Feds Seek More Toppings On The Ahmaud Arbrey Killers' Federal Sandwich!

The federal trial of Ahmaud Arbrey's killers will conclude soon.

The three men were convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbrey in 2021. They were handed state charges of LIFE without the possibility of parole. Now the U.S. Justice Department is now seeking to add more toppings on that sandwich. In an earlier attempt, the feds were working a plea deal for the three killers to admit guilt of it being a hate crime to get a concurrent bid and potential pardons. Ahmaud's family protested it and condemned the plea deal. 

They said that the government was going to easy on them. They want the full trial and everything to come to light. They want everything the two men and their neighbor shared online or through text messages shared. They want to ensure that their families can't collect any royalties or money from book deals, movies or charitable donations.

I will mention their names. 

ABC News reports that Travis McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan shared texts and offensive social media posts in which the word NIGGER was mentioned. On top of that, they shared videos from racist singer Johnny Rebel. The remarks were read in the courtroom. 

Now in federal court, there are no cameras. There are only courtroom sketches and reporters who are there to detail as much information as they can.

Two of the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery repeatedly used racial slurs in text messages and social media posts, including some violent comments by Arbery's shooter about Black people, an FBI witness testified Wednesday in their federal hate crimes trial.

Federal hate crimes trial. If convicted, they an additional 35 years.

FBI intelligence analyst Amy Vaughan led the jury through more than two dozen conversations that McMichael and Bryan had with others, identified only by their initials, in the months and years before the 25-year-old Black man's killing. The FBI wasn’t able to access the phone of Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael's father, because was encrypted, Vaughan said.

In text and Facebook conversations with friends, Travis McMichael frequently used the N-word to describe Black people. In a Facebook conversation with a friend, he also shared a video of a young Black boy dancing on a TV show with a racist song that included the N-word playing over it. He also said that Black people “ruin everything” and said more than once he was glad he wasn't a Black person, using a racial slur.

In other social media posts, Travis McMichael mentioned violence against Black people. In December 2018, he commented on a Facebook video of a Black man playing a prank on a white person: “I'd kill that fucking nigger.”

And in June 2017, he shared a TV news story about a violent confrontation between two white women and two Black customers upset about cold food at a Georgia restaurant, using a racial slur to comment that he would beat the Black people "to death if they did that to (name redacted by the FBI) or my mother and sister.” He added that he would have no more remorse than putting down a rabid animal.

The McMichaels armed themselves and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery as he ran through their coastal Georgia neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan, a neighbor, joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun. No arrests were made until the video leaked online two months later.

All three men were convicted of murder in a Georgia state court last fall. Their second trial began Monday in U.S. District Court on hate crime charges. Prosecutors say the McMichaels and Bryan violated Arbery's civil rights and targeted him because he was Black.

Ahmaud Arbrey will never be forgotten.

Defense attorneys have insisted the deadly pursuit of Arbery was motivated by an earnest, though erroneous, suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes.

HuffPost also detailed the government showing jurors messages from Travis McMichael’s phone beginning in March 2019. McMichael asked a friend, identified as H.B., where they “ended up last night.”

H.B. wrote back: “niggers everywhere.”

“Damn. They ruin everything,” McMichael replied. “That’s why I love what I do. Not a nigger in sight.”

“Ha ha ha,” H.B. wrote. “What do you do?” 

McMichael described himself as a “government contractor driving boats for Navy & Marines.” He added: “Love it. Zero niggers work with me.”

The hate crimes trial is being heard by a jury of eight white people, three Black people and one Hispanic person.

Evidence presented in court Wednesday showed Bryan also used the N-word, but his preferred slur was a derogatory characterization of a Black person's lips. Over a number of years, Bryan exchanged racist messages on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that mocked the holiday. In messages sent in the days surrounding Arbery's killing, Bryan was upset that his daughter was dating a Black man.

Greg McMichael posted a meme on Facebook in 2016 saying white Irish slaves were treated worse than any race in the U.S. but that the Irish aren't asking for handouts.

“I ain't really shocked,” Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery, told reporters outside the courthouse. Still, he said he didn't realize “all that hate was in those three men.”

Defense attorneys had few questions for the FBI analyst and didn't dispute the racist posts. They said in their opening statements to the jury Monday that racist comments by their clients were offensive and indefensible but don't prove that they committed hate crimes.

Travis McMichael’s attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said some of his texts and posts lacked context, and “you can’t hear that inflection of voice and see what’s going on.”

Copeland also asked Derek Thomas, who posted the prank video that elicited a violent comment from Travis McMichael, about their long friendship. Thomas testified that they have known each other since high school and frequently went hunting and fishing together. He said he often checks up on Travis McMichael's mother since the McMichaels' arrests and convictions.

“Is it fair to say you love the man but hate the words he used?” Copeland asked Thomas.

He replied: “Yes, ma'am.”

In another instance, McMichael was meeting someone at a Cracker Barrel in January 2019. A person identified as M.B. told him there were “hood rats” somewhere nearby.

In response, McMichael said: “They need to change Cracker Barrel to Nigger bucket.”

In August 2019, McMichael referred to a location in Georgia as “Niggerville,” according to evidence presented at the trial. He also shared a racist song by the late singer Johnny Rebel with the n-word in its title. The song was played for jurors.

On social media, prosecutors said, McMichael was just as inflammatory. Writing on Facebook, he referred to Black people as “subhuman savages,” they said.

On a post shared by McMichael’s friend Derrick Thomas, describing an incident where a firecracker blew up in a Black person’s face, McMichael wrote that he wished the explosion blew “that nigger’s head off.” 

At some point, McMichael told Thomas that a gun was recently stolen from his truck. According to Thomas, McMichael believed the person who stole the gun was white. However, prosecutors accused Thomas of changing his story, saying he’d previously told jurors that McMichael believed the thief was a Black person.

Amy Copeland, McMichael’s attorney, argued that many of the messages lacked context because you could not hear the inflection of McMichael’s voice.

Bryan also had a record of using racial slurs toward Black people, prosecutors said. In private text messages from 2020, Bryan said he’d been “working so all the niggers” could take the day off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Bryan did not approve of his daughter dating a Black person, according to prosecutors. In a text message, Bryan told someone: “She has her a nigger now. I’ve been calling it for a while. Not surprised.”

Both McMichaels and Bryan were sentenced to life in iron college in the state's murder case.

Racist comments by the men weren't presented as evidence in the murder trial, in which prosecutors downplayed issues of race and focused on proving the three had no justification for pursuing and killing Arbery.

The hate crimes charges could add 35 years to the LIFE terms. The suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.