WASHINGTON — The first person to go on trial for participating in the Jan. 6 riot was accused by prosecutors of being “the match that started the fire” for thousands of people who stormed the Capitol.
Guy Reffitt, a member of the far-right Three Percenter militia who had joined the riot along with other supporters of former President Donald Trump, arrived in Washington the day before the deadly assault with two guns and a plan to “drive our elected representatives physically out of their chambers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told jurors Wednesday.
“A mob needs leaders, and this man, Guy Wesley Reffitt, drove all the way from his home in Texas to D.C. to step up and fulfill that role,” Nestler said in Washington federal court on the first day of trial. “In the defendant’s own words, he lit the match that started the fire.”
