A lawyer representing one of the Capitol rioters is claiming that his client was motivated to join the insurgence by watching too much Fox News.
Anthony Antonio stormed the Capitol on January 6th with his fellow Trump supporters. He was seen in several videos at the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace Entrance, confronting police officers. In police bodycam footage, he is heard screaming, “You want war? We got war. 1776 all over again.”
Antonio turned himself in last month in Delaware. His charges include violent entry and disorderly conduct, knowingly entering or remaining on restricted grounds without lawful authority, impeding law enforcement during civil disorder, disrupting Congress, and damaging government property.
His attorney, Joseph Hurley, argued that Antonio simply had a bad case of “Foxitus” and “Foxmania” after spending countless hours viewing Fox News. Hurley explained to a Washington, D.C. magistrate judge that while Antonio was laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, he spent most of his time with four others watching Fox News, which caused his condition to deteriorate.
“For the next approximate six months, Fox television played constantly,” Hurley claimed. “Antonio became hooked with what I call ‘Foxitus’ or ‘Foxmania’ and became interested in the political aspect and started believing what was being fed to him.”
Hurley said that Antonio thought he was serving his country by storming the Capitol and feels that the court should turn their attention to the “bad” protesters first.
