A Navy reservist charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was convicted by a jury Wednesday of possessing three unregistered firearms silencers in a separate case.
Speed was investigated by the FBI for more than a year after U.S. authorities say he breached the Capitol with the Proud Boys extremist group during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. He has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack. That trial is set to begin next month.that Speed owned three unregistered silencers, which the FBI seized in JuneSpeed until recently worked with a U.S. defense and intelligence cyberoperations contractor based in Vienna, Va.
“These devices were not solvent traps,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas W. Traxler told the jury. “These devices were firearm silencers masquerading as solvent traps — and the defendant knew that.”A public defender for Speed, Brooke S. Rupert, said the devices were not designed to be silencers,“These solvent traps, which were labeled as solvent traps and marketed as solvent traps, were found untouched and unmodified 15 months” after Speed purchased them, Rupert told the jury.
Speed was first tried in December, but that jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, and U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff declaredfrom the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives , Eve Eisenbise, testified that she tested one of the devices seized from Speed and found that it was one of the most effective silencers she had seen, reducing the firing sound of a .22-caliber Ruger pistol by 23.58 decibels.
Under federal law, any device or “combination of parts” intended to reduce the sound of gunfire must be registered with federal officials as if it were a firearm, even if it is not found in a functional state. U.S. officials have seized the website of Hawk Innovative Tech and its owners’ financial assets, claiming in a legal filing that the company was engaging in fraud.
The company’s attorney previously told The Washington Post that no charges have been filed as part of that investigation and that Hawk Innovative Tech refused to sell to people who said they wanted to purchase silencers.
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