A jury in Washington found Guy Refitt, 49, guilty on all charges in the first criminal trial stemming from the assault on the United States Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021. Reffitt was convicted for bringing a weapon to Washington, interfering with police, and impeding an official proceeding: Congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election.
“Guy Reffitt lit the fuse for the first group of rioters to enter the Capitol,” prosecutor Risa Berkower said in her closing arguments. “A crowd needs leaders and the defendant was a leader that day.” Reffitt, a member of the right-wing Texas Three Percenters militia group, was also convicted of obstruction for threatening his teenage son and daughter if they spoke to police about his involvement in the Capitol attack. Reffitt’s son, then 18, went to the FBI despite his father’s warning that “traitors get shot” and gave emotional testimony against his father in court.
Guy Refitt, an oil industry worker from Wylie, Texas, was the first person to stand trial on charges stemming from the assault on Congress by Trump supporters last year. “The election did not have the result that he expected, so he decided to act,” said prosecutor Berkower. “He came (to Washington) with one purpose, to overthrow Congress.” The case, brought by a federal court in Washington, has been closely watched for its possible connection to future prosecutions of other defendants in the Capitol riots. The 12-person jury deliberated for only a couple of hours before finding Reffitt guilty on all five counts against him.
The leader of the ‘Proud Boys’, Henry Tarrío, in an image from November 2020.
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More than 750 people were arrested for their role in the takeover of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Nearly 220 people have pleaded guilty to various charges, but Reffitt has pleaded not guilty and was the first person to go to trial. He could face up to 20 years in prison. Of those who pleaded guilty, some 70 have already been sentenced in federal court. The most severe sentence was five years in prison. The assault on Capitol Hill left at least five dead and 140 police officers wounded and took place after a fiery speech by Trump before thousands of his supporters near the White House.
They arrest the leader of the ‘Proud Boys’ for the assault on the Capitol
The leader of the ‘Proud Boys’, Henry Tarrio, one of the main far-right militias in the United States, was arrested today and charged for his role in the attack on the US Congress headquarters. The Department of Justice indicated that Tarrío, 38, was arrested in Miami and will appear today before a Federal Court in South Florida, and that another indictment against Tarrío, in the District of Columbia, includes five other suspects.
Key figure of the extreme right, the American of Cuban origin Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrío, is being prosecuted for “criminal association” with those other five members of his organization, according to the services of the prosecutor Matthew Graves, who supervises the extensive investigation into the attack perpetrated against the Capitol. “On January 6, the defendants directed, mobilized, and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into Congress, spearheading the dismantling of metal barriers, destruction of property, and attacks on police,” the Justice Department said. . Henry Tarrío was arrested on January 4, 2021 in Washington and was later released under orders to stay out of the city, so he was not directly around the Capitol on January 6.
lgc (afp / efe)
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