The first person to be tried for last year’s deadly assault on the US Capitol “lit the match that started the fire”, a United States prosecutor has alleged, as opening statements began on Wednesday in the trial of Texas militia group member Guy Wesley Reffitt.Reffitt was armed with a holstered handgun and zip-tie handcuffs, and was wearing body armour and a helmet adorned with a video camera, when he and others charged at police officers on the west side of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, prosecutors have said.“The defendant was the tip of this mob’s spear,” federal prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors in his opening statement, saying Reffitt led other rioters up the Capitol’s stairs to “overwhelm” police and storm the building.
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