Judge provides chilly reaction to Jan. 6 defendant’s Jamaican family vacation ask for

A federal court choose in Washington, D.C. on Thursday turned down a Jan. 6 defendant’s request to consider a wintertime vacation in Jamaica with his girlfriend.

Chief U.S. District Decide Beryl Howell observed that the defendant, Anthony Robert Williams, filed the request on the a person-12 months anniversary of the attack on the Capitol.

“Defendant, whilst on pretrial release and dealing with rates like a major felony offense, stemming from his alleged steps on January 6, 2021, wishes to depart the Michigan wintertime to devote ten days in the warmer climes of Jamaica to meet up with the family of a female with whom defendant has been in a fully commited connection for ‘more than a year,'” Howell wrote in a ruling, taking pictures down the ask for on the identical day it was submitted.

“Although this kind of a conference may perhaps be an crucial move in defendant’s own relationship, defendant surrendered his entitlement to unfettered worldwide travel when, also ‘more than a year’ ago, on December 30, 2020, he allegedly declared his intent to ‘Storm the Swamp,’ and just one 7 days later, on January 6, 2021, adopted by by signing up for a mob at the Capitol,” the judge wrote.

Howell observed that Williams — who, in accordance to prosecutors, described himself as an “Operation Swamp Storm Veteran” right after the riot — allegedly referred to as his participation in the occasion the “proudest working day of [his] lifetime.”

Williams’ lawyer, Benton Martin, declined to comment on the ruling.

Williams was arrested in March after the FBI received a idea online that he had bragged about currently being a person of the rioters and posted, right before later on deleting, shots and video of himself at the Capitol, prosecutors reported.

The FBI explained it recovered the movies, including 1 where he spoke about possessing “stormed” the Capitol and “pushed again the cops.”

He is charged with obstruction of an formal proceeding, coming into and remaining in a restricted creating, disorderly conduct in a limited making and the Capitol Creating, as very well as parading or demonstrating in a capitol building.

Williams has pleaded not responsible. The court docket suggests he’s been negotiating a plea offer.

His vacation ask for claimed his girlfriend’s family members resides in Negril, Jamaica, and “Mr. Williams is requesting authorization to stop by Jamaica to meet her relatives from January 31, 2022, to February 10, 2022.”

“This Courtroom will not commemorate the one particular-year anniversary of this assault on the Capitol by granting defendant’s ask for for non-vital foreign vacation when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day,” Howell concluded in the ruling.