty Militia (MLM), whose members were found guilty in 2022 of a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Leaf was asked if he regretted having shared a stage with MLM members, and he replied, “It’s just a charge, and they say a ‘plot to kidnap,’ and you got to remember that. Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested. So, are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still in Michigan if it is a felony, make a felony arrest.”

In December 2020, Leaf began his investigation into the presidential election. Leaf’s attorney Carson Tucker reached out to Trump allies, including conspiracy theorist and former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell and Lin Wood’sFight Back Foundation asking for information regarding "counties that have been potentially compromised.” Leaf tried to seize the voting machines from those counties to run his own investigation. In 2021 Leaf also worked with a private investigator who partnered with a sheriff’s deputy to question county clerks in six Michigan townships. After learning that the state was investigating his own investigation, on June 3, 2022, Leaf sued the Michigan attorney general, secretary of state and members of the state troopers for illegal interference. His claims in his lawsuit were dismissed by a Michigan judge on Aug. 29, 2022.

Leaf’s extremist election denial continued through 2022 as he made claims of voter fraud at the July CSPOA True the Vote press conference, FreedomFest in Las Vegas and to CSPOA members after the midterms. Leaf has gone so far as to call for sheriffs to host common law grand juries on the 2018 “stolen election” conspiracy. This type of grand jury is promoted by the National Liberty Alliance, a sovereign citizen group Leaf has worked with.

Christopher Schmaling, Sheriff of Racine County, Wisconsin, has also closely affiliated with CSPOA. He has appeared on Sheriff Mack’s online show and presented with CSPOA at 2022 FreedomFest. Schmaling, who was once the keynote speaker at a Trump rally, launched his own investigation into alleged 2020 voter fraud.

In 2021, Sheriff Schmaling tried to have nursing home staff and the majority of the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) arrested. He claimed they committed voter fraud after the WEC changed a policy during the pandemic that allowed nursing home staff to assist residents with their ballots in 2020. The Racine County District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute.

Ironically, in 2022, Schmaling refused to charge Harry Wait, leader of the group H.O.T. Government, who requested multiple absentee ballots using false information. When asked about it, Wait said, “Basically, I committed a crime when I ordered them. I emailed Sheriff Schmaling, asked if he was going to arrest me, and he said, ‘hell no.’ ” The Wisconsin attorney general’s office began an investigation July 29, 2022.

Schmaling also presented at 2022 FreedomFest, alongside other election denying sheriffs.

Unfortunately, these men have made a significant impact, using their power as law enforcement officials to make and investigate spurious allegations and gotten their ideas in front of a wide audience. Fortunately, these men represent a fringe movement, one many law enforcement officers still refuse to participate in.

While multiple Arizona sheriffs including Sheriffs Lamb and Rhodes joined the constitutional sheriff’s movement and meddled in U.S. elections, making the process more fraught for voters, another Arizona sheriff, Paul Penzone of Maricopa County, Arizona, exemplified the legitimate role of sheriffs: He chose to denounce the same extremist ideology and support democracy rather than participate in actions or groups working to damage it.

In in the run-up to the 2020 election, Penzone said in a press release, “With the same conviction we display when taking the oath of office, we must commit to practice impartial and nonpolitical actions during the course of our duties.” He continued, “Denying, ignoring or refusing to recognize and apply the laws as they are written is not within the authority of law enforcement professionals. Terms such as ‘Sanctuary’ county become an excuse to circumvent the law and defy due process and democracy.”

Then again on Nov 12, 2022, when speaking to the groups and politicians targeting elections and voting facilities, Penzone told the press he would not stand for any threat to voting, voting facilities or election workers.

“We are seeing a radical movement, including some local law enforcement, of people who are committed to destroying trust in our system for their own selfish gain,” Penzone told the press in August as the 2022 midterm elections heated up. “We must fight against it, or our nation will no longer be the democratic standard.”

REJECTING CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFFS IN POLICY

All law enforcement can play a role in minimizing the harm from the constitutional sheriff movement. They can resist disinformation and conspiracy theories. They can resist recruitment into extremist groups like CSPOA, PAN and the Oath Keepers that actively prey on them. County sheriffs and police chiefs can push back on the notion that their function is to interpret the law rather than enforce it. The National Sheriffs Association can finally decide that there is no place for extremism among their ranks and refuse membership to sheriffs who actively promote antigovernment ideologies, including constitutional sheriffs.

State leaders can ensure that board members of their state police officer trainings and certification programs (POST) are not constitutional sheriffs or affiliated with extremists. These same boards can also create rules that prevent extremists from conducting official law enforcement training in their state.

States should limit the role of sheriffs’ posse members or deputized private citizens to core law enforcement functions – not election administration. And federal and state authorities should ensure that constitutional sheriffs do not engage in voter intimidation or intervene or interfere in election administration in any way.

Congress can ensure no federal funds are used for training that promotes CSPOA propaganda. Congress should investigate all law enforcement departments’ links to extremism. Law enforcement officials who self-identify as constitutional sheriffs, engage in election interference or otherwise violate the Department of Justice’s new Title VI protocols prohibiting discriminatory conduct, should be ineligible to receive federal funds.

Every level of government from national, state, and local law enforcement organizations should publicly reject the views and practices of constitutional sheriffs – and should not permit these individuals to serve in leadership positions.

note victim, always reluctant, 1776

mma 922 law lic suspend dc chryon]

LARRY KLAYMAN (FOUNDER, JUDICIAL WATCH): Here's what we're talking about right now. It's a full-court press. It's not an insurrection, it's an inquisition by the left to destroy all opposition to their total takeover of this country. And the place they really are most interested in is destroying conservative lawyers who can't fight back in court. So where does that leave us? I don't want to see this. But we're headed into revolution. And that's why we're doing what we're doing. We're trying Biden before citizens' grand juries and citizens' trials for the bribery from communist China, Ukraine, and Russia.

You can see that at our website at FreedomWatchUSA.org. We're trying Fauci, he talked about COVID-19. He's responsible for the death of 6 million people and counting worldwide. He gave the virus to the communist Chinese, the seeds of it, the SARS virus, with $3.7 million of grants from the Obama-Biden administration. So this is where we are. And I relish the fight because we're trying to do it peacefully and legally, but we are not far off. I mean, January 6 will look like a warm-up act. In fact, that wasn't violent. It was peaceful, by and large. A few people on either side, that's it. But next time it's going to be like the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, in France. That's where, regrettably, wemay be headed. And you, and I, and One America News, and others are trying to prevent that, but it looks inevitable at this point almost.

ADDISON SMITH (HOST):Well, it's just, you know, when we don't have a justice system anymore. When we don't have a justice system in place that's actually impartial and that actually is protecting the civil liberties and the rights of both sides, where else can you turn to, Larry? Conservatives can't turn to the justice system anymore. They can't turn to lawyers like you for help because they're just going to suspend your license. They can't turn to Trump because Trump's getting raided and decimated by the FBI. So conservatives have nowhere to turn to. Our own justice system has betrayed us.

KLAYMAN: Well, it's not true in all the states, by the way. I mean, D.C. and New York are the exceptions, OK? They're highly leftist, they're borderline socialist-communist, I mean, actually they're socialist for sure, borderline communist in their approach. But yes, this is an attempt across the board. And it's not gonna stop me from filing cases, I still can do it even in my own personal capacity. But the country needs to understand that we are at war. Biden declared war on us a few weeks ago. MAGA, you know, Make America Great Again. We are white domestic terrorists. That's what we are, white male domestic terrorists, primarily. Women can be domestic terrorists, too, in his estimation. But he has declared war. And we have not declared war on him. It reminds me of the days leading up and the actual day itself of July 4, 1776. Our Founding Fathers did not declare war on the king. They simply said we're going our own way. We've had it. When in the course of human events, I'm paraphrasing from the Declaration of Independence, the sovereign no longer represents the people. The people have a right under the laws of nature and nature's god, not the law of the state, not the law of the king, to alter or abolish that government and to form a new government by and for the people with equal rights for everyone in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. That's the Declaration of Independence.

...

Do you think we can survive another two years with Joe Biden? We're already on our knees. We're on our back, gasping for air. This guy has destroyed the country in just two years.So consequently, we need to form a new government. Take immunity away from judges. Take immunity away from federal government officials. Make them accountable to the rule of law. Give the American people more standing to bring lawsuits in honest courts. Elect judges, don't appoint them. Now they're appointed through legalized bribes called campaign contributions. Is it no wonder that even Trump's own judges are throwing the January 6 protesters in prison?

...

It takes a counter-revolution. Wake up America. Wake up America. If you care about your kids, grandkids, future generations as our Founding Fathers did, get up off the couch if you're retired, stop counting your shekels, your money, and [SEND IT TO US AT] join us at FreedomWatchUSA.org. Or if you're middle-aged or young, you're going to have no country left. You almost have no country left right now. So we're trying to do it in the peaceful and legal way. The American people own our legal system, not the political hacks on the federal bench and some bar disciplinary counsels and other places in this country. We will rise up, and with God's divine providence, we will prevail as our Founding Fathers did.

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/soverign-citizen/

remix?

no lnx

Sovereign-citizen members bolster their audiences by adding QAnon beliefs to their mix

Image via Screengrab.

David Neiwert and Daily Kos June 26, 2022

The “sovereign citizen” movement—comprising scam artists and their gullible followers who claim that, by filling reams of documents full of pseudo-legal babble, ordinary citizens can declare themselves free of government rule at any level, thus becoming the law unto themselves—seems to have figured out how, after a couple of decades of mostly lurking on the fringes of the extreme right, to expand its reach and revive (if not entirely rebrand) itself: Go full QAnon.

Last weekend, onetime Pennsylvania Republican candidate Bobby Lawrence boasted that he and his “American State Nationals” operation filled a room in Keene, Texas, with 650 people who paid $120 each to take their special “training”—which teaches that birth certificates are satanic documents that enslave people by subsuming them under a corporation, but they can free themselves by filing their prescribed “redemption” documents. They also ardently promote Qanon conspiracy theories, including the claim that John F. Kennedy Jr. was secretly Trump’s real vice president.

The Anti-Defamation League has been warning about this coalescence since January, with Lawrence and his cohort David Straight, who have been holding these seminars around the country and, thanks to the fresh appeal of absorbing QAnon beliefs into the similarly conspiracy-fueled worldview of sovereign citizens, have increasingly been packing them in.

As their backgrounder explained:

Lawrence teaches sovereignty with a QAnon bent, urging his followers to become “American State Nationals” before Trump is reinstated as president. “American State National” is one of many terms that sovereign citizens use to distinguish themselves from citizens under the jurisdiction of the illegitimate, de facto government. “Trump is working on the ‘Fall of the Cabal’ which will allow our Constitutional Republic to Rise again, however the newly partially restored Constitutional Republic will need We The People of restored status via ‘The Great Awakening’ to fill and function in the newly partially restored Constitutional Republic,” Lawrence posted toTelegram in October 2021. “This will only be accomplished via We The People reclaiming our Birthrightby becoming American State Nationals... As the number of American State Nationals and one of the People increases, so will the Function of the [sic] our Constitutional Republic. It will start at theabsolute local level(you and your neighbors) and then grow and grow and grow.”

Sovereign-citizen and QAnon beliefs meld together almost seamlessly, as the ADL explains, because their fundamental worldviews involving a massive global cabal nefariously conspiring to enslave mankind are so similar. The sovereign movement’s belief that the current U.S. government is illegitimate serves to support their view of the Biden presidency as fraudulent, as well as the means for “freeing” themselves from such “tyranny.”

Lawrence primarily promotes a version of sovereign-citizen beliefs called “Redemption Theory,” which deals with the core concept that everyone who is an American citizen is designated a “strawman” corporate entity at birth, making them subsidiary properties of America Inc. “Redemption” is the process by which they split the strawman from the flesh-and-blood human, and its purpose is two-fold. As the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) explains:

Once separated from the corporate shell, the newly freed man is now outside of the jurisdiction of all admiralty laws. [Arrrrh me hearties] More importantly, by filing a series of complex, legal-sounding documents, the sovereign can tap into that secret Treasury account for his own purposes. Over the last 30 years, there have been hundreds of sovereign promoters packaging different combinations of forms and paperwork, attempting to perfect the process.While no one has ever succeeded, of course, they know with the religious certainty of a true cult believer that they’re close. All it will take is the right combination of words, say the promoters of the redemption scam.

Lawrence regularly regales his audiences with his version of the “redemption” scam, but with a powerful QAnon flavor. At an April 21 “Patriots Arise” event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—where he shared the stage with Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano—Lawrence launched to into a rant that manifested that commingling two conspiracist universes produces twice the crackpottery.

He explained how modern births and the birth-certificate process are actually satanic rituals:

Fred read a quote from [Woodrow Wilson adviser] Edward Mandell House where they talk about this construct, where they’regonna make slaves of us all, through a system of pledging, where we pledge our children as surety through something called a birth certificate, and a satanic ritual that takes place. …

So I’m gonna walk you through a satanic ritual that takes place, and it started with the birth certificate, which was actually chartered under the Department of Transportation. And everything is Admiralty. We all live under the water, and what is law, and where does law come from? Where does the word “law” come from? Land, air, and water. And where the founders of this nation thought about what law was, was the Bible, the Geneva Bible, the King James Version 1611 edition, where we got the word law from.And land, air, and water was in Genesis Chapter 1, verse 24 through 28, “and God created the heaven and the earth.” And God giveth man dominion over the earth, and God giveth man dominion over the land, and all the creatures that walk and creepeth. And God giveth man dominion over the air, and all the birds that fly, and God giveth man dominion over the water, and all the fish that swimmeth. And this is law.

Lawrence then repeated stock sovereign-citizen beliefs (all every bit as risibly false as his etymology for the word “law”) that there are three tiers of law: Canon law, common law, and Admiralty law, each reflecting rule over air, land, and water respectively. Then he went on:

So how do they get you to pledge your child, and how did our parents and our grandparents pledge us as property[slavery?] , as surety, in our personification, all capital names? It was through an evil, satanic ritual called the birth of a child.

You see, a mother goes into a foundling center, and she goes to see the doc—tor; a tor is a bill of lading when a ship arrives at the dock—and the mother puts her feet up on the stirrups and the mother’s waterbreaks, and the child comes out of the water through the birth canal, like you berth a ship, into the air, into the hands of the dock—tor. And then, historically speaking, a satanic ritual would take place—a child was smacked on the butt, turned upside down, cried out in fear and pain. And then before the child could put their feet on the land and take the breath of God as a free creation of God, a legal bond document came out. It’s on bond paper because it’s a banking instrument, it’s a surety bond.

And the child’s soul was taken on the back of that document. It was called the soul print. And then the umbilical cord and the afterbirth was thereby dead and abandoned by the mother, because that was part of your birth, part of your being born. The construct, the evil says that now that is dead, a part of you died and now you are a dead vessel, you are an all-capital legal fiction. They called you a person. If you look at your driver’s license, if you look at every document that government or any business sends you, it’s in your all-capital name. Your personification. Now the Bible tells us not to take on the persona, not to take on the person.

Lawrence also harkened to the stock radicalization belief in “red-pilling”: “We are living in Babylon right now,” he said. “It’s a corporate construct. It’s a Matrix. Keanu Reeves has said publicly that The Matrix is a documentary of how we are living our lives. Your money’s not real, you don’t own anything.”

And near the end, he wrapped it all up with a classic QAnon-style claim that Donald Trump is secretly One Of Them:

Yes, President Trump has done many things for us. And I won’t go into a lot of them, because quite frankly a lot of folks aren’t ready for it. And it’s hard to verify. But Donald Trump has told you all, if you go back to his speeches, he’s told you that when he comes back, he’s gonna be little letters, lower case. Look to his speech in 2021 at CPAC in Texas. He said when we go back to the White House this time it’s going to be in little letters. He told you at another rally that people are sovereign. He told you at another rally that you’re all millionaires. He told you in another rally that you’re the elite. And they’re the scoundrels. He told you at another rally that the Bar Association is corrupt. He tells you on and on—he might talk for two hours, but only four sentences are for those who are awake. And there’s a huge difference between being woke and awake, is it not?

Lawrence has formed close associations with leading QAnon influencers such as Ann Vandersteel, Allen and Francine Fosdick, the Pennsylvania-based hosts of the QAnon show Up Front in the Prophetic, and David Straight.

Vandersteel posted proudly announced onGab that she was “officially an American State National,” meaning she no longer was beholden to the U.S. government. She touted the supposed benefits of becoming an “American state national,” such as freedom from paying federal taxes to getting to “vote as a delegate, which has the power of four votes,” in an appearance on “The Conservative Daily Podcast,” hosted by Joe Oltmann and Max McGuire.

She said she had been introduced to these ideas by Lawrence, who ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2018.Vandersteel indicated that Lawrence was radicalized afterward through his contacts with David Straight, a sovereign citizen activist who also promoted QAnon theories. Vandersteel claimed that Straight was a “commissioner on President Trump’s child sex-trafficking commission.”

ADL analyst Mark Pitcavage explained Lawrence’s rant on Twitter, noting that “redemption theory” originated with a sovereign-citizen guru named Roger Elvick back in 1999, and it became widespread within the movement.

“Basic redemption theory is something like this: In 1933, the US went off the gold standard and could therefore no longer pay its debts to the international bankers. To get around this, the government turned humans into collateral by converting birth certificates into stock,” he wrote. “They did this in part by creating fictional duplicates of every person (dubbed ‘strawmen’). You can tell when a document refers to the straw man instead of the flesh and blood person because the name will be in all caps, not upper and lower case.”

He also noted that much of the talk is devoted to explaining the sovereign-citizen belief that the conspiracy which infiltrated and subverted and replaced the original, legitimate government with a de facto tyrannical government had done so by replacing constitutional law with inferior “maritime” or “admiralty” law.

“Finally,” he noted, “the Satanic references thrown in there are derived from QAnon and presumably designed to make these theories more palatable to QAnoners.”

Given the size of Lawrence’s audiences now, and the regularity and breadth of “American State Nationalist” training sessions, the ADL’s January warning—“Given the flexibility of the sovereign citizen movement and its pseudo-legal tactics,it is quite possible that increasing numbers of QAnon adherents will find sovereign citizen ideas attractive in the future”—seems more than prescient. It may, in fact, prove to be understated.

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Theories

Writing in American Scientific Affiliation, Dennis L. Feucht reviews American Militias: Rebellion, Racism & Religion by Richard Abanes, and describes the theory of a sovereign-citizen leader Richard McDonald, which is that there are two classes of citizens in America: the "original citizens of the states" (or "States citizens") and "U.S. citizens". McDonald asserts that U.S. citizens or "Fourteenth Amendment citizens" have civil rights,

Legislated to give the freed black slaves after the Civil War rights comparable to the unalienable constitutional rights of white state citizens. The benefits of U.S. citizenship are received by consent in exchange for freedom. State citizens consequently take steps to revoke and rescind their U.S. citizenship and reassert their de jure common-law state citizen status. This involves removing one's self from federal jurisdiction and relinquishing any evidence of consent to U.S. citizenship, such as a Social Security number, driver's license, car registration, use of ZIP codes, marriage license, voter registration, and birth certificate. Also included is refusal to pay state and federal income taxes because citizens not under U.S. jurisdiction are not required to pay them. Only residents (resident aliens) of the states, not its citizens, are income-taxable, state citizens argue. And as a state citizen land owner, one can bring forward the original land patent and file it with the county for absolute or allodial property rights. Such allodial ownership is held "without recognizing any superior to whom any duty is due on account thereof" (Black's Law Dictionary). Superiors include those who levy property taxes or who hold mortgages or liens against the property.^[19]

In support of his theories, McDonald has established State Citizen Service Centers around the United States as well as a related web presence.^[20]

Writer Richard Abanes asserts that sovereign citizens fail to sufficiently examine the context of the case laws they cite, and ignore adverse evidence, such as Federalist No. 15, where Alexander Hamilton expressed the view that the Constitution placed everyone personally under federal authority.^[19]

Some "sovereign citizens" also claim that they can become immune to most or all laws of the USA by renouncing their citizenship, a process they refer to as "expatriation", which involves filing or delivering a bogus legal document to whichever county clerk's office they can get to accept it.^[21]

History

The concept of a sovereign citizen originated in the Posse Comitatus movement as a teaching of Christian Identity minister William P. Gale. The concept has influenced the tax protester movement, the Christian Patriot movement, and the redemption movement—the last of which claims that the U.S. government uses its citizens as collateral against foreign debt.^[6]

Gale identified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as the act that converted sovereign citizens into federal citizens by their agreement to a contract to accept benefits from the federal government. Other commentators have identified other acts, including the Uniform Commercial Code,^[22] the Emergency Banking Act,^[22] the Zone Improvement Plan,^[23] and the alleged suppression of the Titles of Nobility Amendment.^[24]

Some of those in the movement believe that the term "sovereign citizen" is an oxymoron and prefer to label themselves as individuals "seeking the Truth".^[25]

Legal status of theories

Variations of the argument that an individual is not subject to various laws because the individual is "sovereign" have been rejected by the courts, especially in tax cases such as Johnson v. Commissioner (Phyllis Johnson's argument—that she was not subject to the federal income tax because she was an "individual sovereign citizen"—was rejected by the Court),^[26] Wikoff v. Commissioner (argument by Austin Wikoff—that he was not subject to the federal income tax because he was an "individual sovereign citizen"—was rejected by the Court),^[27] United States v. Hart (Douglas Hart's argument—in response to a lawsuit against him for filing false lien notices against IRS personnel, that the U.S. District Court had no jurisdiction over him because he was a "sovereign citizen"—was rejected by the District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit),^[28] Young v. Internal Revenue Serv. (Jerry Young's argument—that the Internal Revenue Code did not pertain to him because he was a "sovereign citizen"—was rejected by the U.S. District Court),^[29] and Stoecklin v. Commissioner (Kenneth Stoecklin's argument—that he was a "freeborn and sovereign" person and was therefore not subject to the income tax laws—was rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; The court imposed $3,000 penalty on Stoecklin for filing a frivolous appeal).^[30]

...

Incidents

Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, who was convicted in 2004, was a member of the sovereign citizen movement, having asserted individual sovereignty in at least three court cases.^[46]

2010

In May 2010, two police officers in West Memphis, Arkansas were shot and killed by Joseph T. Kane after Kane and his father were the subject of a traffic stop. Kane and his father were later identified as members of the sovereign citizen movement.^[47][48]

In September 2010, David Russell Myrland, an associate of a sovereign citizens group, sent emails and placed telephone calls to various officials of the City of Kirkland, Washington, telling them to "keep their doors unlocked", that they were going to be arrested, and that they "should not resist".^[49] Myrland also reportedly threatened federal judges and the chief prosecutor of King County, Washington.^[50] Myrland's threat to arrest the mayor of Kirkland came about after he was arrested by police. His vehicle had been impounded after he was found driving with a suspended license and expired vehicle-license tabs. An unloaded gun with ammunition nearby had been found on the seat of the car.^[51] Although he was not a law enforcement officer, Myrland had claimed that he had the authority to form a group of private citizens to arrest felons in public office "as permitted by RCW 9A.16.020"^[51] (the state statute governing lawful use of force).^[52] On December 2, 2011, Myrland was sentenced to three years and four months in federal prison after pleading guilty in connection with the threats he made, including the threat to forcibly arrest the mayor of Kirkland, Washington.^[49] Myrland was released from prison on January 29, 2014.^[53]

2011

In March 2011, a central figure in the sovereign citizen movement named Samuel Lynn Davis pleaded guilty to 31 counts of money laundering in Federal district court in Nevada. Davis was snared in a sting operation after he agreed to launder more than $1.29 million in what he believed to be illicit funds. Davis accepted $73,782 in fees to launder the money, not realizing he was dealing with federal law enforcement agents.^[54] In October 2011, Davis was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison, and was ordered to pay over $95,000 in restitution.^[55][56] As of late July 2012, Davis was classified as a fugitive, having failed to surrender to authorities to begin his prison sentence in June 2012.^[57] On August 7, 2012, Davis was arrested by sheriff's deputies in White Earth, North Dakota.^[58] Davis is inmate # 43741-048 at the La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution at Anthony, Texas near El Paso, and is scheduled for release on April 24, 2017.^[59]

In September 2011, Edward and Elaine Brown, serving long federal prison sentences for various crimes, were identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as being members of the sovereign citizen movement.^[60]

On November 4, 2011, a federal jury in Montgomery, Alabama found Monty Ervin guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax evasion. His wife Patricia Ervin was also found guilty of various related charges. According to a news release by the U.S. Department of Justice, Ervin and his wife had acquired hundreds of investment properties over a ten-year period, had received more than $9 million in rental income, but had paid nothing in federal income taxes. The Ervins reportedly claimed that they were not United States citizens, that they were "sovereigns," and that they did not consider themselves subject to federal or state law. Ervin and his wife had also filed documents in probate court attempting to renounce their U.S. citizenship. In one filing, Ervin declared himself to be the governor of Alabama in its "original jurisdiction."^[61] On May 29, 2012, Monty Ervin was sentenced to ten years in prison, and Patricia Ervin was sentenced to five years of probation, with the condition that she spend 40 consecutive weekends in jail.^[62]

In December 2011, Shawn Talbot Rice was arrested at his home at Seligman, Arizona, after a ten-hour standoff with FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel.^[63] On July 24, 2012, Rice was found guilty in federal court in Nevada in connection with the same money-laundering scheme that resulted in the conviction of Samuel Lynn Davis. The guilty verdicts came on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, thirteen counts of money laundering, and four counts of failure to appear in court in connection with time that Rice spent as a fugitive. Rice, who had also falsely claimed to be a lawyer and a rabbi, was described as "a leader in the anti-government 'sovereign citizens' movement."^[57] During the trial, Rice tried to argue that the presiding federal judge had no authority to render a judgment against Rice.^[64] On March 20, 2013, Rice was sentenced to 8 years and 2 months in prison, and was ordered to forfeit over $1.29 million.^[65] As of early June 2014, Rice is incarcerated at the Florence Federal Correctional Institution at Florence, Colorado, and is scheduled for release on October 9, 2020.^[66]

2012

On February 1, 2012, Timothy Garrison, an accountant from Mount Vernon, Washington was sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison after having pled guilty to tax fraud. He admitted to having filed about 50 falsified tax returns. Federal prosecutors contended that Garrison's actions cost the Internal Revenue Service over 2.4 million dollars in tax revenues. Prosecutors also stated that the sixty-year-old accountant had described himself as a "sovereign citizen" beyond the reach of state and federal law. Garrison had previously served time in federal prison in the 1980s in connection with fraud against investors in a cattle ranch.^[67] Garrison was released from Federal prison on July 16, 2014.^[68]

On June 18, 2012, Francis August Schaeffer Cox, who had asserted that he was a sovereign citizen, was found guilty in the United States District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, of several felony charges including conspiracy to commit murder.^[69][70] On January 8, 2013, Cox was sentenced to 25 years and 10 months in prison.^[71]

On June 20, 2012, Anson Chi was arrested by federal authorities for allegedly trying to blow up a natural gas pipe line in a residential area of Plano, Texas.^[72] On June 3, 2013, Chi pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to destroy a natural gas pipeline used in interstate commerce, and to a charge of possessing an explosive device not registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.^[73] However, on February 26, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an order granting Chi's motion to withdraw his guilty plea.^[74] Eventually, he again pleaded guilty and, on June 11, 2015, he was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison for possession of an unregistered firearm and for malicious use of an explosive.^[75]

On July 19, 2012, Martin Jonassen, who had described himself as a sovereign citizen, was found guilty by a jury in an Indiana federal court of kidnapping his 21-year-old daughter, whom he allegedly had sexually abused, and of obstruction of justice.^[76] During the incident, the daughter escaped from a hotel room where Jonassen had been holding her, ran naked into a store and begged for help. Jonassen was caught on surveillance footage chasing her, dragging her out of the store and pushing her into his car.^[77] The daughter reportedly "had never been to school and only read books about religion, history and the government approved by her father." She had seen a doctor only once in her life.^[78] On February 19, 2013, Jonassen was sentenced to forty years in federal prison.^[79] Jonassen is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary at Tucson, Arizona, and is scheduled for release on August 10, 2047.^[80]

On August 16, 2012, two sheriff's deputies were shot to death and two others seriously wounded after having been ambushed near LaPlace, Louisiana. Authorities arrested seven suspects, two of whom have been identified by law enforcement as members of a sovereign citizen's group.^[81]

On August 27, 2012, Lonnie G. Vernon and Karen Vernon, an Alaska couple who were described as "followers of Schaeffer Cox", pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder of U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline, who presided over a federal income tax case based on sovereign-citizen theories which had cost the Vernons their house. They also admitted that they had planned to kill Beistline's daughter and grandchildren, and an Internal Revenue Service official. The Vernons bought a silencer-equipped pistol and hand grenades in March 2011; but the seller to whom they disclosed their plans was a confidential informant, and the Vernons were arrested as soon as the transaction had been consummated.^[82] At the sentencing hearing on January 7, 2013, Lonnie Vernon continued to assert that he was denying the authority of the court, the judge and the prosecutors. Karen Vernon was sentenced to 12 years in prison.^[83] Lonnie Vernon was sentenced to over 25 years in prison.^[84] Lonnie Vernon is incarcerated at a Federal prison facility at Terre Haute, Indiana, and is scheduled for release on October 26, 2033.^[85] Karen Vernon is incarcerated at a Federal prison facility at Waseca, Minnesota, and is scheduled for release on September 4, 2021.^[86]

On September 10, 2012, David B. Graham of Gwinnett County, Georgia pled guilty to violation of the Georgia racketeering statute. After losing his home in a foreclosure, he moved back into the home and filed a fraudulent quitclaim deed in the county property records in an attempt to transfer the ownership of the home back to himself. He was one of approximately a dozen so-called "sovereign citizens" who had been indicted on racketeering charges "for essentially stealing 18 high-end homes in eight counties...."^[87] At the hearing, Graham's attorney disclosed to the Court that Graham had been "influenced by the sovereign citizen group – individuals who believe that they each make up their own sovereign state or nationality, and are thus immune to federal, state and local laws...."^[88]

On September 18, 2012, James Timothy ("Tim") Turner was arrested after having been indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 371 by, among other things, allegedly filing a false 300 million dollar bond in an attempt to pay taxes, one count of passing a false 300 million dollar bond, five additional counts of violations of section 514(a)(2) of title 18 of the U.S.C. (relating to fictitious documents), one count of filing false Form 1096 reports with the Internal Revenue Service, one count of willful failure to file a federal income tax return, and one count of giving false testimony in a federal bankruptcy proceeding. Turner had described himself as the "president" of a sovereign citizens group called the "Republic for the United States of America".^{[89][90][91][92]} According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Turner had also been involved with the Guardians of the Free Republics organization.^[93] On March 22, 2013, Turner was found guilty on all charges. On July 31, 2013, he was sentenced to 18 years in Federal prison.^[94][95] He is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Marion, Illinois, and is scheduled for release in May 2028.^[96]

On September 27, 2012, 71-year-old Phillip Monroe Ballard, who at the time was being held in Federal custody in Fort Worth, Texas, facing a trial on federal tax charges scheduled to begin on October 1, 2012, was charged with offering $100,000 in a plot to kill U.S. District Judge John McBryde, the judge who was scheduled to preside over the trial. Federal authorities alleged that Ballard gave a fellow inmate detailed instructions to kill Judge McBryde with a high-powered rifle from a building across the street from the federal courthouse. Ballard allegedly said the killer could shoot the judge as he entered the courthouse. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also alleged that Ballard had a back up plan to have his accomplice plant a bomb in the judge's vehicle. Ballard's tax trial did not begin on Monday, October 1. Instead, Ballard appeared for a preliminary hearing on the murder solicitation charge on that day. The investigation reportedly had begun a few weeks earlier, following a tip from a fellow inmate. Ballard, who claimed to be a "sovereign citizen" immune from all U.S. laws, was convicted in 1987 of a federal tax charge in connection with his seizure by force of a Mercedes automobile that was subject to a federal tax lien.^[97][98] In 2011, Ballard was also charged with falsely holding himself out as an attorney.^[99] On December 11, 2013, Ballard was found guilty of attempting to hire a hit man to kill the federal judge. On March 17, 2014, Ballard was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison for the solicitation to commit murder conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 373.^[100][101] Ballard had been awaiting trial on one count of corrupt interference with the U.S. internal revenue laws under 26 U.S.C. § 7212 and six counts of aiding and assisting in preparation of false and fraudulent U.S. federal income tax returns under 26 U.S.C. § 7206. Those charges were dropped, however, after Ballard's sentencing in the murder solicitation case.^[102] Ballard is scheduled for release in December 2029.^[103]

On December 11, 2012, Jeniffer Herring of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina allegedly led officers on a chase of up to 70 miles per hour while she was talking by cell phone to a 911 dispatcher as she allegedly refused to stop for the police who were trying to apprehend her. According to a news release from the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office, Herring told 911 dispatchers she would pull over for deputies for $300,000.^[104] A law enforcement official indicated that Herring was a member of the "sovereign citizen" movement. Herring eventually was stopped, and was charged with driving while intoxicated, felony flight to elude arrest, driving with a revoked driver license, reckless driving, and driving left of center. Herring also faces a separate charge for failure to appear in court in another case involving a charge of driving while intoxicated.^[105] On January 28, 2013, she was indicted by a grand jury.^[106]

On December 29, 2012, dentist Glenn Richard Unger, alias "Dr. Sam Kennedy," was arrested in Ogdensburg, New York, after having been indicted by a federal grand jury ten days earlier, on one count of attempting to interfere with the administration of the internal revenue laws under Internal Revenue Code section 7212(a), four counts of filing false claims for tax refunds under 18 USC section 287, one count of tax evasion under Internal Revenue Code section 7201, and one count of uttering a fictitious obligation under 18 USC section 514(a)(2). He was charged with filing more than $36 million in fraudulent federal income tax refund claims. On January 2, 2013, a federal prosecutor asserted in a court hearing for Unger that Unger was a danger to the community and that Unger had stated that he would rather die than become subject to the government. Unger has been identified as a leader of the sovereign citizen movement. The indictment alleged, among other things, that in June 2011 Unger submitted false documents with the Clerk's Office of Saratoga County, New York, in an attempt to release a $116,410.43 federal tax lien against him, for taxes and penalties for years 2004, 2005, and 2006.^{[93][107][108]} The Federal Bureau of Investigation began looking at Unger in the spring of 2010, in connection with the now-defunct group called the Guardians of the Free Republics, when the FBI was investigating letters that had been sent by that group to the governors of all fifty states, demanding that all governors resign within three days. Prosecutors also alleged that Unger filed no valid federal income tax returns between 1999 and 2005. On May 23, 2013, the court ordered a mental competency hearing for Unger after he referred to himself as being "deceased."^[109] On August 7, 2013, the Court ruled that Unger was competent to stand trial.^[110] After a four-day trial Unger was found guilty of all charges by a jury in Federal court in Albany, New York, on October 21, 2013.^[111] Evidence in the case also indicated that Unger left his dental business in 2006, and referred about eighty of his patients to an orthodontist, William O'Donnell, without telling O'Donnell that the patients had already pre-paid Unger for dental work. After O'Donnell complained to Unger that the customers were expecting O'Donnell to perform the work, Unger reportedly gave O'Donnell a bogus promissory note that O'Donnell could supposedly use to obtain funds from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. When O'Donnell tried to deposit the note at a bank, he found the note to be fictitious and worthless. On April 21, 2014, Unger was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.^[112] Unger is incarcerated at a Federal prison facility at Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and is scheduled for release on February 6, 2020.^[113]

2013

In May 2013, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service, issued its Annual Business Report for Fiscal Year 2012 (for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2012). Within the "Narcotics and Counterterrorism" section of the report, in a portion entitled "Sovereign Citizens", the IRS mentions the convictions of Monty and Patricia Ervin, Timothy Garrison and David Russell Myrland.^[114] In the report, the IRS states: "During 2012, CI [the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS] found a re-emergence of individuals and/or entities who proclaimed themselves Sovereign Citizens. Generally, they utilized anti-government or anti-tax rhetoric schemes to disrupt the tax administration process. CI has partnered with Department of Justice and Office of the Inspector General for Tax Administration to create a working group to address this emerging threat."^[88]

On June 14, 2013, Raymond Leo Jarlik Bell was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to 8 years and one month in prison after having been convicted of five counts of filing false, fictitious, and fraudulent claims; 15 counts of assisting in filing false U.S. federal tax returns, three counts of mail fraud; and one count of criminal contempt. Bell and his wife Ute Christine Jarlik Bell (who was also convicted) were identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as being members of the "Sovereign Citizen" movement. In a news media release, U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan stated that Bell had "held himself out as a tax expert with contacts at the IRS—when both the IRS and a federal judge told him repeatedly that his conduct was criminal..." Durkan stated that Bell believed he was above the law and that Bell had promoted a fraudulent tax refund scheme known as "OID fraud." Bell's wife, Ute Christine Jarlik Bell, was convicted of four counts of filing false, fictitious and fraudulent claims.^[115]

On August 22, 2013, David Allen Brutsche and Devon Campbell Newman were arrested for plotting to abduct, torture and kill Las Vegas police officers in order to attract attention to the sovereign citizens movement. They reportedly attended sovereign citizen philosophy training sessions, bought guns, and found a vacant house for their activities. The two allegedly planned to torture and kill police officers^[116] and are alleged to have created videos explaining their actions and why officers had to die.^[117] On December 12, 2013, Devon Newman pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, and was sentenced to one year of probation. The trial for Brutsche was scheduled to begin March 10, 2014^[118] but, on February 3, 2014, Brutsche pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap a police officer.^[119] On April 7, 2014, he was sentenced to five years probation.^[120]

In November 2013, Robert Carr seized eleven Ohio homes while their owners were away and filed quiet title suits to the properties.^[121] The grand jury later indicted him on felony charges of breaking and entering, and theft.^[122] Carr was sentenced to seven months in prison.^[123]

2014

On January 9, 2014, sixty-seven-year-old Sharon Alicia Anzaldi of Elmwood Park, Illinois was sentenced in federal court to five years in prison for filing fraudulent tax returns. She filed false returns for herself, family and friends, and had claimed tax refunds of over $8 million. She had tried to have her case dismissed on various grounds, including the theory that, although she was a citizen of Illinois, she was not subject to federal criminal law. The U.S. District Court ruled against her arguments. Anzaldi was also ordered to pay over $851,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.^[124] Anzaldi is currently an inmate at a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility at Lexington, Kentucky, and is scheduled for release on September 19, 2018.^[125]

On February 13, 2014, a former chiropractor named John A. Glavin of New Lisbon, Wisconsin was sentenced in Federal district court in Wisconsin to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Glavin was found guilty of filing fraudulent federal income tax refund claims of over $956,000. When the Internal Revenue Service investigated his false tax refund claims, Glavin filed false liens against IRS personnel and against the Secretary of the Treasury. In addition to his federal tax problems, Glavin had problems under the laws of the State of Wisconsin by using a "Sovereign Citizens Movement" scheme in connection with a bank foreclosure of his home. While still awaiting trial on the federal charges of filing the false tax refund claims, Glavin sent false promissory notes to the bank. He claimed that the U.S. Treasury would pay off his home mortgage. As a result of that scheme, Glavin was sentenced in a Juneau County Court in Wisconsin to 90 days in jail for fraud. In the Juneau County Court, Glavin was ordered to pay restitution of over $44,000 to the bank and to refrain from filing "sovereign citizen" paperwork in any court. The judge in the Juneau County Court stated, "The sovereign citizen theory is foolish....It is legal nonsense and frivolous."^[126] Glavin is incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Rochester, at Rochester, Minnesota, and is scheduled for release on June 11, 2016.^[127]

In March 2014, after Cliven Bundy lost a second U.S. District Court case in a 20-year court battle, he sent letters entitled "Range War Emergency Notice and Demand for Protection" to county, state, and federal officials. In his court filings, depositions, and subsequent statements, he said he does not recognize the US Government because he is a citizen of the State of Nevada.^[128]In media interviews, Bundy used the language of the sovereign citizen movement^[129] as a rallying call, beckoning support ^[129] from members of the Oath Keepers,^[129] the White Mountain Militia,^[129] the Praetorian Guard,^[129] and other like-minded individuals to join his Bundy militia^{[130][131][132][133]} in a fight against the US Government.^[129] Armed militants from Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, California, and other areas responded with a show of force^[134] by joining the Bundy militia^{[129][132][135]} at a heavily armed militia camp near Bunkerville, Nevada in early April 2014. Approximately 1000 militia members and supporters joined the fight.^[136] On April 12, 2014, and consistent with the sovereign citizen credo and without success, Bundy ordered Sheriff Gillespie to confront the federal agents, disarm them and deliver their arms to them within an hour of his declaration.^[12][137]

In April 2014, Mark Manuel, of Franklin, Tennessee, who set up a consultancy business claiming to be able to remove debts by accessing secret government bank accounts, was convicted with two associates on eight counts of mail fraud. In a press release, the FBI stated that, "the men defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars from more than 250 victims. Witnesses testified that the men encouraged customers to seek cash advances from credit cards and to raid retirement accounts in order to pay Eden Gifted Properties’ fees."^[138]

On June 6, 2014, Dennis Marx, who was later identified as being a member of the sovereign citizens movement, opened fire on a Forsyth County, Georgia courthouse, injuring one deputy before being shot and killed himself.^[139] Marx had become involved in a dispute with sheriff’s deputies in 2011. He had been arrested on marijuana and weapons possession charges. As a result, Marx sued the sheriff’s department for alleged civil rights violations and use of excessive force. The Southern Poverty Law Center asserts that in the suit, Marx filed documents using the pseudo-legal language common to "sovereign citizen" court actions.^[140][141] On the day of the incident, Marx had been scheduled to enter a plea at the courthouse in connection with the year 2011 arrest that had resulted in his lawsuit.^[142]

On June 18, 2014, Cherron Phillips (who sometimes calls herself "River Tali El Bey")^[143] was found guilty by a Federal court jury in Chicago on ten counts of retaliatory filing of false claims, including 100 billion dollars in false lien notices, against various government officials, apparently in connection with her brother's conviction on drug conspiracy charges in 2008.^[143] Even as the jury was deliberating her own case, Phillips had claimed that the court had no jurisdiction over her. After the guilty verdict was announced, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Reagan referred to her as a "paper terrorist," and the United States Marshal took her into custody. On October 14, 2014, she was sentenced to seven years in federal prison.^[144] Phillips is a resident of the Federal Correctional Institution at Waseca, Minnesota, and is scheduled for release on August 20, 2020.^[145]

2015

Already in prison since January 2007 for failure to pay federal taxes, for structuring various bank transactions to evade reporting requirements, and for attempting to obstruct administration of the U.S. internal revenue laws, Young Earth Creationist and Sovereign Citizen proponent Kent Hovind had a raft of new charges laid against him for the filing of lis pendens liens on property deemed forfeited to pay for earlier unpaid taxes.^[146] The government argued that the filing of these liens had been earlier forbidden by a court. During his incarceration, Hovind relied increasingly on Sovereign Citizen arguments, denying his U.S Citizenship and declaring "Democracy is evil and contrary to God's law". Hovind's co-defendant was Paul J. Hansen, another Sovereign Citizen advocate. In filings before the court relating to the trial, both made lengthy submissions recycling typical Sovereign Citizen tropes, such as "withdrawing consent for the proceedings", denial of jurisdiction, invocation of maritime law, the attempted convocation of unsanctioned citizen grand juries, and which threatened the judge personally.^[147][148] While the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other charges, on March 12, 2015, Hovind was found guilty of criminal contempt.^[149] The judge, however, rendered a judgment of acquittal in favor of Hovind on May 18, 2015, concluding that the relevant court order had lacked specific language prohibiting Hovind from doing what he did.^[150] Hansen, who claims he is neither a U.S. citizen nor resident because he lives on "church land", was convicted on two counts of contempt and sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years probation of August 21, 2015.^[151]

In January 2015, Ishaq Ibrahim, 28, of Philadelphia was convicted in a court in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, of multiple counts of conspiracy and robbery after defending himself using sovereign citizen arguments. Ibrahim, charged with bank robbery,^[152] repeatedly questioned the validity of the proceedings and the jurisdiction of the judge during the trial, and asserted he did not consent to the proceedings. Ibrahim initially represented himself at the trial, but after he became disruptive and was removed from the courtroom, the judge appointed lawyers to represent him. Ibrahim then monitored the trial via video from another room.^[153]

In Miami, Florida in 2015, forty-year old E-Yage Bowens was sentenced to 485 years in prison for repeatedly raping a sixteen year old girl and forcing her to cut herself. Bowens claimed to be a "sovereign citizen," and to be immune from U.S. laws.^[154]

In the media

"Public Enemy", an episode of the crime drama television program *The Glades* first broadcast July 15, 2012, depicted the sovereign citizen movement as a mixture of fraudulent promoters and sincere believers, whose proclivity for violence (Terry Nichols' links to the movement are explicitly mentioned) and for harassment by means of fraudulent legal motions intimidate professional law enforcement officers and civil service functionaries. It represented the movement as arguing that by changing one's name on birth certificates, driver's licenses and the like, one can reclaim one's status as a sovereign.^[155]

U.S. government responses

Following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, enhancing sentences for certain terrorism-related offenses.^[156]

In December 2000, President Clinton signed a Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) calling for a predictive and proactive counterintelligence system that integrated oversight of counterintelligence issues across national security agencies.^[157]

In June 2014, citing the Oklahoma City bombing and domestic terrorism ranging from anti-government animus to racial prejudice, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the revival of an information sharing body, originally instituted by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as part of Clinton’s PDD provisions. Holder said the new Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee (DTEC) would provide those who combat domestic terror threats, with a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership-level forum in which to share information and coordinate efforts of federal and local law enforcement agencies, other local officials, and citizens.^[158]

In October 2015, during a domestic terrorism seminar at George Washington University, National Security Division leader and Assistant Attorney General, John P. Carlin, stated that the Obama Administration had witnessed “anti-government views triggering violence throughout America.” Carlin personally confirmed the 2014 START survey findings, saying that during his time at the FBI and DOJ, law enforcement officials had identified sovereign citizens as their top concern. Carlin referred to social media as a “radicalization echo chamber,” through which domestic extremists deliver, re-appropriate and reinforce messages of hate, propaganda, and calls to recruitment and violence. He charged its service providers with the responsibility of tracking, and taking action against, any such abuse of its services.^[159]

Carlin announced that, in order to ensure that the DOJ benefited from terrorist-related information and input received from around the country, it had created a new position of Domestic Terrorism Counsel. He said the position would serve several functions: as a main point of contact for U.S. Attorneys working on domestic terrorism matters; to ensure proper coordination of domestic terrorism cases; to play a key role in DOJ headquarter-level efforts to identify domestic terrorism trends, and to analyze legal gaps or enhancements, in order to better shape department strategies for countering national security threats; and to help direct DTEC efforts by providing members with overview and insights into various domestic terrorism cases and trends.^[159]

Funding

SII states that^[2] "Individuals may support [its] work by direct contributions, and by subscription to [its] publication and Internet services."

Personnel

The following is according to the "Who We Are" page for Sovereignty International.^[3]

Board of Directors

Michael S. Coffman, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer; President of Environmental Perspectives, Inc. (EPI), and author of Saviors of the Earth.
Henry Lamb, Chairman; founding Executive Vice President of the Environmental Conservation Organization and publisher of eco•logic.
Floy Lilley, J.D., Vice Chairman
Tom McDonnell, Director
Bert Smith, Director

Advisory Council

The SII Advisory Council "consists of selected individuals and organizations that have special expertise in every facet of U.N. activity. They provide regular updates on issues and events within their area of expertise."^[4]

Contact information

1229 Broadway #313

Bangor, ME 04401

Phone: 207 945-9878

and

P.O. Box 191

Hollow Rock, TN 38342

Phone: 731 986-0099

URL: http://www.sovereignty.net/

Resources and articles

References

↑ Mission Statement of Sovereignty International.
↑ Mission Statement of Sovereignty International.
↑ Who We Are: Advisory Council, Sovereignty International, accessed July 3, 2007.
↑ What We Do, Sovereignty International.

Categories:

surprisingly ok

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen

This category of litigant shares one other critical characteristic: they will only honour state, regulatory, contract, family, fiduciary, equitable, and criminal obligations if they feel like it. And typically, they don’t.
—Assoc. Chief Defender J.D. Rooke, Alberta, Canada, in the case Meads v. Meads

Sovereign citizens typically believe that there are two types of citizens: natural citizens and Fourteenth Amendment citizens. Based on idiosyncratic readings of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights they believe that natural citizens are citizens of the United States by virtue of having been born in one of the 50 states, not including the District of Columbia, having renounced his US federal citizenship and "contracts" (a term of art used exclusively by sovereign citizens in this context), and filed a "quiet title". Actions to quiet title always relate to disputes about the ownership of real property and certain titled chattels, so the notion of quieting title to a human being is unknown to the law (or, well, it has been since 1865). Sovereign citizens believe that natural citizens are not subject to any United States federal law, including being subject to the jurisdiction of federal courts, but are subject to natural law and common law. By contrast, Fourteenth Amendment citizens are subject to federal and common law, but can become sovereign citizens by taking the same action as sovereign citizens.

In the United States, the sovereign citizen movement is closely related to the Posse Comitatus and freemen on the land movements, and there is substantial overlap between these movements and militia movements.

Many sovereign citizens believe that only white men have rights because only the Constitution and the Bill of Rights apply, not any subsequent amendments.^[1] Thus, they believe the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery) is unconstitutional and of no effect. They may also believe that the Nineteenth Amendment is unconstitutional, meaning women never gained suffrage and any election in which women vote is null and void.^[2]

Though a few stateless people exist in the world (most in permanent diplomatic limbo due to lack of any citizenship), and in the United States a few have somewhat arcane legal status allowing them to be citizens of their place of residence (currently recognized only in American Samoa and Swains Island) but not the U.S. at large, the idea that one can renounce one's citizenship in order to evade the laws of the land is unknown in all countries and U.S. courts have uniformly found this argument frivolous.

Contents [hide]

[edit] Scams

This claim is also associated with a few bizarre "debt elimination" scams which hold that if somebody files all the right paperwork with the government declaring themselves a sovereign citizen, they then have access to unlimited funds from the U.S. Treasury to pay off all their mortgages and other debts, similar to the theories of the redemption movement. The gist of the argument is that the Social Security Act established accounts at the U.S. Treasury for every American citizen and that declaring oneself a "sovereign citizen" gives one the legal right to issue "sight drafts" or "bills of exchange" which draw on your personal U.S. Treasury Account to pay off debts. This is not true, and those who have fallen for this scam have found the only person who gained access to any funds as a result was the scammer who charged them money to learn about this bizarre debt elimination method at his seminar.

The intellectual limitations for many members of the movement is indicated by the response of a Texas motorist to a December 4, 2008 traffic stop. "I am Texas Republican sovereignty. I do not recognize this as a legal traffic stop...

pretty good

http://www.:{forbes.:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:com/sites/jjmacnab/2012/02/13/what-is-a-sovereign-citizen/#58c3934f2420

Sovereign Citizen 2

Contents

Theories

History

Legal status of theories

Incidents

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

In the media

U.S. government responses

See also

Funding

Personnel

Board of Directors

Advisory Council

Contact information

Resources and articles

References

[edit] Scams