January 6 clients: DOJ prosecutions
Richard Barnett
McBride became an advocate for those charged during the January 6 Capitol attack. He also operates the January 6th Legal Fund for the legal needs of his clients involved in the events of January 6.
[5] McBride took Richard "Bigo" Barnett as his client, an Arkansas window installer who put his feet on a desk in the office of
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on January 6, 2021. In April 2021, a judge released Barnett from
pretrial detention, deeming him not dangerous enough to remain in jail; this followed a federal appeals court ruling in March that made it harder for the
Department of Justice to keep those not accused of assault or planning an attack to stay imprisoned.
[6][7]
In March 2021, after an incident at a virtual hearing with
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper in which Barnett became frustrated because of his pretrial detention, McBride defended his client in a statement to
NBC News: "Mr. Barnett's frustration stems from the fact that he is incarcerated pre-trial, despite lacking any criminal history...Normally, facts like these are more than enough for an individual to fight their case from the outside."
[8]
Barnett was eventually found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to serve 54 months in prison.[9]
Ryan Nichols
McBride also represented January 6 defendant Ryan Nichols, who was released from pretrial detention by U.S. District Court Judge
Thomas Hogan in November 2022 after 20 months of imprisonment.
[10] McBride had spent months filing motions for Nichols' release from pretrial detention, and complained that officials at a correctional facility in Washington, D.C. had stolen a thumb drive containing attorney-client privileged information, a claim contested by Judge Hogan.
[10] However, Hogan concluded that Nichols had issues with access to discovery, and that the facility holding him in Rappahannock, Virginia was not suited for the large amount of digital video evidence he had to review for his trial, and agreed to release him.
[10][11]
Nichols was eventually found guilty of all charges and sentenced to serve 63 months in prison.[12]
Christopher Quaglin
In March 2023, U.S. District Court Judge
Trevor McFadden claimed that McBride had misled the court during the trial of January 6 defendant
Christopher Quaglin about the qualifications of another lawyer to whom he was transferring the case.
[13] However, McFadden declined to discipline McBride, and only admonished him with a statement.
[14][15] In April 2022, Quaglin had filed a petition for a
writ of habeas corpus, claiming that U.S. Attorney General
Merrick Garland and jail superintendent Ted Hull treated him with "malicious indifference."
[16][17][18] As reported in
Law & Crime that month, McBride noted that since Quaglin's arrest a year prior he had been transferred to half a dozen different facilities, and said: "The intensity and duration of his mistreatment grows worse with each transfer."
[16]
Quaglin was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 144 months in prison.[19]
January 6 clients: Select Committee
McBride also appeared on behalf of
January 6 select committee witnesses Alexander Bruesewitz and
Ali Alexander, as reported by
Politico in January 2023.
[2]
Keith Raniere
"There is a system of laws and procedures set in place and if somebody's going to lose their trial, it's got to be a fair trial. They've got to lose on the facts, by the rules."
—Joseph D. McBride, 2021
[20]
McBride worked as a defense attorney on the legal team of
NXIVM sex cult leader
Keith Raniere.
[21][22][23] In 2021, before Raniere's appeal to the
U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, McBride expressed concern with how the
FBI was handling the case.
[21] In a February 18, 2021 appearance on the
Law & Crime Network, he said: "We have a lot of questions about the FBI's work in this case. People here were hurt on some level but the question...is about proving each element of each crime beyond a reasonable doubt. We don't think that the government did that in this case."
[24][25]
McBride also spoke to
Channel 13 news in Tucson, Arizona about the case in February 2021, stating: "There is a system of laws and procedures set in place and if somebody's going to lose their trial, it's got to be a fair trial. They've got to lose on the facts, by the rules."
[20]
Views
McBride was described by the
Washington Examiner as a supporter of
Donald Trump.
[26] He has accused the FBI of discriminating against Catholics and compared defendants accused of crimes during the January 6 attack to
Jesus.
[27] From January 3 to 5, 2023, McBride undertook a three-day fast on behalf of the
January 6 detainees.
[28] excommunicated Catholic ex-Archbishop
Carlo Maria Viganò sent McBride a letter voicing support for the fast and stating: "I can only encourage and bless this commendable gesture of penance."
[28]
McBride is
pro-life and voiced strong support for the
U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June 2022.
[29]
In May 2022, he spoke against
prolonged solitary confinement on his Twitter account, stating that it "violates a prisoner's human rights every time it is used," and thanked U.S. Congressman
Louie Gohmert for opposing the punishment of January 6 detainees during pretrial confinement.
[30]
McBride has appeared on
Fox News,
Newsmax, and
One America News, among other outlets.
[4][
non-primary source needed] He was featured on Part 3 of
Tucker Carlson's
Patriot Purge, a three-part series that concluded in November 2021.
[4][
non-primary source needed] On March 9, 2023, McBride appeared with
Donald Trump Jr. on an episode of Trump's online video series
Triggered.
[31][
non-primary source needed] While appearing on Tucker Carlson's program, McBride said that a man whose face was obscured by red paint at the January 6 attack was "clearly a law enforcement officer"; a
HuffPost reporter later produced evidence showing the man to be fan of the
St. Louis Cardinals.
[32]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_D._McBride
This is Tate's sleazebag, show boating lawyer.
