Man who said Trump’s ‘orders’ caused him to storm U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 found guilty
An Ohio man who claimed he was solely “following presidential orders” from Donald Trump when he stormed the U.S. Capitol was convicted Thursday by a jury that took lower than three hours to reject his novel defence for obstructing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
The federal jury additionally discovered Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, responsible of all 5 of the opposite prices in his indictment, together with stealing a coat rack from an workplace contained in the Capitol throughout the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The utmost sentence for the obstruction rely, the lone felony, can be 20 years in jail.
Jurors did not purchase Thompson’s defence, during which he blamed Trump and members of the previous president’s inside circle for the riot and for his personal actions.
One juror who spoke to reporters solely on situation of anonymity mentioned, “Donald Trump wasn’t on trial on this case.”
The juror, a 40-year-old man, mentioned as he left the courthouse, “Everybody agrees that Donald Trump is culpable as an general narrative. A lot of folks had been there after which went residence. Dustin Thompson didn’t.”
Testimony ‘completely disingenuous’
Thompson himself, testifying on Wednesday, admitted he joined the mob’s assault and stole the coat rack and a bottle of bourbon. He mentioned he regretted his “disgraceful” behaviour.
“I can not imagine the issues that I did,” he mentioned. “Mob mentality and group suppose could be very actual and really harmful.”
Nonetheless, he mentioned he believed Trump’s false declare that the election was stolen and was making an attempt to face up for him.
“If the president is providing you with nearly an order to do one thing, I felt obligated to do this,” he mentioned.
U.S. District Choose Reggie Walton, who’s scheduled to condemn Thompson on July 20, described the defendant’s testimony as “completely disingenuous” and his conduct on Jan. 6 as “reprehensible.” The choose additionally solid blame in Trump’s course after the decision was introduced.
“I believe our democracy is in hassle,” he mentioned, including that “charlatans” like Trump do not care about democracy, solely about energy.
“And on account of that, it is tearing our nation aside,” the choose mentioned.
Prosecutors didn’t ask for Thompson to be detained instantly, however Walton ordered him held and he was led away handcuffed. The choose mentioned he did not imagine Thompson’s story, and felt he was a flight danger and a hazard to the general public.
Thompson’s jury trial was the third amongst a whole lot of Capitol riot instances prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Division. Within the first two instances, jurors convicted each defendants of all prices.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional William Dreher mentioned that Thompson, a college-educated exterminator who misplaced his job throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, knew he was breaking the legislation when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol and, in his case, looted the Senate parliamentarian’s workplace.
The prosecutor informed jurors that Thompson’s lawyer “needs you to suppose you need to select between President Trump and his consumer.”
“You do not have to decide on as a result of this isn’t President Trump’s trial. That is the trial for Dustin Thompson due to what he did on the Capitol on the afternoon on Jan. 6,” Dreher mentioned.
Thompson’s lawyer, Samuel Shamansky, mentioned his consumer hasn’t averted taking duty for his conduct that day.
“This shameful chapter in our historical past is all on TV,” Shamansky informed jurors.
However he mentioned Thompson, unemployed and consumed by a gentle weight loss program of conspiracy theories, was susceptible to Trump’s lies a few stolen election. He described Thompson as a “pawn” and Trump as a “gangster” who abused his energy to control supporters.
“The susceptible are seduced by the robust, and that is what occurred right here,” Shamansky mentioned.
At a listening to into the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, front-line cops testify about what occurred to them throughout the riot — from bodily to verbal assaults, together with racial epithets. 2:01
Walton, the choose, barred Thompson’s lawyer from calling Trump and former New York Metropolis mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Trump adviser, as trial witnesses. However the choose dominated that jurors may hear recordings of speeches that Trump and Giuliani delivered on Jan. 6, earlier than the riot erupted. A recording of Trump’s remarks was performed.
Shamansky claimed that Giuliani incited rioters by encouraging them to have interaction in “trial by fight” and that Trump provoked the mob by saying that “in case you do not battle like hell, you are not going to have a rustic anymore.”
Dreher informed jurors that neither Trump nor Giuliani had the authority to “make authorized” what Thompson did on the Capitol.
‘I used to be following presidential orders’
Thompson is charged with six counts: obstructing Congress’s joint session to certify the Electoral School vote; theft of presidency property; coming into or remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted constructing or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol constructing; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol constructing.
The obstruction rely is the one felony cost. The remaining are misdemeanours.
Thompson drove from Ohio to Washington, D.C., with a buddy, Robert Lyon, who additionally was arrested lower than a month after the riot. Lyon pleaded responsible in March to 2 misdemeanours — theft of presidency property and disorderly conduct — and is to be sentenced June 3.
Thompson and Lyon took an Uber trip into Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. After Trump’s speech, they headed to the Capitol.
Thompson was carrying a bulletproof vest when he entered the constructing and went to the parliamentarian’s workplace. The FBI mentioned brokers later searched Lyon’s cellphone and located a video that confirmed a ransacked workplace and Thompson yelling: “Wooooo! ‘Merica Hey! That is our home!”
“[Trump] did not pressure you to go. He did not pressure you to stroll each step of the way in which to the Capitol constructing, did he?” Dreher requested Thompson on Wednesday.
“No,” Thompson mentioned.
“You selected to do this?” Dreher requested.
“I used to be following presidential orders, however sure,” Thompson mentioned.
Greater than 770 folks have been charged with federal crimes arising from the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded responsible, largely to misdemeanours. Thompson is the fifth individual to be tried on riot-related prices.
On Monday, a jury convicted a former Virginia police officer, Thomas Robertson, of storming the Capitol with one other off-duty officer. Final month, a jury convicted a Texas man, Man Reffitt, of storming the constructing with a holstered handgun.
A choose listening to testimony with out a jury determined instances in opposition to two different Capitol riot defendants at separate trials. U.S. District Choose Trevor McFadden acquitted certainly one of them of all prices and partially acquitted the opposite.
