Man, son convicted in Captiol riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday convicted a Confederate flag-toting man and his son of charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol together during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
U.S. District Judge Trevor Mcfadden delivered the verdict from the bench after hearing two days of testimony without a jury for the trial of Kevin Seefried and his adult son, Hunter.
Mcfadden convicted both Delaware men of a felony count: obstruction of an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College that day.
The judge also convicted the Seefrieds of misdemeanor charges that they engaged in disorderly conduct and illegally demonstrated inside the building. But he acquitted Hunter Seefried of other misdemeanor charges for clearing a shard of glass from a broken window at the Capitol.
They will remain free pending separate sentencing hearings in September.
Mcfadden, whom President Donald Trump nominated for the court in 2017, presided over two previous bench trials for Capitol riot defendants.
He acquitted one of all charges and partially acquitted another.
Widely published photographs showed Kevin Seefried carrying a Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol after he and Hunter Seefried, then 22, entered the building through a broken window.
Mcfadden rejected the defense argument that Kevin Seefried never intended to interfere with the congressional proceedings.
“I find that he knew what he was doing,” Mcfadden said.
The judge described Kevin Seefreid as the “prime mover” in their decision to go to Washington on Jan. 6. Mcfadden said Hunter Seefried’s guilt on the obstruction charge was a “closer question,” but the judge ultimately concluded that the son engaged in “aggravated conduct” that supported a conviction.
“Hunter Seefried showed a pattern of deception and minimization of his actions” when an FBI agent interviewed him after the riot, Mcfadden said.
FBI agents said they did not find any evidence linking Kevin Seefried or his son to any farright extremist groups. Kevin Seefried told an agent that he did not view the Confederate flag as a symbol of racist hate.