EXCLUSIVE: Couy Griffin spent time in jail ‘praying and fasting’ after arrest
Couy Griffin, of Tularosa, New Mexico—who achieved national fame for riding his horse, “Red,” across the United States in 2019 to meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C.—was driving past his mother’s home in Tularosa, on Saturday, May 21, when he was pulled over by an Officer Villa and handcuffed, arrested, then booked into Otero County Detention Center.
He was charged with three counts of criminal trespassing and two counts of harassment, according to Griffin.
Griffin was released from the Center on Monday and interviewed by the Piñon Post today, Tuesday, May 23.
“I spent the time in jail praying and fasting. The crazier life gets, the easier it is to let it go,” said Griffin, a former pastor, and a past Otero County Commissioner.
Griffin indicated that the problematic situation leading to Griffin’s arrest on Saturday, May 21st, began on April 13.
It was on April 13 that he picked up a man who was a stranger at the El Paso airport.
“He was a friend of a friend who was homeless in D.C. He needed help. I needed the interior of my mother’s house painted, and so I flew him out here, paid for all his food, and took him to my family’s home for Easter dinner. I let him stay in the house until the painting was finished,” said Griffin.
The location on Dusty Lane is the spot at the end of the driveway where Griffin was filmed being arrested and also the address of the house in which the homeless man and “painter” DeWayne Braithwaite is currently holed up under the protection of the local Sheriff’s office.
Griffin originally purchased the home on Dusty Lane. However, Griffin had quick-deeded his properties to his mother, a magistrate judge, due to his controversial and highly publicized pro-Trump position and threats he says he has received since he met with Trump.
Griffin testified that after Braithwaite’s painting job was completed, and he asked him to leave the home, Braithwaite charged him with “harassment.” Braithwaite included the local authorities in his complaints, calling the Sheriff’s department over seven times complaining about Griffin.
Griffin has recently been informed that Braithwaite is a former felon and had just been removed from his sister’s house in Maryland after a three-year eviction battle.
“All my problems began after that meeting with Trump in 2019. The fierce attacks began after that day,” said Griffin, who spent nine weeks in federal prison on charges related to January 6.
After the meeting with Trump, and related to his attendance at J6, Griffin was arrested by the FBI and placed in solitary confinement for nine days in federal prison—without being charged. He was not allowed to call family or an attorney before or during this initial imprisonment. Eventually, he was accused of the non-violent offense of “trespassing.”
Griffin was removed from his position as a commissioner after District Judge Francis Matthew indicated that because of Griffin’s supposed J6 “insurrectionist” behavior, he had violated Section Three of the Fourth Amendment. Defendants for Griffin stated that the clause was used in the civil war, not since 1860, and primarily to prevent Confederates from running for office.
In another interview, Griffin stated to CAT CHAT Rumble host Mahara Daniel that there were no designated areas near or on the Capital grounds or building that were clearly marked with no admittance or no trespassing signs.
Additionally, the crowds—who were mainly conservatives and/or Trump supporters who were both praying and celebrating but also protesting election results—were welcomed into the Capital, by capital security, according to Griffin.
“It was a trap. We didn’t know it, of course. You don’t let the prey know they are stepping into a trap until it’s too late,” he said, about the January 6th protest, a historical event more often referred to as an act of “insurrection.”
“I feel set up by the system. In this case, I was simply trying to help someone who was destitute, “said Griffin.
The Otero County Sheriff’s Department could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, May 23.
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