WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge heard opening arguments Monday in the trial of five rioters accused of being the first to breach the initial police line outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Ryan Samsel, James Grant, Paul Johnson, Stephen Randolph and Jason Blythe face charges for actions at the Peace Circle — a roundabout on Pennsylvania Avenue at the edge of the Capitol grounds — where federal prosecutors say they lifted and pushed a metal barricade, driving back the Capitol police officers stationed there.
“This moment marked the beginning of the Capitol riot,” said Justice Department prosecutor Kyle Mirabelli to U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Joe Biden appointee, at the start of the government’s case.
Video footage presented in court showed the group, none of whom knew each other before Jan. 6, at the front of the initial crowd of former President Donald Trump’s supporters to descend on the Capitol. After a brief back-and-forth with officers at the initial barricade, the five men grabbed hold of the metal barriors, lifted it over their heads and pushed the officers back to a stairwell behind them.
While pushing, one officer fell backward, hitting her head on the metal handrail and lying there until Samsel got around and helped her back to her feet.
“These defendants’ attack on Capitol police allowed a flood of rioters to descend on the West Front of the Capitol,” Mirabelli said.
According to the government's indictment of the group, each defendant faces charges of civil disorder, assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon, entering restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon, engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct in the Capitol, physical violence on Capitol grounds and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Samsel faces additional counts of civil disorder, assaulting officers and assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon. Grant was also charged with two counts of entering a senator’s office and parading in the Capitol. Randolph faces an additional charge of assaulting officers.
Before opening arguments began, Grant pleaded guilty to the counts of entering a senator’s office and parading in the Capitol.
The defendants, each with their own defense lawyers, did not dispute the facts that they were present at the Capitol and had participated in breaching the initial police line, but their attorneys each pushed back against the Justice Department’s characterization of them as the spark that set off the riot.
Stanley Woodward Jr., Samsel’s defense attorney, argued it is “not possible to pin the events of Jan. 6 on Samsel” because the video evidence clearly shows a large crowd next to and behind Samsel and his co-defendants, each of whom were just as likely to begin pushing the metal barricades.
Woodward and his fellow defense attorneys took issue with the bulk of the charges brought against their clients, specifically the charges involving the use of a dangerous weapon — according to the government, the metal barricade.
Grant's attorney Robert Feitel, Randolph's lawyer Angela Halim, Blythe's attorney Stephen Brennwald, and Johnson's lawyer Lauren Rosen each argued that their clients did not come to Washington “prepared for battle.” Johnson brought a bullhorn that he used to urge rioters forward closer to the Capitol, while Blythe brought a helmet.
They did not bring weapons with them, they said, and should not receive harsher sentences for a variation in the charge.
The maximum sentence for assaulting an officer is 10 years, while assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon doubles the maximum to 20 years in prison.
Woodward compared the government’s case to a “Magic Eye” puzzle — those images that you have to stare at for minutes until your eyes adjust to the hidden picture inside — saying they had to look really hard at the evidence to justify the severity of the charges at issue.
In the 33 months since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, over 1,185 people have been charged for their actions that day. Approximately 658 have been sentenced in connection to the riot.
The Justice Department’s investigation remains ongoing, with approximately 304 individuals who engaged in violence still unidentified.
Follow @Ryan_Knappy
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
