An Ohio man who claimed to have “obeyed only Donald Trump’s presidential orders” when storming the US Capitol was convicted by a jury that took less than three hours to reject his new defense to prevent Congress from confirmed Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
A federal jury on Thursday also found Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, guilty of all five of the other charges in the indictment, including stealing a coat hanger from an office in the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riots. count, the only crime will be 20 years in prison.
Jurors did not buy Thompson’s defense, in which he accused Trump and members of the president’s inner circle of rebellion and his own actions.
A juror speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity said: “Donald Trump has not been tried in this case.”
The juror, a 40-year-old man, said as he left the courthouse: “Everyone agrees that Donald Trump is guilty as a whole story. Many people were there and then returned. Dustin Thompson didn’t do it. “
Thompson himself, testifying the day before, admitted that he joined the mafia attack and stole the hanger and a bottle of bourbon. He said he regretted his “disgraceful” behavior.
“I can’t believe the things I did,” he said. “The mafia mentality and group thinking is very real and very dangerous.”
However, he said he believed Trump’s false claim that the election had been stolen and was trying to defend him. “If the president almost gives you an order to do something, I felt compelled to do it,” he said.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who is due to convict Thompson on July 20, described the defendant’s testimony as “completely dishonest” and his behavior on Jan. 6 as “reprehensible.” The judge also blamed Trump after the verdict was announced.
“I think our democracy is in trouble,” he said, adding that “charlatans” like Trump are not interested in democracy, only in power. “And as a result, it tears our country apart.”
Prosecutors did not ask for Thompson to be detained immediately, but Walton ordered his arrest and he was handcuffed. The judge said he believed Thompson posed a risk of escape and was a danger to the public.
The trial against Thompson was the third before hundreds of hundreds of Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the Justice Department. In the first two cases, jurors also convicted defendants on all charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Dreher said Thompson, a college pest 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 robbed him in his case. Senate Parliamentary Office. The prosecutor told the jury that Thompson’s lawyer “wants you to think you have to choose between President Trump and his client.”
“You don’t have to choose because it’s not President Trump’s trial. This is the trial against Dustin Thompson for what he did in the Capitol on the afternoon of January 6, “Drecher told jurors during his closing remarks.
Defender Samuel Shamansky said Thompson did not shy away from taking responsibility for his behavior.
“This shameful chapter of our history is on television,” Shamanski told jurors. But he said Thompson, unemployed and consumed by a constant diet of conspiracy theories, 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 seduced by the strong, and that’s what happened here,” Shamansky said.
The judge barred Thompson’s lawyer from calling Trump and his ally Rudolf Giuliani as witnesses in the trial. But he ruled that jurors could hear recordings of speeches made to Trump and Giuliani on Jan. 6 before the riot broke out. A recording of Trump’s speech was released.
Shamansky claims that Giuliani, Trump’s adviser and former mayor of New York, incited rebels by encouraging them to take part in a “battle trial” and that Trump provoked the crowd by saying, “If you don’t fight like hell.” , you are there will be no more state. “
But Drecher told jurors that neither Trump nor Giuliani had the power to “legally” do what Thompson did in the Capitol.
The juror, who wished to remain anonymous, said he “laughed out loud” when Thompson testified that he had taken the hanger to prevent other rebels from using it as a weapon against police.
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