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January 6 trial’s witness testimony opens with searing Capitol Police audio and emotional testimony

Katelyn Polantz Hannah Rabinowitz

By Katelyn Polantz and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

4 min read

Published 8:29 PM EST, Wed March 2, 2022

In this January 6, 2021, file photo, US Capitol Police scuffle with demonstrators after they broke through security fencing outside the Capitol in Washington.

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Washington CNN —

Searing audio and emotional testimony from the US Capitol Police will be a cornerstone of the first January 6 criminal trial, prosecutors made clear Wednesday on the first day of witness testimony and evidence presentation against a defendant from Texas.

In federal court in Washington, prosecutors unveiled audio recordings of Capitol Police officers calling for help as Trump supporters attacked Capitol Hill. A Capitol Police inspector testifying to the jury broke down as she spoke about the failing police line, then watched videos of the building being breached.

Defendant Guy Reffitt, a member of a right-wing anti-government group in Texas who had stood at the front of the crowd with a bullhorn, is on trial for five charges. He is accused of taking a gun to the Capitol, interfering with two police officers outside the building and threatening his children when he returned home. Reffitt has pleaded not guilty.

The Justice Department has collected hundreds of hours of video for its prosecutions related to January 6, 2021, and in the Reffitt case is also using witnesses to explain what it believes his role was in the broader storming of the Capitol and disruption of Congress.

The prosecutors called Reffitt a leader of the crowd on Wednesday – “the tip of this mob’s spear,” according to prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler.

Guy Reffitt Capitol riot

Related article Judge reverses course and allows press and family member in courtroom for first January 6 trial

Prosecutors played Capitol Police audio recordings during testimony from an officer who had confronted Reffitt at the front of the crowd on the Capitol’s West Terrace. The recordings captured panicked officers calling for help.

“We need every single unit on the Upper West Terrace right now,” one officer shouted in the recordings, which took place just before 2 p.m.

“They’re breaching the Upper West Terrace. All units respond,” a dispatcher responded.

Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhofftestified that she had fired pepper balls at Reffitt as he stood on a railing on the Capitol steps shouting into a megaphone. Reffitt, wearing protective armor, was undeterred, she said.

As the riot escalated, Kerkhoff said, she was “panicked,” screaming that “they’re coming up the stairs” and “we need backup.” She also said she feared the crowd would get into the building, where members of Congress were.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/02/politics/reffitt-january-6-trial-capitol-police-testimony

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>Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhofftestified that she had fired pepper balls at Reffitt as he stood on a railing on the Capitol steps shouting into a megaphone. Reffitt, wearing protective armor, was undeterred, she said.

‘Hard to hear my officers screaming for help’

Later in the day Wednesday, Inspector Monique Moore, who was in charge of the US Capitol Police’s command center, choked up while testifying about the January 6 attack.

“It was hard to hear my officers screaming for help,” she told the jury.

Moore said she was trying to get resources for Capitol Police that day, as they were overwhelmed by the crowd.

“The mood was in disbelief,” she said.

Moore then paused for several seconds, fanning her face briefly, before continuing to speak.

“This was our first time ever seeing anything of such … at least for my 24 years,” she said. “We’ve never seen the actions of individuals who came up to the Capitol with total disregard of the police, the law and democracy.”

Moore testified that she was the one who had called other law enforcement forces, including the US Park Police and the Secret Service, for help.

Prosecutors also played surveillance video that showed Capitol windows from the inside as rioters broke into them and spilled into the building.

“That is the breach of the Capitol,” Moore said.

Many recordings to play at trial

At the start of the trial, prosecutors told the jury they plan to use ample video and audio recordings to prove their case.

They say they also will use Reffitt’s own words against him, by showing the jury a recorded videoconference where the defendant spoke to his right-wing group about the insurrection, along with recordings of a family argument days after the attack and Reffitt’s own recordings on the National Mall as he made threatening comments about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Ripping them out by their hair. Every fking one of them. Dragging them out kicking and fking screaming. I just want to see Pelosi’s head hitting every f**king stair on the way out, and Mitch McConnell too,” prosecutors quoted Reffitt saying, pledging to show several videos in the coming days that captured his statements during the attack and afterward.

Jurors – who include a Walgreens cashier, a person with a second home in the Caribbean, and federal government employees, including one who works on Capitol Hill – appeared to take notes throughout, and especially watched closely as video showed Reffitt at the front of the crowd.

Reffitt’s defense attorney William Welch countered the prosecutors’ outline of the evidence with a three-minute opening statement. He told the jury that Reffitt had never assaulted anyone and was not armed and that any altercation with police where he had been pepper-sprayed outside the Capitol had ended quickly.

The trial is a “rush to judgment,” Welch concluded

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‘I love you, Jackson,' Wylie man tells estranged son after presidential pardon

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned an estimated 1,500 people for offenses that took place at or near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

By NBCDFW Staff • Published January 22, 2025 • Updated on January 22, 2025 at 5:24 pm

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NBC Universal, Inc.

Another North Texan is now out of federal prison, after serving time for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6. This comes after President Trump granted clemency to 1,500 supporters who protested the 2020 election results. Sophia Beausoleil is in the newsroom with more.

A North Texas man sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison after being convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol shared a message for his estranged son after he was released from jail following a pardon by President Donald Trump.

Guy Reffitt of Wylie was the first person to be convicted in the Jan. 6 riot and was among the estimated 1,500 people who received a complete and unconditional pardon on Monday for offenses at or near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

After being released from the D.C. Central Detention Facility, Reffitt spoke to reporters outside, where he thanked the president for his freedom while addressing the strain his arrest and confinement had on his family.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Reffitt was recorded on cameras outside the U.S. Capitol carrying a holstered handgun and wearing a helmet, body armor, and zip-tie handcuffs. According to a court filing, prosecutors said he told fellow militia members that he planned to drag then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the U.S. Capitol building by her ankles “with her head hitting every step on the way down."

A Wylie man made headlines after being arrested for his alleged role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. When Guy Reffitt returned home, the FBI said he threatened his family if they turned him in. For the first time, his family is speaking out about the incident.

DOJ

A Wylie man made headlines after being arrested for his alleged role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. When Guy Reffitt returned home, the FBI said he threatened his family if they turned him in.

After Reffitt returned home to North Texas, his son Jackson said his father threatened him and his sister and said they would be traitors if they reported him to authorities. Jackson testified his father warned them that "traitors get shot" and said he used a cellphone app to secretly record his father boasting about his role in the riot.

Jackson reported his father's behavior to the FBI in December 2020, days before the riot, and later testified he was terrified of his father's threat. Reffitt's daughter Peyton also testified and gave an emotional testimony where she said her father wasn't a threat but that his mental health was the "real issue." As she choked up, her father could be seen to her left, visibly crying.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/wylie-guy-reffitt-pardon-jan-6-jackson/3747933/