April 14, 2022, 9:32 p.m. • 7 minutes reading Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email this article A federal judge in DC on Thursday slammed former President Donald Trump and expressed frustration with the state of American politics, shortly after a court convicted a man accused of rioting in the Capitol. . “You know, I think our democracy has a problem,” Judge Reggie Walton said at the end of the third jury trial of a man accused of attacking the Capitol. “Because, unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president, who in my view is not really interested in democracy, but only in power. And as a result, it is tearing this country apart.” Walton, appointed by former President George W. Bush and one of the top judges on the DC court, said he had received letters from people across the country expressing concern that the judiciary was not facing Jan. 6 – which he called an “uprising”, with the seriousness it deserves. “I’m concerned that we have, unfortunately, American citizens who were so gullible that they were willing to accept what was being said without any proof that the election allegations had absolutely no value,” Walton said. “People are just outraged by how they feel our system does not take seriously what happened that day because of their fear for the future of this country.” His comments came after an Ohio man was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush on Jan. 6, after he tried to defend himself by claiming he was following the “orders” of the former Trump administration. Dustin Thompson poses with a stolen hanger during riots following the Stop the Steal Rally that violated the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2022, in a photo released during his trial. Dustin Thompson, 38, is the third defendant to be charged in connection with the Capitol attack and is taking his case to a jury. The six charges against him included a felony count of obstructing Congress. Instead of trying to disprove the allegations against him – that he joined the mob in favor of Trump in the Capitol invasion and stole a bottle of bourbon and a hanger from the Senate’s office, Thompson tried to blame him instead. his actions to Trump and his speech on Ellipse where he urged his followers to march to the Capitol. Dozens of others among the nearly 800 people indicted so far in the Justice Department’s January 6 investigation have tried to make similar arguments, blaming the former president and his allies for tricking them into believing unfounded conspiracy theories about stolen elections. The fact that Thompson’s defense failed with a jury could have influenced other alleged troublemakers who hold out hope that they could adopt a similar strategy in their cases. “The ombudsman wants you to focus so much on what President Trump said on the morning of January 6, he wants you to forget what his client did on the afternoon of January 6,” Assistant Attorney General Bill Drecher said in Thursday’s closing debate. . . “Ladies and gentlemen, you do not have to choose. This is not President Trump’s criminal trial.” Speaking directly to the jury, Dreher said, “You can be crazy about what happened that day, you can think that what President Trump did was wrong, you can think that what he said that day led them to do. what they did “. President Donald Trump speaks as his supporters cheer at the “Stop The Steal” rally in Washington, January 06, 2021. “It does not matter,” he continued. “It’s enough to find – if you find, that Mr. Thompson knew what he was doing was illegal. He was 36 on January 6 … an adult, not a child. President Trump did not hold his hand as he went down to the Capitol to loot and contaminate the Senate’s office. “ Dreher said Thompson’s attempt to blame Trump’s words was not only irrelevant but also misleading – because it did not appear from data obtained from Thompson’s Uber account that he was present at Trump llipse’s speech. . “It’s a story that is not true and can not stand,” said Dreher. After reading the verdict, Judge Walton ordered Thompson to remain in custody pending his sentencing and criticized him for testifying at the trial, which Walton said he found “completely dishonest” and “untrue”. “I just do not think you can do what he did and what other people did if you were convicted and expected to be free,” Walton said. “It’s a consequence – as my mother once told me, ‘you make your bed and you have to lie on it.’ Thompson is due to be sentenced in July.
