Beattie is arguing that none of the January 6 rioters could have flipped on their compatriots as early as January 27, because the first plea deal wasn’t filed in court until April 16. But April 16 isn’t the date the government reached an agreement with the person in question (Jon Schaffer, a founding member of the Oath Keepers militia)—it’s the date that agreement was entered into the court’s public record. By that point, Schaffer had already been cooperating with the government for an unknown amount of time. The idea that a person can work backward from a public record of plea deals to ascertain which unindicted co-conspirators might or might not have been granted immunity is laughable. In some cases, the government may not strike an official plea agreement until after the co-conspirator has followed through on a pledge to testify. In others, the government may strike an agreement, but keep it under seal until the perp’s use as an informant has run its course. “Once it’s announced that somebody has been charged, you’d have to be an idiot—mind you, there are stupid criminals—but you’d have to be an idiot to talk to these people about any ongoing criminal activity or to make any confession, because they’ve been charged,” John Malcolm, a former federal prosecutor and senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Dispatch. “But if it’s not known that somebody has been charged or that somebody’s entered a plea deal, then their value can continue.”