A federal judge on January 6th ordered that Daniel Goodwin’s computer be monitored again for suspected “false information” after he was placed on probation, but the order was already vacated in 2024 and is set to be sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the fourth Circuit.
July 10, Senior Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was denied He requested an emergency stay of his order to monitor Goodwin’s computer, arguing that his new order addresses the objections originally raised by the appeals court.
Attorney Carolyn Stewart bring the action Shortly thereafter, Goodwin appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that Judge Walton’s ruling was unlawful and violated his constitutional right to free speech.
“The judge’s reasoning fails to meet the standards required for the use of a computer in or directly related to a crime, specifically the Court of Appeal’s ‘least restrictive means’ and constitutional protection mandates,” Stewart told Blaze News.
The new monitoring order against Walton is the latest salvo in a war that began with Goodwin’s appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in March 2023. The judge accused Goodwin of appearing on national television to spread false information about Jan. 6 and downplay the actions that day.
Goodwin, 35, of San Francisco, incurred Walton’s ire at his sentencing hearing a few months later when he tried to correct the judge’s own erroneous statements about January 6.
“It is not true to say that only Trump supporters died that day,” Walton said, according to official court records.
Goodwin tried to intervene but was quickly reprimanded.
“You’re digging yourself a hole,” Walton told him. “Keep digging.”
In fact, the only Trump supporter to die at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was San Diego resident Ashli Babbitt, 35, who was shot and killed by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd as she entered through a broken window at the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby.
Roseanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, was struck in the head and ribs with a stiffened stick by Metropolitan Police Officer Lila Morris minutes after she collapsed at the entrance to the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. Her cause of death is hotly disputed between the coroner, who claims acute amphetamine intoxication, and the Boyland family’s forensic pathologist, who claims she died of asphyxiation.
Benjamin Phillips, 50, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, collapsed and died after suffering a stroke just after 1 p.m. Kevin Gleason, 55, of Athens, Alabama, died of a heart attack, though some believe he was struck by police bullets before collapsing.
Goodwin was charged in an additional indictment filed on Nov. 10, 2021, with felony counts of obstructing official business, entering a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and marching, demonstrating or picketing on Capitol grounds.
Security camera footage shows Goodwin entering the building through a door in the Senate wing at 3:32 p.m. and spending 36 seconds inside the chamber.
On January 31, 2023, Goodwin accepted a plea agreement to one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, a charge that carried a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
Judge Walton sentenced Goodwin to 60 days in jail followed by one year of probation. At his sentencing on June 15, 2023, Judge Walton imposed computer monitoring as a special condition of release for Goodwin. Appealed The computer monitoring regulations were abolished on June 30th.
On February 1, 2024, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed Judge Walton’s order and invalidated the computer surveillance provision.
Court Per curiam judgment, Justices Gregory Katsas, Naomi Rao and Bradley Garcia said Walton “plainly erred” in failing to consider whether supervision “is ‘reasonably related’ to the relevant sentencing factors and does not involve ‘a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to achieve the sentencing objectives.”
The Court of Appeals remanded the case to Judge Walton for “further review,” warning Goodwin that if he seeks to reimpose computer monitoring, he must explain his reasons, produce a record to support his decision, and ensure that he complies with sentencing guidelines and constitutional protections.
Stewart argued that the trespassing charge for which Goodwin was convicted must have involved the use of a computer. “Mr. Goodwin did not use a computer to conduct any illegal activity before, on or after January 6th,” he said.
Stewart said the ongoing fight is aimed at suppressing constitutionally protected speech. Goodwin was at the Capitol on January 6 as a representative of the news site StopHate.com. He is a multiple contributor to the January 6 documentary about what Walton and the US Department of Justice labeled “extremist media.”
In court filings in May, Stewart attached examples of police use of force from Jan. 6 to dispute Walton’s assertion that police did not use excessive force against protesters that day.
“I have watched hours of video of what happened that day and have seen no evidence to suggest that the police acted excessively,” Judge Walton said at Goodwin’s 2023 sentencing hearing.
In his complaint, Stewart cites a brutal beating in which Victoria C. White, 42, of Rochester, Minnesota, was struck more than 40 times in the head and face by MPD Officer Jason Bagshaw and other officers with a riot bar and fists. She is suing MPD for $2 million in damages for what the complaint describes as unlawful deadly force.
Stewart also detailed the case of Derrick J. Vargo, 34, of Greenbrier, Tennessee, who was pushed high up on the Northwest Stairs by a U.S. Capitol Police officer while attempting to raise a Trump flag shortly after 2 p.m. that day. Vargo fell about 20 feet, broke his ankle and can no longer enjoy some of his favorite activities, including skydiving. He is suing the Capitol Police.
She featured Joshua M. Black, 48, a protester from Leeds, Alabama. At 1:06 p.m., after a police deputy chief yelled over his radio for grenadiers to “fire, fire, fire!”, Black was shot in the face by a Capitol Police bullet and lay bleeding profusely on the concrete. Rumours of outrage over the shooting rang out through the crowd in the West Plaza that afternoon.
“The Court has sought to add itself as a censor of content and viewpoints against Mr. Goodwin without any legal basis, hearing only the misinformation and incomplete truths circulated by the Department of Justice and the traditional media,” Judge Stewart wrote in a May court filing.
Stewart called Judge Walton the “Ministry of Truth.”
Walton’s new monitoring order largely repeats his earlier statements accusing Goodwin of using social media to spread “false narratives” and “continues to deny responsibility for his actions.”
The order was issued “to prevent him from transacting any content that influenced the conduct he and others engaged in on January 6, 2021,” the judge wrote.
Walton also alleged that Goodwin “had previously been treated for mental illness which likely contributed to his decision to engage in criminal conduct.”
Ms Stewart said that statement was false: Ms Goodwin has high-functioning autism but is not mentally ill, she said.
“The sentencing memo notes his autism and his reliance on social cues and signals, such as allowing police access to the building,” Stewart told The Blaze News. “The memo makes it clear that it is not a mental illness.”
