Nearly four years after rioters violently attempted to stop the certification of presidential election results, a federal judge has rejected a request that a man convicted for his role in the Capitol rampage attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on the invitation of former Rep. Chris Stewart and, reportedly, three of Utah’s current members of Congress.
“It would not be appropriate,” Judge Royce Lamberth wrote, “for the Court to grant permission to attend such a hallowed event to someone who carried weapons and threatened police officers in an attempt to thwart the last inauguration, and who openly glorified ‘[i]nsurrection’ against the United States.”
Russell Taylor, who has been described by prosecutors as a leader in the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt, brought knives, a stun baton, two hatchets and carbon fiber knuckle gloves to the Capitol, according to court records, and encouraged others to bring weapons.
Stewart, who was among the 147 congressional Republicans who voted not to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump, wrote to Lamberth in December on behalf of Taylor — a Californian convicted of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
In the letter, Stewart cited his previous positions in Congress and the U.S. Air Force in making the request that Taylor be allowed to accept his invite, adding, “three other current members of the Utah congressional delegation join with me in extending this invitation.”
The identify of those three members of Congress is unclear.
Spokespeople for three of Utah’s six members of Congress at the time the letter was written — Sen. Mitt Romney, Rep. John Curtis and Rep. Blake Moore — previously told The Salt Lake Tribune that they did not give the invitation.
Recently sworn in Rep. Michael Kennedy’s chief of staff said the freshman House member was not aware of the letter nor of any requests for inauguration tickets for Taylor.
A spokesperson for Rep. Celeste Maloy said in December the congresswoman “hasn’t issued any invitations to the inauguration yet” but declined to comment when asked whether Maloy would offer a ticket if Taylor had been allowed to travel. Questions sent to Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Burgess Owens went unanswered.
The last portion of Lamberth’s five-page decision, issued Friday, specifically addressed Stewart’s letter, saying the judge “duly considered” the endorsement.
“The Court takes no position today on Mr. Taylor’s good attributes to which the letter gestures, namely his ‘integrity,’ ‘faith,’ family values, and service to the less fortunate,” Lamberth, a federal judge for the District of Columbia, wrote in his ruling. “Such personal attributes may inform the Court’s decision at sentencing, but ... Mr. Taylor already received an unusually lenient sentence relative to the acts he committed.”
Taylor was sentenced in May to six months of home detention and three years of probation.
The ruling continued, “Mr. Taylor’s good traits and adherence to his terms of probation are of only marginal importance to the motion at hand. Mr. Taylor’s motion presents only the narrow question of whether a person who conspired and acted to thwart the peaceful transfer of power four years ago with incitement, threats, and weapons should now be granted special permission to attend the celebration of the peaceful transfer of power. The answer to that question is ‘no,’ whether not he is, generally speaking, a good person.”
A California attorney for Taylor, Dyke Huish, said his client is connected to Stewart through a “close family friend.” Huish declined to name the friend. The lawyer said Taylor “never had a relationship with the congressman [Stewart] until after he was sentenced ... not before.”
Lamberth’s decision follows a filing by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, in which he called Taylor’s request “outrageous” and said he should not be allowed “to return to the scene of the crime.”
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