Guy Reffitt, a 49-year-old man from Texas, was the first to stand trial for felony charges stemming from his participation in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Reffitt is charged with obstruction, civil disorder, and carrying a firearm while on Capitol property.
One of the witnesses to take the stand to testify against Reffitt was his own teenage son, Jackson Reffitt, who spoke about Googling an FBI tip line to report his father's actions during the Capitol riots.
Scott MacFarlane, a CBS News Congressional Correspondent, live-tweeted from the court room during Jackson's testimony, and you can read that thread in full here:
ALERT: Via my colleague @RobLegare who was in the courtroom as pool reporter
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) March 3, 2022
"As prosecutors called his son to the stand, Guy Reffitt immediately broke down crying, wiping his eyes through his white mask, his face turning red. "
Related: "Merrick Garland, are you listening?": Jan. 6 committee says Trump may have violated multiple laws
Jackson stated that his relationship with his father began to go downhill after the 2020 election, according to Huffington Post, and that he felt "paranoid" that his father's rhetoric would one day lead to violence.
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The teenager's tip to the FBI regarding the fears he had surrounding his father was sent on Christmas Eve 2020, but nothing ever came of it until after the January 6 riot. This information is from Ryan J. Reilly, a Justice reporter for NBC News, who was also live-tweeting from the trial today.
Jan. 6 defendant Guy Reffitt’s wife says that she told her son Jackson Reffitt that she loved him today, as Jackson Reffitt testified against her husband at his trial. pic.twitter.com/1LjWd5rrcN
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 3, 2022
Guy Reffitt pled not guilty to the charges put against him in trial today, and faces a sentence of 60 years in prison, according to CBS.
Since reporting his father, and sharing a recording of him with the FBI, Jackson moved out of the home he shared with his parents. He's since accumulated a nest egg for himself in the amount of $150,000 via a GoFundMe drive, according to Huffington Post, which he plans to use for college and car expenses.
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