Appellate Ruling Dims Possibilities to Transfer Jan. 6 Trials Out of D.C.

WASHINGTON -- The chances that Jan. 6, 2021 insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol will succeed in getting their trials transferred out of the District of Columbia disappeared last week in a federal appeals court ruling.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 10-year prison sentence for a retired New York Police Department officer who was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the riot.

Thomas Weber argued that he was convicted by a biased jury in Washington, meaning the conviction should be thrown out.

He said the local community’s outrage over the attack on the Capitol and Democratic preferences rendered the jury “presumptively prejudiced.”

Webster drove to Washington from New York for Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Marine Corps flag on a metal pole.

He claimed he was acting in self-defense when he tackled a police officer and grabbed his gas mask at the Capitol. One of the six charges against him alleged he hit the officer with the metal pole he carried.

Webster said the jury that convicted him was motivated by partisan politics against Trump. The Court of Appeals disagreed.

"Webster asserts that the District overwhelmingly voted for President (Joe) Biden and historically votes for Democratic candidates," the court’s ruling says. “That may be. But the political inclinations of a populace writ large say nothing about an individual’s ability to serve impartially in adjudicating the criminal conduct of an individual.”

The court said Webster failed to prove Washington was “structurally incapable” of providing fair juries. 

Webster’s 10-year sentence was one of the longest among the roughly 850 people convicted for participating in the riot. He was the first to be tried on an assault charge.

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