“They tried to get past me. And I stopped them. They didn’t. I did,” Dunn said defiantly nether questioning from 1 of the Oath Keepers’ attorneys.
Dunn’s faceoff with members of the Oath Keepers — including Florida leaders Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson — marked the outset of the 5th week of grounds successful the trial, the astir analyzable and important to look from the Jan. 6 onslaught connected the Capitol. It comes arsenic Pelosi grapples with the aftermath of the San Francisco location penetration that earnestly injured her husband, Paul, and sparked a caller nationwide statement astir politically motivated violence.
Some aspects of the onslaught connected Pelosi’s home, from the alleged attacker’s telephone of “Where’s Nancy” to his clasp of predetermination conspiracy theories, included eerie echoes of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
Prosecutors person attempted to represent Oath Keepers members arsenic singularly driven to question retired Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, portion of an extended conspiracy to forestall the transportation of powerfulness from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Justice Department attorneys person utilized caller grounds to reconstruct the Oath Keepers’ march done the Capitol, with immoderate members of the radical splitting disconnected toward the Senate and others to the House.
Prosecutors displayed videos of Dunn’s brushwood with Meggs, Harrelson and different members of the mob, and Dunn walked them done the exchange. “I’m not letting you travel this way,” Dunn remembered saying.
“We person dozens of officers down. They’re taking america retired connected stretchers. Y’all are fucking america up,” helium said.
Lawyers for the defendants pressed Dunn connected whether his representation whitethorn person been faulty fixed the utmost strain helium was under. Dunn, a ample and imposing figure, agreed helium was beleaguered — sprinting from 1 determination to different portion wearing dense assemblage armor and wielding an M4. He arrived extracurricular the speaker’s bureau aft archetypal helping support a stairwell that led to the Lower West Terrace, the tract of the astir utmost and protracted unit that occurred that day.
Another officer, David Lazarus, testified that helium witnessed Dunn’s “antagonistic” speech with the Oath Keepers portion helping pb a furious effort to make a harmless way to evacuate Pelosi’s staffers, immoderate of whom had locked themselves wrong a league country successful her adjacent suite.
“I’m successful passageway vision. I conscionable privation to get into the office,” Lazarus said, describing his attack to Pelosi’s suite, earlier helium spotted Dunn jawing with members of the crowd.
Lazarus said helium had been texting and communicating with members of Pelosi’s unit to guarantee them that it was him erstwhile helium arrived to assistance escaped them from the locked room. He was fearful that the 2nd level of the Capitol — the tract of the rotunda, arsenic good arsenic the House and Senate chambers — was excessively overrun to make a harmless evacuation route. So helium said helium led the staffers to a third-floor league country that was easier to unafraid and told them not to unfastened the doors until helium returned.
Dunn besides recalled observing Lazarus, who helium concisely mistook for a subordinate of Congress due to the fact that helium was wearing a suit and had a pin connected his lapel. And helium said helium rapidly sought to divert the crowd’s regard from the serviceman and toward himself.
Harrelson’s lawyer Brad Geyer sought to rise questions astir Dunn’s memory, peculiarly successful his FBI interrogation astir the encounter, erstwhile helium initially suggested helium believed members of the Oath Keepers had offered to support him from the oncoming crowd.
Dunn said helium was describing 2 abstracted encounters. The archetypal came successful the Capitol’s first-floor “Crypt” country atop a stairwell that led to the Lower West Terrace, amid the aggravated unit happening below. There, helium said, a radical wearing military-style cogwheel approached and offered to basal betwixt him and the mob astatine the apical of the staircase.
But that group, helium said, didn’t see immoderate of the Oath Keepers whom helium aboriginal saw extracurricular Pelosi’s bureau and who didn’t connection to assistance him, helium testified.
Geyer besides wondered whether Dunn’s usage of profanity with the rioters was “unusual,” underscoring the utmost carnal and intelligence strain the serviceman was under.
“That time was the astir antithetic of occurrences that occurred successful my career,” Dunn responded, agreeing that helium had feelings of fearfulness and choler amid the riot.
“Did you acquisition feelings of betrayal?” Geyer asked.
“During the event, not truthful much,” Dunn replied. “Afterward, sure. During the event, it was conscionable astir surviving.”
English (US)