Texas militia member convicted on all charges in first Jan. 6 trial - POLITICO

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Texas militia member convicted on all charges in first Jan. 6 trial

A jury finds Guy Reffitt guilty of five felonies related to the Capitol riot.

Members of the National Guard stand outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 14, 2021 in Washington, D.C. | Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Guy Reffitt, a Texas militia member who was at the head of an early wave of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was found guilty of all five felony charges he faced related to the assault, including obstruction of an official proceeding, carrying a firearm during the attack and threatening witnesses.

The verdicts arean important milestone for the Justice Department in the first jury trial since the attack that threatened the presidential transfer of power more than 14 months ago.

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich set Reffitt's sentencing for June 8. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 60 years in prison, but will likely get much less in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines. He will also receive credit for spending more than a year in jail awaiting trial.

The unanimous verdicts returned Tuesday after only about three hours of deliberations capped a week-long trial that featured graphic video and testimony of the pro-Trump mob that Reffitt joined, confronting police officers at the Capitol's west front. There, prosecutors say, his prolonged standoff with several officers wielding non-lethal weapons helped divert focus while the larger mob tore through scaffolding assembled for the inauguration of Joe Biden.

Once the mob — including several prominent figures who were among the first to breach the building-got inside the scaffolding, overwhelmed police officers were forced to retreat and make a desperate effort to prevent the mob from reaching lawmakers as they counted electoral votes, a constitutionally required process to finalize the election results.

One juror told POLITICO that the jury was thorough, but there was no real disagreement on the panel and they didn't need much time due to the strength of the government's case.

"We went through every count and every element and decided whether the government had proved its case or not," said Michael Gray, a manager of information technology projects. "It wasn't very hard and it didn't take us long. ... We thought that the government had a lot of evidence to support the fact that Mr. Reffitt was guilty on all five counts."

Gray said some of the most devastating evidence against Reffitt were the recordings of him repeatedly vowing to drag Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers from the Capitol. "His own words played a big part in how we looked at the evidence," the juror said.

The Reffitt trial is the first of potentially dozens stemming from the insurrection. More than 800 people have been charged for conduct connected to the Capitol breach, and more than 200 of them have pleaded guilty to crimes ranging from seditious conspiracy and obstruction to simple trespassing and parading in a restricted area.

The verdicts were read to a sparse courtroom, with limited access due to ongoing Covid-related restrictions. There was no audible reaction and Reffitt appeared stoic when the verdict was announced on each count. His wife, Nicole Reffitt, was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read but entered after the fact.

The outcome is a significant victory for the Justice Department, which has characterized its investigation of the Jan. 6 attack as the most complex in U.S. history.

Most Jan. 6 defendants are unlikely to go to trial, and Reffitt's decision — in the face of overwhelming video and testimonial evidence of his actions — ended up backfiring. His defense lawyer, William Welch, asked few questions of prosecution witnesses and opted against calling any defense witnesses. In the end, he asked the jury to convict Reffitt on one of the lesser charges he faced — remaining in a restricted area of the Capitol — and sought to raise doubts about whether the prosecution had proven its more serious claims.

But jurors rejected that argument and generally found Reffitt's defense flimsy, according to Gray.

"That was glaring, it wasn't just noticeable. It was glaring. He didn't have any defense at all," Gray said. "There was really nothing to discuss from a defense perspective."

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Reffitt's wife Nicole denounced the verdicts.

"The verdict today is actually, is against all American people. If you're going to be convicted on your First Amendment rights, all Americans should be wary. This fight has just begun," she said.

Nicole Reffitt also said others charged in the Jan. 6 riot should resist the temptation to cut a deal with prosecutors, as hundreds of defendants already have.

"Don't take a plea. Do not take a plea. They want us to take a plea. The reason that we have all guilty verdicts is that they are making a point out of Guy. And that is to intimidate the other members of the One-Sixers," Nicole Reffitt said. "Do not take a plea One-Sixers. Do not we got this."

Prosecutors were aided in making their case by two star witnesses. One was Reffitt's son Jackson, who reported his father to the FBI before Jan. 6 and later recorded conversations that he provided to the FBI. Jackson told jurors that his father became increasingly radicalized in 2020 and later threatened to shoot him and his sister Peyton if they went to authorities with their concerns.

Another key prosecution witness was Rocky Hardie, a member of the Texas Three Percenters who traveled with Reffitt to Washington in order to attend Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally. Hardie, who was given immunity for his testimony, described their conversations — including Reffitt's call to drag members of Congress out of the Capitol — and their decision to bring multiple firearms to Washington.

Jurors also heard compelling and sometimes emotional testimony from a series of Capitol Police officers, who described the experience of being overwhelmed by the angry crowd on Jan. 6.

The police testimony was highly incriminating for Reffitt because three of the officers said they specifically recalled him being at the forefront of a large group of protesters who were surging up a stairway on the west front of the Capitol. They also recalled him taunting them with cries of "traitor" and warning that the police could not stop the massive crowd.

The officers detailed their efforts to repel Reffitt using pepper balls and weighted non-lethal rounds fired from air guns. After those efforts failed, one officer was doused with tear gas, which largely took him out of commission. However, as he nursed his stinging eyes on a Capitol banister, Reffitt repeatedly gestured to the rest of the crowd to charge up the steps, videos played at the trial showed.

Reffitt's defense stressed that he never threw anything at officers, touched any officers or actually entered the Capitol building. Indeed, he faces no such charge from the standoff with police. Instead, he faces two "civil disorder" counts which relate to impeding or interfering with police during civil unrest.

While the officers pushed back on Reffitt, the mob swelled and grew angrier, throwing debris and using wooden boards to shield themselves from non-lethal projectiles. Prosecutors say Reffitt's confrontation helped the mob "adapt" their tactics, once they realized the police's strategy to keep them at bay. Officers testified that they were wary of using their firearms because of the size of the crowd and concerns that many of the members of the mob — some clad in military-style gear — were carrying weapons.

In fact, Reffitt is one of the few members of the Jan. 6 mob charged with carrying a gun on Capitol grounds. To convince jurors of that charge, prosecutors showed a screenshot of a video in which a holster-like object can be seen on Reffitt's belt, along with a silver glint that they say reflected a handgun. In addition, Reffitt himself was seen on video and in recordings provided by his son describing his "loaded" weapon and suggesting many others in the crowd were also armed.

Reffitt's daughter Peyton was also expected to be a government witness, offering a similar account to her brother Jackson, but saying she did not believe her father was serious. However, prosecutors announced Monday they were dropping plans to call her. The defense could have called her as well but did not.

As Nicole Reffitt emerged from court Tuesday, Peyton was by her side. The daughter declined to comment to reporters after the verdict, but said she would address the issue in some fashion in the future.

By contrast, her mother minced no words in denouncing the prosecution's tactics. "Using my minor child as a pawn, is probably the most disgusting ploy I've ever seen," Nicole Reffitt said.

An activist who has organized support for Jan. 6 defendants, Cara Castronuova, challenged Welch outside the courthouse about the defense decision not to call witnesses.

"Do you feel like you provided an adequate defense for the family? How come you called no witnesses at trial?" Castronuova asked, pointing a camera and microphone at Welch as he trundled away from court. "How come you called no witnesses?"

However, Nicole Reffitt expressed no dissatisfaction with Welch's approach to the case.

"William did exactly what he needed to do," she said.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdicts Tuesday. A Justice Department press release announcing the verdicts contained no quotes from officials touting the outcome of the case, but the head of the FBI's Washington Field Office later issued a statement of his own, hailing the guilty verdicts and expressing sympathy for the defendant's family.

"Rather than take responsibility for his actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Reffitt opted to put his family through a painful trial," Assistant Director in Charge Steven D'Antuono said. "Today's guilty verdict in the first jury trial of a Jan. 6 defendant should serve as a reminder for others who committed crimes at the Capitol that day that these are serious charges and that the FBI and our law enforcement partners will do what it takes to hold them accountable."

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