Last Updated on July 19, 2022
Joe Biden’s DOJ is requesting that Guy Reffitt — a January 6 protester who opted to stand trial rather than accept a plea deal — be sentenced to 15 years in prison. U.S. Attorney Jeffery Nestler has asked that Reffitt’s obstruction conviction be given domestic terrorism enhancements. The matter will be left up to the judge to decide at Reffitt’s sentencing.
Reffitt spent more than a year in a D.C. prison before opting to become the first January 6 defendant to stand trial. It ultimately took a D.C. jury just hours to convict Reffitt on a number of charges, including two counts of civil disorder, two counts of obstruction, and one count of carrying a handgun on restricted grounds. Prosecutors tacked on the handgun charge after Reffitt had already been in prison for months, arguing that a holster he was carrying that day contained a handgun.
Reffitt was arrested by the FBI after his son, then 18-year-old Jackson Reffitt, turned him in after seeing his picture online. Jackson Reffitt proudly defended his actions during a January 2021 interview with CNN, saying he “followed his moral compass.” He added that he would gladly do it again.
To date, a GoFundMe for Jackson Reffitt’s “college fund” has raised close to $200,000 after he was disowned by his mother.
Jackson Reffitt also secretly recorded his father after he returned from the D.C. jail in January 2021. His videos ultimately landed his father in prison for more than a year while awaiting trial, and he now faces up to 15 years in federal prison.
"Yes, I would do it again," 18-year old Jackson Reffitt told @FOX4 after he tipped the @FBI to his father who, reportedly, took part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Jan. 6. "If you have any experiences about this, please speak up about it," he pleaded toward others. pic.twitter.com/kPLliqinq2
— David Sentendrey (@DavidSFOX4) January 25, 2021
In a 58-page sentencing guideline, U.S. Attorney Jeffery Nestler asked for Reffitt’s obstruction conviction to be given domestic terrorism enhancements. Nestler argued that since Reffitt — who never entered the building — was present while the election was being certified, his intent was to overturn the results.
Nestler repeatedly claimed that Reffitt played a “central role in leading a mob that attacked the United States Capitol.” Nestler went on to write that, “Reffitt returned home to Texas on January 8, triumphant about the integral role he played in the attack on our democracy.”
For several pages, Nestler portrays Reffitt as a dangerous militia leader who used his influence to initiate a violent assault against the U.S. Capitol Building. “Reffitt did not intend to simply obstruct Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote. Rather, Reffitt intended to physically remove the legislators from the building (using his firearm and flexicuffs, and the power of the crowd) and actually ‘take over’ Congress,” Nestler wrote.
Nestler and his boss, U.S. Attorney Michael Graves, did not argue any of this in court. They simply want a federal judge to add terrorism charges on to Reffitt’s sentence after the fact.
Prosecutors are seeking a whopping 15 years in federal prison for Guy Reffitt, who never entered the building.
