Prosecutors filed court papers on Thursday, December 2, 2021, accusing Guy Reffitt, a Texas militia member, of taking a gun and wrist restraints onto the Capitol grounds during the January 6 insurrection intending to “physically remove or displace” Speaker Pelosi and GOP Senate leader McConnell “from the Capitol building,” although he apparently didn’t enter the building (read story here).
Reffitt, who has been in jail since his January 16 arrest, also allegedly threatened to kill his children if they turned him in to the FBI. What kind of person threatens his own kids? For his participation in the insurrection, he’s been indicted on weapons charges, for impeding Congress and obstructing law enforcement, but not for conspiring to kidnap public officials (read the indictment here; see his original arraignment record here).
His trial in February will be the first felony trial of a Capitol rioter. Before being arrested, Reffitt was a drilling rig worker based in Wylie, Texas. He also operated a security business.
Most Republican lawmakers have refused to condemn the insurrection or rioters. Many have claimed they were no real threat, even though 5 people died and over 100 police officers were injured, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) even called them “tourists.” They largely base this on the scarcity of guns in the crowd.
About that, Huffington Post wrote last June (here),
” … the truth is that many of the defendants who swarmed the Capitol didn’t leave their guns at home because of some high-minded commitment to nonviolence. As laid out in multiple court documents and … the social media accounts of several Capitol defendants, many of the rioters made a strategic choice not to bring firearms because they believed that carrying such weapons would make them less effective. They worried that … law enforcement would arrest them before they reached the Capitol. So they [decided] to carry street-legal weapons … stun guns, Tasers, pepper spray, bear spray, wasp spray, baseball bats, axes, hockey sticks, batons, flagpoles, knives and anything they could use as a blunt weapon.”
As one of those who did carry a gun at the Capitol in violation of law, Reffitt likely is looking at prison time if he’s convicted. A Texas newspaper reported (here) that he’s facing up to 20 years, although maximum sentencing is rare. He’s lucky to be in America. In many countries, he would have been shot by a firing squad by now.
Photo: This mugshot is from Reffitt’s 2009 DUI arrest (details here)