Prosecutor: First Capitol rioter on trial ‘lit the match’
Tyler Merbler / CC BY 2.0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jurors have heard attorneys’ opening statements in the first trial for one of the hundreds of people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol last year.
A federal prosecutor told the jury on Wednesday that Guy Wesley Reffitt played a leadership role in urging other rioters to charge at a line of police officers who were guarding the building on January 6, 2021.
Defense attorney William Welch accused prosecutors of rushing to judgment against Reffitt.
A verdict in Reffitt’s trial could have an enormous impact on hundreds of other riot cases.
Reffitt is charged with bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with police officers and threatening his teenage children if they reported him to authorities.
