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“He has shown that he believes violence is on the table,” said the magistrate. “His statements show me a lack of faith and belief in the legitimacy of this government. … I don’t believe he will believe these orders should be obeyed or followed.
Griffin is known for his provocative and at times disturbing statements at Otero County commission meetings and elsewhere. “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” he said at a rally in May, before insisting he was speaking metaphorically. After the assault on Capitol Hill on Jan.6, Griffin said he planned to return to Washington armed for a Second Amendment rally on inauguration day.
Griffin was arrested near a security checkpoint in Washington on January 17. He faces one count of felony entering a secret service restricted area without authorization during the riot earlier this month.
An attorney for Griffin said he “cautioned” his statement about Democrats and that all of Griffin’s statements met First Amendment standards, but the judge looked doubtful.
“You can’t say something and then say you don’t really mean it,” Faruqui said. “Words matter. Facts matter … I don’t think this is political speech. It’s far from it.”
Griffin’s attorney Nicholas Smith has argued that his client’s concerns about executive and legislative power do not extend to the courts. “Nothing on the record suggests he has no respect for the judiciary,” Smith said.
However, the judge said he saw no reason to make such a distinction.
Smith also argued that prosecutors had to show Griffin knew a Secret Service protégé was on Capitol Hill when he walked through the barricades outside.
Faruqui said it was obvious to anyone that Vice President Mike Pence was inside because of his role in compiling electoral votes – the process which was targeted by protesters on January 6. The judge also mentioned members of Congress, falsely stating that they are protected by the Secret Service.
“It is not something that has been relegated to a civics course,” the magistrate said. “It was an international report. … I think that’s a reasonable inference.”
A first hearing for Griffin held on January 21 was interrupted after he allegedly refused to speak to the judge on the phone and refused to take a Covid-19 test that would allow him to go to an area of the DC prison where prisoners join the video. court hearings.
Smith said the episode was a misunderstanding and his client believed the guards were trying to get him to speak to a lawyer seeking to represent him. Griffin has since passed a coronavirus test and has been placed in the general population, the defense attorney said.
Griffin, a former street preacher and cowboy artist at Paris Disneyland, is one of the least charged in Federal Court cases resulting from the Capitol Riot. He faces a maximum sentence on the current charge of up to one year in prison. Prosecutors did not allege that he entered the Capitol, only that he crossed police lines and took up a position on the Capitol steps during the melee.
Griffin can appeal the magistrate’s decision to the court’s chief justice, Beryl Howell, who has said she views the events of January 6 as exceptionally serious.
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