SATURDAY, MAY 28 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE K B5
need the revenue for infrastruc-
ture, and it’s good if people start
driving less.”
The competitive and crowded
Democratic field for governor is
divided on whether to adjust gas
taxes.
John B. King Jr., a former edu-
cation secretary under President
Barack Obama, for example, said
focusing on a reprieve is short-
sighted when leaders should be
swiftly reducing dependence on
fossil fuels. Lifting the tax would
not save individual drivers much
money but would strip cash from
public works projects, he said.
But three other Democrats
backed at least staving off the
increase, arguing that voters need
immediate relief. Wes Moore, an
author and former nonprofit
chief; Jon Baron, a former federal
appointee and nonprofit chief;
and Tom Perez, a former labor
secretary under Obama, each
backed a delay in the tax hike.
Perez added that he supported
targeted relief to the hike that
would help mass transit users,
too.
Other Democratic candidates,
including Ashwani Jain and two
others, went further, pushing for
the tax to be suspended altogeth-
er.
Rushern Baker, the former
Prince George’s County executive,
and Doug Gansler, the former
state attorney general, each used
the jousting between Hogan and
Franchot to suggest they would
act where others would not.
“The people with the ability to
provide relief are just finger-
pointing while people are paying
an arm and leg just to get to work
in the morning,” Baker said. “Vot-
ers need to know that they are
voting for someone with the will
act when things get tough.”
Gansler backed the idea of us-
ing executive power to suspend
the gas tax: “Marylanders need
relief at the pump, and they are
tired of this bickering and dither-
ing.”
Some motorists say they would
welcome the relief.
“It’s terrible,” William Obioha,
19, said as he leaned on his Subaru
Legacy at a Sunoco gas station in
Silver Spring this week, where gas
was going for $4.90 a gallon. Obio-
ha said he stopped working as a
driver for DoorDash a month ago
because high gas prices were cut-
ting into his profits and making it
untenable.
Obioha said he doesn’t pay at-
tention much to politics, but “all I
want is the gas to go down.”Rebecca Tan contributed to this
report.governor repealed the rain tax the
first year that he was in office.”
Schulz’s chief Republican oppo-
nent, Del. Dan Cox, said on Face-
book on Wednesday that if elected
he would use executive power to
immediately suspend the gas tax,
though it was not immediately
clear if the governor has authority
to do that.
Economists say repealing the
tax would have larger conse-
quences, even if voters — who can
expect to feel higher prices for the
rest of year — see it differently.
Anirban Basu, an economist
and CEO of the Sage Policy Group,
said gas prices have an outsize
psychological impact on how peo-
ple view inflation but that there’s
actually very little state officials
can do to meaningfully change
them.
A winning political strategy
might be to forgo the increase and
suspend the gas tax altogether, he
said, but “if I was trying to give
advice based on what I think is
good public policy, I would say let
the gas tax increase transpire. WeShe has taken a page from the
governor’s playbook, whose upset
2014 victory in deep-blue Mary-
land was built on cleverly phrased
attacks on taxes such as “the rain
tax.”
Schulz labeled this increase
“The Inflation Tax.”
“I won’t be afraid to fight for
hard-working Marylanders,” she
wrote on Facebook this week, say-
ing: “Comptroller Franchot is
shirking his responsibility.” She
added in a video that she would
repeal it if elected, “just like the“The problem is not the mar-
ginal impact of $0.06 inflation
adjustment to the wholesale gas
tax. The problem is big oil compa-
nies exploiting global uncertainty
to drive the price of gas to more
than $4 a gallon.”
The episode, however, created
another opportunity for Hogan’s
handpicked candidate to succeed
him, former commerce secretary
Kelly Schulz, to draw attention to
her ads and a social media blitz
about Democratic inaction on gas
prices.would eventually come due.
“Simply put, if I was legally able
to prevent the motor fuel tax in-
crease from going into effect, I
would have done so already,” Fran-
chot wrote in a letter Tuesday that
asked state legislative leaders to
vote to forestall the increase in-
stead.
He asked Hogan and presiding
officers to convene a special ses-
sion to vote on it next week, on
Wednesday. The House Republi-
can Caucus, which unsuccessfully
pushed a bill this spring to stave
off the increase, sent a letter mak-
ing the same request.
Hogan has not responded, and
the legislature’s presiding officers
declined.
“We cannot have a reliable
transportation network that regu-
larly experiences failing condi-
tions due to insufficient funding
and deferred maintenance,”
House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones
(D-Baltimore County) and Senate
President Bill Ferguson (D-Balti-
more City) said in a joint state-
ment.Hogan’s lack of action has can-
didates jostling to frame what
leaders should or could have done
differently. The term-limited gov-
ernor has suggested that a Demo-
cratic state official, who has been
his ally in the past but is now one
of the candidates to succeed him,
should use his power to help mo-
torists — even though state law-
yers say that’s not legally permit-
ted.
Ahead of the July 19 primary,
some gubernatorial candidates
called for the increase to be halted
for six months or a year. Others
pitched another gas-tax holiday
that would suspend the state’s gas
tax altogether, which is set to in-
crease from 36.1 cents per gallon
to 42.7 cents.
For all the candidates’ position-
ing, however, Maryland’s political
leaders intend to let the increases
take effect, saying the state’s trans-
portation infrastructure cannot
afford to lose the $200 million
that the increase will generate in
the next year.
The tax increase, which is auto-
matically adjusted based on the
consumer price index every July,
often goes unnoticed. But with
inflation at a 40-year high, this
year’s increase translates into a
6.6-cent jump at a time when pric-
es have already been shattering
records for months.
For an average sedan’s 12-gal-
lon tank, the increase amounts to
an extra 79 cents per fill-up.
“There’s a huge difference be-
tween the actual dollar cost and
the political cost,” Eberly said.
“And the political cost of seem-
ing indifferent is pretty substan-
tial.”
Hogan on Monday announced
the new rate and challenged his
former political ally Comptroller
Peter Franchot, a leading Demo-
cratic contender to succeed him,
to find a way to stave it off. Fran-
chot, the state’s tax collector, lacks
the authority to do that, Mary-
land’s attorney general said this
week.
“This tax increase, while hard-
ship-inducing for Marylanders at
any time, is simply unconsciona-
ble,” Hogan wrote, telling Fran-
chot: “It is my hope that you will
use every legal and regulatory
power at your disposal to halt or
minimize the impact of the accel-
erating gas taxes.”
He asked the comptroller to
stop collecting the tax and waive
penalties for people who refuse to
pay. The comptroller’s office said
he doesn’t have authority to do it
— and it would do little to drive
down prices because those taxes
GAS TAX FROM B1
Candidates in Md. governor’s race clash over surging gas tax ahead of primary
BRIAN WITTE/ASSOCIATED PRESSGov. Larry Hogan (R) speaks at a news conference beside Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne
A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) on March 18 in Annapolis. An 18 percent gas-tax increase is scheduled to automatically occur in July.“This tax increase, while hardship-inducing forMarylanders at any time, is simply unconscionable.It is my hope that you will use every legal andregulatory power at your disposal to halt orminimize the impact of the accelerating gas taxes.”
Gov. Larry Hogan (R), challenging a contender in the governor’s race,
Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), who officials say lacks authority in the matterstarted already.” In a recorded
conversation with his roommate
after Jan. 6, he again said he
wished for a civil war to achieve a
“clean slate.” Hale-Cusanelli also
said, “I don’t think we can fix the
problems that Jews cause if you
don’t address all the things they
do.”
But in both his recorded discus-
sion with his roommate and a
five-hour interview with the NCIS
and FBI, Hale-Cusanelli did not
say he went to the Capitol without
knowing it was where the elector-
al vote was being certified, Seifert
observed. “He would have you
believe he did not know they were
certifying the vote one floor up,”
Seifert said. At trial, the prosecu-
tor observed, “This is the first
time that he thought, ‘This is what
I should say.’ ”
Crisp responded, “There are
multiple Capitol buildings where
the House and Senate meet ... He
knew what they were doing, but
not where.”
Hale-Cusanelli was the fifth
Jan. 6 defendant to take his case to
a jury, and the fourth to challenge
the obstruction of an official pro-
ceeding charge. All five jury trials
have resulted in guilty verdicts;
none have been sentenced yet. In
two misdemeanor bench trials,
both before McFadden, one defen-
dant was convicted and one was
acquitted.
About 800 people have been
charged in federal court in Jan.
6-related cases, according to
Washington Post records, 300
have pleaded guilty and six have
been convicted at trial. Of those
convicted, 179 people have been
sentenced, all but 15 for misde-
meanors. Of the 15 felony sen-
tences, the average prison term
handed down has been about 30.6
months, according to Post rec-
ords. The three defendants who
have been sentenced for obstruct-
ing an official proceeding, all after
pleading guilty, received terms of
eight, 33 and 41 months.
Hale-Cusanelli’s sentencing
was set for Sept. 16. Because he
took his case to trial, he will not be
considered for a sentence reduc-
tion for those who take guilty
pleas and instead McFadden may
increase his sentence.mate. The roommate contacted
the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service, which provided him with
a hidden microphone to record a
second conversation with Hale-
Cusanelli.
On cross-examination, Karen P.
Seifert, an assistant U.S. attorney,
pointed out the text messages
Hale-Cusanelli sent after the 2020
election, detailing his analysis of
elector slates, the recount in Ari-
zona and the process leading up to
the electoral vote certification,
and noting that he could be heard
chanting “Stop the steal” inside
the Capitol.
Seifert also noted that Hale-Cu-
sanelli wrote in a February 2020
text that, in reference to liberals,
that he wanted “the civil warbers of Congress were in the same
building until a police officer told
him.
Upon his return to the naval
base in New Jersey, Hale-Cusanel-
li described his trip to a room-testers, and that he merely fol-
lowed the crowd into the build-
ing. “I was wrong, I shouldn’t
have been there,” he told the jury.
He said he didn’t learn that Vice
President Mike Pence and mem-felt the election needed to be in-
vestigated.
Crisp told the jury at the outset
that they would hear “how bom-
bastic he can be, how antagonis-
tic he can be. He is that guy who
just wants to say things to agi-
tate.” And, Crisp said, “He was
wrongfully in the Capitol. He said
a lot of offensive words. And he
shouldn’t have been there at the
end of the day. The question of
why he was there, that’s impor-
tant. You are the gatekeepers of
whether the government is over-
reaching.”
Hale-Cusanelli testified that
he thought Trump would be
speaking at the Capitol, after
hearing the president say he
would be marching with the pro-window on the west Lower Ter-
race at 2:13 p.m., wearing a gray
suit and a red MAGA hat. Before
entering, prosecutors said, he
moved a bicycle rack barrier aside
to enable crowds to get closer to
the building, and then urged the
mob forward by waving his arms
and yelling, “Advance! Advance!”
Once inside, photos and videos
showed, Hale-Cusanelli was part
of a group that overwhelmed Cap-
itol and D.C. police in the crypt,
and then attempted to pull a riot-
er away from police as they were
arresting the other rioter. On the
witness stand, Hale-Cusanelli re-
peatedly apologized for all of his
actions.
Hale-Cusanelli said he knew
the electoral vote certification
was happening on Jan. 6, but “I
thought it was going to be in a
building called ‘Congress.’ As stu-
pid as it sounds, I did not realize
that Congress sat in the Capitol
building ... I didn’t know the Capi-
tol building was the same as the
congressional building.” Hale-Cu-
sanelli said he attended the
Trump inauguration in 2017 and
had attended a post-election pro-
test in the District in December
2020.
Hale-Cusanelli was trying to
show that he did not have the
intent to disrupt the electoral col-
lege process, and thus couldn’t be
guilty of obstructing the proceed-
ing, for which he faces a years-
long prison sentence. He and his
lawyer, Jonathan Crisp, mostly
did not challenge the four misde-
meanor counts: entering a re-
stricted building, disorderly con-
duct in a restricted area, disorder-
ly conduct in a Capitol building,
and parading or demonstrating in
a Capitol building. The misde-
meanors each have a maximum
one-year term.
Hale-Cusanelli took videos be-
fore and during his trip through
the Capitol, which lasted 40 min-
utes, including yelling vile com-
ments at police outside the build-
ing. His text messages before and
after Jan. 6, declaring that Joe
Biden had not been legally elect-
ed, used the n-word. He said on
the stand Thursday that he still
JAN. 6 FROM B1
N.J. man found guilty of felony obstruction in Jan. 6 riot at U.S. Capitol
JON ELSWICK/ASSOCIATED PRESSThe Department of Justice’s motion to oppose the conditional release of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli ahead of his trial on charges from the Jan.
6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Hale-Cusanelli’s beliefs and support for a civil war convinced multiple judges to keep him in jail until his trial.Hale-Cusanelli testified that he thought DonaldTrump would be speaking at the Capitol, and thathe merely followed the crowd into the building. “Ishouldn’t have been there,” he told the jury. Hesaid he didn’t know members of Congress were inthe same building until a police officer told him.