A US federal judge on Thursday rejected a Capitol riot defendant’s request to travel to Jamaica for a 10-day getaway while awaiting trial.
Anthony Williams, a Michigan man accused of storming the US Capitol building on January 6 last year, had asked Judge Beryl Howell for permission to travel to Jamaica to meet his girlfriend’s family while on pretrial release.
According to the defendant’s written request, he would stay in a home owned by his girlfriend’s father, and intends to spend time working with a local non-profit, St Anthony’s Kitchen, in Negril, Jamaica.
However, Howell shot down the request.
“This Court will not commemorate the one-year anniversary of this attack on the Capitol by granting defendant’s request for non-essential foreign travel when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day,” Howell wrote in her denial.
Williams has been charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing an official proceeding in relation to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the incident. Over 170 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges.
