A Trump supporter who participated in the Capitol rioting and then tried to flee to Switzerland is the latest of those who were in the nation’s capital on that January day who are now getting held in jail ahead of their trials. On Wednesday, federal Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that Jeffrey Sabol, the Trump supporter in question, would be kept in custody ahead of his trial on charges stemming from his violent physical assault on police officers who were trying to deal with the rioting Trump supporters. Sabol “allegedly beat police officers who were trying to help injured rioters during the US Capitol siege,” CNN noted.
As Sullivan put it:
‘[Sabol] stripped a vulnerable police officer of his police baton. He then used that stolen police baton to force another officer away from his post and into a mob of rioters who proceeded to viciously attack him, leaving him bleeding from the head… [The] Court cannot ignore that Mr. Sabol presents a flight risk… Considering the steps he took to flee to Switzerland to avoid arrest, Mr. Sabol is the epitome of a flight risk.’
Following his participation in the Capitol rioting, Sabol drove from Colorado, where he lives, to Boston, where he hoped to fly to Switzerland because of his belief that the country wouldn’t extradite him to the U.S., although it’s not clear that this belief is actually legitimate because the two countries do have a mutual extradition agreement set up.
After finding law enforcement officers at the Boston airport — it’s probably safe to say that law enforcement officers are, of course, often at airports — Sabol rented a car and drove away, although not back towards Colorado, apparently. He apparently threw his cellphone over a bridge near Boston and was eventually pulled over in Clarkstown, New York, where police discovered serious cuts on his arm and legs that Sabol said were self-inflicted. Sabol told officers at the scene that he was “wanted by the FBI” because he was “fighting tyranny in the DC Capitol.” Sabol’s lawyers claim that he has “recovered from the episode.”
Notably, Sabol’s lawyers have also noted in court filings that their client was “lied to” about the 2020 presidential election by ex-President Donald Trump and his prominent defender, Rudy Giuliani, both of whom pushed the false idea that the 2020 presidential race had been rigged for Biden. Trump is still pushing this claim.
