A Jan. 6 rioter told jurors on Wednesday that he felt “obligated” to storm the Capitol—where he ultimately stole a liquor bottle and coat rack—because former President Donald Trump had essentially ordered his supporters to do it. “If the president is giving you almost an order to do something, I felt obligated to do that,” Dustin Thompson, 38, said at his trial Wednesday, adding that he “had to do something to gain his respect or, like, approval.” Thompson’s defense strategy has hinged on the idea that he was “vulnerable”—as his lawyer put it Tuesday—and truly bought Trump’s lies that the election had been stolen by President Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly denied that he actually incited his supporters to storm the Capitol. “The way he was saying it was believable to me,” said Thompson. “I mean, I believed him.” He now knows better, he told jurors.
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