First 10 January 6th Jury Trials End in Convictions on All Counts

     Right now, the most important and most nerve-wracking January 6th trial yet is being heard before a jury. Five Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, including founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, will argue that they traveled to Washington, D.C. to provide security for far-right figures and to prepare for Donald Trump to use the Insurrection Act if necessary to remain in power. All we can do is hope that the jury sees through this argument. Three other Oath Keepers pleaded guilty to the charge while four more will go on trial in November; five Proud Boys, including founder and leader Enrique Tarrio, will go on trial on the same charge in December. Other Oath Keepers as well as six members of the Three Percenters will go on trial on lesser but still very serious conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding charges next year. However, there is reason for hope: just this week, the 10th Capitol insurrection jury trial delivered the 10th swift conviction on all counts. The cases are listed below:

1. Guy Reffitt, a Texas recruiter for the Three Percenters, was convicted of five felonies for showing up to the Capitol with a gun, riling up the crowd and leading the charge toward police before being pepper sprayed, and threatening to kill his own son for turning him in. His argument that the videos he and others took were fake failed, and he was sentenced to 87 months in prison with three years of probation and $2,000 restitution.
2. Thomas Robertson, a Virginia police officer who interfered with police with a large stick and tossed his phone into the Atlantic Ocean as well as stockpiled weapons and explosives after his arrest, was convicted of five felonies and a misdemeanor. His argument that he needed the stick to walk from an injury he suffered serving in Afghanistan failed, with the DOJ noting he was featured in a viral video dancing with BLM protestors in 2020, and he received the same sentence as Reffitt.
3. Dustin Thompson, an Ohio man who stole items from the Capitol and blamed Trump for his actions, was convicted of a felony and five misdemeanors and is awaiting sentencing, which was initially scheduled for July but has been pushed back.
4. Thomas Webster, a former NYPD officer who served in the mayor's security detail and a veteran, was convicted of five felonies and two misdemeanors for assaulting one officer with a flagpole and tackling another and choking him with his own facemask while donning a bulletproof vest and having MREs and a gun in his hotel. His self-defense argument backfired horribly, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with three years of probation and $2,000 restitution.
5. Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, a white supremacist and anti-Semite who worked as a naval reservist and donned a Hitler mustache, was convicted of a felony and four misdemeanors for cheering on the insurrectionists and attempting to interfere with the arrest of a fellow rioter before obstructing justice in his own case by leading fundraising efforts for other insurrectionists and trying to get his judge thrown off the case, was sentenced to four years in prison with three years of probation and $2,000 in restitution.
6. Anthony Williams, a Michigan man who smoked marijuana in the Capitol and took selfies with police officers, was convicted of a felony and four misdemeanors. His argument that he had a change of heart while hearing the evidence at trial had no effect on the judge, who sentenced him to five years in prison with three years of probation and $7,000 in fines and restitution.
7. Erik Herrera, a California man who pretended to be a reporter by buying a press badge for $8 on Amazon and was photographed holding papers in the Senate Parliamentarian's office, was convicted by a jury of a felony and four misdemeanors and faces up to 23 years in prison when he is sentenced on November 10th but faces a more likely range of four to eight years.
8. Matthew Bledsoe, a Memphis-area business owner, was convicted of a felony and four misdemeanors at a trial in which he reportedly "couldn't shut up." During the insurrection, he climbed the wall of the Capitol before spending 22 minutes inside, where he was captured on video shouting, "This is our house... we pay for this shit... where are those motherfuckers at?" After leaving, he returned to the East Rotunda doors and lingered outside; over the course of the next several days, he posted online to mock the politicians and officers he had terrorized on January 6th. He faces up to 23 years in prison when he is sentenced on October 21st.
9. Doug Jensen, the Iowa man in the QAnon shirt who chased Officer Eugene Goodman while armed with a knife in his pocket, was convicted of five felonies and two misdemeanors carrying a combined maximum of 54 years in prison. He will be sentenced on December 16th.
10. John Herbert Strand, a male model and husband of anti-vax Dr. Simone Gold, who was previously convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to 60 days in jail in her January 6th case, was convicted by a jury of a felony charge and four misdemeanor charges and faces a maximum sentence of 24 years in prison (after rejecting a plea deal similar to the one Gold took) when he is sentenced on January 12th.

     10 defendants have been convicted at jury trials so far of a combined total of 26 felonies and 30 misdemeanors total carrying a combined maximum of hundreds of years in prison. While they won't get anywhere near the maximum in these cases, they have taken crimes that would get them one to six years in a plea agreement and turned them into crimes that will get them four to 15 years after being convicted at trial. After Guy Reffitt's trial, the first for any January 6th defendant, she urged "J6ers" not to take plea deals because that was "the only reason [the DOJ] has gotten so many convictions." Ms. Reffitt, 10 jury convictions on all counts would disagree.