Capitol riot trial opens for Cowboys for Trump founder

Couy Griffin is charged with illegally coming into Capitol grounds the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
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WASHINGTON — An elected official from New Mexico went to trial with a decide — not a jury — set to resolve if he's responsible of costs 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 a whole bunch 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 mentioned he doesn’t plan to name any protection witnesses.

The case in opposition to Griffin is in contrast to a lot of the Capitol riot prosecutions. He is likely one of the few riot defendants who isn’t accused of coming into the Capitol or participating in any violent or damaging conduct. He claims he has been selectively prosecuted for his political opinions.

Griffin, considered one of 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 publish within the 2 1/2 years earlier than the assault.

Griffin based a corporation referred to as “Cowboys for Trump.”

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He's amongst solely three riot defendants who've requested for a bench trial, which suggests a decide will resolve his case with no jury.

Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider and former pastor, helped discovered a political committee referred to as Cowboys for Trump. He had vowed to reach on the courthouse on horseback. As an alternative, 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: coming 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 mentioned in a court docket submitting that Pence had already departed the restricted space earlier than the earliest that Griffin might have entered it, however Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence by no means left the restricted space through the riot.

Hawa mentioned brokers took Pence from his workplace on the Capitol to a safe location at an underground loading dock on the Capitol complicated. 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 night time of Jan. 6, Hawa testified.

Protection lawyer Nicholas Smith requested Hawa if it was Pence’s determination to stay there for hours.

Couy Griffin, arrives on the Federal Court docket Home in Washington.

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“I can’t reply that,” she mentioned.

Smith mentioned prosecutors apparently imagine Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct by peacefully main a prayer on the Capitol steps.

“That's offensive and mistaken,” Smith advised the decide throughout his transient 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 “Cease the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, Griffin and Struck walked over limitations and up a staircase to enter a stage that was below building on the Capitol’s Decrease West Terrace for Biden’s inauguration, based on prosecutors.

Prosecutors performed video clips that confirmed Griffin transferring by means of the mob that shaped exterior the Capitol, the place police used pepper spray to quell rioters.

“I like the odor of napalm within the air,” Griffin mentioned in an obvious reference to a line by Robert Duvall’s character within the battle film “Apocalypse Now.”

After climbing over a stone wall and coming into a restricted space exterior the Capitol, Griffin mentioned, “That is our home … we should always all be armed,” based on prosecutors. He referred to as it “an awesome day for America” and added, “The individuals are displaying that they've had sufficient,” prosecutors mentioned.

Couy Griffin gestures earlier than getting right into a automotive after the primary day of his trial in federal court docket in Washington, Monday, March 21, 2022.

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Struck testified that he and Griffin went to the Capitol to discover a place to wish. Smith requested Struck if anyone seemed to be “riled up” by the prayer that Griffin led.

“They began chanting, ‘Pray for Trump,’” Struck replied. “It seems to be like they’ve been calm they usually’re listening to Couy.”

In a court docket submitting, prosecutors referred to 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 a whole bunch 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 primarily based on the truth that he gave a speech and led a prayer on the Capitol, that's, chosen him primarily based 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 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 primary 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 had been guarding the Capitol and of threatening his two teenage youngsters in the event that they reported him to legislation enforcement.

Reffitt’s conviction on all costs might give prosecutors extra leverage in negotiating plea offers in lots of different circumstances or discourage different defendants from going to trial. The end result of Griffin’s trial additionally might have a ripple impact, serving to others to resolve whether or not to let a decide or a jury resolve their case.