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Judge Slams DOJ For ‘Trampling’ Rights Of Capitol Riot Defendant – ‘No Excuse To Treat A Human Being Like That’

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A judge on Monday admonished the Justice Department for their handling of Capitol riot cases, suggesting the sheer size and scope of the investigation led to some defendants having their rights “trampled.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui made the unusually stern denunciation at a hearing for Lucas Denney of Texas, whom the judge states was “lost” in the system as the DOJ sought to prosecute a considerable number of cases involving January 6th.

Faruqui, who noted he was formerly a federal prosecutor in the same U.S. Attorney’s Office leading the investigation, suggested the government had “bitten off more than it can chew.”

“You have been lost for months,” the judge told Denney. “There’s no excuse to treat a human being like that. … There is no circumstance under which any person should be forgotten.”

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Judge: Capitol Riot Defenders Rights being Trampled

Politico reports that Faruqui seemed inclined to release Denney but such a move was complicated because a grand jury had indicted him – on a single count related to the Capitol riot.

This indictment was filed Monday, 425 day after the incident on January 6.

Interestingly, Denney’s name does not appear on the Justice Department’s roll call of ‘Capitol Breach Cases.’

He does, however, appear in a press release from the DOJ indicating he has been charged and accused of having “grabbed and shoved a police officer” and swinging a “long metal pole” at them.

Denney was detained in December without bail but wasn’t transferred to Washington for six weeks. According to Politico, Denney was held in December without bail, but no one contacted Washington for Denney’s hearing. This lasted for more than three weeks.

“I am utterly at a loss,” Faruqui told the Capitol riot defendant during his hearing. 

“I see a person’s rights that have been trampled,” the judge said.

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Rights Being Trampled

It is important to note that while most seek to justify a judge’s decisions or comments based on their perceived political leanings, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui doesn’t appear exactly to be a Trump-leaning supporter by any means.

Faruqui, who was appointed as a federal magistrate Judge in September 2020, is being vetted for the vacancy at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton(D-DC), according to Buzzfeed News. This happened at the White House’s direction.

“Faruqui spent more than a decade in US attorney offices, first in St. Louis and then in Washington — another traditional path to the federal bench that liberal groups hope Biden relies less on — but … would be a potentially history-making pick as an American Muslim,” the report states.

Aside from Denney’s rights being ‘trampled,’ at least two other Capitol riot defendants according to the Justice Department’s log remain held without bond.

Nicholas James Brockhoff was arrested in May of 2021, pled not guilty in early September, and Ryan Samsel was arrested on January 30, 2021. Both remain “held without bond.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said to reporters recently that January 6 rioters were “being treated differently.”

“They’re denied time with their attorneys,” Greene alleged. “They are denied the ability to even see their families and have their families visit there. They are denied bail and (are) being held there without bail.”