CNN
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Guy Reffitt, who gained attention for the Jan. 6 riot, appeared in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to celebrate with his wife and supporters who have been awaiting his release from federal custody for months.
But he shouldn’t have been walking free, even after President Donald Trump pardoned him and more than 1,200 others for crimes related to Jan. 6 on Monday.
That’s because Reffitt was charged three years ago with illegally possessing a gun silencer. A federal judge in Texas ordered him to remain in prison pending trial in the case, in which he maintains his innocence.
After Trump’s pardon, his lawyers filed documents with the court to persuade a judge to release him pending trial. The judge had not yet decided whether to release Reffitt.
Contacted by CNN later this week, Reffitt’s own lawyers and even some federal authorities believed Reffitt was and should remain in custody.
Davilyn Walston, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, said Friday that Reffitt should remain in custody on the firearms violation charges. Walston noted that the charges against Reffitt are still pending and prosecutors are still pursuing the gun case.
However, Reffitt was released soon after President Trump pardoned him.
Should President Trump pardon his father on January 6th? Mother and son disagree
The situation highlights how the Capitol riot investigation has turned up additional criminal proceedings against some defendants, including firearms charges against Reffitt, but Trump’s charges against defendants on Jan. 6 A sweeping presidential pardon could complicate matters.
It was unclear where Reffitt was as of Friday. His wife, Nicole Reffitt, did not respond to CNN’s inquiries Friday morning.
When contacted by CNN on Thursday and told that Reffitt was no longer in prison, the gun lawyer responded, “That’s news to me.”
“To be honest, I thought he still was. I spoke to his family on Tuesday,” said Reffitt’s Dallas-based attorney, James Joseph Mongaras Jr.
Clinton Broden, the attorney representing Reffitt in the Jan. 6 lawsuit, also told CNN on Friday that he had “no idea” about Reffitt’s situation and said he had not spoken to Reffitt since his release. He said he had not.
Reffitt’s gun case comes 10 days after the Capitol riot, when he is accused of possessing a black silencer without markings or identification.
Mr. Reffitt was the first rioter to be convicted by a jury of carrying a gun to Washington, D.C., on January 6, leading rioters to rally toward the Capitol, and carrying a handgun into a federally restricted area. He also threatened his son and daughter when he returned to Texas after the riot. Riots broke out, leading to further obstruction of justice convictions in the Jan. 6 incident.
Fearing for his safety, Guy Reffitt’s son Jackson Reffitt eventually turned himself in to authorities, and several of Guy Reffitt’s children testified against him in court in Washington, D.C. A federal judge sentenced him to more than six years in prison.
Still, his daughters and wife have been outspoken in their support of him and the other January 6 detainees.
The day after Reffitt’s pardon on January 6, his attorney, Mongaras, asked a Texas federal court to reconsider its decision to keep him in custody.
“Mr. Reffitt is not a flight risk or a danger to the community,” his attorney wrote in a letter to the court. Instead of going to prison, Mongaras will remain on electronic monitoring, home confinement or court-ordered curfew if a Texas-based judge deems it appropriate while awaiting trial. He suggested to the court that it could be done.
The Justice Department has not yet responded in court. A judge has set a hearing on the matter for next week.
Some federal authorities believed Mr. Reffitt was still being held in a local prison in Oklahoma because of a pending case, according to people familiar with the situation. However, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Penitentiary confirmed to CNN that he was not at the prison on Friday.
The Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate search site noted that Reffitt was “not in BOP custody” as of Tuesday. BOP spokesman Donald Murphy said President Trump’s pardon proclamation specifies that inmates in federal prisons should be released immediately.
“Our interpretation is that if they were on our list and in prison, they should have been released,” Murphy wrote in an email to CNN.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement earlier this week that inmates pardoned on Jan. 6 “have been or will be released unless charged in an unrelated incident on Jan. 6.” Ta. The agency did not comment on Mr. Reffitt.
After his release, Mr. Reffitt arrived in Washington, D.C., by Wednesday and spoke to his supporters outside the D.C. jail, where they were awaiting the release of other Capitol riot defendants whose Jan. 6 federal trials have not yet concluded. I visited.
He arrived with his wife, Nicole. Nicole has become a celebrity among Jan. 6 supporters, arriving in D.C. a few months ago to maintain vigil outside of prison, even as her husband is being transferred in custody across the country. I emigrated.
Nicole Reffitt wore a Trump hat on Wednesday as Stewart, the founder of the right-wing extremist group Oath Keepers, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and newly freed because of Trump. She shared a photo online of her husband standing next to Ms Rose. generosity.
CNN also spoke to Guy and Nicole Reffitt outside the D.C. prison on Wednesday.
When Guy Reffitt asked him what he would say to Trump, he said on camera: “Thank you very much, and as you know, I made a promise and I kept my promise.”
CNN’s Kim Berryman contributed reporting.
