January 6 Rioters - Part IV - QAnon and Assorted Nuts (102-139)

 

QANON AND ASSORTED NUTS - PART IV

 (Rioters #102-139)

__________ 

“Through the false passage of thy throat thou liest!” 

William Shakespeare

__________

President Trump refused to say QAnon was fake.

  

WE KNOW with almost mathematical precision who primed the rioters to act on January 6. The president, of course, was the worst, dinning it in followers’ ears for 63 days straight.

The election was stolen. 

The election was stolen, stolen, stolen, not only from him, but from them. 

This attack on democracy didn’t spontaneously erupt. Right-wing firebrands, including the President of the United States, had been firing up the mob for months. At an evening “Rally to Save America” in Washington D.C., on January 5, a succession of two-bit orators stirred an angry, pro-Trump crowd. 

“It is time for war,” one speaker declared. 

 

“We will not stand for a lie.” 

Many of the greatest haters were there. Alex Jones kneaded the human dough required to make a mob. Gen. Michael T. Flynn spoke. Roger Stone, the seven-time felon, was embraced for his unflinching loyalty to President Trump. Flynn told members of the angry crowd he knew they were ready to “bleed” for freedom. Speaking as if to members of Congress, he warned, “The members of the House of Representatives, the members of the United States Senate, those of you who are feeling weak tonight, those of you that don’t have the moral fiber in your body, get some tonight.”  

Tomorrow, he added, “we the people” will march. We “want you to know we will not stand for a lie.” 

The next day, Trump spoke at the rally for more than an hour, amplifying the fury he had helped build for nine post-election weeks. He told loyalists they had no other option than to fight, “Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

Gen. Flynn was paid to give a speech in Moscow,
but didn't let the U.S. Army know about it, as required.
Later, he pushed for Trump to overturn election results
and declare martial law.

* 

“Followed the President’s instructions.”

102. ROBERT SANFORD: The retired firefighter, 55, marched. In the aftermath of the riot, Sanford was arrested for hurling a fire extinguisher at the head of a Capitol Hill police officer. “It was a split second decision,” his attorney alibied. His client regretted what he had done. 

“Everyone was in a mob mentality,” his lawyer added by way of excuse.  

Sanford went to Washington to hear the president speak. “Trump says, ‘We’re going to the Capitol.’ Next thing you know, thousands of people are walking,” Sanford’s attorney explained. “When he got down there, things got crazy.” 

Sanford “got crazy” too. 

He was turned in by a tipster who said he had been a friend for years. According to the F.B.I., Sanford told agents he had traveled to D.C. by bus, with a group of like-minded folk. He listened to Trump’s speech, “and then had followed the President’s instructions and gone to the Capitol.” 

He also claimed that he thought the officer he attacked, dressed in black, was a member of Antifa. 

Some of the rioters needed more encouragement to get a little crazy and try to overturn the government of the country they insisted they loved. 

As for Sanford, in April 2023, he got the bad news. Getting a little crazy would cost him 52 months in a federal prison – four months more than Trump served as arguably the worst and most dangerous U.S. president ever. Sanford won’t have a chance to vote again in 2024, and even after he finishes his stint behind bars, he’ll have another three years of supervised release to complete. 

He is also out $5,798 in restitution.

Trump “sent us,” ready for violence.

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

 

* 

“We’ve descended into civil war.”

103-104. ANTONIO LAMOTTA and JOSHUA MACIAS: These two were already kind of crazy when they settled in to listen to the president’s diatribe on January 6, and then joined the riot. Within days both men were arrested. 

As the Daily Beast reported, Lamotta and Macias, 

[who] were arrested for allegedly bringing an AR-15 and a samurai sword to a Philadelphia vote-count center in November [2020] face a motion to have their bail revoked after prosecutors accused them of participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the nation’s Capitol.

 

Antonio Lamotta and Joshua Macias were first arrested on November 5, after they allegedly drove from Virginia to Philadelphia in a Hummer festooned with a QAnon decal. The men, who allegedly brought a rifle, ammunition, and a sword with them, were vocal proponents of conspiracy theories that falsely claim President-elect Joe Biden cheated to win the election.

 

After the Philadelphia incident, the pair appear to have promptly rejoined their Virginia-based political clique. There, they previously acted as volunteer bodyguards for Amanda Chase, a far-right state senator and gubernatorial candidate, who attended the [Jan. 6] rally preceding the riot.

 

The night before the attack on the Capitol, Macias appeared in a Facebook Live video with Chase and the head of the civil war-endorsing militia the Oath Keepers. The video participants boasted of being in D.C. for the Jan. 6 pro-Trump event, and encouraged others to attend.

 

I wondered whether or not the Daily Beast might be overstating that “civil war-endorsing” bit. So I did a little more digging. It turns out the Oath Keepers are in fact ready for war. In an interview with The Atlantic earlier this year, the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, made clear he believed a hard line defense of Donald Trump was the only solution to impending tyranny.

 

“Let’s not fuck around. We’ve descended into civil war,” Rhodes [said]…Leading up to the election, Rhodes put out a call for his followers to protect the country against what he believes to be an “insurrection” and an attempt to undermine Trump. “Our POTUS will not go down without a fight,” reads a recent Oath Keepers email blast. “He WILL NOT concede. This election was stolen from We The People. We will prevail but we need your help! Or we will lose our democracy.”

 

Charges against Macias, related to the January 6 attack are still pending; but Lamotta was convicted in a bench trial in March 2024, and in September 2024, he is sentenced to six months behind bars. He will also spend two years on probation, and owes $2,000. 

Both men have been sentenced to jail for violating firearms laws when they went to Philadelphia, ready to (who knows) blow up the vote-counting center? 

On March 1, 2023, they were sentenced to 11.5 to 23 months in prison, followed by four years on probation. 

Trump supporter, QAnon, ready for violence (Lamotta).

Trump supporter, ready for violence (Macias).

 

* 

The anti-Semitist who rioted.

105. ROBERT KEITH PACKER: In a similar vein, Packer heard the president’s call for help. Packer showed up for Trump’s speech and the running of the bulls on Capitol Hill, dressed in a sweatshirt emblazoned “Camp Auschwitz.” 

(Anti-Semitism ran strong in the veins of many in this mob. It’s a core precept for many followers of QAnon.) 

According to CNN, Virginia court records show that Packer “has a criminal history that includes three convictions for driving under the influence and a felony conviction for forging public records.” 

In the end, Packer’s lawyer said he had a free speech right to wear the sweatshirt, which even he found “seriously offensive.” Packer plead guilty in January 2022, and in September 2022,was sentenced to 75 days in jail, and three years’ probation. During trial, prosecutors noted that the defendant’s sweatshirt included a skull, under the words “ Camp Auschwitz,” and the phrase, “Work Brings Freedom,” a rough translation of the slogan that greeted doomed prisoners entering the real camp during World War II. On the back, Packer’s sweatshirt read: “Staff.” 

Ironically, Packer’s lawyer said his client was upset when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described him as a “white supremacist.” 

Which shows you the man’s level of self-awareness. 

Trump supporter, right-winger.

 

* 

106. ADAM JOHNSON: The Florida man, 36, was seen, famously, walking away from the riot with Nancy Pelosi’s podium as souvenir. Later, he bragged to friends about how he “broke the internet.” 

In calmer times, Mr. Johnson, who has a wife and five kids, is a stay-at-home dad. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune described him as a man who hadn’t voted in years, but a true Trump fan, and reported that he was now “sitting in the Pinellas County jail.” In fact, he was soon looking at a possible prison sentence of sixteen years. 

Eventually, Johnson plead guilty, got 75 days in jail, 200 hours of community service, and had to pay fines and restitution totaling $5,500. 

It could have been much worse.

Trump supporter. 

 

* 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for dozens of suspects. Some were identified through photographs they or friends had posted on social media. Others had cameo roles in videos or phone recordings from the melee.

The AP explained: 

Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, told reporters that investigators had seen “no indication” antifa activists were disguised as Trump supporters in Wednesday’s riot.

 

The AP found that many of the rioters had taken to social media after the November election to retweet and parrot false claims by Trump that the vote had been stolen in a vast international conspiracy. Several had openly threatened violence against Democrats and Republicans they considered insufficiently loyal to the president.

 

In a nutshell even a nut could understand, these were Trump supporters, stirred up by Trump, answering his call to save democracy – by launching a full-on, frontal assault on democracy itself. 

Who were these people, who rioted on the sixth day of January, just two weeks before their god-hero was expelled from the White House by a majority vote of the American people? 

There were racists. There were haters of various stripes. There were neo-Nazis. There were the mentally ill. There were practitioners of misguided patriotism, too. A few who stormed the halls of Congress were merely misguided men and women, swept up in the excitement of the moment. 

* 

“I think it was close to 85 million.”

107. AARON MOSTOVKY: The New Yorker had heard Trump insists hundreds of times since the November election that he had been cheated out of a second term. Mostofsky heard those words, joined in the riot, got arrested, and found himself slapped with a quartet of felony charges. 

In an interview with the New York Post inside the Capitol, during the battle, Mostofsky said he’d come to D.C. to protest a “stolen election.” 

“We were cheated. I don’t think 75 million people voted for Trump – I think it was close to 85 million,” he said, echoing the claims of Donald J. Trump. 

“I think certain states that have been red for a long time turned blue and were stolen, like New York.” 

It’s possible Mostofsky meant “Georgia.” It’s also possible he was that clueless in the end. New York hasn’t voted Republican in a presidential election since Reagan wiped out Mondale in 1984. 

(Sentenced to eight months in prison, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, as well as perform 200 hours of community service.) 

Trump supporter - believed election was stolen.

 

* 

Cooperation pays off for Olympian. 

108. KLETE KELLER: Initially, this Capitol Hill rioter was described only as “a tall man wearing a U.S. Olympic Team jacket.” Several former teammates and coaches quickly identified Keller, 38, from pictures and videos taken that day. According to ESPN, since being identified, Keller had, “deleted all of his social media accounts, though [he] had posted in the past his ardent support of President Donald Trump.” 

He agreed to plead guilty to one felony charge in September 2021, with federal guidelines recommending between 21 and 27 months in prison. He could have faced up to twenty years behind bars, but agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and provide information on other suspects in return for a reduced sentence. 

More than a year later, he had still not been sentenced – which hinted at the fact he was still proving useful to authorities.

 

UPDATE: That statement proves prophetic. In June 2023, sentencing for Keller is again delayed. Authorities note, “Keller has been actively cooperating in ongoing law enforcement investigations.” 

So, all you rioters out there, still sweating arrest – better hope you never had dealings with Mr. Keller.

 

UPDATE (December 1, 2023): For Mr. Keller, cooperation pays off in the end. Instead of time in prison, he gets 36 months on probation, and 10 hours of community service every month, where the judge expects him to talk to young people about how he learned from his mistakes. He also ends up on six months’ home incarceration. 

As ABC notes: 

Keller told the court that he understood that his “actions were criminal and I take responsibility and apologized to lawmakers and the American people.

 

“I condemn the violence of that day,” he said, vowing to “not repeat the actions of the past.” 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

Cracking its foundation.

109. JACK JESSE GRIFFITH (a.k.a. “JUAN BIBIANO”): These weren’t enemies of Trump, smashing up the seat of government, to make those who love Trump, and Trump, himself, look bad. These were true believers, the deluded types. 

These were people like Jack Jesse Griffith, sometimes known as “Juan Bibiano,” a Tennessee man, who heard Trump call for help that morning. Like many rioters that day, “Bibiano” believed those who stormed the Capitol were saving a nation, not cracking its foundation. 

Griffith is indicted along with Blake Austin Reed (#80 on our list), Matthew Bledsoe (#130) and Eric Chase Torrens (#497). 

Among other rewards for his participation in mayhem, Griffith gets to spend 90 days on home confinement.

Trump supporter.

 

* 

110. KEVIN SEEFRIED: Seefried was seen in multiple pictures and videos during the riot, parading the halls of Congress with a Confederate flag over his shoulder. Eventually he surrendered to authorities along with his son. The Delaware dad admitted he typically displayed the Rebel flag outside his home. 

In June 2022, after choosing a bench trial in front of Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, both father and son are convicted of five charges, including one felony, each. 

During the sentencing phase of his case, Mr. Seefried’s lawyer argues for a lighter sentence than was handed out to his son, Hunter. First, he notes, Hunter Seefried entered the Capitol before his father, clambering through a window. 

Second, dad is a cancer survivor and wears a colostomy bag – meaning a long sentence in jail would be doubly difficult. 

The judge disagrees – and dad gets three years in the slammer, instead of the two for his son. He will also be fined $2,000, and upon release from prison, be required to complete a year on probation. 

In a March 2023 court filing, Mr. Seefried asks that he be allowed to delay his reporting to jail until after May 6. He wants to attend his grandson’s birthday, his lawyer says. The judge agrees to allow it. 

Trump supporter.

  

*

“I pray our country can recover.”

111. HUNTER SEEFRIED: Hunter and his dad were on a birthday road trip, which included a stop at Washington D.C. They listened to now Rejected-President Trump at his rally on January 6. Then they joined the mob that forced a way inside the Capitol Building. 

In October 2022, the young man learned his fate, as explained by the Washington Post. As one of the first rioters to breach the building, and also one of the men who chased a lone African American officer up several flights of stairs, prosecutors pushed for a sentence of nearly six years behind bars for the young man. 

After what the judge in his case called “probably the most sincere and most effective” statement of apology by anyone he has sentenced in the attack, Seefried got off relatively lightly. 

Hunter Seefried said he was deeply sorry for and ashamed of his actions, asking himself every day how he came to participate “in a day that will forever represent a stain on the character of our country.” 

“I offer my sincerest apology to the country, its schoolchildren, and everyone who saw the worst of me and everyone on January 6,” Seefried said. He also apologized to the courts, government and his parents, “who my criminal behavior has placed in the spotlight.” 

“I pray our country can recover,” added Seefried, a drywall delivery truck driver who said he is 22, but who prosecutors said was 24.

 

The high school dropout – who has worked ever since leaving school in ninth grade, will spend two years in prison. 

Scheduled to report to prison on December 19, 2022, he does win at least one minor battle. His lawyer informs the judge in his case that Hunter’s mother is experiencing “great emotional difficulty relating to her marriage and the fact that Hunter will not be able to be with her during the holiday season.” 

The judge agrees to delay the day on which he must report until January 2, 2023, which should give his mother some solace.) 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

“Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building.”

112. PETER STAGER: If the elder Seefried was your garden-variety racist, others involved in the riot appeared to be far more dangerous. 

Stager had cheered Trump on for four years. He was there in Washington D.C. on that fateful day because he was determined to do his part to stop Congress from certifying the electoral vote. He listened when the president called on supporters to fight hard or they “wouldn’t have a country.” His blood boiled when Trump warned the throng that their freedom would be no more than a memory if the steal wasn’t stopped. So he marched. He helped storm the Capitol, and on the front steps he used a pole emblazoned with the “Stars and Stripes” to beat a police officer over the head. The Arkansas man can be seen in one video from that day, exclaiming, “Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor. Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building.” For good measure, Stager added, “every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy, that is the only remedy they get.”

 

UPDATE: In February 2023, he pleads guilty to assault, which means he’ll be facing serious prison time. Everybody in the building where he’s going next is a felon.

 

UPDATE: On July 24, Stager learns that he will be spending 52 months behind bars, three additional years on probation, and will be required to pay $2,000 in restitution. (He has already been in pretrial detention for 30 months. 

So, only 22 more to go. 

On hearing his sentence, Mr. Stager says he respects the court’s decision. Then he adds, “I will always back the blue.” 

TTrump supporter, violent.

 

* 

“The right IN ONE DAY took the f***** U.S. Capitol.” 

113-114. JACOB FRACKER and THOMAS ROBERTSON: Two Virginia policemen have been arrested for their role in the attack. Jacob Fracker, also currently serving with the Virginia National Guard, and a Marine veteran, and Thomas Robertson, a U.S. Army veteran, were arrested soon after the storming of Congress. 

According to documents filed by the Department of Justice, Robertson is quoted in one video, as saying, “CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business…The right IN ONE DAY took the f***** U.S. Capitol.”

 

* 

Robertson was back in court on June 30, 2021. The former police officer from Rocky Mount, Virginia, had been free on bond. Now, prosecutors told a judge, he had regained, 

34 guns he stored at a local gun dealership despite a court order that he should not possess firearms while on pretrial release, and that he was found with a partially assembled pipe bomb in a box labeled “Booby Trap.”

 

“The picture of Senators cowering on the floor with genuine fear on their faces is the most American thing I have seen in my life,” prosecutors said Robertson wrote on Facebook days after the riot, adding, “. . . The only voice these people will now listen to is VIOLENCE.”

 

(April 2022: A jury finds Robertson guilty on all six charges he faced, including five felonies, one for carrying a dangerous weapon. Fracker testified against him, as part of a plea agreement.) 

(August 2022: The judge at his sentencing chastises Robertson, telling him, “You were not some bystander who just got swept up in the crowd. It really seems as though you think of partisan politics as war and that you continue to believe these conspiracy theories.” With that, Robertson is sentenced to 87 months behind bars.

Fracker gets a break, and his punishment is far less severe. He will spend 12 months on probation, the first 59 days on home detention. He will also be required to complete 120 hours of community service, and pay $2,000 in restitution.) 

Robertson later threatens to kill any federal agents who come to take him to prison. He said he thought he could keep up the killing for “probably 2 weeks. Maybe longer.” 

Right-wing type (Fracker). 

Right-wing type, believed the election was stolen,

ready for violence (Robertson).

 

UPDATE: After the U.S. Supreme Court rules against prosecutors using certain charges in the January 6 cases, Robertson is resentenced. His time behind bars is reduced to “only” six years, or 72 months. It’s a cut of 15 months.

 

* 

Laying dictatorship at Donald Trump’s feet. 

115-116. LARRY RENDALL BROCK and ERIC GAVELEK MUNCHEL: CBS had a clear view of who these rioters were. They were men and women who believed they were there to save the republic by laying the republic low, inadvertently laying dictatorship at Donald Trump’s feet. 

The network reported on the arrest of two more suspects seen in widely broadcast photos and film from the attack: 

Larry Rendall Brock of Texas, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and Eric Gavelek Munchel of Tennessee, were both allegedly seen in pictures of the riot occupying the chambers of Congress while wearing tactical gear and holding plastic zip ties. Brock’s ex-wife was one of several who identified him from photos taken at the scene.

 

These weren’t left-wing troublemakers. Munchel and Brock had deep ties on the militant right. 

And they had come, prepared for insurrection. Munchel was shown to have brought a taser into the Capitol, as well. 

Brock graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, left the Air Force in 1998, and then reenlisted after 9/11, serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Court records reveal that Brock once lost a job over what an employer “interpreted as racist, anti-Muslim rhetoric,” and that he owes at least $555,000 in unpaid taxes. 

He also came to believe in the months after the 2020 election that a Trump victory had been stolen. 

Brock asked for a trial in front of a judge, as is any defendant’s right, and in November 2022, he was convicted on all charges, including one felony, which carried a maximum of twenty years in prison. 

Prosecutors sought a five-year prison term, noting that his plans for January 6 included such winning ideas as: 

Seizing all democratic politicians and Biden key staff and select republicans, including Senators John Thune and Mitch McConnell, and interrogating them using “measures we used on Al Queda” [sic].

 

“Seize national media assets and key personnel. Zuck, Jack, CNN lead and talking heads, seize WAPO [Washington Post] and NYT editors. Eliminate them. Media silence except for White House communications.”

Former President Donald Trump issuing a general pardon “for all crimes up to and including murder” for those who put down “the Democratic Insurrection.”

 

 

Other nuggets of Colonel Brock’s plan included avoiding killing police if possible. “Do not kill LEO [law enforcement officers] unless necessary.” As for taking control of the Capitol, he noted, “Gas would assist in this if we can get it.” 

(See: Sedition Hunters by Ryan J. Reilly, p. 141.)

 

 

The judge in Brock’s case cut him a number of breaks – based on his meritorious military career and lack of previous criminal record. Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge John Bates lambasted the defendant. Citing his eight-part plan of action, calling for bloodshed, Bates told Brock, “I think it’s especially reprehensible, and quite frankly unbelievable, coming from a former senior military officer. It’s detailed, it’s persistent, it’s consistent, and it’s both astounding and atrocious.”

 

Bates noted that Brock had demonstrated no acceptance of guilt or shown any remorse. He gave him two years in prison to puzzle it out, two more years on probation to puzzle it out some more, and fined him $2,000. 

Munchel and his mother (#81 on our list) also opted for a bench trial and in April 2023 got convicted on every count. 

It was even worse for them. Munchel got sentenced to 57 months in prison, and fined $2,000.

UPDATE: Brock is nothing if not obstinate. He has now declared himself a prisoner of war, and insists that he and other January 6 rioters are bound by the Military Code of Conduct.

Brock - garbed for war.

Prosecutors submit Brock's plan as evidence against him.

Munchel (allegedly), with zip ties, looking for prisoners?

 

Trump “sent us,” right-winger, believed election was stolen (Brock).

Trump supporter, right-winger (Munchel).

 

* 

117. (R.I.P.) DR. TAMMY TOWERS PARRY: Arrested for her participation in the riot, Parry is a QAnon fan from Seattle, Washington. She admitted having stormed the capitol in a video posted on Twitter. 

Power also defended the actions of the mob that day. “[Storming the Capitol is] the least we can do, so God Bless America,” she exclaimed. “Joe Biden did not win. He's hopefully going to prison.” 

(As you might expect, reviews of Dr. Parry’s work by patients are slightly less than “sterling.”)

 

UPDATE (October 4, 2024): Dr. Parry is shot and killed when she points a shotgun at two process servers who arrive at her home to present eviction notices. Another life ruined by silly beliefs – QAnon and Trump. 

Trump supporter, QAnon believer, thought the election was stolen.

 

* 

118. Laura Daube Kronen: Ms. Kronen had this to say about her participation in the effort to bust up democracy:

 

When not rioting, and doing her part to destroy free elections, Ms. Kronen has – ironically – previously worked as a Georgia election official!

In her post, Kronen insisted: “I stood up for what’s right today in Washington, D.C. This election was a sham. Mike Pence is a traitor. I was tear gassed FOUR times. I have pepper spray in my throat. I stormed the Capitol Building.” 

She also called it “the best learning experience of their lives” for her children. 

Trump supporter, believed in “stolen election” myth.

 

* 

THE NATION – the world – watched in horror as Congress was stormed. Who gave these men and women, the racists, the dupes, the misguided patriots, and the unbalanced misfits the idea that storming Capitol Hill might be fun?

In the days following the attack, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota admitted, “When the story of this last 90 days is told, they will clearly lay out that the president of the United States misled very, very good, honest, patriotic Americans [emphasis added] by telling them time and again that the election was stolen.”

“I believe that history will hold him accountable,” Rounds added.

 

____________________ 

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” 

President Trump

____________________ 

 

Asked to comment on the possibility of impeachment, Rounds cited Section 2383 of Title 18 of the U.S. code, “Rebellion or insurrection,” as the law that prosecutors could use. If impeachment proceedings were brought, and even if the Senate did not vote to impeach, the president still might be in trouble if criminal proceedings charging “incitement to riot” were brought. That “by itself would...stop him from running for election to a public office again,” the senator said.

 

* 

“He believed 100% in QAnon.”

119. DOUG JENSEN: Who were the misled? Jensen, from Iowa, was one. According to Ryan J. Reilly, Jensen was willing to go the extra mile – or a thousand – to save Donald J. Trump from defeat. As he explained at one point to investigators, “Sidney Powell got me fired up,” and ready to rock and riot. 

(She’s the disgraced Trump lawyer who has pled guilty for her role in the Georgia election fraud case – where the former president is the main target.) 

Anyway, on January 5, 2021, Mr. Jensen 

worked a full day at a construction site until 4:00 p.m. Then he rushed home, took a shower, and tossed on his QAnon gear. His truck wasn’t up to snuff, so he hopped in his wife’s car and drove all night, aided by Red Bull, along with his close friend who wasn’t that into politics but was willing to join him on the trip.

 

Together, they reached D.C. 30 minutes before the “Stop the Steal” rally began. As for what he would accomplish that day, he would later write, “Storm the White House! That’s what we do!” 

(Sedition Hunters, by Reilly, pp. 207-208.) 

 

There was never much doubt – even if Jensen did mix up Congress and the White House. The poor sap was going to get arrested. He could be seen in an oft-aired video as he and others forced a police officer to retreat up several flights of steps. Jensen was one of the first to be identified and charged – with a total of six felony counts. 

According to the Des Moines Register, in Facebook posts, later deleted, many of Jensen’s images supported President Donald Trump and QAnon. In fact, according to the F.B.I., Jensen was wearing a red, white and blue “Q” shirt because he “wanted to have his T-shirt seen on video so that ‘Q’ could ‘get the credit’” for the Capitol Hill attack. Just days short of the anniversary of the attack, the Des Moines Register could report,  

Since his arrest, Jensen has remained in custody, with the exception of a one-month interlude this summer in which he was granted release to home incarceration, only to violate the terms of his release and be returned to jail.

 

In December, Jensen asked the judge to consider releasing him again. He has also asked the judge to dismiss the obstruction charge against him.

 

Jensen’s muddled thinking came across clearly when he gave an interview to F.B.I. agents. “I was afraid of being killed on the way home being a poster child. I feared for my family, you know,” he explained, with unintended irony. “There are a lot of people that are completely brainwashed by the media.” 

He explained how he had voted for Obama, and thought he’d vote for Clinton, but then started reading QAnon stories online. He started following “Q” religiously, checking for daily “Q drops.” He’d lost friends. His family thought he was “insane.” Coworkers thought he was a “wacko,” but he believed he was “the only one that sees it, and everybody’s sheep that doesn’t know.” 

Jensen really believed that the people who marched on the Capitol “were going to save the country.” He truly imagined that Mike Pence “would be arrested any day now,” Reilly wrote later. 

“I consider myself a digital soldier,” Jensen told agents. “I believe in Q 100%. I still believe that Trump’s gonna be our president, and that there’s some trick he has left you know? … I know I have to watch out for dis-info,” he added. But the poor man was a sponge, soaking up nonsense. He believed that the late Republican senator John McCain didn’t really die of cancer but had been secretly executed over ties to ISIS. “Q always said watch out for dis-info,” he said. 

Jensen told the FBI he did “what my president told me, and that was to go to D.C. on the 6th for a rally.” 

Jensen eventually asked for and received a jury trial – with disastrous results. His lawyer, Christopher Davis, told jurors his client had tumbled down a QAnon “rabbit hole.” As described by WUSA9, QAnon is “a conspiracy theory holding that former President Donald Trump” is “engaged in a global battle against a Satanic cabal of child sex abusers.”  

Those who believed (and many sadly still do) talk of a coming of “the storm,” the day Trump will “begin the mass arrest of members of the cabal, the so-called ‘deep state’ and prominent Democrats.” That, Jensen’s lawyer said was what his client thought was happening on Jan. 6.  

“He believed 100% in QAnon. He believed on Jan. 6 the storm was going to arrive and police were going to arrest all the corrupt politicians. And that included Mike Pence.” 

During closing arguments, Davis described Jensen – correctly – as a “terribly confused man” who was showing “passive resistance” when he faced off with U.S. Capitol Police on that terrible day.  

And if he was confused, then-President Trump had done his very best, before and after the election (and still, to this day) to confuse the dope. After deliberating for two days, the jury  returned a “guilty” verdict on five felony and two misdemeanor charges. Jensen will be spending a very long time in prison. 

In December 2022, at a pre-sentencing hearing, Jensen’s lawyer files a plea for leniency, describing his client as “a passionate man who became embroiled in conspiracy theories & conservative politics…an uneducated union laborer who became overwhelmed by conspiracy theories.” 

Jensen “honestly believed” that the “2020 election had been stolen & believed…he should be a part of history by observing & assisting in correcting the situation. He believed…he had the support of the former president & fully expected the perceived wrong was going to be corrected.” 

On Twitter, one user replies to this news: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I believe that train will stop if I step onto the tracks. I believe gravity is a deep state psy op and I will float if I step out the window thirty floors up. I believe that I can walk on water. Dang. This is easy. (peace sign emoji) You go, dude.”  

Capitol Police Inspector Tom Loyd testified at sentencing. “The mob attacked us,” he stated emphatically. He compared what happened on January 6, 2021, to the attack on August 24, 1814, when the British forces broke into the Capitol Building and burned it. He added that save for the heroic action of individuals like Officer Eugene Goodman – who led Jensen and other rioters away from the doors to the Senate – “there would have been tremendous bloodshed.” 

The judge in this case is not merciful. “Our Constitution gives you rights that people in other countries would do anything for…,” he tells the defendant. You “can vote, call, write, try to get election laws changed…file a lawsuit…but freedom means with all of those rights come responsibility.” Jensen failed to act responsibly, and he gets slapped with a five-year prison sentence. 

Trump “sent us,” QAnon, he believed the election was stolen.

 

* 

TRUMP SUPPORTERS had no other choice than to insist it wasn’t really “their kind” who led the attack on democracy – and led it in the name of the President of the United States. On Fox News, we were treated to a rare Sarah Palin sighting. 

Speaking to Martha MacCallum, on the evening of the attack, the former governor of Alaska argued that it was unclear who instigated the violence. “There’s so much frustration out there that some misguided very, very wrong-headed yahoos are out there causing this mayhem,” Palin explained. Then she dropped the hammer. “Keep in mind we don’t know who all were the instigators in this, of these, horrible things that happened today. I think a lot of it is the Antifa folks,” she added, citing “pictures” she had seen.

Even Rudy Giuliani, who had helped stir the mob, woke up on January 7, and realized he would be wise to say something. “The violence at the Capitol was shameful,” he tweeted at 6:55 a.m. “Our movement values respect for law and order and for the police.” 

(PALIN – CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.) 

( GIULIANI – CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.) 

(We promise: We will keep looking for the elusive Antifa “Waldo.”)

 

* 

120. NICK OCHS: Yet the arrests kept piling up. A picture of who these rioters were came into sharp focus. One of the first to be cuffed was Nick Ochs, founder of the Hawaiian branch of the Proud Boys. Joshua Pruitt (#672, below) was identified in a November video reciting an oath to the group.  

See also, Ochs’s buddy, Nicholas DeCarlo (#18 on our list.)  

Ochs, who was charged with one count of unlawful entry into restricted buildings or grounds, paid $5,000 bail and was released ahead of his next court date.  

The BBC picked up the story and kept readers informed on developments in the former Thirteen Colonies.  

Nick Ochs was arrested at an airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, by the FBI, as he returned home from Washington DC.

 

He’s accused of unlawful entry of restricted buildings or grounds, after he posted a picture smoking a cigarette inside the Capitol building, tweeting: “Hello from the Capital lol”.

 

Mr Ochs describes himself as a “Proud Boy Elder from Hawaii”. The Proud Boys is an anti-immigrant and all male far-right group founded in 2016.

 

President Trump addressed this group specifically in the first presidential debate. In response to a question about white supremacists and militias he said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” 

 

Ochs ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a seat in Hawaii’s state legislature in 2020. Roger Stone, a key Trump advisor, felon, and fellow Proud Boy, endorsed the Ochs campaign.  

(The blogger later learned that Ochs was a second-generation Marine, but lost his race for office by a little more than a 2-1 margin, to Adrian Tam, who became the first openly LGBTQ individual to ever win a seat in that state’s legislature.)  

There was no logical way to deny who was responsible for the violence on Jan. 6 because these people were a rock solid foundation of the Trump base. Ochs clearly stated that he and his like-minded friends came to D.C. to “stop the steal.”  

Ochs pleads guilty in September 2022. In December he learns his fate: four years in prison. He must also pay a $5,000 fine and spend three more years on probation. He won’t be running for public office again, anytime soon. 

FUN FACT: Following sentencing Ochs and DeCarlo were filmed, shouting, “Four more years, four more years, four more years!” 

They wanted everyone to know: They still loved Donald J. Trump 

Trump supporter, right-winger, ready for violence,

pushed the “stolen election” myth. 

 

* 

“Merely following the directions of then-President Trump.”

121. MICHAEL THOMAS CURZIO: ABC News, Channel 22, WJCL refused to pull punches, and reported on developments as any news organization should: 

The insurrectionist mob that showed up at the president’s behest and stormed the U.S. Capitol was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals. Records show that some were heavily armed and included convicted criminals, such as a Florida man recently released from prison for attempted murder.

 

Michael Thomas Curzio was arrested in relation to the riots less than two years after he was released from a Florida prison in 2019 after serving an eight-year sentence for attempted murder. Court records from Florida show that he shot the boyfriend of his former girlfriend in a fight at her home.

 

You can check Click Orlando.com for additional information on Michael Thomas Curzio, proving that … f**k, no … he’s not a Democrat, a socialist, or an international Jewish banker with space lasers at his fingertips. 

In his latest court filing, Curzio’s lawyer notes: 

Mr. Curzio concedes he was on the Capitol grounds and building to protest along with hundreds of other protesters and was merely following the directions of then-President Trump, who has billed himself as the country’s chief law enforcement officer. Although some in the group he was with may have engaged in violent conduct towards police officers, there is no allegation that he personally did so.

 

The filing further states that Curzio was unable to leave the building because other rioters were blocking all the exits. 

On January 6, 2021, Mr. Curzio set out to exercise his First Amendment right to protest. Unfortunately, he listened to Donald Trump and others and took the fateful decision to march to the Capitol grounds. Mr. Curzio is not a member of any right-wing fringe group or other violent organization and, besides his one prior conviction, has no record of violence or criminality that would indicate that he poses a danger to the community if released.

 

Again – another Trump fan. As for that “prior conviction?” Yeah, it was attempted murder, which kind of counts against a man. 

Further digging indicates that when Curzio was in prison he joined a white supremacist gang, The Unforgiven, and sports a Nazi-style tattoo just for the fun of it. So, yeah. Not Antifa. He pleads guilty to one count in July 2021, and gets sentenced to six more months in jail. 

Trump “sent us,” right-wing type.

 

* 

122. CHRISTINE PRIOLA: The Cleveland, Ohio woman, and former educator, was another member of the mob that stormed Capitol Hill. Like many of the rioters, she had been sucked in by QAnon conspiracy thinking. 

Priola pleads guilty to a single charge, a felony, in July 2022. In December, Priola learns the bad news: fifteen months behind bars, an additional year of supervised release, and a fine of $2,000. 

Her lawyers insisted that Priola was only there on January 6, to protest the results of the election (won fairly by Joe Biden). 

Even she has admitted she acted like a “moron” that day. 

Trump supporter, QAnon, believed the election was stolen.

Priola with her QAnon sign.

* 

Don’t wear your work badge to the riot. 

123. NICHOLAS RODEAN: It didn’t help Mr. Rodean’s case to learn that he wore his work ID badge during the melee. The Frederick Maryland News-Post reported that the none-to-bright Maryland man had been fired from his job. 

Navistar Direct Marketing, the Frederick-based firm where Rodean worked, fired him on Jan. 7. Glory Doughnuts & Diner released a statement in the aftermath of the riot saying Rodean was a former employee of theirs, but the social media post said he had been let go in February 2020.

 

Rodean was photographed wearing his Navistar ID badge around his neck during the insurrection.

 

In a bench trial, in July 2022, the defendant was found guilty of one felony, for destruction of government property, and six related misdemeanor charges. After helping break windows at the Capitol, he was one of the first rioters to enter the building, and to help others breach security. At one point, when confronted by police, Rodean brandished a hatchet. 

During my research into Rodean’s case, I noticed that you could go to the website americangulag.org and donate to his defense and the defense of all the other rioters. The website noted that 631 people had been charged, by the time I checked, adding “the number of people charged with insurrection” was “0.” Checking back in November 2021, I kept looking for any sign that Rodean has been tried. I did discover that the prisoner of the American gulag was out on bail and had a court-appointed lawyer, which didn’t sound particularly “gulag-y.” 

In fact, Rodean was later aided by the same lawyer who is defending Dr. John Eastman and  former DOJ official Jeff Clark. On July 12, 2022, Mr. Rodean was found guilty of seven crimes, including one felony. Then his “luck” turned. In October, Judge Trevor McFadden placed Rodean on probation, telling him, “I’m giving you a real break here,” and citing the defendant’s severe mental illness. 

Rodean’s lawyer, Charles Burnham, had explained to the judge that his client became fixated on politics during the pandemic, when he was more isolated. He also said his client was susceptible to the influence of “assertive male figures” like President Trump. Rodean’s sister, Kimberly, also spoke in her brother’s defense, noting that, “Autistic people do not fare well in prison.” 

Burnham also noted that his client was easily triggered by loud noises – which helps explain why he liked Donald J. Trump. 

He has been sentenced to 240 days of home confinement, placed on five years’ probation, and hit with a fine of $2,048. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

124. DERRICK EVANS: Mr. Evans, a Republican lawmaker, was only recently elected to a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, when he decided rioting might be his cup of MAGA tea. 

His political career came to an untimely end after prosecutors charged him with a variety of offenses related to his role in the Capitol Hill riot. 

Evans resigned his seat. 

As for why he was in D.C. on that fateful day, Mr. Evans had posted on social media a screenshot of a Tweet by Mr. Trump with the caption: “This is why we are going to DC. #StopTheSteal.”  

Later, he could be heard shouting to others in the mob, “If [Vice President Mike] Pence betrays us, you better get your mind right because we’re storming that building.” 

Just before he entered the building, Evans told others that he “bet Trump would pardon anybody who gets arrested for goin’ in there.” 

Later, Evans would spend time online downplaying his part in the riot, saying, “I served three months in federal prison for taking a guided tour through the Capitol. But he was there, at the front of the mob – even noting how badly outnumbered police were. At one point, he yelled happily, “The cops are running! The cops are running! Here we go! Here we go! Open the doors!” 

So, Evans went in – and Evans got arrested – and Evans wasn’t “led on” by leftist plants in the mob. He wanted to storm the Capitol, because he was another fool, who believed Trump’s lies. 

His grandmother talked to reporters after his arrest. She called her grandson a “fine man,” and blamed the president for the predicament he now faced. “Thank you, Mr. Trump, for invoking a riot at the White House,” she said. (She meant the Capitol Building, of course.) 

(Sedition Hunters by Ryan J. Reilly, p. 217, 336.)

 

In March 2022, Evans pled guilty to one felony. In June he was ordered, as noted above, to report to jail for three months. He also had to pay $4,000 in fines and restitution, and will spend three years on supervised release. 

Evans got in the Christmas spirit in 2023.

Trump supporter, “stop the steal” believer.

  

* 

125. William Arthur Nichols Jr: No doubt, Mr. Nichols, from Manchester, Vermont was hoping the F.B.I. would miss him in its investigations. On February 1, 2023, however, he was charged for his alleged role in the riot. (I had to plug his name in here, because I had listed another rioter twice.)

 

According to court documents, on Jan. 6, 2021, Nichols was among a mob illegally massed on the west front of the Capitol grounds. Nichols can be seen on several occasions engaging in violent interactions with police officers.  After approaching a line of police officers who were protecting the Capitol building, Nichols worked his way to the front of the rioters while wielding a large circular shield. He used the shield to push and hit officers over the course of several hours. 

 

In other words, Nichols is facing both misdemeanor and felony charges – and could be in a big hurt. 

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION NOT YET KNOWN.)

 

* 

A cache of weapons and ammunition. 

126. JOSIAH COLT: Young Mr. Colt was pictured dangling from the Senate balcony on Jan. 6, before dropping to the floor and taking a seat at the dais. In a widely circulated video on Facebook, the Idaho man claims he was the first person to sit in the House Speaker’s chair and calls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “traitor.” 

(He was actually seated in the Vice President’s chair, in the Senate chamber, but you get the idea.) 

He explained why he took part in the attack to CBS2 News: “I love America, I love the people, I didn’t hurt anyone and I didn’t cause any damage in the Chamber. I got caught up in the moment and when I saw the door to the Chamber open, I walked in, hopped down, and sat on the chair. I said my peace then I helped a gentleman get to safety that was injured then left.”

Colt about to drop into Senate chamber.

  

* 

We might also note here, that J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, who ran as a Republican and won a seat in the U.S. Senate from Ohio, has described the rioters this way. “There were some bad apples, very clearly, but most of the people were actually super peaceful.” 

Vance is a good writer. He’s a Yale graduate. He must be smart. Yet, he was ready to say anything to get elected. 

And, apparently, he’s blind.

 

On July 14, Colt plead guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He was one of a trio who drove to D.C., bringing a cache of weapons and ammunition with them, so they could be there in time to stop Congress from certifying the vote. 

His deal is likely bad news for Nathan DeGrave (#173) and Ronald Sandlin (#174), who have plead not guilty. In court, Colt admitted that the trio planned to bring guns to the Capitol, first shipping them to Sandlin’s home in Tennessee. They then drove from Tennessee to D.C. on July 5. According to CBS, Mr. Colt admitted they brought along a Glock 43 pistol, two magazines of ammunition, a taser, knives, body armor, walkie-talkies, and bear mace. 

Exactly what you’d expect a group of “super peaceful people” or “typical tourists” or “loving” folks, as they have been described by the ex-president and his apologists, to bring along on a visit of the nation’s capital. 

At his sentencing in May 2023, Colt’s lawyer makes clear why his client was in D.C., ready for blood, on that second day of infamy: “The truth is that Josiah is a good person who made a series of very bad choices based on misinformation and the emotional oratory of a demagogue.” 

Can you guess who the demagogue was? 

Colt gets 15 months in prison, a bill for $1,000 in restitution, and will serve an additional three years on probation. 

Trump supporter, ready for violence.

 

* 

EVERY NEWS MEDIA OUTLET seemed to have its list. Like Santa Claus, only checking up on adults who fomented insurrection, the blogger kept checking on who had been naughty and even more naughty. 

Also, highly dangerous and nuts. 

__________ 

“There’s a lot of people here willing to take orders. If the orders are given, the people will rise up.” 

“Jeff,” a participant in the storming of Congress

__________ 

 

“Everyone’s crazy redneck uncle.” 

127. RICHARD “BIGO” BARNETT: Just, four days after the riot, The New York Times was able to name several suspects in the attack. Barnett was photographed during the attack, sitting with feet propped on a desk in Speaker Pelosi’s office. He later told a reporter, with pride, that he left Pelosi a “nasty note.” 

He was quickly arrested and charged with felony entry of a restricted area, among other crimes. Charges were later upgraded when prosecutors charged Barnett, 60, with carrying a stun gun during the break-in at the Capitol. As ABC News reported, “A charge against him was enhanced to entering a restricted building without lawful authority while carrying a dangerous weapon.” 

That charge, alone, carried a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, as a subdued Mr. Barnett seemed to realize during one of his initial court hearings. When the judge asked about his background, the defendant noted that he had a high school education but had received treatment for “different kinds of depression.”

Barnett in Speaker Pelosi's office.

 

It took two years, but his trial finally opened in January 2023. Barnett’s lawyer, Joseph D. McBride, offered up the following defense: “The evidence will demonstrate that Mr. Barnett is not a domestic terrorist. He is instead everyone’s crazy redneck uncle from out of town.” 

In fact, as McBride described it, his client was guilty only of “the most famous trespassing case of all time.” 

(Assuming you brought a stun gun onto the other person’s property in case you needed to fry them.) 

McBride insisted that Barnett was a harmless windbag, a man with “no sense of boundaries” or “societal norms.” His client, he added, did not fit in today’s world, and “routinely offends others” with his political incorrectness. 

“Bigo” himself testified that his note to Nancy read, “Nancy, Bigo was here, you bi-otch.” He told the jury he had “regrets” about what he had done – but still believed “nefarious characters” on the political left were threatening the Constitution. He still believed the election was stolen, but said he would apologize to Rep. Pelosi if he could. “I’m a Christian,” he insisted. 

What he did on January 6, “wasn’t who I am.” 

For the edification of the jury, “Bigo” wanted them to know that, yes, he was “sometimes a “loudmouth.” He was, however, also “a loving father and husband,” and an ardent “patriot.” 

It was also revealed at trial that Mr. Barnett stocked up for his trip to D.C., purchasing six walkie-talkies, several cannisters of pepper spray, and the aforementioned stun gun. He said he was anxious to protect himself because he believed Antifa types might be roaming the streets and killing people. 

He also admitted warning a police officer that day, “We’re in a war. You need to pick a side. Don’t be in the wrong side or you’re going to get hurt.” 

“Two years of lost life, misery for my family,” Bigo added sadly during his time on the witness stand. 

On January 23, 2023, Barnett was convicted on all charges – and so his years of lost life and misery would only multiply. 

His lawyer explained afterward that Barnett would appeal. “He loves God,” Mr. McBride said in an interview. “He loves his country. He understands he did something wrong. He doesn’t think his life should end because he put his feet up on somebody’s desk.” On May 24, 2023, 932 days since the 2020 election – and still no significant voter fraud shown – Bigo learns his fate. 

Fifty-four months in prison. 

(See also #508, rioter Megan Dawn Paradise.) 

Trump supporter, he believed the election was stolen.

  

* 

128. BRAD RUKSTALES: The former chief executive of an Illinois marketing company, was also charged in the aftermath of the attack. The Illinois company where he worked promptly announced that he had been placed on leave. “Mr. Rukstales’ actions were his own,” his employers said. “He was not acting on behalf of our company nor do his actions in any way reflect the policies or values of our firm.” 

The company’s interim chief executive told CBS Chicago later that Mr. Rukstales had been fired. 

He has been sentenced to 30 days in jail, and ordered to pay $500 restitution.

 

FUN FACT: Additional checking for information leads me to a story about Mr. Ruckstales – who had donated $20,000 to President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Money not well spent!

Trump supporter.

 

* 

Jeff (not arrested): A man who gave his name only as “Jeff,” told a reporter that he was an off-duty police officer from York County, Pa. On the way to D.C., he admitted he and his wife, “Amy” didn’t know what to expect. But if there was going to be trouble, he said he was ready to do his part. 

“There’s a lot of people here willing to take orders,” he predicted. “If the orders are given, the people will rise up.” 

The New York Times described what happened as the crowd listening to President Trump started moving toward the Capitol – on what many in that crowd took to be his orders. By the time the throng reached Capitol Hill, “its leading edge had metastasized into an angry mob.” 

A reporter on the scene had a good view: 

A man barked into a megaphone: “Keep moving forward! Fight for Trump, fight for Trump!”

 

“Military Tribunals! Hang them!” shouted someone wearing a cowboy hat.

 

“Arrest Congress!” screamed a woman in a flag scarf.

 

All the while, members of The Oath Keepers, a self-proclaimed citizens’ militia, seemed to be standing guard – for the transgressors. They wore olive-drab shirts, helmets and patches on their upper-left sleeves that said, “Guardians of the Republic” and “Not on Our Watch.”

 

Said one rioter, “Believe me, we are well armed if we need to be [emphasis added].”

 

The Times continued: 

“Our president wants us here,” a man can be heard saying during a livestream video that showed him standing within the Capitol building. “We wait and take orders from our president.”

 

“We are representing the 74 million people who got disenfranchised,” he said. “We are still out here. We are a force to be reckoned with. We are not going away.”

 

Violent as the events of that day were, the situation might have ended in a blood bath. Federal prosecutors across the country know it. So they have been charging and arresting anyone they identify, as fast as they can. They want the message to be clear. No such behavior can be tolerated. 

Trump “sent us, Trump supporter, ready for violence

(various unnamed rioters)

 

* 

Traumatic brain injury from his time in Iraq

 129. MARK LEFFINGWELL: Leffingwell was reported to have entered the Senate side of the Capitol and, when stopped by law enforcement, struck an officer in the helmet and chest.

The Seattle Times identified Mr. Leffingwell as a 51-year-old resident of that city. He was charged with assault on a federal law enforcement officer, violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. 

He pleads guilty and get six months in prison, and a fine of $2,000, a light sentence, considering he punched two cops on January 6. The judge in his case took into account his military service (he’s a disabled veteran – traumatic brain injury from his time in Iraq) and lack of prior criminal history. He could have faced more than eight years behind bars. 

He was there that day to “stop the steal,” which wasn’t real, and he very nearly ruined his own life – and democracy.

Trump supporter, he believed the election had been stolen 

 

* 

130. MATTHEW BLEDSOE: The list of arrestees kept growing as authorities all over the country went to work. Fox News reported on the apprehension of Mr. Bledsoe, a Tennessee Trump fan. Bledsoe made the mistake of chronicling his role in the attack in a series of Instagram posts. After breaking in, Bledsoe gleefully reported in one video, “In the Capitol. This is our house. We pay for this s**t.” 

In an apparent reference to members of Congress, Bledsoe added: “Where those pieces of s**t at?” 

Matt’s wife didn’t help his defense when she proudly posted: “Matt was inside the Capitol, he was one of the first,” she wrote. “They yelled and screamed, that’s about it. My husband is a Patriot solider [sic].” 

I kept digging for the kind of details that prove a simple point. These rioters weren’t patriots fighting for freedom. At best they were deluded. At worst they were dangerous human types. 

And they weren’t people of the left – or even left-of-center. 

Bledsoe was indicted along with Blake Austin Reed (#80 on our list), Jack Jesse Griffith (#109) and Eric Chase Torrens (#497). 

(In July 2022, a jury finds Mr. Bledsoe guilty on five counts, including one felony, setting up a possible lengthy stay in prison. In texts, the judge noted, Bledsoe had said he came to D.C. to stop a stolen election. In October, he learns his fate – four years in prison, all because he believed a lie. He also had to pay $4,000 in fines and restitution.)

 Trump supporter – believed the election was stolen.

* 

“Guns…That’s it. One word. 

131-132. Edward Jacob Lang and BRANDON FELLOWS: Not long after the attack on Capitol Hill, F.B.I. agents put the pinch on Lang, 26, of Tusten, New York and Fellows, 25, who lives in a converted school bus, usually parked in the Hudson River Valley. “I was the leader of Liberty today. Arrest me,” Lang boasted on social media. “You are on the wrong side of history,” he insisted to authorities. 

In the caption of another post, he proudly noted, “Pepper spray really does wonders for your complexion #1776.” 

According to ABC, prosecutors say Lang can be seen swinging a baseball bat at police officers, striking at least their shields. In photos, Lang is allegedly seen wearing the helmet of a Metropolitan Police Department officer, likely wrested during the melee. 

Later, he proudly posted a picture on social media – with a hand emoji pointing at himself – using a police shield as a weapon against a police line. “I consider myself doing exactly what the founding fathers would have done, and I don’t play the watered-down version of Jan. 6. I think that was well within our rights and constitutional duty to overthrow the chains of tyranny. I am a real 1776 patriot,” he claimed. 

(Sedition Hunters by Ryan J. Reilly, p. 373.) 

 

In other video evidence, Lang is heard answering an unidentified woman’s question during the riot, as follows. What, she wondered, did he believe would come next? 

“Guns…That’s it. One word. The First Amendment didn’t work, we pull out the Second. We’re all civilized people and we love going to work and praying to God on Sundays and having nice family barbeques…and that was every single person there. No one wants to take this and…and die for our rights, but dying for our rights is the only option [emphasis added] that any person with a logical brain sees right now. This is it.

 

Both Lang and Fellows believed the election had been stolen from Trump, that the vote had been rigged. They had heard the president. They had believed his lies. So guns it might have to be. 

Both faced serious charges, but Fellows said he had “no regrets” about his participation in the riot. 

He also had his bail revoked after he “sent rambling and sometimes obscene voicemails for his pretrial services officer and once called her mother, which left both the officer and her mother feeling nervous.” 

And, WTF! In another story, we learn that Mr. Fellows also left messages with the female federal agent, bragging about the impressive size and performance of his genitalia. I am NOT making that up. 

Eventually, Fellows decided to represent himself in court – despite a warning from the judge that this would be unwise. During the attack on Jan. 6, he was photographed wearing a fake orange beard, with his feet propped on a desk in the office of Sen. Jeff Markley of Oregon. 

In fact, his performance as a lawyer representing himself was so bad, the judge noted that he had just admitted to at least one felony, and likely two. Fellows was sent back to jail to await trial. 

Also connected with their arrest: Nicolas Moncada (#47 on our list) and Daniel Christmann (#425) 

In January 2023, Lang was still lodged in in jail, after a judge denied his appeal asking for his release. 

In August 2023, Fellows was still in jail, himself, but got out now and then to come to court where he was still representing himself. I actually read one post where he did a decent job. But on August 23, he let a comment by USCP Capt. Carneysha Mendoza go, when no real lawyer would have failed to object. 

In trying to convince a jury that he, Fellows, might not have known it was illegal to enter the Capitol that day, Mendoza replied under his questioning, that her five-year-old niece would have had enough sense to know she was not allowed in the Capitol on January 6. Not exactly the answer Fellows was expecting. 

His trial continued as August came to an end. Fellows admitted in court that he felt “very comfy,” sitting in Sen. Jeff Merkley’s chair, during the riot. He insisted he did nothing wrong. The election was stolen. “We had a right to overthrow it.” Then, for good measure, he accused the judge of running a “kangaroo court,” thought it over a bit, and decided it was a “Nazi court.” As a Stupidity Bonus, he had five months for contempt of court added to his rioter’s bill. 

In fact, his antics were so extreme, the jury sent the judge a note. They wanted to be sure that Fellows would not have any of their personal information – names, addresses, and such. 

Worried or not, the jurors voted, as our system of justice requires, and the vote had to be unanimous. Fellows was found guilty, as charged. 

 

UPDATE: And we have another Stupidity Bonus! 

Fellows is still fighting charges, when, if he gave it up, he’d probably be out on release, credited with “time served.” He even files a document, with this brief comment on two federal prisons where he has already spent time: “Fort Worth and Lewisberg were awesome and fun!”

 

UPDATE #2: Finally, Fellows comes to the end of his legal road. The judge, a Trump appointee, at that, sentences him to three years and one month behind bars. He does get credit for 32 months served. He also gets 36 months on probation, and a bill for $2,000. 

Fellows has already promised he’ll be at the Capitol again, on January 6, 2025, if his favored candidate doesn’t win. 

Trump supporter, violent, believed the election was stolen (Lang). 

Trump supporter, ready for violence,

believed the election was stolen (Fellows).

* 

133. JON RYAN SCHAFFER: Indiana’s contribution to the rampage included the guitarist Schaffer, described as founder of the heavy metal band Iced Earth and an “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member.” He was photographed inside the Capitol Building. Authorities were offering a $1,000 reward for anyone who could help identify suspects (like Mr. Schaffer) shown in various scenes. 

Even Guitar World carried a story about the musical rioter, who was wearing a tactical vest and carrying bear mace during the attack. 

In case: Bears? 

Mr. Schaffer became the first rioter to plead guilty in April 2021, and agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors. 

At that point, he had already been lodged in jail for 89 days, and he was looking at a sentence of 3.5 to 4 years in prison. As a group, the F.B.I. has noted, the Oath Keepers had “urged President Trump to declare Martial Law in order to prevent the Congress from certifying the Electoral College Results.” 

Ultimately, his cooperation with prosecutors saved him from a much longer stretch in jail. The 89 days in a cell while awaiting trial, would be enough, and the judge, citing his “courage,” agreed to do no more than place him on probation for three years, and order him to pay $1,000 in restitution. 

The “courage” part relates to the wrath he might face from other members of the Oath Keepers in days to come. 

Schaffer in the gray goatee.

Trump “sent us,” right-wing, ready for violence.

 

* 

134. KASH LEE KELLY: Indiana’s own Mr. Kelly, 32, was already facing a potential sentence of 51 months behind bars in an unrelated federal drug conspiracy case, when he showed up in D.C. to riot. 

In a YouTube video, Kelly explained why he was there, and inside the building, rioting for freedom: 

To let them know this is our house, and we were united, black, brown, red, yellow, didn’t matter … white, everybody stood together, we ran through that building, and let them know this is our house, this is our country, and that’s our president. And we are not going to let them (expletive) with us, man, (expletive) with our liberty and our freedoms, we’re going to keep doing what we are doing. 

 

Which is: Rioting! 

As far as his punishment for his role on January 6, he gets sixty days in jail and an order to pay $500 in restitution. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

“They would have killed Mike Pence if they had a chance.” 

135. DOMINIC “SPAZZO” PEZZOLA: Mr. “Spazzo” was one of the first to smash a window, using a police shield, and enter the Capitol. others poured through, opened doors, and let the mob stream through. The road to arrest began with a story in Vice, which helped identify the suspect, noting that “Spazzo” had previously attended a Proud Boys rally in D.C. on December 12.

Vice was founded, ironically, by a co-founder of the Boys, who left the website in 2008 and created the Proud Boys in 2016. The media outlet now describes the group as “a far-right street-fighting gang,” and explained how the Boys planned the attack in advance. 

Their self-styled “chairman,” Enrique Tarrio, had ordered the Proud Boys to go “incognito” and dress in plain clothes, so while they were central to the planning, inciting, and execution of the insurrection that led to five deaths, their role was not immediately obvious from the video disseminated from the scene.

 

In a stream from before the rally, Joe Biggs, a former InfoWars staffer who led the Proud Boys in Tarrio’s absence, reiterated the plan for the group not to wear their traditional colors. 

 

“We will not be attending D.C. in colors. We will be blending in as one of you. You won’t see us. You’ll even think we are you,” Biggs said. “We are going to smell like you, move like you, and look like you. The only thing we’ll do that’s us is think like us [emphasis added]! Jan 6^th is gonna be epic.”

 

Tarrio never made it to Washington. He was arrested on the way and slapped with assorted felony and misdemeanor charges. By that time, many of the Proud Boys were in position and ready to rumble, even before Trump finished inciting the crowd. In several videos, two of the leaders, “both accessorized with walkie-talkies,” pass along instruction to about 60 Proud Boys positioned to storm Capitol Hill. Those waiting for the battle to begin amused themselves by chanting ‘Fuck antifa!’ and ‘Whose streets? Our streets.’” 

According to Vice, an internet search (a specialty of people who work for their website), turned up a page on Parler, which had “Spazzo” describing himself as “a first-degree Proud Boy” and a Marine vet. In an undated picture he is seen in a Proud Boys shirt. Another image shows a bulletproof vest with “Proud Boy,” “Spazzo,” a marine flag patch, and a “FAFO” patch. 

“FAFO” stands for “Fuck Around and Find Out.”  

Pezzola is also said to have the tattoo “0351” on his right arm, signifying that at some point he served as a Marine infantryman. 

Since the Jan. 6 riot, the F.B.I. had posted images of “Spazzo” in and around the Capitol in an attempt to garner tips from the public. Arrest soon followed. Pezzola could be seen in a video taken after rioters broke into the Capitol. “Victory smoke in the Capitol, boys. This is fucking awesome,” he says. “I knew we could take this motherfucker over [if we] just tried hard enough.” 

A witness referred to by the F.B.I. as “Witness-1” told agents that she spoke to “Spaz” who allegedly “bragged about breaking the windows to the Capitol and entering the building.”

In an ominous note, the F.B.I. added that “W-1 further stated that members of this group, which included ‘Spaz,’ said that they would have killed [Vice President] Mike Pence if given the chance.” 

According to VICE, Pezzola enlisted in the Marines after high school. Former classmates describe him as an “aloof, angry guy” who picked fights at parties. 

“Out of everyone in our class, I would have picked him out as a domestic terrorist,” one classmate said. 

This blogger happens to be a former Marine and no disrespect to the Corps. He would note that his MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty, was not 0351, but the far less dangerous 3041. Meaning he was a “supply administrative man,” which he has always considered wimpy and unheroic. He did, however, volunteer in 1969 to go to Vietnam and do his part. Twice. For ridiculous reasons he was never sent, which he eventually decided had been for the best. 

Nevertheless, he would argue that he’s a better patriot than everyone listed in these several parts of the story of January 6. 

Including – without a sliver of a doubt – President Trump. 

Eventually, authorities asked that bail for Pezzola, a reputed leader of the Proud Boys, be denied. 

Prosecutors explained that in a search of his electronic devices they found he had “weapons and bomb-making manuals” on a thumb drive. 

Mr. Pezzola’s lawyer argued for mercy, claiming his client was “duped” by Trump and was there, busting into the Capitol, in response “to the entreaties of the then commander in chief.” 

(June 6, 2022: Pezzola is hit with an additional charge of seditious conspiracy, attempting, by violence, to thwart certification of a fairly-decided election. A video of the defendant helping wrestle away the shield of an officer defending the Capitol has also been introduced in his trial.) 

(See it here.)

 

(May 4, 2023: Pezzola is convicted on multiple counts, avoids conviction for seditious conspiracy, but will likely spend many years in jail.) 

(September 1, 2023: Mr. Pezzola was in fact duped by the former president. One thousand, thirty-two days after the 2020 election – with no proof ever show in any court that significant voter fraud had occurred – Domenic learns he will be spending the next decade behind bars.)

 

FUN FACT: While being escorted out of court, and back to jail, Pezzola raised a fist and shouted, “Trump won.” 

FUN FACT #2: During his trail, his wife says that before January 6, Dominic was spending his time getting drunk and watching Fox News “day and night,” and that since his arrest she has canceled cable TV in the home. 

Right-wing type, Trump supporter, ready for violence.

  

* 

136. THOMAS GRONEK: Fox News noted the arrest of several North Carolina men, including Gronek, who was charged with several crimes, “including carrying a pistol without a license, possession of a large capacity ammunition device and possession of unregistered ammunition.” 

Gronek had the honor of getting arrested the day before the riot, when a bus in which he was riding, painted in psychedelic colors, and tagged with slogans like “Hippies 4 Trump” in red, and “Stop the Steal” in white, was pulled over by Washington D.C. cops. According to a second report, Gronek was also carrying a rifle, “a large-capacity feeding device,” and more than 300 rounds of ammunition. 

Just what any patriot would need to “Stop the Steal.” 

The driver of the bus was also arrested and charged with operating a vehicle without a proper driver’s permit. 

In April 2022, the defendant plead guilty to one misdemeanor gun charge. Gronek was sentenced to “time served,” and fined $50. It’s unclear to this blogger how much time Gronek actually spent in prison.

Trump supporter - believed the “stolen election” myth.

* 

THE BLOGGER looked high and low, and traveled over hill and dale, seeking for evidence that the people who rioted on Capitol Hill weren’t really Trump supporters and extreme right-wing types. It was soon clear that for many in the mob that day, this was a planned attack. Many who took part believed they were answering the call from the President of the United States. 

It was a right-wing spasm of violence, incited by Donald J. Trump. 

 

137. Robert Bauer: The Kentucky gentleman got his own pair of cuffs after authorities arrested him for his role in the mayhem. Bauer told F.B.I. agents that on having broken into the Capitol, a police officer shook his hand and said, “It’s your house now.” 

He told agents he and his wife traveled to D.C. to hear the president speak. Like many of the protesters, Bauer had at least some vague notion that he was acting on orders from Donald J. Trump. He told investigators he remembered the president saying, “something about taking Pennsylvania Avenue.” So off he went. Also arrested with Bauer, his cousin Edward Hemenway (#179 on this list), who lives in Virginia. “According to an affidavit written by Special Agent Jennifer Whitaker, Bauer reiterated that he marched to the U.S. Capitol because President Trump said to do so.” 

Trump “sent us.”

 

* 

138. DOMINIC BOX: Savannah, Georgia’s WSAV TV had previously done a piece on Box, a local man, also filmed during the attack. On his return home he was fired from his job at Vaden Automotive. “Box,” reporters noted, “has been an outspoken supporter of QAnon and spoke to News 3 in August 2020 during a “Save the Children” rally in Savannah, which he organized. 

To the extent that Mr. Box said his group was interested in stopping child sex-trafficking, you could get behind his cause. 

When you delved into details and got to the “liberal cannibal’s controlling the world” part, you lost sane people quickly. 

During the attack on the nation’s capital, Box accosted a police officer who was trying to hold back rioters, shouting in his face, “There’s no talking, there’s no f***ing talking!” 

Described as a “Republican organizer,” Box entered the building three separate times that day. 

He eventually plead guilty to his part in the riot, was sentenced to one year in jail, but had his punishment reduced to two years on probation. 

Trump supporter, QAnon believer.

 

* 

“Enemy combatants” who should be “shot on sight.” 

139. JUSTIN STOLL: Cincinnati.com took a turn at presenting the truth, reporting on another suspect, Justin Stoll, 40, of Wilmington, Ohio. In court documents charging him with several federal crimes, Stoll was said to have posted videos of himself inside the Capitol. “D.C.’s a war zone!” he allegedly shouts. “You ain’t got enough cops, baby! We are at war at the Capitol…We have taken the Capitol. This is our country.”

Before going to Washington, authorities say, Stoll posted several statements about the upcoming rally and protest. In one, he referred to those opposed to Trump as “enemy combatants” who should be “shot on sight.”

 

The charges Friday are not directly related to Stoll’s activities at the Capitol but are instead connected to threats he made days later to people who expressed alarm about his role in the riot.

 

“If you ever jeopardize me, from being with my family, you will absolutely meet your mother f------ maker,” Stoll wrote, according to the complaint. “And I will be the one to arrange the meeting.”

 

According to reporters, 

Stoll’s Facebook page is filled with posts critical of Democrats, abortion-rights advocates, CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, liberal “snowflakes” and Black Lives Matter. His profile photo appears above the word “Trump.”

 

He also wrote on his Facebook profile that “if you are a POS Democrat and you hate America do not send me a friend request. You are beneath me.”

 

According to his business Facebook page, Stoll is a house painter specializing in residential interiors. Stoll’s family members either could not be reached or declined comment. 

 

I think it’s safe to say this story will not increase your desire to hire Mr. Stoll to come to your house and paint a few rooms if you are a Democrat. 

In January 2022, Stoll admitted to threatening the potential witness in his case and plead guilty to a felony. The threatening message, noted above, read in full: 

Well, that shows your f------ ignorance because, clearly, the capitol building is owned by the people, so again, nothing will happen. Secondly, I never admitted I went into it, did I? Go watch the video again. Daddy’s not stupid. [Wink.] Third, if you ever in your f------ existence did something to jeopardize taking me away from my family, you will absolutely meet your maker. You can play that for the D.A. in court, I don’t care. If you ever jeopardize me, from being with my family, you will absolutely meet your mother f------ maker, and I will be the one to arrange the meeting. 

He gets lucky, I’d say, and ends up sentenced to spend two years on probation. “I will strive every day to not be the man I was,” he tells the court. 

Trump supporter, ready for violence.