WASHINGTON — D.C. juries are capable of fairly and impartially judging defendants charged in the Capitol riot, a federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.
In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and 10-year sentence of Thomas Webster, a Marine Corps veteran and former NYPD officer convicted of assaulting DC Police Officer Noah Rathbun and contributing to the breach of a police barricade on Jan. 6. At the time Webster was sentenced in September 2022, it was the longest sentence handed down in a Capitol riot case to date.
Webster appealed his sentence, arguing, as the panel put it in its opinion, that “the District’s jury pool was simply too Democratic, too connected to the federal government, and too steeped in January 6th news coverage to produce twelve unbiased jurors.” Webster’s argument echoed claims made by hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants who have sought, so far uniformly without success, to have their trials moved out of D.C.
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit panel rejected that argument wholesale.
“Webster’s focus on the jury pool’s opinion of January 6th and its perpetrators misses the point,” Judge Patricia A. Millett, writing for the panel, wrote. “We expect jurors to view significant criminal events in their hometown with an unapproving eye, whether it is the January 6th attack on the Capitol, a murder, or an armed robbery spree. Generalized disapproval of criminal conduct – even the specific conduct at issue in a defendant’s case – says nothing about a juror’s ability to be impartial in deciding whether a particular individual committed a crime or not. What the Constitution forbids is for a juror to hold a firmly entrenched view about an individual defendant’s guilt or innocence before the trial starts.”
The panel was made up of Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, who were both nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump, and Millett, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama.
Millet noted – as lower court judges have in opinions repeatedly denying motions to move Jan. 6 trials to Texas, Florida, North Carolina and other states defendants view as more favorable venues – that the D.C. Circuit has consistently held that District juries are capable of being impartial in judging even high-profile, politically-connected defendants.
“Webster asserts that the District overwhelmingly voted for President Biden and historically votes for Democratic candidates,” Millett wrote. “That may be. But the political inclinations of a populace write large say nothing about an individual’s ability to serve impartially in adjudicating the criminal conduct of an individual. Indeed, we have held that District juries could impartially adjudicate other criminal cases arising out of political matters, including Watergate.”
The panel’s opinion could impact the potential appeals of more than 160 Capitol riot defendants who have been convicted at trial to date, as well as any potential change of venue motions made by Trump in his D.C. election fraud case. Trump has repeatedly attacked the fairness of juries in New York, where he is currently on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, and in D.C., where he faces four felony counts alleging he defrauded the United States in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has suggested the D.C. trial should be moved to West Virginia, which voted nearly 70% for him in the 2020 general election.
“IMPOSSIBLE to get a fair trial in Washington, D.C., which is over 95% anti-Trump, & for which I have called for a Federal TAKEOVER in order to bring our Capital back to Greatness,” Trump wrote in an August 2023 post on his social media site, Truth Social.
In addition to denying Webster’s venue claims, the panel also rejected challenges to his sentence – specifically to a body armor enhancement applied by the judge overseeing his case. While Webster’s sentence still ranks among the longest sentences to date, a number of other defendants have now received lengthier prison terms, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, and Christopher Quaglin, a New Jersey electrician who was sentenced last week to 12 years in prison for assaulting multiple officers.