‘I had to do something to gain his respect’: January 6 defendant testifies he believed Trump sent him to attack on US Capitol – By Hannah Rabinowitz (CNN) / April 13, 2022
(CNN) Alleged rioter Dustin Thompson took the stand in his trial on Wednesday and told a Washington, DC, jury that he believed he had received “presidential orders” to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“Besides being ordered by the President to go to the Capitol, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Thompson told the jury. “I was caught up in the moment.”
Thompson has contested almost none of what the government alleged he did at the Capitol: breaking into the Senate parliamentarian’s office twice, stealing a bottle of bourbon and a coat rack, watching one of the most violent scenes of the riot unfold and then fleeing from a Capitol Police officer attempting to question to him.
Instead, Thompson has claimed that he believed he was acting at the behest of then-President Donald Trump, who told the crowd at a rally that afternoon to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” The trial is a major test of that defense, which dozens of riot suspects have adopted so far, and could influence how others argue in court.
CONTINUE > https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/13/politics/january-6-rioter-trump-defense-dustin-thompson/index.html
