(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Three Minnesota GOP attorney general candidates, including 2018 party nominee Doug Wardlow, expressed support for the Jan. 6 rioters at a January forum.

The candidates gave both sentimental and explicit support for the rioters while responding to a question about how they would defend them in federal court. Wardlow, currently general counsel for MyPillow, cited previous cases he worked on as a lawyer as examples of how he would defend the rioters.

“As your attorney general, I will stand up for your Constitutional rights. I will go to bat for people that were improperly prosecuted, with respect to Jan. 6 incident, and we will push back against the federal government,” Wardlow said. “I am the only candidate by the way who knows how to do this because I’ve been doing it for years.”

Lynne Torgerson, a former criminal defense attorney in Minneapolis, said the rioters were “heroes” and that she had two staff members that attended the Jan. 6 riot. She then falsely claimed that President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory was illegitimate.

“It seemed … that the election of Joe Biden was somewhat of a coup and that the person who won was President [Donald] Trump,” Torgerson said.

Torgerson also falsely claimed that only Ashli Babbitt died as a result of the riot. A New York Times analysis found that nine people involved in the attack at the U.S. Capitol — four rioters and five police officers — died as a result of it.

Jim Schultz, a lawyer from South Haven, did not explicitly mention the Jan. 6 rioters but said as attorney general, he would be the first person to file a lawsuit “any instance when the federal government is unconstitutionally infringing [on] the rights of Minnesotans.”

“I have experience standing up to the federal government when the federal government lawlessly or unconstitutionally [is] acting towards people,” Schultz said.

As of last October, eight Minnesotans were charged in connection to the Jan. 6 riot. A federal grand jury charged two of them, Isaac Westbury and Aaron James, with felonies after allegedly stealing a riot shield and using it to attack Capitol police officers.

The Jan. 25 forum was hosted by the Chisago County Republican Party and livestreamed by GOP Secretary of State candidate Kelly Jahner-Byrne, who participated in a subsequent forum for SoS candidates.

The winner of the Republican primary for Minnesota attorney general will likely face presumptive nominee Keith Ellison, the current state attorney general. In the 2018 election, Ellison defeated Wardlow by almost four percentage points, 49.0% to 45.1%.

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