Couy Griffin, who was a New Mexico county commissioner at the time, was convicted of trespassing for making his way to the inaugural stage on the west side of the Capitol despite the area being restricted. He was sentenced to 14 days behind bars and a year of supervised probation.
Griffin appealed by arguing that he didn’t know a Secret Service protectee – in this case, Vice President Mike Pence – was in the Capitol when he was there, which he said was a requirement of the statute.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that signs that warned of a restricted area were enough to notify Griffin the area was off limits while Congress counted Electoral College votes.
