Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin, speaks as he arrives on the Federal Court docket Home in Washington, Monday, March 21, 2022. (AP Photograph/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
WASHINGTON --
An elected official from New Mexico went to trial Monday with a choose - not a jury - set to resolve if he's responsible of costs that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds on the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory.
U.S. District Decide Trevor McFadden is scheduled to listen to attorneys' closing arguments Tuesday for the case towards Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, whose trial in Washington, D.C., is the second among the many lots of of individuals charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6, 2021, siege.
The choose heard testimony Monday from three authorities witnesses earlier than prosecutors rested their case. Griffin's lawyer mentioned he would not plan to name any protection witnesses.
The case towards Griffin is not like many of the Capitol riot prosecutions. He is likely one of the few riot defendants who is not accused of coming into the Capitol or participating in any violent or damaging habits. He claims he has been selectively prosecuted for his political beliefs.
Griffin, certainly one of three members of the Otero County Fee in southern New Mexico, is amongst a handful of riot defendants who both held public workplace or ran for a authorities management submit within the 2 1/2 years earlier than the assault.
He's amongst solely three riot defendants who've requested for a bench trial, which suggests a choose will resolve his case with no jury.
Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider and former pastor, helped discovered a political committee known as Cowboys for Trump. He had vowed to reach on the courthouse on horseback. As an alternative, he confirmed up Monday as a passenger in a pickup truck that had a horse trailer on the again.
Griffin is charged with two misdemeanors: coming into and remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted constructing or grounds.
A key query in Griffin's case is whether or not he entered a restricted space whereas Pence was nonetheless current on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the U.S. Secret Service to invoke entry restrictions.
Griffin's attorneys mentioned in a court docket submitting that Pence had already departed the restricted space earlier than the earliest that Griffin might have entered it, however Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence by no means left the restricted space through the riot.
Hawa mentioned brokers took Pence from his workplace on the Capitol to a restricted space at an underground loading dock on the Capitol complicated. Pence remained within the loading dock location for 4 to 5 hours and by no means left the safety perimeter earlier than the joint session of Congress resumed on the night time of Jan. 6, Hawa testified.
Protection legal professional Nicholas Smith requested Hawa if it was Pence's resolution to stay there for hours.
“I can not reply that,” she mentioned.
Smith mentioned prosecutors apparently consider Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct by peacefully main a prayer on the Capitol steps.
“That's offensive and mistaken,” Smith informed the choose throughout his temporary opening statements.
Prosecutors did not give any opening statements. Their first witness was Matthew Struck, who joined Griffin on the Capitol and served as his videographer. Struck has an immunity take care of prosecutors for his testimony.
After attending then-President Donald Trump's “Cease the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, Griffin and Struck walked over limitations and up a staircase to enter a stage that was underneath building on the Capitol's Decrease West Terrace for Biden's inauguration, based on prosecutors.
Prosecutors performed video clips that confirmed Griffin shifting by means of the mob that shaped outdoors the Capitol, the place police used pepper spray to quell rioters.
“I like the odor of napalm within the air,” Griffin mentioned in an obvious reference to a line by Robert Duvall's character within the conflict film “Apocalypse Now.”
After climbing over a stone wall and coming into a restricted space outdoors the Capitol, Griffin mentioned, “That is our home, we must always all be armed,” based on prosecutors. He known as it “an excellent day for America” and added, “The individuals are exhibiting that they've had sufficient,” prosecutors mentioned.
Struck testified that he and Griffin went to the Capitol to discover a place to hope. Smith requested Struck if anyone seemed to be “riled up” by the prayer that Griffin led.
“They began chanting, `Pray for Trump,”' Struck replied. “It appears to be like like they have been calm and so they're listening to Couy.”
In a court docket submitting, prosecutors known as Griffin “an inflammatory provocateur and fabulist who engages in racist invective and propounds baseless conspiracy theories, together with that Communist China stole the 2020 Presidential Election.”
Griffin's attorneys say lots of if not 1000's of different folks did precisely what Griffin did on Jan. 6 and have not been charged with any crimes.
“The proof will present that the federal government chosen Griffin for prosecution based mostly on the truth that he gave a speech and led a prayer on the Capitol, that's, chosen him based mostly on protected expression,” they wrote.
Greater than 770 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Greater than 230 riot defendants have pleaded responsible, largely to misdemeanors, and no less than 127 of them have been sentenced. Roughly 100 others have trial dates.
Earlier this month, a jury convicted a Texas man, Man Wesley Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun within the first trial for a Capitol riot defendant. Jurors additionally convicted him of obstructing Congress from certifying the Electoral School vote on Jan. 6, of interfering with cops who had been guarding the Capitol and of threatening his two teenage youngsters in the event that they reported him to regulation enforcement.
Reffitt's conviction on all costs might give prosecutors extra leverage in negotiating plea offers in lots of different instances or discourage different defendants from going to trial. The end result of Griffin's trial additionally might have a ripple impact, serving to others to resolve whether or not to let a choose or a jury resolve their case.
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Related Press author Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.
Correction:
This story has been corrected to point out the legal professional who mentioned "That's offensive and mistaken" was Nicholas Smith, not David Smith.
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