WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge on Wednesday convicted a Confederate-flagged man and his son of charges of assaulting the U.S. Capitol together during the January 6, 2021 riots to prevent Congress from certifying victory Joe Biden’s presidential election.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden handed down the verdict from the bench after hearing two days of no-jury testimony for the trial of Kevin Seefried and his adult son, Hunter.
McFadden convicted the two Delaware men of a felony: obstruction of an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College that day.
The judge also convicted the Seefrieds of misdemeanors for committing disorderly conduct and protesting illegally inside the building. But he acquitted Hunter Seefried of other misdemeanors for cleaning a broken glass of a broken window in the Capitol.
They will remain free pending separate sentencing hearings in September.
McFadden, who was named to court by President Donald Trump in 2017, presided over two previous trials for Capitol Riot defendants. He acquitted one of all charges and partially acquitted another.
Widely published photographs showed Kevin Seefried carrying a Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol after he and Hunter Seefried, then 22, entered the building through a broken window.
McFadden rejected the defense’s argument that Kevin Seefried never intended to interfere in the proceedings of Congress.
“I think he knew what he was doing,” McFadden said.
The judge described Kevin Seefreid as the “first impeller” in his decision to go to Washington on Jan. 6. McFadden said Hunter Seefried’s guilt over the obstruction charge was a “closer issue,” but the judge eventually concluded that the son was involved in “aggravated conduct” that supported a conviction.
“Hunter Seefried showed a pattern of deception and downplaying his actions” when an FBI agent interviewed him after the riot, McFadden said.
FBI agents said they found no evidence linking Kevin Seefried or his son to any far-right group. Kevin Seefried told an agent he did not see the Confederate flag as a symbol of racist hatred.
The trial included the first public testimony of Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman, who has been praised for his bravery during the Jan. 6 attack by a crowd of Trump supporters. Goodman led a group of mutineers away from the Senate chamber while Senators and then-Vice President Mike Pence were being evacuated. He also ordered Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, to turn away from the mob.
Goodman met Kevin Seefried before the mob chased the officer down some stairs, a heartbreaking episode captured on video. The officer said Elder Seefried cursed him and hit him with the end of the base of the flagpole three or four times without coming in contact with him.
Another Capitol police officer who confronted the crowd near the Senate chamber recalled that Kevin Seefried asked, “Why are you protecting them?”
“I figured I was talking about Congress,” Officer Brian Morgan said.
The Seefrieds were not charged with assaulting any officers.
None of the defendants testified at trial.
The father and son traveled to Washington from their home in Laurel, Delaware, to hear Trump’s speech at the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. They were among the first rioters to approach the building near the door of the Senate wing, he said. fiscal.
After seeing other rioters use a police shield and a wooden plank to break a window, Hunter Seefried used a gloved fist to clean a piece of glass from one of the broken glass, prosecutors said. But the judge found that two other rioters had destroyed the window before Seefried cleaned up the fragment.
McFadden convicted the Seefrieds of four counts of misdemeanors: entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct or disturbing conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct or disturbing conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and marching, protesting, or conducting pickets in a Capitol. building.
The judge acquitted Hunter Seefried of three other misdemeanors: destruction of government property, entering and remaining in a building or land restricted with physical violence against property, and acts of physical violence on Capitol land or buildings.
The Seefrieds, who waived their right to a jury trial, were the first accused of Capitol riots to get a bank trial for a felony.
In April, McFadden acquitted Matthew Martin, a New Mexico resident, of a felony charge of illegally entering the Capitol and behaving disorderly conduct after entering the building.
In March, McFadden acquitted a New Mexico elected official, Couy Griffin, of misconduct, but convicted him of illegally entering the Capitol’s restricted grounds. McFadden is scheduled to convict Griffin on Friday.
Also on Wednesday, he concluded a bench trial for Jesus Rivera, a man from Pensacola, Florida, charged with four misdemeanor-related felonies. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she intends to issue a written verdict later this week, according to Rivera’s attorney Guy Womack.
McFadden has criticized prosecutors for handling Capitol riots. He suggested the Justice Department has been unfairly harsh on Capitol riot police compared to those arrested in protests against police brutality and racial injustice following the 2020 assassination of George Floyd by a police officer. Minneapolis Police.
More than 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 bombing. Jurors have unanimously convicted five accused of Capitol rioters of all charges. More than 300 other defendants have pleaded guilty to felony counts, most of them misdemeanors. About 100 more have trial dates in 2022 or 2023.