The defense declined to call a single witness...
The Guardian
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.
I wouldn’t know how to defend this fucker either...
ABC News
On Friday, jurors heard testimony from a self-described Texas Three Percenters member who drove from Texas to Washington, D.C., with Reffitt. The witness, Rocky Hardie, said he and Reffitt both had holstered handguns strapped to their bodies when they attended then-President 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, that 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 didn't testify.
On Jan. 6, Reffitt had the holstered gun under his jacket, was carrying zip-tie handcuffs and was wearing body armor when he and other rioters advanced on police officers on the west side of the Capitol, according to prosecutors. Reffitt is not accused of entering the building. He retreated after an officer pepper-sprayed him in the face, prosecutors said.
They seem to think prosecutors haven’t made their case...
The Wall Street Journal
Over the course of four days in court, testimony, video clips and text-message chains introduced by prosecutors have portrayed Mr. Reffitt as growing estranged from his son and connecting with members of the Texas Three Percenters militia after his oil-industry work dried up during the pandemic. Prosecutors said Mr. Reffitt riled up the crowd approaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a megaphone and confronted police while wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest.
(snip)
Mr. Reffitt’s lawyer has described his client as exaggerating and prone to hyperbole, stressing that he didn’t enter the Capitol building. On Monday, his lawyer, William Welch, said he wouldn’t call any witnesses. The jury could get the case later Monday or on Tuesday.
(snip)
Prosecutors had been expected to call one of Mr. Reffitt’s daughters to testify but said Monday they wouldn’t do so. Previously, Mr. Reffitt’s 19-year-old son testified that he had grown increasingly concerned about his father’s militia involvement and threats he made about lawmakers, to the point where he reported him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Christmas Eve 2020. After the riot, the son recalled, Mr. Reffitt told his children that they would be traitors if they turned him in and that “traitors get shot.”
Prosecutors felt no need to call Reffitt’s daughter to the stand….
The Independent
The trial of a Texas man who threatened to kill his own family members if they turned him in for his part in the Capitol riot has wrapped up as the jury starts their deliberations.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, the first 6 January defendant to be tried by a jury, is one of hundreds of Trump supporters who have been arrested since they were spotted on camera at the Capitol on 6 January 2021. As per an affidavit from an FBI special agent, the 49-year-old Mr Reffitt was formally identified from video shot at the west front of the Capitol during the riot.
(snip)
Mr Reffitt is notorious for two things: the fact that he has pleaded not guilty to the five counts brought against him, and the fact that he allegedly threatened to kill his own children if they turned him in.
The prosecution indicated on Monday morning that they will not call upon Mr Reffitt’s youngest daughter to testify. The Department of Justice rested their case shortly before noon. Mr Refitt’s lawyer said the defence would call no witnesses.
The last prosecution witnesses this morning were Capitol Police Officers…
Politico
The pair of sergeants who took the stand Monday provided some of the most vivid testimony to date about the cruelty and brutality of the push by rioters in the early moments of the mob attack.
“It was just very dangerous. There’s only a few of us there. We’re definitely outnumbered,” recalled Flood. “They were just loud, yelling obscenities. ‘Fuck you.’ ‘Traitor.’ ‘Let us in.’... I thought the crowd was going to surge forward and it was going to turn into a hand-to-hand battle. ... We were being overwhelmed.”
DesCamp said that when Reffitt was at the front of the mob gathered near an exterior Capitol stairway, he shouted that police were “traitors” and repeatedly egged on the crowd behind him. While he approached and officers unsuccessfully tried to stop his advance with pepper balls, the swelling crowd began cutting through a tarp on the inaugural scaffolding with knives, he said, creating a gap that allowed hundreds of rioters to push close to the building.
“I was the only officer standing between this entire crowd and the podium,” DesCamp said.
Business Insider
Pepper balls bounced off Guy Reffitt with seemingly little effect on January 6, 2021, as he climbed the stairs outside the US Capitol in a tactical vest and black helmet with hordes of rioters behind him.
His advance came to a halt only when one Capitol Police officer, Sgt. Matthew Flood, pepper-sprayed Reffitt in the face on the west side of the Capitol building. It was the stopping blow, but it came from a canister in Flood's non-dominant left hand.
On Monday, testifying at the first trial stemming from the January 6 attack, Flood explained that he kept his right hand free in case he needed to draw his police-issued firearm. As the fighting intensified, Flood said he instead pulled out his baton.
"There were only a few of us there. We were definitely outnumbered. That was the weapon I chose to pull out to fight them back," he recalled Monday.
Reffitt’s attorney appears to be sticking to the, “He was talking out his ass” argument...
MSNBC
The defendants in the Jan. 6 cases are charged under a variety of statutes, ranging from entering a restricted area to seditious conspiracy. Each defendant will be judged by their own conduct and intent. Some defendants are charged with simply following the crowd inside the Capitol; the frenzied consequences of a mob mentality. Others are charged with meticulously plotting to use force to obstruct the lawful transfer of presidential power. These two types of conduct violate very different statutes with very different penalties.
Reffitt’s alleged conduct falls somewhere in between these polar extremes. Prosecutors have said Reffitt is a member of the Three-Percenters organization, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as an anti-government paramilitary extremist group. Reffitt was charged in an indictment with civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and obstruction of justice — the latter two offenses are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The indictment also alleges that Reffitt brought a semi-automatic handgun to the riot and attacked two Capitol police officers, for the purpose of obstructing the certification of the Electoral College vote. According to prosecutors, Reffitt bragged on a messaging application that he “was the first person to light the fire on the Capitol steps.” Prosecutors allege Reffitt specifically targeted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to the government, Reffitt said before the attack, “I don’t care if Pelosi’s head is hitting every stair as I drag her by her ankles, she is coming out.”
This former public defender is really going to need to wow the jury with his closing argument…
Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, didn't testify at his trial, which started last Wednesday. Defense attorney William Welch didn't call any defense witnesses after prosecutors rested their case.
Welch urged jurors to acquit Reffitt of all charges but one. He said they should convict him of a misdemeanor charge that he entered and remained in a restricted area.
"That is what proof beyond a reasonable doubt looks like, but it ends there," Welch said.
(snip)
Welch accused prosecutors of rushing to judgment. "Be the grownups in the courtroom. Separate the facts from the hype," he told jurors.
That’s it? I guess so…
The FBI continues to seek the public’s assistance in identifying individuals who participated in unlawful conduct during the Capitol Insurrection. New images are added frequently...
If you have information about individuals who participated in the largest assault on police officers in U.S. history at the Capitol Riot on January 6th, call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or leave a tip online at the FBI’s website.
If you just can’t get enough information about the terrorists who tried to usurp our democracy, then these links are for you…
Department of Justice Capitol Breach Cases
FBI US Capitol Violence Most Wanted
Insider Searchable Table
George Washington University Spreadsheet — Updated Daily
NPR — Updated Database
seditiontracker.com
ProPublica Capitol Riot videos lifted from Parler
KUMU — Capitol Riot Insurrectionist Networks
Just Security — January 6th Clearinghouse
The Trace — Capitol Riot Gun Arrests
USA Today January 6 Capitol Riot Arrests
Sedition Hunters - Sedition Insiders Photo Gallery