Enlarge image
Couy Griffin: One conviction, one acquittal
Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
The founder of the group Cowboys for Trump has been found guilty of entering the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riots.
After a two-day trial without a jury, a US District Judge in the District of Columbia ruled that defendant Couy Griffin was guilty of entering a US Secret Service restricted area.
However, the judge acquitted him of the charge of disturbing the public peace.
Griffin now faces up to a year in prison.
Judge Trevor McFadden said in his sentencing statement that Griffin should have known not to climb walls and enter the Capitol grounds.
However, Griffin is innocent of the second charge because he never attempted to goad the Capitol crowd or engage in violence.
Capitol was clearly locked
The judge's ruling reinforces a key theory held by prosecutors in hundreds of related cases.
They argued that the Capitol grounds had clearly been cordoned off, and that should have been clear to the thousands of Donald Trump supporters who poured in to prevent Congress from confirming Democratic President Joe Biden's election.
Before the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump delivered a fiery speech in which he untruthfully claimed his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.
A claim that has been dismissed by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own government.
About 800 people are being prosecuted in the context of the riot that saw then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress run for their lives.
Around 200 have already pleaded guilty.
Griffin's trial is seen as an important test case as the Justice Department seeks convictions for hundreds of defendants who didn't take deals.
The first jury trial for a defendant ended in a prosecutor's victory earlier this month.
After a brief deliberation, a jury unanimously found a Texas man guilty on all five counts.
bka/Reuters