A judge will allow an accused Capitol rioter to cross-examine Secret Service agents about precisely where Mike Pence was during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Couy Griffin, the leader of Cowboys for Trump, argues that Pence left Capitol grounds when he was evacuated, and U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden will allow him to question Secret Service agents about the former vice president's location in a bench trial scheduled to start Monday, reported Politico.
“Whether the Vice President was present on the Capitol grounds is … an essential question in Griffin’s prosecution,” ruled McFadden, a Donald Trump appointeee. “[T]o mount a meaningful defense Griffin must be allowed to test the veracity of the Government’s contention that Vice President Pence was on the Capitol grounds during the relevant period.”
Prosecutors say Griffin entered the restricted area after Pence's evacuation, and he then scaled a lower outer wall and had someone record him calling for the vice president to overturn Trump's election loss.
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“Griffin spent over an hour perched on the front railing of the inaugural stage being filmed by [Matthew] Struck,” the Department of Justice argued. “During this time, Griffin joined those around him in chanting ‘We . . . the people!,’ and later shouted through a bullhorn, waiving [sic] his arms and asking the crowd below to kneel and listen as he led them in prayer.”
The case could impact prosecutions for hundreds of other Trump supporters charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, a misdemeanor that carries a one-year prison term, but prosecutors say Pence's location does not matter because the law requires him to be within a Secret Service-protected zone or plan to return.
Prosecutors also expressed concern that questioning Secret Service agents about Pence's exact location could endanger Vice President Kamala Harris -- who was erroneously listed as present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in charging documents against Griffin.
“The Government has never explained how it got such a basic fact so wrong for so long,” McFadden wrote in his order. “Presumably, it was relying on representations — and in felony cases, grand jury testimony — of Secret Service personnel. Given all that, Griffin may probe the Government’s evidence as to the location of Vice President Pence.”
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