Capitol rioter using Trump-made-me-do-it defense found guilty on all counts, jailed until sentencing

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It was a longshot for Dustin Thompson when he asked a jury to acquit him for his obstruction of congressional proceedings on Jan. 6 because Donald Trump told him to do it. And sure enough, on Thursday, a jury in Washington, D.C., found him guilty of that and five other charges, including theft of a coatrack and bottle of bourbon that he snatched from inside the Capitol as his trophies.

It was the third jury trial verdict that was reached unanimously in the Department of Justice’s sweeping prosecution of those who stormed the Capitol nearly 500 days ago.

It only took jurors a few hours to find Thompson guilty, and presiding Judge Reggie Walton was quick to tell Thompson his conduct was so “reprehensible” on Jan. 6 that he would remain in jail until his formal sentencing this July.

Thompson’s attorney Samuel Shamansky argued that the 38-year-old Ohio man was susceptible to Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 election and that he was encouraged by the president to storm the building. He also tried to call Trump and others as witnesses, but in what should have been a clear sign to his attorney that their scheme was likely doomed, Judge Watson rejected the requests.

The judge said their testimony would have been inadmissible since it was not Trump’s intent that was on trial.

According to Politico, during closing arguments, assistant U.S. attorney William Dreher emphasized that jurors didn’t have a complicated decision to make.

“Defense counsel wants you to focus so much on what President Trump said on the morning of Jan. 6. He wants you to forget what his client did on the afternoon of Jan. 6,” Dreher said. “He wants you to think you have to choose between President Trump and his client, Mr. Thompson, right? That you can only find that one of them committed a crime that day or that one of them is worse than the other.”

At trial, Shamansky did not deny what Thompson had done. He conceded that the unemployed exterminator breached the Capitol, rushed inside, took a bottle of bourbon, went into the Senate Parliamentarian’s office, and stole a coatrack.

When he went on the stand Wednesday, Thompson told jurors when he was breaching the building, he felt he had to do it.

He was convinced the results had been stolen and that a rigged election had snatched a righteous victory away from Trump.

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

His cohort during the riot, Robert Lyon, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities before Thompson’s trial began.

Thompson could face up to 20 years in prison just for the obstruction charge alone. Judge Walton explained the decision to keep him in jail without bond.

“if somebody is weak-minded enough to buy in on what was being said and then come all the way from Ohio… and even doing it gleefully, I just have real concerns about him,’ Walton said.

The judge continued: “The inevitable reality is that whether he does time now or does time later, he’s got to do time.”

The DOJ is now three for three in unanimous jury trial verdicts. Guy Reffitt was the first to stand trial in early March. Prosecutors made their case in three days against Reffitt, using video footage and other evidence to show how he was one of the first to wave rioters into the breach. Jurors also heard damning witness testimony from Reffitt’s son, who recounted how his father threatened him if he went to police.

Reffitt will be sentenced in June.

Thomas Robertson was the second Jan. 6 defendant to go to jury trial and be convicted on all counts. Robertson, a former police officer from Virginia, was off duty when he stormed the Capitol with a fellow off-duty cop, Jacob Fracker. Fracker flipped on Robertson in a bid for leniency.

Roberston maintained he was innocent of the charges, which, like Thompson, included obstruction of the certification of the 2020 election. His attorney didn’t put the blame on Trump, though. Instead, he argued that Robertson never came to D.C. with an intent to stop a peaceful transfer of power.

A trove of text messages, however, suggested otherwise, and even months after the attack, Robertson boasted about his physical prowess on Jan. 6.

Jurors convicted Robertson after 10 hours of deliberation. His sentencing is expected this summer.

Posted in Independent News