Defense Attorney For Jan 6 Rioters Bogged Down In Chimp Case

John Pierce, a former civil attorney turned go-to defense attorney for Jan, 6 rioters, is trying to work himself out of a $800,000 tax debt rolled up when he had substance abuse issues. For a while he represented Kenosha, Wisconsin, murder suspect Kyle Rittenhouse, but they parted ways after a financial dispute with The shooter’s wealthy backers. Now he has about 20 defendants from Jan. 6. He says he will pursue an unusual tactic called a “public authority defense,” most often used by snitches who commit crimes undercover, arguing that his clients believed that the government in the form of Donald Trump sanctioned their law-breaking. The problem is, he has no experience in criminal law, and spends a lot of time tweeting thinly-veiled gun threats about federal officials. He is also defending another case that has become a cause celebre on the far right, this one over whether a Missouri woman must surrender her chimps to a wildlife sanctuary after agreeing to so in deal with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.