WASHINGTON, April 16 – A judge on Thursday sentenced an Ohio man for allegedly following former President Donald Trump’s orders when he stole goods from the US Capitol during last year’s conflict, giving prosecutors another advantage.
The District Commissioner of Columbia found Dustin Thompson, 38, guilty of all the charges against him, including obstruction of justice and theft of state property.
Thompson admitted to entering the Capitol and stealing a bottle of liquor and a coat during the riots.
But in the new legal system, Thompson argued with the judge that he was acting on Trump’s orders and that the former president was in charge of the mob that stormed the Capitol.
“Without being instructed by the president to go to the Capitol, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Thompson told the judge, according to CNN. “I was trapped at the time.”
U.S. Regional Judge Reggie Walton, presiding over the case, will sentence Thompson to trial in July. The judge ordered that Thompson be remanded in custody pending trial.
The U.S. Department of Justice He has now won all three cases on January 6 in a magistrate’s court. One defendant has been acquitted in a non-judge case.
About 800 people have been charged in connection with the January 6 attacks.