- The first January 6 trial showcased prosecutors' strategy for convicting Capitol rioters.
- Prosecutors connected Guy Reffitt's individual conduct to the broader violence of the pro-Trump mob.
- The trial also showed how January 6 has divided families and lingered with residents of Washington, DC.
At a courthouse just blocks from the scene of the crime, a jury found Guy Reffitt guilty this week in the first trial stemming from the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
It's a landmark victory among the more than 750 prosecutions linked to the January 6 insurrection. But with several more trials expected, the proceeding also in some ways represents a opening salvo from the Justice Department, foreshadowing courtroom drama yet to come.
Reffitt's case offered a "mountain of evidence," as one prosecutor put it. This allowed the Justice Department to make a compelling case — and gain early momentum with a guilty verdict. The weeklong trial featured video footage from January 6 and vivid testimony from police officers who recounted feeling "outnumbered" in the face of the pro-Trump mob.
The proceeding also gave a glimpse into the Justice Department's strategy for prosecuting accused Capitol rioters while also highlighting the strong feelings that the January 6 attack continues to stir. During jury selection, residents of Washington, DC, described the Capitol attack as "atrocious," "crazy, and "reprehensible," and some said they would struggle to overcome their strong views to impartially consider Reffitt's case.
For the next scheduled trial, at least, jury selection will not be an issue.
Couy Griffin, a county commissioner in New Mexico, elected to have a bench trial on misdemeanor charges from the January 6 attack, meaning his case will be decided by a judge rather than a jury. The one-day bench trial before Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, is set to start March 21.
Then, on April 4, accused Capitol rioters Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker are set to stand trial on felony charges stemming from their alleged involvement in the January 6 attack.
For these cases to come, here's what to expect:
The prosecution's strategy: making connections
Reffitt, a member of the far-right Three Percenters militia, was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, bringing a gun to the restricted Capitol grounds, and later threatening his son and daughter to keep them from reporting him to law enforcement. Among the most serious of those charges was obstruction of an official proceeding, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
In Reffitt's case and others, defense lawyers argued that Congress' certification of the Electoral College vote is not the kind of "official proceeding" envisioned by the law. Those arguments have largely failed, but on Tuesday, a Trump-appointed judge ruled in a separate case that the Justice Department could not bring the obstruction charge unless it involved evidence of January 6 defendants tampering with official records during the Capitol attack.
Reffitt, 49, did not personally enter the Capitol building, but prosecutors have advanced arguments that the collective conduct of the pro-Trump mob obstructed the peaceful handoff of power. With Reffitt's trial, prosecutors put that theory to a jury for the first time and prevailed, winning a conviction after less than four hours of deliberations.
To tie Reffitt's conduct to the larger mob, prosecutors stressed that he served as a significant — if impromptu — leader on January 6.
Wearing a tactical vest and helmet, Reffitt stepped forward and climbed the stairs leading up to the Capitol, shedding off marble-sized pepper balls as police tried to hold off the mob. In video footage played to the jury, Reffitt stopped after being pepper-sprayed in the face but urged the mob behind him to continue up the stairs.
"Every mob needs leaders, and this defendant was a leader that day," prosecutor Risa Berkower told jurors in her closing argument Monday.
The militia and the immunity deal
With another witness, prosecutors demonstrated a willingness to offer immunity for testimony.
A onetime member of the Three Percenters, Rocky Hardie, took the stand against Reffitt on the condition that prosecutors could not use his testimony against him. Hardie recalled meeting Reffitt through the Three Percenters and driving together from Texas to Washington with firearms, including handguns and AR-15-style rifles, and joking about dragging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol by her ankles.
Reffitt denied bringing a handgun to the Capitol on January 6. But Hardie said they were both armed that day.
Hardie recalled how other rioters climbed the Capitol "like spiders" and remembered being impressed with Reffitt on January 6. In his testimony, he said the two decided to carry firearms despite knowing it would be illegal to do so in Washington, DC.
For the two of them, he said, the fear of lacking protection outweighed the risk of prosecution.
"I think we used the phrase, 'It's better to be tried by a jury of 12 than carried by 6 [pallbearers],'" he said.
In her closing argument days later, Berkower turned the phrase against Reffitt.
"He was itching to be judged by you, the jury of 12, and now we're here," she said.
A frayed family
Reffitt wept in the courtroom last week at the sight of his 19-year-old son, Jackson Reffitt, taking the stand to testify against him. The father's reaction and the son's testimony provided a peek into how, more than a year later, the January 6 attack continues to divide families.
In the aftermath of the Capitol attack, dozens of rioters were turned into law enforcement by friends, family, coworkers and other associates. But Jackson Reffitt testified that he first reported his father to the FBI on Christmas Eve in 2020 after growing alarmed by his text messages, including one in which he told his son: "We are about to rise up the way the Constitution was written."
Jackson Reffitt said he secretly recorded his father after January 6 as he exuberantly recounted his involvement in the Capitol attack. But his father's tune changed, Jackson Reffitt said, when law enforcement began to track down suspected rioters.
After growing distressed by the nationwide manhunt, Jackson Reffitt said his father threatened him and his sister to keep them from reporting him to law enforcement. Jackson Reffitt testified that his father said they would be traitors if they turned him in — and that traitors "get shot."
"I was pretty grossed out hearing my father say that," Jackson Reffitt testified Thursday.
Jackson Reffitt said he moved out of the house after the family learned of his cooperation with the FBI. His contact with his family has been limited ever since, he said.
"It's difficult. It's surreal," Jackson Reffitt testified.
Prosecutors at one point planned to call Jackson Reffitt's sister, Peyton, but they ultimately declined to do so — and in the end, they didn't need to.
Following the guilty verdict, Guy Reffitt's wife, Nicole Reffitt, said the Justice Department's plan to call her daughter to the stand was "probably most disgusting ploy I've ever seen."
Of Jackson Reffitt, she said, he "is a part of our family, and I know he is hurting along with us."
Encouragement to fight charges
Reffitt's guilty verdict is likely to send a message to other January 6 defendants weighing whether to plead guilty or take their chances at trial.
But some January 6 defendants could take some odd inspiration from the trial's outcome.
Leaving the courthouse, Nicole Reffitt struck a defiant tone following her husband's felony conviction. She said her husband would appeal and framed the prosecution as an attack on free speech.
"He was used as an example today," she said.
Facing news cameras, she urged other accused Capitol rioters to follow her husband's approach and refuse to take plea deals.
"Do not take a plea, 1/6-ers. Do not. We got this," she said, flashing a peace sign.
Reffitt's defense lawyer, William Welch, declined to comment.
Lingering damage
From the first day, Reffitt's trial displayed the strong feelings many Washington, DC, residents hold for the January 6 attack on the Capitol — and that challenges that creates for jury selection.
One potential juror said that, after learning that he was summoned for a January 6 case, "I just heard 'guilty' in my head." The potential juror was quickly dismissed.
Judge Dabney Friedrich acknowledged at the outset of jury selection, it was unlikely that any juror would come to the case as a "clean slate" given the widespread news coverage of January 6.
But she said potential jurors were required to demonstrate an intent to review the evidence with an open mind.
"Virtually every juror will have some view about the January 6 events, and that likely holds true about most Americans," Friedrich said.
Friedrich ultimately qualified more than 30 potential jurors for Reffitt's case.
But the challenges of jury selection are not going away. Several high-profile January 6 defendants — including Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — are awaiting trial.
And their juries will also be drawn from the Washington, DC, populace.
(Almost) no mention of Trump
Hardie recalled joking about pulling Pelosi out of the Capitol by her heels. A Secret Service agent recalled rushing Vice President Mike Pence out of the Senate chamber as rioters closed in.
But another high-profile politician's name was largely absent from the trial: Donald Trump.
The former president's name appeared in evidence — "This isn't about Trump, it's much bigger," Guy Reffitt wrote in a text on December 21, 2020 — but he otherwise went unmentioned through much of the proceeding.
In closing arguments, though, Trump was name-dropped by Reffitt's defense lawyer.
Welch described the prosecution as a "rush to judgment" and told jurors they could not trust video footage of Reffitt at the Capitol.
"Guy does brag a lot. He embellishes. He exaggerates ... He uses a lot of hyperbole that upsets people," Welch said.
To underscore his point, Welch quoted Trump directing his supporters to "fight like hell" on January 6 and Rudy Giuliani's call for trial by combat. The references drew an objection from prosecutors, which Friedrich upheld.
"The point is, they haven't been charged," Welch said.
The Justice Department has maintained that the January 6 prosecutions are not about the political beliefs of the accused. But Trump's name could come up more frequently at upcoming trials involving January 6 defendants who were closer to the president and the "Stop the Steal" movement — or claim that they were following his instructions on January 6.