/Swearing-in-Ceremony-58827e2e5f9b58bdb3e1b916.jpg "trump inauguration poster typo")
The jury rejected prosecutors’ conspiracy argument and the first batch of defendants were acquitted.
But they still faced a host of other charges, including felony property destruction and misdemeanor rioting.
#TRUMP INAUGURATION POSTER TYPO TRIAL#
In December, a jury began deliberations in the first trial after DC Judge Lynn Leibovitz tossed out the riot charges that could have landed them with 10-year sentences. I can’t speak to all of their motives, but I was unwilling to capitulate to a system dominated by petty tyrants willing to win at any cost.”Īnother defendant told Teen Vogue: "I think the mainstream media never connected the authoritarianism of Trump and how dissent was at stake – they were never willing to think about what the consequences would be if people were actually locked up, and how it would actually stifle dissent when we needed it most.” In an op-ed for The New York Times chronicling her experience, defendant Elizabeth Lagesse said: “Unlike more than 90 per cent of criminal defendants in this country, my co-defendants and I have chosen to take our cases to trial. Altogether, the charges carried sentences of up to 70 years in prison, if convicted. Others were also charged with assaulting a police officer. On 27 April, the Superior Court of DC returned a superseding indictment adding felony charges to 212 of the J20 defendants, including inciting a riot, conspiracy and destruction of property. Hundreds of people were charged with felonies following Black Lives Matter protests, which the president sought to identify along with “antifa” as “terrorist organisations”. In the years that followed, more than a dozen state and local governments enacted new laws to criminalise dissent. The Trump administration has relied on the weight of federal charges, rather than state or local ones, against left-wing protests over the course of his administration and during Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the US in 2020.įederal charges follow stricter sentencing guidelines and typically see higher conviction rates – in 2018, 90 per cent of people charged with federal crimes pleaded guilty, according to Pew Research. In her opening argument in the first trial, US Attorney Jennifer Kirkoff said: “We don’t believe any of the defendants personally engaged in property destruction”. Prosecutors argued instead that the “group” was a criminal body, responsible for one of its members’ actions. Despite a lack of evidence linking most of the defendants to the chaos, most of them faced felony charges for rioting, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
#TRUMP INAUGURATION POSTER TYPO FREE#
He said that the police department’s “wanton and vindictive conduct on January 20 chills free speech, which is a vital part of our democracy”.Īfter their arrests on 20 January, protesters made their first court appearances, in batches of 10, the following day. The violence – compelled by the president’s big lie that the election was “stolen” from his supporters – has shaken the halls of Congress and underscored J20’s urgent call to action. On 6 July 2018, more than a year after their arrests, the remaining 39 defendants awaiting trial had rioting charges against them abruptly tossed out by federal prosecutors, capping an 18-month fight that upended dozens of lives through dragged-out hearings and detentions.Ī lawsuit against Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department alleging excessive force and invasive body searches during the arrests is still making its way through the Superior Court in DC more than three years after it was filed.įour years later, on another 20 January, the nation prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, and Washington braces for more far-right violence in the wake of a lethal pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol. Only one person served any actual jail time – a four-month sentence for rioting and assault on a police officer. Twenty-one defendants pleaded guilty, all but one for misdemeanours. Not a single case was convicted by a jury. Ultimately, more than 200 cases were dismissed, and 16 others faced trial.
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