A jury was unconvinced that a man was compelled to attack the Capitol with other domestic terrorists because Donald Trump insisted he stop the certification of the 2020 election, and they convicted him on six federal counts, Reuters reports.
Dustin Thompson, 38, attempted to use an unusual legal argument that he was not responsible for his actions because he thought he was essentially brainwashed and was acting at the direction of the President of the United States. Thompson said that he would never had undertaken such action if it wasn’t for Trump imploring his supporters to reinstate him through violent action.
“Besides being ordered by the president to go to the Capitol, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Thompson told the jury, according to CNN. “I was caught up in the moment.”