Will Trump help? 2 Pierce County men charged in Jan. 6 Capitol attack are banking on it
A former Orting School Board member and his stepson who were charged for their alleged roles in the January 2021 Capitol riot are seeking to pause the federal criminal case against them until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In a filing this month in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Richard Slaughter and Caden Paul Gottfried requested their case be delayed until Jan. 20 and that a status conference be set for the week of Feb. 2, citing Trump’s public declarations that he would pardon anybody involved in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“President-Elect Donald Trump stated on multiple occasions throughout his presidential campaign in 2024 that if elected, he intended to issue pardons, sentence commutations, order the dismissal of pending cases, and in other ways bring an end to the Department of Justice’s prosecutorial endeavors regarding the events of January 6, 2021,” attorney William L. Shipley, Jr., who’s representing both men, wrote in the filing on Nov. 11.
Slaughter and Gottfried were 40 and 20 at the time of their October 2022 arrests in Tacoma. They currently are scheduled for trial on Jan. 6, according to the filing. The two Orting men have pleaded not guilty to all charges. In a February 2021 interview with the FBI, Slaughter acknowledged being at the Capitol but denied committing any crimes, court records show.
Shipley argued that pausing the case would conserve the resources of the court and the defendants, including financially, while there is a “substantial likelihood” that both men would benefit from Trump re-taking office.
“The consequences of denying this motion would be – with history of the January 6 cases as a backdrop – almost certain convictions for felony and/or misdemeanor offenses that would otherwise not be likely to happen,” the filing said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, opposed the motion in a Nov. 12 court response, noting that the defendants had been scheduled for trial on three prior occasions, beginning in December 2023, and each date was pushed back.
“There is a public interest in the prompt and efficient administration of justice. The government and the Court have endeavored to deliver that interest,” assistant U.S. attorneys Stephen Rancourt and Katherine Boyles wrote. “The government disagrees that a continuance is warranted here, and the Court should proceed as it would in any other prosecution.”
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth had yet to make a ruling as of Monday, court records show, but the effort to stay criminal proceedings in light of Trump’s election is not new.
At least several other defendants convicted or accused of involvement in storming the Capitol have requested stays, USA Today reported on Friday. Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols recently called it “beyond frustrating and disappointing” that there might be “blanket pardons,” according to the outlet.
On Monday, special counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss the four felony charges against Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, leading up to the Capitol attack, citing Justice Department guidelines that prevent prosecution of a sitting president, multiple media outlets reported.
Slaughter and Gottfried are alleged to have illegally entered the Capitol grounds and joined others in the area of the Lower West Terrace, federal prosecutors said in announcing their arrest. Both were indicted by a grand jury in September 2022, court records show.
Slaughter, who resigned from the Orting School Board shortly after his arrest, was charged with robbery; assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers while using a dangerous weapon; civil disorder; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and four other charges.
He is accused of taking, or attempting to take, a baton from a Metropolitan Police Department officer, court records show. Prosecutors alleged Slaughter attacked Capitol police with a “long pole,” handed chemical spray to another rioter in the crowd and grabbed a police shield from another rioter and kept it from an officer.
“This is the last resort, it was statistically impossible to lose this election, and there is just, um, nauseating amounts of fraud, and it’s not being heard or seen, and we really have nothing,” Slaughter said on video at the Capitol, according to court documents. “We don’t leave. We stay united. And we take back our country.”
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Gottfried was not accused of robbery or using a deadly or dangerous weapon but otherwise faces similar charges to Slaughter, including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds and civil disorder, according to court records. He is alleged to have used his body weight to push against a line of officers.
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Will Trump help? 2 Pierce County men charged in Jan. 6 Capitol attack are banking on it ."
