Scott Ryan Charney was one of the three men caught on camera discussing plans to set off fire alarms and spray Butyric acid — an ingredient commonly used in stink bombs — at the National Press Club, where the party for Donald Trump supporters was held Thursday night. In the Project Veritas video, Mr. Charney is identified as Scott Green, the documents state.

Hats off to James O’Keefe, whose undercover video revealed plotters discussing their plans to attack Trump celebrants with a stink bomb attack. The District of Columbia police made an arrest and filed court documents in the case. Andrea Noble reports in the Washington Times :

The arrest of 34-year-old Charney was on a charge of conspiracy to commit assault.

The defense apparently will be that this was all a big joke:

After the release of the video, DisruptJ20 organizers said the activists in the undercover video figured out the Project Veritas investigator was a plant and “gave him false information about … what they felt was the most humorous red herring available: a false plot to use stink bombs at an event called the Deploraball with the so-called ‘Alt-Right.’”

All that would be necessary to demolish that contention would be other evidence of genuine intent, such as efforts to search for or purchase any components or ingredients for such an attack. Or other communications on the subject:

Court documents state that police relied on the video turned over to investigators on Tuesday by the unidentified witness as well as emails sent between protest organizers when they filed the criminal charge against Mr. Charney. The court documents do not indicate how the emails were obtained, but state that Mr. Charney wrote to several individuals that he had conducted reconnaissance at the National Press Club, and believed the the group “would be able to accomplish their objective ‘with no negative consequences for our side, nor any collateral damage.’” Mr. Charney “went on to further discuss that more people would be needed inside the building to carry out their plans,” according to the court documents. The email message states that the group would further discuss the plans in person.

Police were looking for the two other men, identified as Luke Kuhn and Colin Dunn in the video, but officials said they have not been taken into custody. Mr. Charney was arraigned on the charges in D.C. Superior Court Friday, as President Trump was being sworn into office. He pled not guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was released from custody on the condition he stay away from the inauguration zone throughout the rest of the weekend.

This is a local beef and would depend on a D.C. jury for a conviction. I am not knowledgeable enough about federal law to know if any federal statures were violated, but would note that it is pretty hard to do much of anything involving demonstrators without crossing state (and D.C.) lines, which normally triggers federal liability.

The era of progressive thumbs on the scales of justice is ending. With the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general, that long task can begin.