'I was just enjoying the house being quiet,' wife of Jan. 6 defendant tells jurors

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Former President Donald Trump gave the green light on Jan. 6, so Dustin Thompson hit the gas. 

He left his wife, Sarah Thompson, at home, however—and much to her delight. 

“I was just enjoying the house being quiet,” she told jurors gathered in a federal courtroom in the nation’s capital on Wednesday.

The theme that Dustin Thompson, a 38-year-old man from Ohio, would have jurors focus on at his trial in Washington, D.C., is that it was Donald Trump who he served on Jan. 6 and whose “Big Lie” of a rigged election that he would believe. 

It was Donald Trump who “authorized” the siege, his defense has argued. 

Thompson faces multiple charges, including theft of government property—a coat rack—and obstruction of what his own attorney described this week as a “solemn and sacred proceeding” undertaken by Congress: the certification of electoral votes that ultimately leads to the peaceful and constitutional transfer of power.

Prosecutors slapped Thompson with six charges altogether last year and in court this week as the trial opened, his defense attorney Samuel Shamansky, according to NBC, amped up Thompson’s “foolishness” on Jan. 6.to jurors. 

But he pointed the finger squarely at Trump as the one responsible for encouraging his client’s behavior and moreover, worsening his already “vulnerable” state in the face of the lies that spewed from the White House for months about so-called fraud in the 2020 election.

RELATED STORY: Ex-cop who stormed Capitol found guilty on all charges

With his defense calling the events of Jan. 6 the byproduct of a “sinister plot,” “scheme,” and “conspiracy” originating with the “highest levels of our government,” Thompson is not arguing to jurors that he is innocent of charging into the Capitol. 

He is not denying that he took government property or that he fled on foot from U.S. Capitol Police after they stopped him and his friend and former co-defendant, Robert Lyon.

At court Wednesday, Politico reported that Thompson testified on his own behalf and “sheepishly”.

He went over the thoughts running through his mind. 

“We’re going to lose our country today if we don’t put a stop to these election results,” he recalled thinking.

As for Lyon, he flipped last week when he entered a guilty plea and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department just as Thompson was days from his trial. 

Plea Agreement for Jan. 6 defendant Robert Lyon by Daily Kos on Scribd

With the former president’s authorization of the insurrection being the cushion he hopes will acquit him of the charges at most or reduce his sentence at least, Thompson attempted to call Trump and the former president’s attorneys as witnesses.

The gambit failed quickly. 

Thompson tried to subpoena attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and others inside Trump’s circle like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, but the judge shot him down.

Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton explained that their testimony would be inadmissible at Thompson’s trial. It would lead to a “mini-trial” about the intent of the speakers at the rally at the Ellipse—Trump included, of course.

And in short, Walton effectively ordered that it was not Trump’s intent, nor anyone else’s, that Thompson found himself on trial for.

Probing the meaning of those witnesses’ testimony could only confuse the jury and mislead them, Walton wrote. 

Thompson Witness Order Walton by Daily Kos on Scribd

Mr. Thompson goes to Washington

Thompson and Lyon came into D.C. on the morning of Jan. 6 by Uber. They booked a stay at a nearby hotel in Maryland. They went to Trump’s rally at the Ellipse. 

U.S. Capitol Police first spotted them sitting on the corner of a sidewalk in a secure zone decked out in Trump gear, a Trump flag in tow. Thompson was wearing a bulletproof vest.

It had only been a few hours since the Capitol was first breached, and D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser’s curfew was about to set in. 

When the officers approached, Thompson and Lyon told them they were waiting for a ride, and police pointed them out of the secure zone to an area where they could stand. But as the men went to leave, Thompson picked up a coat rack sitting just behind him.

Prosecutors say it was then that Capitol Police realized it was likely stolen and that the men had come from inside the complex where police officers had already spent hours fighting off the thousands-strong mob, often in brutal hand-to-hand combat. 

Thompson dropped the coat rack and took off running. Lyon stayed behind and let the police search his bag. They found marijuana, two pipes, and an open bottle of bourbon.

Police reviewed Lyon’s phone, identified Thompson from texts and pictures the men had exchanged, questioned Lyon, confirmed Thompson’s identity, and set him free. 

The FBI caught back up with Lyon exactly a week later at his home in Ohio. During that interview, Lyon heaped the blame on Thompson saying it was his idea to go to D.C. 

Hours into the melee, Lyon first told investigators his friend had walked away from him, returned, and suddenly had the wooden coat rack. 

A review of Lyon’s phone showed officers a text message to Thompson, however, where Lyon urged his friend, “We need to get the fuck out with this trophy.” 

Capitol security footage presented by prosecutors showed both Thompson and Lyon inside the Capitol and at one point exiting the Senate Parliamentarian’s office together. Thompson is allegedly seen holding the coat rack as they leave. Minutes before, prosecutors say he is seen on video carrying a bottle of bourbon. 

Before prosecutors rested their case Wednesday, jurors heard testimony from U.S. Capitol Police officer Ronald Lucarino who recounted the intense violence of the day. On cross-examination, according to Politico, the defense asked Lucarino if he felt rioters did what Trump asked that morning.

Trump told them to “fight like hell.”

They chanted back, “Fight for Trump!”

“Absolutely,” Lucarino told jurors. 

The word “fight” appeared no less than two dozen times in Trump’s remarks on Jan. 6, and always couched in the lie that a 2020 election victory had been snatched away from him by thieving Democrats. 

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said on Jan. 6.

Lucarino also told jurors when he was squeezed up against members of the mob, he could feel “the butts of guns” under some people’s clothing. 

When Capitol Police officer Craig Atkinson took the stand, NBC reported, he recalled to jurors how chaotic the scene was inside of the Parliamentarian’s office where Thompson, prosecutors say, was later seen emerging with Lyon. 

“It was like a bomb had gone off,” Atkinson said. 

Dustin Thompson’s wife, Sarah, told jurors Wednesday she did not believe what her husband did about the November 2020 election, nor other conspiracy theories he had espoused. 

She is a Democrat, and confirmed that she voted for now-President Joe Biden. She voted for former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well. 

When the pandemic hit, her husband lost his job, she said. 

And from there it was a free fall into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theory but he was still, “very smart.” 

Exhibit List Dustin Thompson Trial by Daily Kos on Scribd