Rioter Gets 87 Months, Longest Prison Sentence So Far

August 1, 2022 Extremists, Trump cultists

NBC News reports:

A Donald Trump fan from Texas who attempted to storm the U.S. Capitol while armed with a gun was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison on Monday after a judge denied the Justice Department’s request for a “terrorism enhancement” that would have resulted in a lengthier prison sentence.

Reffitt’s own son actually tipped off the FBI a couple of weeks before Jan. 6 but didn’t hear back until after the attack. A friend testified that Reffitt was carrying zip ties and that the duo had made a decision to carry guns because they’d rather be “tried by a jury of twelve than carried by six.”

CBS News reports:

A member of the far-right militia group the Texas Three Percenters, Reffitt was the first defendant to stand trial on charges stemming from the attack. He was found guilty in March of five criminal counts, including obstructing Congress’ certification of President Biden’s Electoral College win.

The 7.25-year sentence was far shorter than the 15 years sought by prosecutors, who argued that the punishment should be more severe since Reffitt’s actions amounted to terrorism. At a sentencing hearing on Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., Judge Dabney Friedrich disagreed.

The Insider reports:



“Mr. Reffitt was intending to violently overthrow Congress, and physically drag members of Congress out of the Capitol,” Jeffrey Nestler said Monday.

Reffitt’s trial featured dramatic testimony from his teenage son, Jackson Reffitt, who recounted reporting his father to law enforcement on Christmas Eve in 2020 after growing alarmed about his incendiary rhetoric and plans to do “something big.”

Jackson Reffitt also testified that he secretly recorded his father after January 6 as he exuberantly recounted his confrontation with police on the stairs leading up to the Capitol.

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