(WASHINGTON) — Chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters Thursday that the Jan. 6 committee will “soon” invite Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and an avid Trump supporter, to speak with the panel.
“We think it’s time that we would, at some point, invite her to come talk to the committee,” Thompson said in the wake of revelations about emails that sources said she exchanged with right-wing lawyer John Eastman, a former clerk to Justice Thomas.
The committee has said Eastman was the mastermind behind the legal scheme to fraudulently overturn the election, in part by pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject some states’ legitimate electoral votes on Jan. 6 when Congress met to certify the election results.
Thompson didn’t give any details about public or private testimony and when the committee would make a formal invitation.
An aide to Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney said she agrees it is time to formally ask Ginni Thomas to speak with the committee.
It is still unclear when the committee would ask Thomas to come and in what form they would request to speak with her.
ABC News has reached out to her lawyer for comment.
Sources confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that the committee has come into possession of emails between Eastman and Ginni Thomas.
The existence of the emails was first reported by the Washington Post.
It’s unclear what the communications between Eastman and Ginni Thomas say, but Eastman has fought the committee’s document requests in court.
A federal judge has ruled twice that he must turn some of these documents over and the committee has just recently begun receiving the second tranche of them.
Investigators are discussing next steps and deciding how much of a focus they should put on Thomas and her communications with people like Eastman and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows during its public hearings.
(WASHINGTON) — The Jan. 6 committee is holding its third public hearing of the month Thursday with the focus on the pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The committee says it will detail efforts from then-President Donald Trump and his allies before and on Jan. 6 to get Pence to reject electoral votes Congress was certifying — as part of what it says was a plot to overturn the presidential election.
Please check back for updates. All times Eastern:
Jun 16, 10:29 am
Thursday to focus on Trump pressuring Pence
The House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol will convene its third public hearing of the month at 1 p.m. with members set to focus on how former President Donald Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence with “relentless effort” to intervene to help overturn the 2020 election.
“President Trump had no factual basis for what he was doing and he had been told it was illegal,” Vice Chair Liz Cheney said in a video teasing Thursday’s hearing. “Despite this, President Trump plotted with a lawyer named John Eastman and others to overturn the outcome of the election on Jan. 6.”
A key component of evidence is never-before-seen photos of Pence and his family taken by an official White House photographer on Jan. 6 itself. In one — obtained by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl ahead of the hearing — second lady Karen Pence is seen hurriedly closing the curtains of the vice president’s ceremonial office at the Capitol, apparently fearful the mob outside could see where they were.
Last week, at the prime-time kickoff to this round of hearings, Cheney teased testimony to come around Trump’s awareness of rioters’ “hang Mike Pence” chants. Quoting from witness testimony, Cheney said Trump suggested as the attack was underway: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it.”
(WASHINGTON) — Top negotiators on a bipartisan gun safety framework huddled behind closed doors for several hours Wednesday evening to try to solve remaining differences on the package, but the group’s effort to expedite passage of an agreement is stalled, at least for the moment.
Since a group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans announced an agreement on a framework of proposals aimed at curbing gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators has been working to speedily turn the list of ideas into a bill ready for consideration on the Senate floor next week. But two provisions, one focused on incentivizing states to implement violence prevention programs, and another dealing with closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” are now plaguing negotiations, chief Republican negotiator John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday.
“If we can settle these two issues, I think we’re on our way, but I am concerned now given the time it takes and the need to complete our work really by tomorrow that we’ve got to settle these issues,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday morning.
When negotiators emerged from their meeting Wednesday evening, they noted some progress, but said discussions on these two major issues will need to continue Thursday.
“We did make progress,” Cornyn said. “But we’re not there yet.”
“We are continuing to make progress,” Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic negotiator, said after Cornyn’s departure. “This is a very tight timeline to land some very serious issues.”
Senators are feeling the time crunch as they try to meet an ambitious deadline to turn their announced framework into law. If senators wish to see a vote on their package before the Senate departs for a two-week recess on June 27, they need to turn their framework agreement into bill text that other Senators can review and vote on.
Challenges over how to create a program to support or incentivize state violence prevention programs — including red flag laws designed to temporarily seize weapons from those deemed by a court to be a danger to themselves or others — have been bubbling up in the Republican conference since the proposed framework was announced.
According to Cornyn, negotiators are struggling over whether funds made available to states to support red flag programs should also be available to states with other types of violence prevention programs, like veterans’ courts, mental health courts and assisted outpatient treatment programs.
Some Republicans have long struggled with red flag programs out of concern that these provisions violate the due process rights of those accused of being a threat. During a closed-door Republican conference meeting on Tuesday, several Republican lawmakers outside of the negotiating group told ABC News they had concerns about provisions supporting red flag laws.
Cornyn, according to numerous participants, repeatedly assured his colleagues that there would be no federal mandate to implement the laws. He also echoed an earlier speech in which he said their impending legislation would ensure that any state that does take federal funding would be required to ensure the due process rights of anyone potentially falling under a red flag order, also called an “extreme risk protection order.”
“Most of the discussion was around the red flag issue, and that is my greatest concern as well that we do it right,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, on Tuesday. “I think we’re more interested in the red wave than we are in red flags, quite honestly, as Republicans and we have a pretty good opportunity to do that,” seemingly a reference to the possibility of Republicans taking control of Congress this fall.
Still, Democrats are optimistic there’s a solution on the red flag issue. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT., who has been leading the group’s efforts on red flag laws, said Wednesday that negotiators have already been in discussion on a “very doable” solution.
“We need to support every possible way to intervene in crisis before they produce violence. And red flag laws need investment of hundreds of millions of dollars for them as an incentive but also to implement them and at the same time we can have a variety of other crisis intervention mode that help save lives,” Blumenthal said.
There’s also been issues over efforts to modify law to close “boyfriend loophole.” Under current law, unmarried partners who commit domestic violence are not barred from purchasing a firearm, though spouses who perpetrate domestic violence are.
Negotiators are struggling with how to appropriately define a “boyfriend” or partner in this language to include those who are unmarried.
Democrats earlier Wednesday sought to downplay Cornyn’s concern about the two outstanding issues.
Democratic negotiator Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, chalked both the boyfriend loophole issue and the red-flag law snag up to “modest negotiation challenges,” noting that issues always arise when frameworks are being turned to legislative bill text.
“All we have to do is write text that is true to the framework,” Murphy said. “You know, we all made a commitment to each other that we were supportive of the framework and then we’re going to write that into law. I have continued confidence that we can write that framework into text and we can have that for our colleagues next week.”
While negotiators continue to work on legislative text, there is a growing contingent of Republicans who have signaled willingness to supportive the framework.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said he is “comfortable” with the bipartisan gun safety reform framework and will be “supportive” of the bill “if the legislation ends up reflecting what the framework indicates.”
“My view of the framework if it leads to a piece of legislation I intend to support it I think it is progress for the country and I think the bipartisan group has done the best they can to get total support and the background check enhancement for that age group I think is a step in the right direction,” McConnell said.
And other members in his conference are also signaling willingness to support the proposal.
“I just need to see the text…want to see the details. The framework I think looks good, but it’s going to be what the details are,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, on Tuesday.
Getting text to members before the weekend will be key, Cornyn said. And he’s still hopeful it can be done.
“We need to tie a nice thick ribbon around everything,” Cornyn told reporters. “Because we have to have an end to this to write the text in order to be able to share it with colleagues and provide it to the majority leader to put it on the floor.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 select committee on Wednesday released video footage of GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk leading constituents on a tour around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5 — that included a nearby office building but not the Capitol itself — and it claimed that one of the participants marched to the Capitol the next day and made “detailed” threats against members of Congress.
The committee’s move comes after Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a letter the tour was not suspicious, although the committee said the footage raises questions because it appears to show several participants taking photos of the stairways and tunnel systems connecting the Capitol to members’ office buildings.
“Based on our review of surveillance video, social media activity, and witness accounts, we understand you led a tour group through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. That group stayed for several hours, despite the complex being closed to the public on that day,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote.
“Surveillance footage shows a tour of approximately ten individuals led by you to areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol,” he continued. “Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”
At the same time, the letter from the committee does not suggest that anyone on the tour entered the Capitol that day or has been charged with wrongdoing.
Loudermilk heatedly denied any wrongdoing in a statement he tweeted soon after, accusing the committee of a “smear campaign” and claiming “no one” in his Jan. 5 tour group has been “criminally charged” in relation to Jan. 6.
[1/5] The Capitol Police already put this false accusation to bed, yet the Committee is undermining the Capitol Police and doubling down on their smear campaign, releasing so-called evidence of a tour of the House Office Buildings, which I have already publicly addressed. https://t.co/yqIpQ6jSG9
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) June 15, 2022
In his letter made public Tuesday, Manger told the top Republican on the House Administration Committee that there was “no evidence” that Loudermilk gave “reconnaissance” tours before the Jan. 6 attack.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol had requested information from Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican, suggesting in a May letter that he may be linked to a tour through parts of the Capitol on the day before the attack.
Manger told Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, that no such tours were conducted and that Loudermilk was giving a tour to constituents.
“As I’ve said since the Jan. 6 Committee made their baseless accusation about me to the media, I never gave a tour of the Capitol on Jan 5, 2021 and a small group visiting their congressman is in no way a suspicious activity,” Loudermilk said in a tweet Tuesday. “Now the Capitol Police have confirmed this fact.”
Rep. Mickie Sherill, a New Jersey Democrat, alleged in a January 2021 letter that she witnessed tours being conducted the day before Jan. 6.
“The tours being conducted on Tuesday, January 5, were a noticeable and concerning departure from the procedures in place in March of 2020 that limited the number of visitors to the Capitol,” Sherill wrote. “These tours were so concerning they were reported to the Sargent (sic) at Arms on January 5.”
Manger’s letter says that the group of 15 people entered the Rayburn House Office building and was met by a Loudermilk staffer and then went to the congressman’s office and then to the Cannon House Office Building basement.
“At no time did the group appear in any tunnels that would have led them to the U.S. Capitol. In addition, the tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol were posted with USCP officers and admittance to the U.S. Capitol without a Member of Congress was not permitted on January 5, 2021,” the letter said.
Manger says officers are trained to see anything suspicious and what individuals did on Loudermilk’s tour was not.
“There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,” he writes. “We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious.”
(WASHINGTON) — A rare U.S. military ground raid in northwestern Syria has captured a top ISIS leader, according to the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition.
A U.S. defense official said there were no injuries to U.S. military personnel or aircraft involved in the raid.
“Coalition forces detained a senior Daesh leader during an operation in Syria June 16,” Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement. “The detained individual was assessed to be an experienced bomb maker and facilitator who became one of the group’s top leaders in Syria.”
“The mission was meticulously planned to minimize the risk of collateral damage, particularly any potential harm to civilians,” it said. “There were no civilians harmed during the operation nor any damage to Coalition aircraft or assets.”
U.S. military ground operations in northwestern Syria have targeted top ISIS leaders, most notably Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who killed himself during an October, 2019 raid near the border with Turkey that was carried out by the elite Delta Force.
His successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, detonated himself with an explosion during a similar raid in February this year.
“Coalition forces will continue to hunt the remnants of Daesh wherever they hide to ensure their enduring defeat,” Operation Inherent Resolve added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi said Wednesday she was “very disappointed” in President Joe Biden’s plan to meet with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the U.S. has determined ordered the operation that killed Khashoggi in 2018.
“Mr. Biden, you’ll soon visit Saudi Arabia as president, where you’ll meet with Jamal’s heartless executer (sic), dishonoring yourself and Jamal by meeting MBS,” said Hatice Cengiz in a video message posted by Democracy for the Arab World Now, a nonprofit Khashoggi founded in 2018.
Cengiz asked Biden to press for more answers in the death of her fiance when he meets with Mohammed during a visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, next month.
“If you have to put oil over the principles, and expediency over values,” she says, “can you at least ask, ‘Where is Jamal’s body? Doesn’t he deserve a proper burial? And what happened to his killers?” she implored.
As a candidate, Biden once pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over its human rights abuses. Soon after he took office last year, his administration released a U.S. intelligence report that assessed Mohammed had ordered the operation that resulted in Khashoggi’s murder in Istanbul. Khashoggi was a Washington Post columnist who lived in Virginia.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News that she could not say whether Biden would specifically ask the questions raised by Cengiz but said the president was a “straight shooter.”
“I cannot read out right now or lay out what the agenda is going to be, or what the conversations are going to be,” she said. “But I can assure you, I can assure you that when it comes to human rights, this is something that is a priority for this president.”
She said “just hearing” Cengiz’s comments was “devastating.”
“Clearly, our hearts go out to her and her pain that she’s currently going through,” Jean-Pierre said.
Cengiz’s comments come in the wake of the White House’s announcement that Biden will visit Saudi Arabia in July.
The anticipated trip has drawn ire for the potential message a diplomatic trip could send to a country accused of involvement in the murder of Khashoggi, as well as numerous human rights violations.
But the president is also struggling to reign in sky-high inflation and gas prices, a political liability.
Saudi Arabia, a major oil producer, chairs the Gulf Cooperation Council grouping of oil-producing Arab nations. Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration have both said energy security will be part of discussions during Biden’s visit.
Cengiz also made a personal appeal to Biden.
“President Biden, I know you have experienced the unimaginable pain of losing a loved one,” she said.
Cengiz also tweeted Wednesday that she was “very disappointed” to hear about Biden’s Saudi Arabia travel plans. “A US resident was murdered for defending democracy and human rights in the country and now Biden is legitimizing this action,” she wrote.
Cengiz recently criticized professional golfers who joined LIV Golf, the Saudi Arabian-backed competition that’s drawn some of the biggest names in golf to the league.
“If they still carry on and play as if everything is normal, then they should be banned from playing in the world’s major tournaments,” she said in an email, according to reporting by USA TODAY Sports.
The White House has said Biden plans to discuss “a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues,” in Saudi Arabia including the Saudi truce with Yemen, and “deterring threats from Iran.”
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker on Wednesday acknowledged he has a 10-year-old boy, about whom he hasn’t spoken publicly.
The revelation that Walker has a younger son was first reported Tuesday by The Daily Beast and confirmed by Walker’s campaign.
The issue of Walker’s involvement as a parent has brought renewed focus to the fact that Walker has repeatedly talked about the importance of being an active father and, in particular, has said, “the fatherless home is a major, major problem” for Black people. It is, however, unclear what role Walker has played in the life of his 10-year-old son.
He also has an older son, Christian, with his first wife.
A court order obtained by ABC News shows Walker admitted in 2013 to being the younger boy’s father after the boy’s mother filed a paternity petition that April.
In a statement on Wednesday, Walker’s campaign manager, Scott Paradise, pushed back on the idea that the boy was being hidden.
“Herschel had a child years ago when he wasn’t married. He’s supported the child and continues to do so. He’s proud of his children,” Paradise said. “To suggest that Herschel is ‘hiding’ the child because he hasn’t used him in his political campaign is offensive and absurd.”
Paradise pointed to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s court fight with his ex-wife over their child custody arrangement. (Walker hopes to unseat Warnock in November.)
A spokeswoman for Warnock, Meredith Brasher, told ABC News he is a “devoted father who is proud to continue to co-parent his two children as he works for the people of Georgia.”
Walker, a businessman and college football legend in Georgia who easily won the Republican nomination in the state’s primary in May, has previously faced scrutiny about his personal life. That includes allegations of violent behavior and his diagnosis with dissociative identity disorder, or D.I.D., a complex mental health condition characterized by some severe and potentially debilitating symptoms.
Walker has denied some of the past allegations of domestic violence, physical threats and stalking; others he claimed not to remember.
His campaign previously referred ABC News to his 2008 memoir, which detailed his D.I.D. diagnosis, and a 2008 interview he did with ABC News in which he discussed its effects on his first marriage.
ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman, Pete Madden, Rick Klein, Stephanie Lorenzo and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The California man arrested last week near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home has been indicted on a charge of attempted assassination.
The federal grand jury on Wednesday formally accused 26-year-old Nicholas Roske, of Simi Valley, of attempting to kill Kavanaugh.
According to the indictment, prosecutors will also seek to have Roske forfeit various property if convicted, including the firearms and other equipment that authorities said he carried on him at the time of his arrest on June 8.
Roske was previously charged, via criminal complaint, with attempted murder for allegedly making threats against Kavanaugh and showing up armed to Kavanaugh’s Maryland home.
He was angry over the recent mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent submitted last week in support of the criminal complaint.
Roske arrived to Kavanaugh’s home early on June 8 wearing black clothes and carrying a backpack, according to the affidavit. A Glock 17 pistol, two magazines, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light and duct tape were inside his bag, according to the affidavit.
He was arrested “without incident” after allegedly calling authorities to tell them he was suicidal and wanted to kill Kavanaugh, police have said.
According to the affidavit against him, “Roske stated that he’d been thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided he would kill the Supreme Court Justice after finding the Justice’s Montgomery County address on the internet.”
During an appearance in U.S. District Court later on June 8, Roske told Judge Timothy Sullivan that he thought he had a “reasonable understanding” of the attempted murder charge, though he told the court he wasn’t thinking clearly and was on doctor-prescribed medication.
When asked if he could continue, he said, “I have a clear enough understanding” of the court proceedings.
Roske agreed to remain in custody until a preliminary hearing that was scheduled for June 22. However, he will likely face a formal arraignment now that prosecutors have secured a new indictment.
He remains in custody in Maryland. An attorney for him did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, Congress on Tuesday approved a bill increasing security for Supreme Court justices’ families amid new threats to the high court — which has also seen renewed protests by advocates ahead of major opinions on polarizing issues including gun rights and abortion access.
(WASHINGTON) — New photos obtained exclusively by ABC News show former Vice President Mike Pence and his family in hiding after rioters broke into the Capitol and he was evacuated from the Senate floor.
ABC News is publishing the images for the first time on the eve of the House Jan. 6 committee’s hearing Thursday focused on former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Pence.
In one, Pence can be seen with members of his family – second lady Karen Pence, his brother, Rep. Greg Pence and his daughter – in the vice president’s ceremonial office just steps from the Senate floor.
Taken just minutes after the mob had breached the Capitol and as Pence and his family were evacuated from chamber by his Secret Service detail, the photo shows Karen Pence hurriedly closing the curtains in the room, as her daughter looks on with fear.
According to a source who was in the room, the second lady could see rioters outside the Capitol, so she closed the curtains, worried that the attackers would see her and her family.
The photo was taken after the mob had already breached the Capitol, some of them chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”
The photos were taken by the former vice president’s official photographer, Myles Cullen, who was with Pence throughout the day and night of Jan. 6.
While they were previously described in “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” they have never before been made public.
Minutes later, Pence and his family were rushed downstairs to a loading dock beneath the Capitol complex.
In another White House photo obtained exclusively by ABC News, you can see Pence after he returned to the Capitol with his daughter — working on the speech he would give when the joint session of Congress reconvened to certify the election of Joe Biden.
The White House
As seen in another photo, Pence returned to the House chamber later that night, to preside as Congress successfully certified Biden’s victory.
“Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the swift efforts of U.S. Capitol Police, federal, state and local law enforcement, the violence was quelled. The Capitol is secured, and the people’s work continues,” Pence later said in his remarks from the Senate dais.
(WASHINGTON) — A father and son who were among the first of the rioters to enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, learned their fate Wednesday afternoon after a bench trial this week on federal charges they tried to block Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Kevin and Hunter Seefried, of Delaware, were both found guilty of five counts: obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting; entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building or grounds; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
They will be sentenced in September.
On the most serious count, obstructing an official proceeding, they face a maximum of 20 years’ in prison.
They chose to have a bench trial, presided over by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.
While prosecutors said Kevin and Hunter wanted to break into the Capitol during the joint session of Congress along with the larger pro-Trump mob, their defense attorneys argued the two were not there to disrupt the electoral process.
Kevin carried with him a large Confederate battle flag — which prosecutors called a “symbol of violent opposition” — that he brought from his Delaware home as he breached the complex.
He was captured in photographs that later circulated widely and helped lead to his arrest after, authorities have said, his son talked to someone at work about being at the Capitol.
Prosecutors said Hunter was one of the first people to illegally enter the Capitol after a pro-Trump rally near the White House earlier that day. He was seen in viral videos breaking a window with his hand to enter the building. Hunter faces three additional charges of destruction of government property.
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman — lauded by many for his efforts to keep the rioters away from Vice President Mike Pence and the evacuating members of Congress — was a key witness at the Seefrieds’ trial, having encountered both of them in the Capitol.
Goodman testified in court on Monday, describing the clashes between the mob and police as like “something out of medieval times” and saying that after he ran into Kevin Seefried inside the Capitol, the latter tried to hit him with the end of his flagpole three or four times.
Kevin was “very angry, screaming,” Goodman testified.
Hunter “was just disobeying commands,” Goodman said.
While Goodman was at the Capitol during the riot, he was hit with bear spray and had objects thrown at him by the crowd, including an apple that struck him in his head, he said.
Goodman, who served during the Iraq War, said: “I’ve never seen something like that before.”
He said that he retreated to a makeshift triage to rinse his face but that the spray “had a pretty bad effect on me.” He threw up several times before heading back outside the Capitol to continue assisting colleagues against the mob.
Later, he returned inside and came face-to-face with Kevin, who was carrying his battle flag. Goodman said that Kevin repeatedly tried to strike him with the end of the flagpole and that he could hear people scream, “Where are they counting the votes?” and, “Where are the members at?”
Goodman called on rioters to “get back” and “get out” as they came closer to him and he felt confined, he testified. He said Kevin told him, “We’re thousands, you’re just one,” adding, “We’re ready for war.”
Goodman told the court that he feared for his safety, especially after noticing a teardrop on tattoo on Kevin’s face, which Goodman felt was synonymous with someone who had previously committed murder.
“I was just outnumbered,” he testified.
The defense worked to undercut Goodman’s testimony, arguing that he may have “innocently misremembered” and that he was focusing on more violent rioters.
Neither of the Seefrieds is accused of assaulting police.
The prosecution, however, said that Goodman was no novice to chaotic environments and the Seefrieds had corroborated his testimony during FBI interviews days after Jan. 6, when Kevin admitted that he motioned toward Goodman with his flag.
