He was radicalized

A jury on Thursday convicted the Jan. 6 defendant Dustin Thompson on all six charges he faced — including felony obstruction of Congress — rejecting his effort to blame Donald Trump’s campaign of disinformation about the election results for his conduct.

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In Thompson’s closing argument, attorney Samuel Shamansky appealed to the jury to consider “human nature.”

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Shamansky didn’t dispute the bulk of the factual case presented by prosecutors: Thompson entered the Capitol after Trump’s speech, joined a mob in ransacking the Senate parliamentarian’s office and stole a coat rack and bottle of liquor during the unrest. He stood by as rioters assaulted police in a Capitol tunnel and ran away from officers that evening when they approached him to ask about the coat rack.

[...]

“He consumed these lies and this misinformation,” Shamansky said, calling Trump an “evil and sinister man who would stop at nothing to get his way on Jan. 6.” Shamansky described Thompson as a “pawn” in Trump’s “sick game” to remain in power.

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Thompson’s wife also testified that she witnessed her husband become increasingly radicalized during Trump’s presidency, and that it became particularly acute when he became unemployed in March 2020.

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In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Dreher called Thompson’s argument a “sideshow” meant to whip up the jury’s anger at Trump rather than focus on the obvious violations of law that Thompson committed.

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“This is not president Trump’s criminal trial,” he said. “It is not up to you to decide whether anyone other than the defendant should be prosecuted for any of the crimes charged. The fact that another person may also be guilty is no defense of a criminal charge. The question of the possible guilt of others should not enter your thinking.”

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“He wants you to think you have to choose between President Trump and his client, Mr. Thompson, right? That you can only find that one of them committed a crime that day or that one of them is worse than the other,” Dreher continued. “Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t have to choose.”

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After the verdict, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton tore into Trump for his efforts to dupe supporters into believing the election was stolen.

“I think our democracy is in trouble because, unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president who doesn’t, in my view, really care about democracy but only about power,” Walton said.

  Politico

Yeah, that's going to get the man an appeal.

But he reserved his harshest comments for Thompson, whom he described as “weak-minded” and part of a “gullible” throng of Trump backers who couldn’t separate his claims from reality. Walton ordered Thompson immediately detained, forgoing the typical release of defendants until their sentencing.

“The inevitable reality is that whether he does time now or does time later, he’s got to do time,” Walton said just before ordering him held.

Oh yeah. Expect an appeal.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

As if

Attorney Samuel Shamansky on Friday submitted court filings on behalf of his client, Jan. 6 defendant Dustin Thompson, asking for a judge to allow them to subpoena Trump and others to testify as witnesses in Thompson’s trial.

“Defendant submits that the individuals he seeks to subpoena are in exclusive possession of information relevant to this case. Moreover, their testimony is necessary to ensure that Defendant’s constitutional right to present a complete defense is safeguarded,” according to the court filings.

"It is anticipated that, when called as a witness, Donald J. Trump will testify that he and others orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and the validity of President Biden’s victory," the filings add.

  

Dream on. Even if Trump were subpoenaed (which he won't be), he would never testify to that.

"Moreover, it will be established at trial that Mr. Trump and his conspirators engaged in a concerted effort to deceive the public, including Defendant, into believing that American democracy was at stake if Congress was permitted to certify the election results."

That, however, should be entirely possible even without Trump.

Shamansky said some of the other witnesses they would like to subpoena include former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, conservative lawyer John Eastman, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and Donald Trump Jr.

Yeah, well, good luck, son.

The defendant has been charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting; theft of government property; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

According to Thompson’s statement of facts and complaint, security footage inside the Capitol allegedly showed him inside the building holding a bottle of bourbon. The court filings also allege that he ran away from law enforcement after he was found with a coat rack that officials believed was inside the Capitol.

A guy breaks into the Capitol, and what he really wants to steal is a coat rack?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.