Jury finds ex-NYC cop guilty of assaulting officer during Jan. 6 attack

On Monday, a jury found former New York City police officer Thomas Webster guilty of six counts, including assaulting a police officer, in the first federal assault case stemming from the Jan. 6 attack in the US Capitol

Webster’s trial marks the fourth time a jury has heard a Jan. 6 defendant’s case, and all four cases resulted in convictions on all counts.

Webster was found guilty of assaulting DC Metropolitan Police Officer Noah Rathbun, who testified at trial, as was Webster himself, who often spoke directly to the jury and called Rathbun a “rogue cop”.

According to testimony and video of the riot, Webster pushed his way through the crowd toward the bike racks that acted as a police perimeter. Dressed in a bulletproof vest and waving a Marine Corps flag, he came to the front of the crowd, yelling “communist mother ——-” at the officers, before focusing on Rathbun and yelling. “Get the fuck off!”

“That’s what people say when they want to fight,” Rathbun said during his three-hour testimony. “It’s very common”.

Webster swung a metal flagpole down twice before breaking the bike racks. As Rathbun backed away, Webster ran at him and knocked him down, then yanked the gas mask off him. Rathbun began to choke on his chin strap when Webster pulled on the mask, Rathbun testified.

The video shows Rathbun punching Webster in the face as he tried to push him, which became the cornerstone of Webster’s defense. Webster, who claimed that Rathbun had provoked the fight, said that he pulled on Rathbun’s mask as a form of self-defense.

“I felt like I was the cop and he was the protester,” Webster said on the stand.

US prosecutors said Webster clearly should have known he was not allowed on the Capitol grounds, pointing to snow fences, bike racks forming a police barrier and police riot gear, explosions and tear gas. Metropolitan. He too should have known, they said, through his 20 years as a New York City police officer.

“Thomas Webster and Officer Rathbun took oaths to protect the country. But only one of them fulfilled that oath on January 6 at the United States Capitol,” a federal prosecutor said. “And that was Officer Rathbun.”

The defense said it wanted the jury to see “the whole truth.”

“When are acts of police misconduct acceptable?” defense attorney James Monroe said. Referring to the flagpole, Monroe said, “Sometimes a flagpole is all that it is. It is all that it was.”

Webster was convicted of assaulting, resisting, or preventing an officer from using a dangerous weapon; civil disorder; entering and remaining on restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon; and engaging in an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.

Sentencing is set for September 2. Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Webster does not have to remain in custody before sentencing.