{"id":1423981,"date":"2022-04-09T10:41:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T14:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1423981"},"modified":"2022-04-09T10:41:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T14:41:22","slug":"judge-acquits-capitol-hill-protester-because-police-stood-aside-and-let-him-enter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-acquits-capitol-hill-protester-because-police-stood-aside-and-let-him-enter\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge acquits Capitol Hill protester because police stood aside and let him enter"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjudge-acquits-capitol-hill-protester-because-police-stood-aside-and-let-him-enter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1423981&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In a stunning repudiation of Democratic politicians and a news media howling about terrorism and \u201cinsurrection,\u201d a federal judge on April 6 found that a New Mexico man \u201creasonably believed\u201d that police were standing aside and allowing him into the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 protest.<\/p>\n<p>Defendant Matthew Martin, who went inside the Capitol building carrying his Trump flag, was found not guilty of all charges and released.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden said that although prosecutors argued Martin must have known he wasn\u2019t allowed on Capitol grounds or inside the building, that was outweighed by Martin\u2019s \u201cplausible\u201d belief that he had permission because officers didn\u2019t try to stop him from entering.<\/p>\n<p>McFadden called Martin\u2019s conduct \u201cminimal and non-serious\u201d despite his having ventured into the Capitol on Jan. 6 with hundreds of other Americans. The judge characterized Martin as a \u201csilent observer\u201d at the event who didn\u2019t crowd the police, protest, or even wave the \u201cTrump\u201d flag that he was carrying. Martin was described as \u201cquiet\u201d and \u201corderly\u201d as he walked inside the building, filmed video inside the Rotunda as a member of the media would, and didn\u2019t appear to interfere with officers as he filmed a clash with rioters later in the afternoon on a north terrace of the building.<\/p>\n<p>Other judges presiding over Jan. 6 cases aren\u2019t bound by McFadden\u2019s findings, but future defendants may now point to his analysis of what it would take to find a nonviolent participant in Capitol protest guilty of federal crimes.<\/p>\n<p>McFadden, confirmed under former president Donald Trump, has proven skeptical about the Justice Department\u2019s charging decisions in Jan. 6 cases. In other cases he has questioned whether prosecutors were \u201ceven-handed\u201d in their charges against people involved with the Capitol invasion as compared to previous protests, a comment that prompted public disagreement from a colleague and fellow U.S. district judge.<\/p>\n<p>Martin testified in his own defense and the case was decided at a bench trial and not by a jury. He was unapologetic about being part of the crowd that flooded into the building as lawmakers gathered to certify the results of the irregularity-ridden 2020 election and put Joe Biden in the White House amid concrete barriers, wire fencing and hundreds of armed troops.<\/p>\n<p>He described Jan. 6 as \u201cmagical\u201d even if some \u201cbad things\u201d had happened, and said that he didn\u2019t regret coming to Washington although he might better have stayed away from the Capitol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a stunning repudiation of Democratic politicians and a news media howling about terrorism and \u201cinsurrection,\u201d a federal judge on April 6 found that a New Mexico man \u201creasonably believed\u201d that police were standing aside and allowing him into the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1423981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}