SC man accused in Jan. 6 Capitol riot gets 2 more months to decide on trial

An Anderson man facing federal charges in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol was given another two months to decide whether to go to trial or plead guilty.

Federal Judge Paul Friedman on Tuesday gave Derek Gunby until June 30 to decide. Gunby appeared before Friedman, who is based in Washington, during a remote hearing.

Gunby is charged with unlawfully entering Capitol grounds, intentionally disrupting the orderly conduct of government business and being disruptive in a Capitol building. All charges are misdemeanors, and the maximum penalty Gunby faces is a year in prison. Evidence against him includes photos, video and his own social media postings.

Gunby was arrested last June, and has been out on a $25,000 unsecured bond since.

The reason for the delay was that in recent weeks, Gunby has retained a new lawyer, Los Angeles-area attorney John Pierce.

The delay will give Pierce time to become familiar with the evidence in the case and allow the federal prosecutor, Christopher Amore, a chance to assemble the last pieces of evidence — material from Gunby’s cell phone and laptop — for use in any upcoming proceedings.

Gunby’s original lawyer, Lora Blanchard, a federal public defender based in Greenville, is no longer on the case, according to court records.

Gunby’s new lawyer has a reputation as a controversial pro-Donald Trump attorney who represents approximately 20 Jan. 6 defendants — perhaps more than any other defense lawyer in the case — according to news reports. A September National Public Radio investigation outlined some of the controversies that surround Pierce, including that he has made false claims Trump won the 2020 election.

In August, Pierce — then representing 17 Capitol riot defendants — raised questions by federal prosecutors when he disappeared for several weeks and an associate who was not a lawyer attempted to fill in for him in federal court. A report said Pierce had contracted COVID-19 or a similar illness and had been hospitalized. Pierce has also spoken out against COVID-19 vaccines.

Pierce also attracted national attention last summer when he attempted to put together a law firm that would seek investors to finance litigation against high-dollar targets in return for a percentage of settlements or favorable verdicts, according to a New Yorker investigation.

Charging documents in Gunby’s case, based on photographs and videos, said he was in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, because he wanted to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s November 2020 election.

Then-President Trump and his associates had made widely circulated false claims that Democrats had stolen the election. Those claims have been thrown out of some 60 courts for a lack of evidence.

The morning of Jan. 6, Gunby posted on his Facebook page a photo of him and an associate riding the subway with the caption, “Up at Zero Dark Thirty to stop this steal,” according to an FBI statement of facts in his case.

In a video Gunby livestreamed after the riot, he is heard saying, “They just tried to steal this election right in front of everybody’s face. And any of you, any of you, who are gonna sit there and look anybody in the face, and say that that didn’t happen, that this election fraud didn’t happen, that we’re making it up, that it’s unsubstantiated, you need to wake up,” the FBI document said.

The rioters forced members of Congress and their staffs to flee the Capitol for five hours. More than 100 law officers were injured.

Of the 11 people from South Carolina arrested on charges stemming from the riot:

▪ Four have pleaded guilty and been sentenced

▪ Two have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on May 3

▪ One is scheduled to plead guilty in early May

▪ Four have not decided how to plead

During Tuesday’s hearing, the judge told Gunby he should make a decision about trial by the end of June.

“We ought to move forward and get this case behind you, Mr. Gunby, whether it’s a plea or whether it’s a trial, and not just keep putting it off and putting it off,” Friedman said.

Nearly 800 individuals from around the country have been charged with offenses in the Jan. 6 riot. More 250 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including more than 85 people who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.