WASHINGTON --
An armed Texas militia member led a "vigilante mob" that overwhelmed law enforcement officials and have become the primary group of rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol final yr, a federal prosecutor stated Monday on the shut of the primary legal trial over the riot.
A 12-member jury is scheduled to start deliberating on Tuesday for Man Wesley Reffitt's trial on prices that he stormed the Capitol with a holstered handgun strapped to his waist and interfered with law enforcement officials guarding the Senate doorways. He is also charged with threatening his teenage kids in the event that they reported him to legislation enforcement after the assault on Jan. 6, 2021.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Risa Berkower advised jurors that Reffitt drove to Washington, D.C., aspiring to cease Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory, to "overthrow Congress" and to pull lawmakers out of the constructing. Reffitt proudly "lit the hearth" that allowed others within the mob to overwhelm Capitol law enforcement officials, the prosecutor stated in the course of the trial's closing arguments.
"They have been in an unattainable scenario -- outnumbered and, they feared, outgunned," Berkower stated of police.
Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, did not testify at his trial, which began final Wednesday. Protection legal professional William Welch did not name any protection witnesses after prosecutors rested their case.
Welch urged jurors to acquit Reffitt of all prices however one. He stated they need to convict him of a misdemeanor cost that he entered and remained in a restricted space.
"That's what proof past an affordable doubt appears like, however it ends there," Welch stated.
Reffitt faces 5 felony counts: obstruction of an official continuing, being unlawfully current on Capitol grounds whereas armed with a firearm, transporting firearms throughout a civil dysfunction, interfering with legislation enforcement officers throughout a civil dysfunction, and obstructing justice. The obstructing justice cost pertains to his alleged threats towards his kids.
Welch denied that Reffitt had a gun on the Capitol and stated there is no such thing as a proof that he engaged in any violence or harmful conduct on Jan. 6.
"Man does brag so much," Welch stated. "He adorns and he exaggerates."
"Sure, Man Reffitt brags," Assistant U.S. Legal professional Jeffrey Nestler countered. "And you realize what he brags about? The reality."
Reffitt was arrested lower than every week after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol. He has remained jailed in Washington, D.C., for months.
Reffitt is a member of the "Texas Three Percenters" and bragged about his involvement within the riot to different members of the group, in line with prosecutors. The Three Percenters militia motion refers back to the delusion that solely 3% of American colonists fought towards the British within the Revolutionary Struggle.
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, stated he and Reffitt each had holstered handguns strapped to their our bodies after they attended then-President Donald Trump's "Cease the Steal" rally simply earlier than the riot erupted.
On Thursday, Reffitt's 19-year-old son, Jackson, testified that his father advised him and his sister, then 16, that they'd be traitors in the event that they reported him to authorities and stated "traitors get shot." Jackson Reffitt's youthful sister, Peyton, was listed as a attainable authorities witness however did not testify.
On Jan. 6, Reffitt had the holstered gun below his jacket, was carrying zip-tie handcuffs and was sporting physique armor when he and different rioters superior on law enforcement officials on the west facet of the Capitol, in line with prosecutors.
"Each step he took up the railing, the group got here with him," Berkhower stated. "The gang was energized and cheered him on."
Reffitt isn't accused of coming into the constructing. He retreated after an officer pepper-sprayed him within the face, prosecutors stated.
Berkower performed surveillance video of the rioters who poured into the constructing whereas then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the Senate. She stated it was a darkish day in American historical past, however not for Reffitt.
"He was ecstatic about what he did, about what the mob did," she added. "What the defendant did was not simply bragging or hype."
Welch accused prosecutors of dashing to judgment. "Be the grownups within the courtroom. Separate the info from the hype," he advised jurors.
Greater than 750 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to the riot. A verdict in his case might have an infinite influence on many others. A conviction might give prosecutors extra leverage over defendants going through essentially the most critical prices. An acquittal might embolden different defendants to hunt extra favorable plea offers or gamble on trials of their very own.
Over 220 riot defendants have pleaded responsible, largely to misdemeanors. and over 110 of them have been sentenced. Roughly 90 others have trial dates.
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