Thread by @ZoeTillman

Hello from the DC federal courthouse, for Day 5 of the first Jan. 6 trial.

On yesterday's testimony from defendant Guy Reffitt's 19-year-old son, and the mountain of exhibits the jury saw featuring Reffitt's own words before, during, and after the attack: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Kicking off the day with the brief civics lesson the govt said we'd get in its opening, hearing from witness #5, Daniel Schwager, who on Jan. 6 was general counsel to the secretary of the Senate. After background Qs, AUSA begins with, how many houses of Congress are there? 2

Next exhibit displayed to the jury is a copy of the Constitution, so that's where we are right now

The jury is learning right now:
- a stipulation with the parties' agreed upon basic timeline of Congress' activities on Jan. 6
- what the 12th Amendment says re: certification of electoral votes (constitutioncenter.org/interactive-co…)
- sections of US code w/ more details re: joint session

Govt is showing a presentation that displays screenshots of the congressional record from Jan. 6 and matches it to the timestamped videos from the House and Senate chambers, Schwager is narrating parts (notes people carrying in the electoral college ballots)

The presentation goes between House/Senate chambers starting at 2:13pm, around when the building was breached, so the jury sees how members/staff handled calling for order, declaring recesses. And then back in session much later in the evening after bldg was cleared

Starting at ~2:13pm, Schwager describes moving from the back of Senate chamber to be closer to staff, having learned the building was breached. He describes USCP officers take positions, locking doors, one holding a very large, very long gun. "I was in a state of alarm"

Very brief cross ex from Reffitt's lawyer Bill Welch, asks about timing of reference to adjournment of members (when they went to separate chambers) around 1:14pm, AUSA has Schwager clarify to the jury that it wasn't dissolution of joint session in its entirety

Welch asked if Schwager remembers seeing Reffitt in chamber, he says no, at any point, Schwager says he doesn't know (recall Reffitt is not charged with going inside the building at any point)

Witness #6: Secret Service Special Agent Paul Wade, a supervisor for the agency at the Capitol, he explains a primary function of his office is to coordinate Secret Service protectee visits to the Capitol

Wade talks through logistics of planning for Pence's visit to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Asked what his role would be if he believed security perimeter was inadequate to secure protectee, he said he could raise an objection w/ USCP, asked if he believed it was adequate on Jan. 6, yes

To add more clarity here, Wade was asked if he believed the security perimeter was adequate when he arrived on the morning of Jan. 6, not if he believed that now

https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1499767933337280521

Wade says that after escorting Pence's wife/daughter to Senate gallery to observe proceedings, he went down to the basement, but returned shortly after once he heard scuffling and running outside, heard from officers that people had breached the bike racks

Wade said he went to the VP's ceremonial office, which is just off the Senate chamber, talks about concern about relocating VP's motorcade on the east side of the Capitol where crowd was breaching (jury prev. saw video of that)

Jury sees surveillance footage of Pence/family evacuating the Senate chamber area and going down stairs, Wade is with them. He says he stayed with the family and then came back with them to the Senate chamber around 7pm, explains there was a larger Secret Service presence then

AUSA ends direct questioning, Welch asks Wade if timestamp on video of Pence evacuation (around 2:28pm) was correct, Wade says yes. Welch starts to ask detailed Qs about whether Wade saw Reffitt at any time, Wade saves him time, says at no point did he see Reffitt on Jan. 6

AUSA Nestler briefly comes back, asks Wade if he took emergency actions re: Pence family because of any specific person's actions? No. Why take those actions? Because advised that 100s of people were breaching the Capitol. Wade is done.

Witness #7 is another big one: Rocky Hardie, the fellow Texas Three Percenter who went with Reffitt to DC and has received immunity to testify

Why did he join Texas Three Percenters (in late 2019/early 2020)? "Concern for my safety" — he describes watching videos of riots the previous summer, antifa burning things down, breaking windows, saw a video of someone saying we're coming to your community

Hardie says he was concerned there was no one in his community who would watch his back, wanted to find "like-minded" people. He says he asked if TTP was racist, white supremacist, anti-govt, and was told no

AUSA Risa Berkower asks what the group's beliefs are. Hardie response: They support law enforcement and they believe in supporting the Constitution and they believe in supporting the govt as long as it follows the Constitution.

Hardie says he left the Texas Three Percenters some time after Jan. 6, after getting a visit from the FBI

Hardie describes a meetup with Reffitt at a park where they talked politics, how the country was "going down the tubes," who they thought was responsible — he names House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a primary example, "We pretty much felt like she was evil incarnate"

AUSA asks if Hardie believed the election was stolen before Jan. 6, he says yes (as did Reffitt), she asks if he still believes that, he says yes I do

AUSA has Hardie read a message Reffitt sent via Telegram on 12/21/20 talking about his plans to go to DC and calling on others to join him, Hardie said he'd already been thinking about it and Reffitt's message made him want to go, citing one line about "Stand and be counted"

En route to DC, Hardie says that Reffitt talked about corrupt people needing to be "dragged out," but says, "I didn’t think it was something that anybody was going to act on." Thought they were joking around/engaging in "hyperbole" when discussed removing people, i.e. Pelosi

Hardie says that they talked about bringing firearms, and that the purpose of bringing them was self-defense, alluding to videos he'd seen of burning, looting, firebombing, said he didn't know what to expect

Hardie says that he and Reffitt agreed on the concept that it's better to be tried by a jury of 12 than carried by six — that is, it's better to face legal consequences for violating firearm laws than die

AUSA is now walking through Hardie's immunity agreement with the government to testify — per agreement, he could still be prosecuted re: conduct on Jan. 6, but not based on anything he says/tells the govt per the agreement

Hardie says he brought a handgun and an AR-15 to DC, and says Reffitt put an AR case in the car (he was fuzzy on when/whether he saw Reffitt open the case, but talked about how they made sure their rifles were taken apart), and brought a handgun with him to DC

Hardie talks about how he had a concealed carry license and kept his handgun in a shoulder holster under his armpit, gestures to the location on the witness stand (AUSA asks if he has it right now, he says no)

Asked about their discussion on the drive to DC, Hardie says they talked about dragging out lawmakers, joked about Pelosi's head going "boom boom boom" on the way down, Hardie makes a motion with his hand to mimic this (this has been a common theme of rhetoric the jury has heard)

Hardie says that when they were driving through Virginia, Reffitt pulled the car over and they each put their handguns in cases with a lock and key, and ammo in separate cases with lock and key, says he wasn't paying close attn but knew Reffitt had one at the time

After a short break, we're back on with Rocky Hardie's testimony

AUSA shows photo the jury previously saw of Reffitt wearing a black shirt with "Oath Keepers Texas" in yellow writing + another person, with date stamp of Jan. 5, Hardie says the other man is him and it's a selfie he took of them in the hotel room once they arrived

Hardie talks about prep on Jan. 6 — he says Reffitt gave him zip ties, the "real heavy ones" that you use as handcuffs. Hardie says he asked Reffitt what those were for, Reffitt said it was in case they had to detain anybody or something to that effect, Reffitt carried some too

Hardie says they went to the car and each reassembled their rifles. Why? We were being prepared, what if something bad happened and we don't have time to put them back together, we were concerned for our safety, safety of people in general, brings up antifa threat again

Hardie says he got his handgun from the case, loaded it, put it in his shoulder holster and put a few additional magazines in the holster. Asked about Reffitt's handgun, Hardie says didn't see specifically, but Reffitt would have had it on his hip. Assembled ARs stayed in the car

Hardie says they went to the Ellipse area, he listened to Trump's speech "off and on," couldn't hear well, was more focused on the crowd. After the speech, the crowd moved "like a herd of cattle," someone called for medical help & Reffitt volunteered, and Hardie lost track of him

Hardie says they remained in radio contact, but he didn't see Reffitt until later in the day back at the hotel. Hardie described going to the Capitol, seeing people from a distance climbing up scaffolding, "looked like spiders" crawling up walls, saw ppl break through barricade

Hardie says Reffitt was in pain back at the hotel from being shot at/sprayed, Reffitt described his encounter with USCP Officer Kerkhoff, that Reffitt told Hardie he said, lady I don’t want to hurt you, but every time you shoot me I'm going to go forward

Hardie says Reffitt seemed proud, that Hardie was proud too that he'd been there, that he was "pretty impressed" by what Reffitt had described, that he felt Reffitt had more courage than he did, he wasn’t going to go up there. He recalls Reffitt's handgun in the room

Hardie says he went back to Reffitt's house to get his car, met Reffitt's wife/son/daughter (confirming narrative of Jackson Reffitt being home when they arrived back), confirms the participants on the Zoom call where Reffitt talked about trip to DC

1/10/21, Hardie confirms Reffitt sent a message via Telegram about state leader of TTP getting taken in for questioning by law enforcement. AUSA asks Hardie what was going through his mind. Reply: "Uh oh." Reffitt sends another message, "Start purge of all previous conversations"

Reffitt's lawyer William Welch is up for cross ex, has Hardie confirm that his immunity agreement doesn't mean he can't be charged, but that even though he's admitted to going on restricted grounds and carrying a firearm at the time, that he has not been charged to date

Welch asks if Hardie would agree Reffitt brags? Yes
Agree Reffitt uses hyperbole? Yes
A lot, doesn’t he? From time to time

Breaking for lunch after AUSA asks a few more questions to clarify the number of times Hardie met with Reffitt in person before they went to DC (they met in a park + two TTP meetings)

After jury leaves, Friedrich warns the govt that she's prepared to start cutting off the govt in front of the jury because they're asking too many repetitive questions

Judge Dabney Friedrich is back on the bench for Guy Reffitt's trial after the lunch break. It's much later than they were supposed to resume, Friederich announces they're dealing with the "real time connection," not sure what that's a reference to

Friedrich says they had a sealed proceeding related to an earlier sealed proceeding, and that those will remain sealed because they relate to sensitive, private info re: a witness who will be testifying that the parties agree should be sealed

Friedrich also says they addressed a juror-related matter, which will remain sealed for now, disclosing it could reveal who the alternates are

Witness #8 will be Karla Kennedy, a nurse and photographer in Dallas who works for the FBI; she took photos when the FBI executed a search warrant at Reffitt's house, and is expected to intro those photos and also items seized during the search

The jury is seeing photos of items found in Reffitt's truck during search — blue jacket, black helmet, plastic flex cuffs, shoulder holster, and Kennedy is matching them to the actual objects being shown in the courtroom

The jury now sees the handgun that was recovered from the nightstand in Reffitt's bedroom, which Kennedy says was loaded when they executed the search (FBI agent holds it up while keeping it in what looks like a cardboard box)

Jury sees a photo of IDs and cards in Reffitt's wallet, including a key card from the hotel he stayed at in DC for Jan. 6, the Melrose in Georgetown

Jury also saw photos of long rifle, ammunition, Texas Three Percenters document

On cross, Welch asks for an estimate of FBI photos, Kennedy says 500-600, Welch asks how many items seized, Kennedy estimates ~30

On redirect, AUSA asks Kennedy about 500-600 photos, she says it sounds like a lot but is actually not a lot considering FBI procedures for documenting; says they don't seize everything that's documented in photo

Witness #9: FBI Special Agent Laird Hightower, the lead Texas agent in the Reffitt investigation. He's also going to provide lay testimony (recall there was an issue re: whether he had to be certified as an expert) about the holster observed in Reffitt's bedroom during the search

Hightower says he first saw Jackson Reffitt's tip (submitted Dec. 24) on Jan. 6, the crowd had already reached the Capitol. Tip indicated his father was higher up in the Three Percenters, planning to travel to DC, some kind of serious damage, potential threats to legislature

Hightower is IDing the vest seized from Reffitt's house, saying it weighed ~22 pounds because it contained ballistic panels, and IDs the rifle seized, which the jury now sees as well

We're finally seeing the govt's attempt at zooming in on an image of Reffitt to see what they've said is a holster on his waist with a handgun at the Capitol. The photo quality is very clear even when zoomed, can see the outline of a holster, an object in it w/ silvery/metal top

FBI agent repeatedly describes the object in what appears to be the holster on Reffitt's hip as a "silvery metallic linear object" (the govt contends it was a handgun)

FBI agent is showing how the holster at issue works, how to release the gun, and he takes his jacket off to demonstrate how to slip it over one's pants

Agent Hightower demonstrates putting the Smith & Wesson handgun recovered from Reffitt's house into the holster, which is still on his hip. Once it's in the holster, the top part that's visible is silvery metallic looking

Reffitt's lawyer William Welch is up, starts by asking how Hightower got the video taken by journalist @emilymolli that yielded the image the govt has relied on re: Reffitt having a gun on his hip, Hightower says it was prepared by the govt

Welch has Hightower confirm that the holster they used as a demonstrative in court was purchased by the govt — we previously learned during back and forth about Hightower's testimony that the govt found/photographed the holster in Reffitt's room, but didn't actually seize it

Welch questions Hightower's ability to discern the black object on Reffitt's pants and the reliability of the Molli video. AUSA on redirect has Hightower explain that initially he was looking at lower-quality images/video, and ability to understand what he was seeing

That concludes Hightower's testimony, he puts his mask back on and it appears to be a "Blue Lives Matter" design.

That's a wrap on the trial. Govt expects to rest by lunch on Monday, Welch says no defense witnesses

The cooperating (ex)militia member and the guns, with a little civics lesson to start.

On Day 5 of the first Jan. 6 trial: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…