(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) For all of the Justice Department’s and J6 Inquisition’s bluster, bellowing and bellicose boasting about bringing so-called insurrectionists to alleged justice for their part in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol, the first show trial of a defendant ended with a decided whimper instead of a bang.
The DOJ got its guilty verdict, but it was a disgraceful ending to an inglorious abuse of power and government overreach.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, of Texas, was convicted Tuesday of storming the U.S. Capitol with a holstered handgun, in what the Associated Press, that bastion of leftist journalism and government propaganda, called a “milestone victory for federal prosecutors in the first trial among hundreds of cases” arising from the J6 protests.
The verdict seemed more weak milquetoast than milestone. Although he was found guilty of “storming the U.S. Capitol,” Reffitt, who never testified, wasn’t even accused of entering the Capitol because he never came close to entering the Capitol.
Defense attorney William Welch said there is no evidence that Reffitt damaged property, used force or physically harmed anybody, reported the AP. 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.
The jury also convicted Reffitt of obstructing Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021, of interfering with police officers who were guarding the Capitol and of threatening his two teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement after the attack. Jurors deliberated about three hours and convicted him on all counts.
Reffitt’s wife, Nicole, said the verdict was “against all American people. You’re going to be convicted on your First Amendment rights. All Americans should be wary. This fight has just begun.”
She said her husband was being used as an example by the government.
“You are all in danger,” she said.
Some of the testimony used to convict Reffitt was coerced by government agents, while possibly exculpatory evidence and testimony was suppressed, according to the Gateway Pundit.
Many of the recordings that prosecutors used to convict Reffitt were of his son “Jackson provoking his dad into debate, and out and out purposely provoking his dad…all at the behest of the FBI,” reported Gateway Pundit.
Meanwhile, Reffitt’s teenage daughter, who was originally supposed to testify for the prosecution, was never called as a witness.
“I never felt threatened by my father,” she said, flying in the face of the demented madman prosecutors portrayed during the trial.
Reffitt, who has been imprisoned at the DC Gulag since he was arrested last January, is set to be sentenced June 8 and could face a maximum of 20 years.
