Washington – A federal judge on Monday sentenced Texas man Guy Reffitt condemned of carrying a gun into the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, to 87 months in prison, the longest sentence so far related to the 2021 attack.
A member of the far-right Texas Three Percenters militia group, Reffitt was the first defendant to stand trial on charges stemming from the attack. He was pleaded guilty in March of five criminal charges, including obstructing congressional certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The 7.25-year sentence was much shorter than the 15 years requested by prosecutors, who argued that the punishment should be more severe since Reffitt’s actions were terroristic. At a sentencing hearing Monday in federal court in Washington, DC, Judge Dabney Friedrich disagreed, citing other cases from Jan. 6 in which prosecutors did not seek such an enhancement.
Still, the sentence is the longest handed down by a defendant since January 6 so far. Two other defendants received 63-month sentences earlier this year for their roles in the attack. Reffitt’s defense team had urged the judge to sentence him to no more than two years behind bars.
Reffitt will also be on probation for three years and must pay a $2,000 fine.
Addressing the court during Monday’s hearing, Reffitt admitted he acted like a “fucking idiot” on Jan. 6 and said he regretted his actions, apologizing to Congress and the officials he encountered that day. day.
William J. Hennessy, Jr.
“I was a little too crazy,” he told a skeptical Friedrich. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”
The judge said it was hard not to see the apology as anything other than “half-hearted”, especially given some conspiratorial statements he has made about the events of January 6 since his arrest.
“What he and others who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 did was the antithesis of patriotism,” the judge said before handing down the sentence.
In asking for the longer sentence, prosecutors said in court documents that Reffitt played a central role as part of the mob on Jan. 6 and intended “to use his gun and his flexiffs in police-style to force lawmakers out of the building and take control. Congress.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told Friedrich that Reffitt “pumped himself up” as a mob leader, gesturing to the rest of the rioters as he confronted police on the Capitol’s west front.
“I didn’t just want President Trump to stay in power,” Nestler said. “He wanted to physically and literally eliminate Congress.”
The prosecutor alleged that January 6 was “the beginning” for Reffitt. “He wanted the rest of his militia group to start taking over state capitols across the country,” Nestler said.
Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff, who confronted Reffitt outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, begged the judge to sentence Reffitt to the maximum possible sentence under the law.
“His actions were not acts of patriotism. They were acts of domestic terrorism,” Kerkhoff said.
Prosecutors said Reffitt also threatened his children when they wanted to report him to authorities.
At his trial, Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, who delivered his father to law enforcement: He told the jury he learned of his father’s Mafia membership when he saw his mother and sister watching news coverage of the events that day. Jackson described the threat his father had made against him and his sister, Peyton, when they tried to turn him in: “If you turn me in you’re a traitor, and traitors are shot.”
In court Monday, prosecutors read a letter from Jackson to the judge, in which he described the “slow, painful story” of his father’s descent into conspiracy theories. He said his father needed mental health care, which Friedrich said he would require as part of the sentence.
During the trial, Reffitt’s attorney at the time did not call any witnesses and Reffitt did not testify in his own defense.
F. Clinton Broden, Reffitt’s new attorney, disagreed with prosecutors’ characterization of his client. He argued in written memos and in court that Reffitt never entered the Capitol, never pulled his gun from its holster and “never gave any indication that he would harm his children.”
Peyton, the defendant’s daughter, spoke emotionally in court Monday in support of her father, explaining that his mental health was a real issue.
Wiping away tears, Peyton said, “My father’s name was not on the flags that were there that day, that everybody was carrying. It was another man’s name,” referring to former President Donald Trump, who addressed his crowd of supporters near the White House before marching to the Capitol.
Friedrich, the judge, seemed more concerned about Reffitt’s mental health and prospects once he is finally released, at one point asking, “What is this man going to do after he gets out of prison?”
“It’s really disturbing that he repeatedly persists with these views that are so far outside the mainstream,” he added, “his claims [about attempts to overthrow the government] they are wrong.”
Friedrich also criticized Reffitt’s violent threats against lawmakers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“To this day, he has not denied those comments,” he said.
Since Reffitt’s conviction by a 12-person jury, five other defendants have been found guilty by juries. Five more have been convicted by judges in trials. an accused, Matthew Martinhe was acquitted of multiple misdemeanors by a judge.
Outside court Monday, before the sentence was handed down, Reffitt’s wife, Nicole, told CBS News she believed prosecutors’ portrayal of her husband was a “misrepresentation.”
“He’s a good man,” she said.
Cristina Corujo contributed to this report.
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