After dismissing charges against two members of the white nationalist Rise Above Movement last month saying they were unfairly prosecuted, US District Judge for the Central District of California Cormac Carney sentenced a member of the group who accepted a plea deal to time served for assaulting a journalist during a 2017 pro-Trump rally.
The Los Angeles Times reports the defendant, Tyler Laube, admitted to being associated with the Rise Above Movement, which advertises itself as a “combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement” as part of his plea deal. A GW Bush appointee, Carney wrote in his sentencing memo that prosecutors are “ignoring individuals associated with Antifa and related far-left groups,” adding, “Sentencing Mr. Laube to additional incarceration would only increase the disparity between his punishment and the lack of punishment (and prosecution) members of far-left groups who have committed the same violent conduct received.”
This isn’t new with Carney. In 2019, Carney dismissed criminal conspiracy and rioting charges against Rise Above Movement leader Robert Rundo and three others for their roles in the same riot, saying that the federal statutes were “overly broad” and impinged free speech rights. The Ninth Circuit reversed his ruling in 2021.