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Two judges appointed by former President Donald Trump are rejecting claims being made by Jan. 6 defendants that they are being treated more unfairly because of their conservative views than how left-leaning protesters from the 2020 riots in Portland, Oregon, had been handled. Federal Judge Trevor McFadden, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, on Tuesday said the Jan. 6 defendants didn’t have enough evidence that shows discrimination, reports CNN. Last week, Judge Carl Nichols, also appointed to the federal court in D.C. by Trump, made a similar ruling. In McFadden’s ruling, Jan. 6 defendant David Lee Judd had asked that the judge examine Justice Department records about prosecution decisions in the Portland cases, and claimed that he had been treated unfairly compared to those cases. But McFadden said on Tuesday that the riots in Portland did not risk the same threats to safety as the Jan. 6 protests at the Capitol posed, even though federal buildings were attacked in both cases. “The Portland defendants primarily attacked at night, meaning that they raged against a largely vacant courthouse,” McFadden wrote in his ruling. “In contrast, the January 6 rioters attacked the Capitol in broad daylight. And many entered it. … Their actions endangered hundreds of federal officials in the Capitol complex. Members of Congress cowered under chairs while staffers blockaded themselves in offices, fearing physical attacks from the rioters.” Judd is charged with an indictment related to the three-hour battle inside one of the tunnels at the Capitol. Prosecutors are accusing him of throwing a firecracker at the police trying to hold back the protesters, and he has pleaded not guilty.
