Why does the government appear to want to kill January 6 political prisoner Ryan Samsel?
'Only explanation for transfers and withholding of vital medical treatment for years … is intentionally trying to take my life'
WASHINGTON – Why does the government appear to want to kill January 6 political prisoner Ryan Samsel?
Throughout his nearly four years of pretrial detention, Samsel has pleaded – to no avail – with judges and jail staff to allow him the critical, life-saving vascular surgery he was prescribed before his arrest to stop his blood from clotting.
Instead, he developed 17 blood clots throughout his body while being systemically denied medical treatment during his incarceration. Left untreated, the clots morph into blood-flow-obstructing fibroids.
Thus, each day Samsel is refused surgery his life is literally at risk.
But the Biden Justice Department has essentially played political football with the lives of Samsel and all the other so-called “insurrectionists” who were unprecedentedly assaulted, gassed, bombed and shot at with less-than-lethal munitions by police, terrorized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, denied bail while held in pretrial custody for years for nonviolent crimes, and handed shockingly lengthy prison sentences for trumped-up or trivial charges that are normally treated as misdemeanors punishable by fines or a maximum one-year prison term.
In addition to being denied the lifesaving procedure, Samsel has essentially been tortured while detained in pretrial detention for “his role in the Capitol riot,” repeatedly assaulted by jail guards, from which he has sustained irreversible injuries including loss of eyesight and a broken orbital floor. He has sometimes been detained in solitary confinement for weeks and months at a time.
While caged in a filthy cell in Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, with the assistance of this reporter and a legal expert, Samsel determined to fight for his medical and civil rights pro se in two groundbreaking lawsuits
In both a Petition of Writ of Mandamus and a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed in the Eastern District of New York on July 19, Ryan Samsel – the political prisoner, Pennsylvania barber and former MMA fighter – lays out how he has been routinely trafficked across the country between different correctional facilities as the respondents systemically circumvent the law and doctors’ orders to deny him critical care and emergency surgery in what he suspects is a calculated attempt to take his life.
Jan 6. Political Prisoner Ryan Samsel vs. Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC BK, Merrick Garland, by Alicia Powe on Scribd
The respondents, including Attorney General Merrick Garland; Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Collete S. Peters; MDC Brooklyn; Ronald L. Davis, director of the U.S. Marshals Service; and Thomas N. Faust, director of the D.C. Department of Corrections “are knowingly, intentionally, consistently, and by pattern and practice systemically denying medical treatment” by shuffling Samsel around from jail to jail, the prisoner warns in the complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.
“Every time doctors confirm that I have an urgent need for surgery and other treatment and medication to avoid life-threatening consequences, the Bureau of Prisons transfers me to a different facility,” the Petition for a Writ of Mandamus states. “I have been transferred to 19 different prison facilities.”
In fact, Samsel has been shuttled to the various jails 28 different times throughout his incarceration. The transfers typically occur shortly after doctors prescribe “urgent” surgery.
“\What is the purpose of transferring me to Brooklyn, where I have no pending court business and no connection of any kind?” Samsel asks.
“The timing and pattern indicate that the system is knowingly trying to avoid paying for the surgery – although it is actually not very expensive – or that the government is pursuing a broad pattern clearly visible across January 6 Defendants of pressuring and intimidating defendants to give false testimony favorable to the prosecution against others,” the filing continues. “Again, I have actual reason to believe that the prosecutors fantasize that I have any information that I have not disclosed.
“\The only explanation I can see for these actions is the attempt to force me to divulge things that in fact I know nothing about in reality. The only other good explanation for the transfers and withholding of vital medical treatment for years on end would be the government is intentionally trying to take my life.”
Samsel included nearly the entirety of his medical records in the complaint, making his personal health care history available to the public, so as to avoid more potential obstacles that may impede his access to the simple but critical surgery.
During his Feb. 2 verdict hearing, which this reporter attended, Samsel personally pleaded with presiding U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in the courtroom to grant his medical request, so that he could survive prison. But the judge refused, claiming she had no documentation to validate his claims.
Depriving a person in federal custody of health or medical care which they would normally obtain for themselves, but cannot, is a violation of the Eight Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.” The government’s refusal to remove the clots, which can erupt and take Samsel’s life at any moment, is also deprivation of his civil and constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
According to the medical records included in the filing, it’s a miracle Samsel is alive after repeated brutal beatdowns by jail guards have dramatically exacerbated Samsel’s deteriorating condition.
He previously described to the Gateway Pundit his having been beaten and spat on by a correctional officer while being held in a four-point restraint chair, backwards for 12 hours.
“Symptoms in his left arm were enflamed after his hands were tied behind his back (zip tied) for two days,” Dr. Deidre Lewis noted on Samsel’s medical records. “At the time of his arrest and shortly thereafter, he was beaten on the head, and he sustained temporal skull fracture, nasal fractures, left orbital floor fracture and loss of vision in his right eye.”
Samsel is asking a judge to immediately transport him to the nearest hospital for vascular surgery, a glandsectomy which must be conducted by a plastic surgeon because of the proximity of the operation to his heart.
The unnecessary transfer from Washington, D.C., to New York may ultimately be an advantage for Samsel’s medical access, due to the belief that a January 6 defendant may face a fairer judiciary with his civil case in New York City than in the District of Columbia. And not just because the deep-blue Empire state allows hardened criminals – robbers, rapists and even murderers – back on the streets shortly after their arrest, following the city’s bail reform policies, whereas the federal government maintains a 100 percent conviction rate against J6ers in jury trials held in D.C.
But also, New York judges are cutting down the sentences of inmates detained in MDC Brooklyn for being served maggot-infested meals amid illegal perpetual lockdowns, lack of proper medical treatment by cruel corrections officers, short-staffing and a host of other miserable conditions that have gone unchecked for decades.
The corruption in MDC Brooklyn most recently boiled over last January, when Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jesse Furman issued a blistering 19-page ruling laying out why the Brooklyn prison should be shut down, particularly after the jail lost power for eight days in 2019 during a polar vortex.
“It has gotten to the point that it is routine for judges in both this District and the Eastern District [Brooklyn] to give reduced sentences to defendants based on the conditions of confinement in the MDC,” Furman wrote. “Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the state of affairs is unacceptable.”
The prospects of winning the years-long battle for his health may be optimal now that a complaint has finally been filed, documenting the inhumane medical deprivation and de facto torture Samsel has endured.
But he is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 19, which means he could be transferred back to Washington, D.C., any day.
Samsel is asking the American public to assist with stopping the transfer by calling Judge Cobb.
“I am going to be sick when they tell me to pack it up to go to D.C. It’s likely going to happen any day now,” Samsel told WND in an exclusive interview. “I just want my medical. I just want to live a good quality of life. I came in here a little broken. I’m so much worse off now.
“I’ve lost the vison in my right eye. My skull is fractured. I’ve lost my teeth from getting punched in the face by prison staff. I’ve been stabbed. At one point, they repeatedly slammed my head in the door. I have blood clots that will never heal for rest of my life.
“Please, I am asking for the America people to call Judge Cobb and let her know they are aware that the government is continuing to do this to Ryan Samsel and that he has serious medical needs. And I thank every person who has contributed a dollar to my legal defense from the bottom of my heart. Your generosity and support strengthen my faith and ease some of the pain.”
The Honorable Jia M. Cobb
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse
333 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001(202) 354-3560
Cobb_Chambers@dcd.uscourts.gov
U.S. Marshalls D.C.
202-772-0301
Samsel also noted that “Not a single January 6 organization that has spawned over the past three years has helped me with anything.”
PLEASE SUPPORT POLITICAL PRISONER RYAN SAMSEL’S MEDICAL BATTLE HERE.
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