…from the New York Times
Update 03-13-22 8:21pm: This got lost in the flurry of the Ukraine war news but was a key first prosecution victory of the first of many violent attackers of the Capitol…JD
[ Editor’s Note: Yes, Reffitt’s kids will now grow up without a father, with the irony that one of the charges was threatening his own kids. I hope they have a supportive extended family that are not crazy like dad.
I am afraid the wrecked families of some of the Capitol police are long forgotten. Congress refused to give them the serious funding to better prevent a similar attack.
The National Guard command has gotten off way too easy, possibly due to the embarassment of its being compromised looking so bad for the country.
The next step, a slow one, will be how the first Appeals level ruling will be on the Reffitt case. The DC branch is friendly territory, and the Judges have seen the Supreme Court stick it to Trump on his silly thinking that as part of his mob crew their main loyalty was to ‘the boss’, the ‘capo’.
A few more cases like this with similar rulings will open the flood gates on getting more people to flip on the higher ups, especially the older white collar guys who are still dreaming of being influence peddlers and making good money for the rest of their lives.
I look forward to them being pedaled through the prison doors one day… Jim W. Dean ]
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First published March 8, 2022
A federal jury on Tuesday swiftly convicted the first accused Jan. 6 rioter to go on trial even as prosecutors announced they had expanded their inquiry by indicting a former leader of the Proud Boys, the far-right nationalist group that played a prominent role in the Capitol attack.
After only three hours of deliberations, the jury found the defendant in the trial, Guy Wesley Reffitt, guilty on five counts. They included obstructing Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election by helping to lead a pro-Trump mob in an advance against the police that resulted in the first violent breach of the building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mr. Reffitt was also convicted of wearing an illegal pistol on his hip during the attack and of later threatening his teenage son and daughter to keep them from turning him in to the authorities. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction count alone.
…Ten federal judges — including Judge Friedrich — have upheld the statute, saying it can be used. Only one federal judge in Washington, Carl J. Nichols, has said the law does not apply to the Capitol attack,
Mr. Reffitt’s lawyer, William L. Welch, put on a muted and abbreviated defense with an opening statement that lasted three minutes, called no witnesses and presented no evidence.
You can read the full NY Times article here.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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