Crying Jan 6 Rioter Ordered Directly Back To Jail For Assaulting Police

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A federal judge has rejected an attempt by Capitol rioter Jeffrey McKellop to be released from jail ahead of his trial. McKellop, who assaulted law enforcement during the riot, has already been held in jail for seven months, but the unusually large range of materials at issue has made preparing for and actually heading to trial more difficult than observers may have anticipated. There’s a simply massive amount of images, footage, and other relevant documentation of the events surrounding the assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters. It’s unclear when McKellop’s trial might end up taking place.

As summarized by Courthouse News, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols — who was handling McKellop’s latest attempt to be released from custody — “agreed that getting Jan. 6 cases to trial quickly appears unlikely… while the government sorts through thousands of hours of video evidence.” As Nichols put it, the “case is essentially languishing. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just a fact.” This fact, though, was not enough to compel Nichols to release McKellop from custody. As also summarized by Courthouse News, McKellop “assaulted several law enforcement officers — pushing one, throwing a bottle at another and wrestling away a can of riot-control spray from yet another.” It went on from there, too — he stabbed an officer in the face with a flag pole and then hurled the pole at the officer like a spear. The targeted officer sustained a serious facial wound.

After all that, McKellop seriously thought that he could just be… released from custody? What did he think was going to happen when he physically assaulted multiple cops on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol amid what amounted to an attack on Congress? Did he think that he was going to be allowed to simply escape accountability? McKellop was said by his attorney this week to have been “crying” in jail. What about the officer who’s been walking around for months with a massive scar on their face from the flagpole he wielded? McKellop, who is a veteran and served over two decades in the Army, arrived at the Capitol in tactical gear. The Justice Department has previously said that McKellop’s “extensive military and combat experience indicates an increased capacity to harm members of the community” if released.