'Secret case' scrubs all public record of Jan. 6 convict's trial: report

  (Raw Story) : January 6 rioter Sam Lazar of Pennsylvania was recently released from prison after two years for his role in the 2021 attack on the Capitol — but now, according toThe Philadelphia Inquirer ,"there is no public record of any hearing at which Lazar was convicted of a federal crime, or sentenced." Per the Inquirer, the federal Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press "that Lazar was released from its custody, and the basics that he'd been convicted on a charge of assaulting or resisting a police officer and had been sentenced in March to 30 months — at a hearing in Washington, D.C. that was not made public and for which there is no transcript." However, the report notes that "Reporters for news organizations like Lancaster Online , which reported his release this summer, or the Associated Press , which this weekend published its own investigation, were told by federal authorities that any records pertaining to Lazar's case are under seal, and appeals to have those files opened up were rebuffed." The Inquirer reports: The confirmation of a secret case against Lazar — who emerged from the hothouse ofright-wing political extremism in east-central Pennsylvania to become a key figure on Jan. 6 and a source of intense speculation fromthe online sleuths who dubbed him the '#facepaintblowhard' — is both troubling and intriguing at the same time. The newspaper notes, "Troubling because the U.S. justice system must be as open and transparent to the American people as possible, and it strains credulity that the government ..