Reffitt, a 49-year-old from Wylie, faces up to 60 years in prison.
, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and said it had been a mistake to label the riots a “violent terrorist attack,” which he had called them consistently in the year after the Capitol breach. Cruz was a key figure on Jan. 6 as he led an effort in the Senate to delay the certification vote.
“He’s not going to say, ‘I spent four days driving and three nights in hotels to be incapacitated in five minutes without doing anything,’” Welch told the jury in closing arguments. “This case has been a rush to judgment, most of it based on bragging and a lot of hype. Be the grownups in the courtroom: Separate the facts from the hype.”
He was eventually brought down by a blast of pepper spray, but prosecutors said his failed charge fired up the crowd, which he waved onward as he hunched over, reeling from the effects of the spray. They showed still images from video of that moment, Reffitt’s right arm extended over his head, lifting up the blue jacket he was wearing just enough to show what appeared to be a handgun in a holster.
“The entire house of legislation has committed unthinkable acts on our people,” Guy Reffitt wrote in one of the messages he sent to his family group chat. “We have had enough.”Jackson Reffitt would later record his father in their family dining room after returning home from D.C., boasting about his actions that day.