While still a county commissioner, Griffin joined with Republican colleagues in refusing to certify results of the June 2022 primary election based on distrust of the voting systems used to tally the vote, even though the countys election official said there were no problems. There, Mr. Griffin spent more than an hour addressing the mob, at times speaking through a bullhorn. Some have sought to wield that seldom-invoked provision against members of Congress, without success, and even floated using it against Trump. SANTA FE, N.M. -- Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin was found not guilty Wednesday of a misdemeanor charge of failing to register a political committee at a trial in southern New Mexico. Griffin has been investigated by the state for corruption and is currently facing a recall effort, with around one-third of the required recall petition signatures having been gathered as of last week. I wonder who wrote it?. Babbitt was shot and killed by police as she tried to force her way past a barricaded doorway. The case against Griffin is unlike most of the Capitol riot prosecutions. The dismissed charge against Griffin carried a potential punishment of up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. The disqualification of Berger, for instance, was later widely regarded as overreach. "I mean, who's to say that was have you seen anything of any of her family?" Struck responded "no" as the lawyer asked whether Griffin had destroyed anything, confronted law enforcement, or taken any action that would put someone in fear. He has occasionally surfaced in national news for his violent rhetoric and his efforts to impugn the election results in his home state as recently as this summer.). had a first row seat.". Since Jan. 6, activists have sought to disqualify several members of Congress who supported questioning or overturning the 2020 election results, including Reps. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.) Magliocca said the issue could arise in a number of ways moving forward and is ripe for the Supreme Court to litigate before Trump might run for and potentially win the presidency in 2024. In a written closing statement in court, he had argued that he had been at the Capitol to lobby vice president Mike Pence to not certify the election results, and that, In no way does that pertain to nor support insurrection/rebellion, reported the Albuquerque Journal. Couy Griffin trial for trespassing on the U.S. Capitol grounds begins But McFadden noted that Griffin had not entered the Capitol building itself but only trespassed on the grounds outside the building, putting him at what the judge called the "minimal end of criminality.". Prosecutors plan to call a Secret Service inspector and Capitol police inspector later on Monday. Regardless, they said the law only requires that Pence was at the complex or "would be" returning to prove that Griffin unlawfully entered a Secret Service-protected area. The verdict from a 12-member jury capped a two-day trial in Alamogordo, the community where Griffin served as an Otero County commissioner until he was banished from office last year for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Now its made even more history: Someone found to have engaged in insurrection that day has been disqualified from office, for what appears to be the first time in 150 years. Griffin is constitutionally disqualified from serving, the judge wrote. Judge Unseats Official Who Trespassed at Capitol on Jan. 6 Griffin invoked free speech protections in declining to register and disclose donors to Cowboys for Trump, while expressing concern that financial contributors might be harassed. His advisory sentencing guideline range for the misdemeanor conviction was zero to six months. Reffitt's trial presented a test for the Justice Department as it undertakes an investigation it has called "unprecedented," and the conviction marked a significant victory in the nearly 800 prosecutions related to the January 6 attack. In several high-profile races, those who didnt storm the Capitol but were otherwise involved in the Jan. 6 proceedings have won their partys nomination. Feb 24 Who is the guy in the blue jacket? A month after Griffin's trial, McFadden acquitted a New Mexico engineer of misdemeanor charges. In some ways, Mr. Griffins case was a cleaner win for advocates seeking to punish officials connected to the riot because he was part of the mob that stormed the Capitol, not a lawmaker sitting inside. Griffin's defense lawyers plan to argue that, because Pence was rushed away amid the mayhem of January 6, the Capitol grounds were no longer a restricted, Secret Service-protected area by the time he was there. Also worth weighing here, Hemel noted, is whether disqualification is an appropriate remedy. Even after his criminal conviction, Mr. Griffin, a bombastic man who briefly considered riding a horse to his sentencing at the courthouse in Washington, continued to publicly disparage the case and insult the judge who heard it. Federal prosecutors have offered Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin a plea agreement over charges that he illegally entered barricades during the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
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