The lawyer of a Utah gentleman who partook in the Capitol riots blames his client's actions on watching too much Fox News.
Reminiscent of 2013, when the lawyer for then 16-year-old Ethan Couch blamed his client's reckless, intoxicated driving that killed four people on "affluenza," lawyer Joseph Hurley said alleged Capitol rioter Anthony Antonio came down with a case of "Foxitis," aka "Foxmania," which caused him to take part in the violence on January 6.
"For the next approximate six months, Fox television played constantly," Hurley said. "He became hooked with what I call 'Foxitus' or 'Foxmania' and became interested in the political aspect and started believing what was being fed to him."
But as Hurley was making his client's case on Zoom, he was interrupted by another accused Capitol rioter, Landon Copeland, who didn't like what he was hearing.
From CNN:
After Antonio's attorney blamed Fox News and "Foxitis," Copeland, apparently enraged by these comments, shouted, "I object." He was subsequently placed on mute by federal magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather.
Immediately after Copeland was taken off mute, he screamed, "I am going to tell the truth." He then launched into a tirade against his own lawyers, law enforcement and the judge.
"I don't like you people" Copeland said, over the protest of his attorney Ryan Stout. "… I don't know who you are, you are a robot to me. I'm out here in the desert, in no-man's-land. You can't find me if I don't want you to.
"He continued, "You're evil, that's what you are. You need to shut up."As Copeland shouted, Meriweather paused the hearing and sent Copeland to a separate videoconference room. When the hearing resumed, Copeland started arguing with the clerk, said "f–k all of y'all," and was muted again.
Antonio, who "was charged with five federal crimes" associated with the Capitol riot, according to HuffPost, "is accused of climbing the scaffolding outside the Capitol, entering the building through a broken window, obtaining a riot shield and gas mask, threatening police and squirting water at Michael Fanone, the police officer who was dragged down a set of stairs by rioters and repeatedly tased and beaten."
Image by Brett Davis / Flickr
