Soon after he was convicted by a federal judge in March of entering restricted grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, he returned to social media and the airwaves to disparage the case against him, insult the judge and assert that FBI and Team Pelosi were responsible for the attack on the Capitol. (Griffin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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Struck received immunity for his testimony. Reffitts conviction on all charges could give prosecutors more leverage in negotiating plea deals in many other cases or discourage other defendants from going to trial. Couy Griffin trial for trespassing on the U.S. Capitol grounds begins Griffin said he and fellow commissioners don't see the process as trustworthy. A key question in Griffins case is whether he entered a restricted area while Pence was still present on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the U.S. Secret Service to invoke access restrictions. Since he didn't enter the Capitol, Griffin was at the "minimal end of criminality," the judge said. It looks like theyve been calm and theyre listening to Couy., In a court filing, prosecutors called Griffin an inflammatory provocateur and fabulist who engages in racist invective and propounds baseless conspiracy theories, including that Communist China stole the 2020 Presidential Election.. I love the smell of napalm in the air, Griffin said in an apparent reference to a line by Robert Duvalls character in the war movie Apocalypse Now.. Nicholas Smith, a lawyer who represented him during his criminal trial, declined to comment. Hawa said agents took Pence from his office at the Capitol to a secure location at an underground loading dock on the Capitol complex. Griffin was sentenced to 14 days in prison but credited for the 20 days he served ahead of trial. And he said there was "grave tension" between Griffin's conduct on January 6 and his oath as a county commissioner in New Mexico to protect and defend the Constitution. But legal experts say the ruling in New Mexico is significant nonetheless especially if it holds up. After being jailed in connection with the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Otero County Commission Vice Chairman Couy Griffin was back in attendance at the Feb. 11 Otero . A Trump-appointed judge disagreed with Griffin's explanation while rejecting a legal argument that he was being "selectively charged" for his political beliefs in July. In a segment on Anderson Cooper 360, Drew Griffin was recounting his interview with the founder of Cowboys for Trump, Cuoy Griffin, who is also a New Mexico county commissioner. At the same time, Griffins conviction was for misdemeanor trespassing, for which he was sentenced to 14 days and a $3,000 fine. It would be helpful if they would take this opportunity to rule really for the first time what Section 3 means.. Reffitt's trial presented a test for the Justice Department as it undertakes an investigation it has called "unprecedented," and the conviction marked a significant victory in the nearly 800 prosecutions related to the January 6 attack. Griffins attorneys said in a court filing that Pence had already departed the restricted area before the earliest that Griffin could have entered it, but Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence never left the restricted area during the riot. The verdict from a 12-member jury capped a two-day trial in Alamogordo, the community where Griffin served as an Otero County commissioner until he was banished from office last year for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. WASHINGTON A New Mexico county commissioner who entered the restricted grounds on Jan. 6 was ordered to perform community service and pay a fine Friday, but . Cowboys for Trump founder returns to Otero County Commission Griffin is pictured riding a horse on Sixth Avenue in New York City on May 1, 2020. A federal judge found Couy Griffin, a county commissioner from New Mexico and founder of the group "Cowboys For Trump," guilty on one of two counts stemming from the Capitol riot. The report: The Jan. 6 committee released its final report, marking the culmination of an 18-month investigation into the violent insurrection. And a judge acquitted him of disorderly conduct. But he found that Griffins actions met the standard set forth by the 14th Amendment, citing Griffins violent rhetoric and evidence of his actions at the Capitol. "I'm really hoping that the judge will dismiss the charges," Griffin told the Albuquerque Journal in June. An online fundraiser for Griffin has also raised nearly $50,000. US Capitol riot: Army reservist with secret-level security clearance The text of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states (key parts bolded): The last time elected officials were disqualified from office using the 14th Amendment appears to be 1869, shortly after the Civil War and the ratification of the 14th Amendment. He acknowledged that Griffin was not criminally convicted of insurrection and there is no evidence that Griffin engaged in violence himself. . Couy Griffin, a 48-year-old Republican elected official from Alamogordo, N.M., and founder of a pro-Donald Trump grass-roots group, had challenged U.S. prosecutors to prove Pence's whereabouts. In a challenge to the candidacy of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, a judge also said the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol qualified as an insurrection but said that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Ms. Greene engaged in it. State prosecutors accuse Griffin of a misdemeanor violation of failing to register as a political group, which is punishable by up to a year in prison and an additional $1,000 fine. The Court concludes that Mr. Griffins crossing of barricades to approach the Capitol were overt acts in support of the insurrection, as Griffins presence closer to the Capitol building increased the insurrectionists intimidation by numbers, wrote Mathew, who was appointed to the bench by former Republican Gov. Cuoy Griffin, a 1/6 suspect, says he doubts two of the fatalities caused by the insurrection. Susana Martinez. I dont want the state of New Mexico to know who has supported Cowboys for Trump.
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