Jan. 6 rioters who U.S. says 'ignited' path for Capitol attack convicted
Source: Washington Post
The encounter at the Peace Circle, prosecutors said, cleared the first path for rioters to reach the Capitol where Trump supporters on the west side of the building surged forward as the police retreated. The five men continued to wreak havoc, fighting with officers or encouraging other rioters to push ahead, and on Friday a federal judge found all five guilty of assaulting law enforcement and convicted three of them for obstructing the confirmation of the 2020 presidential election.
“These are the defendants who started it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra F. Foster said in her closing argument Nov. 2 to U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb, after the defendants chose a bench trial instead of a jury trial. “There is little doubt that this moment ignited a fire that lasted around the Capitol for hours … They started the Capitol breach. Now they must take responsibility.”
Defense lawyers argued that pinning responsibility on five men for a riot involving thousands of others was unfair. Ryan Samsel, 39, of Bristol, Pa., was the most prominent of the group, first unlatching the barricades at an unguarded spot on the Peace Circle, then leading the crowd toward a second line where he yelled at police and was part of the effort to launch the bike racks at the five officers, video played at trial showed. He has been in jail since January 2021, in part because of multiple violent assault convictions in previous years, mostly against women, and a pending arrest warrant for violating a restraining order.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/02/jan-6-capitol-riot-samsel/
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That happened early and they showed it on the live news coverage.
Let's not forget that the ones who showed up at the Capitol building early were the same ones who weren't permitted into Chump's rally, because they failed the metal detector. (I.e., they were carrying weapons and the Secret Service wouldn't let them enter.) Chump threw a fit when he heard they were turned away from the rally. He said, "Those are my people, they can carry weapons and it doesn't matter. They aren't here to hurt me!"
The ones who were turned away at the White House rally started walking down to the Capitol at the other end of the Mall. I wouldn't be surprised if these 5 were among that group. They came to cause trouble with a capital T.
