Yet another rioter who participated in last year’s assault on the Capitol has been arrested by federal authorities for assaulting police officers while there that day. When Donald Trump makes his attempted defenses for the events of January 6, it can’t be lost sight of that he is essentially brushing aside hundreds of brutal assaults on law enforcement personnel — and as long as those attempted excuses for the violence continue, with Republican leaders remaining allied to the former president, the GOP’s supposed support for police officers rings hollow — to say the least. The newly arrested rioter is 60-year-old Massachusetts resident Vincent Gillespie, whose charges include assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers and civil disorder.
When assaulting officers includes physical contact with the target or targets — as it did in Gillespie’s case — the maximum jail sentence if found guilty appears to be eight years, and civil disorder apparently comes with a sentence of up to five years in jail (if found guilty), and these aren’t the only federal charges that Gillespie is facing.
As recapped by a press release from the Justice Department, on the day of the riot, “from at least 4:11 p.m. to at least 4:25 p.m., Gillespie was among rioters in the Lower West Terrance of the Capitol who engaged in pushing, shoving, yelling, and fighting with law enforcement officers.” At one juncture, Gillespie ‘used [a police shield] to ram the law enforcement officers, continuing to scream “traitor” and “treason” at the police,’ and he was also found to have “grabbed a law enforcement officer by the arm and attempted to pull him into the crowd,” that federal press release adds. There are numerous images of Gillespie in the course of committing these criminal acts that were captured at the Capitol. Trump claimed when recently discussing the prospect of pardoning rioters if he wins the presidency again that “some of these people are not guilty, many of these people are not guilty” — but many of the crimes that have been laid out by prosecutors in association with the Capitol riot were literally captured on camera.
In his ruling, Judge Mehta says the evidence suggests Trump instructed the Jan. 6 crowd to march on the Capitol, despite knowing it likely included violent elements.
He rejected Trump's claim that he's immune from lawsuits.
He rejected Trump's claim his conduct was protected.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 19, 2022
Over 235 of the individuals who’ve been charged in connection to the Capitol riot have been specifically accused of assaulting or impeding police in some form. Interestingly, federal Judge Amit Mehta concluded this week that the argument could be made — whether or not it’s proven — that then-President Trump engaged in a sort of conspiracy with violent, far-right groups around the riot. As the judge put it about certain far-right Trump backers, it “is reasonable to infer that the President knew that these were militia groups and that they were prepared to partake in violence for him.” Trump “thus plausibly would have known that a call for violence would be carried out by militia groups and other supporters,” as the judge added. Members of one of those groups — the Oath Keepers — have been charged with seditious conspiracy, and that group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, was ordered this week (by Mehta) to stay in jail ahead of his trial. Mehta concluded that Rhodes could pose a continuing danger to the community if allowed out.
Yet another US Capitol riot arrest
Vincent Gillespie of Massachusetts is accused of using a police shield to ram officers on Jan 6, 2021
He's charged w/ assaulting/resisting police pic.twitter.com/tZF0eI3ubz
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) February 18, 2022
