Pardoned January 6 rioter pleads not guilty to damaging $6000 ice sculpture at Minnesota ...

Far-right influencer Jake Lang pleaded not guilty in Ramsey County Court Wednesday morning to a felony property damage charge for kicking over an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement ice sculpture on the steps of the Minnesota Capitol last month.

On Feb. 5, Edward Jacob Lang, 30, of Lake Worth, Fla., posted a video of himself kicking over the letters of the over $6,000 ice sculpture that said “PROSECUTE ICE” to make it say “PRO ICE” instead.

Minnesota State Patrol officers arrested Lang shortly after he left the Capitol grounds and he was charged and released the next day, according to court documents.

After his hearing in downtown St. Paul, Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter, said the ice sculpture commissioned by Common Defense, a veteran-led grassroots organization, desecrated the Capitol and that knocking down the letters was an act of “artistic expression.”

“Am I allowed to edit a snowman?” Lang said in an interview after his hearing. “I should be allowed to edit anything that’s malleable.”

Lang said he plans on filing constitutional challenges in his case for violations of his first and fourteenth amendment rights.

“If I wasn’t white, Christian and a Trump supporter,” Lang said, “there would’ve been a deferment order.”

Lang’s defense attorney Brian Karalus said in a phone call Thursday that he has not made any decisions about filing constitutional challenges but said if he does, they would relate to “prosecutorial abuse and misconduct” over the lack of a plea agreement between the defense and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

“They’re not even making a plea offer,” Karalus said. “Just plead guilty or go to trial, which is extremely rare.”

Karalus said that although many of Lang’s actions have political angles, he believes the attorney’s office is playing politics by not offering a plea deal.

“On the scale of felonies, it’s not a serious felony,” Karalus said. “It just isn’t. It’s a non-violent property crime.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, assistant Ramsey County attorney Elena Basill requested the court withhold certain information from Lang regarding potential witnesses.

Basill said the witnesses, some of whom are members of Common Defense, are afraid Lang would use information like home addresses against them if left unredacted by the court. Ramsey County District Judge Venna Iyer approved Basill’s request, but said it would only be effective until Lang’s trial date on July 27.

Karalus objected to limiting the witness information in court, saying redactions are “unusual” in a criminal damages case.

However, showing up at the front doors of political adversaries is not an unusual tactic for people associated with Lang.

On Jan. 28, Jayden Scott, a far-right influencer from Michigan who Lang counter protested with multiple times at the Whipple Federal Building In Minneapolis, posted a video on social media of himself outside the front door of Minneapolis-based journalist and livestreamer Andrew Mercado’s apartment.

Scott threatened Mercado for mocking him and Lang online and referring to them with nicknames such as “Temu Punishers.”

“Andrew, your video was cute,” Scott said. “However, the Temu Punishers, we got your address. We know who you are. Watch your fking mouth. You hear me? Watch your fking mouth.”

Mercado livestreamed Lang’s pro-ICE rally outside Minneapolis City Hall on Jan. 17, from a crowd of hundreds of counter protesters who threw waterballoons at Lang in single-degree weather and later chased him back to his downtown-Minneapolis hotel room. Less than a dozen people came in support of Lang.

Videos taken on Feb. 7, two days after Lang’s arrest, show him and Scott driving past hundreds of anti-ICE protesters at the Whipple Federal Building in the back of a U-Haul truck while holding a large, homemade crucifix and spraying water on the crowd.

After his hearing on Wednesday, Lang said Iyer and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office want to “railroad” him into a trial. He also used multiple racial slurs when discussing Minnesota’s Somali and Black communities and repeatedly made racist and sexist remarks about Iyer and the female staff in the courtroom.

“It was completely jarring to have a Black, Indian woman be my judge,” Lang said. “I felt literally held captive in another country. I felt like I was walking into a courtroom in Mogadishu.”

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and Ramsey County Court declined to comment on the ongoing case and Lang’s remarks about Iyer.

Although Lang was concerned about the treatment of his case, he said he is confident that he would be pardoned if My Pillow CEO and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell is elected in November.

If convicted, Lang could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

When Iyer asked Karalus during the hearing how many days he thought the trial would need, Karalus said it would only take one.

“It will be a short trial,” Karalus said. “There’s not a lot to dispute. It’s on video.”