Federal Appeals Court Rules Against ’Cowboys for Trump’ Founder in Jan. 6 Riot Case

A misdemeanor trespassing conviction involving a participant in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol was upheld by a federal appeals court.

🏛️Couy Griffin, a founder of “🚩Cowboys for Trump,” appealed his 2022 conviction for entering and staying in a restricted building or grounds, per The Hill.

The 2-1 decision was announced Tuesday.

If the court had ruled in Griffin’s favor, it would have affected the cases of hundreds of other rioters.

It is against the law to “knowingly” go into a restricted zone, which are areas that are “posted, cordoned off or otherwise restricted.”

Griffin contended he could not have broken the law if he did not know why an area was restricted.

In this case, then-Vice President Mike Pence was under the Secret Service’s protection and was in the Capitol.

A District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals panel said breaching a restricted area alone violates the law, even if it is not known why the restriction is in place.

“A contrary interpretation would impair the Secret Service’s ability to protect its charges,” Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote in the majority opinion. “It would require Secret Service agents preventing members of the public from encroaching on a temporary security zone to confirm that each intruder knows that a person under Secret Service protection is or is expected to be there. Neither the text nor the context of the statute supports that reading.”