Federal prosecutors are pushing back on claims that they charged a California man with crimes in the Jan. 6 insurrection because of his political beliefs, countering that Sean Michael McHugh faces trial because he assaulted police with bear spray and a large metal sign.
In a filing in Washington, D.C., federal court, prosecutors are asking a judge to reject the Auburn construction worker’s request for discovery and an evidentiary hearing into why he was charged and now faces trial starting April 17.
“For his part, the Defendant entered the restricted west side of the United States Capitol, where he repeatedly antagonized a line of law enforcement officers, used a megaphone to encourage the mob, and openly deployed dangerous weapons while assaulting, resisting, or impeding the officers,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
They note that McHugh sprayed police with bear spray that carried a label warning of “irreversible eye damage if sprayed in the eye” and that he “also directed and assisted rioters in ramming officers with a large metal sign.”
“The Defendant also shouted directly at officers: ‘You guys like protecting pedophiles?’; ‘You’re protecting communists!’; ‘I’d be shaking in your little s— boots too’; ‘There is a second amendment behind us, what are you going to do then?’; ‘You ain’t holding the line!’”
The latest filing comes in response to a motion from McHugh’s attorney asking U.S. District Judge John D. Bates to order the Justice Department to produce documents that could show he faces charges because he is a supporter of former President Donald Trump.
McHugh’s argument relies in part on the notion that left-leaning protesters in Portland and elsewhere did not face charges similar to what McHugh is up against.
Attorney Joseph Allen also has argued that the so-called Twitter Files recently released contain a “shocking revelation” that the government used Twitter to restrict citizens’ First Amendment rights.
McHugh, the only Sacramento-area defendant in the Jan. 6 prosecutions who remains in custody, also has sought a number of other orders, including dismissal of charges, his release from jail pending trial and having the trial moved to Sacramento.
The judge has yet to rule on those motions, and in a hearing Friday morning he repeated his stance that McHugh’s trial will begin on April 17.
McHugh has previously rejected a plea deal offered by prosecutors, who say they expect their portion of the upcoming trial to last a week.
And in their latest filing prosecutors say McHugh has produced no evidence that he has been singled out.
“In a motion filled with speculations and insinuations, the Defendant alleges that the government selectively targeted him for prosecution based on his political beliefs,” they wrote, adding that the fact McHugh was charged stems from his actions.
“The charged conduct — the Defendant’s violent assaults on law enforcement officers in a mob effort to besiege the U.S. Capitol Building and disrupt the certification of the Presidential Election — further underscores his lack of proof showing discriminatory effect,” they wrote.
“The Defendant has not identified another individual in his comparator protestor groups who committed similarly violent assault targeting the gears and personnel of government, but who faced no prosecution.”
McHugh is the only one of Sacramento’s four Jan. 6 defendants to proceed to trial. Two of them — Valerie Elaine Ehrke of Arbuckle and Tommy Frederick Allan of Rocklin — have accepted plea deals and have been sentenced.
A fourth, GOP activist Jorge Aaron Riley of Sacramento, is expected to agree to a plea deal at a hearing scheduled for March 7. His attorney, Tim Zindel, has previously told The Bee he expects Riley to plead guilty to a single count of obstructing an official proceeding.