Congress, people inspired by the self-styled

“Freedom Convoy” that occupied downtown

Ottawa for weeks are planning to converge in

the region to decry coronavirus-related re-

strictions, although most might not arrive

until later this week.

Heightened security measures were evident

over the weekend when officials encircled the

Capitol complex with temporary fencing pre-

viously installed after the Jan. 6, 2021,

SEE SECURITY ON B2

BY PETER HERMANN,

JULIE ZAUZMER WEIL

AND ELLIE SILVERMAN

The Secret Service and other federal and

local authorities are preparing for possible

demonstrations and disruptions ahead of

President Biden’s first State of the Union

address at the Capitol on Tuesday night.

In addition to possible protests before or

during the president’s annual address to

KLMNO

METRO

TUESDAY, MARCH 1 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ SU B

BY SPENCER S. HSU

AND TOM JACKMAN

Jury selection began Monday

for the first person to face crimi-

nal trial in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack

on the Capitol, with high stakes

for the defendant, federal author-

ities and roughly 275 other people

similarly charged with storming

Congress the day it was set to

certify President Biden’s 2020

election victory.

In a courtroom confrontation

as long-awaited as it promises to

be dramatic, Guy Wesley Reffitt, a

purported Te xas recruiter for

t he right-wing, anti-government

Three Percenters, faces five felony

counts to which he has pleaded

not guilty. They include obstruct-

ing an official proceeding of Con-

gress; trespassing at the Capitol

while carrying a holstered semi-

automatic handgun; interfering

with police in a riot; and witness

tampering after prosecutors say

he threatened his teenage chil-

dren not to turn him in to authori-

ties.

“Traitors get shot,” Reffitt, 49, is

accused of telling his 18-year-old

son on a recorded conversation

days after the husband and father

of three returned from Washing-

ton.

Reffitt was hit by rubber bullets

and chemical spray in confronta-

tions with police that helped oth-

ers break in during rioting that

injured scores of police officers

and forced the evacuation of law-

makers, according to prosecutors.

He is also the only Capitol defen-

dant accused of violating a con-

troversial federal law that makes

SEE TRIAL ON B5

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

An aficionado of suburban

architecture was certain

a Pizza Hut building used

to be something else. B3

MARYLAND

A man fatally stabbed a

Gaithersburg mall worker

“without provocation,”

authorities say. B5

OBITUARIES

Peter Earnest, 88, a

veteran CIA officer, helped

launch the International

37 ° 50 ° 59 ° 53 ° Spy Museum in D.C. B6

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 4 p.m.

59

°

Precip: 0%

Wind: SSW

10-20 mph

BY PAUL DUGGAN,

SPENCER S. HSU

AND PETER HERMANN

The federal prosecutor whose

office is investigating participants

in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the

U.S. Capitol says that there is no

end in sight to perhaps the most

sprawling criminal probe in Jus-

tice Department history and that

“it’s really hard to predict” how

many people ultimately will be

charged with taking part in the

rioting.

“We’re certainly not at the end

in terms of charges,” Matthew M.

Graves, who was sworn in Nov. 5

as U.S. attorney for the District,

said in an interview with The

Washington Post. “The million-

dollar question is: How close are

we to the end?”

With about 750 people already

arrested, he said, “it’s really hard

to predict what the final number

will b e, given that we’re still some-

where in the middle — using that

term v ery broadly — of the investi-

gation phase.”

During the nearly hour-long in-

terview Wednesday, in his first

extensive on-the-record remarks

to the news media since President

Biden appointed him to head the

largest U.S. attorney’s office in the

country, Graves discussed several

topics, including fighting violent

crime in the nation’s capital; the

“unprecedented workload” borne

by prosecutors in D.C. because of

the pandemic and other factors;

credibility problems with the

city’s crime lab; and overall mo-

rale in his office.

Although h e declined t o discuss

SEE GRAVES ON B4

Prosecutor

says Jan. 6

probe far

from over

U.S. ATTORNEY ALSO

TALKS D.C. CRIME

Graves took charge of

District office on Nov. 5

BY KARINA ELWOOD

A Virginia House of Delegates

subcommittee on Monday killed

efforts to accelerate recreational

marijuana sales in the state, leav-

ing its budding cannabis industry

in limbo for at least another year.

The GOP-controlled House

panel voted along party lines to

float a nearly 200-page bill until

next year’s legislative session. The

bill had become this year’s vehicle

for nearly all marijuana-related

measures, outlining everything

from enforcement and regulation

to tax revenue and reinvestment.

One of the biggest provisions

would have allowed the state’s

four preexisting medicinal dis-

pensaries and some large indus-

trial hemp processors to begin

selling recreational marijuana

Sept. 15.

“I spent most of the weekend

poring through t his bill and trying

to come to the determination

whether now is the right time for

this policy i n Virginia,” D el. Jeffrey

L. Campbell (R-Smyth) said dur-

ing Monday’s meeting. “I think

this is a bigger issue than we can

correct in two weeks’ time.”

Last summer, then-Gov. Ralph

Northam (D) had signed into law

SEE MARIJUANA ON B4

GOP stalls

bid to allow

legal sales

of cannabis

With Va. bill to speed up

process dead, residents

must wait at least a year

BY MEAGAN FLYNN

D.C. officials joined House

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

on Monday morning to unveil a

statue i n the Capitol of the archi-

tect who designed the federal

district, Pierre L’Enfant, giving

the District two statues in the

building, like all the states.

City leaders see the statue

symbolically as one more small

step in its long pursuit for D.C.

statehood, and to be treated as

equals with the states. Since

1864 , all U.S. states were invited

to contribute two statues of fig-

ures important to their history.

D.C. got its first statue in the

Capitol, of abolitionist Frederick

Douglass, in 2013. Now, Pelosi

said, with L’Enfant, “D.C. will

finally have equal recognition in

the Capitol when it comes to

statues, another step toward

statehood t he District deserves.”

Joined by D.C. Mayor Muriel

E. Bowser (D), Council Chair-

man Phil Mendelson (D) and

Majority W hip James E. Clyburn

(D-S.C.), Del. Eleanor Holmes

Norton (D), the District’s non-

voting representative in the

House, pulled down a black

sheet to reveal the towering

bronze statue of L’Enfant, hold-

ing a pair of calipers and resting

a map of his design o f the federal

city on his knee.

The sculptor, Gordon Kray,

said he envisioned L’Enfant

standing on Capitol Hill, then a

forested terrain known as Jen-

kins H ill. L’Enfant’s f oot rests on

a log as he peers in the direction

of Georgetown, a bustling area

in the nascent capital, and

points on his map to the spot he

hoped the Capitol Building

would go.

“In this statue of Pierre L’En-

fant, we tell the story of our very

first days,” Bowser said, “a trans-

SEE STATUE ON B2

D.C. leaders hail L’Enfant statue at

Capitol as a step toward statehood

she was just 18 and still chokes

up when she talks about it.

“Who the hell really wants to

leave their country?” she said.

It’s easy to forget how

terrifying and oppressive

Communist rule was in the

Eastern Bloc. Navratilova speaks

often about this, but sometimes

it’s hard to imagine that people

like her or Czech supermodel

Paulina Porizkova or Romanian

gymnast Nadia Comaneci fled

oppression. We imagine refugees

emerging from the dust and

rubble of war — hungry, bruised

and bloodied.

“I only realized we were

refugees when I saw the Syria

crisis at 40 and took the moniker

on,” said Tereza Nemessanyi, a

tech company executive in New

SEE DVORAK ON B8

“Don’t you feel

like joining the

fight?” read the

text from an old

friend.

Like me, she’s

the daughter of a

Czech immigrant.

I’ve heard from

most of my first-generation

friends this week. Because

watching the Russian invasion of

Ukraine feels like we’re watching

our parents’ histories. And

understanding them better.

“I feel this profoundly,” said

the friend, a 50-year-old lawyer

and vegetarian leftie who told me

she imagined herself grabbing a

gun and joining the Ukrainians.

“It is in our roots.”

History is being repeated at a

breakneck pace as Russia

attempts to take Ukraine. And

the Europeans like my parents

who fled a Soviet invasion and

the horror of that Communist

regime are being deeply

retraumatized.

“I was running for my life,”

said tennis legend and political

dissident Martina Navratilova.

“My emotional life, my spiritual

life. It’s just so sad to see this

again.”

Navratilova posted a tweet

showing the masses of Czechs

demonstrating in support of

Ukrainians on Vaclavske Namesti

— the place where dissident

Czechs protested Soviet

aggression in 1968 and Russian

troops rolled in, shooting dozens

of citizens.

She was 12 when this

happened, a talented and

determined young tennis player

who watched her country close in

on itself as she was headed to the

world stage. She defected when

Invasion has a generation

rehashing its past trauma

Petula

Dvorak

First trial

of Jan. 6

defendant

underway

Stakes are high for Texas

man, his fellow suspects

and Justice Department

AMANDA ANDRADE-RHOADES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sculptor Gordon Kray looks at his statue of Pierre L’Enfant, the architect of the federal district, which

was unveiled at the Capitol on Monday. It joins the District’s statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Law enforcement agencies coordinate efforts on monitoring

region’s roads and maintaining robust presence inside city

Ahead of Biden address, D.C.

braces for possible protests

BONNIE JO MOUNT/THE WASHINGTON POST

New cases in region

Through 5 p.m. Monday, 4,059 new

coronavirus cases were reported in

the District, Maryland and Virginia,

bringing the total number of cases

in the region to 2,776,799.

D.C.** MD. VA.**

+238+ 38 9+3,432

134,564 1,002,2791,639,956

Coronavirus-related deaths

As of 5 p.m. Monday:

D.C.** MD.* VA.**

+1 +3 +235

1,318 14,122 18,771

* The state’s total includes probable

covid-19 deaths.

**D.C. and Virginia’s weekend data has

been incorporated into Monday’s

reported cases.

Security fencing is in place near the Capitol ahead of the State of the Union address

scheduled for Tuesday night. Many police agencies are involved in security for the event.