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Trial continues for Mainer who allegedly injured 3 cops while storming capitol on Jan. 6

Wednesday marked the second day of the federal trial against Kyle Fitzsimons, the Lebanon man facing nearly a dozen charges for his involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 last year.

Kyle Fitzsimons
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Kyle Fitzsimons

Federal prosecutors say Fitzsimons injured three officers during the assault and two of them testified Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras also heard testimony from Harrison Thorp, a reporter who interviewed Fitzsimons shortly after the attempted insurrection and published the account in the Rochester Voice, a newspaper based in Rochester, N.H.

During the first day of trial, the judge heard testimony from Aisha Woodward, the chief of staff for Maine Congressman Jared Golden.

Testifying under a subpoena, Woodward described two voicemails Fitzsimons left for Golden in late December of 2020 that urged the Democrat to join several Republicans in objecting to the certification of the election.

Audio of one voicemail, which Woodward described as “menacing,” was recorded by WMTW TV in Portland.

"I am asking for your courage, sir. Courage to dispute what we all know is a garbage election," Fitzsimons says in the voicemail. "Will you have the courage to object on the 6th?"

Thirty-eight year-old Fitzsimons is one of five Maine residents charged with crimes related to the attempted insurrection.

His assigned attorney, Natasha Taylor-Smith, argues her client did not plan to get involved in the violent assault and that he showed up at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because he had been told by mainstream media sources, and former President Trump himself, that there was a plan to peacefully object to the election certification.

Judge Contreras will make that determination because Fitzsimons has opted for a bench trial instead of a jury trial.

Journalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.