WASHINGTON — A Texas Three Percenter who helped led the mob up the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 wearing body armor and armed with a gun will remain in prison until late 2026, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich resentenced Guy Wesley Reffitt to 80 months, or a little more than six-and-a-half years, in prison – shaving off seven months from the original sentence she imposed in August 2022. The resentencing was one of dozens so far following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this summer narrowing a federal obstruction statute used in many Jan. 6 cases.
Reffitt was the first Jan. 6 defendant to go to trial and the first to be convicted by a jury of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Jurors returned with a guilty verdict on all counts after just four hours of deliberations after hearing how Reffitt and another militia member he’d recruited brought body armor and weapons to the Capitol intending to remove members of Congress by force.
Reffitt’s sentence was largely driven by the obstruction count, charged under an Enron-era statute, and two significant enhancements attached to it. Without those, he faced a reduced sentencing guidelines range of 41-51 months in prison. Reffitt’s attorney, F. Clinton Broden, asked for his new sentence to fall in that range or, at the very least, not exceed 58 months. Such a sentence could have seen Reffitt released early next year.
Prosecutors asked Friedrich to reimpose the full 87-month sentence. They said Reffitt’s unique role in leading the mob against police on the steps of the Capitol, and his “palpable” lack of remorse, warranted no reduction.
“In his words, Congress was a demon and he was planning to cut the head off the demon,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said.
In addition to the primary obstruction charge, Reffitt was convicted of a second, lesser obstruction of justice charge for threatening his son and one of his daughters if they talked publicly about his role in the riot. On Friday, his daughters Sarah and Peyton told Friedrich they didn’t believe their father was a threat to them.
“My father really is a loving and caring father,” Sarah Reffitt said. “He always has been. I would not be standing up here if I believed he would hurt my baby brother and sister.”
Jackson Reffitt, who filed a tip about his father with the FBI on Christmas Eve 2020 and who testified against him at his trial, did not attend the resentencing hearing.
READ MORE | Jackson Reffitt testifies for hours about father’s growing extremism, threats against his children
Friedrich said she had read the letters submitted by family members and heard the testimony about Reffitt, and believed he was a loving and caring father. But, she said, she was troubled by his obvious lack of remorse. Throughout the hearing, Reffitt made laughed and made faces and incredulous gestures while Friedrich was discussing the evidence at trial. In response to a comment by his attorney saying he thought people like Reffitt had been “emboldened” by President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last month, Friedrich said in Reffitt’s case that wasn’t necessary.
“I don’t think Mr. Reffitt was ever deterred by sentencing,” she said. “There’s no remorse. I don’t think he needed to be emboldened.”
Reffitt himself did nothing to disabuse her of that notion. In an expletive-laden rant, Reffitt said he was “in his feelings” on Jan. 6 – but that it wasn’t an issue anymore because the person he wanted to win the 2020 election, Trump, was headed to the White House. He also denied again ever intending to disrupt Congress.
“I wasn’t there to take over no government,” Reffitt said. “I love this country. I would die for this country.”
Friedrich, however, was unconvinced.
“The facts are, he expressed a clear and unequivocal intent to overthrow Congress and took actions consistent with that intent,” she said.
According to the Bureau of Prisons, Reffitt’s projected release date prior to Friday’s resentencing was in late March 2027. With seven months shaved off his sentence, that date could now fall sometime around August 2026.
Reffitt still faces a related federal case in Texas for possession of an unregistered firearm for a silencer discovered during his arrest. According to federal court records, a jury trial is scheduled to begin in that case in February in the Eastern District of Texas.