An Ohio pastor who reportedly used messages to his church to attempt to rile up support for what became the violence at the Capitol of January 6, 2021, has been convicted of multiple felony offenses at a bench trial in Washington, D.C., meaning a trial in which the outcome was decided by a judge rather than a jury.
The defendant is William Dunfee, whose conviction was on charges of obstruction of an official proceeding or aiding and abetting and civil disorder. On their website, Dunfee remains listed as a pastor on staff at his congregation in Ohio, New Beginnings Ministries, which is seemingly a family operation. (The only other individual listed as ministerial staff has the same last name and is younger.) The older Dunfee got extremely specific in his exhortations to his listeners and followers towards what became political violence. “January 4th through 6th… Are you ready?” he said, per authorities.
At the actual Capitol, it sounds like he was trying to assume some kind of quasi-leadership role, toting around (and using) a bullhorn. “We want Donald Trump and if Donald Trump is not coming, we are taking our house. We are taking our house,” Dunfee proclaimed about 45 minutes before the Capitol building itself was breached. Authorities added that he pushed against a metal barricade among those police were trying to utilize to secure the area multiple times, though he evidently stayed outside the Capitol, keeping up the encouraging messages. “Hallelujah,” he told a member of the crowd amid exits from the building. Dunfee lingered outside.
Dunfee’s sentencing is scheduled for May of this year, though that date could be moved. The nature of the charges suggests he could get a sentence years in length. The obstruction offense — which mirrors some of the criminal allegations facing Trump himself — carries up to two decades, though in isolation or something close to that, actual sentences have been shorter.
