YES: January 6 "Insurrectionist" Found Not Guilty When Judge Takes Notice of the Inescapable Fact That Capitol Hill Police Officers Let Him Into Congress

Zoe Tillman @ZoeTillman

NOW: Jan. 6 defendant Matthew Martin has been found not guilty of all four misdemeanor counts he faced. Judge Trevor McFadden found Martin's defense that USCP officers allowed him to come into the Capitol plausible. More to come.

Better do a Wellness Check on AllahPundit and Pastor Blessing of Liberty and the rest of the French Davidians.

I can't wait to hear how this judge must be one of those "populists" that threaten the very fabric of our nation.

A federal defense contractor with a top-secret security clearance who admitted he entered the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack was found not guilty at trial on Wednesday.

Matthew Martin was acquitted by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden after a two-day bench trial. Martin chose to go to trial in the misdemeanor case before a judge rather than go before a D.C. jury. Martin was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be fully acquitted at trial, and told reporters after the not guilty finding that he hoped to get his job back.

Martin, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, held a security clearance and took personal leave from his job on Jan. 6. He was arrested in April 2021 and faced charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

McFadden, a 2017 Trump appointee and a former police officer in Fairfax County, Virginia,...

Whoops, there's all AllahPundit needs.

The judge probably says "OK Groomer," too!

We need a purge to cleanse government -- and all private employers, too -- of these Populist Insurrectionists.

We need to do this for the sake of Preserving Liberty, you see.

...previously convicted Couy Griffin of the group Cowboys for Trump at a bench trial for illegally entering the grounds of the Capitol, but acquitted him on a separate charge. Last month, a jury convicted Guy Reffitt of felony charges in the first Jan. 6 trial.

Martin testified at his bench trial, telling McFadden that he didn't see everything that was happening around him during the Capitol attack, even though the footage he filmed (which was played by the government) shows broken windows and an alarm blaring when he entered the Capitol on the east side after rioters busted open the doors leading to the rotunda.

McFadden said that the first charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building was a "close call," but said there was reasonable doubt as to whether Martin knew he was entering a restricted building (though he said it was "more likely than not" that Martin knew he wasn't supposed to go inside).

McFadden said it was "not unreasonable" for Martin to assume that outnumbered officers were allowing protesters to enter the Capitol. McFadden said that the government did not show evidence of Martin crossing police lines that had been broken down by the mob before Martin arrived.

I don't know if this presages any other acquittals, because the judge also called this among the "most minimal and harmless" of the January 6th cases. So apart from the fact that cops seemed to be permitting entry, the judge would also be predisposed to acquit on the grounds that minor trespass is not, until recently, a hanging offense.

Yay. A man had more than a year of his life ruined (and will probably continue to be hounded intermittently for the rest of his life) before a judge got around to confirming something an army of blind men could have told him.

O frabjous day.
Posted by: Dr. T

Completely true -- though I don't know if this guy was among the people held in jail for fifteen months without trial. But point taken.

But, on the upside, this now tells prosecutors they might have to start offering more reasonable plea deals. They cannot rely on all judges to just say, "Yes, this is a Populist Insurrectionist Terrorist of the type I've read about on Conservative Site for News and Commentary Hot Air, I must sentence this man to four years of hard time for minor, non-violent trespass with no property damage."

5 Idiot commenter on Twitter: "So terrorism is legal now."

Derp.
Posted by: Jane D'oh

Say the people who supported an entire season of arson, mayhem, and murder.

2 I was assured there no red or blue judges.

Posted by: Joe XiDen

Good Point:

Sean Davis @seanmdav

This acknowledgement of reality -- that it's not a crime to walk through a door held open for you by police -- is fatal to the corrupt government's entire J6 narrative. It's also why DOJ has criminally abused defendants to force plea deals: DOJ knows its cases are garbage.

I wish I had said something like that. Oh right, I did say something like that.

But well put.

Below: The video shows Capitol Hill police officers standing by and doing nothing as unarmed and non-violent people enter the Capitol building.

I don't know if this was Martin's way of entry, but this type of scene was common.

Capitol Hill Police Officers Let Him Into Congress&bodytext=Zoe Tillman @ZoeTillman NOW: Jan. 6 defendant Matthew Martin has been found not guilty of all four misdemeanor counts he faced. Judge Trevor McFadden found Martin's defense that USCP officers allowed him to come into the Capitol plausible. More to...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 03:57 PM

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