‘We’re getting all kinds of threats’: Judge says defiant US Capitol rioters are fueling threats from Trump supporters

By Marshall Cohen and Holmes Lybrand, CNN

A federal judge said Friday that defiant US Capitol rioters, who are still defending their role in the January 6 insurrection, are fueling threats against judges from people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

“It bothers me that she would try to associate herself with that type of violence… and then she goes on television on two occasions and is proud of what she did, and says she would do it again,” district Judge Reggie Walton said at a hearing for Capitol riot defendant Lori Vinson.

“I know that these types of comments have an impact,” Walton added. “As judges, we’re getting all kinds of threats and hostile phone calls when we have these (January 6) cases before us, because there are unfortunately other people out there who buy in on this proposition, even though there was no proof, that somehow the election was fraudulent.”

These comments came at a sentencing hearing for Vinson and her husband, Thomas Vinson. They both pleaded guilty to illegally protesting in the Capitol, a misdemeanor. The Justice Department has asked Walton to send Lori Vinson to jail for one month, because of her defiant comments after January 6. They asked for three months of house arrest for Thomas Vinson.

After the insurrection, Lori Vinson said in TV interviews that “I am not sorry,” “I would do it again tomorrow” and, “I have done nothing wrong.” Her lawyer said she made these comments because she was incensed about getting fired from her job as a nurse, due to her presence at the Capitol, and that she wasn’t trying to whitewash January 6. She now has a new nursing job.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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