Federal prosecutors contest accused Capitol rioter's attempt to dismiss case

Borys Krawczeniuk, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·2 min read
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Jul. 5—Federal prosecutors want a judge to throw out an Olyphant woman's attempt at getting her Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot charges dismissed.

Last month, Deborah Lynn Lee's California-based lawyer, attorney John M. Pierce, argued the written charges against her are too vague and don't offer enough proof she committed a crime.

In his response filed last week, federal prosecutor Michael J. Romano says the vagueness claim is unjustified because Lee never explains why the charges are vague.

"Lee declines to identify any portion of the text of any of the four statutes she is charged with violating that would create confusion in the mind of a reasonable person about the boundary between lawful and unlawful conduct," Romano wrote. "She apparently expects the court and the government to undertake that task. But this Court should not do (Lee's) work for (her)."

Lee, 55, is charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol.

A criminal complaint shows video of her outside Capitol doors.

"I'm live. I'm at the Capitol doors. We're all the way inside the building. We're trying to get in. We got the glass broken," a woman narrator of a video posted on her Facebook account says, according to the complaint.

Other video shows Lee inside. In private messages to other Facebook users, Lee said, "I broke into congress (sic) and there were guns on us" and "It's our house. Our capital (sic). We had every right to occupy."

Lee rejected a plea bargain earlier this year and decided to go to trial.

Pierce also wants U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to bar federal prosecutors from using closed-circuit television video at Lee's trial. He says FBI investigators can't verify the video as real because they didn't record it.

Romano says the defense can't show the closed-circuit video is unreliable and assumes prosecutors won't be able to show it's reliable. Romano also wants Pierce's attempt to move the trial out of Washington, D.C., dismissed, because he hasn't proved Lee can't get a fair trial there.

Romano does not contest Pierce's attempt to stop discussion of possible punishment during the trial, but said that's because federal court rules already bar punishment talk.

Pierce has until July 12 to respond to Romano's claims. Jackson set July 18 at 2 p.m. for a hearing on Pierce's motions.

Contact the writer:

bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.