Nancy Pelosi criticized the Republican National Committee for calling the January attack on the Capitol a legitimate political discourse. Guy Reffitt is charged with five felony counts in connection with the January riot at the U.S. Capitol. The outcome of the trial will determine if hundreds of other people will seek to enter into plea deals with the government. The jury selection has taken on more scrutiny because of that. Many potential jurors might not be able to maintain impartiality in the case. A man who worked as a congressional page said he once gave tours of the Capitol. The woman said her daughter works for the Department of Homeland Security. A man said his stepmother worked in the Trump administration, and that his father was a major donor to the former Republican president. People who live near the Capitol said they have friends who work there. Some people said they had former FBI agents in their family. Potential jurors were called to answer questions about their views on the riot that delayed the certification of Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election. Reffitt, a 49-year-old Texas oil industry worker and alleged member of the far-right Three Percenters militia, is charged with bringing a firearm onto Capitol grounds, interfering with police officers protecting the building from rioters, and threatening his own children if they reported. He is the first person to have his case heard by a jury. No one can come into this courtroom with a blank slate, but we don't want jurors who have formed an opinion of what happened that day. Friedrich said that the main question for her would be whether a juror's views are so strong that he or she cannot impartially judge. Reffitt's attorney had requested a change of venue for the trial, arguing that jurors in Washington, D.C. cannot be impartial. Friedrich said that Reffitt's defense could try to get the trial moved if many of the potential jurors in Washington ended up being disqualified for bias. Friedrich, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court in Washington by former President Donald Trump, began Monday's jury selection by reading 27 questions aloud to about 80 potential jurors. Prospective jurors were asked about the events of January 6 and whether they followed the news or not. The pamphlet was handed out to jurors by someone outside the courthouse. It is not clear what was in the pamphlet. Friedrich questioned the jurors individually. She said that attorneys for the prosecution and defense would need to approve a total of 40 jurors. On Monday, 25 had qualified. Friedrich said she would finish jury selection by Tuesday. One woman said she didn't follow the attack because the media sensationalized it. One woman said she was aware of him because of the story in the Washington Post. The first day of jury selection highlighted the challenges involved in prosecuting Jan. 6 cases in Washington, where most potential jurors have not only seen at least some news coverage of the attack but, in many cases, have either direct or indirect ties to the federal government or law enforcement. Several of the jurors said they watched the events unfold on television at their homes near the Capitol, some even became emotional while answering questions about their experiences that day. Most of the people who said they had formed opinions said they would be able to put their personal views aside if they were selected to serve on the jury. Reffitt's defense attorney moved to have prospective jurors removed from the jury pool because they weren't sure. One woman who was the first to be struck from the pool said she didn't think she could be impartial. I said it from my heart. A man who was sent home said that everyone who went in was guilty. The others in the pool were not dismissed despite the fact that they might be leaning towards siding with either the prosecution or the defense. One woman mentioned recent interviews she had heard with Julie Kelly, a right-wing commentator and author of a book, about the Capitol attack. Kelly promotes the conspiracy theory that the attack on the Capitol was orchestrated by the FBI on her website and on her feed. Kelly responded to a potential Reffitt juror's impartial comments Monday, asking if she should make the jury. A woman who was not dismissed after the first day said that her daughter had worked for the Department of Homeland Security for the last four or five years and that when she heard the judge speak about the Reffitt case, she was leaning toward the government. The acts were wrong against the government. Everyone living in the city was at risk. The woman later said she was confident that she could decide the case based on the information presented in court. Reffitt has not been accused of entering the Capitol building. According to prosecutors, when he charged at police officers outside the building, he was wearing body armor and a video camera attached to a helmet and was carrying a handgun in a waist holder. He retreated after the officer sprayed him. Reffitt was charged with obstructing an official proceeding, interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder, transporting firearms to Washington, D.C., and carrying a firearm on Capitol grounds. He was charged with obstruction of justice because he told his teenage son and daughter that they would be traitors if they reported him to law enforcement. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Reffitt's children are among about a dozen witnesses the prosecutors plan to call during the trial. Three Capitol Police officers interacted with Reffitt on Jan. 6, and a fellow member of the Texas chapter of the Three Percenter militia group who traveled with Reffitt to Washington and back to Texas. Guy Reffitt of Texas is accused of taking part in a riot that tried to stop Congress from certifying the election of Joe Biden. A guilty verdict for Reffitt could encourage other defendants to accept plea deals. More than 200 people have pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the Capitol riot. Guy Reffitt is facing five felony counts in the first trial of an alleged participant in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds of other defendants who have yet to enter into plea deals with the government will be watching the trial. It marks a turning point in the criminal investigation of the attack, and depending on the outcome, could prompt guilty pleas or encourage defendants to fight in court. Few know that Amazon has millions of Prime subscribers. It has been a couple of decades, but he was caught. The poster boy of the January 6 attack is still vivid in the minds of potential jurors. In her latest book, a collection of some 50 shorter pieces of her writing, Canadian poet, novelist and literary critic Margaret Atwood shows her varied and intense interests in subjects from feminism to climate change. The essays reflect on the novel "The Handmaid Tale", which is about women being taken advantage of by a patriarchal and totalitarian state. In an essay on the book's 30th anniversary, Atwood reveals she delayed writing it because she was worried it would be considered too far-fetched. They saw that it worked. Almost every house in the neighborhood has it. I get a lot of thanks for my method. Zelenskiy did not say how a no-fly zone would be enforced. Zelenskiy said that Russia should be brought before an international tribunal for war crimes. During the first round of talks with Ukrainian officials in Belarus on Monday, he said that Russia continued to bombard Ukrainian cities. On Monday, the leaders of eight European Union countries in Central and Eastern Europe gave their support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's plea to quickly facilitate his country's membership in the EU. In cities around the world, people have gathered to protest the decision of the Russian President to launch a war in Ukraine. Enjoy this stunning graphics and deep game-play. The lawyers who are trying to overturn Scott Peterson's conviction for the murder of his pregnant wife finished questioning on Monday without shaking the former juror's testimony that she acted properly before and during the trial. The judge would have to find that Nice was biased against Peterson from the beginning, tainting his jury and denying him a fair trial. The next two days of the hearing will be spent putting on witnesses who will disagree with Nice's answers. A strong coalition of like-minded nations should step in and seriously consider this, says the Mississippi Republican. A senior U.S. defense official said on Sunday that Russia could be shifting its strategy to siege warfare just as Putin raises the risk of a catastrophic miscalculation. US officials said that Putin gave the order to his nuclear forces as Washington assesses that Russian troops have made limited progress in their four-day-old invasion due to stiff Ukrainian resistance and planning failures that have left some units without fuel or other supplies. Hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, were fleeing the Russian assault into neighboring countries as missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities. Home equity and cash out refinance rates are the best today. View rates and calculate payment. 30 Year terms. You can view rates now. Some Republicans have ignored or claimed they didn't know about the attendance. Alan Bumgardner says thatMaureen O'Connor needs to wake up to the fact that Democrats gerrymander states they control. Over the weekend, creators reported that they weren't able to access funds from the platform. The best movies show societies in a state of suffering or injustice. In response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, there are protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California. Madison Cawthorn refiled candidacy papers on Monday and will run for reelection in a district that largely follows the boundaries of the far-mountain district that the first-term Republican currently represents. Cawthorn is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and voted against certifying Joe Biden's presidential victory. In December, Cawthorn filed to run for an open seat further east that had been created by the state legislature. He lives in the district covering Henderson County, but it was considered a more pro-GOP district. The United States has not seen any "muscle movements" after Putin said he was putting his nuclear forces on high alert. Some former U.S. officials and experts warn that it would be foolish to write off Putin's comments as bluster, given the risk that he could use nuclear weapons if the war in Ukraine spills over. There is a silly animal meme everywhere. The presence of Russian state-linked news outlets on the platforms of social media giants has been accused of pushing misinformation about Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The Secretary General of the U.N. said Monday that enough is enough. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were at the event.The rioters got within 2 doors of Vice President Mike Pence's office. See how in this 3D explainer from Yahoo Immersive.