Capitol riot trial opens for New Mexico elected official, Trump PAC founder

WASHINGTON >> An elected official from New Mexico went to trial Monday with a judge — not a jury — set to decide if he is guilty of charges that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds on the day a proTrump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden is scheduled to hear attorneys' closing arguments Tuesday for the case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, whose trial in Washington, D.C., is the second among the hundreds of people charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, siege.

The judge heard testimony Monday from three government witnesses before prosecutors rested their case. Griffin's lawyer said he doesn't plan to call any defense witnesses.

The case against Griffin is unlike most of the Capitol riot prosecutions. He is one of the few riot defendants who isn't accused of entering the Capitol or engaging in any violent or destructive behavior. He claims he has been selectively prosecuted for his political views.

Griffin, one of three members of the Otero County

Commission in southern New Mexico, is among a handful of riot defendants who either held public office or ran for a government leadership post in the 2 1/2 years before the attack.

He is among only three riot defendants who have asked for a bench trial, which means a judge will decide his case without a jury.

Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider and former pastor, helped found a political committee called Cowboys for Trump. He had vowed to arrive at the courthouse on horseback. Instead, he showed up Monday as a passenger in a pickup truck that had a horse trailer on the back.

Griffin is charged with two misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.

A key question in Griffin's case is whether he entered a restricted area while Pence was still present on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the U.S. Secret Service to invoke access restrictions.

Griffin's attorneys said in a court filing that Pence had already departed the restricted area before the earliest that Griffin could have entered it, but Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence never left the restricted area during the riot.