A former New York City Police Department officer and US Marine Corps veteran has been convicted of assaulting a law enforcement officer on 6 January, 2021 after a jury rejected his argument that he acted in self defence when he tackled the officer to the ground.
Thomas Webster is the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried for assault and to bring his case to a jury with a self-defence claim. He was found guilty on six counts against him, including assaulting an officer with a weapon. His sentencing is scheduled for 2 September.
In the fourth felony trial in the aftermath of the assault on Congress to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidency, the 56-year-old former police officer testified that he protected himself from Washington DC Metropolitan Police Officer Noah Rathbun, who Webster blamed for starting a fight.
Footage from Officer Rathbun’s body-mounted camera captures Webster – who wore a bulletproof vest and carried a Marines flag on a metal flagpole that day – among a mob of people storming a row of bike racks outside the US Capitol building after listening to then-president Donald Trump speak at a nearby rally.
Webster can be heard yelling profanities and repeatedly calling police “communists” as he calls on Rathbun to remove his gear and fight before shoving the bike rack into the line of police.
The officer then used his open left hand to push the side of Webster’s face; Webster testified that he was “hit hard” and claimed that he had to defend himself from a “rogue” officer.
Webster then swung his flag pole at Officer Rathbun, tackled him to the ground and grabbed the gas mask Officer Rathbun was wearing. The officer testified that he began choking as the chin strap pushed up against his throat.
“I felt like I needed to do something to try to protect myself,” Webster told the court last week, arguing that he fought the officer out of “just pure frustration” after Officer Rathbun “incited” him.
Defence attorney James Monroe called Officer Rathbun a “dishonest, unprofessional police officer who took it on himself to punish my client for expressing himself in a way he found objectionable.”
More than 100 law enforcement officers were injured during the attack, and more than 800 people have been charged in connection with the riots, according to the US Department of Justice.
At least 245 people are charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
Jurors returned a guilty verdict on 2 May after roughly two hours of deliberation and three days of arguments, during which federal prosecutors charactered Webster as a “rage-filled” man who launched an unprovoked attack against overwhelmed officers who failed to hold back the mob that ultimately breached the halls of Congress and threatened the lives of lawmakers, staff and other law enforcement that day.
Webster testified that he traveled to Washington DC to “petition” members of Congress to revisit the results of the 2020 presidential election. He did not enter the Capitol building; he was not charged with obstructing Congress and similar crimes facing many Capitol defendants who did enter the building that day.
His most serious conviction – assaulting an officer with a weapon – carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
