On Tuesday, the federal appeals court in Washington, DC upheld the conviction of the Cowboys for Trump founder, Couy Griffin, who entered the restricted area of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a case that is among a handful that tested the foundational approach the Justice Department took to prosecute hundreds of Capitol rioters, CNN reports. The appeal centered around an interpretation of a federal law enacted to better protect the President and other national leaders, and whether or not the law mandated that rioters had knowledge the Secret Service was protecting then-Vice President Mike Pence inside when they breached the area. The court held that it did not. “The basis of the Secret Service’s authority to prevent access to designated areas for the safety of its protectees … need not be in the mind of the trespasser,” DC Circuit Judge Nina Pillard wrote in the opinion Tuesday.
The decision has been long-awaited since it was argued last December by those handling cases coming through the DC federal court. It also strengthens federal protection the Secret Service can offer, by defining more clearly the law around trespassing in areas where public officials are being protected. The three-judge panel had one dissenter, Judge Greg Katsas, a Trump appointee. Judge Judith Rogers, a Clinton appointee, sided with Pillard, an Obama appointee, in the majority opinion. In his dissent, Katsas said he believed prosecutors should have had to prove Griffin knew the seriousness of the protected area where he was trespassing and that Pence could be there, in addition to proving that he knew he was crossing into a prohibited area. “Needless to say, a trespass that threatens the life or safety of the President or Vice President is substantially more culpable than a simple trespass consisting of nothing more than knowingly entering an area ‘posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted,’” Katsas wrote.
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