Attorneys for alleged Capitol rioter from Olathe blame Trump in detention memo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The public defenders representing William Chrestman, one of three local men arrested last week for participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, blamed former President Trump in a brief filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Kansas.
Essentially, the defense argues that Trump “actively misled” his supporters “told the assembled rabble what they must do” and then “ratified their actions” with praise on social media.
“The former President gave that permission and privilege to the assembled mob on January 6,” Chrestman’s attorneys, Kirk C. Redmond and Chekasha Ramsey, said in a Detention Memorandum arguing for his pretrial release from federal custody. “Trump’s incitement and enablement of this insurrectionary riot weighs heavily against the weight of the evidence prong, because the mob was given explicit permission and encouragement by the former President to do what they did.”
To punish him for his actions pursuant to Trump’s direction would violate the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Cons ution, his attorneys argued in the memo.