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IPFS News Link • Courtroom and Trials

Texas man could become first Capitol rioter convicted by jury as trial ends

• https://www.theguardian.com, Reuters in Washington

Federal prosecutors on Monday finished presenting testimony against a Texas man who is the first person to be tried on charges related to the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January last year.

Guy Reffitt told US district judge Dabney Friedrich he would not be testifying at his trial on charges that he stormed the Capitol armed with a holstered handgun and interfered with police.

After prosecutors rested their case, defense attorney William Welch said he did not plan to call any defense witnesses.

Jurors will hear attorneys' closing arguments before they begin deliberating.

Reffitt was arrested less than a week after the January 6 riot. He also is charged with threatening his teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement.

Two Capitol police officers who tried to repel Reffitt outside the Capitol and an FBI agent who investigated the case were the last three government witnesses to testify.

Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, is a member of the "Texas Three Percenters" and bragged about his involvement in the riot to other members of the militia-style group, according to prosecutors. The Three Percenters militia movement refers to the myth that only 3% of American colonists fought against the British in the revolutionary war.

On Friday, jurors heard testimony from a self-described Texas Three Percenters member who drove from Texas to Washington with Reffitt. The witness, Rocky Hardie, said he and Reffitt both had holstered handguns strapped to their bodies when they attended Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally just before the riot erupted.

On Thursday, Reffitt's 19-year-old son, Jackson, testified that his father told him and his sister, then 16, they would be traitors if they reported him to authorities and said "traitors get shot". Jackson Reffitt's younger sister, Peyton, was listed as a possible government witness but did not testify.


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