Capitol Riot Suspect Asked Judge for Permission to Go on Vacation—and the Judge Was Not Having It

More than 700 people have been arrested in the year since pro-Trump extremists mounted a deadly failed insurrection against the United States Capitol.

Some of these defendants have since claimed they were duped by former President Donald Trump into believing his months-long smear campaign against the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

They've also made some bizarre requests in court. The infamous QAnon Shaman demanded—and was later granted—an all-organic diet while behind bars. Another defendant requested an exception to a court-ordered social media ban that would allow him to use dating apps.

And another bizarre request has come from Capitol riot suspect Anthony Williams of Michigan.

Williams was arrested last year on charges of disorderly conduct, obstruction of official proceedings, and entering a restricted building. In the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, he bragged that storming the Capitol was the "proudest day of [his] life."

Williams recently asked U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell for permission to travel to Jamaica to meet the family of a woman with whom he's been in a committed relationship for "more than a year."

On January 6 of this year—the first year anniversary of the insurrection in which Williams participated—Judge Howell handed down her decision on the matter.

She wrote:

"Although such a meeting may be an important step in defendant's personal relationship, defendant surrendered his entitlement to unfettered international travel when, also 'more than a year' ago, on December 30, 2020, he allegedly announced his intent to 'Storm the Swamp,' ... and one week later, on January 6, 2021, followed through by joining a mob at the Capitol that, in his words, 'took [that] f***ing building,' ... an event he allegedly viewed as the 'proudest day of [his] life.'"

She concluded:

"This Court will not commemorate the one-year anniversary of this attack on the Capitol by granting defendant's request for non-essential foreign travel when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day."

Social media users applauded her response.

Others were amazed that Williams filed the request in the first place.

Judge Howell has previously questioned the Justice Department for the supposedly lenient sentences it seeks for many of the Capitol rioters, upping the sentences in her verdicts in response.