DOJ urges judge to deny Jan. 6 defendant’s request to attend Trump inauguration

(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday urged a federal judge to reject a request from a defendant convicted for participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next month, according to a court filing.

Cindy Young, of New Hampshire, was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of four misdemeanor charges earlier this year for joining the Capitol riot and was sentenced to four months incarceration as well as a term of probation — which included conditions that bar her from entering Washington, D.C., without approval from her probation officer.

Last week, Young requested permission to attend Trump’s inauguration in a filing stating she “poses no threat of danger to the community and she is not a risk of flight.”

Prosecutors with the Department of Justice, however, disputed that argument, pointing to repeated calls for “retribution” from Young in the years since Jan. 6 against jurors, judges and law enforcement involved in the Capitol breach cases.

“The risk Young presents to those in D.C. did not end with her exit from the Building,” prosecutors said in their Wednesday filing, also in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

They further noted that Young has publicly “mocked” officers who were attacked by the pro-Trump mob, many of whom “will, once again, be tasked in protecting the Capitol and Constitution on January 20, 2025.”

“As such, her presence at an event staffed by law enforcement would not only present a danger but would cause further victimization for the officers who Young has publicly mocked,” they said in the filing.

Young is just one among a number of Jan. 6 defendants who have requested permission to attend Trump’s inauguration.

Retired Republican Rep. Chris Stewart invited Russell Taylor, a California man who pleaded guilty to a felony for participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, to the inauguration. However, Taylor also must receive permission from a judge to travel to Washington, D.C., after he “repeatedly called for violence and a show of force” to overturn the election and on Jan. 6 led a mob that overran a police line near the inaugural stage while wearing “an exposed knife on top of a bullet proof chest plate and carrying bear spray,” according to his sentencing memo.

Taylor received credit from Judge Royce Lamberth, who oversaw his initial case and will determine his ability to travel Washington, for his agreement to enter into a plea deal, but he has not ruled yet whether he may attend the inauguration.

Another Jan. 6 defendant, Eric Peterson, also requested permission to travel to Washington for the inauguration.