Tag: January 6

First Capitol Rioter to Take His Case to Trial – Found Guilty of All Charges

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Hundreds of people have been charged for their role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. So far, Guy Reffitt, a 49-year-old from Wylie, Texas, is the only defendant to actually take his case to trial.

It didn’t go so well. The trial began last week and a jury returned a verdict on Tuesday morning, finding Reffitt guilty on all five charges stemming from his role in the insurrection.

The verdict was not surprising. The prosecution was sitting on a mound of evidence against Reffitt, who attempted to break into the Capitol with a gun and zip ties but never actually made it into the building.

Reffitt recorded videos before the riot in which he lays out his plans. “I’m taking the Capitol with everyone else,” he says in one of them. “I think we have the numbers to make it happen.”

Reffitt also bragged to a group of Three Percenters, a far-right militia to which he belongs, in a post-riot Zoom call that he fired up the crowd as it stormed the Capitol. Additional video shows Reffitt using a megaphone to rally other rioters up the steps of the Capitol.

I don’t know how often it happens. Probably not often enough. But, Reffitt’s politics moved so dramatically to the Fascist-side of Right, that even his son who considers himself a traditional American conservative…testified against him.

Feds unraveling conspiracy details on the DC riot

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Melina Mara/Washington Post

FBI agents around the country are working to unravel the various motives, relationships, goals and actions of the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Some inside the bureau have described the Capitol riot investigation as their biggest case since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a top priority of the agents’ work is to determine the extent to which that violence and chaos was preplanned and coordinated…

An indictment Friday night charged a member of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, 43, of Rochester, N.Y., with conspiracy, saying his actions showed “planning, determination, and coordination.” Another alleged member of the Proud Boys, William Pepe, 31, of Beacon, N.Y., also was charged with conspiracy.

One of the comments cited in the FBI memo declared Trump supporters should go to Washington and get “violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.”

RTFA. Classic coordination for demonstrations is always fertile ground for folks who prefer violence over public support for whatever political position. Poisonally, I think they need to have their heads examined if they believe they can rollout a Banana Republic coup in a nation with inertia and ennui designed into the genetics of political processes.

Preferably, the exams should be conducted by a prison doctor.