WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge on Wednesday convicted a man carrying a Confederate flag and his son on charges of storming the U.S. Capitol together during the January 6, 2021 riots to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential victory of Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden handed down the verdict after hearing two days without a jury testimony about the trial of Kevin Sifrid and his adult son Hunter.
McFadden convicted both Delaware men of a crime: obstruction of official proceedings, a joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College that day.
The judge also convicted Seefrieds of charges of hooliganism and illegal demonstration inside the building. But he acquitted Hunter Seefried on other charges of clearing a piece of glass from a broken Capitol window.
They will remain at large pending a separate sentencing hearing in September.
McFadden, who was nominated for trial by President Donald Trump in 2017, has presided over two previous trials for defendants in the Capitol riots. He acquitted one of all the charges and partially acquitted another.
Widely published photos show Kevin Sifrid carrying a Confederate flag in the Capitol after he and Hunter Sifrid, then 22, entered the building through a broken window.
McFadden dismissed the defense’s argument that Kevin Sifrid never intended to interfere in Congress.
“I find he knew what he was doing,” McFadden said.
The judge described Kevin Siffrid as the “main driver” in their decision to go to Washington on January 6. McFadden said Hunter Sifrid’s guilt on the obstruction charge was a “closer issue”, but the judge eventually ruled that the son was involved in “aggravated conduct” in support of a conviction.
“Hunter Seafried showed a pattern of deception and minimization of action when an FBI agent interviewed him after the riot,” McFadden said.
FBI agents said they had not found any evidence linking Kevin Sifrid or his son to any far-right extremist groups. Kevin Sifrid told an agent that he did not view the Confederate flag as a symbol of racist hatred.
The trial included the first public testimony of Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who was praised for his bravery during the Jan. 6 attack by a mob of Trump supporters. Goodman led a group of rebels away from the Senate Hall while senators and then-Vice President Mike Pence were evacuated. He also ordered Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to turn around and move away from the mob.
Goodman met Kevin Siffrid before the crowd chased the officer up the stairs, a harrowing episode filmed on video. The officer said the older Seefried cursed him and hit him with the main end of his flagpole three or four times without coming into contact with him.
Another Capitol officer who stood in front of the crowd near the Senate hall recalled that Kevin Sifrid asked, “Why are you defending them?”
“I thought he was talking about Congress,” said Officer Brian Morgan.
The Seefried family were not charged with assaulting officers.
None of the defendants testified during the trial.
The father and son traveled to Washington from their home in Laurel, Delaware, to hear Trump’s speech at the January 6 Stop the Theft rally. They were among the first rebels to approach the building near the Senate Wing door, prosecutors said.
After watching other rebels use a police shield and a wooden board to break a window, Hunter Seefried used a gloved fist to clear a piece of glass in one of the broken windows, prosecutors said. But the judge found that two other rebels had destroyed the window before Seefried cleared the piece.
McFadden convicted Seefrieds of four counts of crime: entering or staying in a building or restricted area, behaving disorderly or disturbing the public in a restricted building or sites, disorderly or destructive behavior in a Capitol building or site, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in Capitol Building.
The judge acquitted Hunter Seefried on three other charges: destruction of state property, entering and staying in a building or territory with limited access to physical violence against property, and acts of physical violence in the territory or building of the Capitol.
The Seefrieds, who relinquished their right to jurors, were the first defendants in the Capitol riots to stand trial for a felony.
In April, McFadden acquitted New Mexico resident Matthew Martin on charges of entering the Capitol illegally and engaging in hooliganism after entering the building.
In March, McFadden acquitted New Mexico elected official Cowie Griffin of hooliganism but convicted him of illegally entering limited Capitol areas. McFadden is due to convict Griffin on Friday.
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Also on Wednesday, the trial of Jesus Rivera of Pensacola, Florida, who is charged with four riots, ended. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kolar-Kotelli said he intends to issue a written verdict later this week, according to Guy Womak, Rivera’s lawyer.
McFadden criticized the work of prosecutors in Capitol riot cases. He suggested that the Department of Justice was unfairly harsher on those accused of Capitol riots than those arrested in protests against police brutality and racial injustice following the 2020 assassination of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
More than 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 attack. Jurors unanimously convicted five defendants of rioting in the Capitol on all charges. More than 300 other defendants have pleaded guilty to riot-related crimes, most notably crimes. Approximately 100 others have trial dates in 2022 or 2023.
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