Federal Judge Not Buying “President Trump Told Me To Do It” Defense in Capitol Riot
From this:
At a bail hearing Tuesday for a Proud Boy member from Kansas accused of storming the Capitol, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell said she was dubious about the legal merit of the effort to shift blame toward the former president and his inflammatory rhetoric about the election.
“Only someone who thought they had an official endorsement would even attempt such a thing. And a Proud Boy who had been paying attention would very much believe he did,” Chrestman’s lawyers, Kirk Redmond and Chekasha Ramsey, wrote in a court filing last week.
The defense attorneys also cited Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement following Trump’s impeachment trial that those who besieged the Capitol “believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President.”
As much as I despise these people and abhor what they did, I’m somewhat sympathetic. The judge says, “This purported defense, if recognized…” How can you not recognize this defense at some level? It’s pretty damn clear that the sitting president of the United States made a large number of incendiary public statements to the effect that the election was stolen, and all true patriots should come to Washington DC and “fight like hell” to “take their country back” from fraud and corruption.
Of course, this does not exonerate them. Committing a crime at the suggestion of another is still a crime.
I look at this as a special case of diminished capacity, the excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were “diminished” or impaired. It can be argued that their heads were full of disinformation that was placed there by the most powerful person on the face of the Earth.
I personally find this mitigating to a degree, and I would think it might produce reduced sentences.
