Hardie testified that both of them were armed with holstered handguns when they attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally before the riot.
He drove to Washington, D.C., with Rocky Hardie, a fellow member of the militia group. Reffitt lived with his wife and children in Wylie, Texas, a Dallas suburb. The Three Percenters movement refers to the myth that only 3% of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War against the British. Guy Reffitt was a member of the Texas Three Percenters militia group, according to prosecutors. Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, testified that his father told him and his sister, then 16, that they would be traitors if they reported him to authorities and warned them that “traitors get shot.” The jury found him guilty of obstructing Congress’ joint session, of interfering with police officers outside the Capitol and of threatening his two teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement.
Thumbs up drawing trial#
Reffitt didn’t testify at his trial before jurors convicted him in March of all five counts in his indictment. He retreated after an officer pepper sprayed him in the face, but he waved on other rioters who ultimately breached the building, prosecutors said. Reffitt was armed with a Smith & Wesson pistol in a holster on his waist, carrying zip-tie handcuffs and wearing body armor and a helmet equipped with a video camera when he advanced on the officers, according to prosecutors.
Videos captured the confrontation between outnumbered Capitol police officers and a mob of people, including Reffitt, who approached them on the west side of the Capitol. Broden noted that Reffitt didn’t assault any law enforcement officers or enter the Capitol building. The longest sentence before Reffitt‘s was five years and three months, for two men who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers at the Capitol.ĭefense attorney Clinton Broden asked for Reffitt to be sentenced to no more than two years in prison. Prosecutors argued that an “upward departure for terrorism” was warranted in Reffitt’s case. Sentencing guidelines calculated by the court’s probation department called for a sentence ranging from nine years to 11 years and three months.