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Gorbey Update

Gorbey Update. Michael Gorbey said Wednesday that the government “doctored” a video allegedly showing him walking near Capitol Hill with a shotgun — the latest claim in his long-running insistence that he was framed.

[IMGCAP(1)]Testifying in his own trial, Gorbey told jurors that the surveillance video of his arrest did not match up to what actually happened Jan. 18. And when prosecutors pushed the point with still frames from the video, Gorbey said they were “computer-generated.”

“That could be part of my arrest,” he said after looking at one video still frame. “I’m not saying it is, and I’m not saying it ain’t.”

Gorbey faces 14 charges stemming from his arrest Jan. 18, when Capitol Police officers allegedly found him carrying a loaded shotgun, a sword and dozens of rounds of ammunition.

Gorbey is the first person to be charged with attempting to manufacture a weapon of mass destruction since the D.C. law was created in 2002. Investigators found a homemade device in Gorbey’s truck weeks after his arrest, but so far, it is unclear whether the device had a fuse system and thus could have actually exploded.

The unusual nature of the case was obvious Wednesday; court interns and attorneys unconnected to the trial were present as spectators for much of the day.

Gorbey, who is not a lawyer, is representing himself. His questioning is often repetitive, and he frequently tangles with D.C. Superior Court Judge Gregory Jackson.

Numerous objections and disputes over permissible evidence took up several hours and stalled proceedings enough for the trial to spill over until today. Jackson had hoped to wrap up the three-week trial Wednesday.

Gorbey was an especially difficult witness, insulting prosecutors and sometimes ignoring Jackson’s orders to stop talking. Although Gorbey is representing himself, he is being assisted by public defender Eugene Ohm.

During his cross-examination of Gorbey on Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cummings questioned him on everything from his seven felony convictions to his claim that a friend drove him to Capitol Hill.

The friend, whom Gorbey said was named Gad Cap, was a man Cummings said couldn’t be found by police.

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