NEW: AG Pam Bondi says Rioters and Looters will be charged under The Hobbs Act
Under The Hobbs Act, The Justice Department can seek prison sentences of 20 years
This is great news, now let’s go after the people funding the riots taking place every summer.
**AG Pam Bondi:** “If Gavin Newsom isn’t going to keep California safe, we are. You know, they imposed a curfew last night. I think that helped a bit. But today we wanted them to declare—they didn’t declare an economic disaster out there with all of the businesses. Had they done that, Kelly Loeffler and the Small Business Association could have come in and helped, given federal aid to all of these businesses in California. We’ve been seeing on the news all of these drugstores getting robbed, getting looted—the Apple Store just got raided. I mean, we’re all watching this live on the news. And this isn’t just looting to me. You think people just run in, take something, leave and nothing happens? We’re using the Hobbs Act. We are charging robbery to protect Californians under this. If you loot a store, we are going to charge you with robbery under the Hobbs Act, and you’re looking at a maximum 20 years in prison. But we’re going to prosecute you for that. Identifying people now—it’s a different world. The guy with the cinderblocks—we were able to identify him. Great FBI work, DEA, ATF all working together, with ICE, with Homeland Security—a great partnership out there. And our National Guard—to wrap back to your question, our National Guard, our Marines, they have come in to protect our buildings; to protect. The Marines have come in to protect the National Guard. It is total chaos out there. We’re all watching it on the news, and you know—they’re throwing bricks. We had a law enforcement officer injured—they’re throwing bricks at cars. And this is very orchestrated. They’re not just cinder bricks; they had hammers in place, they’re breaking them up. We’ve all seen on the news where the sidewalks— they’re coming in with these huge sledgehammers, breaking up the sidewalks and taking these huge pieces of concrete, throwing them off a bridge, throwing them at people. It’s truly a miracle that no one has been seriously injured or killed yet. But we’re going to do everything within our legal authority to protect our law enforcement officers and all the people in California right now.”
