We also saw a video where he yelled at Capitol Police that the revolution will be televised. He said those things in the context sometimes of his belief that Joe Biden was controlled by, quote, "Jewish interests" and that Biden stole the 2020 election. We saw text messages where he used slurs against gay people, Jewish people, Black people, including the N-word several times.
Well, how did prosecutors try to make their case?ĭREISBACH: Well, prosecutors have cited a lot of evidence that Hale-Cusanelli has extreme views. They say he got caught up in groupthink.ĬHANG: Groupthink - OK. The defense says he did not have that goal. So the most serious charge, though, he's facing is that he intentionally stormed the Capitol in order to disrupt the Electoral College count that was happening in Congress that day. Now, he's not accused of assaulting police or damaging property in the Capitol building, but he has conceded, I should not have been there. You can see him on video walking around the Capitol for about 40 minutes, waving a flag at one point, waving at other rioters to join him inside the building. And he went inside the Capitol in one of the first waves of rioters to breach the building. Hey, Tom.ĬHANG: So what exactly is Hale-Cusanelli accused of doing on January 6?ĭREISBACH: Well, both the prosecution and defense in this case say that Hale-Cusanelli went from his job at that naval weapon station in New Jersey, drove down to Washington, D.C., after he worked the night shift. Today, he testified in his own defense.Īnd NPR's Tom Dreisbach joins us now from the courthouse. Prosecutors say he's also a Nazi sympathizer who fantasized about a second Civil War. He's a former Army reservist who worked as a security guard at a Navy base. The defendant is a man named Timothy Hale-Cusanelli.
#Am i gay quiz clean trial
The latest trial stemming from the violent January 6 attack on the U.S.