Widely published photos showed Kevin Seefried carrying a Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol after entering the building with his son, Hunter. The Sefrids were “early, aggressive and active participants” in the Capitol breach and one of the first rioters to enter the building on January 6, 2021, prosecutors said. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden is hearing an affidavit for the Seefrieds trial, which began Monday. The Seefrieds have relinquished their right to a jury trial, which means McFadden will decide on their cases. The charges against Kevin and Hunter Sifrind include a felony for obstructing a formal process, a joint congressional hearing to confirm Joe Biden’s victory over then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. During the trial’s opening remarks, defense attorneys said Seefried never intended to interfere in the Electoral College vote. “Indeed, (Kevin Seefried) did not even know that the vote count was taking place or was taking place in the Capitol,” one of his lawyers, Elizabeth Mullin, told the judge. Mullin, however, admitted that Kevin Seefried was guilty of two counts of trespassing that he knowingly entered a forbidden building and protested illegally at the Capitol. Hunter Seifrid, then 22, may have acted “foolishly” but he did not intend to prevent Congress from certifying the election results, said defense attorney Enson Bostic. Prosecutors did not make an opening statement before calling their first witness, a police inspector at the Capitol. Kevin Sifrind carried a Confederate battle flag from home and was photographed displaying it on a large flagpole as he passed through the Capitol. “Indeed, the flag carried by Kevin Seefried itself signaled his intention: the Confederate battle flag, a symbol of violent opposition to the United States government,” prosecutors wrote. Kevin Seifrid did not intend to “send any kind of message” by carrying the flag to the Capitol and he regrets doing so, Malin said. McFadden, who was nominated by Trump in 2017, criticized the handling of riot cases at the Capitol by prosecutors. He argued that the Justice Department was unfairly tougher on those accused of rioting in the Capitol compared to people arrested in protests against police violence and racial injustice following the assassination of George Floyd in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer. McFadden also criticized prosecutors for calling for the imprisonment of some nonviolent defendants in the Capitol riots, but not for left-wing activists who protested Trump’s appointment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh, the Washington Post reported. In April, McFadden acquitted New Mexico resident Matthew Martin of misdemeanors for entering the Capitol illegally and engaging in disorderly conduct after entering the building. Martin testified that a police officer shook his hand in the building. A prosecutor dismissed the testimony as “nonsense,” but McFadden said it was reasonable for Martin to believe that police allowed him to enter the Capitol through the Rotunda. In March, McFadden acquitted a New Mexico elected official of disorderly conduct, but convicted him of entering a limited area of the Capitol. The judge said there was ample evidence that County Commissioner Otero Couy Griffin knew he was in a restricted area and did not leave. However, McFadden concluded that prosecutors had not responded to their charges to prove that Griffin was involved in disorderly conduct. McFadden is the only judge to have tried a case in the Capitol riots so far. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is scheduled to preside over a trial for Jesus Rivera, a man from Pensacola, Florida, who is charged with four felony counts. President Bill Clinton nominated Collar-Cotelli in court in 1997. At least four other people accused of riots in the Capitol are scheduled to stand trial this year. Jurors have unanimously convicted five people accused of rioting at the Capitol for all charges, a perfect record for prosecutors so far. More than 300 other defendants have pleaded guilty to rioting, mostly misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in prison. About 100 others have trial dates in 2022 or 2023. More than 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. The Seefried traveled to Washington from their home in Laurel, Delaware, to hear Trump speak at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6. They climbed over a wall near a staircase and a scaffolding in the northwestern part of the Capitol and were among the first rioters to approach the building near the Senate Wing, according to prosecutors. After watching other rioters use a police shield and a wooden board to break a window, Hunter Seefried used a gloved fist to clear a piece of glass in one of the broken windows, prosecutors said. Seefried teamed up with other rioters to confront Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman and look for members of Congress and the location where they would count the Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential election, according to prosecutors. Goodman, who is expected to testify at the Seefrieds trial, has been hailed as a hero for leading a group of rioters away from the Senate chamber and climbing a series of stairs to an area where other officers were waiting. Goodman also asked Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to turn around and walk away from the mob.
