{"id":48882,"date":"2021-02-02T20:56:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T03:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-denies-release-of-jailed-cowboys-for-trump-leader\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T03:56:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T03:56:06","slug":"judge-denies-release-of-jailed-cowboys-for-trump-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-denies-release-of-jailed-cowboys-for-trump-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge denies release of jailed Cowboys for Trump leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A federal judge denied bail Monday to jailed Cowboys for Trump leader Couy Griffin as he awaits trial on a charge involving the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, describing Griffin as a flight risk who denies the legitimacy of the current U.S. government.<\/span>Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said Griffin\u2019s behavior and statements suggest he might obstruct justice based on his presence in a riotous crowd outside the U.S. Capitol and insistence that the election was not won by President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Faruqui ordered Griffin, a county commissioner in New Mexico and founder of a horseback-riding group that backs former President Donald Trump, held without bail pending a preliminary hearing on the charge that Griffin knowingly entered the Capitol grounds with the intent to disrupt the government as Congress considered Electoral College results.<\/p>\n

The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison and fines of $100,000.<\/p>\n

Griffin has said he was swept by a crowd past barricades but never went inside the Capitol. At one point, he appeared on a balcony and attempted to lead the crowd in prayer.<\/p>\n

A public defender told the court on Monday that Griffin was within his First Amendment right of free speech, did not have knowledge that he was entering a restricted area at the Capitol and has not shown disregard for the judiciary branch of government that would make him a flight risk.<\/p>\n

Faruqui said the clear purpose of the riot was to stop Vice President Mike Pence and Congress from certifying the election, and that Griffin vowed to return to finish a job that was left undone.<\/p>\n

Griffin, a commissioner in Otero County, was arrested on Jan. 17 in Washington \u2013 days after announcing during a public meeting in Alamogordo that he would return to Washington in opposition to Biden\u2019s election and inauguration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese statement that he makes about blood running out of the capitol, threats to members of Congress, stating that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat, all of those things demonstrate to me history and characteristics that warrant and favor detention,\u201d Faruqui said, paraphrasing statements made by Griffin before and after the Capitol siege.<\/p>\n

The judge also pushed back on the idea that Griffin was an observer and not a participant in the siege.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were not some wallflower in an otherwise large event,\u201d Faruqui told Griffin. \u201cYou were in the thick of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

A defense attorney said Griffin has been released into the general jail population after a prolonged stint in solitary confinement because he initially refused a coronavirus test.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hearing was conducted remotely by telephone and video conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge denied bail Monday to jailed Cowboys for Trump leader Couy Griffin as he awaits trial on a charge involving the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, describing Griffin as a flight risk who denies the legitimacy of the current U.S. government.Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said Griffin\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48882"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}