Elias Irizarry at the U.S Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Attorney’s Office/TNS)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Tribune News Service) — A federal judge has denied a request by a Citadel cadet who was charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to participate in a three-week study abroad program this summer in Estonia that included visits to sensitive government installations, including a NATO cybersecurity station.
“He is facing federal charges in one of the most serious and consequential actions in this country over 100 years,” U.S. Judge Tanya Chutkan said Tuesday of Elias Irizarry, a sophomore at South Carolina’s military college, The Citadel.
“Your motion ... is denied,” Chutkan told Eugene Ohm, Irizarry’s lawyer, who had urged the judge to let Irizarry travel to Estonia for a three-week study abroad program.
Irizarry did not speak in the hearing held by teleconference. Irizarry has been on federal bail since his arrest in March 2021.
He has pleaded not guilty.
In court Tuesday, Chutkan said Irizarry has so far rejected a plea offer and has not sought to move the case forward by saying he wanted to go to trial or offering to plead guilty.
“I think Mr. Irizarry needs to reexamine his priorities,” Chutkan said.
Ohm argued Irizarry would be supervised while on the trip, but Chutkan was unmoved. Estonia borders Russia, and the study abroad program would involve visiting NATO sites, the judge said.
Ohm also argued that Irizarry should face no sanction in his pending case as he has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent.
“What if he wanders into Russia?” the judge asked during the hearing. “I don’t need a lecture on the presumption of innocence.”
Chutkan further added that study abroad programs are a benefit, not a requirement. And, Chutkan added, Irizarry is on pre-trial supervision for allegations in a serious riot that attempted to stop the peaceful transition of power on the United States.
Irizarry, 20, and a friend, Elliot Bishai, another Nation Ford High graduate in Fort Mill, had been offered plea bargains in mid-December by the prosecution.
Bishai pleaded guilty in late April to entering a restricted Capitol area. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29.
Irizarry and Bishai were arrested by the FBI in March 2021 and were arraigned in federal court in Columbia, where assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott Daniels told a magistrate judge that evidence in the case showed they entered the Capitol through a broken window with a mob numbering in the hundreds
Videos show both men entering the Capitol through a window that others in the mob had broken out, court documents alleged. Bishai shouted “Let’s go!” and “Civil War 2!” as the pair ambled through the Capitol, taking selfies and sitting on statues, according to evidence in his case. Irizarry, a Trump supporter, wore a “Make America Great Again” cap during the riot.
Both were charged with knowingly disrupting a session of Congress, disorderly conduct in a federal building, demonstrating in a Capitol building and entering and remaining in a Capitol building.
Chutkan has already allowed Irizarry to go to Europe one time.
In December, she allowed Irizarry to travel to Germany over the Christmas holiday on a three-day family trip with his mother.
That trip — a personal trip — was different from the privileged study abroad program that Irizarry had requested to take, the judge said.
Under the conditions of being allowed on bond pending trial, Irizarry had to request permission from the judge in his case to travel out of the country.
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