A federal district court judge is allowing the leader of a group called “Cowboys for Trump” to be released from prison pending trial on the charges arising from the Capitol riot, reversing a magistrate judge’s order that he be detained.
Couy Griffin, who is also a county commissioner in New Mexico, is facing a single charge of illegal entry, largely based on comments he made on social media about his participation in the riot.
A magistrate judge this week ordered Griffin to be detained without bail, arguing that his comments on the illegitimacy of the 2020 election and the certification of the results by Congress raised doubts that he would be willing to follow the court’s orders.
Judge Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the United States District Court for DC, disagreed on Friday, noting that Griffin would not have entered the Capitol building during the disturbances and did not appear to be a risk of escape.
“The defendant’s accused conduct was largely peaceful, his contemporary and subsequent statements, while provocative, do not suggest that there is a combination of conditions that could ensure his presence in court,” Howell said during a hearing.
Prosecutors claimed in court documents that Griffin bragged on social media about his presence at the pro-Trump rally that turned into a violent crowd that invaded the Capitol last month, saying in an erased Facebook video that he “climbed on top of the Capitol building and … had a front row seat. “
He also defended the demonstration, denying that the group was violent, but warned that if they returned to the Capitol for a Second Amendment demonstration, “there will be blood flowing from that building.”
Griffin and his group have organized demonstrations in support of Trump in the past and he has spoken to the former president several times, according to the Cowboys for Trump website.