The prosecution continues for people charged with taking part in the January 6 Capitol riots. Hundreds are still awaiting plea deals or trials.
One judge that is hearing the cases spoke out about how the suspects are being treated in court.
The Associated Press reported:
[Judge Trevor] McFadden, whom President Donald Trump nominated in 2017, has criticized prosecutors’ handling of Capitol riot cases. He suggested that the Justice Department has been unjustly tougher on Capitol riot defendants compared with people arrested at protests against police brutality and racial injustice after George Floyd’s 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer.
McFadden also criticized prosecutors for seeking jail time for some nonviolent Capitol riot defendants but not for left-wing activists who protested Trump’s nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, The Washington Post reported.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden questioned why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those accused in 2020 summertime protests, reading out statistics on riot cases in the nation’s capital that were not prosecuted.
“I think the U.S. attorney would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its concern about riots and mobs in this city,” McFadden said during Danielle Doyle’s sentencing for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6 with a throng of other rioters. Prosecutors recommended two months of home confinement for Doyle, who is from Oklahoma.
McFadden’s remarks are being revived since he is about to oversee a bench trial for Kevin Seefried and his son Huner Seefried. They have waived their right to a jury trial.
Breitbart reported:
Kevin Seefried and his son Hunter Seefried are accused of entering the Capitol. The senior Seefried was photographed inside the building carrying a Confederate flag.
The AP called McFadden’s acquittal of a New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, who faced misdemeanor charges for illegally entering the Capitol and engaging in disorderly conduct, “a rare blemish on the Justice Department’s record of securing convictions in U.S. Capitol riot cases.”
Martin testified that a police officer waved him into the building.
The AP reported that more than 300 people have pleaded guilty to riot offenses and approximately 100 people have trial dates this year or in 2023. About 800 people total have been charged in the January 6 Capitol riot.
Two hearings have already occurred, the first on June 9 and the second on June 13. The next hearing will be on Wednesday, June 15. The hearings are set to continue throughout the summer and will end in September.
Fox News has said they will not be airing live coverage of the January 6 hearings. CNN, MSNBC, CBS, PBS News Hour, and ABC are all airing the hearings live.
