Here's How the First 10 Capitol Riot Trials Ended

     Guy Reffitt is a scumbag. He may claim to back the blue, but he is a member of anti-government hate groups like the Three Percenters in his home state of Texas. He was the tip of the spear in the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, and he threatened his son and daughter with graphic violence for turning him in to the federal authorities. He was the first defendant to take his case to trial and was found guilty of five felony charges by a jury. He is awaiting sentencing.

     Couy Griffin wasn't violent on January 6th, but he was among the more dangerous individuals there. He climbed up a barricade and gave a speech to the rioters that day, but he founded the organization "Cowboys for Trump" and served on the Otero County, New Mexico Commission, where he went viral last month for refusing to certify 8,000 votes in the county simply because he had a "funny feeling" about the voting machines, a move that forced the New Mexico Supreme Court to step in. He had previously illegally taken sand from a local national monument, said "the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat," and was arrested with a firearm in Washington, D.C. on January 19th, the day before President Biden's inauguration. White supremacist insurrectionist judge Trevor McFadden found him guilty of one misdemeanor and not guilty of another and sentenced him to time served (20 days), one year of probation, 60 hours of community service, and $3,500 in fines and restitution.

     That same white supremacist judge, Trevor McFadden, acquitted one of the first rioters to breach the Capitol, Matthew Martin, a security contractor also of New Mexico, of two misdemeanor charges back in April. Martin has been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to get his security clearance back. His case remains the only acquittal compared to nearly 350 convictions.

     These first trials, especially, should really be getting more media attention in no small part because of the excuses. Guy Reffitt's lawyer claimed that the videos his own client recorded were faked. Dustin Thompson of Ohio's attorney claimed that his client had been misled by President Trump. Definitely true, but definitely not a legal defense. Thompson entered the Capitol with a friend named Robert Lyon and the two stole a bottle of booze. Lyon previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor; Thompson took his case to trial and was convicted of a felony and five misdemeanors. He is due to be sentenced later this month.

     Another pathetic excuse came from Thomas Robertson, one of two Rocky Mount, Virginia police officers who made national news for their civil disorder, which means they interfered with but did not assault officers on January 6th; in particular, the picture of the two men giving taking a selfie of themselves giving the middle finger became a symbol of what their actions did to our democracy. Fracker pleaded guilty to a felony charge of civil disorder and will be sentenced next month. Robertson was initially released on bond but was ordered detained after police found he had purchased dozens of firearms and assembled a bomb in his home. His excuse at trial was that the stick he used to push police officers was a walking stick he needed because of an old injury from his time serving in the military, which doesn't make sense because not only was he a police officer who wouldn't have a job if he couldn't walk, but he actually went viral in the summer of 2020 for dancing with Black Lives Matter protestors alongside his fellow officer Fracker, well after he claimed the injury happened. He was convicted by a jury of five felonies and a misdemeanor and is awaiting sentencing.

     Thomas Webster is a former marine and NYPD detective who brutally assaulted a police officer at the Capitol barricades, tackling him and suffocating him with his own gas mask. Webster actually claimed self-defense, saying that the officer pushing him away when Webster was spitting and yelling in his face was "brutality." A jury quickly convicted him of five felony charges and two misdemeanor charges; he will be sentenced in September.

     Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was one of the more despicable defendants from January 6th. He is a white supremacist who sported a "Hitler mustache" at his job as a military contractor in New Jersey, he had a previous arrest for shooting at a home with a pellet gun labelled "white power," and he ran a political YouTube channel called "the Based Hermes Show" in which he spread anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. In jail, his friends were responsible for founding Citizens Against Political Persecution, one of a handful of groups that is scamming hateful Americans out of millions of dollars ostensibly for the legal defense of Capitol riot defendants; he was reported to jail staff for drawing a map depicting Israel being bombed with a sharpie on a cafeteria table; and he harassed a judge's wife in an attempt to get said judge to recuse himself, something he's lucky he didn't get another felony charge for but will likely pay for at sentencing, as he was convicted by a jury of one felony charge and four misdemeanor charges.

     Kevin Seefried and his son Hunter Seefried, both of Delaware, were two of the most infamous defendants, appearing in photographs alongside QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley; Doug Jensen, who chased Officer Eugene Goodman; Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola, now charged with seditious conspiracy; Aaron Mostofsky, the son of a New York Supreme Court justice who went viral for wearing furs and carrying a walking stick; and others. The father was the one who carried a Confederate flag in the Capitol; even the aforementioned judge, Trevor McFadden, easily found each man guilty of a felony charge and four misdemeanors for obstructing Congress while acquitting the son of four other misdemeanors related to his clearing glass from the broken window to enter the Capitol. They will be sentenced in late September.

     Jesus Rivera of Florida stormed the Capitol just days before his birthday, bragged about it online, and still decided to take his case to trial. His was much less serious, with his lawyer arguing he should be convicted of only one of the four misdemeanor charges against him; that didn't sway the judge, and she easily convicted him of the four charges in a matter of hours. He is awaiting sentencing.

     Anthony Williams of Michigan is perhaps most famous for asking the judge to allow him to take a trip to Jamaica right around the first anniversary of the insurrection, a request that flatly denied by the judge. One of the first rioters to enter and one of the last to leave, he spent his time helping other insurrectionists enter the Capitol; for his actions, he was convicted by a jury of a felony charge of obstructing Congress and four related misdemeanors and faces a maximum of 23 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.