A father’s runaway political rage and his son’s revulsion at lawlessness enthralled a federal jury Thursday as the first criminal trial stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack revealed a nation and a family plunged into ruinous conflict by former president Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.
In testimony the day after opening statements, U.S. prosecutors produced a string of witnesses and recorded statements at the trial of Guy Wesley Reffitt, 50, in support of charges that the oil rig manager and recruiter for the extremist Texas Three Percenters movement “lit the match” that led members of a pro-Trump mob to try to stampede Congress as it met to certify President Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“I got hit with rubber bullets and pepper sprayed. I was the first person to light the fire on the Capitol steps... WE TOOK THE CAPITAL,” Reffitt texted a friend immediately after the attack, according to court testimony.
But it was the reaction to Reffitt’s views by his only son that produced the most wrenching testimony. The appearance of Jackson Reffitt, 19, on the witness stand against his father as a government witness briefly brought the elder Reffitt to tears.
Reffitt is also charged with witness tampering. “Traitors get shot,” he is accused of telling his son days after returning from Washington.
Explaining why he turned his father in to the FBI, Jackson Reffitt said despite causing a rift in his relationship with his mother and two sisters, and the...
Image: Facebook/SAPS The IDAC has rubbished rumours that it has a J50 warrant of arrest for KZN provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as “false”. This comes after re...