A federal district court judge allows the leader of a group called “Cowboys for Trump” to be released from prison while awaiting trial on charges arising from the uprising at the Capitol.
Couy Griffin, who is also a county commissioner in New Mexico, is facing a single charge of unlawful entry, largely based on comments he made on social media about his participation in the riot.
A magistrate judge had this week ordered that Griffin be held without bail, arguing that his comments about the illegality of the 2020 election and Congress’s certification of the results raised doubts as to whether he would be willing to take the court’s orders. to follow.
Judge Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the US District Court for DC, disagreed Friday, noting that Griffin is not alleged to have entered the Capitol during the riot and does not appear to be a flight risk.
“The accused conduct of the defendant was largely peaceful, his contemporaneous and subsequent statements, while provocative, do not suggest that there is no combination of conditions that could ensure his appearance in court,” Howell said at a hearing.
Prosecutors have alleged in court documents that Griffin bragged on social media about his presence at the pro-Trump rally that turned into a violent crowd that stormed the Capitol last month, saying in a since-deleted video on Facebook that he “ climbed the top of the Capitol and … had a front row seat. ‘
He had also defended the demonstration by denying that the group was violent, but warned that if they returned to the Capitol for a Second Amendment meeting, “blood will flow from that building.”
Griffin and his group have hosted rallies in support of Trump in the past, and he has spoken to the former president several times, according to the Cowboys for Trump website.