WASHINGTON (AP) — An elected official from New Mexico went to trial with a decide — not a jury — set to determine if he’s responsible of expenses that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds on the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
U.S. District Decide Trevor McFadden is scheduled to listen to attorneys’ closing arguments Tuesday for the case in opposition to Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, whose trial in Washington, D.C., is the second among the many tons of of individuals charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6, 2021, siege.
The decide heard testimony Monday from three authorities witnesses. Griffin’s lawyer stated he doesn’t plan to name any protection witnesses.
The case in opposition to Griffin is not like many of the Capitol riot prosecutions. He is without doubt one of the few riot defendants who isn’t accused of getting into the Capitol or participating in any violent or harmful habits. He claims he has been selectively prosecuted for his political beliefs.
Griffin, one in all three members of the Otero County Fee in southern New Mexico, is amongst a handful of riot defendants who both held public workplace or ran for a authorities management put up within the 2 1/2 years earlier than the assault.
He’s amongst solely three riot defendants who’ve requested for a bench trial, which suggests a decide will determine his case with out a jury.
Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider and former pastor, helped discovered a political committee called Cowboys for Trump. He had vowed to reach on the courthouse on horseback. As a substitute, he confirmed up Monday as a passenger in a pickup truck that had a horse trailer on the again.
Griffin is charged with two misdemeanors: getting into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted constructing or grounds.
A key query in Griffin’s case is whether or not he entered a restricted space whereas Pence was nonetheless current on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the U.S. Secret Service to invoke entry restrictions.
Griffin’s attorneys stated in a courtroom submitting that Pence had already departed the restricted space earlier than the earliest that Griffin may have entered it, however Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence by no means left the restricted space in the course of the riot.
Hawa stated brokers took Pence from his workplace on the Capitol to a safe location at an underground loading dock on the Capitol advanced. Pence remained within the loading dock location for 4 to 5 hours and by no means left the safety perimeter earlier than the joint session of Congress resumed on the evening of Jan. 6, Hawa testified.
Protection legal professional Nicholas Smith requested Hawa if it was Pence’s determination to stay there for hours.
“I can’t reply that,” she stated.
Smith stated prosecutors apparently imagine Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct by peacefully main a prayer on the Capitol steps.
“That’s offensive and fallacious,” Smith advised the decide throughout his temporary opening statements.
Prosecutors didn’t give any opening statements. Their first witness was Matthew Struck, who joined Griffin on the Capitol and served as his videographer. Struck has an immunity take care of prosecutors for his testimony.
After attending then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, Griffin and Struck walked over boundaries and up a staircase to enter a stage that was underneath building on the Capitol’s Decrease West Terrace for Biden’s inauguration, in line with prosecutors.
Prosecutors performed video clips that confirmed Griffin transferring by the mob that shaped outdoors the Capitol, the place police used pepper spray to quell rioters.
“I like the odor of napalm within the air,” Griffin stated in an obvious reference to a line by Robert Duvall’s character within the warfare film “Apocalypse Now.”
After climbing over a stone wall and getting into a restricted space outdoors the Capitol, Griffin stated, “That is our home … we should always all be armed,” in line with prosecutors. He known as it “an excellent day for America” and added, “The individuals are exhibiting that they’ve had sufficient,” prosecutors stated.
Struck testified that he and Griffin went to the Capitol to discover a place to wish. Smith requested Struck if anyone gave the impression to be “riled up” by the prayer that Griffin led.
“They began chanting, ‘Pray for Trump,’” Struck replied. “It seems like they’ve been calm and so they’re listening to Couy.”
In a courtroom submitting, prosecutors known as Griffin “an inflammatory provocateur and fabulist who engages in racist invective and propounds baseless conspiracy theories, together with that Communist China stole the 2020 Presidential Election.”
Griffin’s attorneys say tons of if not hundreds of different folks did precisely what Griffin did on Jan. 6 and haven’t been charged with any crimes.
“The proof will present that the federal government chosen Griffin for prosecution based mostly on the truth that he gave a speech and led a prayer on the Capitol, that’s, chosen him based mostly on protected expression,” they wrote.
Greater than 770 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Greater than 230 riot defendants have pleaded responsible, largely to misdemeanors, and at the very least 127 of them have been sentenced. Roughly 100 others have trial dates.
Earlier this month, a jury convicted a Texas man, Man Wesley Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun in the first trial for a Capitol riot defendant. Jurors additionally convicted him of obstructing Congress from certifying the Electoral School vote on Jan. 6, of interfering with cops who have been guarding the Capitol and of threatening his two teenage kids in the event that they reported him to regulation enforcement.
Reffitt’s conviction on all expenses may give prosecutors extra leverage in negotiating plea offers in lots of different circumstances or discourage different defendants from going to trial. The result of Griffin’s trial additionally may have a ripple impact, serving to others to determine whether or not to let a decide or a jury determine their case.
Related Press author Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.