GOP Arizona congressional candidate Jeff Zink attended the "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, 2021, along with his 32-year-old son Ryan, who was acting as his videographer. Neither of them entered the Capitol that day, but Ryan faces up to 22 years in prison after being convicted in September of one felony and two misdemeanors.
The Zinks' attorney, Roger Roots, said Ryan's case "one of the weakest we've ever dealt with" since it was almost entirely based on what Ryan said rather than what he did, Newsweek reported.
"He was just walking around outside the Capitol and speaking into his device. On that basis, he was convicted of a serious crime," Roots said. But a jury agreed with prosecutors who said Ryan used language that proved his intent to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power after Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Speaking to Newsweek, Ryan said the inflammatory language he used was just him "drawing people into the story, saying what already happened and using the language I used in sports."
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"'We're going to win. We're going to do this and that.' It was the wrong terminology, but I drew on the experience I had," he said.
But prosecutors point to social media posts he made the day after the riot, where he made statements like, "They are trying to charge us with sedition they will have to kill me I'm not coming quietly." The following day, he said, "I'm afraid the time for rioting is over better clean those guns and invest in some level 4 armor."
The Zinks and their attorney maintain his rhetoric is protected free speech.
As Newsweek points out, Jeff is running as a Republican in Arizona's District 3 to unseat Democrat Ruben Gallego, who defeated him in 2022. Now, he's framing his campaign as a fight against a "political prosecution and persecution scheme" that he says was a conspiracy against him by the DOJ and the Biden administration.
"I'm going after the judicial system that has gone after my son and hundreds more like him," Jeff told Newsweek. "It's horrifying what's happening to him. He was with me 100 percent of the time. I testified to that under oath. I just didn't say anything live on social media."
Their attorney showed the jury video that he claims proves police removed barricades that caused the Zinks to think they were allowed to enter into the restricted area that led to the charges.
"The Zinks did not have a perfect view but they reasonably assumed the barricades were removed with the approval of the cops," said Roots.
From Newsweek: "While the Zinks weren't inside the Capitol (and prosecutors dropped an initial charge claiming that Ryan was), they testified that they were close enough to hear snippets of the conversation between the protesters and the officers. Therefore, Roots argued, when people began moving forward, the Zinks assumed they had permission to do so, and none of the officers told them they were in a restricted area."
Read the full report at Newsweek.
