The federal court also found Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, guilty of all five other charges in his indictment, including stealing a hanger from an office inside the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 uprising. The maximum penalty for obstruction earl, the solitary felony, would be 20 years in prison. The jury did not buy Thompson’s defense, in which he blamed Trump and members of the former president’s inner circle for the uprising and for his own actions. “Donald Trump was not tried in this case,” said a jury who spoke to reporters only on condition of anonymity. The jury, a 40-year-old man, said as he left the courtroom: “Everyone agrees that Donald Trump is guilty as a general narrator. Many were there and then went home. Dustin Thompson did not.”

The testimony is “completely dishonest”

Thompson himself, testifying Wednesday, admitted to taking part in the mob attack and stole the grill and a bottle of bourbon. He said he regretted his “shameful” behavior. “I can not believe the things I did,” he said. “Crowd mentality and team thinking are very real and very dangerous.” However, he said he believed Trump’s false claim that the election had been stolen and was trying to support him. “If the president almost orders you to do something, I felt compelled to do it,” he said. People loyal to Trump, who lost the November 2020 presidential election, invaded the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC (Leah Millis / Reuters)
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who is due to convict Thomson on July 20, described the defendant’s testimony as “completely dishonest” and his January 6 conduct as “reprehensible.” The judge also blamed Trump after the verdict was announced. “I think our democracy has a problem,” he said, adding that “charlatans” like Trump are not interested in democracy, only in power. “And as a result, it is dissolving our country,” the judge said. Prosecutors did not request that Thompson be taken into custody immediately, but Walton ordered his arrest and handcuffed him. The judge said he did not believe Thompson’s story and felt it was a flight hazard and a danger to the public. The Thompson jury trial was the third of hundreds of Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the US Department of Justice. In the first two cases, jurors convicted both defendants on all charges. Assistant Attorney General William Dreher said Thompson, a college-educated exterminator who lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, knew he was breaking the law when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol and, in his case, looted the Senate deputy. office. The prosecutor told jurors that Thompson’s lawyer “wants you to believe that you have to choose between President Trump and his client.” “You do not have to choose because this is not President Trump’s trial. This is Dustin Thompson’s trial for what he did at the Capitol on the afternoon of January 6,” Dreher said. Trump supporters climb the western wall of the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes resulting from the uprising. More than 250 of them pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. (Jose Luis Magana / The Associated Press)
Thompson’s lawyer, Samuel Shamansky, said his client did not shy away from taking responsibility for his behavior that day. “This embarrassing chapter of our story is all on television,” Samansky told jurors. But he said Thompson, unemployed and consumed by a consistent conspiracy theories diet, was vulnerable to Trump’s lies about stolen elections. He described Thompson as a “pawn” and Trump as a “gangster” who abused his power to manipulate his supporters. “The vulnerable are carried away by the strong, and that is what happened here,” Shamansky said. CLOCKS Police narrate the attack on the US Capitol:

U.S. Capitol police report violence and racism during Jan. 6 uprising

At a hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, front-line police officers testified about what happened to them during the uprising – from physical to verbal assaults, including racial assaults. 2:01
Walton, the judge, barred Thompson’s lawyer from calling Trump and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Trump adviser, as witnesses. But the judge ruled that jurors could hear recordings of the speeches Trump and Giuliani delivered on Jan. 6, before the riot broke out. A recording of Trump’s statements was heard. Samansky claimed that Giuliani incited the rioters by encouraging them to take part in “battle trials” and that Trump provoked the mob by saying that “if you do not fight like hell, you will have no country.” Dreher told jurors that neither Trump nor Giuliani had the power to “legitimize” what Thompson did at the Capitol.

“I followed presidential orders”

Thompson is accused of six counts: obstructing a joint congressional vote to validate the Electoral College vote. theft of state property; entering or staying in a building or restricted areas; disorderly or disturbing behavior in a restricted building or premises; disorderly or disturbing behavior in a Capitol building. and parade, demonstration or picketing in a Capitol building. Obstacle counting is the only felony charge. The rest are misdemeanors. Thompson drove from Ohio to Washington, DC, with a friend, Robert Lyon, who was also arrested less than a month after the uprising. Lyon pleaded guilty in March to two counts of theft of state property and misconduct and is due to be sentenced on June 3. Police officers with riot equipment face demonstrators collected in the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent Congress to certify the Presidential victory of Joe Biden (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
Thompson and Lyon took a ride with Uber in Washington on the morning of January 6th. After Trump’s speech, they headed to the Capitol. Thompson was wearing a bulletproof vest when he entered the building and went to the MP’s office. The FBI said agents later searched Lyon’s cell phone and found a video showing a looted office with Thompson shouting, “Wow!” Merica Hey! This is our home!” “[Trump] did not force you to go. You did not have to walk every step to the Capitol building, did you? ” Dreher asked Thompson on Wednesday. “No,” Thompson said. “Did you choose to do that?” Dreher asked. “I followed the presidential orders, but yes,” Thompson said. More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes resulting from the riots. More than 250 of them pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Thompson is the fifth person to be tried on riot charges. On Monday, a court convicted a former Virginia police officer, Thomas Robertson, of invading the Capitol with another off-duty officer. Last month, a court convicted a Texas man, Guy Refit, of breaking into a building with a shotgun. A judge hearing a testimony without a jury has ruled on two other defendants accused of rioting in the Capitol in separate trials. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden acquitted one of the charges and partially acquitted the other.