周四，华盛顿特区的一名联邦法官对前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)进行了严厉指责，并对美国政治的现状表示失望，此前不久，陪审团发现一名被告被指控在1月6日国会大厦暴动所有指控罪名成立。
“你知道，我认为我们的民主遇到了麻烦，”法官雷吉·沃尔顿在第三次陪审团审判结束时对被指控袭击国会大厦的被告说。“因为不幸的是，我们有像我们的前总统这样的骗子，在我看来，他并不真正关心民主，而只关心权力。其结果是，它正在撕裂这个国家。”
前总统乔治·w·布什任命的沃尔顿是特区法院最资深的法官之一，他说，他收到了全国各地人民的来信，表达了对司法系统没有面对的担忧1月6日-他称之为“叛乱”，有其应有的严重性。
沃尔顿说:“我担心，不幸的是，我们的美国公民太容易受骗，他们愿意接受没有任何证据证明关于选举的指控有任何价值的说法。”。“人们只是感到愤怒，因为他们觉得我们的系统没有认真对待那天发生的事情，因为他们担心这个国家的未来。”
在特朗普发表上述言论之前，陪审团对1月6日袭击美国国会大厦的一名俄亥俄州男子做出有罪判决，该男子试图为自己辩护，声称自己是在执行前特朗普的“命令”
38岁的达斯汀·汤普森是第三名被控与国会大厦袭击案有关的被告，他在陪审团面前陈述了他们的案件。对他的六项指控包括一项妨碍国会的重罪。
汤普森没有试图反驳对他的指控，即他加入了亲特朗普的暴徒，袭击了国会大厦，并从参议院议员办公室偷了一瓶波旁威士忌和一个衣架，而是试图将他的行为和他在椭圆广场上的讲话(他敦促他的追随者在国会大厦游行)的责任归咎于特朗普。
在司法部1月6日的调查中，迄今已有近800人受到指控，其中数十人试图提出类似的论点，将责任推给前总统及其盟友，他们欺骗他们相信关于选举被盗的毫无根据的阴谋论。
汤普森的辩护在陪审团面前失败，这可能会对其他被指控的骚乱者产生影响，他们希望在自己的案件中采取类似的策略。
美国助理检察官比尔·德雷尔(Bill Dreher)周四在结案陈词中说:“辩护律师希望你把注意力放在特朗普总统1月6日早上说的话上，他希望你忘记他的当事人在1月6日下午做了什么。”“各位，你们不必选择。这不是特朗普总统的刑事审判。”
德雷尔直接对陪审团说，“你可以对那天发生的事情感到愤怒，你可以认为特朗普总统的所作所为是错误的，你可以认为他那天说的话导致他们去做他们所做的事情。”
“那没关系，”他继续说道。“只要你发现——如果你发现，汤普森先生知道他所做的是非法的。1月6日，他36岁...一个成年人，不是一个孩子。特朗普总统在走向国会大厦抢劫和玷污参议院议员办公室时没有牵着他的手。”
德雷尔表示，汤普森试图将责任归咎于特朗普的言论不仅无关紧要，而且具有误导性——因为从汤普森的优步账户中获得的数据显示，他甚至没有出席特朗普的椭圆演讲。
“这是一个不真实的故事，站不住脚，”德雷尔说。
在宣读判决后，沃尔顿法官下令汤普森在判决前继续被拘留，并抨击他在审判中的证词，沃尔顿说他认为这些证词“完全不真诚”和“不真实”。
沃尔顿说:“我只是认为，如果你被判有罪，却期望获得自由，你就不能像他和其他人那样做。”。“这是一个后果——正如我母亲曾经告诉我的那样，‘你铺好了床，就得躺进去。’"
汤普森将于7月被判刑。
Judge slams Trump as 'charlatan' after jury finds Jan. 6 rioter guilty on all counts
A federal judge in D.C. on Thursday delivered a scathing rebuke of former President Donald Trump and expressed dismay over the state of American politics just moments after a jury found a defendant charged in theJan. 6 Capitol riotguilty on all charges.
"You know, I think our democracy is in trouble," Judge Reggie Walton said at the conclusion of the third jury trial for a defendant charged in the Capitol assault. "Because unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president, who doesn't in my view really care about democracy, but only about power. And as a result of that, it's tearing this country apart."
Walton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush and one of the most senior judges on the D.C. court, said that he's received letters from people around the country expressing concern the justice system isn't confrontingJan. 6-- which he called an "insurgency," with the seriousness it deserves.
"I have a concern that we have, unfortunately, American citizens who were so gullible that they were willing to accept what was being said without any proof that the allegations about the election had any merit whatsoever," Walton said. "People are just outraged at how they feel our system is not taking seriously what happened on that day because of their fear of the future of this country."
His remarks came after a jury delivered a guilty verdict for an Ohio man charged in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol who sought to defend himself by claiming he was following former Trump's "orders."
Dustin Thompson, 38, is the third defendant charged in connection with the Capitol attack to take their case before a jury. The six charges against him included one felony count of obstruction of Congress.
Rather than seeking to dispute the allegations against him -- that he joined the pro-Trump mob in storming the Capitol and stole a bottle of bourbon and a coat rack from the Senate parliamentarian's office, Thompson instead sought to place responsibility for his actions on Trump and his speech on the Ellipse where he urged his followers to march on the Capitol.
Dozens of others among the nearly 800 people charged thus far in the Justice Department's Jan. 6 investigation have sought to make similar arguments, putting the onus on the former president and his allies who tricked them into believing baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election.
That Thompson's defense fell flat with a jury could have an influence on other alleged rioters holding out hopes they could adopt a similar strategy in their cases.
"Defense counsel wants you to focus so much on what President Trump said on the morning of Jan. 6, he wants you to forget what his client did on the afternoon of Jan. 6," assistant US attorney Bill Dreher said in closing arguments Thursday. "Ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to choose. This is not President Trump's criminal trial."
Speaking directly to the jury, Dreher said, "you can be mad about what happened that day, you can think what President Trump did was wrong, you can think that what he said that day led them to go do what they did."
"That doesn't matter," he continued. "As long as you find -- if you find, that Mr. Thompson knew that what he was doing was unlawful. He was 36 years old on Jan. 6 ... an adult, not a child. President Trump didn't hold his hand as he walked down to the Capitol to loot and defile the Senate Parliamentarian's office."
Dreher said that Thompson's effort to put the blame on Trump's words was not only irrelevant, but misleading -- because it doesn't appear based on data obtained from Thompson's Uber account that he was even present at Trump's Ellipse speech.
"It's a story that is not true and that does not hold up," Dreher said.
Following the reading of the verdict, Judge Walton ordered Thompson to remain in custody pending his sentencing and slammed him for his testimony in the trial, which Walton said he found "totally disingenuous" and "not truthful."
"I just don't think you can do what he did and what the other folks did if you're convicted and expect to be free," Walton said. "It's a consequence -- as my mother once told me, 'you make your bed you gotta lie in it.'"
Thompson is set to be sentenced in July.
