Federal Appeals Court Upholds Trespassing Charge Used Against Hundreds of January 6 Rioters
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A split federal appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld a trespassing charge against a January 6 rioter, Couy Griffin — a charge that has also been applied to hundreds of others — affirming that rioters “knowingly” breached restricted areas that day even if they didn’t know the basis of that restriction — that the Secret Service was protecting then-Vice President Pence, who was inside.
At issue in the case before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was a federal law that prohibits “knowingly” entering “restricted building or grounds,” defined as any “posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted area,” including restricted areas where the “president or other person protected by the Secret Service” is visiting.
Mr. Griffin, a founder of Cowboys for Trump and a former New Mexico county commissioner who was ousted from his position under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, had argued that the government must prove that he knew the reason why the area was restricted for him to have “knowingly entered.” He also argued that because so many rioters before him had trampled the signage along the area, the restricted grounds were no longer clearly “posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted.”
More than 1,400 January 6 defendants have been charged with “entering or remaining” on restricted federal grounds, the Justice Department has said, meaning that hundreds of charges could have been undermined if the court had ruled in Mr. Griffin’s favor.
