Investigative journalist Lara Logan has set out to tell stories about defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion that Americans are not hearing from the establishment media.
The first episode of “The Rest of the Story with Lara Logan” was posted last week on Truth in Media’s account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
It is part 1 of the story of Pennsylvania man Matthew Perna, 36, who pleaded guilty in December 2021 to offenses related to the incursion 11 months earlier. In February 2022, the 36-year-old, facing potentially years in prison, took his own life, according to USA Today.
The treatment that Perna and other Capitol incursion defendants have received from the Department of Justice stands in stark contrast to its handling of leftist rioters, such as those who tried to burn down the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, during fighting that took place night after night in 2020.
About 140 federal officers were injured while protecting the federal courthouse over months of unrest, then-acting DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told a Senate subcommittee in August 2020, KGW-TV reported at the time.
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Politico reported that federal prosecutors arranged for “deferred resolution agreements” that resulted in many of the Portland defendants with no criminal records as long as they stayed out of trouble for a period of time and completed some community service.
Contrast that with DOJ’s approach to over 1,000 January 6 defendants, including Perna.
Logan opens in her inaugural episode of “The Rest of the Story” by noting that Perna was one of millions who had doubts about the outcome of the 2020 election. The Sharpesville, Pennsylvania, resident decided to go to Washington, to make his voice heard, which was his First Amendment right to do.
Matthew Perna was a Bernie Sanders fan until Trump came along. Then he was treated as a terrorist.
Find out how a man who’d never been in trouble in his life ended up on the FBI wanted list after January 6th. pic.twitter.com/e05pfKoUOJ
— Truth In Media (@Truth_InMedia) September 14, 2023
“He was not an insurrectionist,” Logan said on the program. “He had no plans to overthrow the government.”
Federal prosecutors charged Perna with unlawfully entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to USA Today.
WKBN-TV in Youngstown, Ohio, reported that the DOJ also hit him with a felony obstruction of Congress charge. Together his charges carried up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Matthew Perna’s friend and fellow ultra-marathon runner Markus Priester said the enhanced charges that federal prosecutors had added on at the end really weighed on Perna.
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The last time they spoke, “He was having a hard time talking. He was having to clear his throat like he was choking,” Priester recalled. “He was very anxious.”
Perna was also struggling with sleeping and had been coughing up blood, Priester said.
“He literally rotted away from the inside out,” Priester said.
Perna killed himself as he was awaiting sentencing in the case.
Geri Perna, Matthew’s aunt, told Logan, “They completely broke him, and they broke his heart.”
“He was pushed to the point where he didn’t feel like life was worth living anymore. They robbed him of his spirit. They robbed him of his hope. His will to live,” she added.
“He loved this country, and this country destroyed him in many ways,” Geri said. “Its citizens, the media, the government. They destroyed him like he was nothing.”
Matthew Perna left a note that Geri showed Logan, which stated, “I sacrificed my freedom when I entered into the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 and, in despair took my own life the night that I wrote this.”
“Truth in Media” posted a for Logan’s program earlier this month.
It’s hard to find the truth these days, and it’s needed now more than ever.@laralogan has traveled across America to bring you the truth about the events of January 6, 2021.
Don’t miss her latest series, “The Rest of the Story”, coming soon on X and @SovrenMedia! pic.twitter.com/eHxVRqfVo3
— Truth In Media (@Truth_InMedia) September 7, 2023
In an interview with The Western Journal, Logan said she is bringing the journalistic skills she honed while working for over a decade with “60 Minutes” to telling the stories of the Capitol incursion.
The original concept for the series started with her researching the case of Rosanne Boyland, who was one of two women died during the incursion. The other was Ashlie Babbit, who was shot to death by a Capitol Police lieutenant who was later promoted.
Boyland was trampled by the crowd near one of the Capitol entrances.
Her story can’t be told without including Luke Coffee, a Texan who tried to save her and told Logan he used a crutch to try to do it. Prosecutors say Coffee was wielding the crutch as a weapon amid the chaos of the day, according to Fox News.
Other episodes of “The Rest of the Story” will cover Army Special Forces veteran Jeremy Brown, who like Perna, was charged with unlawful entry and disrupting government business.
“And the interesting thing about Jeremy is that two agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the Department of Homeland Security tried to recruit him right before January 6th,” Logan told the Journal.
“And he recorded that conversation with their knowledge and permission. And when he saw national officials on television denying that there were any confidential human sources and undercovers present on January 6, it made him angry because he knew he knew the tactics. He knew that if they tried to recruit him, there were others. So he exposed it,” she added.
“That’s why he was targeted.”
What Logan promises for the show is “old fashioned,” seek-out-the-truth journalism.
The Part 2 of the Matthew Perna story is scheduled for release on Thursday.
