Confederate flag-toting man, son convicted in Capitol riot

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday convicted a Confederate flag-toting man and his son of charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol together to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden delivered the verdict from the bench after hearing two days of testimony without a jury for the trial of Delaware residents Kevin Seefried and his adult son, Hunter.

McFadden convicted both Kevin and Hunter Seefried of a felony count: obstruction of an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

The judge also convicted both men of misdemeanor charges that they engaged in disorderly conduct and illegally demonstrated inside the building. But he acquitted Hunter Seefried of other misdemeanor charges for clearing a shard of glass from a broken window at the Capitol.



FILE - Kevin Seefried, second from left, holds a Confederate battle flag as he and other insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. A federal judge on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, convicted Kevin Seefried and his adult son Hunter Seefried of charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol together to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-politics-congress-donald-trump-1fcaacc1199cb37cd971b71768b8ace3

[underpants]

1. You really made a difference there guys. Real legends.

You names are actually going down in history.

[COL Mustard]

16. I'm glad they are now convicted felons

Kiss your guns goodbye, fellas. Also your vote, at least for a while.

Morons.

[Journeyman]

2. Wish they'd charged and convicted him specifically for dragging that rag into the chamber . . .

it was an affront in so many, many egregious ways.

I hope the Judge shows no mercy in his sentencing.

[The Grand Illuminist]

3. Again with the misdemeanors

Might as well let them get away with it.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. They were also convicted of a felony

From the OP excerpt -

McFadden convicted both Kevin and Hunter Seefried of a felony count: obstruction of an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

Later in the article is this interesting tidbit -

The Seefrieds, who waived their right to jury trial, were the first Capitol riot defendants to get a bench trial on a felony charge.

Since this happened in Delaware, they apparently have a law that as convicted felons, they will not be to vote until their sentences are done and the sentencing is supposed to happen in September per the OP article -

They will remain free pending separate sentencing hearings in September.

[Walleye]

4. Felonies. Two fewer Republican voters in the next election

[DBoon]

8. Two fewer gun owners

[Walleye]

9. Right. I forgot about that. Perfect punishment

[calimary]

14. Meh, I bet they'll try to cheat to vote anyway, out of spite.

It would just follow along with the behavior they've already exhibited.

[Walleye]

15. Well they're from Delaware and fortunately we are solid blue at the moment

Pisses me off though since Delaware was not a slave state. We are east of the Mason-Dixon line. Laurel has always been my least favorite town in this whole state. We used to play them in high school field hockey, they were the dirtiest players we had to face

[greenjar_01]

22. Mason and Dixon were famously unable to consider the Delaware wedge

[Walleye]

24. Been lost there many times myself

[Tomconroy]

5. This is the only trump appointed judge involved with the Jan 6

cases. He's been notably lenient on insurrection and gave a NG verdict in a prior court tried insurrection case.

[Justice matters.]

7. Quite a 'patriotic' family of bigots in there: Losers!

Lock 'em up and throw away the keys.

Oh, and f*ck 'fux entertainment'.

[TomSlick]

10. The wheels of justice turn slowly but they grind exceedingly fine.

[cab67]

11. They went to trial?

What defense could they possibly have used?

[calimary]

12. Incels.

That's all I see here.

[COL Mustard]

17. Well, since it's a father and son....

At least the Dad got laid on at least one occasion.

[Marthe48]

23. Maybe

n/t

[COL Mustard]

26. True.

And well played!

[Marthe48]

27. Thank you

[electric_blue68]

13. Good! Anyone remember in the photo of the guy with the Confederate flag walking past a painting ...

why it was particularly poignant, something, something...

besides the blaring fact that that flag had not breached The Capital during The Civil War!


🤔 Supposedly something about that particular painting?

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

18. Of all the pictures we saw that day,

The one of this worm carrying that flag OUTRAGED me so much, I screamed out loud at the top of my lungs something I cannot repeat here. I was stationed in the Deep South for most of my military career, and I saw first hand the pain and anguish that the confederate flag caused. Saw the pain and the fear on the faces of Black Americans. Having been raised in an upper northern state, I had never witnessed anything like this. My parents are immigrants (From the UK) and I never observed that kind of racial hatred or hostility from any of my neighbors or friends. Reared in the Catholic church, I was taught that we were all children of god, irrespective of color of skin. We attended mass with communicants of all colors.

But getting stationed in the South opened my eyes. It would not take me long to understand what WHITE PRIVILEGE meant.

[electric_blue68]

19. What an intense, and sobering experience.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

20. Those years completely changed me.

On so many levels. But fundamentally, I became a different person.

I will relate one experience I had very early on in my first deployment, that - 40 years on - still disturbs me deeply.

I was in a Piggly Wiggly doing some grocery shopping, still in uniform. I saw a young Black child (Maybe 9 or ten ?) looking intensely at the front of a box of some staple. I asked him (jokingly) if he was comparative price shopping. His response will never leave me. His body stiffened. He looked immediately at the floor. Laser focused on the floor, not looking up at me. I didn't understand his response. So, I bent really low down so that I was actually looking up into his little face. I was smiling, and said "hi." His eyes widened in panic, and I could see tears forming. Not knowing what was happening at this point, I lowered my voice to a whisper and asked him if he was alright. He still would not make eye contact with me. About this time, his mum came around the corner, saw me bent down next to her son and asked me if he had done something wrong. "No, no." I said, "I was jusy trying to talk to him and he sort of . . . shut down. Did I do something wrong ?" Hearing my accent, she said, "You're not from around here are you." More of a statement than a question. "No, ma'am, I'm not." She then proceeded to tell me about The South, and explained why her son had reacted to me as he had (and that he had thought he had offended a White Person). I stood there, gobsmacked, listening as she spoke. After a few minutes, tears started to well in my eyes and I softly said "I didn't know any of that." and I apologized to the boy if I had frightened him, and then asked if I could shake his hand. He looked to his mum, she nodded, and he extended his hand. I took that little hand in mine, then I pulled him in for a quick hug. He huggged me back. When I released him, he looked at me and I was crying. And I was a different person.

[electric_blue68]

25. Thank you for sharing something so personally intense...

What you told me is terrible (not your final exchange with the the child; that was very meaningful) but I'm not surprised - having learned a lot about The South, while still being much aware of racism in The North where I live.


Of course, unless you knew such things you wouldn't have known the depth of how fearful your actions would have been to a Southern Black child back then. And not just for children. Whom "being Careful" is an everyday mantra (up here, too, but usually more directed at police, and other LEO, while keeping a eye out for immediately dangerous racists, and more subtle actions at work etc).

Like an epiphany.

[greenjar_01]

21. Once you get more than 300 yards from the ocean, Southern Delaware is an absolute hole

Yeeesh.